Spellenspektakel Utrecht 2025

Today was finally the day: our first visit as a publisher to a games fair: Spellenspektakel Utrecht, representing Van der Spek Sons Publishing.

After discussing our game plan for the fair the evening before over a game of chess, we were in the car by around 9 AM, heading towards Utrecht.

Authors’ Plaza & first impressions

Once we arrived, we started the day with a good cup of coffee and chocolate muffins. After that, we went straight to the Auteursplein (Authors’ Plaza), where we were immediately pleasantly surprised by Hare of the Throne by Jori. It’s a variant of Magic: The Gathering, but a whole lot more accessible. The game was fun to play, and the beautiful illustrations instantly set the right mood. Thank you, Jori, for the explanation!

Next, we visited Jan, the designer and publisher of 24/7 Rally. Another fun and easy-to-play game, where you navigate your pawn along the hours of a clock.

One table over was Blitz Fight. A real-time 1v1 game where you have to quickly place actions to deal damage to each other. Lots of chaos, a fast pace, and incredibly fun to play. This game will be on Kickstarter in early 2026.

A quick break & evaluation

It was then time for a short break, and we took some time to discuss the games we’d seen. Each and every one of them was a fun game, but not quite something we felt would fit our publishing house just yet.

New discoveries

As lunchtime approached, we sat down at a few more tables.

Word Pond by Bert Hardeman immediately caught our attention. It’s a bit like Scrabble, but a few letters are laid out on the table for everyone, and the goal is to come up with two words that include as many of these letters as possible. The player with the most matches wins.

After that, we saw a gigantic rotatable cube by Mr Jongeneel. A prototype with plenty of gameplay possibilities, with the rules currently being developed further. The cube is an art object in its own right, and it was great fun to play a 4-in-a-row variant on it.

After a quick lunch of chips, we headed back onto the exhibition floor and came across yet another 4-in-a-row variant—this time with a game board shaped like a spiderweb. A surprisingly fresh take on the concept.

From the very start of the day, we had been trying to get a seat at a game featuring a board made of rotating discs representing the universe. At the end of the day, we finally succeeded. The board is a real eye-catcher and the game has a lot of potential. We hope to play a more developed version soon.

Were you at Spellenspektakel too?

It was a highly successful fair for us. We played a lot of fun games and got to meet many game developers. Is there a game among them that we want to publish? We shall have to wait and see, but the new insights and the fun made this day a huge success anyway!

Which game stood out the most to you? Let us know on social media, we’d love to hear from you!

Tom & Robert van der Spek