Board Game News

New (Sort Of) Game Round-up: Car Wars 2013, Consequential & String Railway

• Now that Spiel and BGG.CON are behind us, at least for a few months, I'm clearing out some of the messages and links and open tabs that I've let build up for months. One of the things that I...

Designers, Publishers and Others Speak at BGG.CON 2012 I – RARRR!!, Zoneplex, Castellan, Artisan Dice & Ticket to Ride: Heart of Africa

While BGG.CON 2012 – a huge game convention in Dallas, Texas hosted by this site that ran Nov. 14-18 and drew more than 2,100 attendees – was a playground of new games and new faces for most,...

Game Preview: Legendary

Hope I'm not too late to the party, seeing that Devin Low's Legendary from Upper Deck has been at the top of the Hotness for several days at the date that I'm posting this item, but here's an...

Statement by Radiant Gaming on Up Front

 D-Day Dice and Airborne In Your Pocket were both funded by Radiant Darkstar Productions LLC (operating as Radiant Gaming). Radiant Gaming was established solely for the purpose of bringing...

New Game Round-up: More Wonders for 7 Wonders, Axis & Allies Minus the Axis & The Falcon Breaks Free to Fly on Its Own?

• Belgian publisher Repos Production has released information and an image for the next 7 Wonders expansion from designer Antoine Bauza, the 7 Wonders: Wonder Pack. While the set is still in...

Designer Diary: Space Cadets, or Finding a Fun Way to Explode in Deep Space

In February 2011 Ryan Sturm and I launched the Ludology podcast. Ludology explores game design topics, and a series of the earliest episodes focused on narrative arc and the way that it is...

Spiel 2012: Interviews from the Messe Floor II – Cosmic Empires, Fallen City of Karez, Di Renjie, Food Chain & Die Dunkle Prophezeiung

• At some point in the Spiel 2012 coverage, BGG's Scott Alden made a comment about how cool Spiel is because anyone can rent a booth to show off their creation and see how the public responds...

Links: Board Games in Mainstream Media, Giant Letters in a Stadium & Beer in a Lecturer

• The history of Monopoly might not be a surprise to BGGers, but for those who aren't aware of the game's predecessor – Elizabeth Magie's The Landlord's Game – or how Henry George's...

Spiel 2012: Interviews from the Messe Floor I – I Am Vlad, La Loire, Desperados, Coup, Luudoo & Cirplexed!

In addition to recording more than two hundred game demos at the BoardGameGeek stand during Spiel 2012, we recorded another forty or so game demos elsewhere during the con, mostly at the booths...

Designer Diary: The Long Road from Prison Break to Penguin Panic, or How to Re-theme a Game Design

In this designer diary I'll take you, the reader, through one of the common aspects of game design: The Re-Theme. Penguin Panic: The Great Icescape, my second published design, was published by...

Designer Diary: Guildhall

The goal behind Guildhall was to make a small and simple card game with "brain works", something similar to 6 nimmt! by Wolfgang Kramer or No Thanks! by Thorsten Gimmler, which are more...

New Game Round-up: A Handful of Games from Rio Grande, Bohnanza Turns 15 & Burgess Enters Publishing Babylon

• To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Uwe Rosenberg's Bohnanza, German publisher AMIGO Spiel commissioned fifteen artists – including Doris Matthäus, Klemens Franz and Franz Vohwinkel –...

Links: Zobmondo Loses in Court, Stone Age Wins in the Netherlands & D20 Dice Tie for Oldest in the World

• In a Nov. 7, 2012 press release, publisher Spin Master Ltd. notes that "a Los Angeles jury unanimously found yesterday that Zobmondo!! Entertainment LLC and its owner Randall Horn...

Publisher Diary: Spiel 2012 – An Insider’s Report

Hi! I am Eric Hanuise from Flatlined Games and 2012 was our second year of attendance at Spiel. Following Spiel 2011 I provided a report on the fair from an exhibitor's point of view and it was...

News from Italy: Best of Show from Lucca, and a Spiel 2012 recap

Here's my November news about what's going on in Italy. Lucca Comics & Games – an annual comic book and gaming convention in Lucca, Italy – is over, and gamers and publishers are already...

