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.
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”.
Brotherwise Games is betting that hobby board game brands can travel beyond the tabletop by launching Shelfy, a collectibles line of miniature board game boxes featuring titles from 20 publishers.
The publisher will debut ‘Season One’ of Shelfy at Gen Con later this month, featuring 28 miniature recreations of board game boxes for titles including Gloomhaven, Dune: Imperium and Boop.
Shelfy’s starter set includes a six-inch miniature display shelf, five collectible game boxes and their accompanying information cards, while Brotherwise will also be selling blind boosters containing three boxes of varying rarity and their matching collectible art cards.
Brotherwise CEO Chris O’Neal told BoardGameWire the project had been in the works for about four years, saying it was inspired by ‘shelfie’ photos shared to social media and “the pride gamers take in their collections”.
Brotherwise Games CEO Chris O’Neal
He said, “We wanted a physical version of that, and since you can’t bring your entire game collection to your office or dorm room, we looked for a more ‘collectible’ way to show off your ‘collection’.”
O’Neal added that once Brotherwise had decided it was ready to commit to Shelfy as a product line, he was surprised at how easy it had been to get the publishers behind their “wish list” titles on board.
He said, “There’s not a lot like this in the tabletop space, and we thought that folks might be a bit wary of it, but quite the opposite; the vast majority of publishers we reached out to said yes.
“The gaming industry is a pretty supportive one, where we’re typically rooting for each other to succeed, and I think publishers saw a chance to do something fun with their friends and colleagues – we certainly did!
“It doesn’t hurt that the actual product is just adorable. The first thing we heard from most of the people we reached out to was, ‘do I get a set?'”
The 20 publishers signed up to the first run of Shelfy titles include AEG, Dire Wolf, Devir, Stronghold Games, Eagle-Gryphon Games, Horrible Guild and Van Ryder Games, among others.
From a commercial point of view, O’Neal told BoardGameWire that Shelfy was both a licensing opportunity and a marketing initiative for publishers – adding that the company had decided to vary royalties so that publishers would get about the same amount of revenue regardless of whether their mini was a common, rare or ‘chase’ – a special edition variant of an existing box.
A selection of board games featured in Season One of Shelfy
He said, “Every game box mini comes with a matching info card that tells you about the game, shows off some of the beautiful art, and links to the publisher’s webpage.
“It’s our hope that collectors are intrigued enough by the minis to check out the games they’re modeled on. But we wouldn’t ask publishers to participate without offering up a royalty.”
Brotherwise “spent a ton of time trying to think about the right way to do this before settling on the collectible model”, O’Neal told BoardGameWire, adding, “As people who grew up with trading cards, we realized we wanted to capture that joy of seeing what surprises pop out of that blind bag.
“Beyond that, we also saw Shelfy as a way to introduce players to games they don’t already own. And lastly, we wanted to harness some of the community aspects of gaming by encouraging people to swap or gift any doubles they might get.”
Asked whether he believes hobby board games have reached the point where they have become brands in their own right, O’Neal said, “Yes, 100%. It all starts with the fun and play, but think of the art, the story, and the emotion that great games are known for.
“Think of how people relate to their favorite games. All that is the hallmark of a brand.”
O’Neal confirmed that Brotherwise already has a wish list of Season Two games ready to go, but would wait to see if Shelfy “resonates with gamers” at Gen Con before moving ahead with more titles.
He said, “This was a bit of a passion project for Brotherwise, so we’re not looking at it the same way we would a game launch, but we’d love for Shelfy to be popular enough to find a second life in game stores.
“Right now it’s planned as a Gen Con 2026 offering, but if it does well there, who knows? At the very least it would be cool if it became a regular Gen Con thing.”
He added, “Gaming is experiential, first and foremost, so it’s hard to imagine a future where merchandising becomes a sizeable portion of any title’s revenue.
“But we will say that working on Shelfy has reminded us that gamers relate to their collections in ways that extend beyond their gaming sessions.
“Maybe we should be thinking bigger, but for now, we’ll settle on thinking small, cute, and charming.”
Brotherwise’s other Gen Con reveals this year are set to include Shards of Creation, a trick-taking game set in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe, and wargame Stormlight: War for Roshar, a John D Clair design based on the same author’s Stormlight Archive series.
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.
Eurydice director Jackson Pope with FlickFleet’s latest expansion, Box of Xeno Flicks 2
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.
Components from FlickFleet
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.
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.
Parks & Potions designer Chris Eastridge
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.
Grok Games owner and Boardssey co-founder Luis Francisco
“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.
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.
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.
Railroad Tiles, designed by Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva
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.
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.
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
Czech Games Edition chief executive Petr Murmak has confirmed US tariffs are the main reason American customers will pay about $30 more than their European counterparts for the publisher’s newly announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance board game, underlining how import duties are now directly shaping board game pricing.
The publisher revealed it has eyes on a Spiel Essen release for the heavy euro adventure game, a Tomáš Holek and Vlaada Chvátil co-design based on the hit medieval RPG video game – which has sold more than 16 million copies across the original release and its 2025 sequel.
That announcement included the news that the game will cost €149.99 (~$170) in Europe, but $199.99 in the US – a situation Murmak explained in BoardGameGeek post was largely down to US tariffs on European imports.
“Shipping to US also costs us something, so we have slightly less profit on one copy in US than in EU. Moreover there is uncertainty about tariffs in the future (they might go up – there were some threats already from US government), or dollar might go down like last year…”
Although board game publishers have repeatedly warned that tariffs would push retail prices higher, few have publicly broken down exactly how those increases translate into MSRP in different regions.
BoardGameWire has previously spoken to publishers who said they had already begun passing on to customer both US tariffs on China and the lower rates applied to European manufacturing, while absorbing part of the additional costs themselves in an effort to avoid psychologically difficult price points.
Several board game publishers warned last year that some consumers had yet to fully appreciate how significantly prices could rise once tariff-affected print runs began reaching retail.
