Board Game News

Game Overview: Snake Through the Water to Block Ness

After a couple of months away from the gaming table, I'm finally playing games again, me with my COVID-19 vaccination, my fellow players with theirs. We're still playing outdoors while masked for...

Industry News: New Hires for Arcane Wonders, Pandasaurus Games, and Renegade Game Studios

In case you hadn't noticed, in March 2021 BGG expanded the credit section of game listings so that we can highlight more of the people involved in making the games that you play. If you look at...

The Shores of Tripoli: Pirate Raids, History, and Naval Shenanigans

Washington DC-based publisher Fort Circle Games aims to create fun, easy to learn, historical board games and based on my experiences with its first release, The Shores of Tripoli, mission...

Craft Magic Items for Adventurers, and Overwhelm Your Fellow Witch

• Like many people, I'm a sucker for particular artists, but as much as I like Weberson Santiago's work, I never would have expected to see it on a game from Alderac Entertainment Group as...

Visit Every Biome in Subastral, and Empty Your Hand in Aggretsuko: Work/Rage Balance

• In 2020 Ben Eisner and Steve Ellis designed Gudetama: The Tricky Egg Card Game for Renegade Game Studios and Oni Games, and in Q2 2021 they'll have another IP-based card game on the market...

Designer Diary: Umbra Via

At the start of 2018, Inis had become my new favorite game. What I really liked about it was how it was an area-control game, but you didn't always want to kill all of your opponents. One of the...

Build Hadrian's Wall, and Escape Gravity's Well

• Most releases from New Zealand publisher Garphill Games are designed or co-designed by owner Shem Phillips, but in a change of pace the company's newest release — Hadrian's Wall — is by...

Industry News: Ensemble in North America, Fluxx in Wonderland, and Luma to Sit Down

• Ares Games has signed a deal to publish and distribute original games from Italian publisher Ergo Ludo Editions in English, starting with the Q4 2021 release of the co-operative game Ensemble...

Make Hot Sauce, Mix Colors, and Balance Angels and Demons to Achieve Virtue

• Virtue is a 2-4 player co-operative game from designer Max Robbins of Dragon Egg Games, who debuted with the "your life as a bee" game Apidaia in 2020 and who fulfilled a Kickstarter in March...

Grow a Hermit Crab Shell, Listen to Safes, Avoid Suspicion, and Catch the Bomber

Let's check out a few more Japanese game releases ahead of the Tokyo Game Market event that will take place on April 10-11, 2021. Not all of these titles will necessarily be available at the...

Drive a Bus with Dice, Make Eight Cards Ten, and Crush Others with Blocks

• As the COVID-19 vaccinations continue to roll out in countries around the world, Tokyo Game Market is one of the few game events taking place, with TGM next taking place on April 10-11,...

Links: Changing Times in the Game Industry

• On March 15, 2021, Z-Man Games' Head of Studio Steve Kimball posted an article titled "An Ode to the Euro Classics", which simultaneously announced the end of the "Euro Classics" game line...

Dig up Dunes in Lençóis, Stay in Order in Barakka, and Ride the Highs and Lows of Day & Night

• Designer Andrea Mezzotero debuted in 2018 with the card game Crystal Clans from Plaid Hat Games, a two-player battle game that had a half-dozen expansions to bring more clans to the table.For...

Fight as a Dragon Prince, and Throw Your Horns in the Air — Twice

The universe of board games based on licensed IPs is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is — and no, this isn't going in the direction you think...

Battle for Supremacy in Medieval India, Survive in Malta, Race to Moscow, and Airdrop into the Last Hundred Yards

P500 box cover (not final)• In March 2021, renowned wargame publisher GMT Games announced the kickoff of its new Irregular Conflicts Series and the upcoming first release in the series:...

Deadpool Joins the Unmatched Universe

Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an imaginary story! Except in the sense that all stories are imaginary given that they're fictional.To celebrate, ahem, April Pool's Day, publishers Restoration Games...

Knizia Game Round-up: Dig for Gold, Steal from the Family, and Power Your Cauldron

• I've been a fan of two recent releases from designer Reiner Knizia and publisher Ludonova — 2019's Babylonia (write-up here) and 2020's Sumatra (write-up here) — so I'm over the moon to...

Stack Goods High and Gamble Anew in Camel Up: Off Season

Canadian publisher Plan B Games releases games under multiple brands — Next Move Games, eggertspiele, Pretzel Games, and Plan B Games — with those brands attempting to serve different...

IELLO Makes the Old New Again in Little Factory, Sticky Cthulhu, and For the King (and Me)

• Biblios was one of designer Steve Finn's first releases, with the game appearing from his own Dr. Finn's Games in 2007 as Scriptorium, then Scripts & Scribes, before being licensed by IELLO...

Rescue DNA from a Flood, Control Easter Island, and Make a Word Game Disappear

• Easter Island is a popular setting for game designers, with BGG having four "Rapa Nui" titles in its database, along with several others games set in that part of the world. Turns out that...

Links: Gamifying Climate Change, Priceless Reviews, and UNO on Screens Large and Small

• On March 25, 2021, Alex Marshall of The NY Times profiled designer Matt Leacock and a game design currently in the works in an article titled "His Game Made Beating a Pandemic Fun. Can He Do...

Manipulate the East India Company In John Company: Second Edition

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of virtually hanging with Cole and Drew Wehrle from Wehrlegig Games to learn and play a couple turns of their upcoming 2022 release John Company: Second Edition,...

Craft Illusions from Cards, Control the Sawgrass Sea, and Sew Your Way to Friendship

• I don't typically run across Kickstarter campaigns for a print-and-play version of a game, but I discovered Benny Sperling's Illusions of Prestige from Lagniappe Games on that site (KS link)...

Cosmoludo's Abstract Strategy Games — As Easy As 1, 2, 3...Fish

At the 2019 Festival International des Jeux in Cannes, I had the great privilege of interviewing designer Claude Leroy (video here) about a new French publisher that was going to re-release —...

Roll-and-Write Your Way Through Pumpkin Patches, Lost Cities, and Switzerland

• Designers Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle have worked together for years, and now they're releasing a game through their own publishing brand: Motor City Gameworks, which they started with...

Teasers for Unmatched, EXIT, Res Arcana, Arkham Noir, and The End of the Universe

• To celebrate reaching ten thousand followers on Twitter, Justin Jacobson of U.S. publisher Restoration Games did many silly things — then revealed one of the four heroes from Unmatched:...

Links: MicroMacro: Crime City Wins As d'Or, It's a Wonderful World Wins in Japan, and Elizabeth Hargrave Pins Wrestlers

• On February 25, 2021, at a time when the Festival International des Jeux would normally be taking place in Cannes, the jury of the As d'Or — France's game of the year award — announced...

For What Remains: Suspenseful Chit-Pulling in a Post-Apocalyptic World

David Thompson has a knack for delivering a variety of excellent board games, whether on his own or when collaborating with a plethora of different designers. While some of his releases are...

Find the Right Antidote to Save Patient Zero

Matt Leacock's co-operative game Pandemic saw a huge surge in sales in 2020 due to folks staying at home during an actual pandemic and wanting to feel that they had some measure of control over...

Gen Con 2021 Moves to September 16-19 with Both In-Person and Online Events

Gen Con normally takes place the first week of August each year, but things haven't been very normal lately. In 2020, Gen Con hosted an online event since people couldn't gather in person in...