• Speaking of Rosenberg, when you hear that Lookout Games has a beefy title in the offing, you expect to see his name on the box, but The Colonists is the work of first-time designer Tim Puls, who has created a widely variable design that accommodates 1-4 players who play 1-4 ages, giving a huge playing time range of 30-240 minutes. As for what the game is about, players are each mayor of a village, and you want to attract new farmers to your land, educate people, and provide full employment for everyone under your responsibility.
• The Quined Games booth at SPIEL 2016 was filled with pizza boxes! Not because they were noshing throughout the fair, no, but rather to celebrate the release of Fabrice Vandenbogaerde's Papà Paolo, which challenges players to build their own little section of Naples to which they can deliver pizza.
• Designer Shadi Torbey was at SPIEL 2016 to present the newest title in his Oniverse series — Nautilion from Z-Man Games — and as he explained in his designer diary about the game, he intentionally started with the idea of using a roll-and-move mechanism for this design. Here, he explains how it works.
• This is not a game overview so much as a Kickstarter teaser, which is a bit of a shame, but we booked a spot for Vital Lacerda's Lisboa from Eagle-Gryphon Games in our schedule because we knew folks would want to see it if given the chance, so here's what we have to show...