Ongoing uncertainty about further US tariff hikes have also heavily impact international freight in recent weeks, with rates on routes between Asia and the US east coast, and Asia and Europe, surging to their highest levels since the Red Sea crisis two years ago, according to a report from the Financial Times earlier this week.
It said the price of a 40ft container between China and the US east coast rose to $7,880 last week, up 62% from a month earlier, while rates between China and the Mediterranean jumped 47% to $6,431 – citing data from shipping platform Freightos.
That surge has come in anticipation of new US tariffs next month, the report added, bringing forward the annual increase in shipping demand that usually starts as retailers filled inventories before the Black Friday and Christmas shopping periods.
CGE said it would be releasing the game in limited quantity waves, citing the need to ensure a high production quality for the “massive, component-rich project”.
Vlaada Chvátil in a promotional image for Kingdom Come: Deliverance – The Board Game
Game co-creator Vlaada Chvátil’s pedigree include the huge-selling word game Codenames, the Mage Knight Board Game and Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization, while his co-designer Tomáš Holek scored a huge success two years ago with his multi-award-winning space exploration eurogame SETI.
Chvátil said, “I’m genuinely enjoying working on this game. Amazing source material, a co-designer whose approach to games is very close to my own, the care and support the CGE team brings to every project, and, above all, gameplay that feels both epic and playful at the same time.
“That creates a design playground where every card, quest, skill, and encounter is pure joy to work on.
“Every time Tomáš and I sit down for another playtest, look over the starting setup, reveal the opening cards, and watch the possibilities unfold before us, we inevitably glance at each other and think: damn, this game is still so much fun.”
The parent company behind European tabletop retail major Wayland Games has expanded again with the acquisition of US-based miniatures storage manufacturer Battle Foam.
The company said Battle Foam would continue to operate under its existing brand, with founder Romeo Filip and the company’s core team remaining in place, while gaining access to Wyld Holdings’ logistics, distribution and operational infrastructure.
Battle Foam makes foam-based storage for miniatures wargaming, as well as deck boxes and foam storage solutions for items such as golf club heads, camera lenses and firearms.
The acquisition marks the latest step in Wyld Holdings’ strategy of building an integrated tabletop business spanning publishing, manufacturing, distribution and retail.
Its Battle Foam buyout comes six months after Wyld acquired Essen, Germany-based Kraken Wargames, which specialises in gaming mats and the Black Racks hobby organisation system.
Wyld Holdings CEO Richard Lawford said, “Our strategy at Wyld Holdings is not about absorbing brands and altering what makes them successful; it’s about empowering them to play at a larger scale.
“The team at Battle Foam has built a phenomenal product line and a highly dedicated community.
“By pairing their creative DNA with our operational strength and distribution muscle, we can accelerate their growth and introduce their products to a wider global audience.”
Battle Foam founder Romeo Filip added, “Joining the Wyld Holdings family represents a massive milestone for us. It allows the team to focus entirely on what they do best – creating exceptional products for our community while leveraging Wyld’s world-class retail and distribution channels to scale thoughtfully without losing our roots.
“I’m excited to seeing our excellent products reach even more customers.”
Editor’s note: GAMA is one of the sponsors of the BoardGameWire newsletter
Tabletop gaming industry association GAMA has hired Kevin Ronnebaum as its senior marketing and communications director – making him the trade body’s sixth communications lead since mid-2020.
Ronnebaum joins GAMA after almost three decades working across creative, marketing and communications roles, most recently at non-profits including Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland, Make-A-Wish, A Kid Again and Maryhaven.
Speaking to BoardGameWire in May, newly-elected GAMA president Meredith Placko said putting proactive structures in place to keep GAMA from “stepping in the mud all the time” was one of her priorities – adding that being on top of communication was essential to that process.
That focus on communication was echoed by GAMA’s interim executive director and COO Melinda Prickett, who reached out to Ronnebaum after having previously hired him while she was COO of Girl Scouts of Ohio Heartland.
She told BoardGameWire Ronnebaum stood out from a strong pool of candidates due to his “rare combination of strategic vision and operational excellence”, adding that GAMA was excited about “his ability to strengthen our communications strategy and amplify the value we deliver to our members and the broader community”.
Prickett added, “GAMA is currently in an important foundation-building chapter, and our communications priorities reflect that. We are focused on increasing both the consistency and effectiveness of our communications across all audiences.
GAMA interim executive director and COO Melinda Prickett
“What’s working well is the passion and engagement of our members. There is tremendous enthusiasm for the work we do and the future of the tabletop gaming industry. Our opportunity is to build upon that foundation by creating greater clarity, consistency, and connection in how we communicate our mission, value, programs, and advocacy efforts.
“As we continue to grow, our focus is on developing a more strategic, integrated communications approach that strengthens member engagement, enhances transparency, and ensures stakeholders clearly understand the impact and value of GAMA throughout the year.”
Ronnebaum told BoardGameWire his initial priorities included strengthening GAMA’s overarching brand, increasing awareness of flagship events including Origins Game Fair and GAMA Expo, and more clearly communicating the value of GAMA membership and the association’s industry support services.
He said, “My goal [is] to help others connect socially and flourish through inspired creativity. It’s everywhere, all the time with this group. We have an awesome opportunity to bring value, share messaging that can build confidence in a startup, an artist, a creator, or a player.”
Ronnebaum added, “Ask a small business or startup that has worked with us, and they will tell you that we helped them immensely. Why? Because we care deeply about the industry and we have expertise that can help others thrive in an exciting and unique setting.”
He said, “At GAMA, we have a great story to tell, we just have to get better at telling it”, adding: “The industry needs GAMA, GAMA needs the industry, and we are here to help it thrive.”
Ronnebaum’s hire marks a continuation of high turnover at the top of GAMA’s comms department, with former incumbent Eric Francis having only joined the organisation 12 months ago.
Those hires followed the role being occupied by Mike Boseak, Rachel Blaske and Danni Loe since mid-2020, and mean the organisation has now had six comms heads in as many years.
