GENCON Envie 2026 — Top Small Box Games

There is an internet meme going ’round involving the release of Chris Nolan’s new The Odyssey. It questions just how much money will moviegoers eventually spend to finally get Matt Damon safely home. Whatever that final number is — and it’s a big one after Interstellar, Saving Private Ryan, The Martian and now the latest “please get him home” saga — the cost to send me back to my gaming home-away-from-home in Indianapolis would be a lot less. 

I have not been to GENCON since 2019, and unfortunately, I don’t see it in the cards anytime soon. But no matter. Since 2022, I’ve lived vicariously through the help of social media, Board Game Geek, and Dan from The Geek Allstars podcast. Every July, Dan and I pore through publisher emails, media announcements, and the excellent BGG preview list to each come up with our Top 11 games to try and buy at GENCON. (This year’s version should go up this week.) 

So, to celebrate, I thought I’d put together three lists this week. First, let’s check out a dozen or so small box games that should be available by GENCON that you might want to check out or even take home. 

Enough blather, let’s get to the games!

My criteria in putting together this list was finding games that I would probably have wanted to purchase (or games that I have played already and want to recommend to my friends). I specifically was looking for games that come in relatively small packages. I also tried to keep the prices down to $25 or less, although one of the games that I recommend comes in slightly higher. 

Some of these games are ones that I already own or have already played, like the first one. A_way ($13, Blue Orange) is a tiny box game that fits in the palm of your hand, but it packs a much bigger experience. Players are racing to get their ship from one of the Galaxy of cards to their home base, with lots of opportunities to mess with the other racers. What separates this from other racers is the speedy play (games take only about 20 mins) and the fact that you can combo multiple cards into a big turn if you have the right suits in your hand. 

Andrew Stiles (designer of Wine Cellar, a new Mensa recommended game!) has a new set collection game called Digging for Dinos ($30, 3WS Games). I like the theme of paleontologists competing against other players to put together the best dinosaur skeletons. It looks like a game with simple rules and a quick play time. 

Speaking of dinos, I’ve been playing a ton of First Giants, the new re-imagining of Elysium by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J. Gilbert. ($34, Space Cowboys). The designers have taken Elysium and streamlined the gameplay surrounding the card picking, economy and different houses down to a pleasurable, smooth playing and breezy experience. The theme switch helps a bit, as now you are dinosaur collectors planning the best museum exhibition, but the combos between the cards and types of dinosaurs and chase for the bonuses for collecting dinosaurs of a certain size or family is still present. Huge recommended. 

I played one game of French Toast ($20, Allplay) at Dice Tower East in July and was hooked. I immediately bought a copy and brought it home, but I’m definitely recommending my buddies at GENCON get their own copy. It’s a quick playing cooperative party game where an alien tries to describe a trip to Earth using just one word, but the word switches as the other players get closer to the right answer. You can re-rack this game with different people playing aliens, and it takes almost no space. 

If you like two player card games, you should check out The Phantom of the Opera designed by Geonil ($15, 25th Century Games). I’ve played a few of Geonil’s two player only trick-taking games, and this one not only has the coolest theme ported straight from story, but it also has an incredible scoring mechanic that might be the smoothest of any from that designer. 

Speaking of streamlining, at Dice Tower East, I got a glimpse at Wingspan Pocket, the six five player version of the best selling birds game ($20, Stonemaier Games). I only played a third of the game before our table opened up at another game we had scheduled, but I love what the designer has done to address any issues with the game. The dice are gone, but the bird playing and combos remain, in a tight package that I can’t imagine would ever outstay its welcome. 

My favorite Druid City Games release has been Wonderland’s War, but their new game, Off With Their Heads($25, Druid City Games), is not far behind. Sure, it’s a randowriter, but I like the combination of using very familiar card game mechanics to drive the numbers you add to your player sheets. I played it once at Dice Tower East at the hot games section, and wow, was it popular. 

The next couple of games caught my eyes because of the color graphics and art. Seashells (KTBG, $20) is a new one from Bruno Faidutti — so you know it has some juicy player interaction — which has gorgeous pieces and artwork. That is one I would definitely try and probably take home with me. Likewise, the gameplay in Pop Art (R2I Games, $25) combines clever pop graphics with scoring mechanics that reminds me a bit of Castle Combo. Luckily for me, Doug owns a copy here and we played it last week. It really surprised me. 

Most gamers have played some version of Bang!, but I saw that a new one is coming out with Pirates as the theme. Black Flag! (DV Games, $18). It’s hard for me to believe that a pirate version of Bang! hasn’t been done already, because the theme absolutely fits the gameplay. 

I’ve played a ton of Flip 7 with a Vengeance (The OP, $10) already. I even brought it to North Carolina on a recent trip, and even after repeated plays, the “vengeance” part is real but not as menacing as it sounds. Sure there are lots more ways to affect players, but the game is so short anyway that the new cards did exactly what they were supposed to do — keep the players close up and bunched together, in an effort to get that ‘stand up’ moment we all crave.

We can’t stop at eleven. In Louisiana, we have to have some lagniappe, so let’s throw three more small box games on the pile. 

First, I was glad to see that Disney Villainous finally received some new content called Disney Villainous: Success At Any Cost (Ravensburger, $20). It’s been a long time since I played Villainous. I tend to only like it at two or three players (even though I know some game groups here in town that play it with four or five or more!) because anything bigger than that makes me wait too long for my turn. But a two player version of Villainous with villains from Frozen and Coco? I’m in. (In fact, I already have a review copy and I’ve played both characters multiple times already, and I really dig the new characters especially Ernesto). 

I love Tag Team, the original, so I was super excited to see more content. Tag Team: Arthur’s Legacy (Scorpion Masqué, $20) adds characters from the Arthurian legends to the Tag Team universe. If I were going to GENCON, that would be a must buy for me. 

I like games with unusual themes or pithy names, and a Surplus of Sloths does both. Charlie McCarron (who designed Ringyo on Kickstarter right now) published a small box card game (Weird Giraffe Games, $15) is a cute little mathy game about collecting sloths. It’s essentially a drafting game, with some of the sloth cards falling out because they aren’t drafted each round, but players are trying hard to get the longest chain of each type of sloth to score points. I’ve played the prototype version and would love to see how the final product came out. 

Finally, it would not be a small box list if I didn’t highlight something from Oink Games. There are three releases I am looking at, but for today, let’s go with The Frozen Passage (Oink, $21) a small box co-op game about steering your ship through disaster. I don’t play a lot of co-op games, but a tiny one with a short playtime? I’m in. 

That’s our list of small box games to look out for at GENCON. My buddy Logan predicted that there would be tons of small box releases in 2026, and he was right. I could probably triple the size of this list if I really wanted to. But, instead, I’ll focus on the next couple of blog posts highlighting the games that I would want to try or buy at GENCON. 

Did I miss any of your favorite small box releases? Let me know!

Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo
** Complimentary copies of some of the games were provided by the publishers. **