Circumstances have led me to attend a few gateway / non gamer game nights and I have honestly found it quite refreshing - being able to enjoy sub 7.5 bgg rated games without my jaded, hobbiest glasses on!

This looks fantastic

Reading Sarah Shipp's "Thematic Integration in Board Game Design" has had a profound impact on how I think about games. In particular, her three layers of theme model has really stuck with me. I wrote about it at Skeleton Code Machine in May 2024: www.skeletoncodemachine.com/p/layers-of-...

In cheerful news, my advanced copies of Shadow Moon Syndicates arrived and that means backers should be getting notifications in the near future. Filmed an unboxing video last night, so exciting that my game is real!

I just subscribed to this. One of my favourite board game commentators!

Europe - blowing up and invading brown countries > ‘fo shure’ Also Europe - Please respect intl law in greenland, America!

Europe whining to USA that they were infact equally at the forefront of destructive wars against brown people, that totally violated intl law and caused a generation of misery.

Been really enjoying this app assisted island exploration game with my 6 year old. Great fun!

Some weekend reading! Thanks for inspiration @matthewdunstan.bsky.social

Love the art!

Gone Cardboard: Are SPIEL Essen 25 previews starting already?! Get an overview of Abroad, a game from Rodrigo Rego, Danilo Valente, and 1 More Time Games that challenges you to have the best time possible in Europe and earn the points to prove it: boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogp... —WEM

My read as a non publisher/non designer: The board game industry has become terrified of causing any offence whatsoever. Also, I am not sure mainstream euros were ever especially political/critical. That leaves historic games that seem to focus on ww2 and prior events for the most part.

Our next game! #abroad

Reis, Reis, Baby: In der Kritikenrundschau zu "Abroad" (Rodrigo Rego und Danilo Valente bei @1moretimegames.bsky.social) werden Spielejournalist:innen zu Reisejournalist:innen. www.spiel-des-jahres.de/kritikenrund...

Recently discovered a board game club that meets in a nearby pub, attended for the first time last night and was fascinated to discover it was essentially a non hobbyist board game group, all casual / gatewayish games.

Check out my latest accessibility review, this time for Great Western Trail: Second Edition! "...the game provides mostly accessible components for colorblind and low-vision players, with some exceptions."

Disappointed this is just an expansion rather than a spin off/ standalone game.

Quite surprised by this, best of luck to all involved!

What we playing this week?

My recap of the best new (to me!) #boardgames of 2025 is now live on the Opinionated Gamers site. opinionatedgamers.com/2026/01/07/b...

Can only imagine the outrage if a popular kids band had ‘demon’ in the title when I was a kid. Seems a bit unnecessary tbh.

Oh well back to board games

New year and a new American war. A sickening parasitical state that cannot survive without murdering humans somewhere in the world.

My board game wishes for 2026? 1. Stop the anthropomorphic animal and dystopia themes, please 🙏 that’s honestly enough now. 2. Make more ‘new’ old school style games instead of just rebooting old school games.

Hold on boys, it’s another Knizia reboot!

I gest so?

My issue is I still don’t play enough board games to justify any kind of annual top x list, but I might bow to tradition and flag some new to me games that have impressed me this year.

Biggest hit this Xmas has been King of Tokyo

Strong Pandemic vibes

💼 I’m looking for work as a board game designer. 🌎 I’m open to in-person, hybrid or remote work. ⭐ I’ve previously worked at the Uzzle and made Abandon All Artichokes, Starry Night Sky, and other board games.

Diamonds are Expensive

Doctor Will See You Now

Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!

An immortal Tiny Tim sharing wisdom with future Kermit descendants.

I’ve been involved in tech startups for a decade, at first it was all about an optimistic drive to change the world for the better, then start ups became a laughing stock with silicon valley, finally we went full circle from do no evil till the nexus of all evil 👿

Finally got my hands on a copy of this great game (pre-owned).

I wonder if we have truly come to terms with how badly covid fucked our hobby as board gamers. The main london board game group went from 5 week day evening sessions + two full weekend sessions down to 2 sessions per week. Not to mention impact on board game cafes etc.

True board game minimalism!

I have managed to sell/donate about 20 games in past week. Keep in mind my total collection is sub 100 games. So not a bad %. The biggest challenge of course is reducing how many board games I purchase.

Hot dang, Soothsayers has hit its 30 ratings on BGG and is coming in at a blistering 8.2!

Me letting go of any pretence of achieving board game minimalism

Me letting go of any pretence of achieving board game minimalism

Learn how to play Tabriz in Persian/Farsi. And in character! This is a very cool how-to-play video from GEEKBAZI | گیک بازی. #Tabriz #Iran #Persia #PersianCarpets #BoardGames

I was working at a miniature wargaming company and we’d play games of M:tG at lunch or after work. One of my coworkers brought in 7 Wonders: Duel and opened my eyes to modern board gaming! Fun fact, that coworker now works at Chip Theory Games.

For me, it was wanting to find some different games to play with friends and family. I came across this video - www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPi_... - by @scottnicholson.bsky.social from the very early days of Youtube, and was instantly drawn in. Thank you Scott!

Inspired by @gameminimalist.bsky.social mentioning what drew him into hobby games, I'd love to hear your stories of what drew you into the hobby. What was your turning point? Do you remember the thing that tipped you over the edge and down, down, down into the rabbit hole? Tell me about it.

Christmas always reminds me of when I got into hobby board games, although I was aware of games like catan and carcassonne, I didn’t realise a whole universe of hobby games existed. Then a search for ‘a better version of monopoly’ took me to BGG and the rest was history!

I have been active a UK second hand board game group for a few years now and time after time I see Roll Player coming up and selling for top dollar (or Pound in this case!). Impressive how much staying power this title has! boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16...

Chess Joker has launched! Join in now at: www.backerkit.com/c/projects/a... I'm so excited to have two cool new games to share with everyone at the end of the year. Curling and Chess are both games I've loved for a long time, and it's fun to put a unique spin on each of them.