Eric Francis, who spoke to BoardGameWire after announcing he was leaving GAMA in April, remained full of praise for the organisation – saying his own exit to join software networking company Megaport essentially came down to pay, which he described as “the Achilles heel of any nonprofit career”.
He said, “I worked at GAMA for about a year and it’s left a huge impression upon me. Tabletop nerds are my people, and like so many of us in the hobby I had thought it would be cool to work in the industry.
“Well, it turns out it was every better than I could’ve imagined. GAMA is a great organization, and one that faces significant challenges given that it’s a small team with a limited budget working all-out to serve a global industry that has to deal with logistical, manufacturing, commerce, and (increasingly) political policy challenges.
“I’m pretty sure that, with rare exceptions, our members and the broader tabletop industry have no idea how many irons GAMA’s staff has in the fire, how many balls they keep in the air, and how many hours they put in on a given day, month, or year.
“Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever truly be done with GAMA, even if I no longer work there. Once I have my feet under me at the new job I’ll join a committee and otherwise support GAMA’s work; I’m also signed up for the convention support team at Origins 2026. There’s a lot to be done, and I intend to help in the doing.”
GAMA’s long-running tabletop gaming convention Origins has seen its annual attendance fall for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, even as revenue, exhibitor space and the volume of scheduled events continued to expand.
Attendance slipped to 18,700 at this year’s event in June from a post-pandemic record of 19,171 at last year’s 50th anniversary event – and remains below the all-time high of 20,642 posted in 2019.
While that attendance reflect a recovery from the lows of around 10,500 and 11,500 in 2021 and 2022, when many people were still reluctant to attend large gatherings post pandemic, other major shows such as Gen Con, Spiel Essen and the UK Games Expo had all recovered to beat their pre-Covid highs by 2024.
UKGE has had a particularly strong post-Covid recovery, with its unique attendance roughly doubling compared to its 2019 total to reach 51,000 this year.
Gamers trying out Button Kingdoms at the 2026 Origins Game Fair || Photo Credit: GAMA
Despite this year’s slide in attendance, however, Origins continues to grow in other areas, with new GAMA communications director Kevin Ronnebaum telling BoardGameWire the 2026 show made more revenue than ever amid significant ongoing growth in its scheduled events programme.
More than 8,600 events ranging from industry panels and seminars to tournaments, RPG sessions and creative workshops took place at Origins this year, up 10% year-on-year and growing almost a third compared to 2024’s total.
Underscoring the event’s ongoing reputation as a show to play games at rather than just for shopping, more than 8,000 games were checked out of the on-site game library this year – a new record, and up 22% compared to 2025.
The number of exhibitors remained steady at 413, almost identical to last year and up about 26% compared to the 305 who ran booths at the 2025 event. But this year’s exhibitors ran larger booths on average, Ronnebaum said, with the total space taken up by exhibitors growing 10,000 sq ft to reach 62,720 sq ft.
Big names from 2025 who did not return to exhibit this year included Hachette Boardgames, Cephalofair Games, Chip Theory Games, and Queen Games, although the show did attract attendees such as Blue Orange, Eagle-Gryphon Games and CoolStuffInc who did not run booths last year.
Ronnebaum said that positives about the event from GAMA’s point of view included a better registration experience and care of VIP and premium badge holders, further growth in RPGs and improved organisation in how exhibitors were onboarded, which he said received positive feedback.
He added that challenges which reared their heads included the decision to stagger booths this year rather than position them in a neat grid, which he said had proved “a little confusing” for attendees.
That confusion was apparent in online discussion of the event, with some visitors reporting that locating specific exhibitors had become more difficult and that the show floor felt harder to browse efficiently.
Not all feedback was negative, however, with some attendees acknowledging the layout changes seemed to aid in persuading visitors to dwell at individual booths rather than just rushing along the aisles.
Alexi Piovesan and Julien Prothière’s design fought off competition from Florian Maas’ citybuilding game Project Skyline and Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva’s Railroad Ink sequel Railroad Tiles to take the 2026 Spiel der Spiele award.
Take Time publisher Libellud previously won the Austrian game prize’s family game award for Dixit in 2010, while the title’s co-designer Julien Prothière won the family game category with Featherweight Fiesta in 2024, and the ‘friends game of the year’ award with March of the Crabs the same year.
The Austrian Game Academy, which runs the Spiel der Spiele award each year, picked out Jon Perry’s Hot Streak as the winner of its ‘friends game of the year’ prize this year, while the expert game award went to Saltfjord, designed by Kristian Amundsen Østby and Eilif Svensson.
Hot Streak has been on a run of award wins this year, with the chaotic mascot racing game having picked up best party game and light game of the year in BoardGameGeek’s Golden Geek Awards, casual game of the year in the American Tabletop Awards, and a ‘recommended’ accolade in the Spiel des Jahres.
Boss Fighters QR, by Michael Palm and Lukas Zach, was named ‘trend’ game of the year for its innovative use of QR codes in-game, while the 2026 best kids game prize went to Emanuele Briano’s Beast Selfie.
Austria’s Spiel der Spiele has been handed out since 2001, when it was won by Catan designer Klaus Teuber’s colonisation game Entdecker: Exploring New Horizons – a reworking of his 1996 design Entdecker.
Plaid Hat Games has cancelled its successfully-funded Kickstarter for upcoming title The Monolith three days after launch, saying it failed to give prospective backers enough reasons to pledge rather than wait for retail.
The Monolith quickly beat its $20,000 funding goal after launching on June 25, but Plaid Hat CEO Colby Dauch told BoardGameWire pledges had “completely stagnated” by the second day of the campaign.
That led the publisher to scrap the crowdfund for the Phil Gross-designed game on day three, having collected $27,400 from 290 backers.
Dauch said Plaid Hat plans to relaunch the crowdfund shortly after Gen Con with additional content and more pledge tiers, while keeping the game’s existing delivery timeline intact – with manufacturing having already begun on the title.
