As another year draws to a close, it’s time to look back, take stock and also glimpse ahead. So let me share how 2024 was for me and give you an idea of what 2025 has in store.
2024 – The Year That Was
Overall, 2024 was a good year in board gaming for me, but before I cover the soft side of what happened, let me hit you with some hard stats.
I managed to play games 329 times, which is almost one play every day. I played with 23 different people 111 different games, 70 of which were new to me. It’s from those 70 games this year’s Top Table Award will be selected by the way – but you have to wait until next week before it is announced. Anyway, as you can tell, I was lucky to get a lot of game time in.
While I don’t actively take part in the popular 10×10 Challenge, I did manage to play 8 games 8 times. These games were, in order of most played to least played: Knarr, 7 Wonders, Tapestry, Prey Another Day, Medici, Sea Salt & Paper, Terraforming Mars and Odin. As you can see, some of the games are new releases, while others are evergreens. While it’s easier to play shorter games more often, I’m chuffed to see Tapestry being the third-most played game for 2024. It’s clearly a popular title among the group.
Finances
To finish with a few more hard figures, let me give you a summary of the blog’s finances. After trying to be good and rely a lot more on review copies, I still managed to spend nearly £700 on the purchase of games, some of which are yet to arrive, as they were crowdfunding campaigns. To temper that slightly, I managed to raise nearly £530 by selling games I had bought. So that’s a net spend of £170, which is pretty good.
To put that further into perspective, I was sent over £900’s worth of games for review. You have to remember though that I never sell review copies. Instead, I send them to the next reviewer and this year, any I was allowed to keep, I put into a raffle in aid of UK food banks. I managed to run six raffles in 2024, raising over £300 after fees, which I’m really proud of.
I also attended two exhibitions this year: Berlin Con and UK Games Expo. I was given free press passes for both and I worked as a demonstrator for Asmodee at UK Games Expo, which meant I got free accommodation and travel, plus a food allowance. However, I still ended up spending nearly £400 on those two events.
Finally, hosting the blog, plus other software tools cost me nearly £350 for the year, but that is offset by one-off and monthly financial support via Ko-Fi and Patreon, which came to nearly £400.
Moving on from these cold figures, let me talk about the human side of my board game year a bit more.
Game Groups
While my regular game group continued mostly online, we did manage to meet in person a good few times, which is always wonderful.
In fact, we even met at a board game meet-up that is sort of closest to where we all live now. Mid Sussex Meeples runs a monthly game day that’s open to everyone. There is a really friendly atmosphere. Whether you meet up with friends or turn up by yourself, whether you bring your own games or come empty-handed, you’ll soon be playing games. So if you’re nearby, have a look. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
So while I found a new venue to play games with my friends, 2024 also saw our neighbours move away. We used to play games together every weekend, which was wonderful. I do miss it a lot, but there we are.
Flipping it back to a positive though, I also played a lot of games with my wife and daughter. We re-discovered Above and Below from Red Raven Games and even got the most recent title from this publisher, Creature Caravan, to the table. It’s great that family game nights have become a thing again.
Translations
The other thing I’m really proud of is the translation work I did in 2024. It’s where I can use my language skills and combine them with my favourite hobby. It’s also a small income stream for me that might one day allow me to work full-time in the board game industry – but we’re a long way off from that at the moment.
My proudest moment for Make My Game Travel, which is what I call the translation business, was being asked by Uli Blennemann from Spielworxx to translate EPOS: A Gentes Game by Stefan Risthaus from German into English. It was a massive project and I am equal parts nervous as I am excited for the game finally to be published and arrive on people’s board game tables. If you get to play it, please let me know what you think of the English rulebook. I’d love to have your open and honest feedback.
I also did some work for Bright Eye Games, helping to get rules for four of their games translated into German in time for Spiel Messe Essen. It sounds like Ponzi Scheme, Battle Dentale, SUMO and Tokkuri Taking were popular and apart from one small mistake that slipped through, the rulebooks were well received by the German-speaking public. So I’m really pleased with that as well.
Of course, if you want help translating your game between English and German, please do get in touch.
2025 – The Year Ahead
Let me end this review of 2024 with a look ahead.
While I expect to be playing plenty of games, still be attending board game conventions and remaining active in the community, I will take the gas off the blog a little. I have been publishing reviews and thought pieces every week for over six years now, adding audio versions in 2019. That’s a lot of work, as you can imagine and while I really love writing, I do feel that sometimes my articles are light and fluffy, when they could be deeper and more meaningful.
So I have decided to stop working to a fixed schedule and only release reviews and thought pieces when they are ready. I am not necessarily aiming for longer articles, but I think that will happen naturally as my reviews become more of a critical analysis than a first impression and as my thought pieces become more thought out. I am hoping that this will create a more useful site that is more interesting to follow.
That’s pretty much all that will change though. I am still going to be very active and will continue to accept review copies as before. You can’t get rid of me that easily.
There you have it. That’s 2024 and 2025 as far as Tabletop Games Blog is concerned. I can’t wait to see what new games come out next year and where the hobby heads. Thank you all for your support over the months and here is to an exciting 2025.
Useful Links
- 10×10 Challenge: https://boardgamegeek.
com/ geeklist/ 166160/ 2014-challenge-play-10-games-10-times-each - Knarr review: https://tabletopgamesblog.
com/ 2024/ 07/ 20/ knarr-saturday-review/ - Tapestry review: https://tabletopgamesblog.
com/ 2019/ 11/ 09/ tapestry-saturday-review/ - Prey Another Day review: https://tabletopgamesblog.
com/ 2024/ 08/ 17/ prey-another-day-saturday-review/ - Medici review: https://tabletopgamesblog.
com/ 2024/ 04/ 13/ medici-saturday-review/ - Sea Salt & Paper review: https://tabletopgamesblog.
com/ 2023/ 07/ 08/ sea-salt-paper-saturday-review/ - Terraforming Mars review: https://tabletopgamesblog.
com/ 2021/ 07/ 31/ terraforming-mars-digital-eyes/ - Odin review: https://tabletopgamesblog.
com/ 2024/ 03/ 30/ odin-saturday-review/ - Mid Sussex Meeples: https://www.
facebook. com/ groups/ midsussexmeeples/ events - Make My Game Travel: https://makemygametravel.
com/ - Spielworxx: https://www.
spielworxx. de/ - Bright Eye Games: https://www.
brighteyegames. com/ - Berlin Con 2024 review: https://tabletopgamesblog.
com/ 2024/ 07/ 27/ berlin-brettspiel-con-2024-saturday-review/ - UK Games Expo 2024 review: https://tabletopgamesblog.
com/ 2024/ 06/ 15/ uk-games-expo-2024-saturday-review/
Audio Version
Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.
Background by 2TECH-AUDIO | https://2tech-audio.
Music promoted by https://www.
Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0)
https://creativecommons.
Playlist
These are the songs I listened to while I was writing this review: