Board Game News

New Game Round-up: Worlds Collide in Consequential, Cutthroat Goes Digital & Even More Games at Gen Con

• Chris Cieslik at U.S. publisher Asmadi Games has announced a new game titled Consequential co-designed by him and Carl Chudyk that will be released in Q2 2013. Cieslik will have the game in...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Manhattan Re-Projected, Shadowfist Replayed & Locomotive Works Reworked

• U.S. publisher Minion Games isn't satisfied with letting atom bomb research remain a thing of the past, so it plans to publish The Manhattan Project: Mega Expansion from designers Eric Jome...

New Game Round-up: Spartacus Moves from TV to Games, Rio Grande Releases for 2012 and Beyond & Rules for Star Wars: X-Wing

• U.S. manufacturer Gale Force Nine, which has mostly produced miniature accessories, will release the board game Spartacus: A Game of Blood & Treachery in September 2012 after demoing it at...

Designer Diary: Battle Beyond Space, or How to Publish a Game in Only 15 Years

Battle Beyond Space is a very short (30-60 minutes, tops) battle game involving lots of spaceships (twenty per player) blowing each other up. The game has no diplomacy, can be taught in well...

New Game Round-up: Martin Wallace P.I., City-Building in Clash of Cultures & Uwe Rosenberg on Le Havre: Der Binnenhafen

• Designer Martin Wallace has passed along information about his next release from Treefrog Games – P.I., which he describes as "by far the simplest game Treefrog has ever released, so it...

New Game Round-up: Fluxx at Target, Trajan in the U.S., Zombicide in the Mail & Blockers in the Offing

• Publisher Looney Labs has announced a distribution deal with Target in which that U.S. nationwide retail chain will sell a special edition of Fluxx, which has sold almost one million copies...

Designer diary: Fallen City of Karez, or The Wizards that Broke My Heart

I started designing games when I was eight years old. One of my earliest game designs was a western-themed shootout between cowboys and the sheriff. In the 1980s it was not such an appealing...

New Game Round-up: Phil Eklund in Mexico, A Bigger Town Center & Previews of Dark Ages and 3012

• With Dominion: Dark Ages due to debut at Gen Con in mid-August 2012, designer Donald X. Vaccarino has started to preview a few cards from the set, starting with Graverobber, Poor House and...

New Game Round-up: Resistance in Arthurian Times, Luna Reappears & World Conquering Army Sticks

• German publisher H@ll Games will reprint and rerelease Stefan Feld's Luna in October 2012, with the game appearing in a bilingual English/German edition that Pegasus Spiele will then...

New Game Round-up: Three More Titles from White Goblin, More Werewolves in Miller's Hollow & Andor (Somewhat) Revealed

• Dutch publisher White Goblin Games has been unveiling one new game on its Spiel 2012 release schedule each day on Facebook, and here are the latest three (!) games revealed by WGG, starting...

Designer Diary: Dungeon Fighter, the Combat Party Game that Originated via Partying

The first draft of the idea that later became Dungeon Fighter came when we were frequenting university during a high-booze night, thanks to a splendid target and some darts flying around.Us being...

Links: Kickstarter Boots – Then Brings Back – Bulk Sales & More

• In a late July 2012 BGGN post about a Kickstarter project for Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot – Deluxe Edition, I noted that "Kickstarter apparently no longer allows for...

New Game Round-up: Previews at Gen Con, Trick-Taking World Domination & Dominic Crapuchettes Wants to Club You

• Designer Wolfgang Lüdtke, who is also an editor at German publisher Kosmos, mentioned on BGG that an English-language edition of Michael Menzel's Die Legenden von Andor will be available at...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Parachuting into Europe, Hauling Goods in Mid-America & Leveling Up Online

• Learning from the sucess of its Kickstarter project for Emmanuel Aquin's D-Day Dice, Canadian publisher Valley Games has unveiled a huge KS project for Aquin's Airborne In Your Pocket,...

New Game Round-up: Ares Games at Gen Con 2012, Guards Returning to Discworld & Humans Fight Vampires Once Again

• Leonard Boyd and David Brashaw, designers of the 2011 release Guards! Guards! A Discworld Boardgame from Z-Man Games, are releasing a second edition of the game through their own Backspindle...

