Vom 27. bis 29. März veranstaltet der Brettspielverlag Frosted Games sein jährliches Online-Event. Die Frosted Days 2026 bestehen aus einem dreitägigen Streamprogramm auf YouTube, exklusiven Shopangeboten und mehreren bisher unangekündigten Neuheiten für das laufende Jahr.
Programm und Neuheitenshow
Den Auftakt bildet am Freitag, den 27. März um 19 Uhr die große Neuheitenshow. Frosted Games stellt darin alle geplanten Titel für 2026 vor, darunter auch Spiele, die bisher noch nicht öffentlich angekündigt wurden. Im Anschluss folgt eine gemütliche Spielrunde mit Community Talk im YouTube-Chat.
Am Samstag geht es ab 13 Uhr weiter. Auf dem Programm stehen mehrere Let's-Play-Sessions, in denen unter anderem Neuankündigungen erstmals auf den Tisch kommen. Dazwischen gibt es ein Frosted-Games-Quiz zum Mitraten sowie eine Partyrunde mit offenem Ende und direkter Chat-Beteiligung. Der Sonntag startet ab 12 Uhr mit weiteren Let's Plays und Specials, bevor das Event am Nachmittag endet.
Bereits öffentlich angekündigt sind unter anderem Das Voynich Mysterium, Horologium – Die Orloj von Prag, Wuselige Wiesen, Paper Tales Ultimate, GROLL, The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era, Hoplomachus Victorum und Tír Na Nóg. Ob zu einzelnen davon Vorbestellaktionen starten, soll sich während der Neuheitenshow zeigen.
Angebote im Webshop
Schon vor dem Streamstart sind zahlreiche Rabattaktionen im Frosted-Games-Onlineshop verfügbar. Unter den reduzierten Titeln finden sich unter anderem Frostpunk: Das Brettspiel für 79,95 Euro statt 109,95 Euro, Townsfolk Tussle für 79,95 Euro statt 145 Euro und Das Unbewusste für 29 Euro statt 69,95 Euro. Ab einem Bestellwert von 80 Euro entfallen die Versandkosten deutschlandweit.
Zusätzlich gibt es eine Gearloc-Bundle-Aktion für Too Many Bones. Je mehr der ausgewählten Erweiterungen Ghillie, Gasket, Tink und Nugget im Warenkorb liegen, desto höher fällt der Rabatt aus. Ab einem Warenkorbwert von 100 Euro legt Frosted Games bei ausgewählten Spielen wie Aeon's End: Legacy, Dead Cells oder Astro Knights eine kostenlose Promo-Karte dazu.
In den BRETTSPIELBOX News 11/2026 findet ihr die folgenden Nachrichten: Hier sind die Brettspiel News. Guten Start in die Woche. Folgende Neuheiten sind auf dem Weg bzw. angekündigt: Das zweite Spiel in der Skellig Fun Reihe heißt Dicecream. Wir müssen die tollsten Eisbecher kreieren. Solar Supremacy erscheint Ende des Jahres. In Solar Supremacy befehligen die Spielenden rivalisierende […]
Angekündigt: Neu: Updates: ANGEKÜNDIGT In der kommenden Woche Crowdfunding. Wenige Projekte sind angekündigt. Hier der Überblick über die kommende Woche: Brass: Pittsburgh Brass: Pittsburgh ist ein eigenständiger (dritter) Titel im Brass System und führt in den industriellen Aufschwung des späten 19. Jahrhunderts in den nordöstlichen USA. Ihr übernehmt die Rolle von Industriellen, baut Netzwerke aus Eisenbahnen, […]
Hier sind die Brettspiel News. Ich habe ein paar Infos in den verschiedenen Clustern zusammengetragen. Heute wieder einiges dabei für jeden. VIDEO Inhalt ■ in eigener Sache■ News (Swiss Award, Asmodee / Japon Brand, Equinox, Digital neu)■ Veranstaltungen (Bonn, Frosted Days)■ Crowdfunding (Apex Carnivore, Walkable City, Cyberpunk TCG, Dice Fishing, Fernweh)■ Ticker (Das Spiel der […]
Asmodee has ramped up its reignited acquisition strategy by buying Japon Brand from CMON, anchoring the board game giant’s push into a “currently untapped market” for the company.
Japon Brand was instrumental in bringing Japanese designs such as Love Letter and Machi Koro to international markets, after being inspired by the surge in novel games from home-grown designers in the early 2000s.
The company will form the cornerstone of Asmodee’s new Japanese design studio, Nekuma, which will look to find games from local designers that it can release globally, as well as helping Asmodee bring its existing titles to Japanese players.
