A trio of veteran board game industry professionals have launched a new tabletop gaming agency, with the aim of helping businesses within the hobby get their games developed and into the market.

Hues and Cues designer Scott Brady, Sagrada co-creator Daryl Andrews and Friendly Skeleton CEO Jacob Way said Best in Play will offer everything from interim executive leadership and designer representation to publisher submission management and crowdfunding strategy.

Brady said, “Best in Play was created to bring together people and opportunities that should already be working with one another.

“Great intellectual properties need the right designers and publishing partners, designers need better access to decision-makers, and companies sometimes need experienced leadership without the time or resources required to build an entire department.”

Best in Play says its five core service areas comprise IP matchmaking, crowdfunding consultation, interim replacement of key personnel, publisher-inventor relations and identifying publishers and licensing opportunities for individual games, multiple projects or designer catalogues.

The company announced at launch that it has already been hired as a consultant for an unspecified US-based “creator-brand merchandising and e-commerce company”, providing senior-level leadership and games-industry expertise while the client continues its search for a permanent head of games.

Best in Play said that project will run the gamut of product development, licensing, publishing, production, crowdfunding and portfolio strategy.

Andrews said of the assignment, “An important initiative should not lose six months of momentum because a key role is temporarily vacant.

“Our model gives clients access to an experienced team that can step in quickly, evaluate the situation and keep products, partnerships and internal teams moving forward.”

The company is also working on a tabletop project based on an unnamed “major video game intellectual property”, with a crowdfunding launch planned for early 2027.

Way said, “A recognizable property may attract attention, but a successful crowdfunding campaign still needs the right product, positioning, audience strategy and operational plan.

“Our goal is to build campaigns that respect the fans, communicate value clearly and create a foundation for success beyond the initial launch.”

As well as the founding trio of managing directors, the Best in Play team also includes strategic contributors David Gordon, the co-creator of Finspan, Eastar Game Manufacturing founder and CEO David Du, Legend of the Five Rings: The Card Game co-designer Erik Dahlman and Daniel Pesante.

The launch comes hot on the heels of Brady having unveiling his new publishing initiative Proof-of-Play late last month, which is designed to tackle one of the tabletop industry’s growing challenges: promising games sitting unpublished because publisher release schedules are already full.

Brady previously launched his development studio A Game Studio at the start of 2024, following the 2020 release of the big-selling Hues and Cues and the success of his cat-themed abstract strategy Boop in 2022.

He is also the co-founder of Play to Z, the publishing house led by former Z-Man Games founder Zev Shlasinger launched by a host of board game industry veterans in 2023.

Fellow Best in Play managing director Daryl Andrews is best known as the co-creator of award-winning tabletop game Sagrada, while his other co-designs include Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – The Game, Donald Duck in Happy Camper and Mistwind.

He previously spent two years as head of talent acquisition at Maestro Media, following several months working in investor relations, before leaving the company in early 2025.

Jacob Way, meanwhile, began his board game career as COO and co-founder of Deep Water Games, which for several years operated as a subsidiary of Ox Eye Media.

Deep Water, which is best known for sketching game MonsDRAWsity, spun out from Ox Eye as an independent business in 2022 under Way before rebranding as Friendly Skeleton.

The publisher is currently in the process of delivering the heavily delayed crowdfunding campaign for Monsdrawsity: Unusual Suspects, created in collaboration with renowned board game review site Shut Up and Sit Down, which was initially estimated to reach backers in May of 2022.

Anyone interested in getting in touch with the team can visit the Best in Play website or email info@thebestinplay.com.

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Few people in the hobby game industry have seen as many sides of the business as Scott Morris – from leading global strategy at Lucky Duck Games, building publishing partnerships at GTS Distribution and running sales, marketing and social media at Arcane Wonders. Now Morris is applying that experience to his own venture as founder of Steelwing Games, whose debut title Rainbow Blvd. has been nearly a decade in the making. He spoke to BoardGameWire about deciding to launch as a publisher in a challenging market, why he believes a slower, more selective approach is the right fit, and the lessons he is bringing from his career at Lucky Duck Games and beyond.

BoardGameWire: How long has the idea of you launching your own publisher been rolling around your head? I think I remember you saying you registered Steelwing some years ago?

Steelwing originally began to take shape in 2016, after first playtesting Rainbow Blvd. (which was then called Leprechauntractors as a play on words with Leprechauns and Contractors). Like a lot of people who work in games, I’ve always had ideas about the kinds of projects I’d love to help bring to life if the timing, team, and titles were right.

The company itself was set up in 2021, and I’ve been very intentional about not rushing into publishing just for the sake of launching something. For me, it was important that Steelwing start with the right game, the right creative partners, and a clear sense of what we wanted the company to stand for.

What was it that finally got you to make the jump and launch?

It was really a combination of timing, people, and product. Rainbow Blvd. is the perfect first game, it always has been. It has a fun identity, a strong table presence, it is easy to teach, and has the type of meaningful gameplay that Steelwing is focused on.

I also reached a point in my career where my experience across multiple areas (sales, marketing, crowdfunding, distribution, licensing, production, and working with designers) has given me the confidence to give Steelwing a thoughtful and responsible start.

What does Steelwing represent or offer that perhaps hasn’t been possible for you in your other board game industry roles?

Steelwing gives me the chance to build something from the ground up with a clear creative point of view. The goal is to publish games that are welcoming, polished, distinct, and deliver a satisfying and rewarding experience for players.

The name reflects that mission. The “steel” represents the experience and discipline I’ve built in the industry, while the “wing” represents using that experience to help create opportunities for others and give talented people new pathways into board games when and where we can.

At its heart, Steelwing is about making games we would be thankful to have in our collection while trying to leave the industry a little better than we found it, along the way.

The industry has been facing higher manufacturing costs, tariffs, freight disruption and increasing competition for attention. Many people might see this as a difficult time to launch a publisher. What makes you optimistic?

It is absolutely a challenging time, that can’t be minimized in any way. Costs are high, attention is hard to earn, and publishers need to be more thoughtful than ever about what we make and how we make it.

What makes me optimistic is that players still respond to games that they can connect with, that have that special feel, and are well cared for. This is a time to be disciplined, focused, and clear about why a game deserves to exist. That is the mindset I am bringing to Steelwing.

Of course it will be challenging. There is never a perfect time to start a new business. One of the principles I try to live by is, “Be good today and be better tomorrow.” Staying humble, listening carefully, continuing to learn, and making games that bring people joy, will result in positive outcomes for Steelwing and more importantly, for the community.

Having worked in the industry for more than a decade, which experiences most shaped the way you’ll run Steelwing?

Not to date myself, but it’s closer to two decades, and actually my second stint in the industry. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (known as Poughkeepsie, New York), I had my first opportunity in games as a retailer, managing a local store called Iron Vic’s.

The experiences that have helped shape me are the ones where I’ve been able to see the full path a game takes from idea to table. A great design is essential, but game development, product development, manufacturing, communication, and post-release support all shape the experience players ultimately have with a game.

One night, while developing Rainbow Blvd., we realized the rainbow borders on some cards felt slightly different. Opening the files in InDesign, we found that one border was 13 pixels from the cut line and another was 15. Those two pixels bothered me more than they probably should have, but I knew someone, somewhere, would have that same subtle feeling that something was off. So we spent several hours fixing it. Was it necessary? Maybe not to some, but for me, it was 100% necessary.

I’ve also been fortunate to learn from many generous and experienced people across the industry. Those relationships have shaped how I think about publishing, leadership, and the responsibility that comes with bringing a game to market.

My goal with Steelwing is not to assume we’ll get everything right. We won’t. But experience gives us a better chance to be thoughtful, avoid preventable mistakes, and build trust with the people who help bring our games to life and with the people who enjoy them.

Your recent newsletter makes clear Rainbow Blvd. has been in development for years, with prototypes dating back to 2016. What made you confident about launching a new publisher with this title?

Rainbow Blvd. has had a long and amazing road, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of that story through our updates and crowdfunding campaign. At times, it has felt as though it has a life of its own. The core idea has stayed strong through a slow-and-steady development process, while the game itself has become more focused, more accessible, and more visually distinct over time.

What stood out to me is that Rainbow Blvd. has immediate appeal, while also providing a very satisfying experience underneath the surface. People are drawn to the colorful 3D rainbows and cozy city-building theme, and then after they play a turn or two, they find meaningful decisions, shared incentives, and strategic choices that make the experience engaging for many different types of players.

That is exactly the space for Steelwing to live in; games that feel welcoming regardless of a player’s experience level, while being memorable and rewarding. Great games have “stand up moments” where players feel rewarded for their choices, and even greater games leave players with that “I can’t wait to play again” feeling. Rainbow Blvd delivers on those two things and [designer Adam Wyse] has done a tremendous job developing it into something approachable, clever, and special! I’m excited to help bring it to players around the world.

What kinds of games are you actively looking to sign? What does a Steelwing game look like?

A Steelwing game should be welcoming and engaging while delivering a memorable experience. The experience is everything. Positive, clever, engaging, intriguing, and above all else, fun.

We are actually not actively looking for games, as we have a publishing plan in place until 2029. If and when we open up for submissions, some key elements are games that are teachable, replayable, and have a clear reason to exist on the table. Strong table presence helps, a unique theme helps, and unique components turn simple into satisfying. That is where my strength as a publisher is; taking a good game design and helping turn it into a full product that delivers a positive experience.