That manufacturing process has included Plaid Hat spending $35,000 on plastic moulds alone, given the large amount of plastic components in the game – including the namesake monolith, a large plastic tower which sits at the centre of the board.
Dauch told BoardGameWire the company estimates it would have to sell 10,000 copies of the game in order to spread the mould cost widely enough that the retail price could be kept down, adding that the long lead times on making plastic moulds was a big motivator in starting manufacturing prior to the campaign – as well as a desire to launch the game at a convention this year.
Plaid Hat CEO Colby Dauch
Plaid Hat said in an update to Kickstarter backers, “While we hit our funding goal at a decent rate, almost as soon as we did, the pledges stopped. Another 24 hours passed, and the needle didn’t move.
“Of course, we had questions since we’ve run several campaigns now and this experience is completely new to us.
“What we found was that our visually striking campaign was drawing in lots of people, but they weren’t pledging.
“While there wasn’t a ton of feedback, one thing we heard on several occasions was, ‘Why pledge now? Why not just wait for retail?'”
“For everyone here who’s backed, you already know the answer to that question, but we must acknowledge the simple truth that along the way, we could have done better.”
The company added in a follow-up post on BlueSky, “We could have limped over the finish line, but it would have been such a disservice to a game worthy of so much more.”
Dauch told BoardGameWire that all of Plaid Hat’s prior Kickstarters had followed the common practice of setting a low goal amount which can be quickly celebrated as having been beaten, providing momentum for the campaign.
But after seeing The Monolith quickly fund before effectively flatlining, Dauch said reaching a funding target was no longer enough to demonstrate sufficient market demand.
The company has said it will revisit that practice in the wake of cancelling The Monolith, instead likely setting the target as costs plus a certain margin that would need to be crossed to indicate there is enough overall enthusiasm from backers.
Dauch told BoardGameWire, “I think it is just public knowledge that there are certain rules you have to follow to make a Kickstarter work.
“We’ve tried to challenge some of the rules – for example, as a company we try not to lean too hard on FOMO to get people to pledge.
“But we’ve accepted other rules for success as standard practice in a crowdfunding campaign. One of those rules is that you really want to set a low goal that you can blow past early.”
The Monolith || Kickstarter Image
Asked whether the game potentially suffered due to its $90 price point – not necessarily that it was too high, but that it fell between the extremes of ‘very affordable’ and ‘massive, multi-hundred dollar multibox crowdfund’ – Dauch told BoardGameWire:
“I think there is evidence that people want a variety of price points they can buy into, and we are exploring options to make that happen. I think that is more to blame than being in some middle ground.”
Plaid Hat has been making successful board games since 2009, when Dauch created the company to sell his highly-regarded card-based fantasy battler Summoner Wars.
The publisher scored another hit with animal-themed co-op adventure game Mice and Mystics in 2012, and followed that two years later with the hugely successful Dead of Winter, which scooped a string of awards – and big sales numbers – for its thematic mix of zombie survival, traitor mechanics and story-driven gameplay.
Plaid Hat was bought by Asmodee in 2015, but became a rarity five years later as one of just two studios which have gone on to become independent from the publishing and distribution giant.
Dauch told BoardGameWire Plaid Hat had long delayed embracing Kickstarter because it was uncomfortable with some of the accepted conventions of crowdfunding, including the pressure to create artificial urgency.
He said, “The reality is that we held off on doing crowdfunding campaigns for a long time as a company because parts of them do feel artificial and we weren’t looking to deceive anyone.
“These large companies on Kickstarter don’t NEED the campaign funds in order to fund a project. It’s self-evident from the fact that a campaign must have a certain amount of polish and progress to even be taken seriously, which already represents a sizeable investment made to get a game to that state.
“Our decision to enter the crowdfunding arena was based on the belief that we were missing out on a portion of the market that enjoys getting their games through crowdfunding campaigns, not because we could no longer fun projects on our own.
“We felt that crowdfunding has been such a mainstay for so long, that most people who participate in them are aware that this is how many established companies use Kickstarter – as a sort of pre-order campaign.”
Spirit Island designer R Eric Reuss says he is in talks with a new publisher for the hit cooperative game after opting not to renew its publishing deal with Flat River Group.
Reuss said he expects to be able to license Spirit Island to a new publisher “within the next year or so” according to an update posted to BoardGameGeek and Reddit, adding that dozens of publishers had reached out to express interest in the title and that negotiations with one unnamed company were “going well”.
Flat River laid off almost all Greater than Games’ staff and suspended new projects in April 2025, blaming economic pressures stemming from the US tariff crisis.
Reuss has now confirmed he decided not to renew Spirit Island’s publishing agreement with Flat River in the wake of its decision to lay off staff at Greater than Games.
He said, “I originally signed Spirit Island with Greater Than Games, which was acquired by Flat River Group around 2021-2022.
“In April 2025, FRG laid off nearly all Greater Than Games staff – the folks I’d been working with – and announced the suspension of all new projects. I submitted my non-renewal thereafter.”
Reuss said his agreement specifies that once Flat River’s licence expires, the company can no longer use the Spirit Island trademark or sell new copies beyond existing inventory.
But he added that ownership of the game’s artwork and graphical assets was “less crystal-clear”, and that negotiations with Flat River to reach a deal over the artwork rights had come to nothing.
He said in the update, “I’d be happy to pay Flat River Group to settle this matter and use the existing art, but what they’re asking for is so much higher than what I’m willing to pay that I have to assume a settlement won’t happen.
He added that he would not consider running a crowdfund from fans to raise money for acquiring the art assets from Flat River, saying, “Given that I don’t feel OK paying that much money, I really don’t feel OK asking Spirit Island fans to pay that much money.”
Reuss said new non-Flat River Group versions of the game would retain the same gameplay, spirits, powers, adversaries and expansions, but with entirely new visual interpretations, promising “vibrant, colorful, representational art”.
Despite the extensive visual overhaul, Reuss stressed that no second edition was currently planned, with only minor rules clarifications and potential balance tweaks currently under consideration.
