Board Game News

Build Forum Trajanum with Feld, Rieneck and HUCH! in Late 2018

• Yesterday I posted about titles coming in the first half of 2018 from German publisher HUCH! Today I'll cover a few games coming in the latter half of the year, with them most likely debuting...

In Early 2018, HUCH! Challenges You to Find Treasure, Capture Animals, Catch Fish, and Build Dams

As is the pattern with many German publishers in the weeks prior to the Spielwarenmesse trade fair in Nürnberg, Germany, HUCH! has released information on the new games that it expects to...

Memoir '44 to Head Through Jungle and Desert in April 2018

Sometimes you're not sure whether a longtime game franchise is dead or not. Carcassonne, Catan, and Ticket to Ride keep rolling along year after year, with expansions dropped almost annually for...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Outfox the Movable Tokyo Chicken Spirit

With a new year comes a new wave of board and card game Kickstarter projects because everyone's now finished with their holiday purchases and ready to spend some money on themselves. That's the...

New Game Round-up: Being Immortal, Fighting Gaia's Hope, and Discovering New Land

• In the world of game publishers, the most amusing name of all time is Sorry We Are French, a new publisher located in (surprise!) France that will debut with two titles in 2018.Immortal 8 is...

BGG.CON 2017 — Part 1

Author's Note: Sorry about the delay; I brought home some "con crud" that knocked me out for about two weeks after the con. Of course by then I was also way behind in my other jobs. Some people...

Game Preview: Quadrio, or Connecting Four While Spinning, Too

I keep coming across different things that remind me of how vast the game industry is, whether something in-house such as BGG hitting a milestone of five million unique visitors within a...

For 2018, Blue Orange Games Sticks to Its Strengths: Quick Colorful Designs That Have You Matching, Moving, and Stacking

If you're familiar with the titles from Blue Orange Games, then you generally know what to expect from them. Aside from a few outliers that make up their family game line (Photosynthesis, New...

AMIGO Welcomes 2018 with Monster Attacks, Cat Stacks, Bean Tracks, and Color Attacks

The year 2018 has just begun, and German publisher AMIGO Spiel has already announced its new titles for the first half of the year. What's more, it says that these games will be available in...

Game Preview: Dragon Castle, or Tiling Your New Home for Fun and Profit

As Lorenzo Silva explained in his designer diary for Dragon Castle, the game originated when Luca Ricci approached him with the idea of transforming solitaire mahjong into a multiplayer game.The...

Scythe Comes to an End with The Rise of Fenris

Stonemaier Games has announced the final expansion for Jamey Stegmaier's well-loved and highly regarded Scythe: Scythe: The Rise of Fenris, which is co-designed with Ryan Lopez DeVinaspre and due...

Early 2018 Convention Coverage from BoardGameGeek: Spielwarenmesse/NY Toy Fair/FIJ/GAMA

The year 2018 is only a few hours old, but BGG has already been planning our convention coverage in the first quarter of the year.To start, we will once again be at the Spielwarenmesse trade fair...

New Game Round-up: Draw Sunflowers, Steal Eggs, Then Race for a Crown

• Without looking at the publisher's logo, you could probably know right away that Eric Claverie's Kingdom Run is being released by French publisher Ankama. Look at that chibi artwork! Here's...

Links: Chinatown, Dungeon Masters, Atomic Empire, and a Roll-and-Move Proposal

• In October 2017, Karsten Hartwig's Chinatown got a swooning write-up on the Foundation for Economic Education by Garrett M. Petersen in an article titled "Forget Monopoly: This Board Game...

New Game Round-up: Put Demons to Work, Manipulate Markets, and Float Like a Dandelion

I'm a fan of Japanese games, and I send myself dozens of notes throughout the year of JP games that I see — usually on Twitter as Japanese designers are very active there — for investigation...

