Publisher Mandoo Games releases games in Korean in its home country and in English at SPIEL Essen, with these titles being available for licensing by others, such as 25th Century Games, which has released several trick-taking games from Mandoo, such as Geonil's **_The Yellow House_** , which I reviewed in 2024. One new release coming from Mandoo is **_Shimoda: Perry Road_**, a design from Lee Ju-Hwa and Giung Kim that plays in 15 minutes as two players each construct a shopping district on their side of a waterway to attract tourists. During set-up, four tourists are randomly placed on each of two bridges that span the waterway, and each player drafts a merchant, which provides a special power or scoring condition. In each of the seven rounds, players take turns drafting a shop card and "installing" it in their street (as demonstrated in the image above). For each icon shown on the bottom of the drafted card and each matching icon on previously constructed shops, you can move a tourist on the bridge or on your side of the street one space. Each shop card has a scoring condition on it, e.g., 3 points for each pink tourist within one space of this shop, or 2 points for each blue tourist within two spaces of this shop, or 7 points for three different colored tourists on this space. After seven rounds, you score your shops and (if needed) your merchant, then you compare the number of tourists on each side of the waterway. For each space, whoever has more tourists on their side — with tourists matching the color of the building next to them counting twice — scores 5 points for that space. Whoever has more points overall wins. _Shimoda: Perry Road_ is due out in Korea in June 2026. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • **_Don Quixote_** is a new edition of the trick-taking game **_Boast or Nothing_**, a.k.a. **_Best of Neopolitan_** , from designer Marco Jung, a.k.a. Yeon-Min Jung. The game contains cards in three colors, and standard trick-taking rules apply, although the game includes "pass" cards, and you can choose to play a pass instead of matching the leading suit. The suits are initially ranked at random using the tokens, so in the image above, all green cards are stronger than red cards, which are stronger than blue cards, with higher numbers being better within a suit. Whichever suit wins the trick is moved to the bottom of the rank pile. After seven tricks, players who have collected zero tricks score 3 points, and players who have collected three, two, or one tricks in a game with three, four, or five players score 1 point. Each pass collected in a trick scores you 1 point. Play multiple rounds until someone has at least 7 points. Let me highlight the majesty of this cover: Such glorious nonsense! You have the red/blue/green color story of the suits combined with a hallucinating knight, feverish mites, and a windmill that's seeing red and ready to show who's boss. _Don Quixote_ is due out in Korea in April 2026. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • **_17 Dice Bets_**, which is due out in May 2026 in Korea, has the same graphic style as 2022's _12 Chip Trick_ (which I covered in 2023), but the designers and gameplay are not similar. Maybe Mandoo is creating a "# word word" game line? We'll see what comes in the years ahead. _17 Dice Bets_ , which is also from designers Lee Ju-Hwa and Giung Kim, presents 2-4 players with a Texas Hold'em-style bidding game in which you score based on both personal and communal dice. At the start of a round, roll your personal dice behind your screen. The round's start player rolls the public dice, then in turn order players place a betting chip on an empty space. The last player re-rolls one of the public dice, then in reverse order players place another betting chip, then the first player re-rolls one of the public dice, after which everyone reveals their private dice and shows whether they made their bets. For each made bet, you score points equal to the bet value times the payout listed on the space; for each missed bet, you flip over the betting chip, which has different values on each side. As the game progresses through the rounds, you add a red die that can't be re-rolled, another public die, a spare re-roll token for each player, and another private die for each player — and with eight dice in play near game's end, you can play it safe with smaller bets or swing big for a seven-value straight or two three-of-a-kinds. The re-roll token allows you to re-roll any number of private dice once prior to the round's payout. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism! Leave a tip

In late January 2026, I wrote about Swiss publisher Helvetiq's 2026 line-up, but what I didn't know then is that the company had announced only titles coming in the first half of the year...then at the 2026 Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair it also revealed a few games due out in the second half of 2026. Sneaky. Non-final graphics and components ** _Panda Flip_** is a 2-5 player press-your-luck game from Michael Diechtierow and Carsten Rohlfs in which you want to collect the most cards. On a turn, flip the top card of the deck onto one of the valid discard piles; in the image above, the central deck is surrounded by four discard piles, but because the top card has only two symbols on it, you can flip that card only left or down. Do you think the card will be higher than a 3, with the card values ranging from 1-7? Then flip it left onto the 3 — or do you think it will be a panda, with the deck having equal numbers of panda and clover cards? If so, flip it down. If you're correct, you can stop and collect the cards in the pile that you just flipped into, after which you flip the top card of the deck to start that discard pile again, or you can flip again. I've shown the backs of a few other cards so you can get a sense of what's possible. If you're wrong, the card goes into the discard pile, your turn ends, then the next player goes. One twist: If the number being flipped matches the number being covered, that player removes that number of cards from a player's score pile, thereby allowing everyone to pick on the perceived leader in this 10-15 minute game. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • For some reason, we tried playing __Fugu__ two-handed, creating a variant ** _Fugu_** is a card game for 1-4 players from Flavio and Riccardo Foches that will have old gamers saying, "Ah, yes, I remember playing _Rack-O_ when I was young", with that comparison being both fair and misleading. To explain... Each player starts with a face-down hand of cards, with three cards face up in a shared market. On a turn, pick a card in the market, slide it into your hand where you think it should go based on its numerical value, then pick a face-down card on either side of the newly placed card and place that card face up in the market. Thus, no new cards are introduced to the game, yet a new card comes into play each turn. You must arrange your cards from low to high, so if you end up with 14 next to 38, you are placing nothing with the numbers 15-37 in your hand for the remainder of the game...except that you can rotate a card and place it in your hand upside down out of order. You still can't place it between the 14 and 38 since you'd have no face-down card to discard, but you can make use of "bad" numbers. What are you trying to do? Place axolotls in groups, place fugu — which is the Japanese word for "blowfish" — between only coral and starfish, surround starfish with coral, and collect coral in all three colors. The more you do this, the better you score. Upside-down cards are worth negative points, but if you can't (or don't want to) place a market card on your turn, you have to quit the game, so maybe the good points will offset the bad. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Non-final graphics and components Adam Porter's _**Tecto**_ will be Helvetiq's next title in its Steffen Spiele abstract game line; well, the next one after _Alto_ , which I wrote about in the earlier post. In classic abstract strategy game fashion, you want to be the first player to get your pieces on the opponent's starting line. On a turn, slide a tile as many spaces as you wish, pushing any other tiles in front of it, then move one of your pieces, either sliding it as many spaces as you wish across empty tiles of the same background color or moving it from a tile of one color to an empty tile of another color. By chance, designer Steffen Mühlhäuser, who previously owned and ran Steffen Spiele, was in the Helvetiq booth to show a prototype, so I got to play him in _Tecto_ , with him winning one turn before I would have. We both repeatedly forgot about the forced slide, jumping ahead to the token moving, so I think neither of us played particularly well, overlooking ways to optimize both actions. One thing to note: The opponent's starting line is not fixed! Yes, I need to move my blue tokens onto the blue spaces, but I can just as easily move a blue space toward me as move a blue token away from me. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • While at trade shows, I take lots of pictures in the "I'll look into it later" category, such as the one above. Paper made with grass? That was new to me, but searching led me to this April 2024 article on Birkner's Paper World, which is summarizing material from Graspapier.de, which is a site run by Creapaper, which calls itself "The Grasspaper Company", which was also responsible for this article in _Sweets Processing_ , a publication of the Sweets Global Network, about how creapaper can serve as an alternative to plastic film in the packaging of food. Anyway, here's an excerpt from that April 2024 article: > The production of grass paper differs fundamentally from the production of conventional paper made from wood. The starting material is dried grass, which is processed into so-called pellets. These grass pellets are then further processed into grass fibers in a purely mechanical process. In contrast to pulp production from wood, the natural adhesive lignin does not have to be chemically removed. As a result, the manufacturing process is very energy-efficient and requires minimal water and no chemicals at all. > The grass fibers obtained in this way are then mixed with fresh fibers from wood or waste paper. The grass content in the finished paper is at least 30% but can also be up to 50%, depending on the intended use. That said: > [G]rass paper is not a panacea for the environmental problems of the paper industry. Since paper production is generally energy and resource-intensive, it is still most environmentally friendly to reduce paper consumption overall and consistently recycle paper. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism! Leave a tip

<p>▪️ On January 21, 2026, John Nephew, co-owner of U.S. publisher <a href="https://atlas-games.com" rel="noreferrer">Atlas Games</a>, announced that the company was <a href="https://atlas-games.com/news/post?s=2026-01-21-free-games-accessories-at-amazons-expense" rel="noreferrer">ditching Amazon.com</a> as a fulfillment partner, describing it "a lousy business partner and more often a hostile adversary for small businesses that have to work with it" — but Amazon's awfulness turned into free gifts for a few hundred gamers. In Nephew's words:</p><blockquote>In addition to all the other fees, WE HAVE TO PAY to have our removed [Fulfilled by Amazon] inventory sent back to us. We can also ask them to destroy it, but that is THE VERY SAME FEE as having it returned to us. Also, the return fee is based on the weight of each individual item returned; if they charge a fee of $X to return one item, then having 30 returned is $30X.</blockquote><blockquote>Now here's where my min-maxing heart leaps ... inexplicably, I can CHANGE THE RETURN ADDRESS FOR EACH of the manual returns. That means I can send each individual item wherever I want, and the cost to me is the same as if Amazon just carried it all to their dumpster.</blockquote><p>Nephew's offer: Send us an email with a U.S. address, and we'll send you free stuff. All of the material has been claimed at this point, but I wanted to highlight both Amazon's awfulness and Atlas's clever rules-lawyering.</p><p>▪️ Speaking of terrible fulfillment partners, in late January 2026, Milton Griepp at ICv2 <a href="https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/61503/diamond-holds-nearly-50-million-publishers-consignment-inventory" rel="noreferrer">reported</a> that "Diamond Comic Distributors is holding and attempting to seize and sell" US$47,395,014 worth of inventory based on the cost of goods on hand. From Griepp:</p><blockquote>The dispute over Diamond’s attempt to seize the inventory was being litigated and the parties had been negotiating with the help of a mediator (see “<a href="https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/60799/diamond-consignors-sparkle-pop-bank-creditors-agree-mediation" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mediation</a>”), but the issue had not been resolved when the bankruptcy was converted from a Chapter 11 reorganization to a Chapter 7 liquidation in December (see “<a href="https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/61265/court-orders-chapter-7-diamond" rel="noopener noreferrer">Court Orders Chapter 7</a>”).</blockquote><p>While at Spielwarenmesse 2026, I ran into a couple of publishers with games sitting in Diamond's hands. One had already mentally written off their inventory, while another was faced with the prospect of a thousand copies of a mid-priced Eurogame either vanishing (which would be bad) or being released onto the market ahead of a reprint of the game, which would be even worse since the company would both lose the original inventory and be stuck with newly printed stock that might no longer have a market.</p><p>▪️ Speaking of lawsuits, on January 21, 2026, two Hasbro shareholders <a href="https://rhodeislandcurrent.com/2026/01/30/shareholders-sue-hasbro-over-allegedly-printing-too-many-magic-the-gathering-cards/" rel="noreferrer">filed a lawsuit</a> against the company, claiming that it "printed too much product for its most lucrative holding, the trading card game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/463" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Magic: The Gathering</em></strong></a>, while misrepresenting its strategy to shareholders".</p><p>▪️Speaking of TCGs, in late January 2026, <em>Rascal</em>'s Chase Carter <a href="https://www.rascal.news/null-signal-games-is-keeping-corporations-fictional/" rel="noreferrer">wrote about</a> non-profit company <a href="https://nullsignal.games/" rel="noreferrer">Null Signal Games</a> and its efforts to keep up with the success of the <strong><em>Netrunner</em></strong> card game without jeopardizing the community that's grown up with the game.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/asdor2026.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front covers of the games Flip 7, Rebirth, and Toy Battle" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="677" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/asdor2026.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/asdor2026.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/asdor2026.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/02/asdor2026.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>▪️ The night before the <a href="https://www.festivaldesjeux-cannes.com/en/" rel="noreferrer">Festival International des Jeux</a> opens in Cannes, France on February 27, 2026, the winners of the As d'Or — France's game of the year award — will be announced. The <a href="https://www.festivaldesjeux-cannes.com/en/festival-as-d-or-jeu-de-l-annee" rel="noreferrer">nominees</a> for the main prize — the Jeu de l'Année — are:</p><ul><li><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/420087" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Flip 7</em></strong></a>, by Eric Olsen and The Op Games</li><li><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/417197" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Rebirth</em></strong></a>, by Reiner Knizia and Mighty Boards</li><li><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/434654" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Toy Battle</em></strong></a>, by Paolo Mori, Alessandro Zucchini, and Repos Production</li></ul><p>The nominees for the other three awards are:</p><ul><li>Children's category: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/445401" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Archeo</em></strong></a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/435346" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Mooki Island</em></strong></a>, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/409501" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>The Twisted Spooky Night</em></strong></a></li><li>Intermediate category: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/347703" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>First Rat</em></strong></a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/440540" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Take Time</em></strong></a>, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/424219" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Zenith</em></strong></a></li><li>Expert category: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/446699" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>ANTS</em></strong></a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/359871" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Arcs</em></strong></a>, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/400602" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Civolution</em></strong></a></li></ul><p>▪️ In late January 2026, the <a href="https://www.ttgda.org/" rel="noreferrer">Tabletop Game Designers Association</a> posted an "In Memoriam" document (<a href="https://irp.cdn-website.com/2b6905d0/files/uploaded/In+Memoriam+2025.pdf" rel="noreferrer">PDF</a>) recognizing people in the tabletop game industry who passed away in 2025.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

<p>At the 2026 Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair, Czech publisher <a href="https://www.albi.eu/" rel="noreferrer">Albi</a> showed off three new games coming out in 2026, with <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/457412" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Night in the Zoo</em></strong></a> being a 1-4 player game from designer Tomáš Holek, who burst onto the scene in 2024 with three releases, including <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/418059" rel="noreferrer"><em>SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence</em></a>.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/night-display.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A tile drafting board is above a person's individual game board covered with tiles and wooden animals; three animal ID cards lie at the top of the image" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1912" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/night-display.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/night-display.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/night-display.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/night-display.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Night in the Zoo</em> posits that a few animal species have gone cruising elsewhere for the evening and are now trying to make back into the zoo before opening time. Each game, you choose three of five animal types for use in the game, with each having a different movement system and point value.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/night-cover.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front cover of Night in the Zoo, which shows animals trying to get through a closed gate" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1919" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/night-cover.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/night-cover.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/night-cover.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/night-cover.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p>Each player has their own game board on which they will place drafted tiles. If you cover an action on the board or a tile, you take that action — but if you discard the tile, you get to move an animal, and that tension of how and when to use each tile to get animals to their proper places is what drives the game.</p><p><em>Night in the Zoo</em> will debut at Gen Con 2026, then be available at SPIEL Essen 26 for those outside the Czech Republic.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/457410" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Prague Unseen</em></strong></a> from Jindřich Pavlásek, Michal Peichl, and Petr Vojtěch is Albi's SPIEL Essen 26 release, with this being an involved worker-placement game for 1-4 players that takes 60-120 minutes to play.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/prague-cover.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A work-in-progress cover of Prague Unseen" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1926" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/prague-cover.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/prague-cover.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/prague-cover.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/prague-cover.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics</span></figcaption></figure><p>Here's an overview of the game from the publisher:</p><blockquote>Set foot in mythical Prague in the 19th century when fantastical creatures walked the streets freely. Meet helpful golems, amassing ancient knowledge; cunning Horned, controlling the city’s wealth; resourceful robots, and eccentric Vodniks. Use their unique meeples to calm the river Vltava, rebuild the flooded center, and control the city’s fate.</blockquote><p>Yes, Prague has flooded, and you have been charged with rebuilding the city, keeping in mind that this 1-4 player game is not co-operative, so you will be happy to see others fail at the expense of Prague.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/prague-board.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A game board showing four regions of play, along with many wooden bits" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="917" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/prague-board.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/prague-board.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/prague-board.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/prague-board.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p>The game board is divided into four regions, and over the course of the game players will construct buildings in the various regions that determine which actions can take place there and which workers can be present in which locations. Each region will be scored individually, with you trying to increase your influence in a region compared to others.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/abaku.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A grid of empty spaces on a game board with wooden tiles featuring numbers on many spaces" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2433" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/abaku.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/abaku.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/abaku.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/abaku.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p>Aside from these two Eurogames, Albi is preparing a new edition of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/173390" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Abaku</em></strong></a>, which plays similar to <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/320" rel="noreferrer"><em>Scrabble</em></a>, but features numbers on its wooden tiles, with players creating mathematical equations in order to play those tiles. What are those equations? Well, the symbols for addition, subtraction, and whatnot aren't on the board, but stated when you play...then they vanish, leaving you with numbers that can be re-used in different ways without regard to how they got there in the first place.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <p>Finally, Albi is working on a small expansion for Petr Čáslava's rally racing game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/432715" rel="noreferrer"><em>Dirt &amp; Dust</em></a>, with <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/457414" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Harbordrift</em></strong></a> containinga new track on ten cards.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/Untitled-2.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The grate that connects two subway cars, with the cars wiggling back and forth around corners" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2493" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/Untitled-2.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/Untitled-2.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/Untitled-2.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/Untitled-2.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>One of the secret pleasures of traveling to Spielwarenmesse is riding the U-bahn and straddling the grate that connects two subway cars so that you feel the grate slide and your feet move in different directions as the metro turns corners. Recommended!</p>

<p>Designer Taylor Reiner is a fan of trick-taking games, as he makes abundantly clear on his YouTube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ClaudeAndTaylor" rel="noreferrer">Taylor's Trick-Taking Table</a>, and has self-published several trick-taking games — and he wants others to self-publish as well: "I'm a huge proponent for getting my friends who are disposed to game design to get their designs out there."</p><p>In 2025, Reiner co-ordinated Game Market Vegas, an event taking place at <a href="https://dicetowerwest.com" rel="noreferrer">Dice Tower West</a> where designers could present self-published games to attendees for play and purchase, and in 2026 he's doing it again, with Game Market Vegas 2026 taking place on March 12 and 14 during Dice Tower West in the event room near the welcome area around 17:00. "The line management is much easier when split up", he says, "and you get folks who play the game with others at the con, then people will come by on Saturday and say, 'I played this earlier and want to get a copy.'"</p><p>Here's an overview of the games that will be available:</p><ul><li>Daryl Durston's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/463281" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Aetherium: The Forgotten Duel</em></strong></a> is a two-player abstract strategy duel in which players use actions to boost the power of element tokens. Max out a token, and you pull the aether market toward your side of the board. If you get the aether token to your end of the track or max out the final token in an element, you win instantly.</li><li>In Chris Lawrence's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/457851" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Coupon Clipper</em></strong></a>, 2-4 players pass around sheets of paper filled with coupons, making two cuts on a sheet each turn, plus one extra cut per bonus token spent. You collect everything cut free from the sheet, trying to end up with the best groceries for a BBQ picnic.</li><li><strong><em>I Cut, You Lose</em></strong> is Taylor Reiner's own contribution to the show, with this being a single-card, micro-legacy game in which players try to rip off the "middlest" piece from a card during a snake draft.</li><li>Dennis Bigelow's <strong><em>Tricked Out</em></strong> from <a href="https://farallongames.com/" rel="noreferrer">Farallon Games</a> can be played only while playing a trick-taking game, with the winners and losers of tricks earning "Tricked Out" cards with "special abilities that change how the trick-taker is played and give points in <em>Tricked Out</em>".</li><li>Perhaps you can pair <em>Tricked Out</em> with Bigelow's own <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/436394" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Trickster Gods</em></strong></a>, a game for 3-4 players in which trick winners can keep winning cards or use them to manipulate the 'Cosmic Equation' that determines how sets score at the end of the round.</li><li>Tommy Kerbow's <strong><em>Trixy Rabbits</em></strong> is a bidding-free, trick-taking game in which rabbits can cost you points or help you score.</li></ul><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/trick-hero-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1361" height="911" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/trick-hero-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/trick-hero-1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/trick-hero-1.jpg 1361w" /></figure> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