He said his design priority remains the long-awaited Dahan-focused expansion, although recommissioning Spirit Island’s artwork was likely to delay development of that project.
The designer also confirmed that he has no plans to use generative AI artwork in the project, primarily because he wanted to “collaborate with, support, and celebrate human artists”.
He added in the update, “Ssecondarily because (a) all image-creating GenAI I know of was trained unethically, and (b) while queries aren’t so environmentally terrible as is sometimes asserted, training new models is another story entirely (and using GenAI bolsters demand for training new models).”
He continued “I’m not dogmatically anti-GenAI – I’d love to see ethically trained, environmentally conscientious, explainable, non-toxic, reasonably-secure public-option GenAI. Though that doesn’t address the impact on illustrators and other jobs, so maybe also UBI or something? One can dream.”
Reuss said that although dozens of publishers had expressing interest in Spirit Island since April last year, he added that if negotiations ultimately failed he would self-publish the game himself.
He said, “Spirit Island will continue being published, and I’m going to keep working on making new stuff for it. It’s not going away.”
Board game crowdfunding major Awaken Realms has made its first acquisition of another publisher by acquiring Darwin’s Journey maker Thundergryph Games.
Thundergryph will operate under its own brand following the deal, with company founder Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi continuing to lead its creative direction in his new role of game director at Awaken Realms.
The publishers said the tie-up will allow Thundergryph to focus exclusively on game design and development, with Awaken Realms taking on responsibility for operational necessities such as logistics, manufacturing, fulfillment and worldwide distribution.
The move broadens Awaken Realms’ publishing portfolio beyond the large-scale, narrative-driven and miniature-heavy titles for which it is best known, such as the hugely lucrative Nemesis series, Tainted Grail and ISS Vanguard.
Acquiring Thundergryph adds a catalogue which includes eurogames such as the highly regarded Darwin’s Journey, Tang Garden and Etherstone – and indicates an appetite from Awaken Realms to expand out into different styles of game.
Awaken Realms founder and CEO Marcin Świerkot said, “We were really impressed by the Thundergryph portfolio and how they managed to create very interesting and beautiful games over and over again.
Awaken Realms CEO Marcin Świerkot
“Because they are so different from what we usually do at AR (with all our dark and gritty taste), we believe it is a perfect fit to make our portfolio broader.”
Awaken Realms would not confirm to BoardGameWire if the acquisition represented the first of multiple M&A deals in the pipeline, but did say it sees value in “building a broader publishing ecosystem, but only if it respects each brand’s identity”.
A spokesperson for Awaken Realms told BoardGameWire, “Right now, our focus is fully on making this partnership successful and supporting the Thundergryph Team in the best possible way.
“More broadly, we are always open to opportunities that make strategic and creative sense, especially where we can help talented teams focus more on making great games while Awaken Realms supports them with production, logistics, fulfillment, and global infrastructure.
“Thundergryph is a particularly strong fit because its portfolio is different from what Awaken Realms is best known for. Their light and medium-weight games, strong visual identity, and elegant production values complement our existing line-up very well.”
He added, “In general, Awaken Realms is interested in areas that can strengthen our ability to create, produce, and deliver great games to players around the world. That can include publishing, operational infrastructure or other strategic areas.”
Discussions for the Thundergryph acquisition began more than a year ago, company founder Bisi told BoardGameWire, adding that such an arrangement was something he had been thinking about for some time.
Thundergryph founder Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi
He said, “Years ago, I had much more time to focus on game development, art direction, and product creation. As Thundergryph grew from a small publisher into a medium-sized company, the amount of organization and administration required increased significantly.
“I realized that I wanted to return to the aspects of the job I enjoy most: creating games and helping bring them to life.”
Awaken Realms says its infrastructure has delivered more than 700,000 games worldwide to date, and believes that support will allow Thundergryph to scale without adding further management burden to its creative team.
The company also retains close ties with crowdfunding platform Gamefound, which began life as part of Awaken Realms before becoming a separate entity with Ravensburger as its majority shareholder. Marcin Świerkot, the co-founder of both Awaken Realms and Gamefound, remains CEO of both businesses.
Bisi added that Thundergryph’s future if it hadn’t agreed the takeover deal would have been one “with fewer games and less time dedicated to nurturing and developing them to the standard we aspire to achieve”.
He said, “The people designing the games, developing the gameplay, creating the visual identity, and interacting with the community are still here. Our creative vision, our passion, and our commitment to making unique games remain unchanged.
“This agreement gives us the opportunity to dream bigger while staying true to what made Thundergryph special in the first place.
“It allows us to combine Thundergryph’s creative strengths with the resources and infrastructure needed to bring even more ambitious projects to life.”
Those projects will begin with Galileo’s Truth, a game by designers Virginio Gigli and Flaminia Brasini, which is set to launch on Gamefound on July 7.
Canadian board game publisher Off the Page Games is expanding beyond its comic book roots with the launch of a new imprint focused on original IP.
The company, which has built its reputation adapting indie comics into tabletop games such as Mind MGMT, has unveiled Off the Page Games Unbound, which will publish games not tied to existing comic book licences.
In a reversal of Off the Page’s previous strategy, the company said it had hired award-nominated comic book creator Chris Schweizer and illustrator Rocio Ogñenovich for Unbound to create a series of comics based on The Seekers.
The Seekers, published by Off the Page Games Unbound
Schweizer previously collaborated with the publisher to turn his graphic novel series The Creeps into a family-weight board game, which is due for release this autumn.
The Seekers webcomic will be released weekly leading up to the crowdfunding campaign for the board game, with physical copies included with the final product.
Cormier said, “I’m excited to continue converting my favourite comics into cool board games, but I’m also pumped to bring some other surprises that aren’t tied (…or bound!) to any specific comic.”
Cormier launched Off the Page in 2019 by publishing Mind MGMT, based on the Dark Horse comic book series created by Matt Kindt.
