Board Game News

Prepping for NY Toy Fair 2020 with Steven Universe, a Piece of Pie, and a Rip Off

I've been swamped with coverage of Spielwarenmesse 2020 — so many pics! so many videos! — and trying to finish off coverage of that event before it got further swamped by other happenings,...

Spielwarenmesse 2020 X: Previews of Games from FIJ 2020

Time to wrap up my coverage of the Spielwarenmesse 2020 trade fair, and for this post we'll mostly check out images of games that will be demoed or sold at the 2020 Festival International des...

Game Preview: Glasgow, or Two People Make Glasgow

Non-final boxAt Spielwarenmesse 2020, as at most conventions, I played very few games as work crowded out almost everything other than eating, sleeping, and trying to catch up on other work. The...

Spielwarenmesse 2020 IX: Sneak Peeks at CMON, Cranio Creations, Capio, Capcool, and CARAPACES

Okay, I vowed to get all of my Spielwarenmesse 2020 trade fair pics into circulation and not let them sit on my phone forever, and I've almost done that. Only one more post to go after this one...

New Game Round-up: Build a Village Green, Flick Some Discs, and Play with Pointy Objects

• U.S. publisher Pandasaurus Games has announced a Q2 2020 release date for both The Mind Extreme — which German publisher NSV debuted at SPIEL '19 (check out my overview here) — and new...

Spielwarenmesse VIII: A Mini-Tour of the Deutsches Spielarchiv in Nürnberg

In 2019 after attending the Spielwarenmesse trade fair for four days, Lincoln Damerst and I took a tour of the Deutsches Spielarchiv, a.k.a. Haus des Spiels, in downtown Nürnberg.The archive is...

Dinosaurs Are Coming! New Mindclash Games on the Horizon...

Mindclash Games has a reputation for releasing deep, heavy games with the theme and mechanisms melded together seamlessly, creating immersive gaming experiences. I can recall the first time I...

Spielwarenmesse 2020 VII: Alma Mater, Adventure Mart, Azul: Crystal Mosaic, and Some Upcoming Games That Don't Being with "A"

Time for more pics from the Spielwarenmesse 2020 trade fair in Nürnberg, Germany, which Lincoln Damerst and I attended from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2. So many games to see in an unfinished state! So...

Designer Diary: Back from the Dead, or Designing Gloomy Graves

Digging Up the PastFlashback to 2009: Heartland, the first game that I had signed as a game designer (in 2005), was published in Germany, where I live. It was getting good reviews and was even...

Game Previews from Spielwarenmesse 2020 I: New York Zoo, The Castles of Tuscany, Wild Space, and Enigma: Beyond Code

Woo! Lincoln and Nikki have been cranking through the raw video footage that we brought back from the Spielwarenmesse 2020 trade fair, and they've now published more than a dozen edited game...

Spielwarenmesse 2020 VI: Pics of Upcoming Games from Horrible, HABA, Tactic & Ravensburger

Time for more pics from the Spielwarenmesse 2020 trade fair, which is comprised of exhibits in twelve halls and many other spaces in the 180,000 m² of the Messe in Nürnberg, Germany. Games can...

Spielwarenmesse 2020 V: A Tour of Nürnberg Outside the Messe

For this Sunday post, I thought I'd show a few pics taken outside the Spielwarenmesse trade fair as Lincoln and I didn't spend every moment inside the Messe looking at games — only 86% of our...

Spielwarenmesse 2020 IV: Pics of Upcoming Games from KOSMOS, Queen, and Korea Boardgames

Let's check out more pics from the Spielwarenmesse 2020 trade fair, starting with a handful of titles from German publisher KOSMOS. In addition to what's shown below, KOSMOS had mock-ups of...

Spielwarenmesse 2020 III: Pics of Upcoming Games from IELLO, LOKI, and Hurrican

Time for another round-up of images from the Spielwarenmesse 2020 trade fair, with video overviews of roughly one hundred games coming in the near future on our BGG Express YouTube channel.Let's...

Spielwarenmesse 2020 II: Teaser Pics of Titles from Blue Orange Games, ABACUSSPIELE, and Cocktail Games

Let's check out more pics from the Spielwarenmesse 2020 trade fair while we await the processing of the video overviews that we shot there, starting with a surveying of the Blue Orange Games...