Are there any particular themes, mechanisms or types of games you’re especially excited about right now? Or any genres or play experiences you think are currently underserved?

I believe there are still so many themes, mechanisms, and combinations in games that have not been fully explored yet. I’m especially interested in games that create positive interaction without relying only on direct conflict. I like games where players are paying attention to each other and the choices being made, where timing matters, and where the table feels alive, but not necessarily because players are attacking each other or tearing each other down.

Rainbow Blvd. is a good example of that. We’ve worked hard to make sure players stay engaged even when it is not their turn, because what other players choose can also create opportunities for others. That kind of shared excitement and mutual interest keeps the game active from turn to turn and feeling alive.

There is still a lot of room for beautiful, accessible strategy games, games that families, couples, casual players, and hobby gamers can all enjoy together for different reasons. As a wise person once said, “The people around the table are more important than the game on it.” I hope Steelwing games can help create many of those nights.

How many games are you realistically aiming to publish each year?

The plan is to stay steady, planned, and manageable. Realistically, the goal is not to publish a large number of games each year. I would rather do fewer games better than stretch the company too thin. Right now, we have Rainbow Blvd. crowdfunding this year on Kickstarter and delivering in 2027, plus an unannounced game to crowdfund in 2027 and deliver in 2028. Releasing games in a measured and manageable way is the pace to keep at the start and the primary focus.

Is the goal to remain deliberately boutique, or would you like Steelwing eventually to become more of a mid-sized publisher?

The goal is to grow responsibly. I’m not opposed to Steelwing becoming larger over time, but only if the growth supports the quality of the games and the experience for players. For now, I would describe the goal as focused. We want to be selective, build trust, and make each release feel intentional, delivering the best possible experiences to players.

Will you primarily publish original games, or are licensed titles also part of the long-term strategy?

Original games are the main focus, especially as we establish Steelwing’s identity. That said, I have a lot of respect for what a well-matched license can do when it genuinely supports the gameplay and audience. “Never say never” is the saying, but fit also matters. I am not looking to chase licenses for the sake of it, and our focus is on Rainbow Blvd and the next title, which is also an original, internal game. (Which, I can’t wait to talk more about, as it is also a very unique game like Rainbow Blvd. that gets me excited every time I play it.)

Are you actively accepting pitches? And if so, what kinds of games are you most hoping designers will bring to Steelwing? How should they contact you?

We’re not accepting unsolicited pitches right now. Steelwing already has a publishing plan in place for the coming years and I want to make sure we give those projects and relationships the attention they deserve. If and when we do open submissions, we’ll be looking for games that feel welcoming, replayable, visually engaging, and have a clear reason to exist on the table. However, I don’t want designers sending us projects before we have a proper process in place, especially if those games could be finding the right home elsewhere. We’ll share clear guidelines through SteelwingGames.com and our social channels.

Will every game crowdfund first, or do you plan to vary that from title to title?

Crowdfunding will be an important part of Steelwing’s strategy, especially early on, because it allows us to build community around each game and communicate directly with the players most excited about it. That said, I do not think every game has to follow the exact same path. The right approach depends on the game, the audience, the production needs, and the retail strategy.

Looking back over your career so far, what’s the biggest lesson you’re taking into Steelwing?

The biggest lesson I’m taking into Steelwing is that publishing is a long-term relationship business built on trust. A good game matters, of course, but so does how you communicate, how you treat people, how you handle problems, whether your decisions are sustainable, and how well you stand behind your product after it reaches the table.

I want Steelwing to be known not just for the games being made, but for being thoughtful, reliable, and committed to delivering exceptional experiences. Steelwing is intentionally lean right now, supported by a group of passionate and talented contractors, partners, and collaborators who believe in the goals and the games.

One of the things I love most about the board game industry is how accessible and personal it can still feel. I want to have direct relationships with our players. I want to hear their stories of fun, triumph, defeat, and laughter. And just as importantly, I want to hear where we can improve, because every release should help us get better at serving the people who choose to put our games on their table.

Are there any elements of being a publisher that you’ve experienced in your time in the industry that you’re deliberately trying not to do with Steelwing?

One of the most challenging things in this industry, and in life in general, is the art of saying “no” when it needs to be said. Every company has different pressures and constraints. For me, the goal is to avoid growing too fast, avoid overpromising, and avoid taking on games that cannot be given the attention they deserve. That means being honest about what can be done well, while being disciplined enough to say no when something is not the right fit.

You’re still part of Lucky Duck Games. How do you balance those responsibilities with running Steelwing?

The true answer is, “Very carefully”. My responsibilities with Lucky Duck Games remain my professional priority, and I take them seriously. I’m grateful for the opportunity I have here and for the talented people I continue to work with. Steelwing is a separate project, and I’m careful about keeping those responsibilities distinct. That means being thoughtful with my time, avoiding conflicts, and making sure Steelwing is built in a way that does not interfere with my daily obligations. Maintaining trust and professionalism matters a great deal to me.

If you were to look forward five years into the future of Steelwing, what do you hope you’ll see?

Five years from now, I hope I’ve grown to become a better publisher and I hope Steelwing has a meaningful catalog of games that people are excited to recommend to their friends and family. I would love for players to see the Steelwing name and feel like it stands for games made with intention, love, and care.

I do not think success has to mean being the biggest publisher. For me, success would be building something sustainable, respected, and joyful, both for the people who make the games and the people who play them.

Rainbow Blvd.’s Kickstarter pre-launch page can be visited here.

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North America’s biggest tabletop gaming convention, Gen Con, has continued its record-breaking run after more than 74,000 attendees left this year’s sold-out show bursting at the seams.

Gen Con’s latest hefty attendance figure extends its steady post-pandemic growth, following record crowds of 70,000 in 2023, 71,000 in 2024 and almost 72,000 last year – which all broke the 2019 pre-pandemic high.

But the convention, which has sold out before opening for three consecutive years, is operating at a hard capacity ceiling at the Indiana Convention Centre. Gen Con president David Hoppe told the Indianapolis Business Journal last year that the show’s growth had left it “capacity constrained”, saying: “We fill every nook and cranny of this downtown core area.”

He added in that interview that he would love to get 80,000 attendees at the show some day – and Gen Con is set to take a step closer to that goal for its 60th anniversary show next year thanks to a significant floor space expansion and opening of a new Signia by Hilton hotel.

That expansion includes an extra 143,500 sq ft of floor space – roughly the size of 2.5 American football fields – and 800 new hotel rooms.

Indianapolis already claims to have the most hotels and hotel rooms connected by enclosed skywalks into a city centre in the US – and the new expansion will boost that capacity to more than 5,200 rooms.

Gen Con’s organisers did not say how many extra exhibitors or attendees the expansion is expected to accommodate, how much of the new space will be devoted to the exhibition hall.

Exhibitor and vendor numbers reached almost 800 at the packed out four-day event, Gen Con said. The show reported a then-record 575 exhibitors showcasing their wares last year, although the inclusion of “vendors” makes it unclear if the 2026 figure is directly comparable.

BoardGameWire contacted Gen Con’s press office earlier this week for confirmation on how much additional capacity next year’s expansion will create, and for clarity on exhibitor numbers in 2026, but is yet to receive a response.

This year’s convention also faced an unexpected operational test after severe thunderstorms prompted a tornado warning on Saturday evening, and caused water to shower down into parts of the Indiana Convention Center.

The worst affected areas were the convention’s playtest area and part of Exhibit Hall B, with attendees told to relocate to safer parts of the building while the warning was in place.

Exhibitors affected included Tycoon Games, with managing director Ben Rathbone telling the Indy Star, “As we were doing our demos and tournaments, drop of rain started coming through the ceiling up there.

“We immediately started pulling our stuff back, then there was a deluge came down, flooded the whole floor there, and we had to move all our games and store them out of the way.”

He added that the publisher’s games had been damaged “only a little bit”, saying that most of them were out of the way.

Gen Con said staff responded quickly to ensure safety and make repairs, adding that there was “minimal disruption” to the convention due to the leak.

This year’s event was also impacted by heavy amounts of construction work taking place around the convention site, leading to large build-ups of foot and vehicle traffic.

Gen Con president David Hoppe said of this year’s event, “Even through construction and thunderstorms, Gen Con 2026 was bigger and better than ever, with a record-breaking number of attendees gathering in Indianapolis for the best four days in gaming.

“We can’t thank Indy enough for hosting us, and we’re already looking forward to our 60th anniversary convention in an expanded Indiana Convention Center next year.”

Next year’s Gen Con is scheduled for August 5 to 8, with badges set to go on sale in early 2027.

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Asmodee has kicked off its new financial year with another powerful quarter of growth, with the publishing and distribution giant’s net sales soaring 20.9% year-on-year to €422.1m.

TCG distribution remains the engine behind Asmodee’s ongoing growth, with trading card games responsible for more than two-thirds of that quarterly revenue, according to the company’s latest financial report.

But board games also put on a strong showing in the April to June quarter, the report shows, with net sales rising 16% year-on-year amid an ongoing recovery from volatility caused by last year’s US tariffs uncertainty.

Much of that increase came via Asmodee’s distribution of titles from other publishers, with sales of its own published titles only growing 1.8% in the quarter.

That small rise marks a significant improvement for Asmodee’s own board game publishing operation, however, with sales of its published titles having fallen almost 10% in January to March compared to the prior year, and 12.7% in the all-important October to December period in 2025, which includes the run-in to Christmas.

