Category Feature

Valor Mountain challenges hobby game publishing’s “safe bet” mentality as it ramps up ambitions

After years spent engaging with publishers and designers - both at Capstone Games and through his Board Again Gaming podcast - Christopher High believes the several thousand new board games and expansions released each year are pushing publishers towards commercially safer bets. Now he's wagering his company Valor Mountain Games can succeed by taking chances on the kinds of titles other publishers are passing over.

How competitive TCG accessories are influencing hobby retail strategy in Europe: Sanseking [Sponsored]

As trading card games continue to fuel growth across the tabletop industry, hobby retailers are placing greater emphasis on the accessories that support organised play. In this sponsored article, TCG and board game accessories maker Sanseking explains how changing player behaviour is reshaping retail strategy and why competitive accessories are becoming a more important part of the European hobby market.

Deluxe editions ‘have become sort of an arms race… we often do the opposite’: Roxley CEO Gavan Brown on the stellar success of Brass: Pittsburgh’s $9.1m crowdfund

Roxley Games' Brass: Pittsburgh has raised $9.1m in the biggest board game crowdfund of 2026 so far - and one of the top ten tabletop gaming raises of all time. Roxley CEO Gavan Brown, who co-designed the game alongside original Brass creator Martin Wallace, spoke to BoardGameWire about soaring past his expectations for the crowdfund, avoiding the 'arms race' of deluxe editions, the advantages of Gamefound over Kickstarter and overcoming the campaign's biggest mis-step.

Why Kickstarter success Re;MATCH’s designer is focused on player mastery rather than the dopamine hit of discovery [sponsored]

MingYang Lu's puzzle fighter-style board game Re;MATCH has had a storming start to its Kickstarter campaign, picking up almost $250,000 from over 1,250 backers with half of the month-long crowdfund still to go. In this sponsored interview, Lu talks about why his design looks to derive fun from game mastery rather than discovery, the importance of conventions for small publishers, and why AI art "cheapens creativity".

Pandemic creator Matt Leacock on fighting for designers’ rights, working with effective developers and his publisher ‘pet peeves’

After being catapulted into the board game industry limelight following the success of Pandemic in 2008, Matt Leacock has scored ongoing success through titles such as the Forbidden series, Ticket to Ride and Pandemic legacy titles and his Kennerspiel-winning climate-change co-design Daybreak. In this in-depth interview he spoke with BoardGameWire about how the industry has changed for designers over the last quarter of a century, how working with developers can best help a design to sing, and why fighting for designer rights is among his most important jobs in 2026.

“No part of the mission says ‘Asmodee makes all the games'”: Luke Peterschmidt on shaping the future of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings tabletop titles

When news broke three months ago that board game giant Asmodee had been named manager of the hugely lucrative Middle-earth licence for tabletop games and accessories, questions naturally abounded within the industry about what that would mean for other publishers hoping to create The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings-based titles. Luke Peterschmidt, the tabletop veteran tasked with running the Middle-earth operation at Asmodee, sat down with BoardGameWire at Spiel Essen following the announcement to outline his vision for the IP, what they want from publishers in terms of pitches, and how they hope to prove naysayers of the deal wrong.

Board game publishers Stonemaier, CMYK and Eurydice Games on how they’re utilising – and paying to include – fan designs in their releases

Homebrew designs and fan-made rules and variants have been part of hobby board gaming for as long as the pastime has existed - and some publishers have leaned into utilising design work from fans in their published games. BoardGameWire spoke to Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games, Alex Hague from CMYK Games, and Jackson Pope from Eurydice Games about how they've approached bringing in fan-made ideas for their titles.

“There’s more to historical board games than just hex-and-counter WWII”: Candice Harris on turning her video talents to making historical wargaming more accessible after her surprise BoardGameGeek exit

Candice Harris has been an ever-present, vivacious stalwart of the BoardGameGeek front page for more than five years, bringing her infectious enthusiasm and joy for gaming to visitors through her news posts, appearances on live play video series Game Night! and three years helming the BoardGameGeek podcast. But she's now turning her video and presenting talents to the publisher side by showcasing and marketing designs from GMT Games, best known for its complex historical, wargame and strategy titles. Harris spoke to BoardGameWire about her plans for expanding GMT's audience, the challenge of making complex game more accessible, and breaking assumptions around historical gaming and its designs.

“I’m a lot less apologetic about the types of games I design”: Descent, Arkham Horror design veteran Kevin Wilson on heading back to freelance after Incredible Dream downsizing

Kevin Wilson, the veteran tabletop designer whose abundant list of work includes Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Arkham Horror and Cosmic Encounter, spent most of the 2010s working a successful freelance career after a decade at Fantasy Flight Games. Wilson became director of game design at Incredible Dream upon the company’s 2021 launch, but a tariff-disrupted year for the Kinfire series publisher has seen the business downsize to just two permanent staff - putting Wilson back into the freelance pool. He spoke to BoardGameWire about how his time at Incredible Dream has helped him hone his design strengths, why visibility as a freelancer is key and which of his older unpublished designs might now get another bite at the cherry.