Asian Board Games Festival (ABGFMY)

Roll the dice, draw a card, and get immersed in the fabulous world of tabletop gaming at the Asian Board Games Festival Malaysia (ABGFMY) 2026!

Building on the momentum of Origame’s annual festival in Singapore, ABGF returns for its third Malaysian edition, bringing together game makers and enthusiasts from all over Asia to celebrate creativity, culture, and play.

Whether you’re a seasoned gamer or simply curious to explore something new, the festival offers visitors of all ages the chance to play and purchase the latest board games from across the region. A signature highlight is the Play Passport, where players journey through Asia by collecting stamps as they experience and acquire the latest tabletop games from 40 exhibitors representing 10 countries!

Level up your time at ABGFMY by joining the tournament hosted by Penang’s friendly local game store, Kohii! This year, participants will go head to head with one another playing these 3 games – Tanglung, Oh! My Orchids, and Hikadyat!

Also be sure to try out the finalist games of the 2026 ABGF 18-card design contest and tune in for the announcement of the 3 winners!

Gather your family and friends, meet fellow board game enthusiasts, and dive into a weekend of strategy, storytelling, and friendly competition at this celebration of Asian game design.

Admission and gameplay at the 40 exhibitor booths are free. Enhance your experience with a RM10 Play Passport to collect stamps and redeem exclusive prizes. Stamp collectors can also purchase a RM5 Stamp Hunter Pass to access all festival stamps.

Come play your way through Asia!

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PROJECT DETAILS

Date & Time

TICKETS

OTHER FASCINATING PROGRAMMES

The Web of Deceits

Step into a world of mischief, magic, and adventure with Paper Monkey Theatre’s “Web of Deceit”, a lively hand-puppet performance inspired by the beloved Chinese classic, Journey to the West. Follow Tang Sanzang and his loyal disciples—Monkey King, Piggy, and Sandy—as they journey through danger and deception. When the cunning Spider Demon traps Tang Sanzang and Piggy in a magical web, Monkey King and Sandy must outwit the demon in a daring rescue mission. Filled with humor, suspense, and playful surprises, this engaging performance introduces audiences to the art of hand puppetry while bringing timeless values of courage, loyalty, wisdom, and teamwork vividly to life.

Involuntary Writing

Solo exhibition by Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec Involuntary Writing by Amsterdam-based artist Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec is presented at Blank Canvas that brings together site-specific murals and a triptych consisting of a digital scan, a black and white photograph, and a rubber stamp imprint. The project highlights unintentional ink stains that occur while writing by hand. The artist turns attention to these unintended marks, treating them as visual forms in their own right, which are magnified and reworked within the exhibition space. He foregrounds their idiosyncratic, irregular shapes as visual elements that are neither illustrations, symbolic representations, nor abstractions, but incomprehensible forms that, nevertheless, radiate familiarity. Rather than trying to define or interpret them, the project leans into this ambiguity by adopting a non-interpretative gaze – one that is more akin to “listening to shapes”, allowing their presence to be felt rather than explained.

Shakespeare Meets NOH: DESDEMONA

What happens when one of Othello’s most tragic heroines enters the dreamlike world of Japanese Noh theatre? “Shakespeare Meets NOH: DESDEMONA” is a haunting intercultural performance that reimagines Desdemona’s story through the ritual, music, and movement of 14th-century Noh drama. Created by KL Shakespeare Players, the work shifts the focus from Othello to Desdemona herself, imagining an afterlife where she is finally given the power to confront her fate and seek reconciliation on her own terms. Blending Shakespearean storytelling with the refined aesthetics of Noh theatre, the production unfolds through poetic movement, ceremonial rhythms, evocative costumes, and a multilingual soundscape of Japanese, English, Malay, and Chinese. Both intimate and visually striking, “Shakespeare Meets NOH: DESDEMONA” invites audiences into a rare theatrical encounter where classical Japanese performance and Shakespearean tragedy meet in a meditation on memory, grief, forgiveness, and the voices of women long silenced.