Board Game News

Game Preview: Saint Malo

I recall commenting on an earlier preview video that I was probably not going to create rule explanation videos because I wanted to focus on overviews and the general feeling that a game gives...

New Game Round-up: Alderac Welcomes Cheaty Mages, Love Letter Inspires Lost Legacy & White Moon Returns

• U.S. publisher Alderac Entertainment Group has had a huge hit in Seiji Kaini's Love Letter, and as noted in this March 21, 2013 BGGN post, AEG plans to release other "Japanese originals" on...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Galaxy Defenders, Chronos Conquest, Robotech RPG Tactics, Supremacy 2020 & Belfort: The Expansion Expansion

• Mere days after finishing a Kickstarter campaign for Eminent Domain: Escalation, U.S. publisher Tasty Minstrel Games is back on the crowdfunding circuit once again, this time with Belfort:...

New Game Round-up: A New Challenge for Space Cadets, Steam Still Chugging into New Lands & Indie Shadow Agents

• U.S. publisher Stronghold Games has passed along news that it will release Space Cadets: Dice Duel in 2013, with Stronghold's Stephen Buonocore saying it's "likely to have the game at Gen...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Guardians Chronicles, Town Center, The Resistance: Coup, Roll For It! & Romans Go Home!

• French publisher IELLO has launched its first Kickstarter campaign for Frédérick Condette's Guardians Chronicles, a superhero-themed one-against-many game that features miniatures and more...

Designer Diary: Romans Go Home! Kicking the Can Back Down the Road

In late 2011, my first two games – Hibernia and Cambria – were republished in lovely new editions by Sandstorm LLC. The games initially sold quite well, but unfortunately about three months...

Steve Jackson Games Reveals Results from 2012 and Plans for 2013 and Beyond

Steve Jackson released his annual stakeholder report for Steve Jackson Games in mid-April 2013, with the bottom line coming early in the report: "We were profitable in 2012, on the highest gross...

New Game Round-up: Flying Frog Offers More Fortune and Glory, More Factions to Smash Up & Yet Another New Look for Coup

Not a crimson hand in sight...• In addition to its Blood in the Forest expansion for Last Night on Earth, covered in this BGGN post, U.S. publisher Flying Frog Productions has also announced...

New Game Round-up: Spiel 2013 Previews from the Gathering, A New Look for Coup & Mike Elliott: Agent Hunter

• Having added Nürnberg and ACD Games Day to my 2013 convention coverage roster (NY Toy Fair, Gen Con, Spiel, BGG.CON), I'm missing out on Alan Moon's Gathering of Friends, an annual...

Martin Wallace Presents A Study in Emerald

Designer/publisher Martin Wallace has announced a new title through his Treefrog Games: A Study in Emerald, based on the Hugo Award-winning short story of the same name from Neil Gaiman. Funding...

New Game Round-up: Daybreak for Battlestar Galactica, Parks for Canterbury & Chronicles for The Liberty Patrol

• U.S. publisher Fantasy Flight Games has announced the third (and most likely last) expansion for its Battlestar Galactica board game: Battlestar Galactica: Daybreak Expansion, due out Q3...

Designer Diary: Cinque Terre, or Finally, Fruition!

THE CONCEPT: One of the simple game ideas that I had filed in a game idea folder in my early design days was called "Farmers Market". Looking back to this file from January 16, 2003, it...

ACD Games Day 2013 IV – Clubs, Killer Bunnies: Heroes vs. Villains, Pass the Pandas, Geek Out!, CrossWays & Tapple

Okay, here's the final group of videos that I recorded at ACD Games Day, which took place April 3-5, 2013 in Madison, Wisconsin. Believe it or not, I've still not finished posting videos from the...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Francis Drake, Creekos, Twin Tin Bots, Steam Noir: Revolution & Ultimate Mafia

• I posted about Peter Hawes' big box game Francis Drake in a new game round-up recently, and now co-publisher Eagle Games has set sail with a crowdfunding project for that title, with the goal...

Designer Diary: Salmon Run, or How to Make Salmon Run to a Pond Farr, Far Away

Salmon Run is my first game to be published and is one that I am particularly proud of. I believe it offers an effective fusion of a racing game with a path-dependent, deck-building mechanism...

