BoardGameGeek News

To submit news, a designer diary, outrageous rumors, or other material, contact us at news@boardgamegeek.com.

1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5  Next »  [514]

Recommend
59 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Hide

Embody Shakespeare, Design a Dungeon, and Pick Your Nose for Emeralds

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
Board Game: Metrorunner
I've already covered Thunderworks Games' Citizens of the Spark, due out in Q4 2024, but the U.S. publisher showcased a few other forthcoming releases at GAMA Expo 2024.

Stephen Kerr's Metrorunner, for example, is scheduled to debut at Gen Con 2024 in August, and you can learn about that game in this January 2024 post.

Board Game: Metrorunner

Jordy Adan's Stonespire Architects will debut before either of those games on April 9, 2024, with this 1-5 player game set in the world of Roll Player challenging players to construct the most dangerous labyrinth possible. In short:
Quote:
Players simultaneously draft and play cards to expand their dungeons, one chamber at a time. Follow a unique blueprint and a variety of scoring challenges. Choose between mapping a path through your underground passages, placing key elements in your rooms, or searching for extra treasure.

Board Game: Stonespine Architects

Spend gold between rounds to customize your labyrinth with monsters, traps, treasures, and secret passages. At the end of four years, the player with the most perilous dungeon earns the title of Master Architect!
Board Game Publisher: Thunderworks Games
Emerald Sparks Skulls is a design being Kickstarted in July 2024 in which players roll dice to fill, if I remember correctly, a goblin skull. (I didn't take a pic of this in-progress design, but I don't recall whether I wasn't allowed to or whether I forgot as I was about to run to the airport.)

On a turn as active player, you roll dice, then place them in the skull — filling the nose, filling the eyes, etc. — with higher numbers going into higher spots. You can stop and score after the first roll, or you can pay to roll more than once, but you bust if you can't place dice of at least the same value. Other players can bet on whether you'll bust or not. "Picking your nose" — that is, removing the die in the nose position — allows you to pull dice from the skull and roll again. Multiple scoring conditions are in play, and the game ends when the shared money pool is depleted.

• Restoration Games was showing off the newly announced Unmatched: Slings & Arrows, with this standalone addition to the Unmatched game line featuring William Shakespeare as a playable character, alongside three of his wondrous characters: The Wayward Sisters, Hamlet, and Titania.

Board Game: Unmatched: Slings & Arrows

Shakespeare's deck, designed by Jonathan Guberman, was one of the winning decks in a 2020 design competition, and it rewards players for completing lines in iambic pentameter. The Wayward Sisters, a runner-up in that competition from Jason Hager, is a multi-hero deck that challenges you to bring the witches' potion machinations to life with cunning co-ordination.

Unmatched: Slings & Arrows is due out in June 2024.

• In July 2023, Restoration Games crowdfunded two new versions of the 1983 game Crossbows and Catapults.

In both versions of this two-player game, each player builds their castle, then players take turns using their weapons to fire discs at their opponent's castle, trying to knock over their warrior figures. Crossbows & Catapults: Castle Battle is the more streamlined version of this game system, featuring only buildings and weapons, with the weapons featuring "spring-powered and pinch-to-fire technology" instead of the rubber bands of decades past that would slowly rot on the plastic bits and prove unreliable in terms of how much tension they provide. Crossbows & Catapults: Fortress War features buildings, weapons, and mercenary miniatures that you play through the use of a deck of asymmetrical tactics cards.

Board Game: Crossbows & Catapults: Fortress War

Restoration Games expects to fulfill the Kickstarter campaign in July 2024, then will ideally have copies for sale at Gen Con 2024 in August.

• Here's a look at Windmill Valley, a Dani Garcia design due out in June 2024 from Board&Dice that I first covered in November 2023:

From gallery of W Eric Martin

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Twitter Facebook
6 Comments
Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
64 
 Thumb up
 tip
 Hide

Use Gardlings to Form Gems, Make Your Animals Spark, and Fulfill Your Dinosaur Dynasty

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
Board Game: Citizens of the Spark
If you're not a fan of anthropomorphic animals, read no further and try exploring a useless website instead — but if you're good with being a gamey gopher, check out new options available to you:

• In October 2024, U.S. publisher Thunderworks Games will release Citizens of the Spark, a design for 1-5 players from Philip duBarry that has a different assortment of critters in play each game:
Quote:
The fate of creatures touched by the spark of intelligence hangs in the balance. You must recruit strong animal allies to your city and unlock the potential of your citizens if your settlement is to survive the days to come...

Citizens of the Spark is a variable set-up card game in which players take turns attracting citizens, taking actions, and claiming sparks. The more citizen cards a player has of a specific type, the more powerful that citizen's action becomes. The player with the most sparks in their city when the deck runs out wins!

In more detail, you play with 7-10 animal citizen types per game, chosen from over thirty available creatures and combined into one shared deck. Every citizen type has distinct powers, making each game's action combos uniquely variable.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
On display at GAMA Expo 2024

On your turn, recruit multiple citizens by selecting an available group of cards, placing them in your city tableau, and grouping like citizens together to grow their action strength. Next, select one type of citizen in your tableau to activate, taking the effect of the card and discarding it from your city. Keep watch on rival cities because when you activate a citizen, all players who have the same type can follow your move and activate a matching citizen of their own.
Wondrous Creatures is a worker-placement game for 1-4 players from Yeom.C.W and Bad Comet that was crowdfunded in late 2023 and is due out in English by the end of 2024, with editions also coming in Dutch, French, and Spanish.

Board Game: Wondrous Creatures

Your goal in the game is to set up a creature reserve, using your mounts to gain resources and cards as you place them on an evolving hex map. You can upgrade mounts to unlock unique abilities, collect and hatch eggs to claim achievements, and add creatures cards to your reserve to gain their abilities.

Gardlings features cute and cuddly versions of real and fictional animals, but it's not clear whether the animals have any agency in the game, so they might not fall in the category of anthropomorphic. Hmm. So many dilemmas when trying to classify games...

