Board Game News

New Game Round-up: Face New Ghosts in a Creepy Cellar, Then Fight to Save Treasure on a Sinking Ship

• Gen Con 2018 opens in just over two weeks, and publishers are still making plenty of announcements about the new titles they'll have for sale at the show, as with Mattel's revelation of an...

Game Preview: Blue Lagoon, or Through the Archipelago

A game is its scoring system.I'm not sure that this statement holds for all games, but for many designs it does. The scoring system determines who wins a competitive game, so if players are...

Designer Diary: Gunkimono, or From the Heartland to Medieval Japan

Planting the SeedsGunkimono is a re-theme of my game, Heartland (a.k.a., Eine Frage der Ähre), which was first published in Germany by Pegasus Spiele in 2009.I have lived in Berlin for most of...

New Game Round-up: Making Your Goods ShipShape, Selling Heaven & Ale, and Buying Property in the 41st Millennium

• U.S. publisher Calliope Games has announced the next trilogy of games in its Titan Series, starting with Rob Daviau's ShipShape, which appears to be a "normal" game and not one of those...

The BGG Show: Reminiscing Over CCGs and BGG@Sea

Time for another episode of The BGG Show, with Rodney Smith and Steph Hodge joining the usual trio of Scott Alden, Lincoln Damerst, and yours truly. Everyone not named Eric participated in one or...

Game Preview: Villainous, or Fine, Now I'm the Bad Guy

Each year at NY Toy Fair, I get a sampling of the game industry from the viewpoint of the mainstream market. Yes, hobby games are present in small numbers, but for the most part publishers are...

Wizards of the Coast Changes Your Money into Their Wallets with Transformers TCG; Azul Shines Again with Stained Glass of Sintra

• In March 2018, I had posted a teaser about Axis & Allies & Zombies from Avalon Hill, and in that very post, the teaser image also referred to a Transformers Trading Card Game from AH owner...

Game Preview: Spring Meadow, or Playing Tetris on a Mountainside

Gen Con 2018 opens in just over three weeks — convention preview here! — so it's time to start rolling out previews for games that will debut or first be widely available at that show,...

Quiet Days, Busy Nights

My apologies for the radio silence the past few days. I've been traveling for the July 4th holiday here in the U.S., while also working behind the scenes on various other things.The Gen Con 2018...

Game Preview: Cahoots, or Colorful Combos Are in the Cards

While at the 2018 Origins Game Fair in mid-June, I spent most of my time in the BGG booth either on camera talking with people about their new games, with people who wanted to schedule time on...

New Game Round-up: Steal from the Future, Spring Tricks on Others, and Play for Your Partner

I send so many notes to myself about new games that it's hard to keep up with them all. So many games! Here are a few titles in the inbox that I've yet to cover:• Designer Richard Breese of R&D...

New Game Round-up: Ground Floor Rises Again, Spielworxx Launches Captains of the Gulf, and Ravensburger Prepares for Summer

• German publisher HUCH! has unveiled the cover artwork of Stefan Feld's Forum Trajanum, which will debut at SPIEL '18 in October. No more game details, though, so we'll have to wait a bit...

Designer Diary: Welcome to...

For the past week or so, something pretty insane has been happening to me.My game, Welcome to..., became number one on the BGG hotness list, staying ahead of amazing games such as Gloomhaven and...

Colonies Arrive for Terraforming Mars, While Lehmann Races to New Frontiers

• Stronghold Games already plans to debut Terraforming Mars: Prelude at Gen Con 2018 in August, but if you want to raise your eyes a little further from the horizon, you can look forward to...

In Late 2018, KOSMOS Welcomes the Return of Imhotep, New Heroes for Andor, Dicey Adventure, and Horror in the Catacombs

• With only four months until SPIEL '18 opens, German publisher KOSMOS has dropped info on its line-up for the second half of 2018, with the title likely to garner the most attention being...