<p>Designer <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/144/jacques-zeimet">Jacques Zeimet</a>, best known for the games <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11971" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Cockroach Poker</em></strong></a> and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/83195" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Ghost Blitz</em></strong></a>, has passed away.</p><p>All that's known publicly about Monsieur Zeimet is that he was from Luxembourg. An editor at <a href="https://www.zoch-verlag.com" rel="noreferrer">Zoch Verlag</a> — which published one of his first designs, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/293" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Bamboleo</em></strong></a>, in 1996 — tells me that he preferred not to have his picture or bio on game boxes as he didn't want to be a public person. That said, he has shared his creations with us for three decades, so perhaps you can put <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/903" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Hamster Roll</em></strong></a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/206939" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Do De Li Do</em></strong></a>, or <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/186302" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>The Nasty 7</em></strong></a> — which is due out in a new edition in 2026 — on the table and enjoy his legacy through play.</p>

<p>I constantly marvel at the breadth of what’s present in our world, at the ability to discover (again and again) a massive fanbase for an activity or creative endeavor or media topic that I didn’t know about — and your introduction to a new topic often results from someone else's arrival on the scene, with them diving into that hidden ocean and you getting caught up in the ripples of their splash.</p><p>This happened (again) in 2021 when my friend and former co-worker Chad Krizan, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com" rel="noreferrer">BoardGameGeek</a>’s advertising manager, launched <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/puzzlebomb/bumfuzzled-a-peculiar-100-piece-wooden-puzzle" rel="noreferrer">a Kickstarter campaign</a> for “Bumfuzzled”, a 100-piece wooden jigsaw puzzle that was available to backers at a discounted price of US$42.</p><p>That price seemed somewhat pricey, even with the discount, but I backed it to support Chad and received a challenging abstract jigsaw puzzle that my son and I had a ball putting together. The experience of handling that puzzle differed from what I was used to: the shapes were more intricate — seemingly limited only by the desire of its creator — and we worked without a supporting image, which made the puzzle aspect more puzzling. Where’s the bolt for this wrench? Where will these arrows end up? And what’s with all the toe separator sponges?!</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/bumfuzzled-2022.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The 100 funky wooden pieces of a jigsaw puzzle are scattered on a wood table" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1500" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2025/12/bumfuzzled-2022.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2025/12/bumfuzzled-2022.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2025/12/bumfuzzled-2022.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2025/12/bumfuzzled-2022.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Bumfuzzled #1 in the sorting stage on my table</span></figcaption></figure><p>Turns out Chad had caught the wooden jigsaw puzzle bug in 2017 and been diving deeper into that hobby ever since. “I don't remember exactly how I came across them, but I remember seeing pictures of intricately cut wooden puzzles, and I just thought they looked so fun and challenging”, he told me. “However, as is the case for many folks who first enjoy cardboard puzzles, I had a bit of sticker shock when I saw the high price of wooden puzzles. I stuck one on my Christmas list as a ‘I don't want to pay for this, but would be happy to receive it’ item.”</p><p>Someone did gift him that puzzle, which turned out to be gifting him an obsession at the same time: “I absolutely <em>loved</em> it and immediately ordered more now that I realized they were totally worth the sticker price.”</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/Facebook-Memories---First-Wooden-Puzzle.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Wooden jigsaw pieces that look like gears are joined together showing a psychedelic image that depicts nothing recognizable" loading="lazy" width="720" height="960" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2025/12/Facebook-Memories---First-Wooden-Puzzle.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/Facebook-Memories---First-Wooden-Puzzle.jpg 720w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Part of the first wooden jigsaw puzzle that Chad completed in 2017</span></figcaption></figure><p>Chad had (and still has) a full-time position at BoardGameGeek, but he says, “In late 2019, my wife Caylyn and I were praying for some direction, and the idea of starting a jigsaw company emerged. By 2020, we had the company formed, releasing the first puzzle later that year.” And that first puzzle was...<a href="https://puzzlebomb.com/blogs/the-puzzle-bomb-blog/the-wooden-detour-that-sparked-bumfuzzled" rel="noreferrer">a metal and enamel design</a>. Wait, where’s the wood? How did this come about? Chad answered in depth:</p><blockquote>Funnily enough, the original concept was to create cardboard puzzles with the more intricate piece shapes of wooden puzzles. However, to stand out as a new company, I wanted to make something a bit wild and ridiculous to grab folks' attention, so I had the idea of creating a puzzle of metal/enamel pins, but without the pin back, with over-the-top jewelry box packaging. The result was incredibly unique, and I still get emails today from customers wondering when we'll reprint it.</blockquote><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/enamel-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Metal and enamel jigsaw pieces form three ice cream cones stacked with unusual ingredients such as a panda" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="1000" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2025/12/enamel-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/enamel-1.jpg 1000w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Puzzle Bomb's "Enamel Series #1: Ice Cream", which turned out to be the one and only</span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>However, enamel pins aren't a precision production, and even a minor variance from pin to pin can result in pieces that don't fit together well, which meant we had to test fit every single puzzle. It was a 30-piece puzzle, and we made 300 units, which meant hand-testing 9,000 pieces. Out of those 300 units, we ended up with something around 250 functional puzzles and a slew of ill-fitting extras. One of the goals of the business is freeing up our time, so a product that requires this much time and labor just isn't a good fit, but it did successfully serve the purpose of getting initial attention for Puzzle Bomb!</blockquote><blockquote>If you look at our site, you'll notice we don't offer cardboard puzzles as was the original plan. The die-making process for the original idea was taking a long time, so out of boredom, I sketched out Bumfuzzled #1 over a few days, had a sample in-hand within two weeks, and threw together the Kickstarter campaign something like one month later. It sold 646 units, which seemed quite good considering I hadn't done much marketing, which changed the entire direction into the abstract wooden puzzles we're now known for.</blockquote><blockquote>I don't recommend this business approach, but I tend to act on ideas without much planning as I see so many folks plan and plan and plan but never get anything done, and you really don't know what works until you do something. This approach has served me well at BoardGameGeek as well as it's how the whole <a href="https://boardgamegeekstore.com/collections/bgg-geekup-bit-sets" rel="noreferrer">GeekUp</a> line of bits started, as well as <a href="https://boardgamegeekstore.com/collections/game-art" rel="noreferrer">the Artist Series art prints</a> and <a href="https://boardgamegeekstore.com/collections/bowls-trays?filter.p.product_type=GeekUp+Silicone" rel="noreferrer">silicone bowls and card holders</a>. I tend to prefer the shortest route between having an idea and having something to show for it!</blockquote><p>The <a href="https://puzzlebomb.com" rel="noreferrer">Puzzle Bomb</a> name originated in much the same spirit, with Chad telling me, “The attached picture pretty much sums it up...”</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/Puzzle-Bomb-Name.png" class="kg-image" alt="Text: &quot;You are starting a puzzle company. What will you name it?&quot; &quot;Puzzle Bomb&quot; &quot;How do you know? Show your thinking.&quot; A stick figure person has a word balloon overhead thinking &quot;Puzzle Bomb&quot;" loading="lazy" width="589" height="385" /></figure><p>He adds, “The main thing I cared about is that the name be easy to spell and easy to remember. I feel like too many businesses out-clever themselves with their business name, and leave customers or potential customers scratching their heads trying to remember the company name or ruining their company name with silly spelling. I also couldn't believe <a href="http://www.puzzlebomb.com/">www.puzzlebomb.com</a> was available; I wouldn't have chosen a business name where I couldn't get the .com address.”</p><p>The “Puzzle Bomb” name also lends itself to a straightforward, “obvious” logo, and the Krizans thought about branding and marketing consistency from the get-go. “I've been at BGG for a long time, including during the rebranding to the current ‘game flame’ logo. The BGG community reaction to that change was decidedly negative, which taught me you really want to start your company with strong branding rather than trying to pivot later. Basically, start your business as if it's going to succeed, making the necessary investments at the outset, rather than hoping you succeed and having to ‘fix’ things later.”</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/Bumfuzzled_Collection_4.png" class="kg-image" alt="Parts of the first four Bumfuzzled puzzles, along with the Puzzle Bomb logo" loading="lazy" width="1400" height="1400" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2025/12/Bumfuzzled_Collection_4.png 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2025/12/Bumfuzzled_Collection_4.png 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/Bumfuzzled_Collection_4.png 1400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Parts of the first four Bumfuzzled puzzles</span></figcaption></figure><p>What’s more, says Chad, “Your branding is also in every decision you make. The colors you use. Your packaging. Your product titles and naming conventions. For example, this is why Bumfuzzled uses a very specific pallet of colors. I can design a wild variety of puzzles, and yet when you see a Bumfuzzled puzzle, you know it's a Bumfuzzled puzzle. Even if my logo wasn't on it, you’d just know.”</p><p>“Bumfuzzled”, by the way, means “confused, perplexed, or in a state of bewilderment”and dates to the 1870s, <a href="https://www.oed.com/dictionary/bumfuzzled_adj" rel="noreferrer">according to</a> the Oxford English Dictionary. “Wooden jigsaw puzzles are an old-timey activity”, says Chad, “and I liked the idea of combining this vintage feel with my modern pop-art style.”</p><p>The OED also mentions that “bumfuzzled” has “[f]ewer than 0.01 occurrences per million words in modern written English”, which has to be great for search engine results, and Chad has plenty more to say about marketing, both for Puzzle Bomb in particular and more generally:</p><blockquote>This is another place where twenty years at BGG has paid off. As I help board game companies market their games, a common question is how they can leverage the BGG forums. However, they're usually asking this question a week before launch, whereas they needed to insert themselves into the BGG community <em>way</em> earlier. If you just show up saying "Look at me!", you come across as a shill rather than a member of the community.</blockquote><blockquote>Even before we'd actually formed the company, I had started participating in puzzle groups. I started shooting time-lapse footage of solving other companies' puzzles. No mention of Puzzle Bomb or my intent to start a company, and it was truly authentic as I really enjoy puzzles to begin with. By the time we released something, those groups were happy to support me and were key to the early success.</blockquote><blockquote>Now, as any company should, I work on SEO and other organic methods of attracting potential customers, and I have all kinds of sophisticated ways to capture folks' email addresses and market to them via email. I also run thousands of dollars in Meta ads per month (going up to five figures in November and December), whereas it seems most board game companies see marketing as an expense rather than an investment that should produce a return. In my experience, that investment earns a return of at least $2.50 per $1 spent, and usually more.</blockquote><blockquote>The key is that while the front end was a lot of personal time investment since we didn't yet have revenue, I've now pivoted to outsourcing these things to experts in these fields. I like designing puzzles, not managing Meta ads. I don't have the time or expertise to focus on these things, and there's major value in having trustworthy partners who are experts in email marketing, Meta/TikTok/AI marketing, and SEO. I wouldn't have the time to do it myself, and I imagine a lot of board game companies are in that same boat, not thinking nearly big enough when it comes to their paid advertising.</blockquote><p>While past marketing has focused on crowdfunding campaigns — five <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/puzzlebomb/created" rel="noreferrer">at Kickstarter</a> and four <a href="https://gamefound.com/en/creators/puzzle-bomb" rel="noreferrer">at Gamefound</a> — Puzzle Bomb is moving to <a href="https://puzzlebomb.com/products/bumfuzzled-26-polychrome-slalom" rel="noreferrer">a subscription service</a> as of February 2026. “We've always released three puzzles per quarter, launching a crowdfunding campaign each quarter,” says Chad. “However, outside of the board game space, crowdfunding is confusing to a lot of folks and complicates the process of simply buying puzzles. While crowdfunding is beneficial exposure-wise, it's a high friction process that requires customers to jump through a bunch of hurdles and pay way more attention to a long process than most people want to.”</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Bumfuzzled26_Intimate.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A wooden puzzle showing giant snowflakes in the sky above skiers who have colorful trails in their wake" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2000" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/Bumfuzzled26_Intimate.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/Bumfuzzled26_Intimate.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/Bumfuzzled26_Intimate.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Bumfuzzled26_Intimate.jpg 2128w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">"Polychrome Slalom", the first title in Puzzle Bomb's subscription service</span></figcaption></figure><p>“Subscriptions will allow our customers an easy, predictable flow of puzzles, giving them an effortless monthly peaceful and relaxing appointment with our puzzles”, he adds. “We also love going above and beyond, so a subscription also comes with a free yearly puzzle gift that allows me to design some wacky/unique puzzles I'd like to do, but that don't fit into our established puzzle lines.”</p><p>For an example of what “wacky/unique” might mean, you can check out Puzzle Bomb’s “Party in the Back” series https://puzzlebomb.com/collections/browse-all-puzzles, which features not mullets, but multi-layered puzzles that provide a radically different solving experience. As Chad relayed in <a href="https://puzzlebomb.com/blogs/the-puzzle-bomb-blog/party-in-the-back-a-puzzle-line-born-out-of-necessity" rel="noreferrer">an October 2025 post</a>, “Party in the Back” developed because some solvers wanted a meatier challenge than the 100-150 piece creations Puzzle Bomb had been delivering, but the Krizans wanted to stick to “a maximum package dimension” in order not to blow up their shipping expenses. Writes Chad, “So if I wanted more pieces, a small footprint, and flat-packing, my only option was to go <em>up</em> rather than out! Layers was the way to go.”</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/party-in-the-back.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Close-up of puzzle from the multi-level series &quot;Party in the Back&quot;" loading="lazy" width="1400" height="1400" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2025/12/party-in-the-back.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2025/12/party-in-the-back.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/party-in-the-back.jpg 1400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Close-up of puzzle from the multi-level series "Party in the Back"</span></figcaption></figure><p>More generally, says Chad, “When designing a series like ‘Bumfuzzled’, my satisfaction comes from creating different solve experiences. If you think of traditional puzzles, 90-some percent of folks just agree you <em>have</em> to start with the outer border. It's not even a decision people make; it's just accepted that this is the way to begin a puzzle. With my puzzles, you have to evaluate each one, deciding on how to tackle each puzzle. My favorite part of the production process is receiving the first production sample, seeing how it ‘feels’ to assemble and seeing whether it matches what I was after.”</p><p>He continues, “Sometimes, I explain to folks that our puzzles are what happens when a board gamer decides to design jigsaw puzzles. In a board game, you have to assess the rules the designer created and how to best exploit those rules. My puzzles are similar in that you have to assess each puzzle for the optimal solve strategy.”</p><p>Want a deeper dive? Here's Chad's diary of the creation of Bumfuzzled #19.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <div class="kg-card kg-header-card kg-v2 kg-width-regular " style="background-color:#000000"> <div class="kg-header-card-content"> <div class="kg-header-card-text kg-align-center"> <h2 id="designer-diary-bumfuzzled-19-cartographic-divide" class="kg-header-card-heading" style="color:#FFFFFF"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Designer Diary - Bumfuzzled #19 - Cartographic Divide</span></h2> <p id="originally-published-17-march-2025" class="kg-header-card-subheading" style="color:#FFFFFF"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Originally published 17 March 2025</span></p> </div> </div> </div><p><strong>The Spark!</strong><br /><br />The initial idea for "Cartographic Divide" was a rather simple one. I had the thought of a canvas split in two, with a wavy line that undulated across the split, forming voids on either side of the split. Now that I wrote that out, it sounds surprisingly confusing, so here's the initial sketch:</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/bumf2.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A wavy line crosses back and forth across a vertical line. Xs show sections that will be removed during production" loading="lazy" width="600" height="782" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/bumf2.jpg 600w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Xs show sections that will be removed during production</span></figcaption></figure><p><strong>Where to Go From Here?</strong><br /><br />Of course, having an initial concept is great, but as you can see, that initial sketch is quite boring! As I was pondering what direction to take with it, the idea of a topographic map came to mind. My college degree is in landscape architecture, and for two years in my early 20s, I was an urban planner. Urban planners look at and manipulate <em>lots</em> of topographic maps, so with this blast from the past resurfacing in my mind, I set out to find a topographic map I could use for inspiration.<br /><br />I found one that I liked the look of and used it as the rough basis:</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/bumf3.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A grayscale draft of the &quot;Cartographic Divide&quot; puzzle that looks like a topographic map" loading="lazy" width="600" height="782" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/bumf3.jpg 600w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">An early draft of the "Cartographic Divide" puzzle</span></figcaption></figure><p>It's <em>really</em> hard to see without the final coloring, but using the topographic map theme, the puzzle is broken into three color-coded regions:<br /><br />1) The undulating "mountain range" that crosses back and forth across the center line. This is the uncolored area of the final puzzle.<br />2) Midlands. This is the muted/pastel color area of the final puzzle.<br />3) Lowlands. This is the saturated color area of the final puzzle.<br /><br /><strong>Developing the Linework</strong><br /><br />I knew the color scheme of this puzzle was going to be very helpful when solving, so I had to make the cut lines rather difficult to balance that out. Fairly detailed, random lines tend to be rather hard to assemble, so I went that route for the entire "mountain range".<br /><br />To keep the puzzle from feeling too same-y, I then decided to use different styles for the midlands and lowlands. The midlands use a curvy connector type, similar to what I used in the top layer of "<a href="https://puzzlebomb.com/products/party-in-the-back-1-hamers-rijwielen" rel="noreferrer">Party in the Back #1</a>"!<br /><br />That left me with the lowlands area. I always like design elements that clash and contrast, so I went with a series of "bulls-eye" concentric ring patterns. I enjoy the look of these quite a lot in the midst of the otherwise chaotic cut patterns in this puzzle!</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/bumf4.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A black-and-white sketch of the &quot;Cartographic Divide&quot; puzzle showing many squiggly lines atop a repeating bullseye pattern" loading="lazy" width="600" height="782" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/bumf4.jpg 600w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">A sketch of the "Cartographic Divide" puzzle</span></figcaption></figure><p>I must say, keeping the regions of the puzzle properly visualized while sketching was tough! This puzzle looks like a complete mess without the color!<br /><br /><strong>Fine Tuning</strong><br /><br />The linework really needed one more pass at this point as I felt the "squiggly" linework was a bit too jagged and angular in many places. I retraced everything to smooth it out a bit.<br /><br />The bottom-right in particular also needed more than just a retrace. It needed some real reshaping and massaging since it felt a bit heavy on the lowlands "bulls-eye" pattern.<br /><br />Speaking of that bottom-right section:<br /><br /><strong>The Details of Puzzle Design: "Bridge Connectors"</strong><br /><br />Perhaps there's a proper puzzling term out there for this, but I use the term "bridge connector" for any piece that connects two adjacent pieces that aren't otherwise connected. Similar to the first paragraph, that sounds like word salad, so let's go to some pictures!</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/bumf5.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Two contrasting images, with option 1 (left) showing two puzzle pieces connected via a third piece and option 2 (right) showing the two pieces connected directly" loading="lazy" width="600" height="379" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/bumf5.jpg 600w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">The bridge connector is a third piece that connects two others</span></figcaption></figure><p>You can see in Option 1, piece C in a "bridge connector" between A and B, where A and B are essentially connected together despite being not connected directly.<br /><br />Alternatively, I could have designed that small area via Option 2, simply directly connecting A and B, and making piece C smaller and out of the way, but IMO, that would make for a less interesting connection!<br /><br />I'm certainly not the only puzzle designer that uses "bridge connectors", but I just thought this would be a fun detail to point out to show how a puzzle designer has to have a keen eye for details and puzzle connectivity. The design decisions are constant!<br /><br /><strong>The Grand Finale</strong><br /><br />Unlike many of my designs, I'd already decided on the color scheme from the outset as designs with this sort of hard split in the middle lend themselves well to a "fire and ice" design scheme. While it's not super original, it's impactful! So I simply went with blue on the left and orange on the right. I think the result is quite stunning!</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/bumf6.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The finished &quot;Cartographic Divide&quot; jigsaw puzzle, with empty spaces on each side of a vertical line" loading="lazy" width="600" height="600" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/bumf6.jpg 600w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">The finished "Cartographic Divide" jigsaw puzzle</span></figcaption></figure><p>Applying the color is extra fun in these more abstract puzzles with a busy connection pattern as the overall design is rather indecipherable until the color is applied! It's a relief to find I hadn't confused anything in the design process! Phew!<br /><br />Hope you enjoyed the peek inside my brain! Enjoy the puzzle!<br /><br />Love and blessings,<br />Chad</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