Board Game: Gardlings

In any case, Gardlings will be a SPIEL Essen 24 release from designers Kristian Amundsen Østby and Maria Østby and publisher Alion – by Dr Ø, with this being a 1-4 player game being a bag-builder in the vein of The Quacks of Quedlinburg:
Quote:
Each round in Gardlings, all players simultaneously build their garden in front of themselves. You do this by drawing and placing tiles from your bag. You may stop drawing tiles at any time because if you draw too many gnomes, they will steal gems from you. At the end of the round, use any gems you matched in your garden to buy a new tile, then return all of your tiles to your bag to prepare for the next round. Each tile features potential ways to match gems, as well as a creature with a special ability. Your garden will grow larger and better each round, and the puzzle of placing tiles will become increasingly complex.

Board Game: Gardlings

The goal of the game is to match enough gems to buy the victory tile.
• What about instead of playing human-like animals, you just play as an animal...but with far more awareness of your surroundings and your potential for growth than an animal ever had?

Designer Jon Manker will take you into that world in Dino Dynasty, a 2-6 player game coming from Ion Game Design in 2024. Here's an overview:
Quote:
In Dino Dynasty, players represent dinosaur species from the Cretaceous period that compete in various aspects of survival. Which aspects are important vary from game to game. Each game features a scenario with specific starting conditions and a set of random challenges. The player who completes the most of these challenges wins.

Board Game: Dino Dynasty

The map, called the territory, is created by the players placing territory tiles. These tiles create biomes can span several tiles. It is not specified where in the world the game takes place, but the biomes are based on the ones that existed during the Cretaceous period. The map is mostly unknown at the start of the game and is gradually revealed as players spread and explore it.

There are alternative ways to play using different map set-ups called scenarios, playing in teams and even playing several games as a campaign. In addition, a "legendary" part of the game gives players the ability to change between species inside a dynasty and save their current development over several games. This can be used to get suitable dinosaur variants to manage harder scenarios; it can also be used to get a specific dinosaur or combination of dinosaurs to best counter opponents.

The foundation for this game is facts, what is known and theorized by the latest scientific discoveries regarding different dinosaur species, but in Dino Dynasty, the players can explore the fantasy of what could have been. What would have happened if a dinosaur had developed in an evolutionary direction other than it did? These possible changes are still within reasonable limits and are based on the real physical characteristics of the dinosaurs.
Twitter Facebook
7 Comments
Wed Mar 27, 2024 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
57 
 Thumb up
36.05
 tip
 Hide

Designer Diary: Matches

Daniel McKinley
United States
Las Cruces
New Mexico
flag msg tools
Board Game Designer
Microbadge: Game Design HobbyistMicrobadge: Carcassonne fanMicrobadge: Quarto! fanMicrobadge: Golden Board Game Collector
Board Game: Matches
This is the story of my game Matches, covering the game design and the path to being published. It's a pretty wild ride...

A Simple Beginning

I was a professional magician for many years prior to delving into game design, and I've learned that game design has quite a bit of overlap with putting together a sleight-of-hand routine or a cohesive magic show. I try to keep this in mind when I design games. When starting to create something in your hobby, you should immerse yourself in it as much as you can. The more magic that you can watch, study, perform, or learn, the more that you can pull from this compendium of knowledge, the more likely you are to create something unique.

When I started working on Matches, I already had a head start thanks to my background with cards. Specifically, I collect playing cards — and not just some playing cards, I mean MANY playing cards. I currently have a collection of about 2,500 card decks: old decks, new decks, unique decks, rare decks, strange decks, funny decks, fancy decks, and more. When I got into collecting card decks, just like I did with magic, I dove in full force! I learned card games, collected books about card games and tricks, amassed a collection of gimmicks (to use a magic term), and more. Needless to say, when I got into game design, I wanted to learn as many card games as I could, and that was the basis for this new card game I wanted to create.

Math and Puns

I grabbed a few card decks I had as spares thanks to magic performances that led to them missing a number of cards. (Don't ask, it's a magician thing...) I put together a 48-card deck with four copies of numbers 2-10, eight aces, and four jokers. I had a fairly simple idea that one player would start by playing a card in the middle, then the other players would play cards that add up to that number. The last person standing would win.

The idea worked to a degree, but it was missing something. Quite a few games use addition to meet a number. I wanted mine to allow players to play a mini-game for themselves if they weren't going to win the round. I added point tokens, which players could gain by playing pairs over the course of the round; players would also add point tokens to the pot when they played the same card that started the round.

I increased the number of cards to a total of sixty, which is a magical number for games because it is divisible by all numbers 1-6. I love this number and try to use it in most designs when possible.

With the new changes, the game now works like this: The round leader plays a number card in the middle — let's use a 10 as an example — then turns go clockwise. On your turn, you can play any number of cards so they add up to the lead card, such as two 5s, a 4+3+2+1, or even a 10. If you play the same number as the card lead or play a joker, you create a match and add another token to the lead card. The player who stays in the longest gets all of the tokens on the lead card, and all of the other players score one point token for each pair of the same number lying in front of them.

When I realized that the whole game is about "matching" numbers in many ways, I knew I had my theme: matches! That's right, the title is a pun, and that's not where the puns stop. More on that later.

I designed the tuck box to look like a match box, drew matches (later described as french fries with ketchup) on the cards, and changed the point tokens to fire tokens using bright orange poker chips. The package was complete!

Board Game: Matches
Prototype from 2017

A Surprising Meeting

With my new card game in hand, I started to show it to publishers. I set up meetings at the GAMA Trade Show, along with a few other conventions. One publisher took interest as he appreciated a new take on classic-style card games. Because we never signed the game, I'm not going to say which company this was, but I will add that this publisher spent a number of meetings and emails giving me feedback and suggestions to make the game the best it could be.

With his advice, I created a small deck called "Burn Cards". This supplement to the normal game gives players a chance to mess with their friends. Sticking with the theme, I gathered every fire-based pun I could think of and made cards to match, e.g. "The Fire Dancer" has players trade their hand of cards, "You're Fired!" replaces the central match card with a new one, "Bucket of Water" removes all of the fire tokens from the match card, etc. This development took the game to a new level.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
After many years of showing Matches at local conventions, it grew a small cult following with a few of my convention friends, including John, who I met at RinCon in Tucson, Arizona. John runs an RPG podcast called "Legends of Tabletop", and while he typically enjoys more thematic games, the absurd theme of Matches caught his interest. We played it many times over the years, and I would use my games as an excuse to go to this convention each year and see friends.

