It was amazing to be back at the UK Games Expo after a year!
We were supposed to head to the UK Games Expo in 2020 to show off the brand new game of Quirk! licensed to Gibsons and we lost a little bit of that awesome energy upon our original launch because we couldn't show up in person due to lockdown. That all changed with UKGE 2021, where we were able to demo the new game in person. It was actually awesome!
This year was a little different for me as I wasn't at the event for the full thing plus I wasn't officially an exhibitor so I felt like I was on the outside a fair bit. In some ways this took a lot of pressure off of me to show up and constantly be working from morning to night, especially as I've been spending a lot of time recently developing the app and spending entire days staring at a computer!
UKGE Let's Go!
Here you can see Mischief getting ready to travel with me. Usually I have a friend join me for the weekend but this time it was just me. So Mischief kept me company on the way up. Of course holding on to his favourite game; Quirk!
The first night, I spent my time promoting the game at the Press Show for Gibsons with the wonderfully uplifting Dave Wetherall who designed the game Rockpool, also a Gibsons licensed game. The game is great for teaching children about the environment, calling out to collect shells, rubbish and dog toys and trying to score the most points!
On my side, I got to explain the new game of Quirk! for the first time in 18 months and all the changes we made from the original copies.
Some things included removing all words from the cards so that we can sell the game internationally. We've already provided 5 languages in the game, all we need to do if we wanted to provide anymore languages is print a new set of rules. Perfect!
We also added new characters to the game and the redevelopment allowed me to produce my new style of art across the whole game. If you've ever seen the original versions of Quirk! you'll see a very obvious difference between the art style of Quirk! and Quirk! Legends etc. This is because I designed the original game from a game I had developed in 2013 and to save time, I transferred the art I had already done from one game to another. In 6 years my art style had definitely changed and my ability to create new characters has certainly improved into the style you see now.
We also created the Mischief Monster for the new game. Since the original games had different cards for steal, block and skip cards, in the new game we decided to bring these action cards together with a character that we turned into Mischief. Mischief is the character that throws the game into chaos and causes all the funny moments to happen between players when they are stealing or blocking Quirks.
We also took the card size down in the action cards to better balance the game. We had a second purpose for this. An original deck of Quirk! is built up of 56 cards. The new game of Quirk! is built up to 51 cards with the addition of Mischief Cards totally up to 56 cards. These aren't your usual action cards, these cards are event cards that play on all the players in the game. They are also cards you can add to the game for advance play.
We give you three levels of difficulty for this game, just playing with the character cards which means you play the main mechanic of 'go fish' and let your Quirks fall where they may. The second level which is the base game of Quirk! where you can steal, block and stop on your turn and the third level where you can add Mischief cards in and wreak all havoc on your game!
The company is the best!
The best part of being back at the UK Games Expo is being around all the other amazing game designers, volunteers, and game players that make making games all worthwhile!
I have so much gratitude for so many people who made this such a great weekend and to everyone who bought the new game of Quirk! at the Gibsons stand.
Most of all, I am so grateful to Gibsons for giving Quirk! a space on the stand all weekend where I could demo the game to new players. It was exciting to see how much the new game is loved just as much as the old ones were and I hope that this will continue for many more years as we manage to get more exposure out there for the game!
We had such a cosy time on the couch and bean bags, it was like playing the game sat on the floor at home and I got to meet many new families who got to experience the game for the first time as well as amazing people who come back to play every year!
We also got to promote the app alongside the game at the show! Unfortunately we didn't have it ready to launch before UKGE but that's given us a bit more time to make the app just as great as the card game. :)
That's about all from my trip to UKGE! It wasn't as manic at the show usually is due to us only just coming out of lockdown, but 18,000 people still attended and thankfully I tested negative after attending which means everyone who interacted with my demos were safe too!
I hope next year will be just as amazing as we start to move into safer times. In the meantime, we always have games to keep us entertained!
From the Creative Director,
Emma May
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Get your copy of Quirk! The Laugh-Out-Loud Family Card Game from Gibsons, John Lewis or Amazon.
A game full of sounds, actions and mischief to make your family roar with laughter. Great for children as young as 5 and adults of any age who love to unleash their inner child!
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