Board Game News

Craft Golden Temples on Ravensburger's Red Peak Before Racing to Scotland Yard

• Let's dive into more coverage of the Spielwarenmesse toy fair that ended on February 3, 2019.To point out another example of a trend I identified the other day — that being a move by...

Licensed Editions of Talisman Coming from USAopoly

In yet another sign of how today's Games Workshop differs from the Games Workshop of old, the UK company has announced a deal with USAopoly to develop and release "licensed versions of the...

Space Cowboys Resets TIME Stories, Revives Jaipur, Reveals Jodhpur, and Re-Covers Splendor

At the 2019 Spielwarenmesse toy fair, I spent a fair amount of time talking with François Doucet from Space Cowboys about the multiple projects coming from this French publisher in 2019.• The...

Director Diary: The Game Designers

The Game Designers is a new feature-length documentary film about board game designers. My name is Eric Rayl, and I am the director of the film. In this diary, I go behind-the-scenes to describe...

Game Preview: Doppelt So Clever, or Rolling the Dice Again and Again

The amazing thing about Doppelt so clever isn't that Wolfgang Warsch designed a sequel to his award-nominated Ganz schön clever that feels pretty much like an alternate Earth version of the...

Welcome New Faces to Villainous with Wicked to the Core

The bigger the game launch, the more chances you have for someone to screw up. In early February 2019, BGG user Tones Bones spotted an expansion for Villainous on the shelves of a local Target,...

Alea Celebrates Twenty Years with a New Look for Las Vegas Royale and The Castles of Burgundy

The alea game brand debuted from the German publishing house Ravensburger at the Spielwarenmesse toy fair in 1999 with the presentation of its first two titles: Reiner Knizia's Ra and Karsten...

Spielwarenmesse 2019: Heads Up

No post today as I chose to sleep over writing something last night — apparently I have gained wisdom with age — but I've posted a few pics from the Spielwarenmesse 2019 toy fair on the BGG...

Designer Diary: Brave Little Belgium

Now that the school year is almost half over, I am reminded of my years spent at St. Dominic's Catholic School in Baltimore, Maryland. Like many kids of the late 1970s/early 1980s, I was...

Plan B Unveils Century: A New World and Era: Medieval Age

With Spielwarenmesse 2019 — the annual toy fair in Nürnberg, Germany — opening today, Canadian publisher Plan B Games has decided to spill the beans on two games that it will be showing to...

Portal Games Unveils a Massive Line-up for Its 20th Anniversary

On Saturday, January 26, 2019, Portal Games celebrated its twentieth anniversary, and while the Polish publisher had already announced some of its 2019 releases during SPIEL '18 — the second...

Game Preview: Ganymede, or Interplanetary Cubist Adventures

I first posted about publisher Sorry We Are French in January 2018, noting that the company's initial two releases would be Immortal 8 and Edamame, yet the latter title still hasn't been released...

BGG.CON 2018 Recap

Here we are once again for my marathon BGG.CON coverage! This year I'm hoping to fit it all into one part, some of the game publishers I had missed at BGG.CON didn't reply to emails asking for...

Tricky Card Plays, Dice Challenges, and More of The Mind Arrive from NSV in 2019

• I'm reaching the crunch stage of convention preparation in which lots of info is hitting the waters at once ahead of the Spielwarenmesse toy fair that opens in Nürnberg, Germany on January...

Game Preview: Loser, or The Game of Existential Amphibian Despair

It's impossible to hear the word "loser" without having the Beck song come to mind, especially when someone out-and-out references the Beck song directly. Sorry about that!Loser is a card game...

New Game Round-up: Stack Rocks in Tuki, Escape Lava in Red Peak, and Claim Land in Iwari

• Canadian publisher Next Move Games has previously challenged you to arrange ceramic tiles, coral reef, and stained glass, and now it asks: How do you feel about rocks?Next Move's next release...

New Game Round-up: Travel Through Middle-earth Again Before Racing Animals in China

• Nearly two decades after Reiner Knizia's co-operative game Lord of the Rings debuted, with a Fantasy Flight Games version of that design hitting the market in 2001, FFG is now taking another...

Puerto Rico Expansions Return to Print in April 2019

To add on to all the recent news from Rio Grande Games, the U.S. publisher has announced that in April 2019 it will release Puerto Rico: Expansions 1&2 – The New Buildings & The Nobles, a...

Time to Expand the Oniverse with Aerion, Then Lift Off for More from Z-Man Games

• How did I miss this?! In December 2018, Z-Man Games announced that the fifth title in Shadi Torbey's Oniverse series of solo/co-operative games for 1-2 players would be released in early...

The Rebirth of Rio Grande Games: Underwater Cities, Caravan, Nevada City, and More

U.S. publisher Rio Grande Games is going through something of a renaissance right now. Over the past few years, the company has released only a few new games — mostly Dominion titles and Tom...

New Game Round-up: Build Cities, Collect Spirits, Become Death, and (Above All) Stay Cool

For our early 2019 convention preview, I'm pulling together info from companies in Germany, the U.S., France, and elsewhere, and it's interesting to see the contrasts in who is doing what. Here's...

Roll for the Galaxy: Rivalry Arrives on Earth in February 2019

Rio Grande Games has announced a release date for the long-awaited second expansion for Wei-Hwa Huang and Tom Lehmann's Roll for the Galaxy, with production manager Ken Hill telling me that Roll...

Pauchon and Days of Wonder Roll from Yspahan to Corinth to Write History Anew

"Everything old is new again" seems to be a common practice in today's game industry. The market is hungry for titles — possibly due to so many titles being released, which exacerbates the...

New Game Round-up: Build Copenhagen, Explore Luxor Anew, and Build New Worlds in Minecraft

• Another day, another announcement or seven from one publisher or another, with Queen Games teasing info on three early 2019 releases for now. Let's start with the trendiest title of the...

Restoration Games to Bring Back Conspiracy at Origins 2019

U.S. publisher Restoration Games, which most recently blew the doors off Kickstarter with its campaign for a new edition of Fireball Island, has announced the next title to be "restored" as part...

Designer Diary: Beta Colony, or It All Started with Space Vikings!!!

Ben Pinchback here, one of the co-designers of Beta Colony. I'll be doing the main writing on this designer diary, with Matt Riddle, Beta Colony's other designer, chiming in with his comments,...

Game Industry Happenings: Stackpole Resigns from GAMA, Asmodee Buys Something, and Uwe Mölter Retires

• On Sunday, January 5, 2019, game designer Michael Stackpole resigned from the Board of Directors of Game Manufacturers Association, a.k.a. GAMA, a position that he's held for eleven years as...

Schmidt Spiele Welcomes More Warsch in 2019, with Doppelt So Clever, Herbal Witches for Quacksalber, and The Tavern of the Deep Valley

• As January continues, the German publishers are dropping their catalogs into public view one by one, with Schmidt Spiele being the next one to do so.The highlight title for me — and...

Prepare Yourself for Paint, Pearls, Pets, Proving Grounds, and Puffy Dice in Early 2019

• French publisher Super Meeple, which to date has focused on new edition of older games, has given details of its first original release: Couleurs de Paris (Colors of Paris) from first-time...

Forget Polyominoes! It's Time for Polycube Games Instead!

• Japanese designer Mitsuo Yamamoto has released many abstract strategy designs through his Logy Games brand, with most of the games including handmade ceramic or wood components.For those who...