New Game Round-up: More Victims for Mr. Jack, and The X-Files Returns...Again

• In November 2017, Swiss publisher Hurrican posted the image below on Facebook, asking, "Have you ever noticed the beautiful rainbow of characters in Mr. Jack? Looks like it's missing colors,...

New Game Round-up: Try Your Hand as a Pulp Detective, and Don't Get Overwhelmed by Hate

• Designers Nate Chatellier and Manny Trembley ran a Kickstarter in early 2017 under their Mind Bottling Games for the dice-based combat game Dice Throne. Copies are being sent to KS backers...

New Game Round-up: Eclipse, Atlantis Rising, and Finca to Return in 2018

• With one week remaining in 2017, I'm clearing out the inbox in order to start the new year — and welcome the flood of announcements ahead of the early year conventions — afresh, and I...

Playing with Kids: First Lessons from a School Board Game Club

My son Traver started attending a new school at the beginning of 2017, and one of the features of the school is after-school care for children whose parent or parents must work during the day. In...

New Game Round-up: Shuffle to Supremacy in CIV: Carta Impera Victoria, Then Build Across Worlds in Rick and Morty: The Ricks Must Be Crazy

• I posted a teaser for CIV: Carta Impera Victoria in early December 2017, and now publisher Ludonaute has passed along more details about this civilization game from newcomer Rémi Amy that...

Links: Asmodee Acquires Purple Brain Creations, Fog of Love Acquires a Fan, and Games Acquire Everything

• Apparently I published my recent round-up of mergers, splits, and distribution deals a little early because on December 21, 2017 — one day after that post ran — Asmodee owner Eurazeo...

Move Down the Spice Road to New Land in Century: Eastern Wonders

When Plan B Games announced its existence in January 2017, the publisher led off with an overview of Emerson Matsuuchi's Century: Spice Road, a design that had evolved from its origins as a...

New Game Round-up: Breed Sheep in Low Lands, Mishandle a Wallet, Then Roll into the Future with Warhammer 40,000 Dice Masters

• In mid-October 2017, WizKids and Games Workshop announced a multi-year partnership to "extend the Warhammer 40,000 universe IP across multiple categories, including Dice Building Games, board...

New Game Round-up: Outsmart Long John Silver on Treasure Island, and Cooperate Under the Seas in UBOOT: The Board Game

• I've already highlighted titles coming in 2018 from French publisher Matagot, and here's one more to add to the list: Treasure Island from Yamataï co-designer Marc Paquien with art by...

Mergers, Splits, and Distribution Deals: Twilight Creations, Passport Game Studios, Goliath, Ankama, and More

One type of news item that I receive somewhat frequently, but rarely post about is an announcement of a special relationship between two companies, whether that be a merger, a purchase, a...

IDW Games Revisits the Past for Future Releases with Masque of the Red Death, Dragon Ball Z: Perfect Cell, The Legend of Korra, and More

• If you wanted to imagine a setting for a party game, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" probably wouldn't be the first thing to pop to mind. No surprise then that Adam Wyse's...

New Game Round-up: Build a New World for Yourself in Beta Colony, and Hit the Tracks Anew in Downforce: Danger Circuit

• U.S. publisher Rio Grande Games has mostly focused on releasing original games the past few years, and in Q1 2018 it will debut Beta Colony from the design team of Ben Pinchback and Matt...

First Hints of Alderac's Game Line-up for 2018

In a December 2017 newsletter, Alderac Entertainment Group highlighted how it had scaled back its game releases in 2017 — with only a dozen new titles being released, three of them exclusively...

Lang and Bauza to Unleash Victorian Masterminds in 2018

Let's set the WABAC Machine to November 2015. Game designer Eric M. Lang showed up as a special guest at BGG.CON, and while at the show, he recorded an overview of Victorian Masterminds with our...

Tokyo Game Market, Autumn 2017 — Report from Table Games in the World

Editor's note: I missed out on Tokyo Game Market in December 2017, but Saigo — who translates game rules between Japanese and English (hire him!) and who tweets about new JP games — has...