Via Gorilla Marketing, Roxley Prepares for Skyrise and Steampunk Rally Fusion in 2020

I haven't covered anything from Canadian publisher Roxley in a while, and that's partly because I sent questions to Adam Wyse a few times and each time he'd respond, "Not yet. We're still working...

Spielwarenmesse 2020 I: Pics from the Pegasus Spiele Booth — Hansa Teutonica: Big Box, Celtic, Web of Spies, and More

For four days at Spielwarenmesse 2020, Lincoln Damerst and I recorded video overviews of new game releases coming in 2020, and only on the morning of that fourth day did I realize that I had...

Designer Diary: The Grand Trunk Journey, or Does the World Need Another Train Game?

Let's go back to 2012, even if just for a few minutes...You remember 2012? Barack Obama was re-elected President of the United States, the UEFA Euro was held in Poland and Ukraine, and "Gangnam...

Game Overview: The Isle of Cats, or Getting Blocky Kitties on Board

I first got a look at Frank West's The Isle of Cats in June 2019 when BGG recorded an overview of the game at the Origins Game Fair. While Gen Con is the main U.S. convention for game releases,...

New Game Round-up: Create Tranquil Rainforest of Succulents, Then Welcome Free Peoples to War of the Ring

• While making lists of titles that BGG needed to preview at Spielwarenmesse 2020, one game shot to the top of the list when news of it popped up in late January 2020 — War of the Ring: Kings...

Hans im Glück Returns to the Stone Age with Paleo

On January 29, 2020, the day that the Spielwarenmesse trade fair opened in Nürnberg, Germany, publisher Hans im Glück finally revealed what it has in the works for 2020:While filming video...

Blue Orange Games in 2020: Create Rose Bouquets, Shake Maracas, Draw on Dice, Slap Hands, and Explore Dungeons

The European branch of Blue Orange Games — which sometimes releases the same titles as the U.S.-based Blue Orange Games and sometimes doesn't — has unveiled a 2020 "1st semester" catalogue...

Flick Dice, Grow Food, Lead the Celts, and Squeeze a Pile in 2020, Thanks to Pegasus Spiele

• In the run-up to Spielwarenmesse, German publisher Pegasus Spiele often shares info only at the last minute and sometimes — as in 2020 — only in the form of a spreadsheet with the barest...

Spielwarenmesse 2020: Ravensburger Teases The Castles of Tuscany, Harry Potter Strike Dice Game

Lincoln Damerst and I spent our first day at Spielwarenmesse 2020 filming game overviews for publication on our BGG Express channel on YouTube, and one of the titles that will probably most...

Rise to New Heights Evenly in Treelings, and Use a Goose to Escape the Forest Memorinth

German published Edition Spielwiese has unveiled the two titles it plans to release in the first half of 2020 — both co-published with Pegasus Spiele with rules in English and German — and...

New Game Round-up: Lie About Spices, Share Rings with Friends, and Cut Before You Crawl

• Spielwarenmesse 2020 is upon us, so let me post about a few more titles that BGG expects to film overviews of while in Nürnberg that I haven't yet covered to this point, starting with Spicy,...

Kramer, Kiesling, and Ravensburger Prepare a Boxed Lunch in Jubako

• German publisher Ravensburger releases a few dozen games each year, with lots of "mitbringspiele" — small travel games mostly for youngsters — amongst a few larger designs aimed at...

Eggertspiele Announces Alma Mater; Former Eggertspielers (and Others) Announce Deep Print Games

• The publisher eggertspiele typically releases only a couple of titles each year, and we already have news of two such titles on its release schedule, with the standalone game Alma Mater...

Game Overview: Pictures, or Sticks and Stones Will Depict the Unknowns

Each year at SPIEL, more than a thousand games are introduced to the market, and in all likelihood you will not play 95% of those games. You'll have a list of titles that catch your eye, friends...

Portal Games Expands Detective, Robinson Crusoe, Imperial Settlers; Offers a New Vienna Connection

Polish publisher Portal Games hosted its annual Portalcon event the weekend of January 25, 2020 during which designer Ignacy Trzewiczek presented an overview of the company's 2020 release...