Board Game News

Links: Revisit the 1970s, Explore the Metaverse, and Vote for Game of the Year

• Have you voted for the 2022 Toy of the Year awards? The winners will be announced at a ceremony the evening before NY Toy Fair 2022 opens.In addition to voting in the "Game of the Year"...

Push Marbles, Jump Walls, and Walk in Tiny Shoes

Let's lead off another round-up of two-player games with an iconic representation of that style of game: Mabula, a perfect information abstract-strategy game from designer Néstor Romeral Andrés...

Has Asmodee Purchased BGG? Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Following the news that Asmodee purchased U.S. game retailer Miniature Market sometime in 2021, multiple BoardGameGeek users have wondered whether Asmodee had purchased anything else on the sly,...

Reworking Kanban for Bots, Revisiting Ra, and Replaying the Vietnam War

• Vital Lacerda's Weather Machine from Eagle-Gryphon Games just finished raking in more than US$1 million on Kickstarter, and the designer and publisher are already dropping details about their...

The Smart Gamer's Guide to Putting Away Board Games

In my experience, people spend far too much time putting away their board games once the game ends. So many bags! So much time sorting!The video below demonstrates my ideal and efficient method...

Bring Star Trek and Heroes of Might and Magic III to Your Tabletop

• U.S. publisher WizKids has been releasing Star Trek-themed games for years, and it will release two more such titles in 2022, both being themed editions of previously released games. Star...

Designer Diary: How and Why I Did Cthulhu Wars Duel

This Cthulhu Wars: Duel designer diary is, I think, useful for anyone, but it is clearly far MORE useful if you actually know my game Cthulhu Wars. Back in 2013 when I first launched the campaign...

Game Overview: Fairy Tale Inn, or Connect for Points

Publisher CMON Limited is best known for giant, extravagantly-produced, miniature-filled games with multiple expansions that bless mailpersons around the world with hernias, but the company also...

Take Two to the Table for Quarto, Florist, and TRAPEZ

• Blaise Muller's strategy game Quarto turns thirty in 2021, as does French publisher Gigamic, which launched its catalog — and a still growing series of wooden abstract strategy games —...

Online U.S. Retailer Miniature Market Purchased by Asmodee

As I noted on Dec. 15, 2021, Swedish company Embracer Group AB — which owns multiple businesses that develop and publish PC, console and mobile games — is purchasing Asmodee for €2.75...

Game Overview: Imperial Steam, or The Struggle of Building Track is Real

I left Gen Con 2021 buzzing with excitement, mainly because it was my first time attending Gen Con and I had a blast, but also because Clay Ross from Capstone Games gave me an enthusiastic...

Gamefound Introduces VAT Payment Option for Non-EU Publishers

On December 8, 2021, Kickstarter published "The Future of Crowdfunding Creative Projects", an article that presents an overview of plans for the company and for the idea of crowdfunding in...

Attack Opponents with Tiles, Build More Bean Farms, and Watch Cats and Chocolates Proliferate

I constantly send myself links to Japanese games that I see in passing or leave tweets open in a browser for months with the unstated promise that I'll investigate the featured game. This post...

Asmodee to Sell for €2.75 Billion to Sweden's Embracer Group

In October 2018, the Paris-based private equity firm Eurazeo sold its stake in game publisher Asmodee to PAI Partners, another Paris-based private equity house, with Asmodee having an enterprise...

Build Your Own Publishing House in Machi Koro

In November 2021, I posted an overview of titles coming from German publisher KOSMOS in the first half of 2022, and now a few more titles have come to light, starting with a special edition of...

Designer Diary: Dollars to Donuts, or Pulling Back the Curtain (of Icing)

Hi, everyone! Patrick Kapera from Crafty Games here. We have a special behind-the-scenes look at Dollars to Donuts to share with you today. This collection of articles was originally presented in...

Game Overview: Pantareï, or One-Dimensional Checkers

French publisher Cosmoludo first previewed its line of abstract strategy games at the FIJ game fair in Cannes in 2019, and at that show I had the pleasure of interviewing designer Claude Leroy,...

Links: Betting on Azul, Celebrating Ten Years of Bombyx, and Going Cardboard

• To highlight another licensing success(?) in the Asmodee catalog and add to the long list of licensing in this Nov. 2021 post, check out the Azul-themed scratch ticket at right released by...

Relive Black Monday, Grab Three Dicey Combos, and Color New York Your Own

To follow up on this week's post covering a half-dozen November 2021 releases from Korean publisher Playte, here's another quartet of new editions of older games that it plans to publish in the...

Game Overview: Brian Boru, or the High King of Area Majority Awesomeness

Brian Boru: High King of Ireland, is a new release from designer Peer Sylvester (The King is Dead, The Lost Expedition) and Osprey Games, which features a unique and interesting blend of...

Kickstarter to Fund and Adopt Decentralized Blockchain-Based Protocol

On December 8, 2021, Kickstarter published "The Future of Crowdfunding Creative Projects", an article by founder and chair Perry Chen and CEO Aziz Hasan that presented an overview of plans for...

Sail the Chao Phraya River, and Engage in a Battle Through History with Sabaton

As we near the end of 2021, I find myself with a large number of newly released or upcoming games in my inbox and on browser tabs about which I know very little, but about which I know just...

Designer Diary: Merchants of Magick

As of November 2021, Merchants of Magick pre-orders are being delivered, and hopefully it will show up at your local game store soon. It's been a journey getting to this point, and I wanted to...

Brew Potions, Stack Penguins, and Avoid Vampire Hunters with Playte

While researching the catalog of Korean publisher Playte — formerly known as OPEN'N PLAY — ahead of an October 2021 post about a trilogy of new releases, I discovered many titles on the...

Bring Dinosaurs Back to Life...Again...in Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla Nublar

At Gen Con 2021, U.S. publisher Funko Games teased an upcoming title based on the Jurassic Park IP:A @JurassicWorld-based legacy game is in the works from @FunkoGames for release in Q3 2022. This...

Designer Diary: Of Murderous Rabbits, Crossbow-Slinging Squirrels, and Medieval Manuscripts, or A Tale of Illumination

I've been designing board games for two decades now, and with a Nigel Tufnel's worth of published designs behind me, I think I've detected three trends or perhaps even (to sound fancier about it)...

Game Overview: Templari, Don, and Serengeti, or A Forbidding Game

I'm a fan of minimalist game designs, games that throw you and your fellow players into a pit to face a specific, relatively simple challenge that is not, in fact, simple since you all keep...

Vital Lacerda's Weather Machine on Kickstarter & Highlights of Kanban EV

In an August 2021 post, I mentioned Vital Lacerda's latest big, heavy release, Weather Machine, was coming to Kickstarter. Eagle-Gryphon Games officially launched Weather Machine on Kickstarter...

Designer Diary: Canopy

The idea for Canopy was sparked by a style of drafting Magic: The Gathering cards called Winston drafting, which was designed by Magic creator Richard Garfield. For several years, my brother Ben...

Japanese Game Round-up: Publish Dissertations, Hoard Books, and Find Balance in Black and White

I haven't done a round-up of Japanese games in a while, so let's survey a few of the games that I've had open in browser tabs for far too long:• Japanese publisher 双子のライオン堂 —...