The UK Games Expo 2026 is in the history books, and we were there exhibiting for the first time, with the first game that we will publish - Which Witch?
If you were at the expo you may have heard this part before - Which Witch? is coming to Kickstarter in October later this year.
We currently have 9 finished witches of the 14 in the game, though extended testing is pointing towards the conclusion that 13 might actually be the correct number of witches. Unlucky for some, but totally on theme for a witch based game!
The Build
I’ve been to the UK Games Expo before as a paying customer, and I know just how far the regular car parks can be from the main halls where the action is. So, I was a little curious as to just how the show was built and put together, and was I in for a treat!
Firstly, via the mysterious sounding Voyage Control you can book a 1-hour window to unload your vehicle. After being allowed through the lorry park you actually get to drive right up to the hall to deliver along secret ‘backstage’ roads. Much easier than traipsing items all the way from the car park! Especially as we had a huge meeple2 travelling with us that I wasn’t looking forward to carrying a long way. It really first started to feel like we were part of the show here for real, watching parts of the show coming together in front of us before the crowds arrived. I got to see a huge number of Terraria pledge boxes being unloaded for the Paper Fort Games stall. Wow.
You can see the giant meeple wooden playing piece here in our build photo with our mandatory hi-vis jackets! Rosie, my daughter, is studying Creative Arts Practice at university and contributed this piece to our stand which certainly started a few conversations for us!
We had 2 tables, one out front for showcasing the game’s art and chatting to people about the game, and I’m getting ahead of myself but the reception we received based on the artwork alone was impressive. People wanted to buy a copy of the game, or at least one of my playmats, right then and there!
The Preview Show
But I am getting ahead of myself, because before the show opened for real, we first had the Preview Show to go to.
I’ll be honest, after building the stand in our hi-vis jackets, I didn’t know quite what to expect from the Preview Show. I knew it was only for games - artists and the like wouldn’t have room here, you only had one small table, and the preview only lasted about 2 hours, but it was open to the press, and everyone there had something new about their game - it either being new to demo for the first time, or to buy for the first time.
The Preview Show is I think also related to the UK Games Expo awards, but as our game isn’t quite finished yet, I don’t think we were eligible for any awards this year. We will be looking for some next year though!
Speaking of press, Nat did a “Roll and Pitch” feature with someone - I think they were called Nerd OD? Anyway, they rolled dice on camera to determine how many seconds we earned to pitch our game in. It wasn’t long, but Nat did a stellar job! That said, I have yet to see the footage from that, so I hope we made the cut!
We also met Silke at the Preview show who liked the look of our game, and boasted about running the largest board game cafe in Germany, and having lots of contacts that could help us on the path to a successful Kickstarter. Whilst our main reason to be at the expo was to demonstrate our game to as many people as we physically could, this was a side quest of ours - to make contact with industry experts in manufacturing, Kickstarter fulfilment, advertising and marketing, to make our game launch as much of a success as it can be.
Main Show Days - Friday, Saturday and Sunday
I’m going to be honest here and say I can’t really separate in my head what happened on any given day of the Expo, as it is all rather a blur! But, in some order…:
We met Three Kobolds in a Trench Coat!3
My wife dressed as Baba Yaga from the game to pitch Which Witch as a witch.
We met Cozy Rozie! @cozyboardgames (though I forgot to ask what she thought of Cozy Stickerville!)
We showed off lots of artwork on the front table and played demos on the back table.
We did lots of playtesting of the game, and as far as I can tell, people loved playing the game when they got a chance, and loved the artwork we had on display, including 2 playmats I had made from blowing up the card art, removing the borders and card text. We will certainly be looking into what’s possible to make happen during the Kickstarter campaign, but I would love to offer custom playmats featuring Which Witch art as these cards are gorgeous (even though I’m biased I’m sure I’m not wrong!) and they deserve to be seen on the larger scale and adored! And I’m not just saying that because I’m scared one of the witches would turn me into a newt4.
We met some people from Senet and are working on getting a preview article into the magazine, which is hugely exciting for me as a fan and subscriber of Senet’s work5.
We even have a sample wooden potion bottle mould that was originally advertised as being a balloon!
I couldn’t help but buy some games whilst I was there, and came back with Formaggio, Heat: Pedal To The Metal, a deluxe upgrade kit for Harmonies because I definitely play that game enough for it to be worth it, and Faraway and some expansions. My wife picked up Muster and Fetching Feathers, and Nat - well I’m not sure quite how much to reveal here but he bought a sword!
What’s next for Which Witch?
I have a solid picture in my head now of what I want next year’s UK Games Expo stand to look like. I want printed copies of the game available to sell. I want to be vying for an award for having such a fun, light, 15-minute game available to buy. I want to be demoing Which Witch to people who haven’t seen it yet, and also be showing off the next game in our catalogue, whatever that may be!
But, we cannot get there without a lot of legwork and the support of you. If we are doing things you like, please share our newsletter. Share our Kickstarter page. Share our Discord invite. Share our Facebook page. Share our Instagram reels.
And if we’re not doing things you like and should be, tell me!
We are making progress now in putting together a robust marketing plan. Finding a partner to fulfil our Kickstarter such that when everybody backs the game they get their copy on time in pristine condition. Finalising manufacturing details - exactly how many millimetres deep is the box? How many potion bottles are in there, made from which materials? How many cards, of exactly which sizes? How many pages does the rulebook need, and what languages are in it?
There’s a long road to go to finish the game and get it into people’s hands, but this is just the beginning of Curious Lynx’s journey, and I’m so excited to see where it takes me next!
Onward!
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1 This is the plan anyway, but it does rely on being able to build a successful buzz around the game pre-launch and have enough people on-board ready to back the project as soon as it goes live. Do you know something about marketing pre-Kickstarter launch? If so, definitely get in touch with me at [email protected]!
2 Wait, am I allowed to call it a meeple? It’s much larger, so it’s a giaple? geeple?
3 https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/427234/three-kobolds-in-a-trench-coat
4 Even if I would, probably, get better.
5 You can find Senet magazine here: https://senetmagazine.com/