ACD Games Day 2013 III – Legendary: Dark City, Triassic Terror, Salmon Run, Snake Oil & Roll For It!

Time for another round-up of game preview videos recorded at ACD Games Day 2013, which was held in early April. (Parts one and two also include a handful of videos that focus on particular...

New Game Round-up: More Titles Coming from Z-Man, How the Kingdom Is Enchanted in Seasons & Butterflies and Flowers Go Leelawadee

• Following on the heels of the Z-Man Games round-up on April 8 on BGGN, the publisher has now announced a couple of other items. First, the well-received Terra Mystica from designers Jens...

Game Preview: La Boca

In this video I explain how to play La Boca, from designers Inka and Markus Brand and German publisher Kosmos, with real-time examples and wild speculation as to what might be nominated for Spiel...

ACD Games Day 2013 II – Ultimate Werewolf: Inquisition, You Suck, Ascension: Rise of Vigil, Commander-in-Chief & Po-Rum-Bo

Okay, I'm back with round two of game preview videos recorded at ACD Games Day 2013, which was held in Madison, Wisconsin April 3-5, 2013.In my first round-up, I mentioned that Thursday was the...

Game Preview: AttrAction

In this video not only do I give an overview of and an explanation of how to play Jeff Glickman's AttrAction – which U.S. publisher R&R Games debuted at Spiel 2012 and released on the market in...

ACD Games Day 2013 I – Fluxx: The Board Game, IRONDIE, Krosmaster: Arena, Island Fortress & Game Salute

In early April 2013 I attended ACD Games Day 2013, organized and run by U.S. game distributor ACD Distribution.Why? After travel burnout from a whirlwind trip to Nürnberg, Germany at the end of...

New Game Round-up: Yedo Comes to France and the U.S., Anthony Rubbo: Renaissance Man & Sheep in Spaaaaaaaaace!

• Pandasaurus Games has announced that it will release Yedo from designers Thomas Vande Ginste and Wolf Plancke in the U.S., and while Pandasaurus' first three releases (reprints of Tammany...

Z-Man Games to Rerelease Black Spy and Babel; Targi and Blueprints Also Coming from Z-Man in 2013

• In an April 1, 2013 post about Ted Alspach's card game You Suck, I included this line: "At a game design conference years ago, Alan Moon told me that every designer has a trick-taking game...

PAX East 2013: The Board Games I

Hello, everyone!I had the chance to attend PAX East – which took place March 22-24, 2013 – and while I normally cover iOS game news on BGG, I also got to meet designers and publishers of...

Designer Diary: The Suit of Clubs Finally Gets Some Respect!

First there was Hearts, then there was Spades, and now we have Clubs!Clubs is a card game about taking calculated risks. The goal is very simple: Win as many club cards as possible. (That's the...

Links: Game-Related Fundraisers, Richard Garfield on Luck in Games & Designing for the Far, Far Future

• As a tribute to Todd Breitenstein, co-owner of publisher Twilight Creations and designer of Zombies!!! who died on March 24, 2013 due to complications from cancer, U.S. distributor ACD...

Crowdfunding Round-up: More Firefighting and More Domains, Exploring for Relics & Playing with General Custer

• In a March 16, 2013 crowdfunding round-up, I included a note at the end about the impending launch of a project by Indie Boards and Cards for Flash Point: Fire Rescue - Extreme Danger, a...

New Game Round-up: Update from Rio Grande Games, Zombies Raise a Leviathan & New Titles from Japan

• Passport Game Studios, the publishing imprint of U.S.-based GTS Distribution, has announced a deal with publisher 8th Summit in which it will have exclusive distribution rights to Richard...

Ted Alspach Invites Gamers to Say, You Suck

Designer/publisher Ted Alspach of Bézier Games would like to tell gamers the world over, "You suck".Oh, wait, I read that press release incorrectly. Let's try it again: Designer/publisher Ted...

Designer Diary: Of Airships and Trains and Those Kings of Air and Steam

Engineers and AirshipsUnsurprisingly, Kings of Air and Steam started with a love for pick-up-and-deliver and route-planning games. As an aspiring game designer, I was determined to design a game...