Board Game News

New Game Round-up: True Blood Makes Night Eternal, Darkness Unleashed Uncovered & Acting Out The Phantom of the Opera

• U.S. publisher Cryptozoic Entertainment has a huge line-up of titles coming in 2013, as covered in this March 2013 BGGN item, and now it's attached a release date and official name for Night...

New Game Round-up: From Mr. Jack to Phantom of the Opera, From the Heartland to The Land of Citrus & From More Buildings to Even More Buildings

• And the Spiel 2013 information keeps coming, with German publisher dlp games, owned by Reiner Stockhausen, releasing a new tile-laying game this October from designer Jeffrey D. Allers with...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Blocky Mountains, Cave Evil, Abeja Reina, Chex, Gettysburg: The Tide Turns & I Am Zombie

• I have no problem with publishers that use crowdfunding projects to take preorders, to market a game, or to test the waters ahead of time to estimate the size of a production run – but when...

New Game Round-up: Logic in Vienna, Witches in Hearts, Treasure in a Castle & Pandemic: In the Lab

• German publisher Clicker Spiele, owned by designer Stephan Riedel, will have one new title at Spiel 2013 in October – Wiener Melange – with Riedel once again asking players to use logic...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Ortus, Scopa, Theomachie, 21 Mutinies, Wrong Chemistry: Expand Your Lab & More

• Dutch designer Joost Das has an uphill climb on Kickstarter with his two-player abstract strategy game Ortus from FableSmith. (KS link) After all, it's tough to sell such a game on theme as...

New Game Round-up: FFG Invites You to Get Blood Bound, Cryptozoic Readies Two Towers & Bézier Prepares the Next Stage of Suburbia

• U.S. publisher Fantasy Flight Games has announce the Q4 2013 release of Blood Bound from designer Kalle Krenzer. Here's an overview of the game:Quote:In Blood Bound, a deduction game played...

Crowdfunding Round-Up: Coffee, Ninjas, Quantum Physics, and Evolution – or a Regular Thursday Night at W. Eric Martin's House

Whoa!! A little late this month with my write-up... It's almost as if it were con season!!! CONNNNNNNNNNN. With W. Eric busy writing unimportant drudge about upcoming game releases NOT on...

New Game Round-up: Knizia and Bleasdale Bring Prosperity to Ystari, Bauza Introduces Babel to 7 Wonders & Maggi and Nepitello Relive Venetian History

• French publisher Ystari Games already has buzz building around William Attia's Spyrium, this design being Attia's most involved since he blew open the door with Caylus in 2005 – but that...

Spiel 2013 Preview – It Begins...

With the announcement of the 2013 Spiel des Jahres award behind us, let's look to the future – specifically to the titles that will greet attendees of Spiel 2013, the annual game convention...

New Game Round-up: Fantasy Flight Tells Winter Tales, Ghenos Sets Sheep A-racing & Bombyx Lines Up the Trains

• U.S. publisher Fantasy Flight Games has announced that it's picked up Winter Tales, which Italian publisher Albe Pavo debuted at Spiel 2012, for a Q4 2013 release in the U.S. Co-designer...

Hanabi Wins the 2013 Spiel des Jahres; Legends of Andor Claims Kennerspiel des Jahres

In a shocker of sorts, Antoine Bauza's small card game Hanabi from ABACUSSPIELE has won the 2013 Spiel des Jahres award, Germany's "game of the year" award, while the Kennerspiel des Jahres has...

There Can Be Only One! (#2) - Spiel and Kennerspiel des Jahres

Poll What game will win 2013 Spiel des Jahres?  Choices Your Answer  Bars Vote Percent Vote Count Rise of Augustus 42.4% 745 Hanabi 51.5% 905 Qwixx 6.1% 107 Voters 1757 What game will...

New Game Round-up: Neuroshima Hex! 3.0, Ricochet Robots, Adventure Time: Card Wars & No Uruk II

• Z-Man Games and Portal Games have announced a new edition of Michał Oracz's Neuroshima Hex!, with Neuroshima Hex! 3.0 debuting at the Gen Con 2013 convention in August. While the...

Gen Con 2013 Preview – Live and Lean

Although I still have much to add to the Gen Con 2013 Preview – and thanks to all the publishers and designers who have sent me their game info! – I've published the Preview and invite your...

