Board game giant Asmodee has inked a partnership deal with LEGO to launch a dedicated design studio focused on creating new LEGO board games.
BoardGameWire spoke to a string of publishers who ran booths at this year's record-breaking Gen Con event, to get the inside track on highs, lows, opportunities and challenges at the show. Those responses were far more than we were able to use in our headline article - Gen Con celebrates record 71,000 attendance after event sells out for first time in history - so we've collected their views in their totality on this year's event here.
North America's giant tabletop gaming convention Gen Con has broken new ground again after a record 71,000 people flocked to Indianapolis for this year's event.
New York Toy Fair owner The Toy Association has bought Chicago Toy and Game Fair operator People of Play, bringing two of North America's largest toy and game industry events under the same umbrella.
Approaching large companies to use their IP in board games can be a daunting task - and they don't come much bigger than $3tn computing giant Microsoft. That didn't put off two-person Swiss board game publisher Treecer, though, whose successful pitch ended up with more than 5,000 backers committing about $600,000 to the Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game Kickstarter. Treecer co-founder Marc Dür took time out from managing the crowdfund for the game's New Shores expansion - which has raised almost $500,000 itself so far - to tell BoardGameWire how his company went about securing the licence, how their approach to crowdfunding has changed over the years, and lessons they learned from the original Zoo Tycoon campaign.
The organisers of the Spiel des Jahres - widely considered the biggest award in board gaming - have banned one of this year's prize-winning designers from future events after he wore a watermelon sticker to show his support of Palestine at this year's award ceremony.
Economic class warfare simulator Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory has triumphed in this year's Meeple's Choice awards, which are voted on by members of Board Game Revolution's hefty Facebook groups.
Sky Team has won the coveted Spiel des Jahres for 2024, pipping fellow nominees Captain Flip and In the Footsteps of Darwin to the German game of the year prize.
Financially-troubled French board game publisher FunForge is understood to be within weeks of signing a contract which will give it the funding to get its heavily-delayed Monumental Kickstarter to backers within the next two months.
Kickstarter has named Exploding Kittens Inc's senior sales manager Maggie Clayton as its new head of games, as the crowdfunding giant continues its battle against tabletop-focused competitors Gamefound and BackerKit.
Gaming giant Hasbro has named long-serving Blizzard senior exec John Hight as its new president of Wizards of the Coast and digital gaming, three months after the resignation of former incumbent Cynthia Williams.
Africa's longest-running board games convention has returned to Kickstarter after two years of self-financing, as soaring inflation in its home country of Nigeria weighs heavily on the event's finances.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal co-designer Asger Harding Granerud has completed a full lap of the board game industry since he began designing games just over a decade ago, having launched a distributor, retail shop and design studio in addition to seeing his motor racing co-design accelerate into the BoardGameGeek Top 40. Granerud sat down with BoardGameWire to discuss his learning curve as a designer and publisher, the challenges of running a three-person indie studio, and how to avoid common pitfalls in bringing your game to market.
Academic researchers planning board game-related projects are being offered up to €20,000 in grant money through this year's programme from Game in Lab, which was co-created by Asmodee in 2018.
Bigger money crowdfunding projects inevitably take up the lion's share of discussion in board game circles, but the vast majority of projects inevitably run on a smaller scale - and with smaller margins for error. Managing production at that scale can be a significant challenge, but is one frequently faced by first-time designers and more established board game publisher alike. Seppy Yoon from board game publishers Fight In A Box has successfully managed a string of small Kickstarter projects - and one which failed to reach its goal. Amid raising funds for the company's latest Kickstarter project, he shares his advice and insights on deciding how big your game should be, managing convention finances, and balancing creative urges with keeping a game project manageable.
GAMA’s annual tabletop gaming convention Origins has sealed a record post-Covid attendance, with visitor numbers up 10% compared to last year's event.
Petersen Games, the Cthulhu Wars publisher left struggling to fulfill more than $2m of Kickstarter projects after hitting severe financial issues during the coronavirus pandemic, has been bailed out by fledgling board game publisher and manufacturer Quimbley's Toys and Games.
Scammers impersonating a Facebook group and community with tens of thousands of members have managed to con multiple tabletop publishers into sending them review copies of their latest games.
Bringing any board game crowdfunding project to fruition amid the clamour of competiting offerings can be a challenge for even large publishers. But doing so as a one-person company, putting out the latest expansive board game from famed Axis & Allies designer Larry Harris, requires another level of plate-spinning entirely. In this sponsored article, Nightingale Games owner Thomas Gale talks deluxification of Kickstarters, savvy advertising and working in the post-Covid environment, while Larry Harris himself discusses his design approach and creating 'experiences' rather than just games.
Applications for board games trade organisation GAMA's annual diversity programme are now open for this year, offering $1,000 grants, convention support and mentorship to new board game publishers and retailers from under-represented communities.
A string of board game industry professionals are in the running for this year's Wonder Woman Awards, which looks to recognise exceptional women executives in the toy, licensing and entertainment sectors.