Returning to RinCon, a surprising meeting occurred. John introduced me to Sean of Thing 12 Games and immediately started telling him about Matches. Sean was interested in seeing the game, and thankfully I had my copy, even though I wasn't planning on pitching it at this convention. We sat down in a bar, and they enjoyed it. My favorite memory of this night was watching Sean take pictures of my cheesy packaging, sending it to his partner, and groaning at the incoming onslaught of puns from his partner: "It's the hottest game of the year!"

Eight Years in the Making

Board Game Publisher: Thing 12 Games
Thing 12 agreed to publish my game, and we worked out the details to bring it to Kickstarter at a future date. This was going to be the first of my designs to be published on its own, not self-published or part of a compilation.

This was a very exciting time because I had almost shelved the game and stopped trying to pitch it to publishers. I live in a small city in southern New Mexico, with few gaming conventions within a short drive from my city. It's always been an uphill battle to arrange meetings with publishers, so I've had to pick and choose which of my games would most likely be published. At that point, Matches had almost made the cutting block as I was focusing more on other designs. If not for this chance meeting, the game might never have been made.

The Kickstarter ran in 2022, and as of March 2024 Matches is being fulfilled to backers and going into retail stores. I checked on my original files when preparing this diary and discoverd that from its original inception, Matches was created over eight years ago. It has been a long journey, and I hope this diary is a form of inspiration for aspiring designers. Just keep diving into the hobby, and keep making games! You never know when you might get that chance to make your game a reality!

What Is This Mechanism?

Board Game: Matches
Matches is a card game that shares similarities with many classic-style card games, but is unlike all of them. When teaching this game over the past years, many people have been asking which mechanisms are in this game, which is a tricky answer to give. I will try to clarify that here:

Is this a trick-taking game? Yes, kind of. This is the closest mechanism we can use to describe how the game works. The lead player chooses the number for all players to match. However, the cards have no suits. The number acts as the "suit" for the round as all players must match the number led by adding numbers together to get the desired match. However, in traditional trick-taking games, each player plays only one card or one set of cards, then the round ends; in Matches, players continue to play until there is one remaining leader, which brings us to the next question:

Is this a ladder-climbing game? Yes, kind of. Similar to ladder-climbing games, players continue to play cards or sets of cards until one player remains. However, in Matches, there is no escalation of the cards played; each play is independent of the previous plays. There is a rising tension to playing an exact match because that will add more points for the player who stays in the longest, but this is not a requirement to play — or even win — the game. Often, if playing efficiently, players can gain more points than the player who "wins" the round. This is done by maximizing the pairs played during the game and burning out early instead of feeding points to the "Blaze" — the collection of point tokens, a.k.a., the pot — in the center. Which makes players ask:

Is this a set-collection game? Yes, kind of. A viable strategy in Matches is knowing when to go for the points by outlasting the others or when to focus on playing pairs during the round. For example, if the lead card is a 10, playing a pair of 5s is a power play. It uses cards efficiently and keeps you in the round for a long time while giving you a pair to score if you can't stay in for the long run. An even bolder move is to play ten 1s, giving you five full pairs to score! Unless that scares the other players into burning out and folding, which would reward you only the points on the match card (as the last person remaining scores only the blaze, not their pairs). This tension can often result in players refraining from playing exact matches to prevent the Blaze from getting too hot for the last player. So this make us wonder:

Is this a bidding game? Yes, kind of. Like games in which bidding tokens to the "pot" is part of the experience, Matches handles this in a different way. Only by playing a single card matching the lead card will points be added to the Blaze. Players do not ante their own tokens; they simply make the Blaze more valuable by playing single cards. This gives players agency as to when to make the Blaze more valuable in the hope of reaping the rewards by outlasting others, and understanding when to play many cards and go for pairs versus when to play efficiently will differ depending on the current status of the game. But since you may want to play many cards or few:

Is this a card-shedding game? Yes, kind of. If you don’t believe that you are going to outlast the other players, dumping many pairs could be the path to victory, but planning the timing is key. If the other players are aware of this strategy, they might jump out early and force you to take fewer points than you expected, which leads us to ask:

Is this a hand-management game? Yes, kind of. The cards in your hand will tell you the key information as to which pairs you can score and how many times you can play to stay in the round. Will it be better for you to play the long game or collect pairs for short term? Also, one point I haven't discussed is that when the round is over, cards remaining in your hand can be kept until the next round. If you don't like the number which was lead, you can burn out early and plan for the future as the first player to burn out becomes the leader for the next round, in addition to earning 1 point for taking the leader token — that is, of course, assuming the Burn Cards don't throw a wrench in your plans since they allow players to mess with one another, which means:

Is this game a "take that" game? Yes, kind of. The Burn Cards act as controlled chaos. They are optional if players don't want them in the game, but they can add amazingly memorable moments. They are very powerful and can alter the course of each round drastically, but they come at a cost as players must spend fire tokens — that is, their points — to play them. Is it worth three points to mess with another player? You get to decide this for yourself.

So what is the mechanism of this game? You must play your cards in a way that best assists your current ever-evolving strategy. Playing your cards at the right time and in the right way is key to winning. Sometimes you want to play more cards, sometimes fewer, but you always want to control the cards, just like a fire. You want it to burn bright and long without getting out of hand. I have spoken to many players, and a fellow board game reviewer came up with a new term which I feel best describes this mechanism: This is a card-burning game.

Burn bright fellow gamers!