Asmodee CEO Thomas Koegler said growth in US board game sales was driven by “the continued normalization of retailer inventory levels”, as well as “resilient” consumer demand for tabletop games and positive impact of its own commercial and marketing initiatives.

That improvement comes after Asmodee repeatedly highlighted retailer inventory reductions and cautious purchasing behaviour – particularly in the US – through much of the past year, as store owners tried their best to navigate rising prices, unpredictable shipping rates and other fallout from the US tariffs.

During Asmodee’s earnings presentation last November, Koegler said US consumers were delaying purchases amid economic uncertainty and favouring lower-priced products, while retailers were pushing Christmas merchandising later into the year.

Three months later, the company reported US quarterly sales had slumped 23%, attributing much of the decline to retailers reducing purchases and ongoing inventory adjustments despite stable consumer sell-through.

Some of those pressures now appear to be easing, although Asmodee’s own US sales were down almost 9.4% year-on-year in April to June – a situation Koegler said was partly caused by the timing of its most recent Star Wars Unlimited release affecting year-on-year comparisons.

Speaking more generally about Asmodee’s board game sales, he said its evergreen franchises such as Catan and Dobble/Spot-It! continued to perform well, and highlighted other new releases including dnup, The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship and Cozy Stickerville as having contributed to growth.

He also added that ATM Gaming, which Asmodee bought in a €250m deal earlier this year, had delivered a strong performance across its social games portfolio, including Speed Bac/Quickstop and Pili Pili.

Koegler also highlighted the first Zombicide crowdfunding campaign under Asmodee ownership, which attracted more than 11,000 backers and raised over €3m, describing it as an early success for its expanding crowdfunding strategy.

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The Ukrainian publisher of board games including Catan and Exploding Kittens is fighting for its existence after a Russian missile strike destroyed its warehouse, wiping out its entire stock of about 200,000 games.

Rozum, which started as an educational board game maker in 2018 before expanding to localisations, said there were no casualties at its warehouse amid the attack on a logistics centre in Vyshneve, just outside the capital Kyiv, on August 1.

But the company has been devastated by the strike, with its parent business Factor Group estimating the losses at up to $670,000 – a situation which has prompted Rozum to launch a fundraising appeal to help it reprint its lost inventory.

Factor said the destroyed games included Ukrainian editions of Catan and Exploding Kittens, alongside locally developed games including Who’s on Top? and The Amateurs’ Club, as well as the publisher’s entire stock of releases planned for the autumn.

The company’s localisations have included titles such as Power Grid, Voidfall, Wonderland’s War and Rising Sun.

A statement from Factor Group said, “This blow is not only to cardboard boxes, but also to a cultural product that promotes the Ukrainian language, fosters a culture of shared leisure, brings people together in such difficult times, and educates children through play.

“Rozum Publishing is currently assessing the damage and planning its next steps. The company’s management assure us that they will definitely resume operations and continue to create popular board games for Ukrainians.

“Everyone can support the publisher right now: buy their games and give them as gifts to friends and children. This will be the best gesture of solidarity and gratitude to Rozum for their work.”

Rozum – whose name translates as ‘mind’ or ‘intellect’ – opened its first showroom in Kharkiv in 2018, before expanding to other Ukrainian cities including Kyiv and Odessa.

The company had barely any time to recover from the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, which has also seen its showroom in Kherson bombed and a warehouse in Kharkiv damaged by fire.

Anyone who would like to donate to Rozum’s recovery can do so here.

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French board game distributor and publisher Atalia has entered compulsory liquidation, saying an increasingly saturated market, the limited capacity of retailers and the loss of distribution rights to bestselling titles left the business unable to remain viable.

A statement posted to Atalia’s Facebook page said the rapid expansion of the tabletop market since the company was founded in 2015 had created a tougher commercial environment for smaller distributors, despite the industry’s continued growth.

Atalia said that despite soaring numbers of players in that time, “so many new games are being released today that the market has become saturated. Shops no longer have the space, the time or the cash flow to stock all the games arriving each week”.

It added, “They therefore naturally turn to distributors with the biggest marketing budgets, some of whom invest sums each year that exceed Atalia’s annual turnover.

“This year, Atalia has lost the distribution rights for its latest bestsellers, as their publisher has chosen to entrust them to a distributor offering greater financial and marketing resources.

“We naturally respect these decisions, but we cannot hide our regret. Without these bestsellers, it has become increasingly difficult to finance new releases and ensure the company’s long-term viability.

French board game distribution is dominated by industry heavyweights Asmodee and Hachette, the latter via its Gigamic and Blackrock subsidiaries.

Atalia was founded in 2015 as a French board game distributor, before expanding into localisation and then publishing in 2021. It distributed games to hundreds of specialist retailers across France and neighbouring francophone territories.

The company says on its website that it deliberately maintained a relatively small catalogue, so individual games entrusted to it would not be “lost amongst an overwhelming number of titles”.

Earlier this year Atalia revealed it was halting its own distribution operations to focus on publishing and localisation, with its distribution being handled by MAD from May.

Atalia’s previously published releases include French localisations of games including Underwater Cities and Lorenzo il Magnifico, while recent titles published by the company include The Royal Society of Archeology and Hands Off!.

The company had also faced financial difficulties in 2019, despite a prior year in which it had generated revenues of more than €1.8m and continued profitability.

Atalia’s decision to double its headcount to six amid that success backfired when the publisher of Limite Limite, a French adaptation of Cards Against Humanity which accounted for about half Atalia’s revenue, switched to a new distributor in 2019 with no prior warning.

The company placed itself into receivership the same year, but emerged intact from that process in early 2020, citing strong sales of its bestsellers including Punto and Dreamscape, and receiving court-ordered compensation from the publisher of Limite Limite for the abrupt termination of its distribution deal.

The company’s liquidation announcement today came a month after Atalia founder and managing director Cesare Mainardi revealed it was “facing an extremely difficult period”, and cancelled its planned attendance at the Paris est Ludique festival, citing financial difficulties and organisational constraints.

Atalia officially entered compulsory liquidation on July 8 via Nanterre Commercial Court.

The company’s assets, including stock, brand and customer database, will now be offered for sale by the liquidator. Mainardi said interested parties should contact him via private message on Facebook.

He said in the Facebook post, “Today, we turn the page with our heads held high, feeling immense pride in everything we have built together.

“The people we’ve met, the games we’ve played and the memories created during this adventure will remain with us forever.”

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Financially-troubled board game publisher CMON has terminated its planned $2.1m investment in NFT video game maker Blissful Link, three months after pinning its future on a push into digital game development and blockchain-based projects.

CMON’s board had planned to transition the company’s titles such as Massive Darkness and Super Fantasy Brawl Reborn into “high-quality digital assets” through the investment, saying the move was necessary for it to “continue to be relevant in the games industry and to expand the group’s revenue stream”.

But the board game publisher has now terminated the deal according to a new filing it submitted to the Hong Kong stock exchange, saying the conditions necessary to complete the investment had not been fulfilled.

CMON did not disclose which conditions had not been satisfied, nor whether it intends to pursue alternative investments as part of the announced digital strategy.

The conditions of the deal included CMON being satisfied with the results of due diligence of Blissful Link’s finances, assets and legal structure – particularly around its Capverse game – approval of both parties, and warranties related to the agreement “remaining true and accurate and not misleading at completion”.

Capverse is a play-to-earn video game built on blockchain technology, in which players buy NFT ‘Sumer’ characters to battle with online.

The proposed investment would have valued Blissful Link at more than $95m. Blissful Link made a loss of about $197,000 in 2024, on revenues of just over $408,000, and had net liabilities of about $889,000, according to unaudited figures provided by CMON in April. It did not include finances for 2025.

CMON was mocked in multiple places online after it announced the NFT deal in April, with commentors largely expressing that they believed the deal was not financially sound, and questioning CMON’s decision to bank on NFT and web3 technology to fix its financial problems.

The veteran crowdfunding giant’s $23m losses across 2024 and 2025 were almost 5.5-times larger than its profits from the preceding nine years combined, and have pressed the company into a string of asset sales as it attempts to fulfill more than $14.3m of as-yet-undelivered crowdfunding campaigns.

Those IP sales included parting with its most famous and profitable title Zombicide – which has raised more than $40m on Kickstarter since its 2012 launch – to Asmodee, as well as Blood Rage, Rising Sun and Ankh to Tycoon Games.

It followed those by selling the IP for former Mythic Games titles Anastyr and Hel: The Last Saga to Don’t Panic Games in September, and parting with the lucrative Cthulhu: Death May Die IP to Asmodee a month later – the latter a series which has raised almost $10m from backers to date.

Earlier this year an independent auditor hired by the company questioned whether it CMON had the resources to stay in business for the foreseeable future, saying the publisher’s $19.9m annual loss, its net liabilities of more than $3.5m and contract liabilities of over $7.5m “indicate a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the group’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

CMON’s directors had a different view, however, saying in the company’s 2025 financial report that it “should be able to continue as a going concern” thanks to a trio of factors.

They include financial support from some of the directors “sufficient to finance CMON’s working capital requirements”, the roughly $2.4m proceeds from selling its Singapore office that it received in January, and about $1.25m of gross proceeds from a successful share sale in February.

CMON’s hefty liabilities are largely due to its eight undelivered crowdfunding campaigns, which are not recognised as revenue on the company’s books until they are fulfilled to backers.