Asmodee CEO Thomas Koegler said, “Japan is one of the most creative and culturally influential markets in the world. With Nekuma and the integration of Japon Brand, we are building a long-term platform that connects Japanese creators with players globally.
Asmodee CEO Thomas Koegler
“True to Asmodee’s entrepreneurial and bold DNA, this capital-light and agile initiative allows us to invest where creativity is thriving while positioning Asmodee for sustainable growth in Asia.”
Asmodee has grown into a board game publishing and distribution giant thanks to the heavy expansion the business undertook after being bought by private equity firm Eurazeo in 2014.
But the vast bulk of the company’s revenue comes from its operations in Europe, which accounted for more than 76% of its €1.6bn net sales in 2025.
The United States contributed about 13.1% of 2025 net sales, while the company’s entire ‘rest of the world’ net sales – covering every country outside of Europe or the Americas – made up less than 5%.
Asmodee currently has offices in South Korea, China and Taiwan following an expansion to the continent in 2021, with those teams having developed and published localised titles including Splendor Pokémon, Love Letter Cookie Run, Pokémon Chips, and Love Letter Fox Spirit, as well as making use of crowdfunding platforms across the region.
The company said Nekuma would “integrate and expand” that activity under interim head of studio Frederic Nugeron, Asmodee’s current global senior vice president – route to market for the Asia Pacific region.
It said Nekuma would lead game sourcing “to identify and support the most promising Japanese and Asian tabletop game designers”, while Asia-focused publishing will be managed by the company’s existing Korea team.
Nugeron said, “Our ambition with Nekuma is very concrete: be present on the ground, listen to designers, understand cultural nuances, and build trusted relationships within the Japanese ecosystem.
“By combining local expertise with Asmodee’s global reach, we can support creators more closely and bring distinctive Asian games to a worldwide audience.”
Asmodee said Japon Brand would continue to operate with its existing expertise and relationships, with “no impact” on current partnerships or contracts.
But the company has faced a punishing financial situation since, posting losses of $3m across 2024 and nearly $7m for the first half of 2025 – figures which dwarf the overall $4.2m profit it had managed to make over the previous nine years combined.
But the revived M&A process is yet to fully mirror Asmodee’s private equity-fuelled buying spree from the latter half of the 2010s, during which it acquired more than 40 companies and IPs.
That heavy expansion included the company adding more than 20 game studios, including Days of Wonder, Fantasy Flight Games, Lookout Games, Catan Studio and Z-Man Games.
Asmodee CEO Thomas Koegler was asked during the company’s quarterly results presentation last month whether the company was ready to make “more meaningful” acquisitions rather than small bolt-on deals.
He said in response, “Without being specific, the activity in the pipeline is in accordance with our plan. The smaller acquisitions are faster. IP acquisitions and asset deals are faster to execute. I’m satisfied.”
The board game giant’s overall net sales jumped 22.2% across October to December 2025 compared to the same period a year earlier, with the performance of products it distributes for other companies surging more than 50%.
Net sales for games published by Asmodee itself fell almost 13% year-on-year in the quarter, however, weighed down by US net sales slumping 23% to €70.4m.
That drop saw the US fall behind both France and the UK in Q3 in terms of the company’s highest-performing countries for net sales, with France surging 47% year-on-year to over €111m, and the UK growing 41% to €82.7m.
Ab sofort könnt ihr auch direkt auf unseren Spiele-Seiten durch die Anleitung blättern. Und auch unser gedruckter Katalog ist jetzt online und bietet sich zum Schmökern an.
Publisher Equinox scrapped the crowdfund for Altered’s Roots of Corruption expansion yesterday after raising more than €420,000, having launched the campaign last week with a €50,000 target – a figure it described on the project page as a “technical necessity” in order to use Gamefound’s stretch goal system.
Equinox said in an update yesterday that it had also collected €680,000 through retailer pre-orders for the expansion – but added that the €1.1m total was “far too far” from the €2m the company required “to guarantee the future of the game”.
The statement said, “It would be dishonest to tell you that we can still turn the tide by Friday evening. We must face reality: the numbers simply aren’t there.
“It is with a heavy heart that we have decided to cancel the Roots of Corruption campaign. As we committed to doing, all backers – both players and retailers – will be reimbursed in full. This is the cornerstone of our responsibility toward you, and it is the most obvious decision to make.
“This campaign does not only mark the end of a crowdfunding project; unfortunately, it also marks the end of the Altered adventure.”
Altered shattered the crowdfunding record for a TCG on Kickstarter through its debut campaign in 2023, pulling in more than €6.2m (about $7.1m) from about 15,000 backers.
