Board Game News

Links: Japan Goes for Cat & Chocolate, Munchkin Heads for Target & How Much Scoring Is Too Much?

Game news, weekend edition:• Which game beat out Power Grid, Race for the Galaxy, Le Havre and Thunderstone in best game of the year voting? Ryo Kawakami's Cat & Chocolate. Yes, really.The...

Designer Diary: The Rise of the Lords of Scotland

As occurs all too often in tabletop game design, a game reaches publication about a year after it is tested and two years from when it was conceived. Even with extensive documentation, a designer...

New Game Round-up: More Nightfall and a Trip to Oz

As always, be careful what you read today...• Tim Buckley, creator of the Ctrl+Alt+Del comic, has announced that attendees to Digital Overload 2011 (held May 27-29 in Baltimore, MD, USA) will...

Links: Your Brain Is Tricky, Making Black Vienna Work & More

If you're like me, then you're 6'5" and in need of a haircut. More relevantly to this post, you take whatever you read and apply it to games, as with this first item:• A March 2011 article in...

Preview: Ankh-Morpork – an Early Peek at the City

There's a lot of buzz around Ankh-Morpork, even though the game isn't due out until late in 2011, but the reasons for this are clear, of course: a new Martin Wallace design themed in the...

New Game Round-up: New Dungeon Run, New Ages of Industry & FFG in June 2011

A short list today, but one packed with lots in a small space:• Colby Dauch of Plaid Hat Games has updated the game listing for Mr. Bistro's Dungeon Run, detailing the game's setting and adding...

Designer Diary: The Endless Creation of Perpetual-Motion Machine

Perpetual-Motion Machine has been described by playtesters as Hansa Teutonica: The Card Game, which is nice praise, certainly, and while it is somewhat coincidental, the games are by no means...

Links: SdJ Offers Scholarship, Fraga on Egg Sales & Alexander Pfister Calls Me Out

Lazy Sunday reading:• The Spiel des Jahres committee is taking applications for its 16th annual Spieleautoren-Stipendium (game designer scholarship). The winner receives internships at both a...

Designer Diary: Top Speed – Racing on the Shoulders of Giants

Back in 2003, Spanish driver Fernando Alonso began doing good things in Formula 1, making Pole positions and winning races. Being a Formula 1 fan and a wannabe game designer, I decided to create...

Play 2011: New Releases & Demo Games

On March 26-27, 2011 the Italian city of Modena will host PLAY: The Games Festival, the largest Italian gaming event and one that differs from festivals like Lucca Comics & Games in that the main...

New Game Round-up: Sins and Redemption, Wu Feng and Boomtown Return & More

Let's start with a "You want theme? I'll give you theme!" challenge:• On his State of Play blog, Thomas L. McDonald gives an overview of Alf Seegert's The Road to Canterbury, coming in Q3 2011...

Designer Diary: Evolutionary Lessons Discovered on Chimera Isle

Author's Note: The purpose of this designer diary is twofold. First, I'd like to chronicle the somewhat haphazard trajectory Chimera Isle took going from concept to published game. Second, I'd...

Links: Why Games Aren't Art, Interviews Galore, Squirrels & More

Let's kick off this link round-up with a heady post that spins in a different direction than what I normally cover:• Brian Moriarty goes to the mat to argue that "video games can never be art"...

New Game Round-up: Jason Hill on Fortune and Glory, More Rolling Freight & More

Video demonstrations of two games take up a lot of space in this post. Get something to drink before starting the second one...• Rio Grande Games will release its own edition of alea's Die...

Preview: Philippe Keyaerts, Ystari Invite Players to Mount Olympos

Designer Philippe Keyaerts scored a success with Vinci, which he later transformed into an even bigger hit with gamers, namely Small World from Days of Wonder. Small World has seen a handful of...

Designer Diary: Hey Waiter! Ready to Serve You the Goods

So...The idea started one day while I was playing around with a Sticheln deck and a set of poker chips. Sticheln decks are great for game design: a bunch of ranks, a bunch of suits, no artwork...

Links: Hippodice 2011, Another Eric Martin & More

Another edition of links for weekend reading:• Designer Reiner Knizia has started a Twitter page, with tweeting to commence on April 4, 2011. The good doctor can turn out new games in a flash,...

New Game Round-up: More Penny Arcade Games, Cthulhu Gets Gloomy & More

Another sampling of what's new, newish and too new to actually exist: • Want an overview of Waldek Gumienny's Teutons? Michał Ozon of Phalanx Games Polska — which will publish Teutons —...

Designer Diary: BattleCON – Design Philosophy and Game Breakdown

Battle Connection — or BattleCON, for short — is a game that I've wanted to design for about as long as I can remember. It's a character-based, head-to-head dueling game that works in layers,...

News from Clever Mojo: Factions for Alien Frontiers & Princes of the Dragon Throne

U.S. publisher Clever Mojo Games had a huge hit on its hands in 2010 with Tory Niemann's Alien Frontiers, the only drawback to the game seeming to be its unavailability on the wider market.Clever...

Looney Pyramids: Out with the old, in with the new

In preparation for the introduction of IceDice in June 2011 and the new Treehouse in September, Looney Labs is selling off its old supply of Icehouse pyramids at discounted prices. The publisher...

New Game Round-up: Wer War's in English, Print-on-Demand Marines & More

A short listing of game announcements and news this time, along with a summary of what's out, what's coming, and what's far in the future:• Ravensburger will release an English-language edition...

Links: LEGO My Carcassonne, When Settlers Isn't Settlers & More

And now for some reading material to fill the hours before you leave work on Friday – unless, of course, you're living somewhere outside the U.S., or reading this long after I posted it, or...

GrEEK Guild's 2nd Boardgame Design Contest

On February 13, 2011 BGG's GrEEK Guild held its 2nd Boardgame Design Contest in Athens.For those of you who don't know us, the GrEEK Guild is one of the largest guilds on BoardGameGeek. It was...

Designer Diary: Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Making of 011 & The End of the World

011 is a strange game and was born in a correspondingly strange way. For a long time I had been thinking about an adventure game, trying many settings and changing lots of things as all sorts of...

Links: Going Cardboard Gets Knizia, 36 is the Magic Number & More

Time for another round-up of game news from around the web:• Lorien Green has launched a Kickstarter project for Going Cardboard, a documentary about modern board games that is scheduled for a...

New Game Round-up: Zombies at PAX East, James Ernest's Newer Big Idea & More

Another day, another dozen new games to write about:• Touko Tahkokallio's Eclipse will be released by Finnish publisher Lautapelit.fi by Spiel 2011 in October. Tahkokallio and developer/artist...

Winter Tales, Coming from Albe Pavo

Following its 2010 debut title Munera: Famillia Gladiatoria, Italian publisher Albe Pavo will take a stroll in another direction of game design with Winter Tales, a storytelling game that seems...

Links: Eminent Domain Previews, Dance Twister & More

Even more games are making the analog-to-digital conversion, but I would never have expected to see the video included below:• Tasty Minstrel Games is organizing "Eminent Domain Preview...

New Game Round-up: Gamyes Tryos fromys Ystari, D&D LEGO & More

Apologies for the silence over the past few days. Being a good grandson-in-law sometimes takes more time than you realize...• French site Jedisjeux gives a rundown of the first issue of...