The publishers subsequent titles have included Harrow County and Corps of Discovery, while Cormier’s designs with other publishers include Junk Art, co-created by Sen-Foong Lim, and In the Hall of the Mountain King, which was designed alongside Graeme Jahns.
Award-winning board game store owner Matthew Mičetić says independent tabletop retailers can no longer rely on product sales alone, as rising costs, tariff uncertainty and changing consumer behaviour continue to reshape the hobby retail landscape.
Mičetić was named Oregon Small Business Person of the Year last week by the US Small Business Administration, celebrating the 16-year growth of Portland-based Red Castle Games from a small neighbourhood game store into a vibrant space offering organised play, youth camps, community events and an on-site cafe.
He told BoardGameWire the complexity of running a game store had increased dramatically since the store opened in 2010 – but added that widening the venue’s scope had been a key ingredient in Red Castle’s success.
Mičetić said, “Competing solely on product selection and price has become increasingly difficult in a world where customers can order almost anything online and have it delivered to their door.
“What independent game stores can offer that online retailers cannot is community. We can provide places for people to learn, play, compete, socialize, and build friendships. The retail sales often follow from those relationships.”
He continued, “We aren’t just retailers anymore. We’re event organizers, community managers, educators, food service operators, e-commerce businesses, and increasingly technology companies as well.
“The encouraging part is that the core mission hasn’t changed. People still want places to gather, play games, make friends, and feel like they belong.
“The stores that continue to succeed are the ones that adapt to the changing business environment while never losing sight of the community they’re there to serve.”
Mičetić’s drive has seen that community expand from traditional hobby gamers and TCG players to include young people, families and more casual gamers keen to dip their toes into the hobby – something he believes is one of the biggest opportunities for game stores today.
He said, “Some of our most successful recent initiatives have been our youth programs, including Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Pokémon camps and after-school programs.
“Parents are looking for opportunities that help kids build friendships, creativity, problem-solving skills, social-emotional skills, and confidence. Tabletop games are uniquely positioned to provide that.
“We’ve also had success reaching beyond the traditional hobby audience. There are a lot of people who can benefit from what tabletop gaming offers who may never have considered walking into a game store.
“That means being willing to experiment, try new things, and sometimes fail. Not every idea works, and that’s okay. The important thing is to learn from it, make adjustments, and keep moving forward.
“I’ve always believed in looking for 1% improvements. Small improvements compound over time. If you can make your store, your programs, your customer experience, and your operations just a little bit better every day, those gains add up to something significant over the course of years.”
He added, “While retail is still the foundation of the business, these complementary activities have become increasingly important both financially and strategically. They reinforce one another.
“Someone might discover us through a D&D camp, become a regular event participant, buy games and accessories, meet friends through the community, and eventually become a long-term customer.
“The café, events, camps, and retail operation all work together to create a stronger overall ecosystem. For independent game stores, I think that’s one of the biggest lessons of the last decade. The future isn’t just about selling products, it’s about creating reasons for people to keep coming back.”
Organised play remains a “core pillar” of the store’s financial prosperity, Mičetić told BoardGameWire, while Magic remains its strongest offering and continues to be a cornerstone of organised play.
Mičetić receiving his Oregon Small Business Person of the Year award
He added, “One Piece has been one of the biggest success stories of the last several years, drawing strong participation. Star Wars Unlimited has also developed a passionate local community and has exceeded our expectations.
“Beyond TCGs, Dungeons & Dragons continues to be a major driver of participation through campaigns, youth programs, and camps. Board game events, painting nights, and miniature gaming also contribute meaningfully to overall attendance, even if they don’t always attract the same numbers as the largest TCG communities.
“What excites me most isn’t any individual game. It’s the diversity of the community. I believe the healthiest stores aren’t dependent on a single title. They’re places where someone can come in for Pokémon, discover D&D, try a board game, join a painting event, and ultimately find multiple ways to engage with the hobby.”
Speaking about current growth areas on the retail side – and areas which could be in decline – Mičetić told BoardGameWire TCGs continue to be the strongest growth category in the hobby, while oversaturation in higher-price point board games was beginning to show strain.
He said, “Magic remains a powerhouse, Pokémon continues to bring in new players, and we’ve seen strong engagement from newer games [such as One Piece and Warlord] as well.
“That said, I do worry that we’re in a boom cycle. I don’t know when it will happen, but historically every collectible market experiences corrections and I think it’s wise for retailers to plan accordingly.
“In board games, I think we’re seeing softness at the higher end of the market. For years, the industry benefited from an explosion of new releases and crowdfunding projects, but I also think the market became oversaturated.
“Self-publishing and crowdfunding lowered barriers to entry, which brought some fantastic games to market, but also a tremendous number of mediocre ones. Consumers have more choices than ever and less time to play them.
“Where I’ve seen the most consistent strength is in smaller board and card games, particularly titles under about $25. At that price point, they’re an easy impulse purchase and a lower-risk way for customers to try something new.
“RPGs are interesting. Product sales have slowed somewhat for us, but organized play and events remain strong. People still want to gather around a table and tell stories together, even if they’re buying fewer books than they once did.
“Miniatures remain a challenging category outside of Games Workshop. Many lines have passionate fan bases, but Games Workshop continues to outperform expectations and demonstrates the power of consistent support, organized play, and strong intellectual property.
“As for crowdfunding, we’ve largely stepped away from it as a retailer. There are certainly successful projects, but we’ve experienced too many delays, failures, and fulfillment issues over the years.
“Tying up cash and shelf space for products that may arrive years late, or not at all, has become increasingly difficult to justify.”
Mičetić said that on the distribution side, relationships had become both more important and more complicated since 2020, with the pandemic having exposed just how dependent the industry is on supply chains and allocation systems.
Mičetić said distribution relationships had become more complicated since the pandemic – and more important
He said, “In many categories, especially TCGs, we spent years dealing with product shortages, allocations, delayed releases, and uncertain restocks. More recently, while still dealing with those allocation issues, we’ve added questions around tariffs, pricing, inventory levels, and market demand.