Altered aimed to stand out from high-profile competitors such as Magic: The Gathering through its focus on exploration and bringing heroes together, rather than battles between characters and monsters, as well as innovations such as a print-on-demand and a digital marketplace for cards.
That digital marketplace also made it difficult for retailers to offer the TCG staple of being able to buy, sell and trade single cards, and the game’s powerful early momentum waned as the title struggled to go toe-to-toe with offerings based on hugely popular IPs.
Equinox returned to crowdfunding for Altered’s fifth expansion, Seeds of Unity, in October last year – but faced similar problems to the most recent crowdfund in reaching its necessary totals.
That campaign hit the €50,000 goal set by Equinox in less than nine minutes, but an update from the publisher two weeks later revealed that the actual amount needed to create the game was €2.5m – a figure which if it did not reach, “the adventure will come to an end, and both backers and retailers will of course be refunded”.
Noting the €50,000 crowdfunding goal for that project, and the message on the Gamefound page describing it as more than 1,000% funded, Equinox made no mention of it being a technical necessity for the stretch goal system.
It said at the time, “The funding goal displayed on Gamefound is symbolic, as it usually is in crowdfunding campaigns.
“It’s chosen to help build early momentum but doesn’t reflect our actual needs. Setting the bar too high sometimes makes a project feel out of reach, while a more accessible goal helps get the collective energy moving right from the start.”
That campaign ultimately collected almost €900,000 after being extended for several days, with another €1.4m coming through retailer pre-orders.
Equinox said at the conclusion of that campaign, “While we haven’t reached the objective of €2.5m mentioned initially, we’re not that far off our goal, and with some adjustments on our part (which includes reviewing some budgets and determining new production processes) we believe we can cover that difference.”
Equinox had come under fire from some Altered players for launching its Roots of Corruption campaign before Seeds of Unity had been fully delivered to backers.
The company said in an update to Seeds of Unity backers that while it aimed for a four-month cycle per set, production delays meant that it “no longer [had] the flexibility to push dates back”.
Uncertain Future
Equinox founder Régis Bonnessée acknowledged in the latest update announcing the end of Altered that players would inevitably have questions about the future of their digital collections, the game’s availability on Board Game Arena and “the legacy of this universe”.
He said, “We are not going to leave you in a vacuum. We simply need some time to digest this moment, to properly close this chapter, and to provide you with clear and respectful answers. Thank you for every card played, for every smile exchanged, and for everything you put of yourselves into this adventure. It was an honor to imagine it with you.”
Bonnessée added, “I have experienced the end of projects before – cycles that come to a close. But today feels different. Tonight, we feel a profound sadness as we reflect on what Altered has become for all of us.
“Tonight, we are thinking of you – our players, our community, our ambassadors. To everyone who accompanied us, supported us, and sometimes challenged us. Altered managed to create something rare: a sincere, kind, and committed community.
“We say this because we met you time and again. You often surprised us. We are sad tonight because we realize what this game represented for many of you. And because we also realize all that we failed to achieve.
“We are thinking of the game stores. To those who believed in the game before it was a certainty, who championed it to their customers, and who ordered stock on a gamble. Running a game store is an act of faith in itself; betting on an independent French TCG with an original universe and no established license to lean on… that deserves to be acknowledged. Thank you to them.
“We are thinking of our artists. Altered is a universe, a visual identity—something recognizable at a single glance. This world did not exist until they drew it. Thank you to them for giving substance to all of this.
“We are thinking of our partners—those we call such for lack of a better word, because “partner” describes a contract but not the relationship. For their advice, for what they taught us by their side, for the moments they believed in the project even more than we perhaps deserved. We grew together, and that cannot be erased.
“And of course, on a personal level, my thoughts are with the team. To the women and men who continued to believe, even when the headwind became exhausting. To their resilience in the face of invisible obstacles, to their total dedication. They have been extraordinary. I know that word can feel worn out, but here, it takes on its full meaning. Thank you to them for allowing this universe to exist, if only for a time.”
Kennerspiele und Expertenspiele sind das Markenzeichen von Giant Roc und natürlich gibt es auch 2026 wieder ein paar spannendes Neuheiten dieses Verlags. Ich habe die Neuheiten durchgeschaut und stelle 7 spannende Brettspiel-Neuheiten von Giant Roc im Jahr 2026 vor. Ich bin sehr auf eure Meinung dazu gespannt. 7 spannende Brettspiel-Neuheiten von Giant Roc 2026 Giant […]
You can view just the box covers, or choose to show Game name, Play count, Sort or Filter data (for instance: when you sort on Year published, this will show the Year) and Collection status.
