Board Game News

Videos from Spiel 2014 XI: Samurai Spirit, Adventure Tours, DOG Cards, Der unendliche Fluss & Catan: Ancient Egypt

• This handful of game demonstration videos from Spiel 2014 starts with a title that actually debuted at Gen Con 2014, an event that was a somewhat common occurrence this year, especially from...

New Game Round-up: Fun Gets Reemployed by IronWall, Emerald Gets Repolished by Treefrog & Inquisition Gets Mooned by Bezier

• Designer Rob Daviau founded IronWall Games in 2012 after he left Hasbro to become a freelance designer, but to date the company has yet to release a game, only being announced as co-publisher...

Videos from Spiel 2014 X: Dragonscroll, Planes, Empire Engine, Munchkin Loot Letter, Yardmaster & Yardmaster Express

• Every year in the run-up to Spiel my most pressing question is "What costume will Gordon Lamont wear this year?" Okay, that question is not actually forefront in my mind, but Gordon does like...

New Game Round-up: String Savanna Restrung, Clinic Revisited, Love Letter Rewritten & Cinderellas Representin'

• Following on the heels of its Japanese imports Machi Koro and Diamonsters — one released, the other still only announced — IDW Games and Pandasaurus Games have announced a new edition of...

Videos from Spiel 2014 IX: Onward to Venus, 7 Kingdoms, Food Chain, DoReMi & Magic Cat

• Time for another handful of game demonstration videos from Spiel 2014, starting with one of the big guns of the indie scene: Martin Wallace and his Onward to Venus from his own Treefrog...

Game Preview: Rolling Japan, or Why a Stupid Green Six Will Make You Curse the Heavens

I hosted a gaming meetup group for years in Concord, New Hampshire, and in addition to our regular bunch of gamers, we'd get newcomers from time to time who had practically no experience with...

Videos from Spiel 2014 VIII: King Arthur, Continuo, Gaïa, Medieval Academy & Green Deal

• For this handful of game demonstration videos from Spiel 2014, we'll sandwich three newbie designers with a pair of seasoned pros, leading off with Reiner Knizia and a new version of his game...

Gen Con 2015 Preview — Time Stories

What's that, you say? We're previewing Gen Con 2015 already? Aren't we barely past the nightmarish fever brought on by Spiel 2014? Don't we have BGG.CON 2014 on the near horizon, with the first...

Videos from Spiel 2014 VII: Grog Island, Port Royal, Hook!, Fungi, Der 7bte Zwerg & Hospital Rush

• Today's batch of videos from Spiel 2014 will constitute a half-dozen game demonstrations instead of the usual fifth-twelfths of a dozen since all the games come from the same company (sort...

Designer Diary: Quilt Show, or Out of the Scrap Bag and into Print

This diary is written with considerable input from Judy Martin, co-designer of Quilt Show. Thanks, Judy!The Cast of CharactersI'm Steve Bennett. I've dabbled in game design for twenty years, with...

Videos from Spiel 2014 VI: AquaSphere, Cargotrain, Urban Panic, Memorable Stories & Imperialism: Road to Domination

• Designer Stefan Feld didn't have quite as dominating a year in 2014 as he did in 2013, but how could he when he had four giant designs from four publishers come out that year? For 2014, Feld...

New Game Round-up: Dominion, Bohnanza & More from Rio Grande Games and Firefly Keeps Getting Gamier

• Time to catch up on some of the game announcements that have been piling up during all the Spiel 2014 hubbub. To start with the biggest wavemaker, designer Donald X. Vaccarino has noted and...

Videos from Spiel 2014 V: Keyflower: The Merchants, Doodle City, Black & White, Amber Route & Fleets: The Pleiad Conflict

• Designers Richard Breese and Sebastian Bleasdale continue to expand their Keyflower line of games in new ways with Keyflower: The Merchants, the publication of which also celebrates 25 years...

Designer Diary: Red7

"Carl, let's make a game tonight! I'm bored and want to do something fun." —me to Carl Chudyk on Skype, at about midnight EST on June 18, 2014."What is Red," was the response. We laughed and...

