Steam Digital Tabletop Fest Celebrates Board Games This October

Published: September 30, 2020 2:00 PM /

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Steam Digital Tabletop Fest cover

The Steam Digital Tabletop Fest has been announced by Valve as a new event that will be focused on some of our favorite board games that have gotten the digital treatment.

Indie Studio Auroch Digital (Achtung! Cthulhu TacticsDark Future: Blood Red States) will be curating the program of events and the speakers. Thus far, Munchkin creator Steve Jackon, Games Workshop co-founder Ian Livingstone, and other notable personalities from the world of tabletop games are on board.

Steam Digital Tabletop Fest slice

What is the Steam Digital Tabletop Fest?

The Steam Digital Tabletop Fest will be a series of talks and panels featuring notable personalities from the world of tabletop gaming. These panels will be live-streamed over the Internet. You can, of course, also catch the VOD if you miss it the first time around.

Here are some of the planned activities according to the announcement post on the Steam blog:

  • ​​Plague Inc: Evolved - Where James Vaughan, game designer of the digital and physical version plays the digital game's boardgame scenario while discussing the design of both versions.
  • ​​Othercide - The tactical-RPG blending strong art style, unique lore and challenging tactical gameplay, presented by its Art Director and Lead Game Designer.
  • ​​Gloomhaven - llivestream, featuring the developers, will discuss the upcoming content for the next major update of Gloomhaven’s Early Access on Steam.
  • ​​Virtual panel on games about Mars - Where game creators will be joined by actual space agency staff and scientists to ask what games get right and wrong about Mars.
  • ​​Virtual panel on Cthulhu games - Where some of the most notable Cthulhu-themed designers from digital and physical ask about the cultural impact of such titles and more.

One might wonder — is there going to be a sale or the opportunity to play these games for free? Although the name shares some similarities with the upcoming Steam Autumn Game Festival, there hasn't been a firm announcement on any game demos going live during these panels.

That said, Valve does have a penchant for making themed sales and a "sale" page has already been listed. It's highly likely that we'll be seeing some good discounts on digital tabletop games for the duration of this event.

When is the Steam Digital Tabletop Fest?

The Steam Digital Tabletop Fest will be taking place from October 21–26, 2020. A sale is likely to coincide with the event, although the scope of the sale (and whether or not any game demos will be made available for free) is not yet known.

For now, you can set a reminder for the Steam Digital Tabletop Fest before it arrives in late October 2020. You'll have something fun to do before that, though; the Steam Autumn Game Festival will run from October 7–13, 2020, featuring great titles like the cool driving "road-lite" game Nightvision.

Are you looking forward to the Steam Digital Tabletop Fest? What do you think of the planned speakers for this event? Let us know in the comments below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


A photograph of TechRaptor Senior Writer Robert N. Adams.
| Senior Writer

One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N