How to enable Grid view
Tap on the green gear icon on the top right of the Games list and select Grid view.
List View Settings
Tap on the green gear icon on the top right of the Games list and select List View Settings.
Here you can enable one or more of the following:
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US-based tabletop game and card manufacturer AdMagic is shuttering its popular Print and Play arm, with company founder and CEO Shari Spiro telling BoardGameWire the operation had been a “financial burden” to the rest of the business for several years.
Spiro told BoardGameWire it had been a “difficult and sad decision” to close the company, which had provided prototypes, promos and components for a string of big-selling titles, as well as fast turnaround print and play services for budding developers and designers.
Print and Play, which was bought by AdMagic in 2015, will close its doors on March 27, with any existing orders “received, printed and put into our standard turnaround production queue”, according to its website.
Spiro would not say whether any Print and Play employees would be kept on in other areas of the business after next week’s closure. The division had 12 employees on March 6, according to the team page on its website at the time.
Spiro told BoardGameWire, “My team invested a lot to keep Print and Play open as long as we could, but unfortunately, the amount of hand work and the time it takes to do the high quality of work done through a small company like Print and Play, costs more than we could actually sell the jobs for.
“In addition our endeavor to cover employees 100% with full health insurance, a 401(k), a robust paid personal time off program, a move to a state of the art brand new facility a few years ago to get the team out of an office building (which was inappropriate for that type of work), two new laser [printers] in the past two years and the associated lease payments for all of the above, in addition to the rising costs of materials all added up.
“Additionally we are not owned by private equity so we don’t have the kind of big money other companies have supporting us. Keeping Print and Play open was putting the rest of our team at risk.
“The financial strain to Ad Magic became overwhelming and so this is why we reached this difficult and sad decision. Moving forward this will help Ad Magic and Breaking Games as it will remove the financial burden which has been borne by the rest of the team for several years now.
“Although our model for prototype services will shift, we will still be able to accommodate our clients through our Ad Magic/Breaking Games divisions.”
Games in which Print and Play has had a hand in producing prototype materials for over the years || Photo Credit: Print & Play
The company’s services were also well used by designers looking to put together early versions of games to pitch to publishers, as well as for creating review and demo copies for companies to send out to content creators and other partners.
Gil Hova, the designer of games including Wordsy and The Networks: PrimeTime, posted to BlueSky yesterday, “Found out during Unpub that Print & Play, one of the best board game POD companies out there, is closing their doors in a couple of weeks.
“I used them extensively in my Formal Ferret days to make prototypes. Their turnaround time was unrivaled. Sad to see them go.”
AdMagic, which Spiro founded in 1998, has grown to become one of the largest independent tabletop printing companies in the US.
The company scored big successes in the early 2010s thanks to the rising wave of Kickstarter projects, working on huge-selling titles such as Cards Against Humanity and Exploding Kittens.
AdMagic launched its own board game publishing arm, Breaking Games, in 2015 on the back of that success, and has gone on to publish titles including Dwellings of Eldervale, Rise of Tribes and Letter Tycoon.
GameHead, which rebranded from GamerMats two years ago as part of a push into board game publishing, has expanded its team with a pair of senior hires.
Ryan Schoon, a veteran presenter at the Man vs Meeple YouTube channel, joins Gamehead as marketing manager, while former Ludo Fact USA account executive Mark Burke comes on board as operations manager.
GameHead said Schoon would help expand GameHead’s presence within the tabletop gaming community using his experience in communications, content creation, brand management, and community and sales growth.
Schoon has spent almost a decade producing reviews and previews as part of Man vs Meeple, which has about 77,000 subscribers. He was also formerly a key account manager at tabletop crowdfunding specialist Gamefound from 2020 to 2022, and later spent almost two years as marketing manager with Japanime Games.
Burke joins Gamehead from the US arm of European board game manufacturing major Ludo Fact, where he worked for two years as an account executive.
He previously spent two years as a wholesale account executive at Unstable Games/TeeTurtle, was store manager at Indiana-based retailer Moonshot Games, and also worked for almost a year managing social media for Western Legends publisher Kolossal Games.
GameHead said Burke will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company while directing the sales team.
The company expanded into board game publishing in 2024 after more than a decade specialising in tabletop game mats and accessories, and rebranded from GamerMats to GameHead as part of that process.
GameHead’s publishing arm is led by creative director Paul Salomon, the designer of Elf Creek Games-published Honey Buzz and Stonemaier Games title Stamp Swap.
The publishing arm was launched to focus on party games for six or more people, casual games suitable for players of all ages, and ‘thinky games’ with strategic elements and replayable decision making.
