Overview of the Games Day 2026 Board Game Festival
On the weekend of January 17 and 18, the eighth Games Day Board Game Festival took place. Its organizers, the hobby center goldfish, tried to entertain visitors with a variety of activities, and of course showcase the latest in board games of all types and calibers.
I had already interviewed one of the co-founders of the publishing house, Anton Morozov, about the history and current affairs of goldfish. Now it’s time to tell what exactly the organizers brought to the Danilovsky Event Hall for festivalgoers and what I managed to try out.
Let me start with general information. A large part of the venue was dedicated to the "game libraries" of publishers like "Lavka Igr", "Evricus", "Crowd Games" (do not confuse with "Crowd Republic" — this is an entirely different company, though they also deal with board games, focusing on crowdfunding), "Fabryka Igr", "Niza Games", "Freak or Geek", "Gemenot" and "Eteris". There, anyone could get acquainted with various board games under the guidance of specially trained masters who know all the nuances of the rules. Additionally, each game library was accompanied by a stand-shop from the respective publisher, where visitors could purchase a favored game.
There were also separate stalls selling souvenir products, various accessories like dice, and even chocolate items (which included characters and items from comics, movies, games, etc.). But all the sellers concentrated in one area, near the entrance.
I will particularly mention the area where the game/presentation of "Blood on the Clocktower" took place, as this novelty was the first one I managed to experience. I even signed up in advance for the session (thankfully, this was done with a couple of clicks in a Telegram bot).
Interestingly, "Blood" is a localization of the foreign game Blood on the Clocktower, which in turn is a variation of our "Mafia". One of the main differences is the huge number of roles, each with their own properties and abilities. In fact, in each scenario (and several are provided), all the townspeople (both peaceful and demon supporters) possess certain traits.
The second distinction from "Mafia" is that nighttime killings are committed by specific characters (primarily the demon, whose elimination is the goal for the virtuous townspeople), and for lynching, a verdict requires more votes than half of the living residents. However, there’s a catch — the dead can also vote, but only once. Therefore, towards the end of the game, even previously killed players can tip the scales in a certain direction.
I wasn't fond of the idea of "poisoning", where a character using their ability receives false information from the moderator (yes, there is a separate person responsible for all interactions in the game). Too much uncertainty can arise. Although, perhaps for more experienced players who can easily calculate all options, it indeed raises the challenge.
Another game I tried was a more standard board game — "Fins". This is the second game in the series (the first was "Wings", and the third "Dragons"), where players need to collect and breed animals (in this case — fish), with all cards and tokens in players' hands being open so they can strategically calculate the opponents’ possibilities (excluding what cards they will draw from the deck). Of course, with some experience. I had none, so in the end, I came in last place.
Overall, there were quite a few cooperative games where players need to work together rather than compete or fight against each other, instead joining forces to tackle tasks, obstacles, and troubles thrown at them by the game. One such game is "Cool Dive", where over the course of seven turns an airplane Broiler 747 crashes and players must reach the airport without colliding with another plane, flipping over, and definitely deploying landing gear and flaps by the end.
And yes, the game is a localization of the foreign Sky Team, and in my opinion, the name change is justified, as it immediately conveys the essence of the gameplay. The main challenge for players here is communication, as they must take turns using dice for all actions, but they cannot disclose what they rolled. For example, using a die that rolled a 6 to pull the joystick towards yourself risks flipping the plane, if another player didn’t roll a high enough number to compensate for the tilt.
Fortunately, even communicating with vague phrases like "I will pull with minimum/maximum strength", my partner ("Cool Dive" is designed strictly for two players) and I managed to land the plane and come to a complete stop within the runway.
I also played the cooperative game "Eteris: Elemental Seal". To be precise, its cooperative variant — "Eteris" itself is a deck of cards with five suits-elements, for which the authors created several different games, just like there are various games with regular cards.
The cooperative game is essentially a solitaire, where players must lay down cards in order of rank, but again cannot directly state the value of the card they are laying down. To be honest, this feels somewhat artificial, unlike piloting the plane in "Cool Dive".
I also played a competitive version of "Eteris" for three players. There, players must take turns laying down cards so the next one beats the previous one. The card that remains on top wins the round.
Among the games, there were even those where one could play alone. For example, a card game based on the series "Method", where you have to read descriptions of crime scenes and suspect cases and then choose an action before moving to the indicated event. Essentially, it's a "Choose Your Own Adventure" but with cards instead of a book.
Another game is "Final Girl", which allows you to feel like the heroine of a horror-slasher film. It involves cards, dice, tokens, and a game board, which can be partially replaced by purchasing modules. Each module determines who exactly will be the main heroine (specifically, her ability), where the action will take place, and who the monster will be. The modules unabashedly offer slightly renamed locations and characters from "Friday the 13th", "Alien", "Stranger Things", "Terminator", and other iconic franchises of the genre.
Now, let me tell you about "Cat Lady" and "Our Captain is Dead". After all, they are new releases from goldfish. "Cat Lady" is a competitive game for 2-4 players, where one needs to collect cats, food, games, toys, and costumes from the street (i.e., the game board). In the end (when all cards from the deck are laid out on the game board), points are counted. Points increase for fed cats, while points are deducted for hungry ones. In general, it’s rather complex but accessible — even a newbie like me only needed a ten-minute explanation. Too bad it didn’t help me win.
"Our Captain is Dead" is a cooperative game clearly inspired by "Star Trek" and other space operas. It represents a typical episode of a series when a ship gets into trouble, and one must quickly find a way out. In this case, literally: the goal of the game is to repair the hyperdrive while fending off aliens, anomalies, and other troubles that arise each turn (what happens is determined by a card drawn from the "alarm" deck, with the final card being a reactor explosion and the destruction of our vessel).
The rules in "Captain" are quite complex — there are many crew roles (although the team is supposed to be between 2 to 7 people) with different traits and stats, various skills, inventory, and upgrades for systems (which can break down under certain "alarms"). The only somewhat strange aspect is that aggressive aliens, whose ships continuously fire at our starship, do not attack us during boarding; they only hinder movement. Otherwise, it’s an engaging and dynamic game for fans of sci-fi.
Lastly, I’d like to describe a fun attraction organized at Games Day by fans of Warhammer from the community "Just People". Everyone who wished could maneuver a remote-controlled tank through an obstacle course, shoot at another tank (which was positioned on the other end of the field), and return to the starting position. The first to complete the challenge was awarded a prize.
As I was explained, initially, a tournament was planned where participants would battle using tanks. However, one of the tanks had poor controls, thus they decided to change the competition format. Perhaps at some next festival, an actual duel will take place. "Just People" indeed has far-reaching plans for creating various electronic devices, including servo skulls with AI support.
Additionally at Games Day, there was a stand from RosNOU, where you could participate in a contest explaining and answering the question of the day (with a prize). There was also a stand for making your own badges.
Overall, I enjoyed the festival. If goldfish statistics are to be believed, 3,000 board game enthusiasts visited over the two days. Many even bought their favorite titles in front of me.
Later, I saw complaints that it was a bit cramped and there was nowhere to sit. However, personally, I did not notice a lack of space. Yes, if you wanted to play a particular board game, you might be out of luck and have to wait a long time (especially for games requiring exactly two participants), but overall, there were quite a number of open spots.
So I wish the hobby center goldfish and its Games Day festival success and further development.