New Game Round-up: Spiel 2013 – Quickie Auctions and Orcish Shamans

• U.S. publisher Stronghold Games has revealed another of its Spiel 2013 releases: Going, Going, GONE! from designer Scott Nicholson, which will be available through regular retail outlets in...

Convention Previews Coming for Gen Con 2013 and Spiel 2013

After time on the road for Origins 2013 – and a final wrap-up report of that convention is still on the docket – and more time on the road for a quasi-vacation (i.e., time out of the house...

Designer Diary: Creating Games in Time 'n' Space

The idea of Time 'n' Space dates back to 2003. In this ancient world (in terms of the Internet) I was interested in all forms of new, unpublished game mechanisms. Sand timers in games were mainly...

New Game Round-up: Battling on Theseus, Building on the Glass Road, Munching with Futterneid & Escaping a Gravity Well

• Polish publisher Portal Games unveils one big release each year at the Spiel game convention in Essen, Germany, and for 2013 that game is Theseus from Neuroshima Hex! designer Michał Oracz....

Links: Co-operative Designs, Small-Scale Card Production & Games for Dates

• Designers Dave Chalker and Daniel Solis have both blogged about their publishing experience with DriveThruCards, a branch of OneBookShelf that allows designers to directly sell print-and-play...

New Game Round-up: Piecing Together the Past in Patchistory, Pearl Games Visits Bruxelles & Rats and Flags in the U.S.

• Since its debut in 2010 with Cupeed, Korean publisher Deinko Games has released somewhat light, mostly family friendly games, but in August 2013 it will release Patchistory, a big strategy...

New Game Round-up: Pigeons, Builders, Witches and Chupacabra – Three More Releases for Spiel 2013 & One for Other Days

• German publisher franjos Spieleverlag will release a new edition of Günter Burkhardt's Spiel des Jahres recommended Kupferkessel Co. in October 2013 in time for the annual Spiel convention...

New Game Round-up: Dungeon Twister: The Card Game, The Capitals & White Goblin Games' Late 2013 Line-up

• Designer Christophe Boelinger has been twisting his most famous creation in new directions, and in August 2013 he plans to release Dungeon Twister: The Card Game in the U.S. and Europe, with...

There Can Be Only One! (#1) - Favorite Stefan Feld Game

Eric, I'm guest posting on the blog for a semi-regular series called "There Can Be Only One!" - and since I've been on a Stefan Feld kick lately, I thought I'd start it off with him.So here's the...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Wok Star, Paperback, City Hall, Alliances, Mayday!Mayday! & Much More

• Tim Fowers' Wok Star debuted at the 2010 Origins Game Fair and sold out its first print run immediately. Users asked about a new edition, and asked, and asked, then Z-Man Games announced it...

New Game Round-up for Spiel 2013: Cyclades Meets Kemet, Rolling for Your CV & Kosmos' Line-up for Late 2013

• "Hey, you've got Cyclades in my Kemet!" At the Paris est Ludique game fair taking place June 22-23, 2013, French publisher Matagot is unveiling a Kemet/Cyclades crossover that makes seven...

New Game Round-up: Munchkin Legends, A Quartet of Games from AEG & The Start of the Spiel 2013 Deluge

• As noted in an April 2013 news item, U.S. publisher Steve Jackson Games has had good results placing Munchkin in the Target retail chain in the U.S., noting in its annual stakeholder report...

Game Previews at Origins 2013 III: Wizard's Brew, Karesansui, Mythic Battles: Expansion 1, Dwarven Miner & In the City: Origins

• Time for the final video round-up from the 2013 Origins Game Fair. Well, probably the final one – as I mentioned earlier, I had audio trouble with a number of the videos I recorded,...

Links: Nominees for the 2013 Diana Jones Award, Winners of the 2013 Origins Awards & Loss Aversion in Games

• The shortlist for the 2013 Diana Jones Award, an "annual award created to publicly acknowledge excellence in gaming", has been announced, and it contains the usual mix of things that one...

Days of Wonder Invites Relic Runners to the Table

U.S./French publisher Days of Wonder has been teasing a new release on its Facebook page for several days, dropping one image after another with little clue as to what the game in question might...

Game Previews at Origins 2013 II: Galaxy Trucker Expansion, Legendary: Dark City, Impulse & Kaosball

• At Origins 2013, I met with Czech Games Edition's Petr Murmak after hours at his hotel to check out the new Galaxy Trucker expansion that will debut at Spiel 2013 in October. While this...