<p>What's a puzzle and what's a game? And can a title be both...or neither? You decide!</p><p>In a week or so, I'll write a Roll Call Recap, sharing how our community differentiates between puzzles and games.</p><p>Individual responses won’t be shared without your permission. At the end of the survey, you’ll be able to opt in to being quoted in a future post, and you can choose whether to be quoted by name or anonymously.</p><p>Thanks for sharing your thoughts!</p><div class="gh-paid-content-notice"><h3>This post is for subscribers only</h3><p>Become a member to get access to all content</p><a class="gh-paid-content-cta" href="https://www.wericmartin.com/puzzle-vs-game-survey/#/portal/signup">Subscribe now</a></div>

<p>In October 2025, I <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogpost/179659" rel="noreferrer">previewed</a> many future game releases from French publisher <a href="https://iellogames.com/" rel="noreferrer">IELLO</a>, but I could only tease a few others...until now after those titles were revealed at the 2026 Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair.</p><p>To start, some guessed correctly that the final image in that earlier post suggested a new <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/422484" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>King of Tokyo: Duel</em></strong></a> item, but instead of just an expansion, <strong><em>King of Tokyo: Duel – Tokyo Bay</em></strong> is a standalone, two-player game from Richard Garfield that can be mixed with the original.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/tokyo-display.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Non-final game components, including a game board with two &quot;movement troughs&quot;, six monster tiles, a deck of power cards, dice, and more" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1572" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/tokyo-display.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/tokyo-display.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/tokyo-display.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/tokyo-display.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p>As with the earlier game, <em>King of Tokyo: Duel – Tokyo Bay</em> centers around a tug of war between two monsters who are eager to demonstrate their destructive capacities. On a turn, you roll six dice up to three times, re-rolling as you wish, then use the results to smash your opponent, add wreckage tiles to the troughs in the bay to "pull" a building toward your side of the game board, gain energy to purchase power cards, recover health points, and use a monster's special ability. (For a complete overview of the original game, head to <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogpost/164648" rel="noreferrer">my August 2024 write-up</a>.)</p><p>In the original game, one way to win was by moving one building to your side of the game board or moving both buildings close enough. In <em>Tokyo Bay</em>, the buildings "float" in the middle of the bay, and as you pull a building toward you, you reveal a wreckage tile, add that to the trough, and move the building onto it; these wreckage tiles have icons that give bonuses when a building moves onto them. If a building is at your edge of the board and you'd pull it toward you again, you collect a wreckage tile as a trophy, winning the game if you have three of them.</p><p>You can win <em>Tokyo Bay</em> two others ways as well. First, by knocking your opponent's health to 0 hearts, as in the original game. Second, by fulfilling the instant-win conditions on a power card, with multiple such cards existing in this game.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/tokyo-monsters.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The six monsters in King of Tokyo: Duel – Tokyo Bay: Cyberbunny, Kraken, Iron Back, Pagura, Gigarex, and H.A.D.E.S." loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2640" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/tokyo-monsters.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/tokyo-monsters.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/tokyo-monsters.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/tokyo-monsters.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p>The six monsters in <em>Tokyo Bay</em> are new, and you can use any two <em>Duel</em> monsters with any assortment of power cards on either of the two game boards. Kraken lets you give a token of your choice to you or your opponent, either allowing you to re-roll dice with a certain face or preventing them from doing so. Iron Back can be charged for massive attacks or energy gains, and H.A.D.E.S. moves a token on a small game board (seen in the second image), giving effects in a rotating cycle.</p><p><em>King of Tokyo: Duel – Tokyo Bay</em> is due out in October 2026 — and that game will be preceded by <strong><em>King of Tokyo: Godzilla</em></strong>, which IELLO has teased in this video.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><iframe width="200" height="113" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QMd08GtWM_Y?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen title="King of Tokyo Godzilla - Teaser"></iframe></figure><p><em>King of Tokyo: Godzilla</em> will debut at Gen Con 2026, with a retail release in August 2026. The monsters all come from the Godzilla films, and each includes a set of evolution cards. The artwork on the cover, monsters, power cards, and game board looks like a 1960s comic style, and Japanese and English text will be present throughout. The dice, energy tokens, and monster stands included in the game are wood, with the only plastic included being (I think) the studs that connect the monster tile with its health and point dials.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/frag-solara.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Game box for Fragments: Solara, three trays containing small cardboard tiles, an adventure book, and a solution guide" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="3245" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/frag-solara.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/frag-solara.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/frag-solara.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/frag-solara.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p>The other titles IELLO revealed are <strong><em>Fragments: Solara</em></strong> and <strong><em>Fragments: Fungatai</em></strong>, a new game line by Yohan Servais, who has previously designed <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/39442/series-unlock-space-cowboys"><em>Unlock!</em></a> challenges and IELLO's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/109387/series-guilty"><em>Guilty</em></a> game line. The easiest way to understand <em>Fragments</em> is to look at elements in the tutorial challenge.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/frag-tut.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A Fragments rulebook, adventure book, and cardboard sleeve containing three tiles" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1398" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/frag-tut.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/frag-tut.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/frag-tut.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/frag-tut.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Fragments</em> is akin to an escape room-style, point-and-click adventure, except instead of clicking, you'll "unlock" puzzle pieces from cardboard sleeves as you make your way through the story. The tutorial includes background material, then instructs you to "open" an indicated piece.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/frag-tut2.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Three puzzle pieces are pulled partially out of the cardboard sleeve" loading="lazy" width="1855" height="3785" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/frag-tut2.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/frag-tut2.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/frag-tut2.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/frag-tut2.jpg 1855w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p>You'll place the piece on the table, and it might have icons that indicate how to use it, or the story might tell you to try doing something, then you might open another piece, and these perhaps jigsaw together in a certain way, which will create other instructions, and so forth. You'll bounce back and forth from adventure book to pieces to make your through the story.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/frag-front.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front cover of Fragments: Fungatai" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2209" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/frag-front.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/frag-front.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/frag-front.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/frag-front.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/fung-back.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Side of the box of Fragments: Fungatai" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2099" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/fung-back.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/fung-back.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/fung-back.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/02/fung-back.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Fragments: Solara</em> is a self-contained adventure that plays in (if I recall correctly) 90-120 minutes, whereas <em>Fragments: Fungatai</em> is a four-adventure campaign that will collectively take about six hours to finish. <em>Fragments: Fungatai</em> will debut at SPIEL Essen 26, with <em>Solara</em> appearing prior to that.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/shlak.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Black and white cubes are stuck together with magnets into two chunks of pieces" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1250" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/shlak.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/shlak.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/shlak.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/shlak.jpg 2032w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p>The image doesn't look like much, but <strong><em>Shlak</em></strong> is a game to experience rather than see in a stationary format. IELLO describes this design by Roberto Fraga and Yohan Goh as "crokinole meets tic-tac-toe".</p><p>In <em>Shlak</em>, the name of which is non-final, players or teams take turns flicking one of their cubes toward those already in play, and since the cubes have magnets inside, they will react in odd ways as they come close together. Your goal is to connect four of your cubes in some manner. Do that, and you win the round; win three times, and you've won the game.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/hiif.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Sample cards numbered 3-17 from HiiFuu" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="601" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/hiif.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/hiif.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/hiif.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/hiif.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/457288/hiifuu"><strong><em>HiiFuu</em></strong></a> is a trick-taking game from Yozaemon Matumoto for 4-6 players. At the start of each round, you discard some of the cards dealt to you, then you play a classic trick-taking game with no trump in which you must follow suit, if possible. The twist is that you must win exactly two tricks to score — and the longer you wait to win your two tricks, the more points you earn! But the longer you wait, the more you risk never being able to take the lead. Naturally, the number of tricks in a round will force at least one person to go scoreless.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/word.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The Break the Word game box and square cards with holes in them that you overlay on a character grid to reveal only two characters" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2028" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/word.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/word.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/word.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/word.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and components</span></figcaption></figure><p>Unlike the earlier titles <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/227466" rel="noreferrer"><em>Break the Code</em></a> and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/354669" rel="noreferrer"><em>Break the Cube</em></a>, <strong><em>Break the Word</em></strong> is by designers Wilfried and Marie Fort. You attempt to guess a mystery word by overlaying clue cards on the character grid in order to receive information, maybe a couple of letters from the word, maybe the number of times a certain letter appears in the word, and maybe the exact position of one letter within the word.</p><p>The fewer clues you need, the more you'll score...assuming you break the word, of course.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/elles.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Two boxes for a card game named Elles, with sample cards each showing an image and card effect" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1843" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/elles.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/elles.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/elles.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/elles.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and presentation</span></figcaption></figure><p>I'll confess to knowing about <strong><em>Elles</em></strong>. I took photos in the IELLO booth when a representative was busy with someone else, then we talked about new releases, skipping this one in the process. Sorry!</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/bunny.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Boxes for Bunny Kingdom and Bunny Kingdom Town, with the components of the latter spread on the table" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1971" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/bunny.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/bunny.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/bunny.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/bunny.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>To end where we began, we'll look at the final production of another Richard Garfield design: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/457283" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Bunny Kingdom Town</em></strong></a>, which is a two-player version of his 2017 game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/184921" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Bunny Kingdom</em></strong></a> that has you competing for good building spaces in town so that you can create valuable districts and collect golden carrots.</p><p><em>Bunny Kingdom Town</em> is due out in May 2026.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/Untitled-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Giant safety pins hang together on a wall" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2484" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/Untitled-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/Untitled-1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/Untitled-1.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/Untitled-1.jpg 2264w" /></figure><p>Here's one of the art displays in the stairwell of the hostel where I stayed in Nürnberg, Germany during Spielwarenmesse 2026.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? 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<p>One company I missed seeing at the 2026 Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair was <a href="https://www.zoch-verlag.com">Zoch Verlag</a> as between my last visit in 2020 and this year parent company <a href="https://www.simbatoys.com/simba_en/home/" rel="noreferrer">Simba Toys</a> had moved its home to hall 6, which features action toys, educational toys, and other types of toys. Well, now I know for next year...</p><p>Zoch was previewing only two new upcoming titles, one being Claude Weber's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/463980" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Die Zausel vom Zauberwald</em></strong></a>, which translates to the extremely Zoch-ian title "The Shaggy Creatures of the Enchanted Forest".</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/IMG_5168.JPG" class="kg-image" alt="A game board shows player figures and ghosts on a pathway in a forest that contains nine cut-out circles" loading="lazy" width="1369" height="945" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/IMG_5168.JPG 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/IMG_5168.JPG 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/IMG_5168.JPG 1369w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Image: Zoch Verlag</span></figcaption></figure><p>The gist of the game is that you and your fellow players are forgetful gnomes who have left their hats in various bushes throughout the forest. You're devoid of dosh, though, so you can't buy new hats; you must go searching for what's been left behind, and the more rings on a hat, the better!</p><p>Unfortunately, the circular areas present challenges in that they'll tip over if you step on them the wrong way, so you need to learn and remember safe passages through the forest so that you move those hats homeward. The ghosts will block your way and laugh at you when you stumble, as captured in the documentary footage shown on the game cover.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/zoch2.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front covers of Die Zausel vom Zauberwald and Flitze Flatze Bärentatze" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="996" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/zoch2.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/zoch2.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/zoch2.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/02/zoch2.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>The other title — Regine and Thomas Fabien's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/463978" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Flitze Flatze Bärentatze</em></strong></a>, which translates to something like "Flit, Flap, BEAR PAW" — is also for 2-4 players aged 6 and up, and in this game you're trying to get salmon from a netted pool to the spawning grounds on the perimeter of the game board.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/IMG_5166.JPG" class="kg-image" alt="A game board shows a central pond, with tributaries running to the corners of the board and salmon swimming up them" loading="lazy" width="1341" height="809" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/IMG_5166.JPG 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/IMG_5166.JPG 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/IMG_5166.JPG 1341w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Image: Zoch Verlag</span></figcaption></figure><p>On a turn, you're adding a picture card to the image in the center of the table. Doing this affects which colors of salmon are visible, as well as where the nets are open, which determines which tributaries the salmon can swim in when leaving the central pool. In the meantime, a bear circles the board, awaiting the chance to exhibit the power of the Bärentatze...</p><p>Aside from these two games, Zoch Verlag will release a 15th anniversary edition of Carmen Kleinert's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/91671" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Da ist der Wurm drin</em></strong></a>, which won the Kinderspiel des Jahres in 2011. This new edition will include a bonus game: <strong><em>Da ist der Wurm drin: das Würfelspiel</em></strong>.</p><p>Mark Calin Caliman's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/91666" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Crossboule</em></strong></a> — which is like an indoor version of bocce or pétanque — also celebrates its 15th anniversary (at least with Zoch) in 2026, and a special version of the game with three sets of boule balls will be released in March 2026 at the same time as these other three items.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