GameHead’s releases to date include Rocco Privetera’s animal-themed set collection title Trinket Trove and Taiki Shinzawa’s bank heist-themed trick taker No Loose Ends.
Editor’s note: GAMA is one of the sponsors of the BoardGameWire newsletter
Tabletop game industry trade organisation GAMA‘s board of directors have apologised for some of its elected leaders being “rude and disrespectful” during a “heated” annual general meeting at the recent GAMA Expo trade show.
Multiple members of the organisation expressed their disgust during the AGM that board members had suggested people only attended because free food was provided, while others were upset at the way they were shouted at and talked over during a fiery discussion on changes to the non-profit’s bylaws.
On one of the occasions the free food claim was mentioned by a member during the AGM, board member Matt Loter, also known as Matt Fantastic, said, “That was me, you can just blame me, that’s fine. No one else on this board.”
GAMA’s board had proposed lowering the quorum requirement for membership meetings from 25% to 10%, saying that the high thresholds coupled with the organisation’s heavy growth in recent years had made “adapting our organization to changing circumstances all but impossible”.
It also proposed allowing amendments to pass via a simple majority of voting members at a properly called membership meeting, calling the existing process “too rigid”. The board had said that “even small corrections require cumbersome organizational campaigns, which slow down the organization from becoming more efficient and providing more robust service to our members”.
Those changes had received pushback from some members prior to the AGM, with several raising concerns the move would make it too easy for the larger member groups, such as retailers, to push through changes to GAMA laws.
Other members both ahead of and during the AGM suggested that better communication was needed instead of lowering the quorum, with the onus on GAMA to encourage members to participate.
It also emerged during the meeting that not all of the board members were in favour of the amendments, or the extent of the shift to the new quorum percentage.
Both amendments were set to go to a vote following the March 2 meeting, but the board has since postponed the process, saying it would “re-evaluate, and be more mindful before making further proposals”.
The GAMA board also released a statement a week after the AGM which said, “During the meeting, discussion on changes to the bylaws became heated; and there were members of the board of directors who were rude and disrespectful to the membership who came to the event to voice their concerns.
“This was out of order, unacceptable, and should have been shut down immediately. We, the members of your board of directors, apologize to all our members. We pride ourselves in serving GAMA’s members and advocating for our industry. Unfortunately, on Monday [March 2] that passion manifested in a way that was unbecoming of a board.
“We also recognize this apology could have come sooner, but we wanted to discuss as a board what happened, and the best opportunity for that was during our spring planning session that convened on Friday, March 6, the day after GAMA Expo officially closed.”
The board added that it wanted any official meeting of GAMA members to be “a safe space for discourse”, especially when organisation-wide changes like bylaws amendments are being considered.
GAMA president Nicole Brady
It said, “We expect the person(s) leading such meetings to maintain order and insist upon decorum from anyone who is taking part, and that includes members of the board of directors.” The meeting was chaired by GAMA president Nicole Brady.
GAMA’s board also acknowledged that there had been confusion about the proposed bylaw amendments, saying “We met the letter of the bylaws in regard to publishing the amendments in a timely manner; however, we could have done much better in spirit. We acknowledge that the timetable for the vote on the amendments gave the impression of being rushed, despite it again heeding the letter of the bylaws. This impression, and the passionate feedback on those amendments, are what led us earlier to announce that we were postponing the vote.”
It added, “Finally, we owe an apology to GAMA staff for fueling a discussion that distracted from their spectacular success. GAMA Expo 2026 was our biggest and best to date thanks to their hard work and dedication.
“We believe GAMA, as a whole, should also be the best possible industry association it can be. We take your feedback seriously and will work to address our shortcomings as a board in order to ensure you, as members, get what you need out of GAMA. We look forward to working with you on that.”
More than 3,820 attendees showed up to this year’s event in Louisville, Kentucky, up almost 12% on last year’s previous record of 3,425 – which had already left the show pressed for space across the exhibition hall and its extensive programme of seminars.
In den BRETTSPIELBOX News 10/2026 findet ihr die folgenden Nachrichten: Hier sind die Brettspiel News. Guten Start in die Woche. Folgende Neuheiten sind auf dem Weg bzw. angekündigt: Kosmos hat angekündigt: Cascadia Bergseen wird im Herbst erscheinen. Das ist die 3D Version von Cascadia. Das Gamefound Projekt „The Mix“ wird bei HABA im Herbst erscheinen. […]
Editor’s note: GAMA is one of the sponsors of the BoardGameWire newsletter
North America’s biggest board games industry trade show, GAMA Expo, has sealed another record attendance as it prepares a move to Baltimore to contend with rapidly growing demand.
