GAMA Expo 2025: Flow, Ace of Spades, Transgalactica, Koinobori, and Red Carpet | BoardGameGeek News

by W. Eric Martin

I’m still mentally walking the exhibit hall of GAMA Expo 2025 and reliving my past life. Join me for a re-telling of what I experienced.

▪️ Flow is an adaptation of the movie of the same name from writer/director Gints Zilbalodis. Brain Games released the game in Europe in early 2025 and expects it to be available in the U.S. in June-July 2025.

This real-time game from Justina Lapinskienė, Dmitrijus Babičius, Tadas Kastanauskas, and Marijus Lapinskas recreates the spirit of the movie, with players trying to help four animals escape a flood and make it to safety.

The animals start in the corners of the game board, and players will draw and lay tiles from these spaces to create a path for each animal to the island at the game board’s center. However, every one minute, you must roll two dice, then remove the tiles from the row and column that match the numbers rolled. You need to keep moving quickly to rescue everyone before the tiles run out.

As it turns out, some within Devir had put this together as an homage to Kilmister, but following the reaction from gamers, they reached out to representatives of Motörhead to see whether this could be an official licensed product — but they never heard back. Instead of leaving that uncertain link in the minds of potential players, they have now created the cover above that shows a cowboy magician obliterating evil minions with playing cards, just as you will be trying to do in this game for 1-2 players.

Here’s an overview of this Benjamín Amorín design:

Your path of vengeance has led you to Sweet Haven, Arizona. You know that the necromancer who has ruined your life has taken over the cemetery as his base of operations and you are going to finish him off at all costs. You face Lord Overkill, a supernatural being, but your prowess as a gambler goes beyond sleight of hand.

Channel your magic through poker plays to take out Lord Overkill’s minions one by one and descend into Hell itself to duel the monster who ruined your life.

Ace of Spades is a single-player game, or a two-player game if you prefer to play it in co-op mode, that uses poker mechanisms to resolve dangerous duels against the worst spawns from Hell.

▪️ In other newness, Devir has licensed two titles from Perro Loko Games for release under its brand: Jorge J. Barroso‘s Phoenix New Horizon — you can read his designer diary here — and David Bernal‘s Koinobori, a card game in which players take turns placing Japanese kites on posts, trying to create color majorities on shared posts that they’ll score by having the same color on their personal post.

▪️ Red Carpet from Eloi Pujadas, Anna Lucini Canals, and Pau Moré Gómez is Devir’s big release for Gen Con 2025.

▪️ Ahead of Red Carpet will come Transgalactica, a 2-5 player game from Daniele Tascini due out in June 2025. This description is the same as what I knew at SPIEL Essen 24, but now it’s accompanied by pics of the game board and player components:

The Galactic Senate has launched the “Transgalactica Decree” in order to increase their knowledge and influence beyond the already well-known fringes of the galaxy. Fleets from every planet have been launched to the stars in search of adventure, riches, and (hopefully) an influential seat in the governing spheres that lie beyond the known space.

Transgalactica is a worker-placement and engine-building game with a high level of interaction between the players. In order to thrive in this game, you will travel the far reaches of the galaxy, improve your fleet’s influence in all galactic matters, compete with other fleets for technological advancements, build a commercial network, and possibly even send representatives to the Galactic Senate to claim political advantages.

The game is divided into five rounds. In each round, players use their Captains to perform powerful actions in their own operations panel. Then, the other players may follow taking the same action using their crew, but without gaining a bonus. Little by little, players will increase their military power, political influence, or technology level, and earn victory points by exploring, trading, mining or completing missions. May the best spacefarer win!