Board Game News

Game Preview: River Dragons, and a Summary of How to Play

In late 2012, French publisher Matagot released Roberto Fraga's River Dragons, a new version of his Dragon Delta, which was originally published in 2000 by Eurogames. A lot has changed in the...

Nürnberg 2013: You Can't Spell Nürnberg Without Newark...

I'm in the midst of traveling to Spielwarenmesse 2013, the toy and game fair held annually in Nürnberg, Germany, and while my schedule is mostly full – 33 appointments to film game...

New Game Round-up: Join Unseen Forces in Elder Sign, Fight Sneaky Vampires in Nosferatu & Froghop Your Way to Gold am Orinoko

• Thorsten Gimmler at German publisher Schmidt Spiele has posted a pic of the player figures from Die vergessene Stadt, the German-language edition of Matt Leacock's Forbidden Desert and they,...

New Game Round-up: Queen Games at Nürnberg 2013 and Beyond

• German publisher Queen Games has passed along basic information about both the titles it will feature at Spielwarenmesse – the toy and game fair in Nürnberg, Germany, for which I have been...

Developer's Diary: Pandemic Revised

For the new edition of Pandemic due out in February 2013, I was asked to design two new roles and rewrite the rules, while Z-Man Games and Pandemic designer Matt Leacock concentrated on the new...

New Game Round-up: Flicking and Drawing with Cubes, Lining Up Your Marbles & Dressing a Lady Just Right

• French publisher Libellud first started to publish info on Loïc Lamy's Ladies & Gentlemen in early 2012, and while few details were known at the time, I knew the game had asymmetric teams...

New Game Round-up: Three More at Nürnberg 2013 – Lookout's Bremerhaven, Paolo Mori's Augustus & Attia and Ystari Together Again

• German publisher Lookout Games has passed along details of a mid-2013 release: Robert Auerochs' Bremerhaven, which has a playing time of 45-120 minutes, a player range of 1-4, and artwork by...

News from Italy: C.O.A.L. from Dast@Work, ILSA, and PLAY: The Games Festival

Italian publisher Dast@Work has announced a new game from Stefano Castelli that will be released in time for PLAY: The Games Festival, which will be held April 6-7, 2013 in Modena, Italy, home of...

New Game Round-up: Miniature Gaming Wunderland, Whitechapel Returns & German Dominion Guilds?

• German publisher Pegasus Spiele has announced a new family game from designer Dirk Hillebrecht, one that transforms Miniatur Wunderland – a theme park of sorts in Hamburg, Germany – into...

Wallace Returns to Discworld with The Witches

Designer/publisher Martin Wallace has announced the September 2013 release of The Witches: A Discworld Game, the second of three games by Wallace set in Terry Pratchett's Discworld, the first...

New Game Round-up: Firefly Lands at Toy Vault, Dorn Heads Back to Africa & Portal Resurrects the Undead

• I added Asante to the Nürnberg 2013 Preview in early January, but now both Kosmos, the publisher, and Rüdiger Dorn, the designer, have released more details on the game, so I've updated the...

Which Monopoly Token Will Be Banished in 2013? What Will Replace It: The Pencil Shavings or the Half-Eaten Donut?

In 2013, U.S. game publisher Hasbro announced a competition of sorts in which player votes will determine which token in the current edition of Monopoly will be banished from the game forever –...

New Game Round-up: Yet More Feld in 2013, A New Expedition from Kramer, Rossi's Road Rally & Steding's Five Points

• Don't have enough Stefan Feld designs coming your way in 2013, despite alea's Bora Bora and Pegasus Spiele's Rialto being on the release calendar? Well, you're in luck as German publisher...

New Game Round-up: A Quartet from Kosmos – Ubongo Dice, Ubongo-Ish, Memo Non-Ubongo & Name That Tune, Star Wars Style

• German publisher Kosmos's line-up for Nürnberg 2013 is pretty much complete in the BGG database and the Nürnberg 2013 Preview, so I thought I'd highlight a few titles that haven't already...

New Game Round-up: More from Nürnberg 2013 – Devils and Magicians, Racers and Rumpelriesen

• The Nürnberg 2013 news continues, with games both big and small, for both young and old. In the shared category of small and young is the dice racing game Super Race from Dietmar Bockelmann...