Daniel McKinley

Board Game: Matches
Twitter Facebook
12 Comments
Tue Mar 26, 2024 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
65 
 Thumb up
0.05
 tip
 Hide

Build an Alpaca Farm, Count Foxy Animals, and Save Caesar...or Finish Him

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
• In this post, I continue to relive my GAMA Expo 2024 experience in writing and pictures, starting with a stop at the Play to Z booth to get a look at 23 Knives, a 3-8 player game from Tyler J. Brown that will be crowdfunded in 2024:
Quote:
It's 44 BC, the pinnacle of the Roman Republic. At the end of Julius Caesar's civil war, he is left holding enormous power. He has the love of many, but for others, there is only fear. This fear leads Caesar's friends and allies to question his intentions. They're stoking a fire of conspiracy, a conspiracy that will end on the Ides of March, with 23 wounds, a republic in ruin, and the birth of an Empire.

In a game of 23 Knives, you take on the role of a Roman citizen with one of three allegiances: a loyalist to Caesar, a liberator of Rome, or an opportunist biding their time. Throughout the game, you travel through Rome, manipulating other citizens and swaying them to your cause.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Mock-up cover at GAMA Expo 2024

At the end of the game, if 23 or more knives are in the Curia, Caesar is dead and the liberator most committed to killing Caesar wins. With fewer than 23 knives, the loyalist most dedicated to saving Caesar wins. Opportunists are those who linger, waiting to shift the fate of Caesar at the last moment, and if they do, they win as a team.
Play to Z's Zev Shlasinger explained that each round, two issues are revealed, with each player voting for one of them. Issues affect the game state, and as players vote, their cards end up face down in a central pile that will serve as the "knife count" at game's end. Players can be exiled during play, which can shift the balance of power between the allegiances. After all, if you're a liberator of Rome, you want Caesar to die — but if you suspect another liberator of doing more of the damage than you, you want them gone...yet if they're removed from play, the loyalists might end up thwarting the assassination.

The opportunists want the knife count to be close enough to 23 that they can change Caesar's fate from death to life or vice versa, thereby proving themselves a force of influence in whatever environment would develop afterward.

• Another forthcoming Play to Z title is kaleiDOS, a version of the public domain climbing/shedding card game Big 2 in which 2s are the highest cards in the deck. (Update, March 25: I've corrected the presentation of this name, which emphasizes the "DOS" as a connection to "Big 2".)

From gallery of W Eric Martin

• In February 2024, I wrote about King's Coalition, another upcoming Play to Z title, and several people, "Sounds like Fantasy Realms". At GAMA Expo 2024, I watched the second half of a game and can now give more details of play.

Each player has seven subject cards in hand, and the game lasts six rounds, indicated by six face-down subject cards laid in a row. Each subject card features a number from 0 to (I think) 11, with each card featuring a suit (knight, merchant, clergy, etc.) and with each suit having the same special ability on each card. (You can ignore these abilities if you want to have a more streamlined game.) Four random bonus cards (from a deck of 19) are laid face down as well, with bonus values from 30 to 10 placed under them from left to right.

Board Game: King's Coalition
Non-final cards

At the start of a round, reveal a subject card from the row and the leftmost unrevealed bonus card. Next, players in turn take a face-up card from the table or a mystery card from the deck, then discard a card face up on the table. (The one exception: If you recruit a face-up peasant, place it on the table in front of you, then skip your discard.) At game's end, you score points for having a sequence of at least six consecutive numbers, a set of at least three cards of the same suit (with multiple sets being possible), and a hand that matches the condition of a bonus card, such as having no knights and three cards that are peasants or artisans, or having no peasants or royalty and at least two gentry or merchants in some combination.

I'd say that King's Coalition is like Fantasy Realms in that you're trying to craft a well-scoring hand, but what you're scoring for are public goals revealed over the course of the game.

Board Game: Alpaca
• The North American branch of Pegasus Spiele featured several forthcoming titles, including two that haven't yet appeared in Germany from the parent company.

First, let's look at Alpaca, a game from Christian Giove that Italian publisher GateOnGames debuted in 2023. An overview:
Quote:
Alpaca is a competitive deck-building game that pits players against one another in the competitive world of alpaca farming. Players each begin with an identical deck of alpaca cards and fence materials. Customize your deck with alpacas from the market, and build a strategy to take advantage of each alpaca's special ability. You score points for each alpaca on your farm and any purchased endgame bonus cards. The interaction with other players will get tighter as soon as the rules are clearer... run to buy a new alpaca!
Board Game: Foxy
Alpaca hits the U.S. market in April 2024 at the same time as Foxy, another GateOnGames with this David Spada design dating to 2022:
Quote:
In Foxy, you'll put your memory and observation skills to the test while looking at a sequence of large, full-color cards. Each card shows one of four environments, as well as 1-2 animals that live in that environment — although a cat can show up anywhere, so sometimes a card will feature three animals.

To set up, shuffle 19 of the 40 cards into a deck, then shuffle the fox card into this deck. Each player takes a dry erase board and a marker. Flip the top card; for the types of animals depicted on this card, everyone secretly writes the total number of animals of these types that they've seen on all cards revealed so far. For the first round, this is easy — write the number of animals on this card! But you'll start seeing cards of many environments, and wait, how many chickens have I seen so far? How many cats? You can write only a single numeral for each round, with no reminders of which animals were which. When the fox card appears, write a numeral showing how many different animals you've seen total. Once during the game, you can circle a number to take a chance on doubling that score.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Sample cards

Once you've finished the deck after twenty rounds, flip it over, then go through the cards again, this time keeping a public tally of how many animals of each type have been seen. If the number you wrote for a round is equal to or less than the total number of animals seen, you score that many points; if the number is larger, then cross it out and score nothing for that round. For the circled number, if you correctly wrote the exact number of animals, score twice that many points; if you guess higher or lower, score nothing. Whoever scores the most points wins.
• Pegasus Spiele has already released Dorfromantik: The Duel in the U.S., with Alexander Pfister's Port Royal: The Dice Game and Sophia Wagner's Zilence due out by the end of March 2024.

Board Game: Dorfromantik: The Duel
Board Game: Port Royal: The Dice Game
Board Game: Zilence

• Six titles from GateOnGames' Mini Crimes game line will also be released by Pegasus Spiele in the U.S. in March 2024. These titles retail for US$6 each, and each contains ten postcard-sized clue cards that depict elements of a crime scene, with you trying to use as few cards as possible to figure out what happened.