<div class="kg-card kg-audio-card"><img alt="audio-thumbnail" class="kg-audio-thumbnail kg-audio-hide" /><div class="kg-audio-thumbnail placeholder"><svg width="24" height="24"><path d="M7.5 15.33a.75.75 0 1 0 0 1.5.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.5Zm-2.25.75a2.25 2.25 0 1 1 4.5 0 2.25 2.25 0 0 1-4.5 0ZM15 13.83a.75.75 0 1 0 0 1.5.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.5Zm-2.25.75a2.25 2.25 0 1 1 4.5 0 2.25 2.25 0 0 1-4.5 0Z"></path><path d="M14.486 6.81A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 17.25 9v5.579a.75.75 0 0 1-1.5 0v-5.58a.75.75 0 0 0-.932-.727.755.755 0 0 1-.059.013l-4.465.744a.75.75 0 0 0-.544.72v6.33a.75.75 0 0 1-1.5 0v-6.33a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 1.763-2.194l4.473-.746Z"></path><path d="M3 1.5a.75.75 0 0 0-.75.75v19.5a.75.75 0 0 0 .75.75h18a.75.75 0 0 0 .75-.75V5.133a.75.75 0 0 0-.225-.535l-.002-.002-3-2.883A.75.75 0 0 0 18 1.5H3ZM1.409.659A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 3 0h15a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 1.568.637l.003.002 3 2.883a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 .679 1.61V21.75A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 21 24H3a2.25 2.25 0 0 1-2.25-2.25V2.25c0-.597.237-1.169.659-1.591Z"></path></svg></div><div class="kg-audio-player-container"><audio src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/media/2026/02/GAMES_VS_PUZZLES_SP-1.mp3" preload="metadata"></audio><div class="kg-audio-title">Games, Puzzles, and Everything in Between</div><div class="kg-audio-player"><button class="kg-audio-play-icon"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M23.14 10.608 2.253.164A1.559 1.559 0 0 0 0 1.557v20.887a1.558 1.558 0 0 0 2.253 1.392L23.14 13.393a1.557 1.557 0 0 0 0-2.785Z"></path></svg></button><button class="kg-audio-pause-icon kg-audio-hide"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><rect x="3" y="1" width="7" height="22" rx="1.5" ry="1.5"></rect><rect x="14" y="1" width="7" height="22" rx="1.5" ry="1.5"></rect></svg></button><span class="kg-audio-current-time">0:00</span><div class="kg-audio-time">/<span class="kg-audio-duration">973.385041</span></div><input type="range" class="kg-audio-seek-slider" max="100" value="0" /><button class="kg-audio-playback-rate">1×</button><button class="kg-audio-unmute-icon"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M15.189 2.021a9.728 9.728 0 0 0-7.924 4.85.249.249 0 0 1-.221.133H5.25a3 3 0 0 0-3 3v2a3 3 0 0 0 3 3h1.794a.249.249 0 0 1 .221.133 9.73 9.73 0 0 0 7.924 4.85h.06a1 1 0 0 0 1-1V3.02a1 1 0 0 0-1.06-.998Z"></path></svg></button><button class="kg-audio-mute-icon kg-audio-hide"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M16.177 4.3a.248.248 0 0 0 .073-.176v-1.1a1 1 0 0 0-1.061-1 9.728 9.728 0 0 0-7.924 4.85.249.249 0 0 1-.221.133H5.25a3 3 0 0 0-3 3v2a3 3 0 0 0 3 3h.114a.251.251 0 0 0 .177-.073ZM23.707 1.706A1 1 0 0 0 22.293.292l-22 22a1 1 0 0 0 0 1.414l.009.009a1 1 0 0 0 1.405-.009l6.63-6.631A.251.251 0 0 1 8.515 17a.245.245 0 0 1 .177.075 10.081 10.081 0 0 0 6.5 2.92 1 1 0 0 0 1.061-1V9.266a.247.247 0 0 1 .073-.176Z"></path></svg></button><input type="range" class="kg-audio-volume-slider" max="100" value="100" /></div></div></div><blockquote>The Boardcast is audio narrations of select articles. Listen to all episodes (or find out how to get them in your favorite podcast app) <a href="https://www.wericmartin.com/the-boardcast/" rel="noreferrer">here</a>.</blockquote><blockquote>Prototype+ members can access an ad-free version <a href="https://www.wericmartin.com/the-boardcast-prototype-plus" rel="noreferrer">here</a>. You can also listen on your favorite podcast app using the private invite and link you received via email. Lost your link? Email [email protected].</blockquote><p>While working at BoardGameGeek, I'd often dip into the game submission queue to approve a pending game listing to link it in a BGG News post or because a publisher had already announced the game and asked whether their pending submission could be bumped to the front of the line.</p><p>Often, though, I was just trying to help other admins clear out the queue. Game submissions to the BGG database ebbed and flowed, often ballooning in the month prior to Gen Con or SPIEL, then I'd suddenly notice five hundred pending submissions and think, hmm, maybe I should lend a hand there.</p><p>One constant presence in the game submission queue, no matter the time of year, were submissions inappropriate for the BGG database, specifically puzzles. Hardly a week would pass without someone submitting a listing for <a href="https://www.ravensburger.us/en-US/products/games/thinkfun/rush-hour-76582" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Rush Hour</em></strong></a>, a logic puzzle by Nob Yoshigahara that debuted in the U.S. from Binary Arts in 1996 and that has been in print ever since. We'd decline that submission, decline the next one, decline, decline, decline — yet those submissions kept coming.</p><p>BoardGameGeek prohibits puzzles in the database, in addition to prohibiting drinking games, conversation games, electronic games, prognostication tools, and most structured activities, in order to keep a boundary around what's listed. If BGG adds a listing for <em>Rush Hour</em>, then why not a wooden sliding puzzle with a similar goal, why not the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_cube" rel="noreferrer">Soma cube</a>, why not metal horseshoes linked with a chain in which you need to free a trapped ring, why not a cryptogram in which you similarly need to find the "key" to unlock the solution, why not jigsaw puzzles and crosswords?</p><h2 id="the-twain-shall-meet-over-and-over-again">The Twain Shall Meet Over and Over Again</h2><p>The line between game and puzzle is difficult to judge and has only became harder over time as designers and publishers release titles that blur that line even further. To pull out a historical example, let's look at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram" rel="noreferrer">tangrams</a>, in which you're shown a silhouetted image and challenged to recreate it with seven polygonal tiles. This is clearly a puzzle, yes? Designer <a href="https://gametek.substack.com/about" rel="noreferrer">Geoff Engelstein</a> would argue it is. "Fundamentally," he says, "I see a few defining characteristics of puzzles vs games:"</p><blockquote>1) Puzzles are "one-time" activities. If you solve a puzzle, there is no reason to go back to it to solve it again.</blockquote><blockquote>2) Puzzles have a correct solution.</blockquote><blockquote>3) Puzzles generally have no loss state. You just keep working on them until you get the solution.</blockquote><p>Tangrams exhibit all three of these characteristics...but what if someone packaged two sets of tangram tiles together and players now raced to recreate an image with their own set of tiles, with the first player to do so claiming a point? (This is what Maurice Kanbar did when creating <a href="https://www.smartgames.eu/uk/one-player-games/tangoes-starter" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Tangoes</em></strong></a>, which debuted in 1980.) Boom, you've just gamified a puzzle...and you can do that for every puzzle in existence, smashing together puzzle atoms to form game molecules.</p><p>Grzegorz Rejchtman's game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16986" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Ubongo!</em></strong></a>, which debuted in 2003, is a prime example of this practice, with players using an identical set of pieces to recreate a shape (a puzzle atom akin to tangrams) as quickly as possible in order to gain a reward (thus creating the game molecule containing that atom). Designer <a href="https://www.elizhargrave.com/" rel="noreferrer">Elizabeth Hargrave</a> suggests <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/246784" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Cryptid</em></strong></a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/408547" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Things in Rings</em></strong></a>, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279537"><strong><em>The Search for Planet X</em></strong></a> as other games that work similarly since they all have correct solutions not affected by user input.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/crypt.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front covers of the games The Search for Planet X, Cryptid, and Things in Rings" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="721" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/crypt.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/crypt.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/crypt.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/crypt.jpg 2219w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Separated at birth?</span></figcaption></figure><p>The escape room games that started to appear in the mid-2010s, such as <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/68733" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Escape the Room</em></strong></a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/36963" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>EXIT: The Game</em></strong></a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/39442" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Unlock!</em></strong></a>, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/48410" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Deckscape</em></strong></a>, are another example of this blurry line between game and puzzle. In either a physical escape room or one of these games, you're presented with puzzle challenges, and as you complete them, you gain a new puzzle, a tool to help solve an earlier puzzle, or another reward.</p><p>So this escape room is nothing more than a series of puzzles, yes? If you started again, you'd know all the answers and could blitz through the puzzles, solving the overall challenge more quickly than before...and yet that element of spending time to reach the goal is what transforms a series of puzzles into a game because time spent playing can be translated into a score or a win/loss condition.</p><p>"I have found it helpful to think of a 'puzzle' as a challenge with a single solution and no constraints on how you might go about solving it", says designer <a href="https://www.philwalkerharding.com/" rel="noreferrer">Phil Walker-Harding</a>. "Once you add constraints, such as a time limit, I can see why you might then characterize this challenge as a 'game'." Clearly BoardGameGeek agrees, which is why <em>EXIT: The Game</em>, <em>Unlock!</em>, and the like are all listed in its database.</p><p>However, whatever characteristics you ascribe to puzzles to fence them away from games prove inadequate because counterexamples are plentiful. "It is often said that puzzles have one optimal solution", says designer <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/123511" rel="noreferrer">Paul Schulz</a>. "But if that were a defining property, <em>Ubongo!</em>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/83195" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Ghost Blitz</em></strong></a>, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/63268" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Dobble</em></strong></a> all are a series of puzzles — and so is every single trivia game. Surely, gamers would protest this categorization."</p><p>He continues, "Another typical feature I hear about puzzles is that they are solved with logic, but that's often not true: Crosswords are often just trivia questions, while word searches, mazes, and jigsaws are perception or concentration exercises — no logic there. Still, all of them are called puzzles. The game examples I gave earlier seem to be gamified by competition, but solving the crossword with a time limit or against one another still wouldn't qualify it as a game for most of us."</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/crosses.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The same crossword puzzle is presented twice, side by side" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="999" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/crosses.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/crosses.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/crosses.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/crosses.jpg 2090w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">One for you, and one for me</span></figcaption></figure><p>Engelstein even suggests that crosswords as they already exist break his criteria for differentiating between a puzzle and a game. "If I am doing a crossword puzzle in a magazine, I would have to look at the answer to see whether I solved it or not, which means I do 'fail' or 'succeed' in figuring it out. Crossword software gets around that a bit by letting you know whether you're right or not, but not showing the answer. A sudoku puzzle or cryptogram, on the other hand, is 'self-checking' in that you can determine whether your answer fits the criteria without an answer key."</p><p>In short, says Schulz, "The categories of games and puzzles do not just overlap. Their borders are inconsistent."</p><h2 id="going-deeper">Going Deeper</h2><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wei-hwa-huang-9b05344/" rel="noreferrer">Wei-Hwa Huang</a> is the co-designer of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/132531" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Roll for the Galaxy</em></strong></a>; has worked on many logic puzzles for <a href="https://www.ravensburger.us/en-US/products/games/thinkfun" rel="noreferrer">ThinkFun</a>, such as <strong><em>Gravity Maze</em></strong>; won the 2008 Sudoku National Championship; and is a four-time winner of the World Puzzle Championship, so he has deep experience in both games and puzzles — and he explained to me that as with so many other things in life, "puzzleness" isn't a binary state of yes/no, but a spectrum.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/grav.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Half of the cover of Gravity Maze, with many red question marks near the word &quot;game&quot; in the description" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1125" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/grav.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/grav.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/grav.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/grav.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>He said, "Like many terms, I try to strike a balance between 'I know it when I see it' and 'Here's a comprehensive definition', so given that I'm open to exceptions, here's my definition of a puzzle:"</p><blockquote>A puzzle is an activity with an intended and specific path to a goal (often called a "solution"), where using intelligence is the primary part of the solution-finding process. Some salient parts of this definition:</blockquote><blockquote>• The less specific the solution path is, the less puzzle-like the activity is. If I give you a bunch of popsicle sticks and ask you to build a bridge that can handle a one-pound weight, some would consider that puzzly, but I'd consider that more like a "puzzling problem" or a "design challenge".</blockquote><blockquote>• If there is no intended solution path, it becomes less "puzzle-y" and more "problem-y". A game of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Pandemic</em></strong></a>, for example, has puzzling aspects, but since the set-up is based on random card shuffling, I don't consider playing a game of <em>Pandemic</em> to be a puzzle. On the other hand, one could imagine providing players a <em>specific</em> ordering for the cards in <em>Pandemic</em> that was carefully selected such that there are only a limited number of ways to win, and the players are allowed to play with that repeatedly until they win. I would consider that a puzzle despite the rules being identical to <em>Pandemic</em>.</blockquote><blockquote>Perhaps a more well-known example is chess problems of the nature "White to play and win in 3 moves", where the player has to think through the different possible chess moves to find a single intended solution — and that solution is usually not in alignment with general chess strategy. Although traditionally those are called "chess problems", I would consider them "chess <em>puzzles</em>", whereas a "chess problem" would be "Here's a position from a real chess game. What's the best move?"</blockquote><blockquote>• Using intelligence is important for the term "puzzle" to work. Finishing a level of <em>Pac-Man</em> or beating an arm-wrestling robot might have a goal and an intended and specific path, but aren't generally considered puzzles.</blockquote><blockquote>• I'm somewhat on the fence as to whether "having fun" is an important part of being a "puzzle". If neither the person designing the activity nor the person playing the activity intend for it to be fun, is it a puzzle if it qualifies for the other goals?</blockquote><p>Given that “having fun” is relative from one person to another, it might seem odd to think about defining puzzles based on the "vibes" that solvers have when confronting them, but Phil Walker-Harding leans into that notion. "Most of these definitional discussions about what is and isn't a 'game' can be interesting thought exercises", he says, "but I don't think much is gained by trying to lock things in too neatly or by being dogmatic about it."</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/casc.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front covers of Cascadia and Harmonies" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1000" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/casc.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/casc.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/casc.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/casc.jpg 2399w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Prime puzzly game poster children</span></figcaption></figure><p>He continues, "For me, I think this distinction is interesting when considering the appeal of games in the 'take and make' genre such as <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295947" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Cascadia</em></strong></a><em> </em>and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/414317" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Harmonies</em></strong></a>. Here, I notice a lot of people use the word 'puzzly' to talk about making decisions on their turn. I think this is insightful because the thought process you are going through when placing a piece is similar to doing a spatial logic puzzle. However, because there isn't one single solution (since you may arrive at a winning score in many different ways) and because you don't have complete information about future events (such as which pieces your opponent will take), this isn't a pure 'puzzle' but more a 'puzzly game'."</p><h2 id="more-than-a-feeling">More Than a Feeling</h2><p>Elizabeth Hargrave has a slightly different take: "When we say certain games feel puzzly, I think it's often in the sense that there is a single best play or series of plays (and maybe a few more that are only slightly sub-optimal), that this can be figured out, and that the figuring-out can feel like its own reward. I have absolutely nothing against games that are solidly in the puzzle category — in fact I love them — but if you want to make a game that's not a puzzle, you need to be looking for an outcome that's not fundamentally 'Did you find the one answer?'"</p><p>One way to do this is to put players in charge of what that "one" answer is so that the lone answer differs with each playing. Hargrave gives <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/254640" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Just One</em></strong></a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/407805" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Caution Signs</em></strong></a>, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/329839" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>So Clover!</em></strong></a> as examples of games in this category, while Paul Schulz suggests <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/178900" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Codenames</em></strong></a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/225694" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Decrypto</em></strong></a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/419639" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Krakel Orakel</em></strong></a>, and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/147151" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Concept</em></strong></a>. Says Hargrave, "There's still a single correct answer, but user input is now changing how you get to that answer, and just like I ignore the timers in timed puzzle games, I ignore the scoring rules in these puzzle party games. It's just satisfying to figure out the answer."</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/clocco.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front covers for Just One, Caution Signs, So Clover!, Codenames, Decrypto, Krakel Orakel, and Concept" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="349" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/clocco.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/clocco.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/clocco.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/02/clocco.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Try these titles should you care to create puzzles while playing games...</span></figcaption></figure><p>That concept of "satisfaction" plays into Hargrave's sense of how a puzzle differs from a game, even though she'd label all of the former as an example of the latter. "I like the broad definition of a game as a system of rules that creates an artificial struggle that we can undertake for our entertainment. By that definition, I would lump all puzzles as a subset of games."</p><p>"The thing that makes puzzles a definable category within games (or some would say, the thing that separates them <em>from</em> games)", she says, "is that they have a fixed correct answer and a more or less fixed path (or set of paths) for arriving at that answer. No amount of input by the puzzler will change this; the only question is whether you will find the answer and <em>win</em> — and my personal experience of this win state is often so satisfying that any attempt to gamify it beyond 'You win!' feels tacked on." (Along these lines, Hargrave gives a shout-out to <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/451594" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>A Carnivore Did It!</em></strong></a>, calling it her "favorite find of SPIEL Essen 2025". This design by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/daumilas-ardickas-047748106" rel="noreferrer">Daumilas Ardickas</a> and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/111626" rel="noreferrer">Urtis Šulinskas</a> consists of two thousand logic challenges, and the only reason you'd consider it a game is because of time limits suggested in the rules.)</p><p>That "You win!" feeling brings us back to vibes being a core element of a puzzle. Along these lines, Paul Schulz says, "It could be like the fruit versus vegetable discussion: They're not different by nature; it's about how we use them. If our focus is on solving for the sake of solving, it's a puzzle; if our focus is on other things, such as competition or an overarching story (as in <em>EXIT</em>) it's more likely a game."</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/time.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A homemade-looking game board that says &quot;TIME STORIES&quot; with a hand placing cards on it" loading="lazy" width="1632" height="1037" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/time.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/time.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/time.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/time.jpg 1632w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Playtesting </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">T.I.M.E Stories</em></i><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> in 2014</span></figcaption></figure><p>Both Wei-Hwa Huang and Geoff Engelstein call out <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/69927" rel="noreferrer">Manuel Rozoy</a>'s <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146508" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>T.I.M.E Stories</em></strong></a> as a design that uses story to blend puzzle and game in a unique way. An episode of <em>T.I.M.E Stories</em> typically has an optimal path through a loop, something common to puzzles, while featuring random elements like player choices and dice rolls to resolve combat. Players can fail an episode in a multitude of ways, losing the game, yet they can restart from the beginning, using past experience to do better. Says Engelstein, "The looping nature makes it feel more like a game, and it does have a loss state, but it also has an optimal path and there is no reason to play a case again."</p><p>Recently I've come to think of games as being akin to improv, with the actors being fed a setting, roles, and basic rules for interaction, then let lose to play off one another, whereas puzzles as akin to plays in which you have scripted lines and directions for how the action is supposed to be carried out on stage — although improvisation will often happen thanks to mistakes and chance. Performers of both plays and improv can find great satisfaction in what they do, and bystanders can appreciate the skill of performers in either role, so it's not like one is superior to the other.</p><p>Says Schulz, "Including puzzles with games goes along with my favorite definition of games: 'the voluntary overcoming of unnecessary obstacles'." Bernard Suits used this definition in his 1978 book<em> The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia</em>, and having a broad definition like this for both games and puzzles seems ideal for designers and players alike, giving everyone a wider stage on which to create and perform as they wish.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

<p>In November 2025, I presented <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogpost/179701" rel="noreferrer">an overview</a> of what the European branch of <a href="https://blueorangegames.eu/en/" rel="noreferrer">Blue Orange Games</a> plans to release in 2026, so in this round-up from Spielwarenmesse 2026 I'll hit one of those titles to show off its final production, then get into newer games.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/got-five-display.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Got Five box cover, with five colors of tiles on the table along with other game components" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1380" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/got-five-display.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/got-five-display.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/got-five-display.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/got-five-display.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Note that the player on the left has an illegal set-up</span></figcaption></figure><p>In Yoann Levet's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/453526" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Got Five!</em></strong></a>, you take one tile of each color, then a neighboring player arranges those tiles in order from low to high. On a turn, you reveal a tile from the face-down pool, then another player places it in the proper place in your row, giving all players a bit of information — the number on the revealed tile — and you a bit more, namely which colored tiles are higher or lower than the revealed tile.<br /><br />Whenever you think you're ready to guess your five tiles, let others know you "got five!", then see whether you're correct.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/Untitled.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2503" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/Untitled.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/Untitled.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/Untitled.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/Untitled.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p><strong><em>On the Trail</em></strong> is a two-player-only racing card game from Paul-Henri Argiot and Bruno Cathala.</p><p>Blue Orange's Matthieu Lanvin told me the game originated from the company's interest in publishing an easy-to-play game that race organizers would be interested in giving to racers as a participation bonus. I know that Cathala has previously designed games as gifts for those attending ski resorts, and it's neat to see games being created for new audiences that might not otherwise run across them.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/kingd.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Four punch-out boards " loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1000" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/kingd.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/kingd.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/kingd.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/kingd.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics</span></figcaption></figure><p>Speaking of Cathala, at SPIEL Essen 26 Blue Orange Games will release <strong><em>Kingdomino: The Lost Treasures</em></strong>, with this being a mini-expansion to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Cathala's Spiel-des-Jahres-winning game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/204583" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Kingdomino</em></strong></a>.</p><p>To use this expansion, place all the chips treasure chest side up. After placing a domino, if you have created a 2x2 area of four different landscapes, you find a treasure! Either take a face-up token and place it on the intersection of these landscapes, or turn over two face-down tokens and place one, leaving the other one face up. Each treasure other than the joker features a total of three crowns, and crowns added to an area will be scored as normal at game's end; however, the purple treasure has a skull that knocks that area's score to zero.</p><p>Tokens come in five colors, and if you collect all five colors, you win the game instantly!</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/lucky-kitty.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A game box has a lot of shoelace ends sticking through holes in a piece of card that covers the box opening" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1614" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/lucky-kitty.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/lucky-kitty.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/lucky-kitty.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/lucky-kitty.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p>Everyone needs new cat games, yes? Elisabeth and Christoph Reiser have put their spin on the topic with <strong><em>Lucky Kitty</em></strong>, a game for 2-4 players aged 5 and up. On a turn, you flip a card to reveal the color of string you must pull from the basket. Choose a string, then slooooowly pull it out, stopping if a knot is revealed; if you manage to pull the string free without revealing a knot — and the number of knots varies on the various strings — you keep it, ideally ending up more strung out than any other player.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/wombat.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A cardboard dice tower stands in the middle of a cardboard X, with three shields, cards, and tokens nearby" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2525" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/wombat.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/wombat.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/wombat.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/wombat.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and production</span></figcaption></figure><p>Antonin Boccara and Romaric Galonnier's <strong><em>Wombat Tower</em></strong>, due out in mid-2026, is a co-operative tower defense game with a cardboard dice tower at its center. On a turn, you'll rotate the tower to aim it at the figures you want to hit, then roll the die, possibly taking out an attacker or two, or moving attackers around the building, or drawing special cards, or making attackers advance. If they reach the tower, you lose a shield, and three lost shields brings failure.</p><p>To put the game away, you fold up the sides, place the small cardboard box on top to hold them in place, then slide the cover over everything. Neat product design!</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/away.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Cards are laid out in the shape of an X, with paths running across the cards in various directions" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1738" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/away.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/away.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/away.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/away.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final graphics and packaging</span></figcaption></figure><p><strong><em>A_Way</em></strong> is a card game from Benjamin Niess, Louis Fièvre, Clément Bongibault, and Hugo Socié in which 2-4 players race to land their spaceship on their homeworld first. On a turn, you move your ship, play one or more cards, or discard up to three cards, then you optionally move your ship before filling your hand to five cards.</p><p>Seems quite open in how you build — and notice the card atop the deck that shows a path vanishing into a wormhole. The deck contains many special cards, which is why you might want to discard to dig for the right solutions.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/dolph.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1189" height="628" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/dolph.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/dolph.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/dolph.jpg 1189w" /></figure><p>Blue Orange Games will also release a few titles from <a href="https://dolphinhat.com/" rel="noreferrer">Dolphin Hat Games</a> to the European market: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/451652" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>I Know...You Don't</em></strong></a><strong><em> </em></strong>(in which you play cards to get clues to break the rule keeper's code) <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/451650" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Jelly Fish Toast &amp; Jam</em></strong></a> (a take-that card game of stealing to collect sets), and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/452721" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Bing! Bang! Boom!</em></strong></a> (a musical chairs-type of card game).</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/balloon.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Convention booths filled with balloons" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1500" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/02/balloon.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/02/balloon.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/02/balloon.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/02/balloon.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>Here's the tiniest of peeks inside Spielwarenmesse's Hall 9, which is the balloon and party supply hall. I felt nauseated instantly from the dense latex smell, so I took this shot through one of the hall doorways, then scooted outside to snort cold German air.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

