Board Game News

Trains, Plane-like Vehicles, and Auto-Mo' Wolves from Bézier Games

Was this post title a stretch? Indeed it was, but I made that stretch anyway for whatever payoff it might have provided you, which might have been none at all.In any case, with GAMA Expo 2020...

NY Toy Fair 2020 X: Abandon All Artichokes as You Say Goodbye to the Javits Center

Time to end my coverage of NY Toy Fair 2020 so that I can move on to coverage of GAMA Expo 2020! Hopping from one media treadmill to another like OK Go's fifth member.The first three months of...

NY Toy Fair 2020 IX: Duel with Cubes, Flip Coins in a Dungeon, and Puzzle Together a Human Body

When I was heading to the airport following NY Toy Fair 2020, I started making plans for what to publish over the next couple of weeks, with that list including this item: "NYTF 2020 wrap-up -...

Links: Hasbro Holds on to Star Wars, and Mystery House and Mandala Win Awards

• At Spielwarenmesse 2020, designer Antonio Tinto and publisher Cranio Creations won the ToyAward 2020 in the category of "Teenager & Adults" for Mystery House: Adventures in a Box, with the...

NY Toy Fair 2020 VIII: Geek Out with Ascension, Deranged, Funhouse Survival, Burger Academy, and More

At NY Toy Fair more than any other convention, I will see game boxes on their own with no bits or boards or other components available to give you a sense of what the game is about. You have a...

NY Toy Fair 2020 VII: Take a Jungle Cruise Back to the Future for Some Epic Metal Hocus Pocus

As I've mentioned any number of times while talking about NY Toy Fair, licensing drives a lot of what's displayed and sold at the show, whether for games or for anything else. I don't watch much...

NY Toy Fair 2020 VI: Arrange Animals, Stuff Cakes, Draft Pies, and Meet Geoff Engelstein, Pinball Wizard

Sometimes attending NY Toy Fair is akin to recurrent déjà vu. Didn't I just see that game at Spielwarenmesse in Nürnberg, Germany? And that game, too? And that one?!Often the answer is yes, I...

Designer Diary: Ettin, or Two Kens Are Better Than One

Comments that helped inspire Ettin:• "Do you have a game that can include all eleven of us?"• "I want to play a co-operative game, but they want to play competitively!"• "Alex and Pat are...

NY Toy Fair 2020 V: Putting on Bill & Ted's Game Face to Check Out The Crew

Let's run through more pics and notes from NY Toy Fair 2020, starting with the Thames & Kosmos booth, T&K being the North American branch of German publisher KOSMOS.I had already seen the new...

New Game Round-up: Welcome New Lords of Vegas, Control Europe in The March of Progress, and Prove Yourself a Wizard Yet Again

Let's pause the NY Toy Fair 2020 reports for a moment to dip into other game announcements, partly to stay up-to-date on things and partly so that I can close a few tabs on my browser. I like to...

(Most of) Plaid Hat Games Leaves Asmodee

In mid-2015, game publisher Plaid Hat Games was acquired by Canadian company F2Z Entertainment — parent company of Z-Man Games, Filosofia Éditions and Pretzel Games — with F2Z then being...

NY Toy Fair 2020 IV: Godzilla Defends Yacht Rock While Flying Pan Am, Thanks to Funko Games

I wrote about Funko Games' Back to the Future: Back in Time in mid-February 2020, but that was only one title of about twenty that Funko Games was showing behind closed doors at NY Toy Fair 2020....

"New" Game Round-up: Sequels and Second Editions for Waste Knights, Capital Lux, Endogenesis, and More

Each year more and more (and more and more and more) new games are released...and somewhere mixed in the shuffle are revamped second editions and sequels of existing games. In some cases, it's...

NY Toy Fair 2020 III: Move Witches, Pick Colors, Collect Fish, and Deal with the Cards as Dealt

Time for more pics and notes about new games from NY Toy Fair 2020, starting with a peek into the offerings from AMIGO Games, the U.S. branch of German publisher AMIGO.It's interesting to note...