Rita Modl's tile-laying, coral-building game Lumicora from Deep Print Games will reach the U.S. in June 2024 through Pegasus Spiele.

Board Game: Mini Crimes: Like Cat and Mouse
Board Game: Mini Crimes: The Drowned King
Board Game: Lumicora
Twitter Facebook
7 Comments
Mon Mar 25, 2024 3:00 pm
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
149 
 Thumb up
47.30
 tip
 Hide

Video: How to Submit a Game Listing to the BGG Database

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
From gallery of W Eric Martin
Years ago, I wrote a loooong guide for how to submit game listings to the BoardGameGeek database, but I recognize that not everyone loves reading loooong guides — and possibly not even short ones.

In an effort to make the game submission process a bit more comprehensible, I've filmed me submitting a game listing and talking about the steps involved in doing so. Along the way, I also submit a designer listing and show how to submit corrections to game listings and version listings. Bonus!

I've been thinking about doing something like this for years, and the process turned out to be far easier than I had expected, partly because I just ran my mouth and raced through everything, but perhaps I can make a more refined submission video down the road. If so, what questions do you have about the game submission process? What's gone wrong in the past when you submitted a listing? What have we done wrong?

We've talked a bit about overhauling this form, which I think has been roughly the same since I started working at BGG in 2011. We've added elements to the submission form for short descriptions and whatnot, but the form itself hasn't changed...and it should. I welcome suggestions that I can compile and submit to the development team.

Twitter Facebook
35 Comments
Mon Mar 25, 2024 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
78 
 Thumb up
4.32
 tip
 Hide

Designer Diary: The Finest Fish

Nathan Jenne
United States
Utah
flag msg tools
Board Game Designer
Board Game Publisher
Avatar
Microbadge: 5 Year Geek VeteranMicrobadge: I was here for BGG's Twentieth Anniversary!Microbadge: SaltCon attendeeMicrobadge: Floppy Disk fanMicrobadge: Game Designer
From gallery of 6e38
When Jake and I sat down to design what resulted in The Finest Fish, we wanted to design something beautiful and we wanted it to be a tile-placement game. Surprisingly, we stuck to those goals! Frequently, once we start designing a game, we run into roadblocks or have amazing new ideas and completely depart from the initial idea that started the whole process. This time everything just clicked into place, and we stuck with the original concept.

Jake really liked the idea that the tiles could be shapes other than squares, rectangles, or hexagons. We started brainstorming. Ideas that were brought up included tessellations, feathers, peacocks, fish, and others.

We cut out shapes and started experimenting. Believe it or not, we started with feathers on a peacock. We made it pretty far through game development using peacock feathers...but it didn't feel like there was a natural ending to the feathers. It seemed they could just expand forever with no bounds. Furthermore, we weren't completely in love with our peacocks as they didn't seem to have that cute factor that we wanted in this game.

At length, we settled on fish scales. Scales felt right. Fish felt right. Goldfish are relatable, and they feel serene.

We wanted players to earn points from groups of adjacent colors, but we knew the design needed more than that, so we added pattern cards as goals. These pattern cards added internal conflict to a player's choices as we intentionally made them somewhat at odds with creating groups of the same colors. We loved it!

From gallery of 6e38

Additionally, we added a bonus color — red — that never appears on the pattern cards, but is always worth 1 point per scale and can still score in groups of three or more. After doing more research, we discovered that "calico" patterning on a fish was a desirable trait in prize goldfish, so we realized that we should make the bonus scale black instead.

We also wanted the game to have a pleasant color palette. Our first game, Life of a Chameleon, has many vivid colors, which can be jarring to some. While we love those vivid colors, we wanted something to match the calming feeling of watching fish and the casual feel of the game play.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Jake set to work illustrating the box and created four amazing unique fish. We love the art and have received so many positive comments about how they look.

Designing this game came with a lot of challenges. We also had a lot of fun working on it and playing this light, casual, fun game. It was all that we hoped it would be.

Nathan Jenne

From gallery of W Eric Martin
Twitter Facebook
18 Comments
Sun Mar 24, 2024 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
76 
 Thumb up
0.30
 tip
 Hide

Wear Wanderers on Your Sleeve, Await New Inventions, and Discover a Gateway to Lorcana

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
Board Game: Inventions: Evolution of Ideas
Board Game: Speakeasy
Board Game: House of Fado
• In its Kickstarter campaign for Vital Lacerda's Inventions: Evolution of Ideas, publisher Eagle-Gryphon Games offered an early fulfillment level in which backers could pay $249 — roughly double the price of the game on its own — to receive an air-shipped copy of the game approximately one month ahead of everyone else. Those 120 backers have received the game, and the rest of the Kickstarter backers will start receiving the game in April 2024, with the game hitting retail in Q3 2024.

• For those who want to get on the Lacerda cycle once again, Eagle-Gryphon Games will crowdfund Speakeasy in the second half of 2024, with the lighter Lacerda game House of Fado — co-designed with João Quintela Martins — hitting Kickstarter first in May 2024.

• As with Inventions, Age of Steam Deluxe: Expansion Volume IV will ship to crowdfunding backers in April 2024, then hit retail in Q3 2024.

• A new edition of Bruno Faidutti and Alan R. Moon's Incan Gold will hit retail in April 2024, with this item including a "New Dangers" expansion that I believe corresponds to the Diamant: Caution and Betrayal expansion released by IELLO in 2022.

This expansion will also be available separately for those who own earlier editions of the game, and its presence will undoubtedly make the BGG database just a tad bit messier.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
New on the left, older on the right

• EGG released a new edition of Sid Sackson's I'm the Boss! in 2023, and it also had a new edition of Sackson's card game Sleuth in the works.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Board Game: Phantom Ink
• U.S. publisher Resonym is working on an expansion for Phantom Ink, a 2022 team-based communication game from Mary Flanagan and Max Seidman.

• In August 2024, Ravensburger plans to release Lorcana Gateway, a version of Disney Lorcana that includes a fixed set of two 30-card decks designed for the newcomer. Cards will include characters, items, songs, and perhaps one other mechanism that players can add into their decks after getting comfortable with the basics of play. The contents of Lorcana Gateway will change on a twelve-month cycle, rotating in new material as additional sets are released.