<p>At the 2026 Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair, Italian publisher <a href="https://www.dvgiochi.com/?lang=eng" rel="noreferrer">DV Games</a> featured 4-6 new games, depending on how you count both newness and games.</p><p>The company's Gen Con 2026 release will be <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/462541" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Raindrops</em></strong></a>, a 2-4 player design by Fernando Cunha that falls squarely into the "cozy games" trend of the mid-2020s. The window depicted on the cover mirrors the shared game board, with colored water droplets "running down" the window via domino-style tiles that "fall" in vertical channels.</p><p>On a turn, you trace a trail of droplets of the same color from the top of the board to where the trail ends, moving left or right at most one column for each level you travel down the board. (The rules suggest using the included clear beads to mark the path when learning the game, but you probably won't do that for long.) You then remove these tiles from the window, placing them on memory cards on matching-colored spaces to score points and (if you complete three cards with the same symbol) collect bonus tiles.</p><p>If you remove only 1-3 tiles, you also take a square tile holding a single droplet, which can help fill in awkward holes in your memory. You might be able to avoid that "bonus", however, thanks to three actions that allow you to manipulate the tile layout. At the start of your turn, you can swap two tiles, rotate a tile, or move a tile to the top of a column, with you being unable to repeat the same action twice. Choose your path with care because if you take a tile from the bottom row, you receive a thunder token worth 3-5 points. Yes, the thunder token is shaped like a lightning bolt. Thunder is aspirational that way...</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/cucumb.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front cover of Cucumber Catastrophe, along with sample cards and six promo cards" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1125" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/cucumb.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/cucumb.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/cucumb.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/cucumb.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/457961" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Cucumber Catastrophe</em></strong></a>, which is due out in May 2026, is a 3-6 player trick-taking game from Michael Feldkötter that riffs on the TikTok trend of showing cats being freaked out by cukes.</p><p>In each of four rounds, dill each player a random hand of ten cards. In each trick, the lead player plays a card, then the second player plays any card, setting up this trick as one in which everyone must play higher or lower than the lead card. Whoever plays the highest/lowest card "wins" the trick and claims all played cards, which is bad as you want to score as few cucumbers as possible. (For three-player games, the rules suggest using the "Surprise Cucumber" variant, with the lead card being flipped from the deck and the first player setting the high/low condition. Please do not use a "Surprise Cucumber" variant in any other game or elsewhere in life.)</p><p>If you can't "follow suit" by playing higher or lower, then the winning condition flips for that turn. If the highest card was going to win, now the lowest one will, and players can play whatever they wish.</p><p>In another variant, you set up the deck so that the six 5-cucumber cards will be included, and if you collect at least four of these cards in the round, you "shoot the cucumber" (cucumber the moon?) and score -5 points for the round instead of the barrelful of points you'd normally get.</p><p>The image above features six promo cards with values ending in .5 and special actions.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/villa-combo.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="On the left, multiple garden spaces fenced in by color-coded barriers; on the right, cards showing creatures, each with a unique power" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1125" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/villa-combo.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/villa-combo.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/villa-combo.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/villa-combo.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final versions of both </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">Villa</em></i><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> and </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">Combo Creatures</em></i></figcaption></figure><p>Further down the 2026 calendar, we come to <strong><em>Villa</em></strong> by Andrea Emiliani, with this being a 2-4 player game due out in Q3 2026 in which players take turns drawing a spindly plastic component from a bag, then connecting that component to others on the table to (over time) create enclosed areas. The spindly components have colored segments on their edges, and if you have more of your color on the perimeter of an enclosed space, you mark it with one of your tokens.</p><p>The game features ten unique power cards, with three random powers being active in a game to set scoring conditions for all players.</p><p><strong><em>Combo Creatures</em></strong> is by Michael Løhde Andersen and Christian Kudahl, and this will actually be a pair of standalone games, each featuring eleven creatures with unique powers. You use a subset of creatures each game, playing them for their abilities as well as their points, which are represented by nuts.</p><p>The two <em>Combo Creatures</em> titles will debut at SPIEL Essen 26.</p><p>An expansion for <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/436161" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Koi</em></strong></a>, a 2025 release from Rosaria Battiato, Massimo Borzì, and Martino Chiacchiera, is also in the works for SPIEL Essen 26, which will coincide with DV Games' 25th anniversary. Hmm, this means that Emiliano Sciarra's card game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3955" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>BANG!</em></strong></a> will turn 25 the following year, so I imagine celebratory shots will be fired in 2027...</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/sensu.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front cover of Sensu in front of splayed cards that form fans" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2080" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/sensu.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/sensu.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/sensu.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/01/sensu.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>In the "new?" category, we have Enrico Vicario's card game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/402312" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Sensu</em></strong></a>, which won the 2023 <a href="https://www.giocoinedito.com/" rel="noreferrer">Gioco Inedito</a> design contest run by DV Games and <a href="https://www.luccacomicsandgames.com/" rel="noreferrer">Lucca Comics &amp; Games</a>, with the prize being publication of the game in a limited edition at the 2023 game fair in Lucca, Italy.</p><p>Following that release, DV Games decided to develop the game further, as Vicario detailed in <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogpost/181326" rel="noreferrer">a designer diary</a> on BoardGameGeek, then brought out a new edition of the game at SPIEL Essen 25, with <em>Sensu</em> finally having a retail release in January 2026.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/acdc.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A retailer display of socks, slippers, a stuffed donut, and a box labeled &quot;Huggable Pizza&quot;" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1183" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/acdc.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/acdc.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/acdc.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/acdc.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>You never know what you're going to find while walking Spielwarenmesse, with this booth featuring an advent calendar filled with AC/DC-themed socks, size 40-45, for the fan in your life who is currently walking around with cold and/or sockless feet.</p><p>I didn't see an open copy of "Huggable Pizza", so you'll just have to imagine that.</p>

<p>While the booths at the Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair are the main attractions, much of the business activity takes place in less prominent locations, with designers, publishers, distributors, and retailers meeting wherever they can find a space to sit.</p><p>On Thursday, January 29, 2026, in the morning hours at the SpieleCafe before people were crowding in for, you know, food and drinks at the café, I grabbed a table and met a few of these publishers, including Shadi Torbey of <a href="https://inpatience.com/en/Our_Games" rel="noreferrer">inPatience</a>.</p><p>Let's start with inPatience's biggest title for 2026: <strong><em>Karnivorous</em></strong>, a 1-4 player co-operative game from Inka and Markus Brand that will debut at SPIEL Essen 26. This game is a heavily reworked version of the Brands' 2012 game <strong><em>Star Wars: Angriff der Klonkrieger</em></strong> ("Attack of the Clones") from KOSMOS.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/kar3.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A game board showing connected room of various sizes, along with plant holding pens and objective cards" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1116" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/kar3.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/kar3.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/kar3.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/01/kar3.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final art and components for </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">Karnivorous</em></i><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">, showing the lab, objectives, and energy track</span></figcaption></figure><p>The gist of the game is that each round you all roll dice, then allocate them one by one to various actions that will keep carnivorous viral plants in check before they wreck the lab or grow out of control. Each player has a few unique actions on their player board, along with ones shared by all, and you'll use these actions to move robots in the lab, help scientists flee to safety, fight existing plants, gain energy, complete objectives, and more.</p><p>At the start of the game, the board is seeded with plants of strength 1, 2, and 3 in random rooms, then objective cards are laid out for the round. Some of the objectives in the image above are to free the gray areas of plants (already done!), clear the four spaces adjacent to the blue nodes of plants (we've just completed that task), use five energy (which means we need to get energy first...hmm), place a 4 and a 5 on the card (the thematics of which I leave to your imagination), and help two scientists out of the lab (and two are already near a door).</p><p>Each objective shows three plant values on it, and at the end of the round, for each value still visible you reveal a new room card and fill all spaces in it with new plants of that value. If you complete the objective, you flip the card over...and still must resolve the middle plant value. That's right; you can't escape viral growth, only slow it down. What's more, if you don't eradicate all of a plant in a room, it will grow there as well.</p><p>Another aspect of the objective cards is that the upper-left corner shows one of four elements in the lab control board, which is at the upper left of the image. Each objective you fail destroys a copy of the depicted element, and if you lose enough of them, you've lost the game. You also lose if you need to place a plant in the lab, but that supply is empty.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <p>The title coming in June 2026 from inPatience is also a new edition of an older game, with <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/438173" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Mazing</em></strong></a> being an updated version of Jim Deacove's 1982 game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6268" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Maze</em></strong></a> from his own Family Pastimes company. (Like inPatience, <a href="https://familypastimes.com/" rel="noreferrer">Family Pastimes</a> — a Canadian publisher that debuted in 1972 — releases only co-operative games.)</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/maz.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front cover of the game Mazing next to the game board, which shows black pieces and white pieces with a variety of symbols" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1861" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/maz.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/maz.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/maz.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/maz.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Mock-up of </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">Mazing</em></i><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> on the gingham table covering at the SpieleCafe</span></figcaption></figure><p>Your goal in <em>Mazing</em> (and in <em>Maze</em>) is for each player to move their <em>messengers</em> (the round tokens) across the board and onto the spaces at the opposite end. Unfortunately, these messengers start the game blocked by three rows of randomly-placed square tokens, each with a symbol indicating its possible movement, such as move diagonally exactly two spaces (with movement being blocked by other pieces) or jump over one or more pieces in a straight line, landing on the first open space.</p><p>Players alternate taking 1-3 actions on a turn, with an action being the movement of one of your pieces. You must try to clear a path for both pairs of messengers, with a messenger moving diagonally like a bishop in chess. Complications arise because only the specified "hoppers" (with the black rainbow) can move over occupied spaces. What's more, if a piece moves into a red-bordered space with serrated edges, you flip it over and it becomes a barrier for the rest of the game.</p><p>Finally, each player has three meteors, and these tokens move exactly once, crashing into any empty space and making it an inaccessible wasteland.</p><p>Torbey and I played several rounds before needing to move on to other things, and I found the puzzle of the game fascinating...and I initially missed that everything I was doing made it harder for Torbey to move his own pieces. Yes, you want to march across the board, but more importantly you don't want to prevent your teammate from doing the same, so you must imagine the board from their direction in order to keep traffic flowing.</p><p>The back of the <em>Mazing</em> game board features a more challenging layout with a larger number of serrated death boxes. As with all inPatience releases, you can play <em>Mazing</em> as a solo game, but that consists solely of you taking turns for both sides of the game board.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/min-inp.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Partial front covers of the games Mayor of Chicago and Freigard" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1125" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/min-inp.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/min-inp.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/min-inp.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/min-inp.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>Finally, or rather firstly, inPatience will debut the next two titles of its "Min'inP" game line at the FIJ game fair in Cannes in late February 2026. These titles are:</p><p>• <strong><em>Mayor of Chicago</em></strong>, a 30-minute solitaire game from Xavier Georges in which you attempt to claim the title role. Each turn, you draw a city card, then decide whether you will expand your knowledge of the Windy City by placing this card as part of the map, or hire the assistant depicted on the back of the card to benefit from their special power or scoring abilities. Only by managing shrewdly your resources and the powers of the assistants will you be able to gather enough votes to be elected.</p><p><strong><em>• Freigard</em></strong>, a 15-minute "deceptively simple game of risk taking and hand management" for one player from Reiner Knizia. Each turn you either score (if possible) your hand of three cards, or draw one card (then discard one) to improve your hand. If you're too greedy, you risk burning through your deck too quickly, but settling down too often might not get you the powerful army you need to defeat the "Walking Castles" that are invading the peaceful land of Freigard.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

<p>German publisher <a href="https://www.hans-im-glueck.de/" rel="noreferrer">Hans im Glück</a> showed three upcoming items at the 2026 Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair, with the first item hitting retail outlets in March 2026: <strong><em>Paleolina</em></strong> from Marco Teubner and Peter Rustemeyer, the latter being the designer of the 2021 Kennerspiel des Jahres-winning <strong><em>Paleo</em></strong>.</p><p><em>Paleo</em> is a co-operative game of up to four players trying to survive together in the stone age, and <em>Paleolina</em> was apparently inspired by the idea that children were probably having a rough time during that era, too, and we definitely want to relive that hardship.</p><p>Each turn in this game for 1-4 players, aged 5 and up, the active player takes two random resources from a device that looks like a leather waterbag or bellows, then drops them from the top of Plinko Mountain.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/paleo1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The same image as above, but pulled out so that the game box is visible, along with the stacks of invention tiles, the four player tiles, and the resource bag" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1500" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/paleo1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/paleo1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/paleo1.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/01/paleo1.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>These resources will bounce around on the pegs and land secretly in one or two of the four drawers, after which the active player chooses a drawer and withdraws all of the resources, if any. They can use these resources, along with any stored in each player's backpack, to pay the cost of an available invention, placing it in one of the game board's slots. A player can store one unused resource, discarding any others. If the players complete ten inventions before the resource bag runs dry, they win the game.</p><p>To make the game more challenging, you can remove the inventions that require only a single resource or play with a single stack of invention tiles; similarly, to make it easier, place the invention tiles in three stacks, giving everyone an additional building choice each turn.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/cardia1-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Eleven cards show special powers granted to users in Due for Cardia" loading="lazy" width="1970" height="861" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/cardia1-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/cardia1-1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/cardia1-1.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/cardia1-1.jpg 1970w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Sample guardian cards in </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">Cardia: Guardians of the Wild</em></i></figcaption></figure><p>In Q3 2025, Hans im Glück released the two-player card game <strong><em>Duel for Cardia</em></strong> from designers Faouzi Boughida and Mathieu Rivero, and in April 2026 the expansion <strong><em>Cardia: Guardians of the Wild</em></strong> will be released.</p><p>The main feature in this expansion is a set of legendary guardians that will twist player expectations during the game. To set up, place a face-down guardian between every second "encounter" that players will have during the game: the second, the fourth, the sixth, etc., then turn the first guardian face up.</p><p>If you play a card into that encounter of the same suit as its legendary guardian, that guardian's ability will affect your card: placing an extra signet on it, allowing you to swap adjacent cards; adding or removing influence; giving you card filtering; and so on. Afterward, you check whether someone achieved victory, and if they didn't, reveal the next guardian.</p><p>Experienced players are advised to have all six guardians face up at the start of play to allow you to have a grander plan than playing from only one turn to the next. Additionally, the publisher lists the player count of this expansion as "2 (4)" instead of only 2, so expect variant rules.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <p>On January 28, 2026, I posted <a href="https://www.wericmartin.com/carcassonne-labyrinth-ravensburger/" rel="noreferrer">an overview</a> of <em><strong>Carcassonne: Labyrinth</strong></em>, a co-publication of Hans im Glück and Ravensburger due out in September 2026. One thing missing from that post was the box cover, which wasn't on display in the Ravensburger booth. Thankfully Hans im Glück had the cover on hand, with the newest version of the original <em>Carcassonne</em> present as well, perhaps for comparison:</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/carc4.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front cover of Carcassonne: Labyrinth behind a display of the game components" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1521" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/carc4.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/carc4.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/carc4.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/carc4.jpg 2400w" /></figure> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

