Tokyo Game Market Preview Fall 2024

Tokyo Game Market is the largest board game convention in Asia and one of the most unique conventions in the world. The most unique aspect of Tokyo Game Market is that it is mostly tiny publishers and it is common for the games to be printed in very small (<500 copies) print runs for one game market and then never reprinted again. There are some larger Japanese and international publishers that attend but possibly half of the booths are self publishers.

Tokyo Game Market is usually a sprint to buy the hottest titles right away that can sell out within the first hour. Many publishers will go home after selling all of their stock and some don’t even rent the booth for Sunday.

The Basic Information

NEW VENUE THIS YEAR – Makumari Messe in Chiba – this is much farther away from Central Tokyo than Tokyo Big Sight. The good news is that this is the biggest convention hall that they have held the event in.

Food – There were a few food truck style restaurants in the convention hall last year and several restaurants elsewhere in the convention center with decent meals for about $10 USD. We are at a new venue this year though.

Tokyo Metro Access – It can take 1-1.5 hours to get to Chiba from Central Tokyo so plan accordingly. The Tokyo Metro is amazing but it is strongly advised that at least one person with a local sim card so you can Google the correct trains to get on. Many Metro lines have express (skip stations) and local (stop at every station). You might get on the train line but miss your stop because it doesn’t stop there.

Sim Cards and Wifi at the convention – Sim Cards are available at the airport for about $30 for one week I think. Wifi was usable (not fast) inside the convention hall last year but it is at a new venue this year.

Money – Vendors only accept Japanese Yen. There will be convenience stores and ATM’s at the convention center. There probably are lockers at the Metro station and maybe even inside the convention center. These are usually full.

Tickets – Tickets are about $20. A little tricky for foreigners to buy before the event.

Playing Games – There are very few tables available to play games at during the convention. There is an event after the convention in the convention center to play games at. https://www.tennisbear.net/bear/board-game/event/16798/info

Choosing Games – Very little will be known about the games at Tokyo Game Market beforehand. You can use the game market website https://gamemarket.jp/ and most of the publishers share information on Twitter/X before the convention. I have made a geeklist mostly focused on card games that don’t use Japanese text. Rulebooks are usually in Japanese and can be difficult to translate correctly but that is part of the fun.

Here is a giant list I made of every game that I thought was interesting at Tokyo Game Market. Fall 2024 Tokyo Game Market Geeklist of interesting games

Obviously I am not buying all of those games. Here is my list of games that I am getting:

1 AM Jailbreak and Wind the Film from Saashi and Saashi

Revolve from the designer of Scout

Petir – the Vivo follow up game from Vic Village

Merchant of Goldfish from Hisashi Hayashi

Basketrite 2 on 2 – a 2v2 partnership basketball themed trick taking game – If you lead a trick and win then you score a basket. If your partner win the trick then he gets a buff for the next trick. If the defense wins the trick then they can try to score a basket. This sounds awesome on paper.

OVERMECH Battle Go Outs and Backpack Hazard – a couple of fun light games that are really cheap

Gibberers is my grail game for TGM. I don’t think they are taking reservations so I will go to this booth first. You are creating a language trying to talk with language. Sounds really, really cool. They will probably sell out immediately.