Designer Diary: The Great Heartland Hauling Co.

History of a Wanna-Be TruckerLooking at the history of my fascination with games goes all the way back to the front porch of the house my grandfather built near Flint, Michigan, a city known...

Links: Making Professional Prototypes, Playing Small World for Days & Getting Good Grammar in Game Rules

• Eric Franklin, Asmodee demo monkey, writes about how he prepares to demo games at Gen Con. (I'll mention in passing that I've spent the past couple of days pushing publishers for updates to...

New Game Round-up: Get Bit Tin Kit, More Quarriors from WizKids & a Double Bang! from dV Giochi

• Dutch publisher White Goblin Games has announced the second and third of its Spiel 2012 releases on its Facebook page. One of those titles – Jose Antonio Rivero's Expedition: Congo River...

New Game Round-up: The Arab Spring Reborn in CLASH, More Beans from Rosenberg & Missions with the Navy Seals

• Phalanx Games Polska, under its new brand Diablos Polacos, has a curious-sounding two-player game from designers Seiji Kanai and Hayato Kisaragi, with the game being a riff on Kanai's RRR,...

Links: Calculating a Game's Volume, Talking Game Design at Tedx & Importing Illegal Eggs

• Geek & Sundry, producer of Wil Wheaton's TableTop series of game presentation videos, has announced a partnership with U.S. retailer Target in which starting on August 1, 2012 games featured...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Dice for the Blind, Deck-building + Superheroes & a Big Box of Bunnies

• The Battle of Red Cliffs from designer Ta-Te Wu and design assistant/partner E. R. Burgess from Boardgame Babylon has been launched on Kickstarter, with Spiel 2012 pick-up promised. (KS link)...

New Game Round-up: Teasers for Spiel 2012 Releases, Imminent Releases from Flying Frog & Luca Iennaco's Fairy Land

• Dutch publisher White Goblin Games has revealed the first of its eight Spiel 2012 releases, the confusingly-named Völuspá from Scott Caputo with artwork by Pierô to throw another diacritic...

New Game Round-up: More Gloom from Atlas, Talisman Meets 40K in Relic & Play M for Murder

 • U.S. publisher Fantasy Flight Games has announced the Q4 2012 release of Relic, a Reese's-style blending of Warhammer 40K thematics and Talisman game play. A short description of the...

Designer Diary: Libertalia

Libertalia was born, as often happens with my designs, by playing other games – in this specific case, the two masterpieces Agricola and Dominon. What do these games share? They both require...

Links: How Trek Entered Catan, How to Promote Your Own Games, & How Not to Open a Game Store

• On the Catan blog, Gero Zahn details how his homemade "Space Settlers" variant of The Settlers of Catan unexpectedly became the prototype for Star Trek: Catan. An excerpt:Quote:After...

Designer Diary: DragonMage Warfare

 When my son was three, he asked, "Dad, can you tell me a story about dragons?" Being the proud father I am, I came up with a fun story about dragons and wizards in a magical kingdom...

New Game Round-up: Indigo and Casa Grande Rereleased, Borg Brings Bard & Whizz Bing Bang Slap!

• The U.S. branch of Ravensburger will release two games already available in Europe: Reiner Knizia's Indigo ($35) and Günter Buckhardt's Casa Grande ($40). Both games are expected to be...

New Game Round-up: Puzzles from Touko, More Evil in Residence & Ogres in Waiting

• Designer Touko Tahkokallio has a new title coming from Finnish publisher Competo in Q3 2012 – Enigma – and while it's not the second coming of Eclipse – and what would be, really? – I...

Designer Diary: Flash Point: Fire Rescue - 2nd Story

Primeval HistoryFirefighting and rescue is a topic that has fascinated me from childhood (a long time ago indeed). Nothing unusual there, but I did pursue it when I grew up and became a volunteer...

Links: Interviews with Richard Launius, Patrick Nickell and Michael Coe, Randomness Explained & Christopher Nolan: Game Designer?

• German publisher H@ll Games has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Pegasus Spiele, with Pegasus having worldwide distribution rights outside of North America. This agreement...