They include DC Super Heroes United, which raised more than $4.4m, and DCeased, which brought in over $2.5m. Both campaigns were initially due to be delivered last year, but are now expected to be delivered in Q4 of 2026, according to CMON’s latest estimates.

CMON also has several undelivered pre-order campaigns on its books, including Super Fantasy Brawl Reborn and the Assassin’s Creed Role Playing Game. The company is currently in the process of fulfilling a trio of other pre-orders including Dune Desert War, Cthulhu: Dark Providence and Marvel United: Witching Hour.

The company pulled the plug on crowdfunding launches and new game development in April 2025, citing the economic uncertainty created by US tariff hikes – which at the time had reached 145% for China, where the vast majority of hobby board games are manufactured.

But CMON announced in March this year that it plans to relaunch its halted crowdfunding operations later in 2026.

NFTs, which emerged out of cryptocurrency technology such as Bitcoin, exploded into the public eye in 2021 thanks to big-money speculative purchases – such as an NFT of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s first tweet selling for $2.9m.

That speculative bubble had already burst a year later, however with many of the digital assets involved losing more than 90% of their peak value. The Dorsey tweet NFT, for example, received a high bid of $6,800 when it was put back on the market in April 2022.

Other board games that have pushed into NFTs are few and far between, with one of the highest profile examples being SolForge Fusion, which allows players to mint decks as digital assets in addition to playing the game in physical form.

Two years ago CCG project Wonders of the First had to pull a $1.4m campaign from Kickstarter after falling foul of the crowdfunding platform’s ban on NFTs. The game went on to raise about $1.2m after relaunching without NFT content.

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The designer of hit mass-market board game Hues and Cues has launched a new publishing initiative to tackle one of the tabletop industry’s growing challenges: promising games sitting unpublished because publisher release schedules are already full.

Scott Brady believes many outstanding games never reach players not because they lack quality, but because publishers must plan their release schedules years in advance – and with only so many publishing slots available each year, excellent games are often left waiting for an opportunity that may never come.

Brady told BoardGameWire his Proof-of-Play model will make ‘limited edition’ runs of between 1,500 and 3,000 copies for previously unpublished games, in the hope a quick burst of sales will persuade larger publishers to take a chance on them and accelerate a wider retail release.

He said the editions sold through his company A Game Studio would be offered direct to consumers and specialty retailers through channels such as B2B wholesale marketplace Faire, allowing each title to generate real-world sales, player feedback, and retail validation before presentation to larger publishing partners.

Brady added that the full license for the games – which will mostly be mass-market-friendly family titles – would remain with A Game Studio, which will sub-license the titles to other publishers.

He said, “Our goal isn’t to compete with traditional publishers, but to support them. Publishers make difficult decisions years in advance, and that is simply the reality of today’s market.

“Proof-of-Play gives great games the opportunity to prove themselves through actual customer demand, giving publishers more confidence and less risk when considering a wider release.”

The initiative launches with two games from external designers – area control card game Lock & Chain, and number combination card game Perfect 10 – with Brady telling BoardGameWire they helped inspire the concept after struggling to find homes with publishers despite being “amazing products”. “The timing wasn’t right”, he added.

Although Brady said he had not discussed the concept with publishers before launching the initiative, he believes it reflects a process that already happens informally across the tabletop industry, in which publishers hunt for successful games with tiny distribution and then take it larger – citing Qork as one example of that approach.

That game, which was initially self-published by designer Birger Norup as PlayProp back in 2015, was released as a Walmart exclusive by The Op in May this year – and has become something of a viral hit on social media sites such as Instragram and TikTok.

Asked how he plans to help Proof-of-Play titles with the problem faced by publishers across the hobby – how to stand out among a vast number of releases – Brady told BoardGameWire, “I am personally staking my reputation on the games I choose to help.

“I do not need to invest in full marketing etc as the goal is to simply get the games out there and let their quality do the selling.

“By bypassing traditional distribution and relying on organic social media, my personal network and word-of-mouth, I hope this becomes a platform for many budding designers who would like to see their game on retail shelves.”

While some publishers make use of crowdfunding sites to validate demand before going into production, Brady said his model would be a better fit for the style of mass-market games he is targeting.

He said, “Crowdfunding is great for a $50-plus game looking to reach a hobby audience. This is for games with wider appeal. The games I choose will sell on their own merit and not because of crowdfunding hype.”

Brady launched his development studio A Game Studio at the start of 2024, following the 2020 release of the big-selling Hues and Cues and the success of his cat-themed abstract strategy Boop in 2022.

He is also the co-founder of Play to Z, the publishing house led by former Z-Man Games founder Zev Shlasinger launched by a host of board game industry veterans in 2023.

Brady’s own board game releases this year are set to include If Then, Wee Folk – which is co-designed by Stefano Di Maria and Rosa Linda Romano – Size Wise, Boop Shuffle and an expansion for Caution Signs, the fast-paced sketching game he co-designed with Danielle Reynolds.

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Magic: The Gathering‘s record-breaking growth continues despite a surge of high-profile competitors, with the TCG soaring past $500m in quarterly revenues for the first time in its 33-year history.

The veteran card game has been on a tear over the past four years, evolving from parent company Hasbro‘s first $1bn-brand into the toy and entertainment giant’s primary source of growth.

That powerful rise has been built upon the already hugely popular TCG’s expansion into licensed crossovers through its Universes Beyond line since 2021, which has seen it bring out sets for franchises including The Lord of The Rings, Final Fantasy and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The game’s success now underpins Hasbro’s fortunes, with Magic’s strong performance repeatedly leading the line in the company’s quarterly results – as well as offsetting underperformance in other parts of the business.

Magic’s revenue grew 32% in Q2 of this year compared to the same period in 2025 according to Hasbro’s latest results report, reaching a record $545m on the back of strong sales of Secrets of Strixhaven and Marvel Super Heroes – the latter of which the company described as a “record-breaking debut”.

That result means Magic alone outstripped Hasbro’s entire consumer products segment – which includes Nerf guns, Transformers and Peppa Pig toys – which recorded revenues of $463m in the same period, up 5% year-on-year.

The consumer products segment made an operating loss of about $14.5m in Q2, compared to an operating profit of $270m from Wizards of the Coast, the business arm which includes Magic, Dungeons & Dragons and its digital games such as Monopoly Go!.

Hasbro ascribed the consumer products losses to “incremental tariff expense, entertainment-related mix shifts, and normal seasonality”, as well as the fallout from a cyberattack in March which saw unspecified parties gain unauthorized access to its network.

The company said the cyberattack reduced second-quarter revenue by an estimated $25m while generating $11m in direct costs as order processing, shipping and invoicing were disrupted, particularly on the consumer products side. Hasbro said those operations had now returned to normal, although it expects to incur additional costs related to the incident in future periods.

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks said in the results report, “With strong indications for our remaining releases and line of sight to continued growth in 2027, the Magic flywheel is firing on all cylinders.”

Wizards revenue was also up 27% across the first six months of 2026, with Magic revenue climbing 34% thanks to continued growth across tabletop and digital products, Universes Beyond releases, Secret Lair products and back catalogue sales.

That continued growth comes despite the emergence of several high-profile challengers in the trading card game market over the past few years, including Disney Lorcana, Star Wars: Unlimited, Altered, Flesh and Blood and One Piece Card Game – as well as the ongoing power of fellow TCG veterans Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Magic’s performance was strong enough for Hasbro to increase its full-year guidance, with the company now expecting total revenue growth of between 5% and 7%, up from its previous forecast of 3% to 5%.

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Solo board gaming has surged from a niche feature to a major component of modern hobby board gaming in just a few years, according to a new academic analysis of more than 104,000 titles spanning almost a century of board game design.

The research, published in the journal Simulation & Gaming, analysed metadata from BoardGameGeek’s vast trove of titles, covering games published between 1930 and 2025.

It found that solo play ranked as the third most prevalent component in games released between 2020 and 2025, behind only dice rolling and hand management – a trend boosted by many publishers treating a dedicated solo mode as a commercial necessity over the past few years.

Co-op play also loomed larger in recent years, appearing in 2.9% of game listings in the 2010s and 3.7% between 2020 to 2025, having not appeared in the top ten mechanisms across any of the preceding eight decades.

The report also noted the extraordinary growth in games present in the BGG database since the turn of the millennium.

It said the number of titles published per decade grew about 22%, to about 9,400, from the 1980s to the 1990s, before more than doubling to over 21,000 titles in the 2000s, and surging to more than 38,000 in the 2010s.

The report, titled Monopoly to Ark Nova: An Empirical and Cultural History of Modern Board Game Design (1930–2025), was created by members of the LudIA research group at the European University Miguel de Cervantes, together with a researcher from the University of Valladolid.

Study co-author Azael Herrero, who posted a long summary of the research and the team’s conclusions to BoardGameGeek, said, “One result that I find particularly interesting is the stability of the median maximum player count.

“It remains four players in every historical period. Despite enormous changes in production, mechanisms, themes, and audiences, four players continue to represent a central configuration in board game design.

“The mean maximum player count nevertheless increases in recent periods, suggesting greater representation of party games, large-group games, and titles offering more flexible player ranges.”

While solo gaming provides the study’s clearest illustration of how the hobby has evolved, the broader picture is one of increasing diversity in game design.