More than 3,820 attendees showed up to this year’s event in Louisville, Kentucky, up almost 12% on last year’s previous record of 3,425 – which had already left the show pressed for space across the exhibition hall and its extensive programme of seminars.
The shift to Baltimore next year will be GAMA Expo’s second new home since 2023, when it was relocated from Reno, Nevada after the growing attendance numbers eclipsed their pre-pandemic highs.
GAMA Expo’s attendance this year is more than double its pre-pandemic record of 1,800 set in 2019, and up more than 87.5% compared to the event’s final Reno show in 2023.
A presentation at this year’s GAMA Expo
GAMA initially signed a three-year contract in Louisville for 2024 to 2026, but agreed to extend that for a year after the KICC helped GAMA shift the dates of last year’s Expo, when the trade organisation realised it had outgrown the footprint available across its original dates.
The organisation later decided to bring its move to Baltimore forward to 2027 as demand continued to grow, paying a fee to break the KICC contract a year early.
GAMA told BoardGameWire last year it had earmarked 300,000 sq ft of exhibit space for year one in Baltimore – almost double the roughly 176,500 sq ft of this year’s vendor hall, and with room to grow to 500,000 sq ft by year three or four at the new site.
Chicago and Minneapolis were also in the mix as potential destinations, with Baltimore being praised by GAMA’s site selection committee for its selection of hotel options, reasonable convention centre rate and incentives to bring the show there.
Several publishers BoardGameWire contacted after this year’s GAMA Expo were all positive about how busy it had been, with two first-time exhibitors both particularly excited about how the event had gone for their companies.
BoardGameWire asked GAMA on March 9 for a breakdown of this year’s attendance for its respective member groups, which it provided last year to show the growth of individual areas, but is yet to receive those figures.
One complaint which has been emerging post-Expo revolves around GAMA’s plan to get rid of ‘priority points’, which have rewarded repeat exhibitors with the ability to exert more power over where their booths are positioned within the vendor hall.
That system has been scrapped for both next year’s Expo and this year’s Origins trade fair, GAMA’s long-running tabletop gaming convention set to take place in Columbus, Ohio in June.
Some frequent exhibitors have expressed dismay at the decision, which came to light as a bullet point in the renewal documents for next year’s event rather than being highlighted for discussion with members ahead of GAMA implementing the policy.
The vendor hall at GAMA Expo in Louisville
GAMA president Nicole Brady said of this year’s GAMA Expo, “Every year, GAMA staff and volunteers strive to make GAMA Expo better than the year before. That was evident this year in various areas such as the extensive educational programming, overflowing interest at networking events and engagement during game nights. Beginning with registration on the first day to exhibit hall tear down on the last, GAMA Expo 2026 was top notch.
“This would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of the staff, the community members who brought their passion to the event and, of course, the sponsors that supported the various events and initiatives.
“Throughout the week and beyond, I’ve heard or read on social media countless people praising the event. Many comments about the ability to conduct business with others in the industry. This annual event is the place to be and people are already making plans for next year in Baltimore!”
Zaria Davis, GAMA’s interim executive director, added, “As a first timer at GAMA Expo and someone still very new to this industry, I was blown away by the experience. I loved getting to meet members face to face, ask questions, and better understand how the business side of tabletop games really works.
“Having the chance to share my own insights in sessions made me feel welcomed and valued, and I’m leaving excited, inspired, and eager to come back.”
Angekündigt: Neu: Updates: ANGEKÜNDIGT In der kommenden Woche Crowdfunding. Wenige Projekte sind angekündigt. Hier der Überblick über die kommende Woche: APEX APEX: Carnivore ist ein direktes Deckbuilding Duell, in dem ihr aus einem gemeinsamen Vorfahren eure eigene Raubtierlinie entwickelt. Von der Miacidae Ausgangsart aus evolviert ihr in drei mögliche Familien: Felidae (Katzen), Ursidae (Bären) oder Mustelidae (Marderartige). Jede neue Eigenschaft […]
Die Menschheit hat die sterbende Erde verlassen und nach tausenden Jahren in den Tiefen des Alls eine neue mögliche Heimat gefunden: Eden. Doch das Paradies ist nicht unbewohnt. Menschgemachte Evolution hat eine Spezies erschaffen, die mit den Neuankömmlingen zusammenstößt. Dies ist die Prämisse von Children of Time.
Co-operative puzzle challenge game Take Time has triumphed in this year’s Swiss Gamers Award, which is voted on by members of board game clubs, game and toy libraries and gaming associations from across the country.
Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière’s design sealed top spot above Eric Olsen’s Flip 7 – which won the separate family game prize – and also finished in third place in the family-weight category.
The win is the second year in a row a game from Asmodee studio Libellud has won the Swiss Gamers Award, following last year’s success for nature-themed tile-laying game Harmonies.
Take Time, designed by Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière
The game fought off tough competition in the family game category this year from titles including Paolo Mori and Alessandro Zucchini’s Toy Battle, the winner of the 2026 As d’Or.
This year’s Swiss Gamers Award featured an expert game category for the first time, which was won by Yeom Cheolwoong’s design Wondrous Creatures – a strategy title based around players building fantasy animal reserves.
Wondrous Creatures, designed by Yeom Cheolwoong || Photo Credit: Bad Comet
The Swiss Gamers Award has been held every year since 2010, following the demise of the Schweizer Spielepreis in 2006.
Although the award is given by gamers living in Switzerland, all games published in the prior year can be nominated, regardless of the nationality of their authors and publishers.
This year’s award marked the third in a row presented to a relatively light game, following Harmonies last year and Faraway in the 2023 awards (presented in 2024).
The far more heavyweight Ark Nova triumphed in 2022, and mid-weight euro The Lost Ruins of Arnak won in 2021.
The award is organised by Ludesco, Switzerland’s biggest board game festival, in partnership with the Swiss Federation of Toy Libraries and the Swiss Game Museum.
Swiss Gamers Awards full results 2025
Main Award Winner: Take Time, designed by Alexi Piovesan, Julien Prothière (Published by Libellud) 2nd Place: Flip 7, Eric Olsen (Catch Up Games, Kosmos) 3rd Place: Zenith, Grégory Grard, Mathieu Roussel (PlayPunk)
Family Award Winner: Flip 7, Eric Olsen (Catch Up Games, Kosmos) 2nd Place: Toy Battle, Paolo Mori and Alessandro Zucchini (Repos Productions) 3rd Place: Take Time, Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière (Libellud)
Expert Award Winner: Wondrous Creatures, Yeom Cheolwoong (Super Meeple, Strohmann Games) 2nd Place: Endeavor: Deep Sea, Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray (Super Meeple, Board Game Circus) 3rd Place: Eternal Decks, Hiroken (Pixie Games, Strohmann Games)
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OffDutyNinja, the tabletop marketing specialist which has worked on $25m of crowdfunding campaigns since its 2018 launch, has been acquired by industry peer Game Brands.
The combined company will operate under the OffDutyNinja name, with Game Brands adding its web design, search engine and answer engine optimisation, and blog content creation offerings to ODN’s marketing and crowdfunding services.
ODN’s work over the years has included crowdfunding and marketing support for companies such as Roxley Games, Indie Boards & Cards and Stronghold Games, Devir North America and Allplay, while the more than 100 campaigns it has worked with include the $2.2m More Terraforming Mars! Kickstarter and Marvel Dice Throne X-Men, which raised over $4.2m.
The acquisition follows a period of ODN quietly closing down its operations, Game Brands founder Ryan Eichenwald told BoardGameWire, with company founder Kira Peavley having shifted to a full-time director of operations role at Brass: Birmingham publisher Roxley Games over the past couple of years.
Eichenwald becomes CEO of Off Duty Ninja, with former CEO Peavley staying on in an advisory capacity for the next year to help ease the transition.
Peavley told BoardGameWire, “It came down to timing, and the timing was right. I had reached a point where I was ready for my next chapter, and when the opportunity with Ryan and Game Brands came together, it just made sense.
OffDutyNinja founder Kira Peavley || Photo Credit: OffDutyNinja
“The clients, the team, the work they have all built deserve to keep going and growing, and this deal makes that possible. It felt like the right ending to my chapter and the right beginning for theirs. It has been quite emotional but also quite positive.”
Speaking of ODN’s growth and the changes in board game crowdfunding and marketing over the years, Peavley said, “OffDutyNinja launched October 31, 2018, originally as a media management consultancy. That lasted about five minutes, honestly, because clients needed more and I was able to offer it.
“Very quickly it evolved into a full digital marketing agency for tabletop games, helping publishers with their everyday marketing needs as well as crowdfunding. The scope grew, and then ebbed, and then grew again.
“Covid hit hard and when publishers/creators are having to make difficult decisions about whether they can afford to keep their doors open and keep making games, marketing support understandably moves down the priority list.
“Tariffs have brought that same energy back in a different way. Through all of it we just tried to stay flexible and meet clients where they were.