Designer Diary: Firefly Dance

In addition to designing 3F (fun/family/filler) games, I like science and magical effects, which means I really like scientific experiments that surprise you and make you think, "How did they do...

NY Toy Fair 2020 II: Forgotten Waters, Patchwork: Americana, Sugar Blast, and Catan in 3D

NY Toy Fair 2020 is still underway as I write this report, but I've already left Manhattan with a pocketful of pics and more than enough notes to keep me busy until GAMA Expo 2020 opens in two...

Grab Your Scooby Snacks and Prepare for Betrayal at Mystery Mansion

On Feb. 20, 2020, I wrote about how three games based on the Back to the Future movie franchise will be released in 2020.Turns out that's not the only media property being gamified in multiple...

Oriflamme, Res Arcana, and Dream Catcher Win As d'Or 2020; Pictionary Air Wins 2020 TOTY

On Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020, on the eve of the Festival International des Jeux in Cannes, France, the winners of the As d'Or — France's game of the year award — were announced, with first-time...

Game Overview: Chili Dice, or Spicy Dice By Another Name

At Spielwarenmesse 2020, BGG recorded an overview of Chili Dice, a game from Andy Daniel and AMIGO. During that video overview, I mentioned that Daniel had previously designed and published a...

NY Toy Fair 2020 I: SpongeBob Meets Fluxx, and FoxMind Invites You to Chop More Wood

I've finished my first day at NY Toy Fair 2020, having taken lots of pictures and many notes about things that can and can't be talked about. We see a few licensed products at the Spielwarenmesse...

The BGG Show: Catching Up on the Past Four Months

I'll keep this update brief:1. I've now posted more than ninety game overview videos from the Spielwarenemesse 2020 trade fair on our BGG Express YouTube channel. Many of the videos are only two...

Game Overview: Nidavellir, or Drafting a Dwarven Rainbow

To coincide with the opening of the 2020 Festival International des Jeux in Cannes, France, I present a game newly released at that show by Serge Laget and French publisher GRRRE Games, a 2-5...

Back to Back to the Future with Funko Games

The year 2020 is outside the universe created by the Back to the Future film series, yet the movie is apparently more popular than ever — at least for game creators who want to give people a...

Try Your Hand at Being a Meddling Kid in Scooby-Doo: Escape from the Haunted Mansion

Let's think back all the way to, um, yesterday, Feb. 18, 2020, when I posted about Ravensburger's Wonder Woman: Challenge of the Amazons. In that post I wrote "it's time to start seeing game...

Marvel Villainous: Infinite Power Challenges You to Wield the Infinity Gauntlet

In case you're not content with being a villain from one of the Disney movies, you'll find new opportunities to be bad in Marvel Villainous: Infinite Power, a standalone game from designer...

Abandon All Artichokes as You Drop by the Gamewright Dungeon for a Marshmallow Test

NY Toy Fair 2020 opens on Saturday, Feb. 22, and I'm still trying to catch up with what will be shown there, while also building a livestream broadcast schedule for BGG's coverage of both FIJ...

Wonder Woman: Challenge of the Amazons Coming in March 2020 from Ravensburger

With NY Toy Fair 2020 due to open on Saturday, Feb. 22, it's time to start seeing game announcements for licensed titles that will have their revelations timed specifically to this show. Many of...

Stefan Brück to Leave Alea in Mid-2020

Editor Stefan Brück will leave the alea publishing brand — and parent company Ravensburger — in mid-2020.This news was first reported by Sebastian Wenzel on Spielen.de, and I've confirmed...

Game Previews from Spielwarenmesse 2020 III: Beez, Flyin' Goblin, Last-Second Quest, and War of the Ring: Kings of Middle-earth

• Time for more game preview videos from the Spielwarenmesse 2020 trade fair, starting with an overview of Kings of Middle-earth, a new forthcoming expansion for the second edition of War of...

Game Previews from Spielwarenmesse 2020 II: Dodo, Four Gardens, Castle of Mind, Moovz, and Die Wikinger Saga

I've already posted one round-up of game preview videos that BGG recorded at the Spielwarenmesse 2020 trade fair, and now we have 44 such videos in place on our BGG Express YouTube channel in a...