“The underlying challenge remains the same, uncertainty. At the same time, retailers are being asked to make increasingly complex purchasing decisions with limited capital and shelf space.
“When talking with distributors today, my primary focus is predictability and partnership. I don’t expect every product to be available in unlimited quantities, but I do want transparency around allocations, release schedules, and restock expectations.
“The better information we have, the better decisions we can make. I also spend a lot of time discussing breadth versus depth. Every distributor wants retailers to carry more products, but shelf space, cash flow, and staff attention are finite resources.
“We’re increasingly focused on products that have strong community support, organized play opportunities, or demonstrated demand rather than simply chasing every new release.”
Mičetić’s award recognition follows a turbulent series of challenges in recent years, ranging from navigating the Covid-19 pandemic to enduring ten break-ins over a twenty-month period – a spate of crimes which resulted in more than $250,000 in losses and property damage.
He told BoardGameWire that while the experience was “frustrating and demoralizing”, he was “not willing to let a handful of criminals determine [Red Castle’s] future” – adding that the show of support from customers following the break-ins had helped reinforce why the store exists in the first place.
Mičetić said, “The primary targets were trading card games, particularly sealed Pokémon and Magic products, along with Games Workshop product. Unfortunately, those products are small, portable, and have a well-established secondary market, which makes them attractive targets for theft.
“The financial losses were significant but the larger challenge was the operational and emotional toll. Every break-in meant dealing with police reports, emergency repairs, damaged property, disrupted operations, and the uncertainty of whether it would happen again.
“There were periods when it felt like we were spending almost as much time thinking about security as we were thinking about growing the business.”
He advised other hobby retailers to “invest in security before you need it”, adding that the experience had changed his own understanding of risk.
Mičetić said, “Small businesses often operate on relatively thin margins and repeated criminal activity can have an outsized impact.
“It’s a reminder that when people talk about crime affecting businesses, they’re not just talking about stolen merchandise, they’re talking about the time, money, stress, and opportunity cost that comes with recovering from it over and over again.”
Speaking of his SBA award win, which recognises business owners who demonstrate outstanding business growth, innovation, resilience, and contributions to their communities, Mičetić said, “This recognition is incredibly meaningful because it reflects the community that built Red Castle Games.
“Every customer, staff member, volunteer, and supporter has played a role in our success. This award belongs to all of them.”
Asmodee’s recently-launched party games studio Moodbox Games has unveiled its first four releases, with Guess the Mess, Link Out Loud, Photo Dump and Who Says? Friends set to hit retail shelves in July.
The announcement marks the first product reveal from the women-led studio, which Asmodee launched last October as part of a push to reach players beyond traditional hobby gamers.
Moodbox says its games are designed around a philosophy that “playing games should feel like a dose of serotonin”, with a focus on approachable rules, social interaction and creating memorable shared experiences for families and friend groups.
Moodbox head Kelli Schmitz said, “The goal with Moodbox Games is to create experiences that instantly bring energy, laughter, and connection to the table.
“This first lineup reflects the kind of social play we know people are craving right now — games that are approachable, highly interactive, and memorable whether you’re playing with family, close friends, or a large group.”
The initial range draws on a mix of established and emerging tabletop design talent, including Happy Salmon co-designer Ken Gruhl, his Mantis co-creator Jeremy Posner, Word on the Street designer Jack Degnan and first-time published designer Annika Wierichs.
Guess the Mess is a family party game for ages eight and up from Degnan and development studio Hedyverse, which challenges players to decipher deliberately chaotic clues in a race against their opponents.
Link Out Loud || Photo Credit: Asmodee
Link Out Loud, designed by Posner and Gruhl and also developed by Hedyverse, is a team-based word association and communication game in which players attempt to make connections and relay them to teammates under pressure.
Photo Dump, designed by Wierichs and developed by Hedyverse, takes a co-op approach, using players’ own photos as clues in a storytelling-focused experience.
The fourth title, Who Says? Friends, is a quote-guessing game designed by Lloyd Mintz and developed by Bolt Games, with players aiming to identify memorable lines and pop-culture references either individually or in teams.
Moodbox highlighted that Guess the Mess, Link Out Loud and Photo Dump were developed, edited and published by teams of women, describing the process as a “collaborative and inclusive creative approach from concept to shelf”.
The studio is led by former Catan Studio director of brand development Kelli Schmitz and long-time young adult-focused book editor Shaina Olmanson, who joined Asmodee as an operations and communications manager in May last year.
Prior to leading Moodbox Schmitz spent a year working on inventor relations for Asmodee’s social games in the US market, across its family game studio Zygomatic, quiz and party games-focused Bezzerwizzer Studio, and Dotted Games, which Asmodee launched in 2024 to create new LEGO board games.
Moodbox’s development partner Hedyverse was co-launched in 2024 by Jessica Aceti – who previously helped establish Seattle-based game design collective Prospero Hall, was VP of business development, marketing and licensing at board game design studio Forrest-Pruzan Creative, and helped launch Funko Games after Funko acquired Forrest-Pruzan Creative in 2019.
It followed that a month later by picking up the rights to party game Time’s Up! from R&R Games, continuing an expansion push predicated on social games being the fastest growing category of the board games market.
Asmodee said at the time of the ATM acquisition that it expects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for social games of between 4% and 8% between 2025 and 2030, compared to about 4% for the wider board games market, citing mass market sales research for the US and ‘main European countries’ conducted by Arthur D Little.
Tabletop gaming’s most eclectic prize, the Diana Jones Award, has unveiled the latest clutch of finalists for its annual celebration of excellence in the field of gaming.
Price Johnson, the new CEO of Gloomhaven publisher Cephalofair, is among the five finalists for this year’s award, as are miniatures game Trench Crusade and Minnesota-based game retailer Mischief Toy Store.
TTRPG designer and journalist Rob Wieland
They are joined by Jo Kelly and Cole Wehrle’s board game Molly House, which explores the joy and fear experienced by gender-defying Londoners in 18th century society, and Rob Wieland, a much-loved TTRPG designer and journalist who died last October aged 47.