Worn Wanderers from newcomers Brodie Kelley, Dennis Perlstein, and Cleromancy Games harks back to James Ernest's Button Men, with both of them being games that you can wear to let others know you're ready to play. Here's an overview of this two-player game:
Quote:
To play Worn Wanderers, you assemble a team of six unique characters, each represented by a beautiful enamel pin, and customize them with wearable cards that represent the weapons your characters use, the attacks they make, and the loot they guard.

Board Game: Worn Wanderers: Cast of Steel

Your goal is to use your nomad's attacks (represented by the cards you assign them) to defeat your opponent's characters and steal the most loot. Beware, though! As you thwart characters' low-level defenses, you'll strengthen their resolve and drive them to use more powerful weapons against you to protect what few resources they have.

Board Game: Worn Wanderers: Cast of Steel

Gameplay consists of turns in which you pick a member of your warband to attack an enemy character, with each dealing damage to the other. The survivors you battle may enlist their cohorts for powerful combo attacks, pierce your armor for extra damage, lay traps for your characters, and more!
Worn Wanderers was crowdfunded in April 2023, and the publisher expects to fulfill the project and release the game at retail in late Q2/early Q3 2024.
Twitter Facebook
15 Comments
Sat Mar 23, 2024 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
70 
 Thumb up
0.05
 tip
 Hide

Destroy Your Games to Collect Artifacts, Fight Monsters, and Keep the Kids

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
Board Game: Digsaw
• In 2019, Renegade Game Studios released ClipCut Parks, a roll-and-cut game in which you used scissors to try to cut certain patterns more quickly than anyone else to claim blueprint cards. I played it once at Gen Con 2019, and that was that.

Five years later, we have a new take on the idea from Ellie Dix, with Stronghold Games releasing her game Digsaw in February 2024. Digsaw is labeled as a game for 1-6 players, but that limit is due only to the box containing six pairs of scissors. If you pass the scissors around the table or use your own, more folks can join in!

To play, each player takes one of the dig sheets that depicts a hexagon made of triangles thanks to a criss-crossing pattern of three intersecting lines: red, green, and blue. On a turn, any player rolls the two dice, with each die showing a line color and a numeral. Each player chooses to match the line of one die with the numeral of the other or vice versa, then cuts exactly this many segments on a line of the matching color.

Board Game: Digsaw
Cut two on blue or one on green

Your goal over the course of play is to cut out pieces that contain exactly one artifact — gem, skull, or vase — but you can't cut through an existing cut, and if you can't make a legal cut on your turn, you must take a penalty, reducing the value of an artifact type. If a piece contains a star of the same color as an artifact, you can take a bonus cut with a length matching the number in the star. Cut out a number on its own, and you'll score that many points; cut out a question mark, and you count it as an artifact type of your choice at game's end.

Any pieces with two or more artifacts are worthless, and you can work on only one dig at a time, so if you cut your paper in two, you must choose which of the sites on which to continue.

Digsaw includes five levels of dig sheets, with the higher levels containing more densely packed artifacts, bombs that cost you points unless they're isolated on a cut-off piece, and boulders that block cuts.

Board Game: Yaburo Quest
• Should you prefer a more hands-on approach to the process of destroying a game during play, perhaps you can try Yaburo Quest from designer Shintaro Ono (大野 森太郎) and publisher ボドゲイム (Bodogeimu):
Quote:
Yaburo Quest is a game for at least two players in which you tear a sheet of paper into tiny pieces to represent your attempts to defeat the monster of the current round. For instance, you may have a goal card that shows purple bows and arrows and a purple monster. You score points if you tear off a piece of paper that has exactly one such weapon and one such monster — and more points if it has one such weapon and two monsters.

Players tearing their sheet at the same time during a two-minute round, and they get only one sheet of paper to use over four rounds.

Board Game: Yaburo Quest
After the first round

On the back of the sheet are treasures, coins, and ghosts that can provide positive or negative points. Try not to rip them when you're focusing on the front of the paper.

The player with the most points after four rounds wins.
I got to play Yaburo Quest once at BGG.CON 2023 thanks to JP game hunter James Nathan having a copy on hand, and I was smoked by him and others as the game rewards experience. Look how expertly he tore a scoring piece from the center of the paper in that top image, whereas I was tearing from the edge like a chump!

Board Game: Yaburo Quest
Tallying points after the final round

The monsters and the endgame boss monster are randomly drawn from a larger set, so even though the paper doesn't change, you don't know what's coming in the future and can't tear bits away in a pre-determined order or save the best pieces for the higher-scoring final round. Also, two minutes isn't a lot of time, so it's easy to overlook a better way to tear something or overlook a coin or treasure chest on the back of the page, nicking it just enough with your tear to render it worthless.

• Looking for more games that you destroy during play, I was reminded of Fahrenheit 420, a 2016 design from Matt Fantastic that consists of a single sheet of paper. You roll up the paper with the score track on the inside, light the designated end, then put out the fire whenever it feels right to you. The scorch mark closest to the end of the track indicates your score. You can play once each or compete in multiple simultaneous games until someone's score hits 420.

Board Game: Fahrenheit 420
An example of play

• A similar design from Fantastic in the same year is Love Will Tear Us Apart, a single sheet of paper printed on both sides with items and beings you would likely find in the house: children, pets, TV, jewelry, cars, the house itself, and so forth. You and another player are getting divorced, and this is how you're going to decide who gets what:

— Hold the paper up between one another for five seconds. The side you are looking at shows your goal items. You then flip the paper over so that each player is looking at the other player's side.

— Each player takes turns trying to rip out a single item at a time from their goal side without looking at it while the other player holds the page up.

— Each item successful ripped off in full, with no pieces of any other item visible on the same side is worth 1 point. Once all the items have been taken or damaged, the player with the most points wins.

In the designer's words: "You'll find that in the process of trying to get the most stuff, you'll not only end up destroying what you want by accident, but also knowingly trashing the stuff your ex wants."

