Board Game News

Videos from Gen Con 2014: Shadows of Brimstone, Dark Gothic, Alien Uprising, Spurs & Clockwork Kingdom

• Let's get to another handful of game demonstrations in the BGG booth during Gen Con 2014, starting with the giant boxes of Shadows of Brimstone: City of the Ancients and Shadows of Brimstone:...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Pack O Game, Monster Deck 55, Sovereignty of Dust, Slap .45 & Much More

  Has a month really passed since I last wrote one of these? Indeed it has, but everything has been Gen Con, Gen Con, Gen Con the past few weeks with news about Spiel now starting to...

Flashback Convention Report - Spiel 2004

Continuing with our Spiel flashbacks - Rick Thornquist has graciously allowed us to repost his report in its entirety from 2004. Thank you Rick for allowing everyone to share in the history of...

New Game Round-up: Looking to 2015 – Chunky Fighters, Zero Day & Mucho Munchkin

• While I'm mostly focused these days on what will be on hand at Spiel 2014 (and consequently in stores in the final months of 2014), publishers are already working on titles for 2015 and...

Videos from Gen Con 2014: Golem Arcana, Panamax, Diamonds, Among the Stars & Space Cadets: Dice Duel – Die Fighter

• One of the most anticipated releases of Gen Con 2014 was Harebrained Schemes' Golem Arcana, a digitally enhanced miniatures board game, and the publisher didn't disappoint in terms of...

Videos from Gen Con 2014: Asmodee — Hyperborea, Lords of Xidit, Unita, Colt Express & Timeline: American History/Americana

• Andrea Chiarvesio and Pierluca Zizzi's Hyperborea, which I first saw in early 2013 in a different version at Spielwarenmesse, carried a big price tag at Gen Con 2014, but it also carried away...

Links: Nominees for the 2014 IGA, Belfort Wins a Geekie & Superfly Gen Con Coverage

• Nominees for the 2014 International Gamers Awards have been announced, with separate nominee lists being published for multiplayer and two-player games. (Disclosure: I remain a member of the...

Flashback Convention Report - Spiel 2003

I recently read about Rick Thornquist's creation of Terminal City Gamers' website and The Game Wire in Counter Magazine, which was eventually to become the Board Game News blog that was taken...

Videos from Gen Con 2014: Greenland, Worlds War One, Bravest Warriors, NHL Power Play & The Walking Dead "Don't Look Back" Dice Game

• Sometimes you luck out in being able to record a game demonstration that would never have been on your radar if circumstances hadn't fallen in your lap. Such is the case with this video...

Asmodee Buys Days of Wonder

Asmodee and Days of Wonder have announced a "merger of Days of Wonder into the Asmodee Group of game companies", which is shorthand for Asmodee buying Days of Wonder. No purchase price was...

Videos from Gen Con 2014: IELLO – King of New York, Night of the Grand Octopus, The Hare & The Tortoise, Zombie Kidz & Zombie 15'

Has it already been a week since Gen Con 2014 ended? Hard to believe that time is flying so quickly, but Aldie has been working quickly as well, chopping four days of livestreamed game...

Game Preview: Castles of Mad King Ludwig, or Stepping Up from Suburbia

Ted Alspach of Bézier Games has been demoing his Castles of Mad King Ludwig for months, including a stint at Gen Con 2014 in mid-August. With that con now in the past and Spiel 2014 less than...

New Game Round-up: Spiel 2014 – Realm of Wonder, Bucket King 3D, Pick-a-Seal, Black&White, Amber Route & Medieval Battle

• Another day, another handful of titles that gamers can expect to find at Spiel 2014 in October — and who knows? Possibly also at other locations that sell games. It's been known to happen...

New Game Round-up: Deinko Games – 7 Kingdoms, DoReMi, Food Chain & Magic Cat

• In 2013, Korean publisher Deinko Games caused a stir with Patchistory, which is slowly making its way toward a second edition in many different languages. For Spiel 2014 in October, Deinko...

New Game Round-up: Spiel 2014 – Massilia, Find..., The Golden Ages & 15 Dias: The *Spanish* Golden Age

• Dutch publisher Quined Games has released an overview of its late 2014 releases, so you can likely expect to find them at Spiel 2014 in October, if you don't happen to be passing through The...

