Melbourne Board Game Market 2023

2PO Games is a local, Melbourne based, indie designer working on a variety of games.

Try Way of Thinking – a cooperative party word association game that is easy to teach, fun and that will make you create word puzzles for each other to guess. Coming to Kickstarter this year.

Twin Realms is an epic, fantasy dungeon crawler in a unique world where characters can shift between physical and ghost forms, to get advantages in combat, solve simple puzzles and even move through walls. The game offers unique mechanics, interesting character progression and mini storage boxes that are used in play!

Explore the emergence of life in the early prototype of Cradle of Creation – a polyomino-building roll and write game that takes pattern building to a whole new level.

Our cats always end up in the darnedest situations, so good thing they have 9 extra lives to battle it out until it’s the last cat standing. Fight other cats by playing dirty, playing nice, or by just being all-around luckier than everyone else. It’s the purrfect card game to play with friends!

In 9 Lives, your goal is to outwit, outplay, and outlast the opposition. Stay alive and stay lucky when karma cards decide your fate. Utilize paw cards to maneuver around dangerous situations or send other players straight into them. Declare yourself the alpha cat when everyone else has died to completely unforseen “accidents” and you’ve won the cat-tle royale.

The Aussie Rona Rules board game is a locally designed game set in the pandemic years of Australia. It’s an easy to play roll and move game, where the players are facing the ever changing rules and regulations.

This game will give you a good laugh and is a good entertainment for the whole family or perfect for friends’ gatherings.

Clocksmen Game Design is a three-person Melbourne-based game design studio supporting the designs of Stefan Nekvapil.

We are currently working on Wolf & Raven, a two-player co-op card game with a board and deck building design elements.

We are passionate about games and the Melbourne board game design scene. Come and say hi!

Dapper Cranium Studios is a one man team, developing, illustrating and producing board games intended for families and broader audiences – simple enough for the kids to get into, and enough layers of complexity so the parents don’t get bored! All products are developed sustainably, printed using recycled materials and through local print shops, mainly the Environmental Printing Company (as I’m based in Perth, Western Australia, they’re local for me!).

Frodge and Bin Off are the main two games showcasing at the event. Frodge is a frog racing game with simple strategy, and lots of ways to mess with your friends. Race your frogs along the lilypads, and play action cards to adjust the layout of the board, to your favour, or your friends’ frustration. Bin Off – competitive trash trawling for the whole family. Learn about good recycling habits while playing a fun, strategic card game about sorting rubbish better than your friends and family.

Dwellers is a competitive area majority board game for 3-6 players that is primarily inspired by Wolfgang Kramer’s El Grande, but aims for a more modern and streamlined approach.

Players take on the role of a mountain dwelling faction to vie for the majority of different regions. It’s clever hand management system allows for quick turns and great game flow. The frequent board manipulation promotes high yet healthy player interaction keeping players engaged with tactical and short-term strategic decisions. 

Fire Noodle Eating Champs: The Dice Game by ToToTam

The annual Fire Noodle Eating Contest is about to begin!

Contestants are battling it out in this 1 V 1 noodle eating contest to be crowned the Fire Noodle Eating Champ!

Roll and match noodle toppings on your spicy fire noodles. Once the noodles have their appropriate toppings, they’re ready to eat. But take care because they are spicy noodles!

The first to eat all their bowls of noodles and grab the trophy wins!

Gameway is Australia’s premier board game table manufacturer! Based in Melbourne, our goal is to bring this amazing hobby to as many people as possible and to make your games night an unforgettable experience.

Our handcrafted timber board game tables are perfect for both dining and gaming. We offer a huge range of custom options, include toppers, LED lighting, USB chargers, drink holders, rail accessories and much more!

With Gameway, you can craft the board game table of your dreams. It’s time to elevate your games night!

GetBoard is Melbourne’s own board game rental service. Try new releases and classics every month with upgrades and extras.

Get rid of that shelf of shame and try before you buy. Delivered straight to your door: hassle-free with everything you need.

At Guf Studios, we specialise in publishing, licensing, and localising amazing games from Oceania and SE Asia to the rest of the world, and bringing games from the world to Oceania and SE Asia.

Join us and discover our latest games!

Indulge in Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum, where you’ll dine on delicacies from a mystical restaurant’s rotating Lazy Susan. Choose the Dim Sum that matches your Chinese Zodiac character to earn the most Hearty Points and take home the victory.

In Floating Floors, the Bansen Seals of your ninja clan have been scattered throughout the castle. Race against your opponent to reclaim them, using your balance and cunning to stay ahead.

Travel back in time with Endless Winter: Paleoamericans, guiding your tribe to prosperity by establishing cultural traditions, hunting megafauna, migrating, and building everlasting megaliths. From nomadic hunter-gatherers to prosperous tribal societies, the fate of your tribe is in your hands!

Kitsunedo is a fast-paced battle-royale card game packed with strategy, bluffing, and social psychology, designed to be easy to pick up but hard to master…

Find your kindred Spirit Lord and wield their unique powers to develop your own tactics and playstyle. Whether you’re turning back the threads of time with the Fox of the Mirage or summoning power for everyone with the Fox of the Celeste, your path to victory will be different.

Maluridae Dice is a one-artist operation from Melbourne’s outer west.

Specialising in handcrafted dice inspired by characters and campaign settings, Shani is more than happy to help you find the perfect set of dice for your game (or chat about native birds).

What does academic research on boardgames look like?

Meet games researchers from the School of Computing and Information Systems at The University of Melbourne.

Our research spans many different types of digital and tabletop games, including board- and cardgames, role-playing games, and hybrid play.

Talk to our researchers about our games research and teaching, or find out about upcoming studies that you could participate in.

The Quest Suppliers are committed to bringing the best local games to you.

They will be bringing a bunch of local games for you to peruse and purchase.

quintuple is an abstract strategy game for two players. Place or move your cubes on a grid of nine squares. Each cube’s value shows how many squares it moves.

Position your token next to a row of cubes to change their values. First player to get all their cubes on the grid wins!

Made in Melbourne by two board game enthusiasts, the Travel Bug Board Game (Australian Edition) will take you on a trip of a lifetime.

See Australia by road, rail, air or sea. Collect photos of landmarks, plants and animals, enjoy amazing travels and return home safely. Earn points by travelling and collecting souvenirs.

Launched in February 2023, Veroda is a fresh face in the board and card game space. Composed of dedicated game enthusiasts, our passion for gaming extends beyond simply playing – we’re deeply invested in the entire creation process.

But we’re not just about making games; we’re also spearheading a community of game designers in our hometown of Ballarat.