New Game Round-up: Goblin Wrestlers, Werewolf Urban Legends & Bejeweled Games

• U.S. publisher Privateer Press has announced a fourth title in its line of Bodgers card games, the new title being BodgerMania, which is themed around goblin wrestling. The short...

New Game Round-up: Greetings from the Gruumsh, Wolf-Stacking Made Simple & Those Teasing French

• U.S. publisher Gryphon Games has picked up the fast-playing pair of games Pick-a-Dog and Pick-a-Pig from Hong Kong publisher Jolly Thinkers and plans to release the games in the U.S. in 2013,...

Pandemic Gets an Overhaul for Its Fifth Anniversary

For the fifth anniversary of Matt Leacock's Pandemic, U.S. publisher Z-Man Games has overhauled the look of the game from cover to core, with Clash of Cultures artist Chris Quilliams providing...

Designer Diary: Hegemonic, or Reimagining the 4X/Sci-Fi Empire Genre from Sketchbook to Publication

The Short VersionI've always enjoyed tinkering with and designing games. In the summer of 2010 I started designing a space empire game called Hegemonic, inspired in part by the many sci-fi...

New Game Round-up: Nürnberg 2013 Offerings from HUCH! & friends and ABACUSSPIELE

• German publisher HUCH! & friends has released information on what it plans to show at Spielwarenmesse, the toy and game fair held each year in Nürnberg, Germany. I'm still adding and...

Designer Diary: Copycat, or How to Design a Broken Game?!

Copycat is the third game in the Friday-Project. I work only on Fridays on these games and blog all details, so it is kind of easy to track what I have done when. In this designer's diary I want...

New Game Round-up: Expansions for Seasons and Village, Space Dealer Returns & How to Play Ghooost!

• More info on titles to be shown at Nürnberg 2013 is rolling in. For example, I've updated the game description for Richard Garfield's Ghooost! based on a write-up I received from the...

Designer Diary: Questor – Fantasy Dungeon Exploration for All Ages

Néstor Romeral Andrés recently approached me about developing a game to be included with the launch titles of his new nestorbooster service, a Kickstarter-like tool for gamers to pre-order...

A Few Details on Matt Leacock's Forbidden Desert

• While German publisher Schmidt Spiele spilled the beans a bit with word of Die vergessene Stadt, a sequel to Matt Leacock's Forbidden Island, being due out in March/April 2013 – as noted in...

New Game Round-up: Stalking Nürnberg 2013, Getting Potzblitzed, Searching for Primo Kramer & Transforming 6 Nimmt

• With 2013 now underway, I've started to assemble a convention preview for Spielwarenmesse – the International Toy Fair in Nürnberg, Germany at which publishers show off their wares for the...

Amigo Spiel's Line-up for Early 2013

The International Toy Fair in Nürnberg, Germany – a.k.a., Spielwarenmesse – takes place January 30-February 4, 2013, and companies are starting to unveil what they'll have on display at this...

New Game Round-up: New Prisoners for Alcatraz, Cows on Skis & 2012 Titles Still in the Pipeline

• With the calendar rolling over to 2013, let's look at a list of titles previously announced as December 2012 releases in the U.S., whether from the publisher or U.S. distributors. This list...

Links: Small Box Plans, Worthington Gives, Tagmire Advises & Museum Workers Play

• Designer/publisher John Clowdus of Small Box Games has posted an overview of the role Kickstarter played in the success of his company in 2012 and why SBG will continue to use Kickstarter in...

New Game Round-up: Lords of Middle-earth Goes Upscale, The Return of Catan Geographies & Catching Fire Three Times

• Italian publisher Ares Games has announced a special, limited edition of its Lords of Middle-earth expansion for the second edition of War of the Ring; this expansion debuted in November...

New Game Round-up: A Revolution in Steam Noir, Alcatraz Goes to Spain & Gaming with The Little Prince

• Daniel Danzer has been detailing the origin and development of Steam Noir: Revolution – a card game based on the German steampunk graphic novel series of the same name – on a BGG-based...