<p>We've been getting a lot of comments about our decision to use federated social media instead of Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube — both positive and negative.</p><p>In this video, I explain what the fediverse is, talk about why we're going fediverse-first with our social media, respond to some of the objections we've been hearing, and offer different ways to keep up with Board Game Beat.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><iframe width="560" height="315" title="Can You Grow Without Social Media? Board Game Beat Is About to Find Out" src="https://video.ploud.fr/videos/embed/c6c4aa15-1684-4047-8333-bf39f3077087" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></figure><p>The full transcript is under the video, along with a source list.</p><h3 id="read-the-transcript">Read the Transcript</h3><p>Welcome to Board Game Beat. I'm your host, W. Eric Martin. Thanks for watching this channel and for signing up for memberships on the site. Thanks as well to all the sponsors who have signed up for advertisements before the site is even launched. That's a real vote of confidence.</p><p>When I announced Board Game Beat, I said that the site would be fediverse-first. That is, it will use federated social media. To which some people said, "Why?" and others, "What??"</p><p>So in this video, I thought I would describe the fediverse, talk about my reasons for avoiding social media, respond to objections to going fediverse first, and explain how you can follow Board Game Beat in various ways.</p><p>Federated social media sites are social media, of course, but when I talk about social media in this video, I'm referring to places like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Tiktok.</p><p>What's the difference between the two? Social media is typically a bubble. All of your information, images and contacts are within that one space, and you don't have crossover connectivity between different social media sites. Federated social media is a network of independent sites that connect. You can have an account on Mastodon, for example, which is akin to Twitter, and read posts on Lemmy, which is analogous to Facebook, and you can respond to those posts on Lemmy from Mastodon.</p><p>Federated social media is akin to email, in that you can send that email to and receive email from anyone with an email account, no matter what platform they use.</p><p>Unlike traditional social media, most federated social media sites are not ad driven or organized around engagement. So when you visit those platforms, you will see what you want to see. For a tutorial on the fediverse, you can go to jointhefediverse.net. To see where you can find Board Game Beat on the fediverse, Go to wericmartin.com/follow. </p><p>What's so bad about social media sites anyway...Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and all that? You probably have reasons of your own, and let me give 10 here first.</p><p>One: As I said, social media sites own everything that you post. They can remove your followers, your posts, your images, they can demonetize you, and you may not be aware of what they're actually doing. There were a number of YouTubers who were demonetized mistakenly, and did not realize it for quite a while. So they thought they were earning money on this platform where they were publishing things and they weren't.</p><p>Two, social media invades your privacy, monitoring everything that you click, read, watch or share so that it can create a profile of you to sell to advertisers. Regulators have penalized social media sites with huge fines over the years for all sorts of violations along these lines.</p><p>Three, social media has sneaky ways to keep you engaged and to steer your consent with you not always being in control of what you see.</p><p>Four, social media is designed to keep you on it as long as possible, thanks to tools like the infinite scroll and algorithmic feeds that will keep delivering material to you, as long as you're willing to look.</p><p>Five, social media can take advantage of its users in surprising ways. In her book Careless People, Sarah Wynn Williams, former Director of Public Policy at Facebook, told a story in which in 2017 Facebook informed advertisers that it could target teens who feel insecure and worthless. They're looking for individuals who had posted selfies and then deleted them immediately. Clearly, these kids weren't feeling their best, so maybe you should target them with ads for makeup.</p><p>Six, social media discriminates against its users. In 2022 the US Justice Department filed a claim against Meta, stating that it used its users private information relating to their race, religious status, sexual identity, disability and other private information in order to help advertisers target certain people with housing ads...and avoid targeting others. In a settlement with the Justice Department, Meta promised to change this system.</p><p>Seven, social media wants as many eyes on it as possible, and it will drive engagement by amplifying posts that deal with rage baiting, commentary on politicians and public figures, and other commentary that drives their users' anger and fear. In a study that looked at Twitter's engagement-ranked timeline, it found a much greater percentage of angry posts compared to a reverse chronological timeline.</p><p>Eight, social media allows the proliferation of misinformation. A study that looked at trending videos on Tiktok under the hashtag #mentalhealthtips found that half of them had misinformation about anxiety, depression, and other mental health topics.</p><p>Nine, social media is filled with people who aren't actually people. One study looked at large conversations on Twitter that dealt with major global events, and estimated that 20% of the comments came from bots. Another study looked at the videos that new users on YouTube saw, and found that 1/5 of them were low quality AI efforts.</p><p>Ten, social media gets worse over time. In 2022 Cory Doctorow coined the term "enshittification" to talk about the way in which businesses — not just social media but all online businesses — tend to get worse over time, because initially they offer very promising things to users, drawing lots of people to the site, making connections among people, making it a place where they feel they need to go. Once they're all there, you start attracting advertisers who are now going to target these users and degrade the service that the users were there initially enjoying. Then, over time, once the advertisers are there as well, it will make the service worse for those advertisers as well, because they still feel like they need to use it there's not anywhere else to go to reach these people who also have nowhere else to go.</p><p>That's enough for now. And while some of these objections can apply to federated social media, it's not quite the same, because most federated social media sites are not ad driven and not trying to drive engagement constantly, because they are not profit driven in the same way as traditional social media sites.</p><p>Let's talk about objections to Board Game Beat being fediverse First, with the primary one being "Eric, if you want to talk to as many people as possible, shouldn't you go where the most people are located?" And to some degree, this objection might seem valid in that FediDB.com's 2025 year in review showed that there were 12 million user accounts on federated social media sites, compared to 10 billion accounts on traditional social media sites.</p><p>And that is indeed quite a difference in volume, but there's a large percentage of bot accounts on traditional social media. There's lots of accounts that have been abandoned and no longer used, such as my Facebook and Twitter accounts, because I don't post on those sites anymore. They still exist, but I'm not active there. They don't count. So the mere existence of the site doesn't indicate that there is a person waiting to see what you have posted. Not to get into the issues as well of the algorithm not affecting what people actually see compared to what they want to see compared to the people they follow.</p><p>Federated social media is growing. There were 450,000 new user accounts in 2025. Bluesky, which is federated adjacent because it doesn't have quite the same architecture, grew by 10 million users in 2025...and it is a much more welcoming site than some trash fires that exist. So why not go there instead? You want to interact with people who are actually engaged with a conversation. So let's go there.</p><p>I expect federated social media will continue to grow in the future, and I want to be part of that. The argument that that's where all the people were, so that's where you should be too...that could be valid, but it also could be, "Why would we all want to be in this terrible situation just because other people are there...why not go and find a new situation, different environment that we find more pleasant?"</p><p>Other people can still share Board Game Beat items on traditional social media sites. I don't stop that in any way. I'm just not participating in that myself.</p><p>Another complaint is that I have a responsibility to grow the company and stay in business. I need to make the beat stronger and louder so that people can hear it, and I definitely want to keep my business running. I want to support my family and be able to support all of us here that I need to support. If I grow over time, I can bring in employees and cover aspects of the game industry that I don't cover myself due to lack of time or background.</p><p>I would love to do all that, but I'm not concerned about exponential growth. I don't have funders who are demanding that I get more people signing up for the site. I want to write in a way that I can sustain at a slow and steady growth rate, and I'm happy to operate along those lines where I can somewhat automate publication on Mastodon and Lemmy through subscription services, and I can spend time focusing on writing that will ideally attract people to the site, rather than promoting the site. There's no value that I see on just that promotion. I'd rather be able to write material that then other people can find value in and possibly they share on their own. I don't have to worry about growing forever.</p><p>Finally, just as I don't need to post on traditional social media to share everything I've written, you don't have to join federated social media in order to see it. You can go to wericmartin.com to see everything posted on Board Game Beat. If you don't want to visit the site regularly, I'll be sad, but that might be your choice. You can sign up for a membership, whether free or a paid one, that will help cover the cost of travel to conventions in the future for more game coverage.</p><p>You can choose to get posts via email, either on an individual basis, as they are posted, or in a weekly digest. You can also take advantage of RSS feeds so you can get things without going on federated social media. </p><p>I want to do what I'm doing without going on traditional social media. I'm happy to have slow, steady growth with people ideally enjoying what I'm doing, being glad to support it, sharing it in whatever way they feel is appropriate. And ideally, we can all find great things that we love to play. We can talk about games in all sorts of different ways. I'm very excited to do that, and I want to spend as much time as possible thinking and interviewing and reading, researching, playing and writing.</p><p>And traditional social media has been just self promotion. Instead, I wanted to focus on creative activities, both what I'm doing and what game designers and creators are doing, in order to spend as much time as possible writing and thinking about that. And ideally, we'll have fun discovering new things and enjoying a playful world. </p><p>Thanks very much for your support, and hope to see you either online or in the real world. At the game table, maybe...who knows what could happen?</p><h3 id="sources">Sources</h3><p>Mastodon: Decentralized social media (Mastodon)<br /><a href="https://joinmastodon.org/" rel="noreferrer">https://joinmastodon.org</a></p><p>Using the network features (Mastodon documentation)<br /><a href="https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/network/" rel="noreferrer">https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/network</a></p><p>Moving to a different server (Mastodon documentation)<br /><a href="https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/" rel="noreferrer">https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving</a></p><p>Join the Fediverse: a beginner-friendly tutorial (JoinTheFediverse.net)<br /><a href="https://jointhefediverse.net/" rel="noreferrer">https://jointhefediverse.net</a></p><p>Careless People (Sarah Wynn-Williams, 2025)<br /><a href="https://shop.booksandbooks.com/book/9781250391230">https://shop.booksandbooks.com/book/9781250391230</a></p><p>Board Game Beat fediverse profile links<br /><a href="https://www.wericmartin.com/follow">https://www.wericmartin.com/follow</a></p><p>YouTube’s AI flags content without reasons, sparking outrage over terminations without warning (MSN)<br /><a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/youtube-s-ai-flags-content-without-reasons-sparking-outrage-over-terminations-without-warning/ar-AA1SaBqh">https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/youtube-s-ai-flags-content-without-reasons-sparking-outrage-over-terminations-without-warning/ar-AA1SaBqh</a></p><p>Facebook Agrees to Pay $5 Billion and Implement Robust New Protections for User Information (U.S. Department of Justice, July 24, 2019)<br /><a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/facebook-agrees-pay-5-billion-and-implement-robust-new-protections-user-information" rel="noreferrer">https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/facebook-agrees-pay-5-billion-and-implement-robust-new-protections-user-information</a></p><p>Bringing Dark Patterns to Light (FTC staff report, September 14, 2022) (PDF)<br /><a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/P214800%20Dark%20Patterns%20Report%209.14.2022%20-%20FINAL.pdf" rel="noreferrer">https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/P214800%20Dark%20Patterns%20Report%209.14.2022%20-%20FINAL.pdf</a></p><p>Dutch court orders Meta to change Facebook and Instagram timeline settings (Reuters, October 2, 2025)<br /><a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/dutch-court-orders-meta-change-facebook-instagram-timeline-settings-2025-10-02/" rel="noreferrer">https://www.reuters.com/technology/dutch-court-orders-meta-change-facebook-instagram-timeline-settings-2025-10-02/</a></p><p>Dutch court gives Meta more time to change timeline settings (Reuters, October 28, 2025)<br /><a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/dutch-court-gives-meta-more-time-change-timeline-settings-2025-10-28/" rel="noreferrer">https://www.reuters.com/technology/dutch-court-gives-meta-more-time-change-timeline-settings-2025-10-28/</a></p><p>Facebook told advertisers it can identify teens feeling “insecure” and “worthless” (The Guardian, May 1, 2017)<br /><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/01/facebook-advertising-data-insecure-teens" rel="noreferrer">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/01/facebook-advertising-data-insecure-teens</a></p><p>Justice Department Secures Groundbreaking Settlement Agreement with Meta Platforms [....] to Resolve Allegations of Discriminatory Advertising (U.S. Department of Justice, June 21, 2022)<br /><a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-secures-groundbreaking-settlement-agreement-meta-platforms-formerly-known" rel="noreferrer">https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-secures-groundbreaking-settlement-agreement-meta-platforms-formerly-known</a></p><p>Engagement, User Satisfaction, and the Amplification of Divisive Content on Social Media (Knight First Amendment Institute, January 3, 2024)<br /><a href="https://knightcolumbia.org/content/engagement-user-satisfaction-and-the-amplification-of-divisive-content-on-social-media" rel="noreferrer">https://knightcolumbia.org/content/engagement-user-satisfaction-and-the-amplification-of-divisive-content-on-social-media</a></p><p>More internal documents show how Facebook’s algorithm prioritized anger and posts that triggered it (Nieman Lab, October 26, 2021)<br /><a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/10/more-internal-documents-show-how-facebooks-algorithm-prioritized-anger-and-posts-that-triggered-it/" rel="noreferrer">https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/10/more-internal-documents-show-how-facebooks-algorithm-prioritized-anger-and-posts-that-triggered-it/</a></p><p>More than half of top 100 mental health TikToks contain misinformation, study finds (The Guardian, May 31, 2025)<br /><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/31/more-than-half-of-top-100-mental-health-tiktoks-contain-misinformation-study-finds" rel="noreferrer">https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/31/more-than-half-of-top-100-mental-health-tiktoks-contain-misinformation-study-finds</a></p><p>A global comparison of social media bot and human characteristics (Scientific Reports/Nature, March 31, 2025)<br /><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-96372-1" rel="noreferrer">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-96372-1</a></p><p>More than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are ‘AI slop’, study finds (The Guardian, December 27, 2025)<br /><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/27/more-than-20-of-videos-shown-to-new-youtube-users-are-ai-slop-study-finds" rel="noreferrer">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/dec/27/more-than-20-of-videos-shown-to-new-youtube-users-are-ai-slop-study-finds</a></p><p>How monopoly enshittified Amazon (Pluralistic, November 28, 2022)<br /><a href="https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/">https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/</a></p><p>Tiktok's enshittification (Pluralistic, January 21, 2023)<br /><a href="https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys" rel="noopener">https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys</a></p><p>The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok (WIRED, January 23, 2023)<br /><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/" rel="noreferrer">https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/</a></p><p>Fediverse network statistics (FediDB)<br /><a href="https://fedidb.com/">https://fedidb.com/</a></p><p>Fediverse stats page (Fediverse.Party)<br /><a href="https://fediverse.party/en/fediverse/" rel="noreferrer">https://fediverse.party/en/fediverse/</a></p><p>Bluesky now has 30 million users (The Verge, January 29, 2025)<br /><a href="https://www.theverge.com/news/602049/bluesky-now-has-30-million-users" rel="noreferrer">https://www.theverge.com/news/602049/bluesky-now-has-30-million-users</a></p><p>Bluesky hits 40 million users, introduces ‘dislikes’ beta (TechCrunch, October 31, 2025)<br /><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/31/bluesky-hits-40-million-users-introduces-dislikes-beta">https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/31/bluesky-hits-40-million-users-introduces-dislikes-beta</a></p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 pt-2 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

<p>At Spielwarenmesse 2026, publisher <a href="https://www.czechgames.com/" rel="noreferrer">Czech Games Edition</a> showed mock-ups for three <strong><em>Codenames</em></strong> expansion packs from designer Vlaada Chvátil that will hit the retail market in Q2 2026, each retailing for US$10.</p><p>Two of the packs — <strong><em>Fairy Tales</em></strong> and <strong><em>Sci-Fi</em></strong> — each feature 50 new words and phrases on 25 cards, along with three new agent tiles and four cards for <strong><em>Codenames: Pictures</em></strong>, while the third pack — <em><strong>Cute Critters</strong></em> — includes 40 new images on 20 cards for <em>Codenames: Pictures</em>.</p><p>Regina Urazajeva from CGE notes that these items will be labeled "expansion packs" at release to emphasize that the cards in each pack are fixed, not randomized as in booster packs for trading card games. As for why these packs exist, she says that given the larger number of words in the <a href="https://codenames.game/" rel="noreferrer"><em>Codenames</em> app and online site</a>, fans have requested more variety in the published game.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/code-cut.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The back covers of the Codenames expansion packs, which are mock-ups for now" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1145" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/code-cut.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/code-cut.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/code-cut.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/code-cut.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Mock-up packaging</span></figcaption></figure> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <p>Since this post is brief, let's add visual sparkle in the form of nearly six-foot-tall LEGO TIE fighter that greeted visitors near the main entrance of the Spielwarenmesse fair. Pew! Pew!</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/tie.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A human-sized LEGO TIE fighter on a giant pole in front of a neon-lit convention booth" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1500" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/tie.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/tie.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/tie.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/tie.jpg 2400w" /></figure>

<p>A website doesn't come together in a day. I mean, it could, but it probably wouldn't be ideal. Thankfully, while I was still working at <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com" rel="noreferrer">BoardGameGeek</a>, my wife Linda took charge of Board Game Beat's site design, logo design, policy pages, marketing, social media presence, and much more.</p><blockquote>Normally Behind the Beat posts are available only to Board Game Beat members at the <a href="https://www.wericmartin.com/#/portal" rel="noreferrer">Press Proof+ tiers of membership</a>, but for our first week we want everyone to sample what's available on the site. If you haven't already, please consider a paid membership starting at just $2/month!</blockquote><p>Like me, Linda started as a freelance writer in the mid-1990s, and while I tend to favor writing over all of the other skills needed to function as a freelance writer, she excelled in those other skills. She loves brainstorming, pitching ideas to editors, organizing workflow, and creating systems and processes far more than writing, and she drew on thirty years of experience to put this site together.</p><p>For the first few weeks, we worked with the name "Turn Zero" for the site, as in "Here's where to go for info before you start to play", which is way too clever since you need to explain what the name means. Nothing about the name says "games" or "board games" or "news", which were detriments that didn't deter my clever self. (The existence of a Los Angeles game store named "<a href="https://www.turnzerogames.com/" rel="noreferrer">Turn Zero Games</a>" was a possible issue, although its logo — [Ø] — was not similar to what we worked on and its business was retail, whereas we had no plans to sell anything other than ads.)</p><p>The Turn Zero logo was similarly both clever and confusing:</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/TurnZeroLogo-1.png" class="kg-image" alt="Logo reading &quot;Turn Zero&quot;, with the final O being a circle comprised of dozens of dots" loading="lazy" width="477" height="287" /></figure><p>We were weighing all of these issues and brainstorming yet again for names when I blurted out "Board Game Beat", as in "Board Game Newsbeat"...but without the news. Now the name says both "board game" and "news", albeit in a funky way that might not be clear to non-native English speakers, but "beat" also expresses the rhythm and regularity of news. Every day, news keeps on coming...</p><p>To avoid confusion with my former employer and other businesses such as Canadian online retailer <a href="https://www.boardgamebliss.com/" rel="noreferrer">BoardGameBliss</a>, we refer to the site only as "Board Game Beat" or "the Beat", never as BGB — other than this one time in this post.</p><p>Linda researched site hosts and landed on <a href="https://ghost.org/" rel="noreferrer">Ghost</a>, then started working out a design using lots of placeholders and stock images so that she could try layouts, typefaces, ad placement, and so on:</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Early-test-site.png" class="kg-image" alt="Placeholder website with posts labeled &quot;Test 3!&quot; and the like" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1497" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/Early-test-site.png 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/Early-test-site.png 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/Early-test-site.png 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/01/Early-test-site.png 2400w" /></figure><p>We settled early on a minimal advertising presence: the home page, the top and bottom of a post, and audio and video sponsorship. Based on my past experience running BoardgameNews.com in the late 2000s, I didn't think I'd be able to run a business solely on reader support, but we also wanted to go with an airy, less busy site with lots of white space and color only in the logo, images, and ads.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Terrible-Logo-Title-Combo.png" class="kg-image" alt="Website mock-up showing an excerpted post and an ad banner" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1490" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/Terrible-Logo-Title-Combo.png 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/Terrible-Logo-Title-Combo.png 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/Terrible-Logo-Title-Combo.png 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/01/Terrible-Logo-Title-Combo.png 2400w" /></figure><p>Once we landed on the "Board Game Beat" name, we decided to use my stylized WEM logo as the logo for the site. Why'd we go with green? Because green's my favorite color. (I told someone recently the logo is meant to display my secret life as a Friedemann Friese fanboy, but that's only coincidental.) Why'd we go with that logo? Because I appreciate the graphic simplicity of it, with the stacked rectangles being a quiet reference to stacked games.</p><p>The image above shows a less than ideal combination of logo and text, and eventually we moved my name and the site name into the logo itself. Why my name? I've been writing about games full-time since 2006, and Linda and her friend Diana, a fellow writer and a great sounding board, suggested that I lean into that. Board Game Beat is me and my writing, so let's make that clear from the get go. I might hire other writers in time if the finances make it possible, but for now the site is all me...and Linda, but she doesn't want her name trumpeted anywhere.</p><p>We did purchase the URL boardgamebeat.com in order to re-direct it to the current wericmartin.com landing zone. (Having that URL be available was yet another consideration when we landed on the name.)</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Part-of-early-accessibility-testing.png" class="kg-image" alt="Screenshot showing an accessScan rating for the early site design" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1515" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/Part-of-early-accessibility-testing.png 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/Part-of-early-accessibility-testing.png 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/Part-of-early-accessibility-testing.png 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/01/Part-of-early-accessibility-testing.png 2400w" /></figure><p>As Linda worked on the site, she continually ran it through <a href="https://accessibe.com/accessscan" rel="noreferrer">accessScan</a> to check for accessibility issues, fixing and adding things as needed until the site scored an A. Keeping the site less fussy helped in this regard since you have fewer items to cause issues. I'm doing my best to remember to place alt text on every image on the site, and Linda is often running checks on such things herself for posts in the drafting and scheduled queue.</p><p>We developed Patreon-style backer tiers, something that Ghost allowed to be integrated with site membership, and the features/rewards of those tiers bounced around a lot. We initially had the top tier being a shared video call among anyone who wanted to participate, but (1) I'm not a huge fan of video calls and (2) I worried that my time would be locked into a call when other opportunities arose.</p><p>Instead we turned to the idea of custom goodies, initially researching goods produced in China before deciding to do something handmade in the U.S. instead. Among her many searches, Linda found <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/CrochetCleric" rel="noreferrer">CrochetCleric</a> on Etsy, who had posted a knitted dice bag with a sunflower design. We reached out to her about doing a custom bag, and she proposed various designs in the site colors:</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/DICEBAGS.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Seven dice bag designs in black, green, and coral" loading="lazy" width="1385" height="1680" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/DICEBAGS.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/DICEBAGS.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/DICEBAGS.jpg 1385w" /></figure><p>Granny squares?! Let's do that! Linda and I each have quilts that our grandmothers knitted decades ago, and the look is one that shows concentrated effort, so we asked for a sample, loved the look of it, and ordered twenty. Will we ever have twenty deluxe backers and run out of dice bags? If so, that's a nice problem to have, and we'll order more. They're not cheap compared to some of the Chinese-produced items we looked at, but that's not a problem since we didn't want to order hundreds of a promo item and we're paying a person directly to do creative work — which seems like a better approach for a game site that's trying to highlight individuals doing creative work themselves.</p><p>For my initial video, we decided to focus on our decision to avoid traditional social media and instead use federated social media. Not sure what the difference is? That video will be posted on Friday, January 30, so watch and learn!</p><p>I've never enjoyed editing video — or recording it either, for that matter — so we reached out to David Ryan, a neighbor three houses down the street who creates video presentations for businesses, and hired him to edit at least the initial video. Here's the sample he created as we were fooling around while setting up a studio space:</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><iframe width="560" height="315" title="Testing Board Game Beat Video" src="https://video.ploud.fr/videos/embed/ae5f90a6-e073-4e2b-8c3b-06b73a425e60" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></figure><p>Whoa, way goofier than I ever imagined it would be...yet it was fun and I appreciated Dave's interest in collaborating in unexpected ways. He's done similar work on that first video. Paying people to do stuff I'm not good at and don't want to do has been a great decision.</p><p>For reference, the image at the top of the post features that studio recording space:</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/recording-setup.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="A table covered with a cloth is surrounded by multiple lights on stands and on the floor" loading="lazy" width="1600" height="1200" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/recording-setup.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/recording-setup.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/recording-setup.jpg 1600w" /></figure><p>You can see notes taped to the wall that summarized aspects of the video script. Normally I just wing my videos and do endless takes until I get something that feels right. This video includes many references that aren't just Eric gassing about something, so I wanted to ensure that I could refer to what I needed, still doing endless takes to get it all right before Dave stitched it together.</p><p>You can see my green screen reflected in one of the lights. I had never considered using a green screen before, but that's mostly because of the "not liking to edit videos" aspect of my personality, but Dave brought one over, then showed us the sample, so I bought a green screen and more lights. Thankfully we have this extra room needed for nothing else; it's been many things over the past six years, and currently it's a studio where I can keep all of this set up for future videos.</p><p>Okay, it's time to head back to the Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair for my final day at the show. Take care!</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