Videos from Spiel 2014 IV: Alchemists, Dungeon Bazar, Soqquadro, Bim Bum Bam & Valentina: The Game

• "What's the hot game?" "What's getting all the buzz?" "What are people talking about?"In general people seem to agree that no single game was setting everyone's pants afire at Spiel 2014, but...

Videos from Spiel 2014 III: Ivor the Engine, Dino Race, 7 Wonders: Babel, Mascarade Expansion & Ca$h 'n Guns Second Edition

• Time for another handful of game demonstration videos recorded in the BGG booth at Spiel 2014, starting with the ever-loquacious Tony Boydell and his Ivor the Engine from Surprised Stare...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Dead Drop, Meteor, Nord, Akindo, Web of Spies, Sea Kings & Much More

• Man, has it really been more than a month since I wrote one of these crowdfunding round-ups? (Checks inbox to find two-week-old notes from publishers desperate for attention prior to the...

Videos from Spiel 2014 II: RoboRama, Typo 2D, Versailles, Praetor & Progress: Evolution of Technology

• Certain types of games pop up each year at Spiel, one of those types being the civilization game, with people wondering what's new in the genre this time, what's different about this...

Videos from Spiel 2014 I: Power Grid deluxe, Fresh Fish, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, One Night Ultimate Werewolf Daybreak & 27th Passenger: A Hunt on Rails

• Let's kick off the video coverage from the BGG booth at Spiel 2014 with designer/publisher Friedemann Friese talking about Power Grid deluxe: Europe/North America, a revamped version of his...

Designer Diary: Roll for the Galaxy

Picture things back in the summer of 2009: Race for the Galaxy, designed by Tom Lehmann with a lot of advice and development assistance from me, is (around) the ninth-ranked game on BGG (before...

Spiel 2014: A Few Thoughts & The Haul

Spiel 2014 has been over for a few days, and while I'm still carrying the hoarseness that started there, I no longer sound quite so much like an asthmatic bandsaw. I'm unsure whether I'm "merely"...

Crowdfunding Round-up: Dead Drop, Hooch, Knee Jerk, Of Dungeons Deep, and the Greatest Name for a Game Ever

Mr. Big Shot W. Eric Martin is too busy getting ready for Essen to write one of these here crowdfunding thingamajiggers, so there were a TON of games to choose from this month. Granted, W. Eric...

Game Preview from Spiel 2014: Conan: Hyborian Quests

I've recorded a few preview videos at Spiel 2014 of future game releases or of titles at the show that were unknown by me beforehand, but for the most part those games are wild cards because no...

Game Preview: Magic: The Gathering Strategy Board Game

During its Pro Tour Honolulu tournament for Magic: The Gathering, Hasbro announced something titled "Magic: The Gathering Strategy Board Game", stating only that title and a date of 16.10.2014,...

Spiel 2014: Set-up day, Wednesday, Oct. 15 — Morning Walkabout

This might not be the most exciting way to spend seventeen minutes, but if you haven't been to Spiel and you want to get a feel for the size of the exhibit halls and what's on display here, I...

Pics from Spiel 2014

I recorded a video of Spiel 2014 today, but Wednesday isn't v. exciting since it's set-up day. Also, our wireless signal isn't strong enough in the BGG booth to both livestream and upload a 2GB...

Game Overview: Gold Ahoy!, or No Rum, No Planks, Only Treasure

The first collaborative fruits born of the acquisition of Lookout Games by Mayfair Games were revealed at Gen Con 2014, with Carlo Lavezzi's Johari and Stephan Herminghaus' Gold Ahoy! debuting at...

Game Preview: Kaleido, or Coming in Colors Everywhere

At times game designers must feel like they're in a bind. If a game design in the works has a commonly used setting — pirates raiding ships, trading in the Mediterranean, space colonization —...

Game Preview: Dark Tales, or Refabling Old Stories in New Boxes

Fairy tales provide an enduring source of inspiration for creators the world over, with books, movies, television shows, and (of course) games using familiar characters and situations to provide...

Game Preview: League of Hackers, or Sorry, No Angelina Jolie Here

My experience with computer hacking is pretty much limited to me being sent a new bank card every six months because my account number might have been compromised in this or that security breach....