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UKGE Press Evening & Day One
- Emma Hunt
- Jun 4, 2025
- 4 min read
This was my second time attending UKGE, and this year I went in with the mindset of not needing to see or do everything—just to go with the flow and enjoy it.
I was fortunate to receive a press pass again and kicked things off at the press evening the night before the main event. It was a great opportunity to see which publishers would be there over the weekend and catch up with some familiar faces. It was lovely to sing happy birthday to Chris from Unfringed Things and to chat with the team at Blue Donut Games, who kindly gifted me a copy of Horror in the Library to review. I’m excited to dive in and try to escape the clutches of the mad professor!
Friday morning brought a buzz of excitement. I’d travelled back to Stoke after the press evening (note to self: probably not doing that again next year if I’m lucky enough to get another press pass!) and dashed back to the NEC in my Vauxhall Adam—which, let’s be honest, isn’t exactly built for speed. Once we arrived, I left my friends Joe and Lorna (my Nerdy Girl Gaming entourage) to explore while I headed to the absolutely AMAZING Pergola stand with Lu (https://www.instagram.com/short.stuff.boardgames/) We spoke with the Mason Williams PR team and Asmodee and had a quick demo of Pergola. The components are STUNNING, and demoing it under an actual pergola made it wonderfully immersive. Who doesn’t love a gardening game with adorable 3D pieces?
After our meeting, I wandered the halls with Lorna. She had the brilliant idea of crossing off where we’d been on the map and highlighting places to revisit—something I’ll definitely be doing next year! While exploring Hall 2, I stopped by to see the team at Restless Spirits. I reviewed their game earlier this year and absolutely adore it. The spirit cards are gorgeous, especially Grindavik, who I loved so much I bought a print of him for my future gallery wall (when I finally move in!). Some other adorable stalls I spotted in Hall 2 were:
Later, we stopped to chat with Leon Simmonds at the Questiny stand. Lorna had playtested the game before, and it was great to talk with him. One of the characters reminded me SO much of Rhea Ripley! Leon generously gave me a prototype of Questiny to review—I can’t wait to try it!
Then we dashed to Hall 3 to demo Time Troopers at the Molinarius Games stand. I’d heard great things from @mrs_getintogames, so I was eager to check it out. It’s a solo deck management game where you travel through time to recover artefacts and save humanity’s future. I played a co-op version with Lorna and Joe, and it was super fun! You can check out the campaign on Gamefound here.
Back in Hall 2, I met Gareth from Farplace Games. It was lovely to hear about his passion for game design (and admire his fabulous butterfly shirt!). He told me all about the North East Tabletop Expo, where COZY DAYS will launch. Rozie from Cozy Board Games will be there signing copies, and the first 500 attendees on Friday and Sunday will get a free promo card! Gareth also kindly gifted me Litter Tray, a card game I’m excited to review.
After my meeting with Gareth, I finally managed to locate my friend Dani who had travelled up on the train! We had a quick mooch before I headed to my next stop: the War of the Worlds: One More Day stand, where I met up with my friend Chris for a demo. I’d seen War of the Worlds live earlier this year (Jeff Wayne composing—YES PLEASE), so I was beyond excited. The game, based on H.G. Wells’ novel, can be played solo or cooperatively. Chris and I teamed up, taking on roles as a journalist and an infantry soldier, dodging Martians and completing objectives. Seeing the Horsell Common card had me humming the tune, and I couldn’t resist dramatically flailing when I saw the Red Weed card—much to creator Matthew’s amusement! This was definitely a weekend highlight. The passion Matthew has for the game is evident. Please check out the Kickstarter here.
To wrap up Friday, I visited the Paverson stand to play Class of ’89, a prototype where you compete to create the most epic yearbook. Despite being early in development, the theme and mechanics were solid, with clear instructions and an easy-to-learn gameplay loop. You get four actions per turn to fill out your yearbook (player mat)—such a nostalgic concept! Learn more here.
After the halls closed, we took a quick detour into open gaming to say hi to familiar faces and do some badge trading—an awesome icebreaker between Instagram content creators. Huge thanks to @gameswithbeany for organizing it! We also had selfie bingo, another brilliant way to get chatting—shoutout to @han_playsgames for setting it up! It was great to meet up with the UKBG Circle group for a photo. Lana is doing an amazing job running the review circle—I can’t wait to see what games we’ll be reviewing later this year. Follow along here.
After a quick check-in at the Forest of Arden Hotel, we zipped back to the NEC and over to the Hilton for the Shiver Recruitment Gauntlet, based on the upcoming Shiver Corporate RPG coming to Backerkit soon (check it out). It was a fantastic evening—the Shiver team absolutely smashed it. You could really see the heart and hard work that went into it.
Stay tuned for what I got up to on Day 2 of UKGE!
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