Board Game News

Designer Diary: Fist of Dragonstones, The Tavern Edition, or Revamping Old Games

My blog at Faidutti.com is not as visited as it was these last years. I have only an average of three hundred daily visitors in 2018, half of what I had three years ago. As a result, I've decided...

Mergers: Stronghold and IBC Form Indie Game Studios, Greater Than Games to Acquire Cheapass, Asmodee Also Buys Something

• I missed a lot while I was at Gen Con 2018, and what I didn't miss, I mostly didn't have time to write about. Too much work in too little time, followed by a week of crunching SPIEL '18 info...

Friedemann Friese Forecasts Fun for Future Fairgoers

Time to start looking at some of the titles being placed in the SPIEL '18 Preview — 446 listings to date! — and what better place to start than with German publisher 2F-Spiele near the top of...

Dune Board, Miniature & Tabletop Role-Playing Games Coming from Gale Force Nine

U.S. publisher Gale Force Nine has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Legendary Entertainment and Herbert Properties LLC to "bring the beloved sci-fi franchise DUNE to the world of...

Game Preview: Lost Cities: Rivals, or RAlly Yourself to Dream of Hollywood Expeditions

I don't know why I'm so surprised to discover — or rather re-discover — that Reiner Knizia is an incredibly good designer, but here I am, discovering it yet again in Lost Cities: Rivals,...

Designer Diary: Northern Pacific and Me

It is customary, I suppose, to begin a designer diary with where the idea for the game came from, what the impetus was for the design. I wish I could say that it started with a theme or a...

Photo Guide to Gen Con 2018!

Welcome to Gen Con! Steph's Photo Guide to Gen Con 2018 BoardGameGeek!BGG HOT GAMES ROOM!...CMON Global Limited...Renegade Game Studios...Stronghold Games...Portal Games...Blue Orange...

The BGG Show: Live from Gen Con 2018, Albeit Now Not Live Since We Recorded This

Gen Con 2018 was a whirlwind of activity, with the BGG team recording two hundred or so game overview videos over the four days of the show. I imagine those videos will start popping up on...

Designer Diary: Greedy Kingdoms

My blog at Faidutti.com is not as visited as it was these last years. I have only an average of three hundred daily visitors in 2018, half of what I had three years ago. I'm not sure if it's...

SPIEL '18 Preview: Narabi, or Finding Order in Swiss Chaos

I love games with simple rules, rules that become invisible as you immerse yourself in the gameplay and focus on what you want to do rather than whether you're allowed to do it.I also love card...

SPIEL '18 Preview Is Now Live

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I was stuck in O'Hare Airport for seven hours longer than anticipated on my way home from Gen Con 2018. The good news is that I used that time...

Richard Garfield and Fantasy Flight Games Found KeyForge, a New Model in Game Design and Production

At Fantasy Flight Games' In-Flight Report on Wednesday, August 1, 2018, the day before Gen Con 2018 opened, head of the FFG studio Andrew Navaro and designer Corey Konieczka made a number of game...

New Game Round-up: Explore the Future in Gen7: A Crossroads Game and Tiny Epic Mechs

• On the eve of Gen Con 2018, publishers are still bringing out more surprises, mostly in the form of previously unannounced games that people can demo at the show. Not content to announce...

Designer Diary: Feeling Squirmish, or How The Card Game of Brawling Beasties Came to Be

Back in 2013 or so, my oldest daughter got into collecting Pokémon cards. It seemed weird that while so many kids we knew were getting into collecting the cards, few of them seemed to be into...

Christian T. Petersen to Leave Asmodee North America at End of 2018

Christian T. Petersen will step down from his position as CEO of Asmodee North America at the end of 2018. Here's the complete press release from ANA announcing this personnel...

Gen Con 2018: Short Takes on Lost Cities: Rivals, Reef, Scarabya, Micropolis, and Much More

On the Monday before Gen Con 2018 opens, I've reached the state that I achieve before each convention when I am regretting all of the things that I still wish I could do before the show opens,...

Designer Diary: Most Wanted, or The Love Child of Happy Salmon and Evolution: Climate

This is a story about what can happen when the designers of Happy Salmon collaborate with the designer of Evolution: Climate (a former pro-Magic player). The result is a game that's simple enough...

New Game Round-up: Manage Pipelines, Prepare for Stellar Horizons, and Fight Aliens Again in Project: ELITE

• Capstone Games, which to date has released new versions of games from European publishers, has announced its first original title, with Pipeline being a 2-4 player game with a 120-minute...

The BGG Show: Spiel des Jahres Yapping & Plans for Gen Con 2018

The winners of the 2018 Spiel and Kennerspiel des Jahres were announced on Monday, July 23, and Scott, Steph, Lincoln, and I talk about the games that won and why other games might not have won,...

Designer and Artist Diary: War Chest, or An Ancient Game in Modern Times

War Chest is a bag-building game with Euro, wargame, and abstract roots. At the start of the game, you raise your banner call, drafting several units into your army, which you then use to capture...

Plaid Hat Games to Bring Guardians, Comanauts, and Neon Gods to Gen Con 2018

BGG's Gen Con 2018 Preview now tops more than five hundred titles, and three of the most recent additions to the list are titles that Plaid Hat Games will demo at Gen Con ahead of their release...

Game Preview: Mercado, or Window Shopping for Reputation

We recorded an overview video of Rüdiger Dorn's Mercado in the KOSMOS booth during Spielwarenmesse 2018, but I'll confess that the experience left me with little impression of the game. Part of...

Designer Diary: Junk Orbit, or "I've Got Faaaaith of the Heart!"

Junk Orbit is a game about turning Newton's Third Law into cold hard cash! You launch cargo out of your spaceship, causing the ship to move the same distance in the opposite direction. You're...

Azul Wins the 2018 Spiel des Jahres; Die Quacksalber von Quedlinburg Claims Kennerspiel

The 2018 Spiel des Jahres nominations were announced in mid-May, and after more than two months of speculation the German jury that oversees the award has awarded the 2018 SdJ to Azul, designed...

New Game Round-up: Dino Action in Jurassic Park: The Chaos Gene, Ten Years of Pandemic, and a Game You Can't Talk About

 • Collectibles company Mondo made its first foray into the world of board games in 2017 as co-publisher of The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 with USAopoly's Project Raygun division.Now...

Designer Diary: Pikoko, or Trick-Taking When You Can't See Your Own Hand!

In the first half of 2014, I was obsessing about trick-taking games, buying up many different examples of the genre. I can't remember what sparked the obsession, but like most of my gaming...

Eurazeo in Exclusive Discussions to Sell Asmodee to PAI Partners

Eurazeo, the private equity firm based in Paris that owns game publisher Asmodee, has entered "exclusive discussions" with PAI Partners, another Paris-based private equity house. ("Exclusive...

Hunt for Relics in Talisman: Legendary Tales, Then Avoid Traps in Wacky Races: The Board Game

• German publisher Pegasus Spiele has been attending Gen Con for a couple of years, and for 2018 instead of simply offering titles already released in Germany, it's debuting a new release in...

BGG@Sea: Sights of Alaska 2018

Photography by Scott AldenProcessed by Steph HodgeBGG@Sea 2018Alaska Adventures: A Pictoral GuideSeattleJuneauSkagwayDawes Glacier - Tracy Arm FjordThe Butchart Gardens - Victoria, CanadaAt Sea

Designer Diary: Princess Jing, or The Very Long Walk...

January 1997: I am watching the video of "Remember the Time" on TV. In this video, Michael Jackson, flamboyant magician at the court of Pharaoh, seduces the Queen — who is, of course, the...