Board game culture has grown significantly in Thailand over the last 10-15 years. There are now around 150 board game cafes across Thailand, especially in Bangkok, that sell games and provide space for people to play. Board game conventions and competitions have also increased in popularity, helping to promote both imported and locally designed games. More Thai designers are now self-publishing original games that sometimes feature local cultural themes. The board game community in Thailand is working to develop educational games, hold workshops, and expand board game events outside of Bangkok to continue building the hobby.

1. Board Game Designers
in Thailand
by Perus Saranurak
Wizards of Learning and Boardgame Designer Thailand

2. 1.
Thai Traditional games
• Thai chess.
• Gambling and Card game.
• Boardgame in general:
Monopoly or Snake and
Ladder.

3. 2.
Boardgame Café
in Thailand
• Start 10 years ago
• Faster growth in this 2-3 years.
• Now there are about 150 café in
Thailand. (80+ in Bangkok)
• Selling games
• Gaming space with Food & Drink
• In modern trades
• Online selling
• Store: website + shopping platform
• Individual: Facebook group

4. Boardgame Café
in Thailand
Sell games and Gaming Space

5. Boardgame part
in other fairs
Book fair and Toy expo.

6. Social Media
about boardgame
Facebook, YouTube and Podcast

7. 3.
Popular games in Thailand
• New games always popular in media.
• Bluffing Party games always good in
selling (like Werewolf, Avalon, bang
and Saboteur)
• Localize boardgames
• Thai designers start self-publishing.

8. 4.
Customer groups
• The main customer is quite niche. They
play board game for 5-10+ years
• Play game with their boardgame group
at home or some publish space with
their own games or family.
• New market starts interested on
boardgame.
• Most boardgame cafés in Thailand are
located around university.

9. 5.
Platform
• Thais cannot create Kickstarter campaign,
but we can buy.
• Start own crowdfunding platform.
• Pre-order on Facebook page of Publishers
or Designers.

10. 6.
Boardgame events
in Thailand
• Book and toy fairs
• Design competition
• Pan-Kra-Dan - Last year 150 games
• Garena board game design
• Design game, Design society.
• Boardgame Designer Thailand
• Design Challenge
• Design meeting

11. Pan-Kra-Dan
boardgame Design
Competition

12. BGDT – Monthly
Design Challenge
Random Theme and Mechanic

13. Dev-Vision
Meet up
22.07.18

14. PlayTestival
03.02.19

15. Boardgame
Competition
Promote the games and activities

16. Organization
Design Challenge
CSR and Communicate ideas

17. Event in
Chiangmai
Not only in Bangkok (02.12.18)

18. Spiel Essen
!!! See you there this year !!!

19. 7.
Content in Thai boardgames
• Early stage, we start with casual and
general themes for party games
• Thai culture could be interesting
in next step. Such as Lotto or
Coconut Empire
• More theme are in developing. (history,
food, local product)

20. 7.
Content in Thai boardgames
• Organization’s design contests have
games about local issues (Corruption
game, Agriculture)
• Unfortunately, most of them didn’t
have further development after the
contest finish.

21. Education awaken

22. Design new game
for content
Organization

23. Boardgames for
Educator
In School and University

24. Design Workshop
for Educators

25. Student Projects
Thesis in product design and media

26. Welcome to our booth

27. Meet us at our booth…

28. Board Game Designers
in Thailand
by Perus Saranurak
Wizards of Learning and Boardgame Designer Thailand