The researchers found the number of documented mechanisms expanded from 69 during the 1930s to 192 in the 2020s, suggesting designers have dramatically broadened the range of tools available to them.

Rather than replacing older ideas, however, modern games increasingly combine multiple established mechanisms into hybrid systems – a trend the study says is reflected in the changing role of dice.

Roll-and-move dominated games throughout the 1930s to the 1960s, appearing in roughly a quarter of all titles in those decades, before steadily declining to the point where it no longer features among the ten most common mechanisms in the 2020-2025 period.

Dice themselves remain widespread, of course, but are now more commonly used for action selection, resource production, drafting, risk management and other strategic systems than for simply determining player movement.

The research also traces the changing influences that have shaped modern hobby gaming.

Simulation and wargames introduced mechanics such as hex grids, movement points and simultaneous action selection during the 1970s and 1980s, before the Eurogame boom of the 1990s and 2000s saw hand management, tile placement, set collection, drafting, auctions and area majority become increasingly common. Solo gaming, cooperative play and variable player powers then rose sharply during the 2010s and early 2020s.

The researchers also found BoardGameGeek ratings have increased over time, alongside modest rises in complexity and playing time, although they cautioned that these trends should not be interpreted as evidence that modern games are objectively better than earlier designs.

Instead, they point to factors including the site’s hobby-focused audience, changing player expectations, greater visibility and recency bias for newer releases and the influence of marketing and self-selection.

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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.

High, who spent the past two years as a product manager at Ark Nova and Gaia Project publisher Capstone, co-created Valor Mountain in 2023 alongside Tim Densham as an offshoot of the latter’s historical games-focused publisher Catastrophe Games.

He became sole owner of Valor Mountain in May after buying out Densham’s share of the business – and now plans to expand the company from creating small side projects into a business targeting five or six traditional print-run releases a year.

High told BoardGameWire he is “putting his own money on the line” betting on a strategy built around taking chances on games other companies might reject – saying he believes the hobby industry has become increasingly focused on commercially safe decisions, leaving opportunities to back more unusual designs and under-represented creators.

He said, “Generally publishers make safe decisions. And that’s their job. As far as breaking the mold, I rarely see a game anymore that truly ‘wows’ me in this sense.

“It happens, it just seems like our industry defaults a lot to what they think will sell a game rather than being willing to take a risk”, adding that he highly rates the kinds of designs currently being put out by publishers such as DVC, Hollandspiele and CMYK.

He added, “There are tons of games that get passed over in traditional publishing because they aren’t safe bets. I want to be a smart business person, but I also want to take some risks on designs and designers that are doing interesting things.

“There are literally thousands of products that come out each year which are just iterations of previous designers, maybe smashed together in a new way. It would be fantastic to give some games a chance at a larger audience which would be too risky for other publishers.

“I also want to give voice to more artists and designers who may be from overlooked or under-represented communities. As to genres, I would love to see a truly branching narrative euro game that isn’t afraid to let you push the limits of what’s acceptable in that genre.”

Asked whether his comments about ignoring what other publishers are doing reflected increasing “trend chasing” within hobby games, he replied “Yes”, adding “I have to do my own [thing].

“….What I do need is community and art. I want these things and my values to drive what we do as a company, not the market. The market is and will always be fickle.”

High’s new strategy has seen Valor Mountain seal a partnership with Pink Troubadour Games, which will see it bring several of the European publisher’s titles to the North American market – including Pilgrims: Curious Adventures, Movie Fight, Loony Clues and Dirt & Glory.

High’s previous employer Capstone partnered with Pink Troubadour while he was with the US company, to bring SETI creator Tomáš Holek’s design Galileo Galilei to North America.

High told BoardGameWire, “I had a good working relationship with the Pink Troubadour team when I worked for Capstone. However, I reached out after I was done working at Capstone to see if there were new ways I could work with them. 

“I am planning on taking steps to foster our relationship as I see their trust as essential, since in some ways we are a new company to the market.”

High added, “It’s exciting, and it came about because I reached out to them since I saw that these games were not available in the North American English market.  They are a wonderful team to work with, and it is my hope to do more games in the future with them as our capacity increases.”

High seems especially enthusiastic about bringing family-weight competitive movement puzzle game Pilgrims: Curious Adventures to North America, saying, “I played the video game it is based on and it is super quirky. The board game, like the video game, is very straightforward.

“If I had to describe it in one word: chill. I think it is that perfect type of game for those who want to explore board games without diving in too deep, it feels like you are doing something without being overwhelmed.

“It’s one of those bridge games between gamers and non-gamers and has delightful artwork from Amanita Design.”

Valor Mountain has also dipped its toes into crowdfunding again, following campaigns for a trio of small-box titles in 2023 and roll and write game Birdsong in August last year – all of which raised between about $1,300 and $3,000.

The new campaign features a trio of trick-taking titles – Supercollider, Growing Groves and The Franciscan Diamond, the latter of which High said was a great example of the kind of Valor Mountain release other publishers might not take a chance on.

He said, “Trick-taking games are probably past the zenith of recent popularity, plus this game has a super obscure scoring system. It’s by an unknown designer, but it is really clever.

“I love it. Will anyone else? Maybe? I think it’s going to be a divisive game though.”

He added, “I hope to eventually move away from crowdfunding. There are lots of reasons I don’t like it. However, with all of the capital outlay I have right now, I need just a little more to ensure I can do everything I want to do this fall.

“My project goal on there is a true goal, it helps ensure the proper operational flow of putting these games out.”

High also credited years of conversations with designers and publishers through the Board Again Gaming podcast with shaping his approach to publishing, and helping “keep my curiosity alive”. 

He said, “I love talking to and hearing from designers. It reminds me how little I know and how much there is to learn.

“The world is a big place and people have so much creativity. I want to help bring more of that to a wider audience.”

For High, that curiosity may ultimately be Valor Mountain’s defining characteristic. Whether betting on unusual designs proves commercially successful remains, by his own admission, an open question.

Asked whether a publisher can succeed by deliberately pursuing games larger companies pass over, High said: “I don’t know. I guess I will find out as I put my own money on the line.”

Valor Mountain’s latest Kickstarter campaign runs until August 10.

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As trading card games continue to drive growth across the tabletop industry, hobby retailers are increasingly looking beyond games themselves to the accessories that support organised play and competitive communities. In this sponsored article, TCG and board game accessories maker Sanseking explains how changing player behaviour is influencing retailers’ approach to inventory, merchandising and long-term store strategy, and why competitive accessories are becoming a more important part of the European hobby market.

A growing crossover between board gaming and trading card games is beginning to reshape hobby retail strategy across Europe according to TCG, board game, and collectible accessories maker Sanseking, with competitive accessories emerging as an increasingly important category for stores.

What was once a relatively clear divide between casual board game retail and competitive TCG communities has evolved into a far more interconnected ecosystem, the company says, where stores are expected to serve multiple types of players simultaneously.

That shift is particularly visible in the accessories market according to Sanseking production manager Ding Guang, who says retailers are increasingly treating competitive sleeves and protective products as core components of long-term business planning rather than simple add-on purchases.

“Accessories used to be viewed mainly as supplementary sales,” Guang told BoardGameWire. “But competitive communities create repeat purchasing behaviour that changes how retailers think about stability, inventory, and customer retention.”

Hobby retailers now commonly operate within a mixed environment that includes casual board gamers, organised play communities built around titles such as Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!, and players who actively move between both spaces.

That convergence has become especially visible at events such as Spiel Essen, where accessory brands increasingly exhibit alongside publishers and competitive card players mix naturally with broader tabletop audiences.

But for retailers, the two customer groups behave very differently.

Board games typically generate one-off purchases tied to seasonal launches or major releases, while competitive TCGs create recurring engagement cycles through tournaments, deck rebuilding, league play and shifting formats – and those cycles also generate consistent accessory demand.

Competitive players replace sleeves far more frequently than casual players, Sanseking points out, adding that frequent shuffling, tournament preparation, the need for consistency and sensitivity to tactile feedback all contribute to repeat purchases.

That rise in accessory demand has also been driven by the stellar growth of TCGs more generally, with long-time heavyweights such as Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh! joined more recently by a flurry of other successful entrants to the market, including One Piece, Disney Lorcana and Star Wars Unlimited.

That demand pushed the overall value of the global TCG market to $7.8bn last year according to veteran research firm BCC, which projects the segment will reach $11.8bn by 2030 with a CAGR of 7.9%.

In many European hobby stores, tournament nights now represent some of the most reliable recurring foot traffic. Players attending weekly organised play events increasingly view accessories not as optional extras, but as part of their competitive equipment.

According to Guang, that recurring demand can help retailers smooth revenue fluctuations during slower periods in the board game release calendar. But at the same time, competitive players also tend to be far more selective.

“They pay attention to things casual players may never think about,” Guang said. “Edge structure, shuffle consistency, durability over repeated use, and manufacturing consistency between batches all matter.”

The Growing Importance of Segmentation

That growing attention to performance characteristics is also pushing retailers to rethink how accessories are presented in-store, according to Sanseking.

Historically, sleeves were often treated as largely interchangeable products differentiated mainly by colour or price point.

But as organised play communities mature, stores are increasingly recognising that accessories serve multiple functional segments, ranging from casual ‘kitchen table’ play, to hobby-level regular play and competitive or sanctioned environments.

Retailers that fail to distinguish between those categories can create unnecessary friction, Sanseking says.

