For many Americans, Sunday brunch means waffles, pancakes, bacon and eggs. But for my family and millions of Chinese immigrants, Sunday brunch means one thing: only. It’s time for dim sum.a new board game called Steam Up: A Dim Sum FeastPublishing by Hot Banana Games adapts the dim sum tradition (small portions of flavorful food steamed in bamboo baskets) into a daring new board game. It’s not the first tabletop game centered around Chinese traditions, but it offers one of the most compelling board game experiences I’ve had in a long time.
If you’re lucky, steam up It coincided nicely with my Grandmother, or Grandmother Belle Yi’s birthday celebrations in Vancouver where the game was made. I roped in my mom Brenda Ford, cousin Eric Lee, cousin Kimberly Lam, and her husband Xin Yue Lam to sneak into some games. Steam up — If so, an appetizer—before the big birthday dinner. What we found was a deceptively simple game, but one with lots of moving parts to track.
The setup board looks like a real dim sum table. Just like the restaurant, it has a small steamer and a rotating carousel. On their turn, each player performs two actions of their choice: take a Dim Sum token, draw a fortune card, optionally spin the turntable, play a fortune card, and optionally spin the turntable. Spin, exchange two fortune cards for one token, and/or use your tokens to buy a steamer and match the pieces inside exactly.
When a player purchases a steamer, they earn points. Characters earn different amounts of points for different dim sum pieces, and at the end of the round a fate card is drawn and the effect is resolved. As each steamer is purchased, the tracker counts down, and when the tracker reaches the end or all destiny cards are drawn, the game ends and the player with the most points wins.
Photo: Hot Banana Game
steam up There are two editions, Standard and Deluxe. The difference is aesthetic in nature. The Deluxe Edition replaces the flat punch card tokens with wooden tokens, and the letters and scoreboard are printed on high quality cardstock. Most importantly, the flat dim thumb punch card pieces are replaced with rubber dim thumb squeezes.
Squishy is remarkable because it delighted my whole family, especially my grandmother. Literally translated as “Phoenix claws”), pork buns. The premium, squishy bits were also more functional than cardboard chits. Getting them out of the bag and moving them around during a game was easier than using flat pieces. It had a reputation for being easy.
However, Kimberly and Xin Yue were so charming that they had to bow because their 2-year-old son tried to grab the squeeze so many times. They’ll probably be in his stomach without intervention.
My family, especially my grandmother, was delighted with the layout of the manual and game. Some customs of dim sum are explained, such as serving tea to others before oneself. The artwork is also stunning and cute. My granny loved flipping through the manuals and seeing the dim sum stereotypes that make up the different characters: loyal customer, food blogger, or seafood lover. matches one of
Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the game, my grandmother was unable to participate in person. There was a surprising amount of effects from fortune cards, destiny cards, character abilities, and the turntable itself. This became a problem as I found myself backtracking due to effects I missed, especially the fate cards. The second issue was the physical design. The turntable was hard to turn and only Eric made good use of it, depriving my mom and me of a full steamer at a few key points.
Steamers and dim sum squeezes can be finicky, too. The squeeze was easy to work with and definitely aesthetically pleasing, but the steamer could tip over if the squeeze wasn’t fully positioned inside. It also caused me to lose it.
In the end, my mom triumphed with a “loyal customer” character who quickly added up bonus points related to one of the game’s problems. There are characters that are simply easier to win. Some have a teacup icon to indicate that they are easy to play.
steam up It targets a Chinese-American audience. The dim sum squeeze and the familiarity of the character archetypes were especially welcomed by Baba, who pronounced them “so cute” and “just like real dim sum.” .
steam up is a bit of a niche specialty, but its success on Kickstarter shows that creators are rapidly expanding into that niche. Overall, the experience left us well fed but hungry to try thousands of possible variations.
Steam Up: Dim Sum Feast is now available. If you’re interested, choose the $66 Deluxe Edition. It’s currently sold out, but should be available for pre-order soon. The Standard Edition is less exclusive and saves you just $47.