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<p>My first stop of the day at the 2026 Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair on Wednesday was <a href="https://www.ravensburger.de/de-DE" rel="noreferrer">Ravensburger</a>, which had a a smidge of alea titles, an overhaul of its children's game line, and a large number of family friendly games...including a trick-taking game for five-year-olds!</p><p>At SPIEL Essen 25, Ravensburger had <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogpost/179561" rel="noreferrer">announced</a> that designers Max J. Kobbert and Klaus-Jürgen Wrede were working together on a game that would merge their two signature titles, respectively <em>Labyrinth</em> and <em>Carcassonne</em>. You can see the result — <strong><em>Carcassonne Labyrinth</em></strong> — in the images above and below, with this 2-4 player game scheduled for release in September 2026.</p><p>Gameplay for <em>Carcassonne Labyrinth</em> should be intuitive for anyone who's played the two earlier games. At the start of your turn, if you lack a goal tile, draw the top tile of your colored deck. In the image above, the tile shows a mouse, so you want to move your figure to the tile with the mouse — and a path already exists, so don't mess it up with your next action, which is to slide your tile in hand into a row or column along any of the eight triangles, ejecting a different tile at the other end of the line. (You can do this in five ways.)</p><p>Move your figure, landing on the mouse in this case, which satisfies your objective. As a result, you take both the tile you ejected and the goal tile you completed, then start or add to a personal city built in front of you. The game lasts ten rounds, so you'll have at least ten tiles for this city, but the more objectives you complete, the more tiles you have.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/card-lab.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2411" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/card-lab.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/card-lab.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/card-lab.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/card-lab.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Most of the game components, which feature non-final art</span></figcaption></figure><p>Once the goal tile is in your city, the circle showing the goal serves another purpose. If you complete the city feature — a city in this case — that includes the goal, you take a rat token from the reserve and cover this circle. At game's end, you stack all of the tiles and tokens in your personal city, and whoever has the tallest stack wins.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <p>In <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogpost/179600" rel="noreferrer">an Oct. 25, 2025 BGG News post</a>, I gave an overview of <em><strong>Labyrinth: Chronicles</strong></em>, a legacy-based version of the forty-year-old <em>Labyrinth</em>. Ravensburger's Andre Maack said that <em>Labyrinth: Chronicles</em> — which will be <a href="https://gamefound.com/en/projects/awaken-realms/labyrinth" rel="noreferrer">crowdfunded</a> in Q1 2026 — will be released to retail outlets in September 2026, although it's not clear how many stores will be stocking the game given its price and size, with the box width being roughly half of its length.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/lab-leg.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The Labyrinth: Chronicles box sits on a plastic case holding the game components" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2844" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/lab-leg.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/lab-leg.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/lab-leg.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/lab-leg.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Mock-up components ahead of the game's production</span></figcaption></figure><p>In that Oct. 2025 BGG News post, I mentioned that Ravensburger's alea brand would release three German-language licensed games in 2026. Two of those titles are Donald X. Vaccarino's <strong><em>Moon Colony Bloodbath</em></strong> and Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, and Shawn Stankewich's <strong><em>Propolis</em></strong>, both of which are due out in Q1 2026.</p><p>Why is alea releasing licensed games at this time? Partly it's a result of Ravensburger relaxing its alea marketing practices and allowing licensed games to be published in formats other than the numbered rectangular box that has been a constant with alea since its debut with <em>Ra</em> in 1999. Maack said that some licensing deals hadn't proceed in the past because alea wanted to re-package a game to match its line and the originating publisher insisted on maintain the original format.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/vision.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1896" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/vision.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/vision.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/vision.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/vision.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>The third alea title was going to be Maxime Rambourg's <strong><em>Présages</em></strong>, but that game, now titled <em><strong>Vision</strong></em> and due out in March 2026, will be part of the regular Ravensburger line. <em>Vision</em> is a team trick-taking game in which one team member needs to get down to a single card in hand for the team to win the round; this can difficult to do since only one played card is guaranteed to be discarded at the end of the trick, with the played card effects making many surprising things happen.</p><p>My guide through the Ravensburger booth, designer, developer, and game scout Lena Burkhardt, was disappointed that I already knew <em>Vision</em> as she was excited to teach the game. I can appreciate that desire to share something you love...</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <p>Timothée Decroix's <strong><em>BoBoBon</em></strong> is the aforementioned trick-taking game for youngsters, with cards coming in four colors and eight shapes. Each trick, the lead player lays down a card, then each other player must lay down a card of the same color, if possible. After each player has played a card, the largest card wins the trick — and in this case "largest" literally means largest. You can stack all of the cards, then see which one is visible under all the others (or obscures those beneath it). The winner takes one of two score tiles on display, trying to collect more stars than anyone else. In the base game, ants cost you a point, so you want to avoid winning a trick in which only ants are available.</p><p><em>BoBoBon</em> lasts five rounds and is due out in February 2026.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/minec.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Sample cards in the card game Minecraft: Digging Down: torches, swords, picks, monsters, etc." loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2763" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/minec.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/minec.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/minec.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/minec.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>Jens Merkl's <strong><em>Minecraft: Digging Down</em></strong>, which is due out in Q3 2026, is a co-operative card game for up to four players in which you're trying to dig through the field of cards (with only a few shown in the image above) before everyone runs out of the tools. Maybe you spend picks to get a super pick or a torch to lessen the number of swords needed to fight a monster. Take enough wounds, and you'll need to travel to re-boot your health.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/snacka.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The box for Snackaroo, along with cards showing animals without and with snacks" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2783" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/snacka.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/snacka.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/snacka.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/snacka.jpg 2024w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Sample cards in </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">Snackaroo</em></i></figcaption></figure><p>Rudi Biber's <strong><em>Snackaroo</em></strong>, due out in January 2026, is a quick-playing, card-slapping design, with up to five players trying to give various critters the snacks that they're missing.</p><p>Each player has a deck showing the critters with their snacks, and a central deck features snackless creatures, sometimes with more than one on a card. In the base game, someone reveals a central card, then everyone flips through their personal deck one by one, racing to be the first to reveal this animal (or one of two featured animals) and claim the card.</p><p>The initial level is basic, but you can up the challenge by separating your personal deck into two snacks, looking through only one of them before the game begins. After the central card is revealed, you can pick up only one stack in your search for a matching animal. If you do well, split your cards among three stacks, looking at only two of them. This set-up also gives a way to level the field against players at different skill levels.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/snannan.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Clay models of ten critters: snail, stork, elephant, and so on" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="625" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/snannan.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/snannan.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/snannan.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/01/snannan.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Ravensburger displayed the artist's clay originals of the </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">Snackaroo</em></i><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> critters</span></figcaption></figure>

<p>Game publisher <a href="https://www.koreaboardgames.com" rel="noreferrer">Korea Boardgames</a> has revealed eight releases that it will show at the Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair at the end of January 2026 ahead of their release in the first half of 2026, and the one that catches my eye immediately is <a href="https://www.koreaboardgames.com/magazine/menuDetail?boardCd=ourGames&amp;postNo=63" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Magicats</em></strong></a>, a Reiner Knizia design for 2-4 players that was originally published (for 2-5 players) in 2002 as <em>Clash of the Gladiators</em>.</p><p>In <em>Magicats</em>, Rome has been banished in favor of the Felinor School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, with teams of cat wizards competing to see who will come out on top. Each player has a team of 3-4 wizards, with each wizard having four slots for spells, which is analogous to players in <em>Clash</em> having 3-4 plastic chariots each filled with four gladiators.</p><p>The game is carried out in two phases, with the first phase being a lengthy set-up that primes the action in the second half. Players take turns adding a wizard and a magic token to an empty space in the 6x8 grid or just adding a magic token to one of their previously placed wizards.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/ulewJoJSIDybtw03ovV4.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Two cat wizards stand on displays that each contain four magic tokens" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1333" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/ulewJoJSIDybtw03ovV4.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/ulewJoJSIDybtw03ovV4.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/ulewJoJSIDybtw03ovV4.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/ulewJoJSIDybtw03ovV4.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Two cat wizards from different clans</span></figcaption></figure><p>Once set-up is complete, players take turns moving and starting battles with one another. Magic spells come in eleven types, and they resolve in the order shown on the magic display board:</p><ul><li>Jump Kick: Move to any open space.</li><li>Meow Punch: Deal 1 damage immediately before battle.</li><li>Distraction: Place a token on an opponent's magic token to disable it this turn.</li><li>Haste: Determine who attacks first.</li><li>Fireball: Roll a die in combat.</li></ul><p>And so on, with both melee and ranged attacks, a blizzard that bombs the opponent with six rolled dice, a re-roll option, and shields to prevent some or all damage. Dice have a single double-hit side, three single-hits, and two blanks. Every two points of damage causes that wizard to lose a magic token, which is claimed by the attacker. Lose all of your magic tokens, and the attacker claims the wizard, too. When only one cat wizard clan remains on the board, see who has bagged the most tokens and wizards.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/xwVOYj3DI5TjOixq16wj.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="An overhead view of the 6x8 game board showing cat wizards and their spells" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1498" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/xwVOYj3DI5TjOixq16wj.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/xwVOYj3DI5TjOixq16wj.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/xwVOYj3DI5TjOixq16wj.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/xwVOYj3DI5TjOixq16wj.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Bookshelves and tables block melee attacks</span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Clash of the Gladiators</em> included beasts that you could attack in the arena as a secondary way to claim points — and as a way that you could continue playing should all your chariots be eliminated. Become a beast, and strike back! In <em>Magicats</em>, once you're gone, you're gone. You still keep all of your points, mind you, but that number is now locked.</p><p><em>Magicats</em> uses double-sided game board tiles, with the reverse side featuring terrain effects for an outdoor battle: gain haste when attacking from a mountain, roll an extra die when attacking from a shrine, and take less damage when being attacked in a forest.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/bst0H59EVyoDyAjw6ZYY.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The front cover of Blancat and examples of gameplay, with a square bed having three &quot;cloths&quot; along each edge that will be folded on top" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="2663" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/bst0H59EVyoDyAjw6ZYY.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/bst0H59EVyoDyAjw6ZYY.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/bst0H59EVyoDyAjw6ZYY.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/bst0H59EVyoDyAjw6ZYY.jpg 2000w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Pushpins are a great way to display cards. More people should consider this practice...</span></figcaption></figure><p>The cats in <a href="https://www.koreaboardgames.com/magazine/menuDetail?boardCd=ourGames&amp;postNo=66" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Blancat</em></strong></a> are even more peripheral, but the look of the game leans into <a href="https://www.smirkanddagger.com/product-page/boop" rel="noreferrer"><em>boop.</em></a> territory, with cats eager to sit on a blanket on a well-made bed.</p><p>As for the gameplay, <em>Blancat</em> falls into territory along the lines of Roberto Fraga and Yohan Goh's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/377941" rel="noreferrer"><em>Gimbap</em></a>, which Korea Boardgames published in 2024, as well as many other real-time, pattern-building games. Each round, you reveal a pattern from the deck — easy or hard, as you like it — then everyone races to recreate that pattern by folding twelve blanket strips on top of their square bed, with each side of the bed having three blankets.</p><p>When you finish, grab a cat token, with one fewer token available than the number of players. If any cat grabbers messed up, they take a pattern card as a penalty; if not, the person with no cat is penalized. Whoever collects three pattern cards first loses.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/bark.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Cover of The Bark Side with a colorful dog, with a grid of cards on the right." loading="lazy" width="2000" height="908" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/bark.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/bark.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/bark.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/bark.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>Kotaro Kanda's trick-taking game <a href="https://www.koreaboardgames.com/magazine/menuDetail?boardCd=ourGames&amp;postNo=64" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>The Bark Side</em></strong></a> is a "new" release that Korea Boardgames attempted to <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/koreaboardgames/the-bark-side" rel="noreferrer">crowdfund</a> in 2018, then didn't bring to market when the project didn't gain enough support. The publisher was ahead of the curve on the trick-taking trend, and now the game is finally making its way to print.</p><p>Your goal each hand is to not take the final trick. The deck consists of cards numbered 1-12, and the lead player of the first trick plays a single card, with each subsequent player playing a card of the same value or higher — or their lowest card. Whoever plays the highest card leads the next trick.</p><p>Once a player throws off their lowest card, at the start of the next trick a player can lead two or more cards of the same value, then each other player most play exactly that many cards of the same value or higher — or discard that many cards of whatever is lowest in their hand. Thus, every time you can't play, you must ditch the low cards you want to save in order not to win the final trick. Whoever claims that poisoned trick keeps cards from this trick face up in front of themselves, then you start a new hand. When someone has 7+ different values in front of themselves (or when you can't deal enough cards to players), the game ends, and whoever the fewest different values in front of themselves wins.</p><p>I played <em>The Bark Side</em> four times in 2018 on a review copy, and the shrinking deck is a neat feature because over time playing 3-4 cards of a value will win a trick instead of being overplayed because high-value cards have been pulled out of play.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/j7zN5VZgHyCsBGaNtlRf-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Cover of Big or Bang, a game board with two scoring tracks, eight figures, six dice, and bust tokens" loading="lazy" width="1784" height="1808" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/j7zN5VZgHyCsBGaNtlRf-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/j7zN5VZgHyCsBGaNtlRf-1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/j7zN5VZgHyCsBGaNtlRf-1.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/j7zN5VZgHyCsBGaNtlRf-1.jpg 1784w" /></figure><p>Peter Jürgensen's <a href="https://www.koreaboardgames.com/magazine/menuDetail?boardCd=ourGames&amp;postNo=68" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Big or Bang</em></strong></a> is a press-your-luck game for 2-7 players of shooting for the stars...and possibly shooting yourself in the foot instead.</p><p>On the first turn, the starting player rolls the six dice, then keeps all the dice of one number, with jokers always being set aside. The unicorn figure advances on the central star track based on how many dice you set aside: 0 spaces for one die, 3 spaces for three, 5 spaces for four, and so on. You can end your turn and move your personal figure on the exterior scoring track a number of spaces equal to where the unicorn is located, or you can roll again — but now you can set aside only numbers higher than anything previously set aside.</p><p>If you set aside nothing on a roll, you bust, the unicorn resets, and the next player starts from scratch. When you bust, you draw a bust token as compensation, and if you have two bust tokens of the same value, you can cash those in to move your figure spaces equal to that value.</p><p>If you set aside all six dice, you keep the unicorn where it is, then either stop and move, or roll all six dice, adding to where the unicorn is already located.</p><p>If you stop and score, you slide the remaining dice and dice mat to the next player, who can then decide to start from scratch or "continue" your turn and try to build on where you stopped. If they set aside dice, then the unicorn keeps going up. As soon as a player has 40+ points, all other players get one final turn, then whoever has the most points wins.</p><p>I appreciate the graphic approach for this design, calling back to <em>Cosmic Wimpout</em>, the classic 1970s dice game that uses the same "if score all your dice, you can start again" mechanism, although it dates to the 1930s.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/brush-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front cover of Brushwood, next to a hiker figure walking around a central game board surrounded by hiking cards" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="800" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/brush-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/brush-1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/brush-1.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w2400/2026/01/brush-1.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>Filippo Landini's <a href="https://www.koreaboardgames.com/magazine/menuDetail?boardCd=ourGames&amp;postNo=67" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Brushwood</em></strong></a> is a "walk in the woods" game for 2-4 players of trying to see and collect the best stuff.</p><p>On a turn, move the shared hiker figure 1-3 spaces, placing a random berry token from the bag on each space you pass over. Add the card you stop at the end of your current hike log, collecting any berries on that card. When you've seen enough of a certain type of mushroom, you can grab one of the objective tokens from the central board.</p><p>When two of the eight hiking piles are empty, the hike ends, and players score for having the most or second most of the three types of berries, for seeing animals, for having binoculars at the right time to see birds, and for installing birdhouses for creatures that lack opposable thumbs and can't wield a hammer themselves.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/caps-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front cover of Capsule Collector, next to a sampling of numbered capsules and five action tiles" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="893" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/caps-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/caps-1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/caps-1.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/caps-1.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>Joohyun's <a href="https://www.koreaboardgames.com/magazine/menuDetail?boardCd=ourGames&amp;postNo=69" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Capsule Collector</em></strong></a> has you trying to pull valuable capsules from the machine and arrange them the right way so that you can open them for lots of stars.</p><p>Each turn, you add two capsules from the deck to the market, grouping like numbers together, then take all capsules of one color and add them to your 4x4 grid, filling this grid from upper left to lower right.</p><p>You then take the action corresponding to how many capsules you took (1-5), after which you move that action to the right side of the line, sliding everything else left. Actions let you take another turn, claim a bonus capsule, swap two capsules, and (most importantly) open all capsules of the same value in an orthogonally-connected group in your grid. Instead of taking an action, you can take an open token, which will open a single capsule at game's end.</p><p>You score only for open capsules, and in each color you'll find three capsules worth 5 stars and five worth 3 stars, with the rest being worth 1 star each.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/j0BEbFmxzzz1G5R2Kpo0-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The Extremes Only game box surrounded by cards, scoring tokens, pens, and whiteboards" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1333" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/j0BEbFmxzzz1G5R2Kpo0-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/j0BEbFmxzzz1G5R2Kpo0-1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/j0BEbFmxzzz1G5R2Kpo0-1.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/j0BEbFmxzzz1G5R2Kpo0-1.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>Kasper Lapp's <a href="https://www.koreaboardgames.com/magazine/menuDetail?boardCd=ourGames&amp;postNo=65" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Extremes Only</em></strong></a> is a "Do you know your friends?" party game for 3-8 players in which you score by going to the extremes.</p><p>The round's referee chooses a category, everyone writes an answer for that category, then the ref ranks them from best to worst — then the players each write another answer that's ranked, then a third. Ideally by the third answer, you get a sense of what's the best (and the worst) fit for that person's tastes. Players get 3, 2, and 1 points for the answers at the extreme ends of the answers.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Fa8UbL9fFrhjtYr4Rgc5-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front cover of Coffee Rush: Winter, next to order cards, plastic ingredients, upgrade tiles, servers, and other components" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="999" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/Fa8UbL9fFrhjtYr4Rgc5-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/Fa8UbL9fFrhjtYr4Rgc5-1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/Fa8UbL9fFrhjtYr4Rgc5-1.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Fa8UbL9fFrhjtYr4Rgc5-1.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>Euijin Han's <em>Coffee Rush</em> debuted in 2023, then was followed by the <em>Piece of Cake</em> expansion in 2024 and a spin-off card game — <em>Coffee Rush: Grab &amp; Go</em> — by Daryl Chow. In 2026, the original game returns in a new form as <a href="https://www.koreaboardgames.com/magazine/menuDetail?boardCd=ourGames&amp;postNo=62" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Coffee Rush: Winter</em></strong></a>.</p><p>Gameplay is the same as in the original <em>Coffee Rush</em> release: On a turn, you move your server on the 4x4 grid, picking up each ingredient you land on, then adding them to the three cups in front of you. Collect the exact ingredients that match one of your orders, and you can serve it, and you'll need to stay on top of those orders as they cascade down your player board at the end of each turn, with you losing points for those that go unfulfilled. You can turn in fulfilled orders to upgrade your server, allowing you to move faster or pick up twice as many ingredients.</p><p><em>Coffee Rush: Winter</em> features new ingredients, new orders, a modified scoring system, and new variable set-ups.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