Interview with Bernd Brunnhofer from Hans im Glück

Bernd Brunnhofer with Spiel des Jahres winner Dominion (Image: Geert VG)Piotr Siłka: How and why did you decide to be a publisher of board games?Bernd Brunnhofer: At the time I worked in the...

New Game Round-up: Crysis at Queen, Frenemies at Mayfair & Replacement Parts from the Czech Republic

• German publisher Queen Games already seemed headed in a different direction with the announcement of Lost Legends in October 2012. A straight-up fantasy design from a publisher that's...

Designer Diary: Hooyah Gonna Call? Navy SEALs!

I was very excited when U.S. Games Systems, Inc. asked me to design a game based on the Navy SEALs. Right away I knew this was my first chance to design a cooperative game. I had been playing...

Links: David Megarry on Dungeon, Pierô on Why You Shouldn't Illustrate Games & Faidutti on Common Beliefs about Games

 • Wizards of the Coast has posted an interview with the original designer of Dungeon!, David R. Megarry. An excerpt:Quote:I assume that the earliest playtests of the game were done with...

New Game Round-up: Terra Mystica Coming to U.S. and Canada, Timeline Keeps Growing & a New Dot Box Drops

• Terra Mystica from designers Jens Drögemüller and Helge Ostertag and new publisher Feuerland Spiele had tons of people buzzing about it at Spiel 2012, and new editions of the game will be...

Designer Diary: Lost Legends, or Finding the Lost

I have spent most of my professional life in the shadows – but not in the brooding vampire way that would be cool. No, it has been more of the shadows where you find a pen you lost the year...

Links: Deciphering Feedback from Playtesters, Why Spiel Is (or Isn't) Important & Too Much Game Knowledge?

• Dennis at Bellwether Games has posted another of his monthly interviews with designers of independent games, with Scallywags' Chevee Dodd being the interview subject this time. An...

Designer Diary: Keeping the Sacred Cows While Slaughtering the Rest, or Redesigning Wits & Wagers from the Ground Up

In the Beginning...Wits & Wagers Party is a simple game with a dark and stormy past. The saga begins in 2004 when Wits & Wagers was still a prototype drawn by hand.My business partner and I had...

Exhibitors at BGG.CON 2012 & a General Update for BGG News

With BGG.CON 2012 starting in just over a week, I've compiled a GeekList that highlights some of the exhibitors that will be at the convention and the games that they will be demoing and selling....

Spiel 2012: Designers and Publishers in the BGG Booth III - WizKids and Days of Wonder

Let's continue with the game demonstrations recorded at the BGG stand at Spiel 2012, kicking off with what's surely one of the most anticipated games due out before the end of 2012 – Mage...

Spiel 2012: Designers and Publishers in the BGG Booth II - Japon Brand I

I was floating around the floor of Spiel 2012 for most of the show – getting game demos at publisher stands and elsewhere, and picking up news bits and germs in roughly equal measure – but I...

Spiel 2012: Designers and Publishers in the BGG Booth I – 2F-Spiele, Yemaia, ABACUS & Spartacus

Aldie has already processed and chopped up much of the video featuring the designers and publishers who demonstrated their games live in the BoardGameGeek booth at Spiel 2012, held October 18-21,...

Designer Diary: Kalua, from the Tundra of Self-Publication to the Tropical Lands of Professional Editing

I was visiting my wife's family in Harbin, China, near the border of Siberia, "enjoying" being at -35ºC (-31ºF) for the first time in my life and longing for warmer temperatures. That said, I...

Spiel 2012: Notes from the Messe and Elsewhere

• Looking for a personalized and slightly weird gift for the gamer in your life? Check out the German company Luudoo, which can insert images into customized versions of Carcassonne, Halali!,...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Martin Wallace Invades Kickstarter, Lupin and Ta-Te Wu Return & Clowdus Offers a Trio of Small Boxes

• After fundraising successes with Omen and Tooth & Nail, designer John Clowdus at Small Box Games has upped the ante for his latest Kickstarter project, offering three different card game...