The company points out that a product optimized for softness and casual handling may not satisfy a competitive player seeking predictable shuffle feedback. Conversely, a structure-focused sleeve may feel unnecessarily rigid or specialized for a board gamer.

As a result, some retailers are beginning to adopt more structured merchandising approaches, using clearer pricing tiers, competitive-focused shelving, and staff recommendations tailored to different player types.

“The stores performing well are usually the ones creating clarity,” Guang said. “Not necessarily carrying the most SKUs, but helping customers understand which products fit which type of play.”

Risk, Inventory, and Shelf Strategy

From a commercial perspective, competitive accessories also offer several advantages compared to boxed games, including lower unit cost, a smaller shelf footprint, faster turnover when tied to active communities and strong repeat purchase potential.

Retailers can still perceive the category as niche, however – particularly when shelf space is limited. According to Sanseking, the most effective approach is usually a balanced one – not one that offers endless fragmentation, but a core range which covers general use, alongside clearly identified competitive-focused options for players who care about performance.

The importance of organised play also continues to shape purchasing behaviour, with competitive events a significant driver of repeat store visits, even amid wider economic pressure on hobby spending.

Within those communities, accessory choices increasingly function as part of player identity.

“Players often become loyal to specific performance characteristics rather than just aesthetics,” Guang said. “That creates opportunities for retailers to position themselves as serious competitive venues.”

Some stores are already leaning into that approach by highlighting ‘competitive-ready’ accessory sections, aligning certain products with tournament nights, and using more technical product descriptions instead of purely visual merchandising.

The growing overlap between board game audiences and competitive TCG players is also accelerating the trend, according to Sanseking’s experience of the market.

The firm said that many customers who first enter hobby stores through board games gradually become exposed to organised play environments, while competitive card players often purchase board games for more social settings.

Accessories sit directly at the centre of that crossover, with protective products one of the few categories that naturally serve both audiences while still supporting different performance tiers, it added.

For retailers, that makes accessory strategy not just an operational decision, but a bridge between communities, Sanseking says.

As Europe’s tabletop market continues to evolve, Guang believes accessories will become more strategically significant across the retail landscape.

“Players are becoming more informed about performance trade-offs, and retailers are having to serve more diverse communities across the same limited shelf space,” he said. “Clear segmentation and clear communication are becoming much more valuable.”

For brands, that means designing products with defined use cases rather than relying on broad universal claims. And for retailers, Guang argues, success may depend less on scale than structure.

“In a market where casual and competitive audiences increasingly overlap, clarity is often more important than simply offering more products.”

Anyone interested in working with Sanseking can visit their website for more details about what they offer, and contact them here.

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Tabletop gaming trade organisation GAMA has opened nominations for its 2027 Power Retail Awards, inviting gamers and industry professionals from around the world to spotlight stores and cafés they believe represent the industry’s best.

The annual awards, which have now been running for 17 years, aim to act as a showcase and celebration of business practices, community-building and operational innovations that other hobby retailers can learn from.

More than 750 retailers were submitted for inclusion in last year’s awards, with nominations coming from Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) customers before being voted on by a GAMA committee of retailers and emeritus ‘team retail’ members.

The awards cover four categories: Retailer of the Year, Innovation in Games (Retail), Outstanding Contribution to Games Industry (Retail) and Outstanding Store Design, with winners of each receiving a one year GAMA membership, recognition in its online database and in the Spring issue of its Around the Table magazine.

That prize was reduced by GAMA last year, with retailer of the year having also previously receiving $1,000 and the other category winners $500 each.

Any tabletop retail business can be nominated regardless of country or GAMA membership status, although US-based businesses have heavily dominated the awards since they were launched in 2010, picking up 50 out of the 63 wins to date.

That total does not include the 2021 Retailer of the Year award, which was presented to every GAMA retailer member at the time to recognise and celebrate them having survived the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Arizona-based Silver Dragon Games scooped Retailer of the Year in the 2026 awards, adding to the Innovation In Games (Retail) and Outstanding Store Design titles it won at the same awards in 2024.

They were joined this year by Illinois-based Fantasy Books and Games, which won the Innovation in Games (Retail) award, Minnesota’s The Gamers Den, which sealed Outstanding Contribution to the Games Industry (Retail), and Wisconsin-based Oddwillow’s Game Haven, which won Outstanding Store Design.

UK retailer Eclectic Games remains the only non-US winner in the past two award cycles, having scooped Outstanding Contribution to the Games Industry in 2025, while Mexico City-based La Piramide is the only store from outside of the US, Canada or the UK to win an award, which it claimed during the inaugural contest in 2010.

Nominations are open to stores that have been operating for at least one full year, while previous winners cannot win the same category twice.

Anyone interested in nominating an outstanding hobby retailer can do so here.

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Word association party game JinxO has been crowned the winner of this year’s hugely influential Spiel des Jahres award, on a night which also saw legendary game designer Reiner Knizia make history with his Kennerspiel award win.

Martin Ang’s design won over the judges ahead of Corey Konieczka’s Cozy Stickerville and Markus Slawitscheck’s Morty Sorty Magic Shop, becoming only the fourth word-focused game to win the 47-year-old prize after Barbarossa, Codenames and Just One.

JinxO’s win brings an end to a three-year run of cooperative games taking home the Spiel des Jahres prize, in the shape of Dorfromantik: The Board Game, Sky Team and Bomb Busters.

Indonesia-based Ang’s victory underscored the growing internationality of the venerable German award, which until last year’s triumph by Hisashi Hayashi’s Bomb Busters had never been won by an Asian designer.

The 2026 ceremony also delivered a historic first for veteran designer Reiner Knizia, whose tile-laying title Rebirth claimed the higher complexity Kennerspiel des Jahres prize.

That win made Knizia the first designer in history to complete the full set of Spiel des Jahres, Kinderspiel des Jahres and Kennerspiel des Jahres wins, having previously picked up awards for Keltis and the children-focused Whoowasit? in 2008.

Morty Sorty Magic Shop designer Markus Slawitscheck narrowly missed matching that feat this year after finishing runner up to JinxO, following his 2023 Kennerspiel victory with Challengers! and 2024 Kinderspiel win for Magic Keys.

Rebirth contended with Michael Palm and Lukas Zach design Boss Fighters QR and Donald X Vaccarino’s Moon Colony Bloodbath in the final for this year’s Kennerspiel.

The children-focused Kinderspiel award this year was won by Florian Sirieix’s Mooki Island, ahead of his co-design with Benoit Turpin, Boo Party, and Verflixt Verzaubert, a localisation of Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance’s Mimose & Sam et le Voleur de Fruits.

Winning the Spiel des Jahres can transform the fortunes of games, designers and publishers alike, with Pegasus Spiele co-founder Karsten Esser previously telling BoardGameWire the award can increase sales by 10 to 20 times in the months following the ceremony, thanks to huge exposure in Germany’s mainstream retail market ahead of Christmas.

Receiving his trophy at the ceremony in Berlin, Ang thanked Swiss publisher Game Factory “for really believing in Dito! [the German-language localisation of JinxO] and in us”.

He dedicated the victory to supporters across Asia, adding: “Thank you also to all the friends and publishers from Asia, especially from southeast Asia… finally we made it, and this is all for you also.”

Speaking separately during the ceremony, Ang said the game’s origins lay in Indonesia’s enthusiasm for social games.

“We made a party game because in Indonesia people really love to play party games,” he said. “It’s really famous in Indonesia right now and a lot of people like it, even the gamers also like it.”

Spiel des Jahres Association chairman Harald Schrapers said Ang’s success reflected the awards’ increasingly international reach.

He said, “We have had nominees from Japan and New Zealand in past years, but we always had a blind spot on the world map. We have never had a nominated author from the global south here on stage, and we are very proud of our Indonesian game author.

“Maybe there will also be a game from Africa or South America in the future. That is the great thing about playing – we play the same games here in Germany as they play in Indonesia.”

That geographic expansion has not been similarly reflected in the gender of nominated designers, however, with non-male designers once again heavily underrepresented.

The Spiel des Jahres jury looked at a record 571 games for this year’s awards – but just 2.3% of those games were from women designers, with male creators making up 94% of the cohort, and the rest being designed by mixed teams.

That figure has barely moved in recent years, having stood at 2% in 2025 and 2.6% in 2024 – an ongoing lack of diversity highlighted in great detail in this excellent feature by Wargamer’s Mollie Russell earlier this year.

The 440 titles reviewed across the Spiel and Kennerspiel categories was up 14% on last year, while the 92 games considered for the Kinderspiel marked a roughly 50% rise compared to the 61 from 2025. Another 39 titles were considered by judges across both the Spiel and Kinderspiel awards.

JinxO’s victory marked a milestone for Zurich-based publisher Game Factory, which claimed its first Spiel des Jahres 18 years after being founded.

Game Factory previously won the Kinderspiel category with Magic Keys in 2024, and was also shortlisted for this year’s Kinderspiel through Verflixt Verzaubert.

The publisher had picked up a nominated for the Kennerspiel last year with viking-themed resource gathering game Looot.

Reiner Knizia’s win with Rebirth provided Germany publisher Frosted Games back-to-back Kennerspiel victories, having triumphed last year with its localisation of Endeavor: Deep Sea.

Accepting the award, Knizia – dressed in a kilt and tartans to reflect the Scottish map in Rebirth – paid tribute to his wife Margaret, whom he described as “the love of my life” and thanked for “giving me the space to fill my life with games”, before highlighting the importance of playtesters in modern game development.

