Board Game News

Designer Diary: Enchanted Plumes and Harmonious Game Design

In December 2017, I was on a run, which is to say I was hanging out in my game design brain's most productive office space, racing in search of a theme. Many designers do this, I think? Use...

Game Overview: Castello Methoni, or Acquiring Triangles for Fun and Profit

One of the prime appeals of a game like Agricola is that over the course of play, you create a personal farm that serves as a record of all that you did. Win or lose, you have a sense of...

Knizia Game Round-up: Smuggle Soda, Collect Accomplices, and Rise in the Feline Mafia

Is it already time for another round-up of titles from prolific designer Reiner Knizia? Apparently so, with new U.S. publisher Bitewing Games launching with a trio of Knizia card games that it's...

Links: Dragomino Wins Kinderspiel des Jahres, and The Power of Unplayed Games

• On June 14, Dragomino from designers Bruno Cathala, Marie Fort, and Wilfried Fort and publisher Blue Orange Games won the 2021 Kinderspiel des Jahres, Germany's children's game of the year...

Portal Challenges You to Manage Eleven Players and Assemble a Dreadful Circus

• In September 2021, Polish publisher Portal Games plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Gamefound (draft page) for Eleven, a design by Thomas Jansen that he originally self-published...

Step Between Greek and Norse Gods in Divinus, and Discover Dueling Masters of the Universe

• Publisher Lucky Duck Games merged an app with a board game in its 2018 release Chronicles of Crime from designer David Cicurel, and it plans to do something similar — but on an even grander...

Crowdfunding Game Round-up: Make Robots Fight, Line Up Animals, and Cash Out Thanks to Peak Oil

• Let's survey a few games on crowdfunding sites right now, starting with Robot Quest Arena, a design from Paul Waite being published by Perfect Day Games and Wise Wizard Games that BGG got a...

2021 Con Previews for Gen Con, Origins, and SPIEL Now Live

After online-only events for most of 2020, in-person game conventions will take place in the U.S. and Germany in the second half of 2021, with Gen Con 2021 being held on September 16-19 (instead...

Game Overview: TRAILS, or Pacing the Land for Points

On June 20, 2021, Henry Audubon's TRAILS from Keymaster Games will debut at the U.S. retail chain Target, with TRAILS being a standalone sequel to the 2019 game PARKS from the same...

Orléans Picked Up by Capstone Games

U.S. publisher Capstone Games has acquired the English-language license to Orléans from originating publisher dlp games, which is owned by the game's designer, Reiner Stockhausen.The Capstone...

Interview: David Digby, solo mode designer and developer for Undaunted: Reinforcements, Merv, Waggle Dance and many more.

Editor's note: This interview was first published on Diagonal Move in May 2021. —WEMIn this month's Diagonal Move interview, we take a look behind the scenes of board game development with solo...

Battlestar Galactica Becomes Unfathomable

U.S. publisher Fantasy Flight Games has announced a new game in its Arkham Horror universe, one that has its roots in the (distant) past.Unfathomable is a 3-6 player game that plays in 2-4 hours...

Use Dice to Deliver Pizza, Avoiding a Jinx as You Create a Winning 4Mation

• I've already covered a few of the early 2021 releases from Austrian publisher Piatnik — Reiner Knizia's Family Inc. here, Andrea Mezzotero's Day & Night here, and Pencil Nose! here — but...

Designer Diary: Exploring Social Deduction Magic with Shamans

Known mostly for the design of Lewis & Clark, which debuted in 2013 and was updated in 2020, I've been designing games for ten years and haven't had many of them published for a few reasons:...

Zip Back and Forth in TRAILS, and Hunt Humans to Satisfy The Hunger

• U.S. publisher Keymaster Games has announced a new title from Henry Audubon, designer of its 2019 hit game PARKS, with this new release having a similar look and feel thanks to artwork from...

Game Preview: So Clover!, or Not Just One Clue Giver

Where in this grid would you place four of these five cards so that the written clues "match" the printed words on the adjacent cards?Cover and design not finalThat one sentence describes the...

Reconstruct Robotech, Revisit Transatlantic, and Ready Yourself for Pandemic: Hot Zone – Europe

I see lots of stray announcements or near announcements while looking for game news, so let me round up some of them in this post:• Robotech: Reconstruction is the next Robotech title from...

Links: Final Tales of the Arabian Nights, and The Impact of Counterfeit Games

• In March 2021, Z-Man Games' Head of Studio Steve Kimball announced the end of the company's "Euro Classics" game line that (to date) consisted of new editions of Reiner Knizia designs.On May...

Upcoming GMT Releases: Dominate Roman Republic Politics, Race in Ancient Rome, Duel in Nottinghamshire, and Battle in Medieval Japan

• I recently dipped my toes in the Great Statesmen Series from GMT Games, playing both Churchill and Versailles 1919 for the first time, just a few days apart. I had a blast playing both games,...

Game Overview: Cubitos, or Rolling, Regretting, and (Sometimes) Racing

No matter how many times I think I'm ready to talk about a game, I always come up with more to say after I've locked my thoughts into a write-up or video. This happened again most recently with...

Put the Trains in Place in Ticket to Ride: Track Switcher

Days of Wonder tends to announce a new Ticket to Ride item at least once a year, but the newest announcement from the French company isn't for a standalone game or a new addition to the Map...

Complete a Wolfwalkers Story, and Group Animals in a Savannah Park

• Wolfwalkers is a 2020 film from directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart that comprises the final film in Moore's "Irish Folklore Trilogy" following The Secret of Kells in 2009 and Song of the...

Coffee Traders: A Heavy Roast with Donkeys, Piggybacking, and More

Coffee Traders is big, heavy, new release from publisher Capstone Games and designers André Spil and Rolf Sagel, the duo behind the heavy, economic, oil business game Wildcatters. Wildcatters...

Game Overview: Merchants of Dunhuang, or Picking Up Goods for Now or Later

I normally post a written overview of a game to accompany my video overview, but this isn't always the case for one reason or another.Such was the case with Merchants of Dunhuang, a card game for...

Scale a Mountain, Survive the Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and Fight Zombies in Las Vegas

• Designer James Emmerson debuted in 2020 with the co-operative game Tranquility from Board Game Hub, a design in which 1-5 players must assemble a grid of cards that flows from low numbers in...

Thanks to Eric Lang, You Can Become a Disney Sidekick

Designer Eric M. Lang left his Director of Game Design position at CMON Limited in September 2020, and while he didn't talk about future projects at the time, in March 2021 he noted that he had...

Fight for Prestigious Buildings and Landmarks in Paris

In 2020, Belgian-based publisher Game Brewer released Paris, a medium-weight eurogame from the famous design duo of Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling in which 2-4 players take on the role of...

CATAN Rises from the Table in a New 3D Edition

In 2005, German publisher KOSMOS released CATAN 3D Collector's Edition, a special edition of Klaus Teuber's award-winning game CATAN to celebrate its tenth anniversary. This edition came packaged...

Designer Diary: Ramen! Ramen! and Rule Turns

Ramen! Ramen! simmered for quite some time before it was ready to serve. I started designing the game in the second half of 2015, nearly five years to the date that I am writing this. If days...

Game Overview: Mandala Stones, or Going in Circles, Yet Staying in Place

Filip Głowacz's Mandala Stones from Board&Dice is a 2-4 player game that follows a familiar two-step model: Players pick up stuff in one manner, then score said stuff in a different manner. The...