Category Feature

Boardssey: The All-in-One Platform Reshaping How Board Games Get Made [sponsored]

As the board game industry has exploded in the last couple of decades, so too has the desire and demand from designers for ways to streamline and manage the often fragmented reality of prototyping, testing and preparing to publish their new creations. In this sponsored article, the team behind board game design toolkit Boardssey explain how they've leveraged their own experiences designing games - and the pain points they ran up against - to create a one-stop shop for supporting overwhelmed game designers.

“Every decision we make is to do something a little out of the ordinary”: CMYK’s Alex Hague on the backlash to Quacks’ redesigned art, and trying to ‘break board gaming’s monoculture’

Few board game artistic redesigns of recent years have drawn as much polarising opinion as CMYK's recently announced reworking of Quacks of Quedlinburg, with online forums torn over the switch to the 3D clay-style imagery of Ryogo Toyoda. CMYK chief executive Alex Hague - the creative director for the redesign - spoke to BoardGameWire about the motivations behind changing up the look of the million-selling game, and CMYK's vision for breaking board games out of their 'visual and demographic monoculture'.

“I wanted to elevate board gaming to the same level as cinema, literature, theatre”: Senet editor Dan Jolin celebrates five years of publishing board gaming’s most beautiful magazine

Modern board gaming's boom over the past 20 years has been accompanied by an avalanche of creatives reviewing, discussing and celebrating the growing hobby. That media continues to be dominated by video reviews and previews - but five years ago long-time film magazine editor Dan Jolin and art director James Hunter took a chance that there was room in the industry for a beautiful, high-quality magazine "celebrating the craft, creativity and community" of tabletop gaming. That hunch has proven well judged, with the magazine's readership having grown five-fold compared to its original Kickstarter campaign thanks to its beautiful presentation, thoughtful reviews and articles, and interviews with the biggest names in board gaming. Editor Dan Jolin spoke to BoardGameWire about the magazine's journey so far, how the industry has changed and what the future holds for Senet.

“Board games are about to get more expensive”: Arcane Wonders president Robert Geistlinger on tariffs, razor-thin margins and the math of producing games

The board game industry has been awash with discussion about the potentially crippling effect of tariffs for several months now, with publishers, distributors and manufacturers all scrabbling to prepare for a leap in the cost of importing games to the US. Chief among the issues is the uncertainty surrounding the situation - tariffs of up to 100% on imports from China, where the vast majority of board games are made, were being talked about by then President-elect Donald Trump last November, stoking fears of a “great collapse” of the US board game industry. So far those tariffs have only reached 10%, but ongoing sabre-rattling from Trump and tit-for-tat tariffs on US goods introduced by China have created an unpredictable trading environment. In this article for BoardGameWire, Robert Geistlinger, president of US board game major Arcane Wonders, explains how even a 10% tariff rate will have an outsized effect on publishers already working on razor-thin margins.

“We cannot work without each other”: The White Castle’s husband and wife design duo Isra and Shei on creating as as team, design pitfalls, and which games impressed them in 2024

Husband and wife board game design team Sheila Santos and Israel Cendrero have been collaborating on their creations for almost a decade - and have sealed their status as notable eurogame architects in recent years with standout titles The Red Cathedral and The White Castle. The pair - who go by their board game design monikers Isra and Shei - sat down with BoardGameWire to talk about their journey into the industry, why working as a duo is essential for them, and the major error they see new designers making when pitching to publishers.

Reflecting on 2024, preparing for 2025: All About Games Consulting looks at opportunities and challenges in the board game industry

Another strong year for the board game industry, which has now grown to about €13bn, nears its end, with all eyes turning to the opportunities and challenges presented by 2025. In this article Cedric Delobelle, co-founder of one of BoardGameWire's sponsors All About Games Consulting, looks ahead to what US tariffs might mean for the industry, and reflects on the successes and difficulties encountered in 2024.

Tariffs, manufacturing gradually leaving China and the ongoing “fewer, better games” trend: Back Office operator Naylor games looks ahead to 2025

When it comes to taking the temperature of the board game industry, few are in a better position than a business which works across everything from freight and trade selling to e-commerce and spare parts. James Naylor, founder of BoardGameWire sponsor Naylor Games and its one-stop shop board game outsourcing operation Back Office, unpacks the state of the industry across 2024, and casts his eye on the potential positives - and pitfalls - of the coming year.