Board Game News

Game Preview: Tides of Time, or Plucking Points from Shifting Waters

This post serves as both coverage of the 2015 Origins Game Fair and a preview of Gen Con 2015. Double duty!At Origins, Chevee Dodd was showing off three titles from Portal Games that will debut...

Eclipse Gets Larger Thanks to Shadow of the Rift

Sampo Sikiö teased Eclipse fans with a dexterity-based expansion on April 1, 2015, but news of the expansion is real, with Eclipse: Shadow of the Rift due out from Touko Tahkokallio and Finnish...

Game Preview: Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot

At the 2015 Origins Game Fair, I tried a number of games that debuted at the show or will be released in the near future, including Ignacy Trzewiczek's Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot, which will...

Looking Ahead to Gen Con 2015 — Send Me Your Info!

The 2015 Origins Game Fair is over. I've tweeted lots of pics and notes from the show on BGG's Twitter account, and I'll round up the most newsworthy of them in a separate post.For now, though,...

Coverage of Origins Game Fair 2015

If you're reading this post, then the 2015 Origins Game Fair has opened on Thursday, June 4, and I'm on site to investigate newly released and upcoming games for coverage on BGG News.To start...

WizKids Readies Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Games for 2015

Early news from the 2015 Origins Game Fair (with me arriving in Columbus, Ohio soon to find out more things firsthand) has WizKids Games announcing a deal with Nickelodeon to release "multiple...

Game 411: Broom Service

Broom Service is already on the radar of many gamers since (1) it's the newest big box release from alea, Ravensburger's brand for more involved games, (2) it's a new version of Andreas Pelikan's...

Stronghold Games to Release Porta Nigra in November 2015

Continuing its association with German publisher eggertspiele, U.S. publisher Stronghold Games has announced that it will release Porta Nigra — a new design from Wolfgang Kramer and Michael...

Game 411: Why First?

When I posted a pic of Simon Havard's Why First? from Pegasus Spiele in March 2015, designer and local-to-me-gamer Matt Wolfe responded, "OK, I need to play that. Had a similar idea for a...

Tokyo Game Market • May 2015 II: Games Seen, Games Played, Games Photographed

Nearly a month after Tokyo Game Market in May 2015, I feel like I'm still recovering. So much to think about, so much to recall, so much to play! Not to mention, of course, that one convention...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Raging Infections, Racing Expeditions, & Far More Miniatures Games Than I Anticipated

• Time for another week's worth of publishers looking for your help to bring their games to your table, starting with Barking Up The Wrong Tree from designers Gary Dicken, Steve Kendall, and...

Game 411: Katteni Shiyagare

Many games from Japanese publishers are minimalist designs, featuring only a dozen or so cards or other components with the gameplay involving a single game mechanism. One great example of this...

New Game Round-up: Building a New Community, Leaving Earth, Then Starting a New Five Year Mission

• U.S. publisher Mayfair Games runs a number of tournaments and events each Gen Con, and for Gen Con 2015 it has two big events planned.First, Mayfair is hosting "The Big Game", a sequel to its...

Game 411: Elysium

Space Cowboys' Elysium, designed by Brett Gilbert and Matthew Dunstan, hits the general U.S. market today, May 28, 2015, and while I've already previewed the game once in November 2014 after...

Tasty Minstrel Games Brings Back Luna, Flips Design Town, Expands the EmDo Universe & Mines for Gold

• I posted something about this on BGG's Twitter account, but not here. Alas, you think you've covered something, but you've done so only for some of the people reading you.In any case, Tasty...

New Game Round-up: Building Circuses, Trading in Haithabu & Opening Expansions During the Holidays

• IDW Games has announced an October 30, 2015 street date for Little Circuses, a tile-laying worker placement game for 2-7 players from Kevin Wilson in which players recruit sword swallowers,...

Game 411: Rights

Japanese publisher Oink Games has produced many titles with tiny footprints, with some of those titles being picked up by other publishers (Kobayakawa and Dungeon of Mandom) and some being...

Developer Diary: The Making of Elysium

For Space Cowboys, Elysium is peculiar in many ways. While unanimously appreciated and even loved among the team, the game has gone through many changes during its gestation. (This diary covers...

Designer Diary: Elysium, or The Path of Heroes

Quote:"We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us: the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero path. And...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Re-explore Mare Nostrum, Relish Mottainai, Revisit an Early Epoch & Recoil from My Confession

Flat >>>> 3D• Another Sunday, another round-up of publishers passing the plate to find funding for their projects, starting with a project that's been in the works for years: a new...

Designer Diary: Evolution, or Great Art Mirrors Nature

Evolution is the culminating work of three game designers and an entire development team at North Star Games. My part of the story begins when I was a wee child.I come from a European family that...

Incredible Shrinking Games, or How to Remove Dead Air

The term "dead air" was originally used to describe the silence caused by an unintended interruption in a radio broadcast, but I'd like to re-define it and use it to describe the empty space so...

New Game Round-up: Batman and Adventure Time Get Fluxxed, Blue Orange Imports Blackrock & Ora et Labora Returns

• Looney Labs continues onward with its plan to Fluxx the world with the introduction of two branded standalone games in mid-2015: Adventure Time Fluxx, which hits retail on July 24, and Batman...

Quined Games Returns to Carson City, Picks Up Haspelknecht & Discovers Xanadú

• Dutch publisher Quined Games celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2015, so it's lined up a quartet of releases for the year, with more possibly coming.The biggest release is undoubtedly Carson...

New Expansion Round-Up: Dragons and Mages and Dice, Oh My!

• Steve Jackson Games has announced two upcoming boosters for Munchkin, due out in August 2015. The first is a reprint of Munchkin Dragons. The second booster is all-new and continues the...

Origins Game Fair 2015 Preview — Now Live

The Origins Game Fair 2015 Preview is now live on BoardGameGeek, just over two weeks before the convention itself opens on June 3, 2015. Close timing!The preview currently lists just over one...

Spiel des Jahres Nominees for 2015: Colt Express, Machi Koro, The Game

The Spiel des Jahres juries have announced their nominees for the German game of the year (Spiel des Jahres), enthusiast game of the year (Kennerspiel), and children's game of the year...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Dwarven Minis, Alien Minis, Monster Minis, Knights Minis & Wooden Wombats

• Three years after debuting on the German market, Michael Palm and Lukas Zach's The Dwarves from Pegasus Spiele — a cooperative game based on Markus Heitz' five-book series of the same name...

New Game Round-up: Trains in Munich, Chieftains on the Isle of Skye & Creeps During the Apocalypse

• Lookout Games initially included Helmet Ohley's Trambahn on its 2014 release schedule, and the game is now coming to market in Germany in mid-May 2015, with Mayfair Games scheduled to release...

Game 411: TimeBomb

While visiting Tokyo Game Market in early May 2015, I managed to do something that I almost never do at conventions: Play a game that was sold at that convention. Typically at cons I speak with...