<p>Thanks to flight and train delays, I made it to the Spielwarenmesse toy and game fair with only an hour left before the fair closed for the day, yet (thanks to an after-hour event) I still saw more than I can reasonable talk about before I head to bed in order to be primed for tomorrow. Let me mention only three items for now:</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/myth.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Mythologies game box with a display for cards from four worldwide cultures" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1629" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/myth.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/myth.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/myth.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/myth.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Display of </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">Mythologies</em></i><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> at asmodee game night</span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/447570" rel="noreferrer"><strong><em>Mythologies</em></strong></a> is a 2-4 player card combo game from Maxime Babad and Mickaël Garcin that plays in 20-40 minutes, which is quicker than I would have expected based on the "Look at all the unique card powers" element.</p><p>To set up, choose four of the eight mythologies in the game, with the game boards for these mythologies forming two scoring conditions across pairs of boards, e.g., in the case above "Have at least 3 summoning (crystal) in your left column" and "Have more summoning (coins) than a neighbor in your central column". (As you might expect, each mythology functions differently, and Charles Amir from publisher Super Meeple says that both cultural and mythological consultants have weighed in to ensure authentic representation.)</p><p>The game lasts four rounds, and in each round you draft four times, yet end up with only two cards. How? For each draft you reveal a color symbol card that shows which players can draft where; in the image above, white drafts from the upper left, red from the upper right, green from lower right, and blue from lower left. Each player has three tokens: two that say draft, which are spent when used, and one that says, "Nah!", which is kept. You simultaneously place your tokens, take a card if you drafted it, then place it in your 3x3 grid, gaining a bonus based on which row you placed it in and what's listed on the card — then you carry out the power on the card.</p><p>In the second to fourth rounds, each myth has a divinity card available for drafting in addition to three creatures, with a divinity card costing 4 crystals in addition to the draft action, while providing a much stronger action.</p><p>French publisher <a href="https://www.supermeeple.com" rel="noreferrer">Super Meeple</a> plans to debut <em>Mythologies</em> at the FIJ game fair at the end of February, with an English-language release ideally at Gen con 2026 and a German release at SPIEL Essen 26.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/dragon.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Five landscapes are fought over, with each player building a pile of three cards on each side of the landscape" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1007" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/dragon.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/dragon.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/dragon.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/dragon.jpg 2400w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Non-final artwork for "Dragons Overload", which is a non-final title</span></figcaption></figure><p>Hanno Girke at German publisher <a href="https://www.lookout-spiele.de/en" rel="noreferrer">Lookout Games</a> taught me "Dragons Overload", a Q3 2026 release from <a href="https://littlebriefcase.com/" rel="noreferrer">Jay Bendixen</a> for two players that Girke dubbed "an Eric special", which was a good call.</p><p>To win the game, you need to claim ownership of a majority of the five landscapes at game's end or have temporary possession of all five landscapes during play.</p><p>On a turn, either play a card from your hand face up in the matching landscape or play a card face down in the landscape of your choice, then give the visible card on top of the landscape <em>to the other player</em>. That's right — you don't control which cards go into your hand except by possibly setting up circumstances in which you force the opponent to give you the card you want. You can play a card face down only three times in the game.</p><p>You hand control of the landscape tokens back and forth during play, ignoring the face-down cards. If someone doesn't win during play, at game's end you flip over the face-down cards, then determine who controls a landscape, which is mostly the player with the higher total. However, if a player has at least twice the strength of their opponent in a landscape, they've overloaded their dragons and lose that landscape instead, so how are you bluffing with your face-down cards? To win or to lose...or to lose by a lot and therefore win?</p><p>Players each start with a small hand of cards and not all 45 cards are used in a game, so you don't have perfect information about which cards are in play. As much as I love cards with special powers, cards bearing nothing but numbers are pretty appealing, too.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/dungeon-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1412" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/dungeon-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/dungeon-1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/dungeon-1.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/dungeon-1.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p><strong><em>Dungeon Cube</em></strong> is a design for 1-6 players from Nicolò Chioato that will be released by <a href="http://www.redglove.eu" rel="noreferrer">Red Glove</a> through its "Foxy Games" brand.</p><p>The core of the game is the familiar 3x3x3 puzzle cube, which features one of six adventurers in each central square and which features weapons, enemies, spells, and more on the other faces. Each player gets a mission depending on their adventurer, and on their turn they hold the cube so that they're looking at their adventurer, then make an unlimited number of turns of the cube that don't change the face they see and at most two turns that affect that face.</p><p>If the half-white circle on your adventurer is completed by the half-white circle on something else, you interact with that something else. In the image above, the red adventurer lined up the dagger to complete a dagger, so now they'll mark the dagger on their player sheet. They killed the guard on this same turn, but they also matched a goblin in the lower-right corner...and they didn't want to face a goblin, so they'll take damage.</p><p>Completing a quest boosts your stats before you move on to another quest, while failure gives you coins that have uses of their own.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Untitled.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="2000" height="1089" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/Untitled.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/Untitled.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1600/2026/01/Untitled.jpg 1600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Untitled.jpg 2400w" /></figure><p>While I'm focusing on games at Spielwarenmesse, the fair is massive and holds an mind-numbing number of retail products. Just as I'm trying to record the details of upcoming games, others are undoubtedly comparing the merits of pens and drafting tools for children, with each of us probably looking at the other booth and wondering, "Does anyone really need all of those options?"</p>

<p>Construction on the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família — a Catholic church more commonly known as Sagrada Família — has been ongoing since March 1882, aside from interruptions caused by the Spanish Civil War and the COVID-19 pandemic, and this architectural masterpiece by Antoni Gaudí will finally be completed in 2026...aside from an "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/25/sagrada-familia-barcelona-completed-2026-stairway" rel="noreferrer">enormous, controversial stairway</a>" that won't be finished until 2034.</p><p>"Construction" on a new edition of the game <strong><em>Sagrada</em></strong>, a design by Adrian Adamescu and Daryl Andrews that U.S. publisher <a href="https://floodgate.games/" rel="noreferrer">Floodgate Games</a> debuted in 2017, has taken far less time, with this new edition scheduled for release in the United States on February 10, 2026. (A French edition from Matagot will debut that same month, with editions in other languages still to be announced.)</p><p>Floodgate's Seppy Yoon told me that this edition is primarily a visual updating of the game, although it does contain a few rules tweaks. "Private objectives still care about a specific color", he says, "but now give a player 3 points per die of that color. Previously, the number of points earned was based on the value of the die. This reduces the luck a little bit in getting a disproportionately large number of points from your color of dice happening to come up 6s frequently."</p><p>The other change involves the set-up of the dice bag at the start of play, with 10, 14, and 18 dice of each color now being used in games with two, three, and four players instead of all the dice being used no matter the player count. Says Yoon, "With this change, the distribution of colors you see at any given player count will be the same."</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/FirstSketchofCover.JPG" class="kg-image" alt="A rough sketch showing the interior wall of a cathedral" loading="lazy" width="1260" height="1639" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/FirstSketchofCover.JPG 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/FirstSketchofCover.JPG 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/FirstSketchofCover.JPG 1260w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">First sketch of the cover of the 2026 edition of </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">Sagrada</em></i><span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> (image: Kwanchai Moriya)</span></figcaption></figure><p>The 2026 edition of Sagrada features a new look by artist <a href="https://www.kwanchaimoriya.com/" rel="noreferrer">Kwanchai Moriya</a> and graphic designer <a href="https://brigetteidesign.myportfolio.com/" rel="noreferrer">Brigette Indelicato</a>. "When we were ideating for a new version of <em>Sagrada</em>," Moriya told me, "Brigette and I wanted to capture more of that dazzling array of colors and beams of light that one would experience standing in the cathedral. I also wanted to play with the warmth of the stained glass juxtaposed against the cooler stonework and masonry."</p><p>Moriya says that all illustrations and graphic design in this 2026 edition are new. "We worked to try to bring a flourish to everything we could, even making sure to find just the right hues of dice to blend with the new illustrations."</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/CoverNoOverlay.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="The interior wall of a cathedral, with light colorfully shining through multiple stained glass windows" loading="lazy" width="1080" height="1420" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/CoverNoOverlay.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/CoverNoOverlay.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/CoverNoOverlay.jpg 1080w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Cover artwork for the 2026 edition of </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">Sagrada</em></i></figcaption></figure><p>Moriya shared his approach for the new face of this nearly decade-old game: "One of the hidden things within my artwork is that I (digitally) painted the cover for this new edition in one layer. I wanted to make the cover 'feel' like an analog painting as I worked on it, partly as a response to the unsettling new boom of generative AI art that was just starting to make news a few years ago."</p><p>"This choice wouldn't really be noticed by anyone, I don't think", he continues, "but usually when someone paints in Photoshop, you make tons of layers: a layer for this face, or a layer for this building, this eyeball, this blade of grass. This allows an artist to make edits ad infinitum, at any point in time — but it's kind of the opposite of a traditional painting that takes time and planning, drying, stroke placement, so I wanted to see whether committing everything to a single layer and removing the crutch of infinite editability might make a better painting. I do feel like I can see more of the little mistakes and fudges and things that make the painting feel more 'human', but who really knows!"</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/ScoreboardArt.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="From left to right, the image shows a cathedral sketch, then the constructed cathedral rising above the clouds, along with spaces numbered 1-10" loading="lazy" width="1080" height="630" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/ScoreboardArt.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/ScoreboardArt.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/ScoreboardArt.jpg 1080w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Art for the round tracker in the 2026 edition of </span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space:pre-wrap">Sagrada</em></i></figcaption></figure><p>Something else that might not be seen by many people, but that will be appreciated by those who do, is that the 2026 edition of Sagrada features better visual accessibility. "Objectives and tool cards are larger (tarot-sized now versus poker-sized previously) with cleaner typography and larger text", says Yoon. "Red and blue dice and window pattern spaces now include a texture to help keep them looking distinct from green and purple, respectively. This should help significantly with a variety of color-blindness challenges that were previously in the game."</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

<p>I’m your host, W. Eric Martin, and I’ve been writing about board games and card games full time since 2006, first as editor and head writer of BoardgameNews.com, then for fifteen years as news editor at BoardGameGeek — and now I'm starting something new.</p><blockquote>Normally Boardcasts — audio narrations of the weekly article — are available only to members at the Prototype+ tiers of membership. But for our first week we want everyone to have access to the gated goodies. If you haven't already, please consider upgrading to a Prototype or higher membership starting at just $5/month!</blockquote><div class="kg-card kg-audio-card"><img alt="audio-thumbnail" class="kg-audio-thumbnail kg-audio-hide" /><div class="kg-audio-thumbnail placeholder"><svg width="24" height="24"><path d="M7.5 15.33a.75.75 0 1 0 0 1.5.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.5Zm-2.25.75a2.25 2.25 0 1 1 4.5 0 2.25 2.25 0 0 1-4.5 0ZM15 13.83a.75.75 0 1 0 0 1.5.75.75 0 0 0 0-1.5Zm-2.25.75a2.25 2.25 0 1 1 4.5 0 2.25 2.25 0 0 1-4.5 0Z"></path><path d="M14.486 6.81A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 17.25 9v5.579a.75.75 0 0 1-1.5 0v-5.58a.75.75 0 0 0-.932-.727.755.755 0 0 1-.059.013l-4.465.744a.75.75 0 0 0-.544.72v6.33a.75.75 0 0 1-1.5 0v-6.33a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 1.763-2.194l4.473-.746Z"></path><path d="M3 1.5a.75.75 0 0 0-.75.75v19.5a.75.75 0 0 0 .75.75h18a.75.75 0 0 0 .75-.75V5.133a.75.75 0 0 0-.225-.535l-.002-.002-3-2.883A.75.75 0 0 0 18 1.5H3ZM1.409.659A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 3 0h15a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 1.568.637l.003.002 3 2.883a2.25 2.25 0 0 1 .679 1.61V21.75A2.25 2.25 0 0 1 21 24H3a2.25 2.25 0 0 1-2.25-2.25V2.25c0-.597.237-1.169.659-1.591Z"></path></svg></div><div class="kg-audio-player-container"><audio src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/media/2026/01/WELCOME-TO-BOARD-GAME-BEAT.mp3" preload="metadata"></audio><div class="kg-audio-title">WELCOME TO BOARD GAME BEAT</div><div class="kg-audio-player"><button class="kg-audio-play-icon"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M23.14 10.608 2.253.164A1.559 1.559 0 0 0 0 1.557v20.887a1.558 1.558 0 0 0 2.253 1.392L23.14 13.393a1.557 1.557 0 0 0 0-2.785Z"></path></svg></button><button class="kg-audio-pause-icon kg-audio-hide"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><rect x="3" y="1" width="7" height="22" rx="1.5" ry="1.5"></rect><rect x="14" y="1" width="7" height="22" rx="1.5" ry="1.5"></rect></svg></button><span class="kg-audio-current-time">0:00</span><div class="kg-audio-time">/<span class="kg-audio-duration">397.21825</span></div><input type="range" class="kg-audio-seek-slider" max="100" value="0" /><button class="kg-audio-playback-rate">1×</button><button class="kg-audio-unmute-icon"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M15.189 2.021a9.728 9.728 0 0 0-7.924 4.85.249.249 0 0 1-.221.133H5.25a3 3 0 0 0-3 3v2a3 3 0 0 0 3 3h1.794a.249.249 0 0 1 .221.133 9.73 9.73 0 0 0 7.924 4.85h.06a1 1 0 0 0 1-1V3.02a1 1 0 0 0-1.06-.998Z"></path></svg></button><button class="kg-audio-mute-icon kg-audio-hide"><svg viewbox="0 0 24 24"><path d="M16.177 4.3a.248.248 0 0 0 .073-.176v-1.1a1 1 0 0 0-1.061-1 9.728 9.728 0 0 0-7.924 4.85.249.249 0 0 1-.221.133H5.25a3 3 0 0 0-3 3v2a3 3 0 0 0 3 3h.114a.251.251 0 0 0 .177-.073ZM23.707 1.706A1 1 0 0 0 22.293.292l-22 22a1 1 0 0 0 0 1.414l.009.009a1 1 0 0 0 1.405-.009l6.63-6.631A.251.251 0 0 1 8.515 17a.245.245 0 0 1 .177.075 10.081 10.081 0 0 0 6.5 2.92 1 1 0 0 0 1.061-1V9.266a.247.247 0 0 1 .073-.176Z"></path></svg></button><input type="range" class="kg-audio-volume-slider" max="100" value="100" /></div></div></div><p>Board Game Beat is an independent site where I will post game announcements, industry news, previews of upcoming games, convention coverage, articles on game-related topics, and videos that will occasionally be a game review, but will more frequently be...something else.</p><p>To give a bit more detail, each month on Board Game Beat I'll choose a game-related topic and explore that topic in weekly deep-dive articles. In February 2026, for example, I'll be talking about the relationship between games and puzzles: Where do we draw the line between the two? And how meaningful is that distinction?</p><p>Some game announcements, previews, and news items will relate to the monthly topic, but most will not. After all, hundreds of game publishers around the world are unlikely to co-ordinate their releases to match whatever I'm focusing on in a certain month.</p><p>You can read these posts on the website or on <a href="https://www.wericmartin.com/follow/" rel="noreferrer">various federated social media sites</a>. If you want to get posts emailed to you — either individually or in a weekly digest or both — you can do so by <a href="https://www.wericmartin.com/#/portal" rel="noreferrer">subscribing to Board Game Beat</a>. You don't have to pay anything to do so, but if you want to support the site and facilitate more convention coverage, you can choose one of the paid subscription tiers, which range from US$2 to US$20 per month, with discounted annual prices and with perks at each level, such as:</p><ul><li>Participation in semi-weekly reader polls.</li><li>The Boardcast, which is audio versions of the weekly articles.</li><li>A hand-knitted dice bag created by <a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/CrochetCleric" rel="noreferrer">an artist in the U.S</a>.</li><li>Access to the Press Room, that is, posts about what's coming on the site, what I'm playing, and what goes into creating Board Game Beat.</li></ul><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Dice-Bag-Side-1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Teal, coral, and gray crocheted dice bag with granny square design, with colorful dice spilling out." loading="lazy" width="1600" height="1200" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2026/01/Dice-Bag-Side-1.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w1000/2026/01/Dice-Bag-Side-1.jpg 1000w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2026/01/Dice-Bag-Side-1.jpg 1600w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">This is the 2026 perk for our Deluxe Edition members, created by </span><a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/CrochetCleric" rel="noreferrer"><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">CrochetCleric</span></a><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">! (Dice not included.)</span></figcaption></figure><p>And what’s the goal of Board Game Beat? To help people find games they’ll love and to explore the work of those who create games and other objects that inspire play. Thousands of new games are released each year, and while most of them won’t be to your taste or mine, that’s okay. You can be sure that somebody loves each game that hits the market, and I hope to be a matchmaker — using images, text, interviews, and videos to make connections, while also exploring aspects of games and game design.</p><p>In the decade prior to BoardgameNews.com, I wrote full-time on a freelance basis, often on business topics like how to improve your catering business or better serve your reprographic printing clients, but I also pitched game coverage to a variety of magazines. I wrote about the game <em>Primordial Soup</em> for <em>Discover</em>, about <em>Reef<strong> </strong>Encounter</em> for <em>Tropical Fish Hobbyist</em>, and about <em>Shear Panic</em> for <em>sheep! </em>Why? Because the number of people who play board and card games dwarfs the number of self-identified gamers, and I want to introduce all game players to titles that they might never have heard about otherwise.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/Sheep-Magazine-Cover-1100x1100h.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="Front cover of sheep! magazine from Nov/Dec 2014 showing Santa Claus feeding sheep" loading="lazy" width="834" height="1100" srcset="https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/size/w600/2025/12/Sheep-Magazine-Cover-1100x1100h.jpg 600w, https://www.wericmartin.com/content/images/2025/12/Sheep-Magazine-Cover-1100x1100h.jpg 834w" /><figcaption><span style="white-space:pre-wrap">Hundreds of magazines exist for specialized hobbies and careers, whatever they might be</span></figcaption></figure><p>I have favorite games, yes, but I’m not proselytizing for those favorites — at least not most of the time. Instead I’m proselytizing for gaming itself. I'm dumbfounded that each time I look at, say, <em>Parents</em> magazine, I see reviews of books, movies, video games, and other largely solitary experiences, with games getting only a token mention in the annual holiday buying guide instead of being centered as a way for parents and children to spend time together.</p><p>Games are a vital way to connect with others, giving you a framework for interaction and allowing you to discover one another in myriad ways: how you reason, how you’re creative, how you explore, how you solve problems, how you partner with someone, how you think like your fellow players...and how you don’t. The designer uses rules to create a structure for play, then you join others in exploring that framework and filling it in with your personalities.</p><p>In a larger sense, games are just toys with rules. If you give people a bunch of blocks, they’ll treat them like toys: stacking them, arranging them into images, lining them up, throwing them at one another, and so on. If you challenge people to do something specific with the blocks, you’ve given them a puzzle to solve. If you attach conditions to that challenge so that they can judge how well they do, you’ve transformed that puzzle into a game.</p><p>In short, play is a continuum, with games being one way that we can engage in play with others — or on our own. Ideally, however we're engaging in play, we do what we can to ensure that everyone at the table has a fulfilling and satisfying time. On Board Game Beat, I'll do what I can to help make that happen, and I invite you to join me in exploring all that games have to offer.</p> <div style="text-align:center;color:#E26D5A;letter-spacing:6px;font-size:14px;line-height:14px;margin:20px 0"> • • • • • • • • • • • • • • </div> <aside class="mt-10 text-center text-base"> <p class="mb-3">Like what you read? Leave a tip to support independent board game journalism!</p> <a href="#/portal/support" class="px-4 py-2 bg-brand text-brand-contrast rounded-btn hover:brightness-110 no-underline" style="text-decoration:none"> Leave a tip </a> </aside>

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