“Developing games, you cannot do alone,” he said. “You can’t develop games without playing them. No matter how much experience you have, you have to play, play, play.”

He added that his Munich testing group had made “a very significant contribution” to the game, saying playtesters should not be underestimated because “without them nothing is possible”.

Knizia also praised Rebirth’s graphic designers, who he said made a major contribution to designing the game – “it is about haptics, it is about the visuals” – and the game’s original, Malta-based publisher Mighty Boards.

He said, “We are not publishers, we create one handmade prototype, and then we need somebody who puts this into practice very professionally and who makes the game even better.

“And now you will ask me, ‘why do you then pick a publisher on Malta? What can they sell on Malta?’ Well, today things are different, today we have many localisation partners across the world – that said, it doesn’t really matter where the original publishing house is located.”

Knizia closed his long speech by urging players not to overlook the other nominees.

“In the end, it doesn’t matter who wins, because we carry the message about good games out to the people,” he said.

“There has to be one on top, but the top is amongst equals… Buy the other games, play them and honour the authors and all the contributors as much as the winners.”

The 2025 Spiel des Jahres Awards longlists:

Spiel des Jahres

WINNER: JinxO – designed by Martin Ang (Published by Game Factory / Tabletoys Games)

Nominated: Cozy Stickerville – Corey Konieczka (Unexpected Games)
Nominated: Morty Sorty Magic Shop – Markus Slawitscheck (Schmidt Spiele)

Recommended
Hot Streak by Jon Perry (Strohmann Games / CMYK)
Meister Makatsu by Reiner Knizia (Amigo)
Take Time by Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière (Libellud)
Toriki by Wojciech Grajkowski (Mirakulus / Lucky Duck Games)
Toy Battle by Paolo Mori and Alessandro Zucchini (Repos Production)
Wilmot’s Warehouse by David King, Ricky Haggett and Richard Hogg (CMYK)

Kennerspiel des Jahres

WINNER: Rebirth – Reiner Knizia (Frosted Games / Mighty Boards)

Nominated: Boss Fighters QR – Michael Palm and Lukas Zach (Pegasus Spiele)
Nominated: Moon Colony Bloodbath – Donald X Vaccarino (Alea / Rio Grande Games)

Recommended
Artengarten (Sanctuary) by Mathias Wigge (Feuerland / Capstone Games)
Frosted Blooms by Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc (Elznir Games / Synapses Games)
Grundstein von Metropolis (Foundations of Metropolis) by Emerson Matsuuchi (Kobold Spieleverlag / Arcane Wonders)
Tag Team by Gricha German and Corentin Lebrat (Kosmos / Scorpion Masqué)

Kinderspiel des Jahres

WINNER: Mooki Island – Florian Sirieix (Kosmos / Scorpion Masqué)

Nominated: BOO PARTY -Florian Sirieix and Benoit Turpin (Loki)
Nominated: Verflixt verzaubert – Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance (Game Factory / Locomuse)

Recommended
Kleiner Stinker (Little Stinker) by Elan Lee, Ken Gruhl and Quentin Weir (Kitten Games)
Magische Spiegel (Half-and-Seek) by Kseniya Kuznetsova (Ravensburger / Red Cat Games)
Paleolino by Marco Teubner and Peter Rustemeyer (Hans im Glück)

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Devir Games has bolstered its ongoing North American expansion by bringing in longtime The Op executive Pat Marino as its first director of sales and marketing for the region.

Marino joins Devir in the newly-created role after nine years at The Op Games, including the last four as director of hobby games, where he helped oversee releases such as Gnome Hollow, Tea Witches, Fountains, and upcoming releases Evenglow and Oasis: New Life on a Distant World.

While there he saw annual revenue at the company double to a projected $4m this year, on the back of mass-market retail placement of The Op’s hobby titles, according to his LinkedIn page.

He joined The Op in 2017 as his first role within the board game industry, working as a game designer on Court of the Dead: Mourners Call before transitioning into areas such as inventor relations and product development.

The hire continues Devir’s expansion in North America, as the company looks to keep growing beyond its roots in Portugal, Spain and Latin America.

Devir began life as a Brazilian comic book distributor in 1987, launched its own board game operation as a Spanish publisher in 2000 before gradually expanding the business out to Latin America.

The publisher began bringing English language versions of its games to the US in 2017, and has since grown its global operation to about 400 people.

Matt Hyland, managing partner at Devir Americas, told BoardGameWire he hoped Marino would help the company “expand our contacts within the industry, bring in new perspectives based on what he learned at the Op, and provide valuable feedback on new products and initiatives”.

He said, “Aside from that, he’s a really smart and motivated guy, so I’m confident he can help take the business to a new level.”

Marino said, “Throughout my career, I’ve been passionate about connecting great games with players, retailers, and the broader hobby community.

“Devir’s incredible catalog, commitment to quality, and ambitious vision for the future made this an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

“I’m beyond excited to join the team and help expand Devir’s presence across North America. I look forward to meeting with retailers, partners, and fans as we begin this next chapter together.”

Marino is set to start the new role on July 13, and will make his first public appearance with the company at Gen Con, where Devir is launching titles including One Round?, 7th Seal and Rock Hard 1977 expansion Ear Candy.

The company’s releases scheduled for later in the year include Dani Garcia design Gaudí, which Devir has slated as a key Essen launch, and push your luck party game Risky Mixes, while early 2027 should see the retail release of miniatures title Claustrophobia 1692, the company’s first ever crowdfunding project.

Early last year Devir Games agreed to buy Spanish board game publisher Maldito Games, adding the company’s portfolio of ‘expert-level’ localisations including Terraforming Mars, Ark Nova and Brass Birmingham to its catalogue.

Devir has continued to publish games under the Maldito brand following the acquisition, as well as transferring some of its own ‘expert’ games to the arm, adding at the time of the deal that it had been looking for a way to better categorise its catalogue “for some time”.

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As board game publishers continue to grapple with volatile manufacturing costs, tariffs and freight disruption, UK-based Eurydice Games is celebrating reaching almost £400,000 in lifetime revenue without ever outsourcing production.

The Newcastle upon Tyne-based company has just completed its 7,000th box of FlickFleet, the dexterity-based tabletop space skirmish game it has manufactured entirely in-house since launching in 2018.

Every copy of the base game and its six expansions has been laser cut and assembled by Eurydice co-founder Paul Willcox in his garage in York, with the company estimating it has now produced well over 400,000 individual laser-cut components.

The unusual approach has allowed Eurydice to build a business that has generated almost £400,000 over eight years. Just under £250,000 has come through crowdfunding, with the remainder generated through direct website and convention sales.

While many indie game designers and small publishers view overseas manufacturing as an inevitable step in the process, Eurydice believes its experience demonstrates that remaining in-house can make commercial sense for certain types of games.

“When we ran our first campaign we had no idea how much money we’d raise, so we investigated doing a manufacturing run so we weren’t going to be caught out if it went wild,” Eurydice director Jackson Pope told BoardGameWire.

“As it was we 101% funded with four hours to spare at the end of the campaign, so stuck to laser-cutting as planned.

“…we would have needed well over £25k [to outsource manufacturing] in that first campaign, and obviously inflation means that number is much higher now.

Instead, narrowly crossing its target saw the team stick with its original plan of producing the game themselves – and that decision has shaped the business ever since.

Rather than treating each expansion as a standalone production run, Eurydice launches a new crowdfunding campaign each year, combining demand for the latest release with reprints of older products into a single manufacturing cycle.

Because production takes place in-house, the publisher says it can economically manufacture extremely small quantities of older products, with some reprints numbering as few as 100 copies.

The company believes that flexibility has enabled it to support a product line that would have been difficult to finance using conventional manufacturing methods.

“In an industry with a lot of indie companies, we are unusual in that we make the game ourselves, on a laser-cutter in Paul’s garage,” Pope said.

“… [rolling] up reprints of everything into a single large print run… has allowed us to reduce costs by placing one large order with each of our suppliers.

“As a result, we’ve been able to release a vast range of ship models, which would have required huge print runs and capital to fund through traditional injection moulding manufacturing.”

That manufacturing model has also had knock-on advantages for the company in fulfilling its games.

Instead of waiting for overseas production and freight, Eurydice says it often begins shipping rewards within months of a crowdfunding campaign ending, with complete fulfilment typically finished within a year.

But there are inevitable trade-offs, Pope added, with each copy of FlickFleet or one of its expansions taking Willcox hours to make – as well as having to be piled up in his home ahead of fulfillment.

The operation has also proven vulnerable to disruption, too, with the laser cutter purchased after the company’s first successful crowdfunding campaign catching fire in 2022 while Eurydice was fulfilling another project, forcing an emergency replacement before production could continue.

Even so, Pope believes recent geopolitical disruption has reinforced some of the advantages of keeping manufacturing close to home. But the model is not without commercial limitations, of course.

Despite considering a larger retail print run, Pope says the amount of labour required to manufacture each copy, coupled with international shipping costs from the UK, has made broad retail distribution difficult. Eurydice currently sells through crowdfunding, direct sales, conventions and just under a dozen UK retailers.

He also stressed that garage manufacturing is not a universal solution.

“It’s definitely an option, if you’re prepared to put in the work. And it is a lot of work,” he said.

