Board Game News

Publishers Promote Plundering in Escape Plan, Raids, Ship of Treasures, and More

Non-final cover by Ian O'Toole• Designer Vital Lacerda has been wowing game fans since he arrived on the scene with Vinhos in 2010, and his next release with frequent publishing partner...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Battle Strike Slaughter for Afflicted Monster Demons

• Monster Slaughter from Henri Pym and Ankama might suffer from a bit of confusion given the title as the monsters are not being slaughtered but are the ones doing the slaughtering, with the...

Links: More Games of the Year, and Catan on Film?

• The Toy Association, a non-profit association that represents manufacturers and distributors of toy and "youth entertainment" products, has announced its nominees for their "toy of the year"...

SPIEL '17 Postview: Meeple Circus, or Piling Up the Points

[I wrote a decent number of game previews prior to SPIEL '17 — twelve in October 2017 and ten in September — but I played far more games than that, and further previews were thwarted only due...

Lucca Comics & Games 2017 III: New and Nearly-New Games at the Show

When I first looked around the games pavilion at the 2017 Lucca Comics & Games festival, I had flashbacks of the just finished SPIEL '17 event, the massive convention in Essen, Germany that had...

Brief Update, SPIEL '17 Videos, and What's Up with Mayfair?

Three things:1. I'm still on the road for another couple of days. Regular posts will return soon, starting with my final Lucca Comics & Games report.2. I've started publishing the individual game...

Designer Diary: Spirit Island, or Inverting the Colonization Trope

[Editor's note: Designer R. Eric Reuss submitted this designer diary prior to Gen Con 50, but given the shortness of supply at the time, I decided to hold off on publishing it until the game...

Lucca Comics & Games 2017 II: Putting the Play Into Cosplay

As I mentioned in my first report from the 2017 Lucca Comics & Games festival, the event attracts tons of cosplayers, many of whom circle the pedestrian walkway around the center of town posing...

Lucca Comics & Games 2017 I: Walking the Landscape

For years, I had heard about the annual Lucca Comics & Games festival in early November, mostly from Italian publishers and designers who planned to highlight new games at that show in the wake...

At SPIEL '17, Portal Games Teases Monolith Arena, Detective, Robinson Crusoe: The Lost City of Z, and More

At SPIEL '17, Ignacy Trzewiczek of Portal Games held a press conference to highlight the company's game and expansion releases scheduled for 2018. I tweeted pics from the conference during SPIEL,...

New Game Round-up: Renegade's Stacking People and Dreaming Dice, While Privateer Tries to Induct Players in a Company of Iron

• Renegade Game Studios might have had issues getting games on site at SPIEL '17 (and logistics and custom issues hampered many companies during the show), but their game publicity processes...

SPIEL '17: The Day After, and Plans for Lucca

SPIEL '17 is over — but you knew that already, didn't you? All the tweets have ended, and the #SPIEL17 hashtag is being used only by those like me who still need to filter through hundreds of...

Crowdfunding Round-up: The Downfall of the Sleepy Rooted Cowboys

• Cole Wehrle's John Company from Sierra Madre Games made a splash at SPIEL '17, and he has a very different looking game making a splash on Kickstarter as well, with cute animal artwork...

Designer's Diary: Age of Thieves: Masters of Disguise

Thieves entered the dark while unaware city guards were waiting impatiently for the end of their duty, not knowing how many things would change for the Empire by the time this night was...

SPIEL '17 News: Two New Alea Titles in 2018, More Questing for El Dorado

During SPIEL '17, Ravensburger hosted its first "Lunch & Play" event for the media, and during that presentation the German publisher revealed teasers for a few upcoming releases.Designer Reiner...

SPIEL '17: Pics from the Press Room — Charterstone, Gaia Project, and More

The first day of SPIEL '17 is over, but as is often the case for me at conventions, I'm not even caught up to date after SPIEL's 0th day, that being the press day in which you get to take pics of...

Designer Diary: Flamme Rouge: Peloton, or From One to Twelve Racers

If you have at all followed Flamme Rouge's life here on BGG, it should come as no surprise that an expansion would be coming. From before the base game released in late 2016, I had released extra...

SPIEL '17: Set-Up Day, Late Surprises, Missing Games, and Outrageous Booths

It's amazing how good eight hours of sleep can feel sometimes, and I should enjoy it since I probably won't clock that number again for several days. I landed in Düsseldorf, Germany around 6:00...

Designer Diary: Paper Tales

How It BeganI started game designing in 2010. Around that time, the board game scene in Japan was growing rapidly; more overseas games were imported and localized, participants of Tokyo Game...

SPIEL '17 Preview: Battlefold, or Fancy Face Beating with a Twist

Fold-it, released by designer Yohan Goh and Korean publisher Happy Baobab in 2016, is a representation of a game that we've seen many times before: Here's a pattern; now recreate that pattern...

Designer Diary: Building John Company

John Company debuts this week at SPIEL '17, and it looks like copies will be shipping to those who preordered the game in the coming weeks. Given that the design of the game has taken nearly a...

SPIEL '17 Preview: Destination X, or Where in the World Is Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?

Rarely do you learn about a game and immediately wonder why it doesn't bear the licensing of some well-known IP, but should you bring Destination X to the table, you will undoubtedly share the...

Designer Diary: Minute Realms

Hello! I'm the designer of Minute Realms, and I'd like to share some of the development phases of my new game.It’s been a while since I decided that I wanted to design a card-drafting game. My...

Designer Diary: Wanted: Rich or Dead

Hello! My name is Dariusz Kułak, and I am the designer of Wanted: Rich or Dead, a Western-themed party game scheduled to debut from Galakta at SPIEL '17. I wish to tell you a little about my...

SPIEL '17 Preview: Cuckooo!, or A Blackjack to the Head

Every day with every play I relearn the folly of thinking that you can play a game once and understand how it works, especially when you make small rule errors that destroy the effect the...

Designer Diary: Space Freaks

My name is Max Wikström, and apart from being a game designer in the Toadkings company, for my day job I work as a freelance set- and lighting-designer for the theater. I've found that the...

WizKids Signs Licensing Deal with Games Workshop

In case the early 2018 release of Warhammer 40,000: Heroes of Black Reach from Devil Pig Games (as detailed here) won't satisfy your desire for games set in a far-flung ultra-violent future,...

Designer Diary: Boom, Bang, Gold, or From the Spark to the Dynamite!

My name is Alex, and I live in France, fifty miles south of Paris. I have been playing board games for more than fifteen years, falling in love back then with gems like Puerto Rico and Euphrat...

New Game Round-up: Find the Replicant in Blade Runner 2049, Find New Keepers in L5R, and Find Your Wallet to Meet Your Destiny

Let's take a break from the recent stream of designer diaries to recap some of the non-SPIEL '17 game announcements that have occurred:• Fantasy Flight Games has invited you to sell a kidney or...

Designer Diary: The Masters' Trials: Wrath of Magmaroth, or Two Designers' Trials to Go from a City to a Dungeon

The following was also posted in parts on AEG's website.In The BeginningVangelis Bagiartakis (VB): After designing Dice City, I knew that the "dice-crafting" mechanism it had could find many uses...