Twitter Facebook
12 Comments
Fri Mar 22, 2024 3:00 pm
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
37 
 Thumb up
3.25
 tip
 Hide

Designer Diary: Altar: Realms of the Gods, or An Idea of the Moment that Became Reality

vasilis patroulias
Greece
flag msg tools
Board Game Designer
From gallery of W Eric Martin
Hello, everyone! My name is Vasilis Patroulias. I am from Greece and I live in Athens, the city that is home to the Acropolis and the Parthenon, the temple of the patron goddess Athena, in the historic heart of the city. Perhaps this proximity is what fuels my deep interest in the world of the gods and their rich myths and legends. The idea for the game Altar: Realms of the Gods came to me like a flash. In just a few minutes, the concept of this game crystallized in my mind, and over time, I made the decision, to my great satisfaction, to have it published by The Red Joker.

Here is the story of the game: Long before the "Covid era", I had already created a prototype of a game based on managing teams in a futuristic cyber world within the underworld of entertainment. It had brought me a lot of success and praise, especially within the group of players of which I was part. However, I had to leave my hometown and move to Athens, so I entrusted the prototype to my former gaming companions to do with it as they pleased.

However, the designer's inspiration was firmly rooted within me, and I continued to refine the game gradually. Everyone welcomed the changes and eagerly anticipated the completion of a new prototype to be played as soon as possible. This was supposed to occur at a friend's wedding in my hometown, where I would reunite with my group of players, so I prepared eagerly for the journey while everyone impatiently awaited the chance to finally play this new prototype during our free time — but as luck would have it, after I had set off driving towards my hometown for the upcoming wedding, I realized that I had forgotten to bring the game with me.

With no option to turn back, I suddenly found myself in a challenging predicament: I had to either come up with a plausible excuse for the absence of the game, or improvise and create a new game on the spot.

Challenges don't intimidate me. Immediately, I conceived of a card game as a solution. It seemed ideal, considering that everyone would likely enjoy playing something involving the variety and strategy that card games offer. I needed to determine the theme of the game, and being Greek and a mythology enthusiast, I naturally thought of the ancient gods and sought to incorporate asymmetry among the different deities. As I drove for thirty minutes, Athena guided me, Apollo intrigued me, and Ares, the god of war, loomed over me. In my mind, I had already crafted a universe blending gods and mortals...yet I had not yet determined the objective of the game.

From gallery of W Eric Martin
As the car radio began to play one of my favorite songs, "The Temple of the King" by Rainbow, inspiration struck. I envisioned creating not a game centered on conflict or confrontation, but rather a card game in which players must construct altars and pay homage to their chosen deity, striving to make their god the most revered and adored.

Upon arriving at my destination, my mind was abuzz with questions: Who would be fitting characters to embody the followers of each deity? What interactions and potential combinations could arise between them? Lastly, to complete my task, I needed to devise a simple, yet engaging mechanism suitable for beginners, ensuring they wouldn't become overwhelmed by complex rules.

When I finally arrived at my parents' home, ninety minutes had passed. I had the theme, the goal, and the characters ready. All that was missing was the finalized prototype and the text for the cards.

In my opinion, one of the most important qualities of a designer is the ability to turn ideas into reality. This means, in short, proving their speed in articulating thoughts, as well as their ability to create a prototype using the means and materials immediately available.

The first thing my friends asked me as soon as we met was whether I had brought the prototype with me so that we could finally play. With a trembling voice and great uncertainty, I replied, "Of course I brought a game"...without telling them, however, which game it was.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Unfortunately for me, when I presented them with the alternative game I had created just a few hours earlier, the results were not up to my expectations. The disappointment of my former companions at being deprived of the game they had been eagerly anticipating was so immense that they did not pay attention to what I was trying to show them. Moreover, plain sheets of paper and my messy handwriting did not help improve the situation.

That night, I drowned my sorrows by enjoying the drinks and fine food at the wedding. After a while, everything was forgotten, although something inside me told me not to give up...

Afterwards, during Covid in a state of "intense inactivity", many of us stopped working and were condemned to stay at home indefinitely. On the bright side, this situation also sparked a need for creativity so that everyone could make the most of the imposed inactivity by indulging in their favorite hobbies. For my part, unable to bear leaving things in limbo, I decided once again to focus on Altar! With the help of my
brother Panos and my wife Eleana, we were able to fully explore the game's vast potential by creating a rich universe, developing the characters' traits, and fleshing out the nature of the gods.

From gallery of xyman

The mechanisms became more refined and fleshed out, while still remaining easy to understand. The quality of the prototype materials improved, facilitating a series of tests. Over time, the quarantine health measures became more flexible, allowing the game to be tested by a diverse range of people with different perspectives. Thanks to their feedback, Altar has evolved into a game that can be enjoyed by beginners, seasoned players, women, men, children, and small or large groups of players — and many of them encouraged me to seek out a publisher.

Becoming a designer and publishing a game wasn't something I had thought about before, so in my efforts to find a publisher, I tried to do the graphics myself, but this turned out to be a big mistake because I wasted a lot of time and the result was not satisfactory. I realized then that my job as a designer was actually done. I had a complete, bug-free game with good feedback and a very good theme. I shouldn't have been concerned about the graphics because that was something an editor could take care of to take the design to the next level.

From gallery of xyman

One day, when I was looking for a company with a similar portfolio to Altar, a game caught my eye: Okko: Legendary Journey, published by The Red Joker. I was impressed by the game box, the illustrations, the quality of the cards, and the overall appearance. I immediately envisioned Altar in a similar box, and I knew that this was the company to collaborate with.

Mr. Frédérick Condette from The Red Joker will now tell you the rest of the story, and I thank him for the great job he did. I hope you enjoy our game now.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

•••

Board Game Publisher: The Red Joker
Hello, everyone! Let's pick up Vasilis' story where he left off — but first, a little introduction is necessary: The Red Joker is a French publishing company operating primarily through crowdfunding on Kickstarter, and it celebrated its tenth year of existence in 2023. Since its inception, the company has published more than ten games divided into two ranges:

• The Chronicles range, and
• The Versus range.