Designer Diary: Master of the Galaxy

Master of the Galaxy is a "bag-building game". If you are not familiar with the concept, it is a lot like deck-building games, but instead of a deck of cards, you manage a bag with different...

New Game Round-up: Collect Minerals, Trade in Cryptocurrencies, and Win a Place in the Zodiac

 • Minerals from Magdalena Śliwińska is one of two titles that Polish publisher Games Factory plans to release at SPIEL '18 in October – the other being Solar City — and this game...

Game Preview: Ticket to Ride: New York, or A Tiny Ride in the Big Apple

When Alan R. Moon's Ticket to Ride hit the market in 2004, it launched a wave of enthusiasm that's still creating ripple effects in 2018. I remember playing Ticket to Ride for the first time in a...

Pearl Games Welcomes Rise of Sun Moon for SPIEL '18

Sébastien Dujardin of Belgian publisher Pearl Games has passed along updated release plans for SPIEL '18 and the beginning of 2019.To begin, at SPIEL '18 in October, Dujardin plans to release...

Links: Rosewater Defines Games, and Monolith Redefines Kickstarter

• For its Batman: Gotham City Chronicles Kickstarter in early 2018, French publisher Monolith decided to make the game exclusively available through Kickstarter (and perhaps at conventions...

New Game Round-up: SPIEL '18 — Share Ammo in Sentinels, Fight Bandits in Colt Express, and Fall Down in Gravity Superstar

Gen Con 2018 is still six weeks in the future at this point, but European publishers have been prepping ahead for SPIEL '18, so let's see what a few have in the works:• For its large release in...

Designer Diary: Costume Party Assassins, and the Power of LEGO Prototypes

Like most good things in my life, Costume Party Assassins started with my wife. She was tired of being subjected to my latest overly complex game design — think "Cones of Dunshire" from Parks...

Take a Look at What Happened at the 2018 Origins Game Fair!

Welcome to Origins! Steph's Photo Guide to Origins 2018 Here's me!BGG Store!Available now Rainbow Bit Bowls! The Draugr New!...eggertspiele, Plan B Games, Next Move GamesCoimbra, Century: Eastern...

New Game Round-up: Explore the Vault of Dragons, and Go for the Goal in 1st & Roll

I've been focusing on the 2018 Origins Game Fair for weeks, with many game announcements falling by the wayside as I prepared for that show and prepped the Gen Con 2018 Preview. Let's check out a...

The Gen Con 2018 Preview Is Now Live!

Let's cut to the chase: With the 2018 Origins Game Fair in the books, BGG's Gen Con 2018 Preview is now live for your perusal. I've sent requests for information to about 240 publishers, and I've...

Game Overview: Facecards, or The Eyes Have It...Then Lost It Again

The number of games being released annually is astounding, with hundreds of new games appearing just at the SPIEL convention in Essen, Germany each year. No wonder then that some games at that...

New Game Round-up: Marvel Strike Teams Pits Hero Against Mastermind, and Looney Labs Expands Worlds

I feel like I've been focusing on the 2018 Origins Game Fair for weeks, with dozens of game announcements falling by the wayside along the way. Let's check out a few of these titles:• WizKids...

Game Overview: Fae, or Colorful Clans Clash in Celtic Clothes

Everything old is new again, sometimes with the thing being reworked and presented anew in the hope of capturing the old audience while bringing in new faces, as in the multiple reboots of the...

Designer Diary: SEAL Team Flix, or How To Publish A Game In Seven Years

Our names are Pete Ruth and Mark Thomas, and we are the designers of SEAL Team Flix, a dexterity and tactical combat game published by WizKids. We think we have a pretty interesting story to...

Episode #11 of The BoardGameGeek Show — Steph Hodge and Rodney Smith Drop In

In the latest episode of The BoardGameGeek Show, we have gone full Voltron, with new BGG team members Steph Hodge and Rodney Smith joining Scott Alden, Lincoln Damerst, and me to talk about our...