Board Game News

Build an Island in Anno 1800, Get the Tracks Right in Switch & Signal, and Prepare for New Adventure from KOSMOS

Time to survey the games coming in the latter half of 2020 from German publisher KOSMOS, starting with Anno 1800, an adaptation of the Anno 1800 PC game from Ubisoft by designer Martin Wallace....

Train Novices in Monasterium, Discover Early Orléans, and Remember Our Trip with dlp games

• To follow up on the August 17, 2020 announcement of CloudAge, coming from Nanox Games, Capstone Games, and dlp games, German publisher dlp games has announced three additional titles it plans...

Designer Diary: Stampede, or How Stamp Collecting Can Be the Key to Get Your Teenage Daughter to Enjoy Board Games with You

As a game designer, you have three main lenses through which to view a game: theme, mechanisms, and player experience. When starting a new design, you typically start from one of these and fill...

Alexander Pfister Prepares CloudAge, While Capstone Readies Iberian Gauge for Another Run

Given the lack of conventions in 2020, many game publishers are hosting their own events in order to shine a spotlight on their newly released games and upcoming titles. U.S. publisher Capstone...

Interview: Dávid Turczi on Developing Complex Games

[Editor's note: This interview was first published on Diagonal Move as the second part of a two-part interview. You can find part one here. —WEM]Dávid Turczi joins Neil Bunker from Diagonal...

Designer Diary: The Making of Infinity Gauntlet: A Love Letter Game

Reimagining a ClassicIn the years since Love Letter was first published by designer Seiji Kanai in 2012, the game has gained massive popularity as the definitive "microgame". With only sixteen...

Like a Phoenix Reborn, Ashes Rises from the Ashes

In February 2020, Plaid Hat Games regained its independence as a publisher by splitting from Asmodee, which had purchased Plaid Hat's owner in 2016.Some Plaid Hat titles stayed behind with...

"New" Game Round-up: Run More Factories, Trade More Companies & Stocks, and Hire More Famous Renaissance Artists

• Stefan Risthaus' heavy economic 2014 hit Arkwright has been one of those games that I'm equally as curious to try as I am intimidated by, especially when I see all the components laid out and...

Grab Your Masks and Prepare for The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game

Ravensburger is continuing its streak of licensed titles in the U.S., following titles already released in 2020 such as Wonder Woman: Challenge of the Amazons, Back to the Future: Dice Through...

Designer Diary: Glasgow, or For It’s Going Round and Round

I wanted to share a bit about the origins and design of my first published game, Glasgow, which is now out (at least in Europe) as part of the Lookout Games two-player line.In 2017, I was...

Pandasaurus Games Hires Danni Loe, Changes Distributors, and Reveals a Pro-Dinosaur Agenda

• U.S. publisher Pandasaurus Games has hired Danni Loe as marketing manager, making her "responsible for promoting new releases and the current Pandasaurus catalog, growing relationships with...

Links: Thoughts on Virtual Conventions, and Game Sales During a Pandemic

• Having experienced both Virtual Gaming Con and Gen Con Online, designer Gil Hova details what didn't work in these virtual cons and what he hopes to see in the future. An excerpt:Quote:This...

Designer Interview: Richard Breese, Creator of the "Key" Series

[Editor's note: This interview was first published on Diagonal Move. —WEM]Richard Breese, designer of Keydom, one of the first games to use "worker placement", and Keyflower joins Neil from...

Wolfgang Warsch and Schmidt Spiele Bring Alchemists to Quedlinburg and Challenge You to Be Three Times as Clever

• German publisher Schmidt Spiele has released info on its late 2020 titles, and designer Wolfgang Warsch has two titles on the list, both follow-ups to earlier hit titles from Schmidt.Clever...

Fly to the Light and Sink Your Score in the Tiny German Games Allegra and Nachtschwärmer

• As is normal for this time of year, German publishers are releasing info about titles for SPIEL — but the acquisition of those titles might be trickier than normal since no one will be in...

Dune: Imperium Coming from Dire Wolf Digital; Disney Shadowed Kingdom Available from Mondo

• What's the minimal amount of information you can release about a game while still announcing a game? U.S. publisher Dire Wolf Digital is testing that limit with the news that it will release...

Game Overview: High Rise, or City Building with a Healthy Dose of Corruption

Sometimes you're passing by a booth at a convention, and you have to stop. I was originally captured by the table presence of High Rise at Formal Ferret's booth when I attended GAMA Expo in March...

Bring Dungeons & Dragons to the Table for New Players

• For the 25th anniversary of Richard Garfield's card game The Great Dalmuti, publisher Wizards of the Coast will release a Dungeons & Dragons-themed version in November 2020.For those not...

Designer Diary: Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Baker Street Irregulars

What follows is an account of my thought processes and experience designing Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Baker Street Irregulars, a game in the Consulting Detective line. It has been...

New Game Preview for Sept/Oct 2020; Request for Feedback on BGG's Gen Con Online Livestream

As with all other game conventions scheduled for March 2020 or later, SPIEL '20 has been replaced by a virtual convention. As a result, instead of the standard SPIEL Preview that lists every...

Fantasy Flight's Announcements from Gen Con Online 2020: Twilight Imperium: Prophecy of Kings, KeyForge: Dark Tidings, X-Men: Mutant Insurrection, and More Colonized Titles

Despite Gen Con 2020 being an online event that required me to travel only to the recording studio on the top floor of my house, my schedule for this event took up even more time than for Gen...

Designer Diary: Nevada City, or Refining in the Old West

As a designer, one of the themes I enjoy working with is growth — as in expanding an empire or developing a city. Nevada City is part of a series of designs about the growth of an Old West...

New Game Round-up: Craft a Magical Engine, Combo Guilds’ Elementals, and Battle for Lost Lights

Card drafting + <<insert any game mechanism>> is typically a winner in my book. I love that mental struggle of wanting or needing to keep a card to help myself, and at the same time...

Designer Diary: Undaunted: North Africa, or Taking the Fight to the Desert

Greetings, all. July 2020 marks the release of Undaunted: North Africa, the second game in the Undaunted series. We thought it would be a good idea to post a design diary to share some background...

Game Preview: Renature, or From Badgers to Bushes, From Turtles to Trees

The designers Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling have released many classic games over the years, both individually and as a team. In 2020, their credits can be found on a new version of...

Developer Diary: Spicy, or Three Years Full of Half-Lies

Our little bluffing game Spicy from HeidelBÄR Games, which was recommended by the Spiel des Jahres jury in 2020, stands out not only because of its simple rules, but also because of the...

Pictures Wins Spiel des Jahres 2020; Die Crew Claims Kennerspiel des Jahres 2020

Pictures from designers Daniela and Christian Stöhr and publisher PD-Verlag has won the 2020 Spiel des Jahres, German's game of the year award.Each round in Pictures, you recreate one of the...

Game Overview: Finished!, or Clear Your Desk Before the Day Is Done

I want to write many things about Friedemann Friese's Finished!, a title he released in 2017 from his own 2F-Spiele, but time has been tight this past week, so for now I must let this playthrough...

Stefan Feld's Bruges and Macao to Be Reborn as Hamburg and Amsterdam

After weeks of teasing, German publisher Queen Games has unveiled the first two titles in its "Stefan Feld City Collection", a collection that "will be a multi-year project comprised of 8+...

Tekhenu Sheds Serious Light on Clever Dice Drafting

While I've played Tzolk'in, Teotihuacan, and Trismegistus only a handful of times collectively, I'm well aware that when Daniele Tascini designs a medium-heavy euro with a "T" name, it's bound to...