“But it lets you do things that would be prohibitively expensive through traditional manufacturing and smaller runs of interesting ideas that would never sell tens of thousands of copies but should still see the light of day.

“If you’re confident you can sell thousands of copies, you’re definitely better using traditional manufacturing.”

Eurydice is planning to launch its seventh FlickFleet expansion, Box of Xeno Flicks 2, on Gamefound in October.

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A pair of tabletop game designers have launched a free, open-source colour identification system they hope could become a common accessibility standard across the board game industry.

Colour blindness affects about 1 in every 12 men, and around 1 in 200 women – roughly 300 million people worldwide – and while some board game publishers have made vigorous efforts to make their designs accessible for colour blind players, many games released each year contain challenging colour combinations.

ColorSym began as a solution created by Chris Eastridge for his design Parks & Potions, which centres on combining colours to brew potions.

Eastbridge told BoardGameWire, “My first attempt at adding a meaningful colorblind solution to Parks & Potions put me up against a paywall. It bothered me so much that I was determined to make a system that others could adopt, free of charge, forever.

“We want designers to think, ‘This would make my game more accessible’, and be able to use it immediately. No paperwork, no fees, no asking permission. The easier it is to adopt, the more people it can help.”

Eastbridge created an initial symbol system for ColorSym before collaborating with fellow designer Luis Francisco, the owner of Brazilian board game publisher Grok Games and co-founder of tabletop design project management platform Boardssey, to expand it into a standalone open standard.

The system assigns each colour a simple symbol which can be used alongside colours, allowing players with colour vision deficiency to distinguish components without relying on colour alone.

But unlike bespoke icon systems created by publishers for individual games, Francisco and Eastridge hope they have created a universal visual language that players can learn once and recognise across multiple titles.

The pair have released the symbols under a Creative Commons licence and the accompanying font under the SIL Open Font License, allowing publishers to adopt the system commercially without licensing fees or seeking permission.

“I don’t think any publisher wants to create a game that excludes players,” Francisco told BoardGameWire. “The problem is that there hasn’t been a free, shared standard.

“Most publishers who want to solve this end up creating their own dual-coding system, which means players have to learn a new visual language with every game.

“The other big challenge is orientation. In board games, players see components from every angle around the table. A symbol can’t mean blue from one side and red from another.

“That’s why the omnidirectional nature of ColorSym became such a fundamental part of the project.”

The pair cited multiple ” great examples” of dual coding across the industry, including Mattel adding patterns, symbols, and even tactile clues to some of its games, and Flatout Games soing “an excellent job with continuity of their color-specific components as seen with their Calico line”.

Eastbridge said, “Most solutions for color blindness can be accomplished through using associated iconography. Things like a flame symbol for red, water drop for blue, and so on.

“Where ColorSym comes in is where color has meaning. I think, for those publishers who are looking for a solution to color specific symbology, ColorSym will bridge that gap where unnecessary theming clouds the intent.”

Eastridge said the response to ColorSym from publishers had already been “incredibly positive”, adding that Steelwing Games – the new publisher from industry veteran Scott Morris – had expressed interest in implementing the system in a future release.

And the pair hope board games will be only the beginning.

Francisco said, “One of the very first messages we received after launching ColorSym came from a colorblind person who said ‘I wish these symbols were on my shirts so I could coordinate my clothes more easily’.

“That really stuck with me. Board games are where ColorSym was born, but if it ends up helping people in everyday life too, that would be an amazing outcome.”

Eastridge added, “I feel the same way. We built it for the board game community because that’s where we live, but there’s nothing limiting it to tabletop.

“If someone starts using ColorSym in education, apps, public spaces, or clothing labels, that would be incredible. The more familiar the symbols become, the more useful they become for everyone.”

Downloads, a live specimen, and full documentation are available now at colorsym.com, while the complete source files are available on GitHub.

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Editor’s note: GAMA is one of the sponsors of the BoardGameWire newsletter

The Origins Awards, one of tabletop gaming’s longest-running prizes voted on by industry professionals, has crowned its latest group of winners after whittling them down from 120 nominees.

Jon Perry’s Hot Streak continues to live up to its name as far as award wins go, adding party game of the year to a pair of Golden Geek Award wins, casual game of the year in the American Tabletop Awards, and a ‘recommended’ accolade in the Spiel des Jahres.

Matt Leacock’s The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, built on the DNA of his global hit Pandemic, doubled down on its own Golden Geek Award wins by being named cooperative/solo Game of the Year, while Vital Lacerda’s design Speakeasy took the Heavy Strategy Game of the Year award.

Railroad Tiles, designed by Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva, took Gateway Game of the Year, while Will Thompson’s Winter Rabbit was named Light Strategy Game of the Year at the award ceremony, which took place at Origins Game Fair last month.

The awards also recognised Matt Brown and Zara Reid’s conservation-themed board game Kavango with a Sustainability Award, which aim to celebrate games with thoughtful production and publishers which “have taken strides towards sustainable manufacturing to reduce the impact on the natural environment”.

Outside the board game categories, James Parks and Ben Costa’s Land of Eem won Roleplaying Game of the Year, while in the trading card and collectible game categories Riftbound: Proving Grounds won Fixed Constructible Game of the Year, while the Gudnak: Expansion Bundle took the Randomized Constructible Game award.

Games Workshop dominated the miniatures awards, winning both Miniatures Game of the Year with Blood Bowl: Third Season Edition and Miniature of the Year with Warhammer: Age of Sigmar model Festus The Leech Lord.

Goblin Hobbies’ Stampin’ Plates claimed the Paint/Hobby Accessory award, while Luis Silva’s TCG design Shard Bugs claimed Fan Favorite Game of the Year, voted on by Origins attendees.

The awards, which are organised by non-profit trade organisation GAMA, came under fire earlier this year for failing to mention any of the games’ designers for the third year in a row.

GAMA made an effort to rectify that error with its announcement of the award winners, including not only the names of the designers but also the artists who worked on each title.

The Origins awards, which were first presented in 1975, have been in heavy flux over the past few years, going from 10 categories in 2019 to 24 in 2024 – with the make-up of those categories significantly shaken up from year to year.

GAMA briefly introduced categories in 2024 which represented its membership having expanded beyond just retailers, publishers and wholesalers – including recognition for artists, writers and media.

But those segments were quickly dropped again in 2025, with categories cut including Best Media Production, Best Game Related Writing and Best 2D Artwork – although the miniatures segment was expanded from two categories to three, covering games, the miniatures themselves, and paint and accessories.

Separate from the main slate of awards, the trade organisation also revealed its hall of fame entrants this year, awarded – like the Origins Awards – by its division the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design.

AAGAD describes itself as “a peer based network of gaming industry professionals whose mission is to promote innovation and excellence in design and production of games and game related materials”.

Individuals inducted into the hall of fame this year include Richard Borg, famous for his design of the Command and Colors system used by games including Memoir ’44, and Antoine Bauza, the creator of designs including 7 Wonders, Hanabi and Tokaido.

Magic: The Gathering, Pathfinder RPG and Dungeons & Dragons artist Wayne Reynolds was also inducted into the hall of fame.

Origins Awards 2026 – Full Results

Gateway Game of the Year
Railroad Tiles
Publisher: Horrible Guild
Designers: Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva
Artists: Francesco De Benedittis and Barla Tranquilli

Party Game of the Year
Hot Streak
Publisher: CMYK
Designer: Jon Perry
Artist: Cécile Gariépy

Light Strategy Game of the Year
Winter Rabbit
Publisher: Absurdist Productions
Designer: Will Thompson
Artists: Kindra Swafford and Jonni Ketcher

Heavy Strategy Game of the Year
Speakeasy
Publisher: Eagle-Gryphon Games
Designer: Vital Lacerda
Artist: Ian O’Toole

Cooperative/Solo Game of the Year
The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Designer: Matt Leacock
Artists: Jared Blando and Cory Godbey

Roleplaying Game of the Year
Land of Eem
Publisher: Exalted Funeral
Designed & Written by: James Parks and Ben Costa
Artists: Justin Gerard, Sean Kiernan, Anneliese Mak, Sam Mamei, Rosario Mendez and Rob Gatto

Roleplaying Game Supplement of the Year
Call of Cthulhu: The Sutra of Pale Leaves – Twin Suns Rising
Publisher: Chaosium
Designers/Authors: Yukihiro Terada, Jason Sheets, Damon Lang, and Andrew Logan Montgomery

Miniatures Game of the Year
Blood Bowl Third Season Edition
Publisher: Games Workshop

Miniature of the Year
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar – Festus, The Leech Lord
Publisher: Games Workshop

Paint/Hobby Accessory of the Year
Goblin Hobbies Stampin’ Plates
Producer: Goblin Hobbies
Designed by: Brent Amberger and Casey Alden

Fixed Constructible Game of the Year
Riftbound: Proving Grounds
Publisher: UVS Games & Riot Games
Designers: David Smith and Jon Moormann

Randomized Constructible Game of the Year
Gudnak: Expansion Bundle
Publisher: Chaotic Great Games
Designer: Tim O’Brien and Ian Oliver
Artist: Vittoria Pompolani

Fan Favorite Game of the Year
Shard Bugs
Publisher: Shard Bugs LLC
Designer: Luis Silva
Artists: Ray of Sand, Nelygibi, Julio E. Jácome Paz, María Ayuso, Alma Faustica, Pietro Desirò, Ninamarie, Steve Ozminkowski, Erick Mezart

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