Second Annual SpielMas Festival
What a year it has been!
Our first annual SpielMas festival in 2020 was held when most of us were forced to play games online with friends.
This year, with vaccines available but variants still a direct threat, we still found ourselves huddled at home for the most part, sometimes within a bubble of triple-vaxxed family members.
Got the memo
But it’s been a great year for gaming. The available titles continue to be strong; a global shipping delay, however, forced the industry to rethink its reliance on overseas production.
Board Game Arena got the memo and began to offer more games worthy of our time. Tabletopia still remains a huge source of newer releases, although many hard-core gamers preferred to use Tabletop Simulator because of automated actions.
One of the brighter spots came right before Christmas. Postmark Games held an unprecedented 12-day Kickstarter campaign to produce Voyages, a roll-and-write game that only requires a printer, three dice and a pencil. They nearly got 13K people to back it at just £4 (roughly $5.40).
More participants
But more importantly, the number of people celebrating SpielMas grew this year, and that warms my heart. Thank you to all who participated!
I saw numbers rise most on Instragram, where I was able to connect with a number of very active people who were already planning to play games during the same period as the festival. Here’s a story highlight that captures their creativity and displays; or visit my profile and click on the 2021 highlight. But in general follow the #spielmas hashtag on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to see everyone’s games.
But now you can go back to playing games with immediate family or distant friends and not have to make such a fuss about it. We’ll see you back in July for the next dry run of the festival. Have a very happy and healthy new year!
Posted January 1, 2022