Gen Con 2014: Asmodee Play Mania III — Korrigans, Inis, Room 25: Season 2, Sun Tzu & Zombies vs. Cheerleaders

• French publisher Matagot had five games on display at Asmodee's Play Mania event during Gen Con 2014, one of which is still in the works for 2015 while the others are mostly intended for...

Gen Con 2014: Rio Grande Games — Roll for the Galaxy, Temporum, Pressure Cooker & No Rattlebones

• As was the case at Gen Con 2013 and Origins 2014, Rio Grande Games didn't have a stand in the exhibitor hall at Gen Con 2014; instead it let another company sell its wares while it rented an...

Gen Con 2014: Asmodee Play Mania II — Witness and Colt Express

Here's another pair of titles on display at the Asmodee Play Mania press event during Gen Con 2014, with both them due out in time for Spiel 2014 in October. Since fifteen or so games were being...

New Game Round-up: Korea Boardgames — Abraca... what?, Coconuts Duo, King's Pouch, Grand Slam, Heroes of the Three Kingdoms & Boom: Runaway Bombs

  With Gen Con 2014 in the books — other than processing the 100+ game demo videos we recorded at the show, writing up previews of the forthcoming games seen there, and digesting all of...

Gen Con 2014: Asmodee Play Mania I — 7 Wonders: Babel, Mascarade Expansion and Nations: The Dice Game

As it did at Gen Con 2013, publisher/distributor Asmodee hosted a "Play Mania" event off-site for the press to preview titles forthcoming in late 2014 and 2015. Since many of these titles are not...

Gen Con 2014 Preview: XCOM: The Board Game

We're recording one hundred or so game demo videos at Gen Con 2014, streaming those demos live, then cutting up the feed later to post individual demos on game pages — but given the incredible...

News from Gen Con 2014: Fire & Axe and Wildcatters Coming from IDW/Pandasaurus in 2015

On the opening day of Gen Con 2014, co-publishers IDW Games and Pandasaurus Games have announced two forthcoming releases for 2015, with the biggie being a new edition of Fire & Axe: A Viking...

Game Preview: King of New York, or First We Take Manhattan

Richard Garfield's King of Tokyo came out in 2011, and in just a few years it's been released in multiple languages around the world and now shows up in mainstream retail U.S. outlets like Barnes...

New Game Round-up: Spiel 2014 – Merchants Come to Keyflower, Samurai Walk in Takamatsu & Monkeys Fling More Coconuts

• With Gen Con 2014 opening August 14 — which is today should you be reading this within the proper segment of time — let's look to the future, specifically to games due out at or just...

New Game Round-up: Gears Turn in Munchkin Steampunk, Rondels Spin in Empire Engine & Dice Perambulate in Rolling Japan

• With 50+ tabs open on my browser and me headed to Gen Con 2014 in a few hours, it's time to clear out some of the news tidbits that have been piling up while I do other things. Before that,...

Illustrator Diary: The Battle at Kemble's Cascade

I'm a video gamer. Yes, I love and play lots of board games, but my gaming heart truly beats for video games. I've been playing them for almost thirty years now. I wouldn't say I spent most of my...

Game Preview: Ca$h 'n Guns, or Reservoir Dogs: Director's Cut

At Gen Con 2014, Asmodee will debut the second edition of Ludovic Maublanc's Ca$h 'n Guns, published by Repos Production. I interviewed Repos' Thomas Provoost about the game in February 2014 at...

New Game Round-up: Combat in Space with Star Wars: Armada and on the Water with World of Yo-Ho

• The weekend before Gen Con typically sees a few flashy announcements from Fantasy Flight Games about what people can see at the con, and hot on the heels of XCOM: The Board Game — covered...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Fidelitas, More Compounded, Musée, Clockwork Wars & Lift Off!

Thank God for Kickstarter. If it weren't for kickstarter, the gaming world might have missed out on an expansion to the top 50 and massively popular The Resistance, an expansion to the top 200...

Designer Diary: Zeppelin Attack, or The Balloon Goes Up!

Somewhat to my surprise, on the morning of January 12, 2012, I opened an email from Fred Hicks of Evil Hat Productions, the subject line of which read, "You're the next contestant on Game...