Do you know the feeling when you play a game and wonder “why on earth did I buy this”? Not in a bad way, just seriously asking yourself what made you do it. On paper, For Northwood is a 1p-only (so far so interesting), trick-taking game (not particular exciting stuff) with art that could be …
Read more “First Impressions of For Northwood – Trick Taking for One?”
You are a game designer and looking for a challenge? Well there is the holy grail of creating a true civilisation game that can be played in under two hours (and no, Mosaic isn’t it). There is the endless adventure game (Lands of Galzyr technically did it, but what is an adventure if there is …
Read more “Review of Paperback Adventures – Extreme Combative Solo Wordsmithing”
It almost seems like a tradition: every year, the jury of the German Spiel des Jahres award publishes their list of nominees. And every year, the same kind of discussions come up like clockwork: why is game X not on the list? Why IS game Y on the list, it’s three years old? How can …
Read more “The Spiel des Jahres Award Explained (Not Only for Non-Germans)”
It’s quite remarkable how fast the initial buzz about Horseless Carriage has subsided. Simply by the fact of being another game from publisher Splotter Spellen, known for their innovative and often quirky games, many had anticipated it with great excitement. The theme also sounded interesting: building and selling cars in an early era of automobiles …
Read more “Review of Horseless Carriage – A Class of Its Own”
Mosaic has been out for a while now, so in a sense I guess I’m kind of late to the party. This is another Kickstarter game where I held out on backing it, despite the gorgeous artwork, that enticing mosaic map and the allure of a civilisation game that wouldn’t take a whole day to …
While Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general has allowed a lot of small designers and independent publishers a chance to fulfil their dream and turn their ideas into products, it has also taken on a life of its own. After the initial rush, there seems to have been an extended period where games were mostly sold …
Read more “Review of Tiwanaku – The Game That Should Not Work”
I recently saw a video by the Board Game Garden and thought man, that’s the most solid recommendation list for solo board games I’ve seen in a long while. I like to play solo from time to time so I read a lot of those lists and are usually pretty disappointed. Most contain a lot …
From time to time, I like to acquire a game for no other reason than to see what the buzz is. Throwing caution to the wind, not going into extensive research, and deciding to just try a game out myself. What’s the worst thing that can happen? I sell it off again and gain in …
Read more “Review of Shogun no Katana – Japanese Baroqueness”
There are many aspects in modern board gaming that I personally don’t really care for. For example, I like the card-engine-building of Terraforming Mars or Ark Nova just fine, but they don’t get me excited. I can appreciate the maximum-turn-extending of an Imperial Settlers or Everdell mechanically, but they don’t make me seek out similar …
Read more “First Impressions of Lands of Galyzr – How Fun Can a Sandbox Be Without Moulds?”
This is part 2 of an interview with Ryan Laukat about Sleeping Gods. The full interview was almost 2 hours long, so I had to edit it down to a readable length and split into two parts. If you haven’t read part 1, you should definitely start there! Where we left off, Ryan and I …
Read more “Origin Stories: Sleeping Gods – An Interview with Designer Ryan Laukat – Part 2”