In the middle of 2022, Thanos Potossis, a long-time collaborator and creator of the Boardgame Stories YouTube channel, informed us that one of his acquaintances was looking for a publisher for an original game based on "the management of ancient deities". An appointment was immediately made for Vasilis (yes, it was him) and his brother to present their game Altar.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

From that moment on, everything fell into place in a simple and natural way. On the one hand, the game seemed perfect as a contribution to the renewal of the Versus line that's intended to appeal to a broader range of players around the table, and on the other hand, the prospect of developing an epic graphic style depicting the exploits of ancient gods was highly inspiring.

In addition, as icing on the cake, despite the current period of inflation, the production estimates provided by our various factories seemed quite reasonable. All that remained was to develop a solid communication plan to launch a new Kickstarter campaign. To create the illustrations for the boards and cards of the game, we called upon Nicolas Jamme and Alena Ignatkovitch, who did an unexpectedly good job! The gods were with us!

From gallery of W Eric Martin

We proceeded to create prototypes, which were sent to various content creators for preview videos. Additionally, a virtual version of the game was available on Tabletopia to provide people with a taste of the enjoyment of playing Altar.

In conclusion, we can say that the Altar project was born from chance and unexpected circumstances, but fate played a decisive role in bringing together bold and passionate protagonists ready to collaborate. We are confident that this collaboration will lead to the best outcome, and we believe that the game Altar will undoubtedly find the large audience it deserves!

The early feedback and reception for Altar has been nothing short of exceptional. People across the globe have embraced it, making it a staple on the shelves of countless households in numerous countries. We're thrilled with this overwhelmingly positive response. As we look ahead, we're confident that by the end of 2024, Altar will stand as a widely recognized game with a devoted fan base and a future brimming with promise.

The Red Joker

Board Game: Altar: Realms of the Gods
Twitter Facebook
15 Comments
Fri Mar 22, 2024 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Recommend
67 
 Thumb up
1.31
 tip
 Hide

Visit the Otherworld in Tír na nÓg, and Farm Productively for Your Dead Granny

W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
flag msg tools
admin
Board Game Designer
badge
Avatar
Board Game: Tír na nÓg
• Sometimes a trip to a convention like GAMA Expo 2024 gives you an opportunity to cover a game or two that you meant to cover earlier, as with Tír na nÓg from designers Isaac Shalev and Jason Slingerland and publisher Grand Gamers Guild. This game was crowdfunded in Q2 2023, has been shipped to backers as of now, and hits retail in June 2024.

Here's what awaits you in this 1-5 player game:
Quote:
In the Irish myth cycles, the land of Tír na nÓg is the realm of the Otherworld, the place where the Fairies lived and heroes visited on quests. It was a place just outside the realm of man, off to the west, where there was no illness or death or time, but only happiness and beauty.

The golden path to Tír na nÓg is open once more, and the greatest Celtic storytellers have gathered for a once-in-a-lifetime journey. When they return, they'll bring with them tales of the creatures they met and the adventures they lived. Over time those stories will become a saga — and the most epic saga will live on forever.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Journey to the Otherworld in Tír na nÓg by placing storytellers between story cards in the shared grid. When all storytellers have been placed, in reverse player order draft cards and add them to your hand. From your hand, you'll then add cards to your personal tableau: one card to hand, one card played. At the end of five rounds, score each row according to the rules on its corresponding goal card, and earn points for having the most connected story cards of each color. The highest score wins.
• Another June 2024 release from Grand Gamers Guild will be Ramiro Merinero's La Familia Hort, which first appeared from Spanish publisher Zombi Paella in 2020.

In this 2-4 player game, you must appease the dead to win:
Quote:
Granny Hortensia, owner of the lands of an eccentric farmer's family, dies one day without leaving a will. One night, the moon turns reddish, and the grandmother reappears as a ghost to put her four grandchildren to the test. She will visit them three times, always coinciding with the red moon. After her three appearances, whoever has become the most experienced farmer will inherit all her land.

From gallery of W Eric Martin

Money, water, and fertilizer management is the key to winning La Familia Hort, with your goal being to have the most experience points after Granny Hortensia's three visits. The game is played in rounds, and each round has five steps determined by the active round card:

Market: Crop, utensil, and animal tiles are drawn from the pile of the indicated type.
Purchase: Each player can successively buy one tile from the market.
Fertilizer: Each player receives a fertilizer counter from the bank to place it on their own crops or on the rivals' crops, depending on which round they are playing.
Watering: Players place one water counter per crop or animal tile. Available water varies depending on the weather each round.
Sale: Products are sold in exchange for coins and experience points. Crops that have been completely watered must be sold. The fertilizer is used to get the highest sales value in this step.
Board Game: Holiday Hijinks #9: The Marriage Mix-Up
Board Game: Endangered: American Red Wolf Scenario
Jonathan Chaffer's Holiday Hijinks series of 18-card escape room-style games continues in June 2024 with title #9: The Marriage Mix-Up, in which your career as a wedding planner is on the line unless you figure out what went wrong.

I protested to GGG's Marc Specter that marriage is not a holiday, and he said, "You know what we mean"...then recommended I attend couples counseling.

A Kickstarter for Holiday Hijinks titles #10-12 will follow later in 2024.

Endangered: American Red Wolf Scenario, an expansion for Joe Hopkins' Endangered from Lindsey and Johnathan Olimpio, is yet another June 2024 release from GGG.

• Finally, Grand Gamers Guild is co-publishing Words of a Feather, a design from Rusty Scioscia of Turn Sideways Games.

On a turn in this word game, the active player chooses two of the three word cards in their hand, writes down a secret word they want others to guess, then reveals the word cards while saying a third word — something to bridge the gap between the two written words so that guessers ideally land on the right spot. Players can bet on whether they guessed correctly to earn bonus points (or not) as everyone races to reach 15 points first or to have the highest score when the deck runs out.

Board Game: Words of a Feather
Front cover of Words of a Feather
Twitter Facebook
10 Comments
Thu Mar 21, 2024 7:00 am
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls

1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5  Next »  [514]