“The other challenge has been the shift in how Kickstarter works. Ten years ago you could launch with no budget and no existing audience and still find success because the platform itself was driving discovery.
“That window has been closing for tabletop for a while now, and it has fundamentally changed what creators need to consider before launching a crowdfunding project.”
She continued, “That discovery shift really gets to the heart of the biggest challenge we see now. The audience has to exist before you launch. Full stop.
“The campaigns that succeed are the ones where the publisher has spent months, sometimes a full year, building a community that is genuinely excited to back on day one. The first 24 to 48 hours drive the algorithm, and the algorithm doesn’t care about your campaign if you don’t come in with momentum already built.
“The biggest obstacle to that? Time. Creators sometimes wait way too long to get started. We’d sometimes hear from people who reached out only a month or two before their planned launch date, or in some cases after they had already gone live.
“At that point every job gets harder: the audience building is rushed, the creative is rushed, and the campaign pays for it. The earlier you start, the better every single piece of it gets.
“The other big thing is expectation calibration. There are a lot of headline funding numbers out there from mega-campaigns that skew what success looks like.
“For most publishers, especially indie and first-time creators, a realistic and fully funded campaign that delivers well is worth so much more than swinging for a number you can’t hit.”
When asked about her take on ODN’s biggest successes in the crowdfunding space, Peavley said, “Honestly, it’s hard to point to a single success.
“People probably want to hear about the big IP projects, and those are genuinely exciting. Getting to work on something like Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid across multiple campaigns, or Marvel Dice Throne, or Lord of the Rings, or Terraforming Mars is a thrill for obvious reasons.
Marvel Dice Throne: X-Men || Kickstarter image
“But the truth is every project we worked on was a big success to us, from a first-time creator finding their footing to a major publisher launching their next big title. The scale is completely different but the care that goes into it is exactly the same.
“And that’s really the point. A tremendous amount of love, heart, and work goes into every campaign, and that’s not just from our side. It’s from the client, the designers, the artists, the playtesters, the partners, the backers, the community.
“Tabletop is a real group effort, and when all of those pieces come together the way they’re supposed to, that’s the success. Every single time. That never got old.”
Crowdfunding Future
Game Brands launched three years ago as Board Burst, before renaming itself to Digital Wizard. That company consisted of Game Brands, which focused on digital marketing and web support for the board, tabletop, and video game industries, and Opmasis, which provided the same services for realtors, personal injury lawyers and contractors.
Eichenwald told BoardGameWire that Opmasis would be closing its doors following the ODN acquisition. He said the new company would also cease reaching out to potential video game clients “for at least the time being” – although added that it would still accept video game clients if they request its services.
Game Brands’ previous experience in the tabletop industry includes working with Steve Jackson Games “to help them wrangle their website”, backend work for Restoration Games which Eichenwald said doubled the company’s website traffic, and providing website design assistance for Gamelyn Games prior to its acquisition by Tabletop Tycoon (now Tycoon Games).
Eichenwald said, “ODN’s number of clients is currently at 11, including the combined client bases of both companies. ODN has started moving in a very crowdfunding-heavy direction over the last few months, and I’m very excited to continue that work.
New OffDutyNinja CEO Ryan Eichenwald
“ODN’s crowdfunding team is second-to-none, and I’m looking forward to being able to help new games reach audiences in much more concrete, measurable ways than ever before.
“ODN has also had a very board and card game-focused history, but the addition of the Game Brands team – and Brad Bound especially – gives us deep roots in the TTRPG space as well that we’re eager to bring to ODN’s experienced team.”
The ODN team will also include CFO Chris Ortega and backer experience manager Carissa Yaffe, in addition to lead graphic designer Kevin Haemmerle. Editorial manager Anais Torres was already in the process of leaving ODN prior to the sale, but is currently helping with the company’s transition, Peavley added.
Asked to give her predictions for how tabletop crowdfunding might change over the next year or so, Peavley said, “I think we’re going to continue seeing Gamefound grow, and I’m genuinely hopeful that the increased competition will push Kickstarter to make some positive changes. A little pressure never hurts.
“I personally love what the BackerKit crowdfunding platform is doing and I hope to see it pick up more momentum in our space. The platform landscape is more interesting right now than it’s been in a long time, which is good for creators and backers both.”
Eichenwald, who attended the GAMA Expo trade show as part of ODN at the end of last month, said, “One of the big things that came up was just how many people were looking for crowdfunding support, especially after the economic shocks from last year.
“A lot of the newer games seemed to be small-box or app-enabled, and I got a sense of excitement this year that hadn’t been there the year previous – which makes sense, given that GAMA 2025 was overshadowed by the first round of tariffs.”
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