Board Game News

Links: Play Dominion for Money, Three-Part Poppels & a Double Dose of Faidutti

• Rio Grande Games is hosting a World Master Dominion tournament at Spiel 2011 with a first prize of €1000. Preliminary tournaments in the U.S. will take place at Gen Con in August 2011,...

SpieleWahnsinn 2011: Nürnberg releases, Prototypes & Agricola of Future Past

The SpieleWahnsinn in Herne, Germany is a small, local annual game convention – but since you can always meet authors and publishers showing off new prototyes there and I had not yet seen any...

Details on the Future of Wings of War

I usually don't print press releases straight up because they are (a) filled with puffery and useless back-patting quotes and (b) less interesting that what I write. Banana-snookered...

New Game Round-up: Free At Last, D-Day Dice & More Tickets, Twists and Frontiers

• Probably not a surprise to anyone, but the Days of Wonder Ticket to Ride: Map Collection due out in October 2011 will not be a one-time release but the first in a series, as noted in this...

Designer Diary: The Stealth and Strength of Ninjato

There's an old saying that success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration. For the game Ninjato this was absolutely true. Most of the 10 percent came quickly and easily during a...

Links: Lovecraft's Ledger, Another Nom for Leacock & More

• Wired previews the next 221 Arkham Horror expansions from Fantasy Flight Games.• Spiel Portugal "interviews" designer Michael Schacht, who spills a bit of info about future releases.• On...

Game Preview: Sake & Samurai

After the debut of Munera: Familia Gladiatoria in 2010, I was interested in seeing more from new Italian publisher Albe Pavo. Admittedly Munera is not really a top class game, but it was a good...

Interview: Peter Olotka on Cosmic Encounter and D*ne

(In light of yesterday's news item about Peter Olotka's attempt to organize a community-designed expansion for Cosmic Encounter, I thought I'd reprint a Boardgame News column from September 18,...

Peter Olotka Wants You to Design Cosmic Encounter – But Not Yet

I noted in early July 2011 on BGG News that Cosmic Encounter co-designer Peter Olotka is going to work with players to design CE "Expansion Set 5" on the game's Facebook page.Lots of details on...

Ten New Age of Steam/Steam Maps from Bezier Games and Alban Viard

Should you be a fan of Age of Steam or Steam, then you will have new options galore come October 2011 thanks to designers Ted Alspach and Alban Viard, who are each releasing new AoS/Steam map...

Designer Diary: The Way of the Quarrior

Quarriors was one of the more unusual episodes of game design in that making the game was the relatively easy part. Actually getting someone to pick the game up proved much more challenging. To...

Shogun, Samurai Swords, Ikusa – The Return of a Classic

On July 1, 2011, I previewed Craig Van Ness' new take on the Battleship game of old: Battleship Galaxies, a design that is thoroughly modern, yet with just enough of ye olde Battleship feel to...

Game Preview: Arcanum

I've been lucky enough to get my hands on a preview copy of Arcanum, a 2011 release from Andrea Chiarvesio (co-designer of Kingsburg and Olympus) and Pierluca Zizzi (Caligula, a nice...

Links: Miscolored Leaders, China Heads North & More Cosmic Encounters

• On its news page, Belgian publisher Repos Production acknowledges the color troubles with 7 Wonders: Leaders – just hitting U.S. stores now – the problem being that the backs of the guild...

Craig Van Ness Takes Battleship to New Galaxies

U.S. publisher Hasbro takes a lot of grief for publishing umpteen new versions and spin-offs of Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble and many of its other long-lived games, but sometimes that exploration of...

Keith Tralins and Brian David-Marshall on The Walking Dead: The Board Game

As noted in May 2011, two board games based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead are due out in 2011 with one based on Kirkman's comic book series and the other based on the AMC television show...

Links: Filosofia Buys Z-Man Games, Memoir '44 Goes Online & More

• French website TricTrac.net reports that Canadian publisher Filosofia has purchased U.S. publisher Z-Man Games. The two companies have worked together a number of times on coproductions such...

Qwirkle Wins 2011 Spiel des Jahres, 7 Wonders Wins Kennerspiel

For 2011 the biggest award in board gaming – the Spiel des Jahres, Germany's "Game of the Year" award – has been given to Susan McKinley Ross' Qwirkle, published in Germany by Schmidt...

Fantasy Flight Games Announces Titles for September 2011

U.S. publisher Fantasy Flight Games has announced its list of scheduled releases for September 2011, with the list featuring a typical mix of one new game, one somewhat new game with a twist,...

News, Interrupted

My apologies for leaving you all largely newsless for the past couple of weeks, but things on BGGN should be back to normal soon as my family's items are finally on the moving truck and on their...

Designer Diary: Where Ideas Come From – Designing Mirror Mirror

In 2008 I was given a plastic flower, two eye patches, two earrings, a bag of colorful cotton balls, and a full year to turn those things into a game. It came to me all at once, in seconds. I...

Designer Diary: Eruption – Can't Touch This (Lava)

Eruption is a competitive volcano-themed game for 2 to 6 players that is being released by Stratus Games in October 2011. The game features a cutthroat survival feel, in which each player must...

Designer Diary: The Strategy of Designing a Dice Game, or The History of Alea Iacta Est

Though dice games have been earning a little more respect lately in strategy gaming circles, they are still overwhelmingly known for the unexpected twists of fortune and frustration they can...

Designer Diary: Nitro Dice – A Long and Winding Road

The development and eventual publication of Nitro Dice is a long and convoluted story involving numerous publishers. I will not be naming any of them except for the one – Minion Games – that...

Yavalath: On Evolutionary Game Design

In November 2007, a new board game called Yavalath was invented. The rules of Yavalath are simple: Players take turns adding a piece of their colour to a hexagonal board and win by making...

Designer Diary: Dark Horse

 Dark Horse, to be released by Knight Works in late 2011, will be my first professionally printed game. During this process, I've learned that designing board games is a unique hobby in and...

Links: Conquest of Nerath Preview, Wood Penguins & Production Pics from SJG

• G4 has posted an unboxing video of Wizards of the Coast's Conquest of Nerath.• Clicker Spiele has noted two releases for 2011 on its website: a second edition of Fliegen naschen limited to...

Interview: Galen Ciscell on Atlantis Rising

Galen Ciscell's first board game – Atlantis Rising – will be released in Q3 2011 by Z-Man Games. Ciscell has been posting designer diary installments on the BGG game page every week or two,...

Game Preview: Fealty

Fealty, designed by R. Eric Reuss and illustrated by Sarah Farooqi, is an territory control game being released by my company, Asmadi Games, that plays in a short amount of time, while packing a...

Dawn of a Design and Formation of a Philosophy: Creating Symbol and Other Games while Pursuing a Childhood Dream

I have told my design story in fragments in various places, but when Eric Martin offered me the opportunity to share it in the official BGG News, I could not resist.In many ways, I owe a...