by W. Eric Martin • The Magic: The Gathering card "Form of the Dragon" was an oddball when it debuted in 2003, but the designer's intent was that you, the player, would effectively become a dragon, breathing fire each turn and untouchable in combat unless flying creatures came after you. Twenty years later, Peter Gousis, Michael D. Kelley, and Escape Velocity Games are trying to do something similar in Flame & Fang, a co-operative game for up to four players in which you grow wings and fight for survival: In a world where dragons were thought to be extinct, somehow a clutch of eggs survi ..read more

by W. Eric Martin • Czech publisher Delicious Games has announced its SPIEL Essen 24 release: Resafa, a 1-4 player game from designer Vladimír Suchý, who co-owns the company with his wife Kateřina. Non-final cover Here's an overview of the game: The game Resafa takes place during the 3rd century AD in the area of today's Middle East. Resafa now lies in ruins in modern-day Syria, but at this time it was a fortified desert outpost that flourished as a stop along important caravan routes. In the game, players represent merchants who travel on business trips and buy and sell goods in the variou ..read more

by Timothée Decroix This designer diary was co-written by the three authors — Mathieu Bossu, Thomas Cariate, and Timothée Decroix — and translated from French by Nathan Morse. Originally published in French on TricTrac. Only Believe What You See Map... Writing a designer diary is a singular exercise. It's not that easy to recall how events unfolded and to present simply the questions and decisions that led to the published game. However, we will try to take you on a journey with us through the creative process for our game Maps of Misterra, which was released in January 2024 by Sit Down! an ..read more

by W. Eric Martin Most of the comments I've read about the 2023 train game Arabella ask why a kitten is on the cover when the gameplay focuses on track-building and share-holding. The publisher explains that the kitten is intended to represent how easy the game is to learn, but any cat lover who picks up this title is in for a surprise since the gameplay does not involve kaiju cats demolishing railroads. Let me instead recommend that fans of felines check out one of the games listed below instead, each of which features cats in their gameplay, starting with Kyoto no Neko, a 2-4 player desig ..read more

by W. Eric Martin • The cartoon short "Steamboat Willie" entered the public domain in 2024, along with Tigger, The Passion of Joan of Arc, and Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence. I'm not sure whether designers will rush to create games out of this material — especially the first item given that Disney still owns everything else related to Mickey Mouse — but over time the public domain pool will only continue to grow, a pool that game designers and publishers will return to repeatedly for a chance to put their own spin on a story or group of characters known around the world, as with th ..read more

by W. Eric Martin • Jules Messaud's Akropolis won the 2023 Japan Boardgame Prize issued by Yumoa, a non-profit organization founded in 2003 that annually honors games that are "considered to have contributed the most to the spread of board games". The other titles nominated for the award were Phil Walker-Harding's Super Mega Lucky Box and Challengers! from designers Johannes Krenner and Markus Slawitscheck. This latter title, which won the 2023 Kennerspiel des Jahres in Germany, won the voting section of the 2023 Japan Boardgame Prize, receiving more than twice as many points as second-pla ..read more

by W. Eric Martin • German publisher KOSMOS has teased games that it will release in the second half of 2024, starting with German editions of Cascadia: Rolling Hills, Cascadia: Rolling Rivers, Linx, and The Gang, the latter of which will debut from KOSMOS in the U.S. in Q3 2024 and which Inka and Markus Brand described on Instagram as a "super good game" that even in March 2024 they can see landing a Spiel des Jahres nomination in 2025. Hmm... Speaking of the SdJ, Wolfgang Lüdtke's SdJ recommended title Caesar & Cleopatra, which debuted from KOSMOS in 1997, will be released in a new ..read more

by Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance The story of Word Traveler — which is being released in April 2024 from Office Dog — is both very short and very long. It's a party-ish game — emphasis on the "ish" — and like most games of its kind, it's based around a simple activity in which scoring is relatively secondary. This core activity took shape quickly and didn't change much throughout development, so in a sense "most" of the game was created in a short period of time. However, the devil's in the details as they say, and like Boo in DragonBall Z, the game went through many, many transformations before ..read more

by W. Eric Martin In 2014, Alchemists appeared from designer Matúš Kotry and publisher Czech Games Edition. In the intervening decade, Kotry has become a father, and to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the game, he and CGE have come together again to release Little Alchemists. This new design due out in Q3 2024 shares elements with the original release, but is aimed at players aged 7 and up, with these players mixing potions and selling them to customers. Here's an overview: Will you surpass your teachers' knowledge and grow up to become the best alchemists in the land? Let's find out ..read more

by W. Eric Martin • Designer Friedemann Friese of 2F-Spiele is no stranger to trick-taking games, having released Foppen in 1995 (then re-mixing it as Fool! in 2018) and Stich-Meister in 2010. In Q4 2024, he will release a new twist on the genre in Fischen, which Rio Grande Games will release as Fishing. Here's an overview of this 3-5 player game: In Fishing, you try to catch as many tricks as possible over eight rounds, with each card you catch being worth 1 point.You then use your caught cards for the next round — and if you didn't catch enough tricks to fill your hand, you'll draw fresh c ..read more