Steam Up – First Impressions
Prototype copy provided by the publisher
It’s a welcome treat whenever a game comes along and feels drastically different from what you’ve been playing recently. Sometimes it’s a certain gameplay loop that’s really rewarding. Other times it’s a collection of components that distinguish a game from its peers. And sometimes it’s just that the game lasts exactly as long as it says it does so you have more time for other games or for life in general.
When it happens, a player can sit down, enjoy themselves, and breathe a sigh of contentment.
And I happily breathed that sigh of contentment while playing Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum from Hot Banana Games. It was just a prototype for an upcoming Kickstarter game, but the trio of designers—Pauline Kong, Marie Wong, and Haymen Lee—have crafted a dim sum feast full of delicious design.
Steam Up takes us to a land in the Far East, where the titular Dim Sum restaurant serves up food with divine skill. The Michelin Stars are ancient history here. What matters is the Gold Ingot status of the restaurant, and Steam Up was the first of its kind to receive three Gold Ingots. All of its success boils down (or steams up) to five main Dim Sum delights—shrimp dumplings, meat dumplings, BBQ meat buns, sticky rice, and the exotic phoenix claws.
A feast awaits for those hungry enough to sit down at the table!
What It Does
Photo credits: Hot Banana Games
This is a game that will be over in an hour. And it really will, which is one of the things that I enjoyed. Not because I didn’t want the game to last longer, but because it filled up the time comfortably and didn’t overstay its welcome. Sometimes, games take too long because the decisions can paralyze players. Or people talk too much. Or the rules are really intricate and hard to remember. For whatever reason, these tabletop experiences burn more midnight oil than I’d like. But Steam Up avoided that by establishing a fun and competitive 2-5 player experience that rests nicely in the 45-60 minute range.
The set collection, action management game also serves up some sweet cultural enlightenment (especially in the rulebook). That’s not something that I seek out in every game, but it’s always appreciated when the theme, design, and presentation of the game accomplishes that while also demonstrating satisfying gameplay.
Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum hits the tongue like an umami bomb of tabletop flavor.
But what are players doing?!
The game takes place around a lazy Susan of Dim Sum steamers, full of delicious morsels ready for players to snatch. The steamers are filled with a variety of Dim Sum and then stacked on top of each other on the turntable. Players will then alternate turns and perform two distinct actions from a list of possible moves, all with the goal in mind of purchasing steamers and scoring Dim Sum on their player boards.
Each player has their own character who will score in unique ways depending on the Dim Sum that’s collected from a purchased steamer. And then beyond gaining food tokens and spending them on steamers, there are also two decks of cards that influence the game. The Fortune deck provides opportunities for players to take different actions outside of the norm, and they can be powerful ways to get around the action limitations of the game. And then the Fate deck arrives at the end of each round to instigate some turn of events. It will either help or hurt one or more players around the table.
Between the Fortune and Fate decks, there is a consistent amount of disruption to the regular actions in the game, and players will further differentiate from each other based on the Dim Sum that they score best on their player boards.
Then, if those ripples in the Dim Sum pond didn’t make waves around the table, the players are oriented to the turntable full of steamers at particular “feast zones”. Players cannot purchase a steamer unless it’s in their feast zone, so rotating steamers to the right spots becomes crucial in getting what you want while also depriving other players of what they need.
Depending on the player count, the game ends when a certain number of steamers has been purchased (or the Fate deck runs out). Whoever has the most Heart Points (HP) wins!
How It Does It
There are a few things swirling around in this delectable punch bowl of spiked tabletop juice.
Number one is a variable set collection based on the asymmetric animal characters. Each one scores Dim Sum in a unique way, which means that players will have to approach their steamer tactics in novel ways each game.
Number two is yet more variables. We’re getting downright algebraic up in this game. But the setup in the game will always be different as the steamers are randomly sorted with Dim Sum from the cloth bag, so the varieties of Dim Sum that players could potentially collect are going to be different each game. And the player count further affects the variable setup by creating different feast zones for players to adapt to. Two- and four-player games will have 90-degree pieces of the Dim Sum pie to gobble from, while three-player games have a 120-degree slice of the turntable pie to eat from.
These two elements of the game create a lot of positive flux in the tabletop current that flows like steam from a Dim Sum basket.
And floating in the wind alongside those wafted scents are little embers and sparks that fly off of the Fortune and Fate decks. These two sets of cards will define player interactions in the game, allowing rotations of the steamers and creating action combinations that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. It’s a solid amount of disruption to the mechanical rhythm so players can feel that agency in directing the course of their fate in a game of Steam Up. It’s not overpowering what’s there. It’s bending the rules enough to feel like you’re in control.
Why You Might Like It
Steam Up offers variability without complexity, strategy without undue length, and aesthetic immersion with just the right doses of spice and production.
The game flows very smoothly between players. There are multiple actions that players can choose from, but they can only perform two each turn, so there isn’t a lot of downtime where players are left waiting for the action to get around to them. Also, the rotating turntable means that players must always adjust what they’re doing depending on where the steamers are located. That’s engaging, even if it’s not your turn.
Why You Might Not
While there is variability in the animal boards that players use to score Dim Sum, there isn’t a ton of depth that will be unlocked as you play the game more and more. It’s there from the beginning and what you see is what you get.
For a game that lasts 45-60 minutes, that likely won’t bother many players, but it will be something to consider if you’re hoping for a deeper strategy to emerge as you become familiar with the mechanics.
Final Thoughts
Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum charms the players with a beautiful dining experience that’s all about strategy rather than eating too much.
While it’s always exciting to see what gameplay add-ons are unlocked in a crowdfunding campaign, what’s already here works. The game has enough to sate the appetite of most players who are sitting down for an hour of gaming.
It’s fun. It’s light. It’s got that something special to distinguish it from the avalanche of games released each year now, and during a global pandemic when eating out is not a carefree option like it used to be, Steam Up serves a heaping helping of togetherness around the table.
And just as Table 168 in Steam Up offers up the promise and well wishes of continuous wealth to its patrons, the game itself offers up a promise—that you will forget about the world outside for a while while you sit down for a feast—of beautiful board game zen.
Congrats to Hot Banana Games for what they’ve achieved so far and I’m interested to see how the community supports and encourages them as the project pushes forward!
If you want to check out Steam Up, you can learn more about Hot Banana Games or read what the community thinks on BoardGameGeek.
A Feast of Dim Sum really lets you enjoy that roundtable experience of fighting over the delicious small plates on a table. If you like beautiful games with different aesthetics from what you normally see, then this is something special to check out.
Let us know in the comments and give a recommendation for other games of which to share our first impressions.