Price Johnson’s nomination comes less than two months after the long-time Cephalofair COO was promoted to CEO at the publisher – with Isaac Childres, the company founder and designer of its runaway successes Gloomhaven and Frosthaven, stepping back to focus exclusively on game design at the company.
Johnson has been a high-profile voice in campaigning against tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump over the last year, aiming to highlight the heavy financial burden it has placed on tabletop game publishers – many of which rely on Chinese manufacturing for their titles.
The Diana Jones nominations committee praised that work, saying Johnson’s appearance on multiple national news outlets, “consistently and clearly explained how the tariffs posed an existential danger to many companies in the adventure gaming industry”.
Mischief Toy Store in the Twin Cities was also selected for its involvement in a lawsuit against the US tariffs last year, as well as its work battling activity from anti-immigration ICE agents.
The committee said that hours after criticizing ICE in a TV interview the store was targeted with a surprise audit, but resisted turning over their employee records to DHS.
It added, “They have been printing ICE OUT posters to distribute as fast as they can and have organized a network of 3D printing hobbyists to distribute thousands of ICE whistles.
“Amid the chaos in Minnesota, they had to suspend online ordering, and their website directed folks to support local immigrant rights organizations instead. They work hard to make space at the gaming table for everyone.”
Trench Crusade, which focuses on an alternate 1914 in which humans have been battling the forces of hell for 800 years, was picked out by the committee as “a triumph of community and creativity”.
The Factory Fortress-published title was built around initial sketches and lore created by artist Mike Franchina, who later teamed up with sculptor James Sherriff and game designer Tuomas Pirinen to design the game.
Diana Jones’ nominations committee described Rob Wieland as “a relentless advocate and promoter for the entire tabletop gaming community for years”.
It said, “He served as a mentor to countless others, and he brought the industry to wider and greater awareness through his work with Forbes and other publications.
“In addition, he regularly hosted on-stage sessions of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen at conventions to raise money for charity.”
The 2026 Diana Jones Award ceremony will be held in Indianapolis on July 29 at its annual gathering of tabletop games industry professionals, marking the unofficial kick-off of Gen Con.
The original Diana Jones Award trophy, which was lost in the post several years ago
The award aims to celebrates “everything that’s the best about gaming”, with previous winners across the award’s 26-year run having included Blood Rage designer Eric Lang, Nigerian games industry publisher and evangelist NIBCARD, and the entire ‘actual play’ movement of people livestreaming and podcasting roleplaying games.
Last year’s award resulted in a tie between Daybreak, the climate change-themed board game designed by Matt Leacock and Matteo Menapace, and Rose Estes, an early TSR employee who went on to write the Endless Quest series of choose-your-own-adventure game books.
The original Diana Jones award trophy was a clear lucite pyramid containing the burned remains of an Indiana Jones roleplaying game from the 1980s – one element of which spelled ‘Diana Jones’ after the preceding letters were burned away.
That trophy was lost in the post six years ago during the traditional handover from one winner to another, never to be recovered – but a replacement trophy has now been created by the organisation.
The Diana Jones Award also runs a separate emerging designer programme prize, which aims to help up-and-coming creators via a $6,500 prize package that includes an all-expenses trip to Gen Con.
Hello readers! Mike Didymus-True here, the editor of BoardGameWire.
I wanted to post a quick message to apologise for an upcoming week or two quiet patch for the site – I’m being unexpectedly admitted for surgery tomorrow, and will likely be out of action for at least 7 to 14 days while I recover. And as BoardGameWire remains a one-person operation, which I squeeze into my spare time around my day job and my two kids, unfortunately that means a very brief hiatus for the site!
Please do continue to email me with your news and such in the mean time, and I’ll do my best to get reporting again as soon as possible! I’m on mike@boardgamewire.com
If this hiatus makes you think “Hmm, I wonder where I’ll get my board game industry news from now”, might I recommend the excellent W Eric Martin over at Board Game Beat, who sometimes has crossover with the kind of things I tend to cover here.
And if this hiatus has also made you think “Hmm, I really do find BoardGameWire and its reporting useful, that Mike really does do a pretty good job covering things that don’t get written about elsewhere – I would very much like to support that kind of thing financially” – that would be lovely! You can pledge a variety of amounts through the BoardGameWire Patreon, or by choosing a paid subscription to our regular newsletter.
The company has been one of tabletop crowdfunding’s biggest success stories over the past decade, raising tens of millions of pounds across campaigns based on major video game licences such as Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Horizon Zero Dawn and Elden Ring.
About a third of the company’s employees are estimated to have been affected by this year’s restructure according to multiple sources who spoke to BoardGameWire on condition of anonymity – mirroring the scale of a previous round of redundancies Steamforged embarked on in 2023.
They said the staff cuts affected a range of departments across the business, including the creative, game design, production, project management, QA, marketing and commercial teams – adding that they feared the cutbacks would lead to problems delivering long-term projects.
Steamforged would not confirm the scale of the latest redundancies to BoardGameWire, but a spokesperson described the staff reduction as “carefully considered”, adding that the company “retain[s] both the internal resource and the external capabilities needed to deliver on our commitments”.
When asked for reassurance that those campaigns would be fulfilled despite the redundancies and strategic shift, a spokesperson for Steamforged told BoardGameWire, “Steamforged has never failed to fulfil a crowdfunding campaign, even during difficult times, or to make tough choices to deliver on commitments.
“Right now, 6: Siege – The Board Game is entering the final stages of production and will start shipping to supporters in July.”
Steamforged confirmed to BoardGameWire that the redundancies were part of a decision to “reduce new board game crowdfunding activity for the moment” amid the surging growth of Warmachine, the miniatures wargame line it bought from Privateer Press two years ago alongside P3 Paints and the Iron Kingdoms roleplaying series.
Warmachine miniatures || Photo credit: Steamforged Games
The spokesperson said Steamforged had tripled Warmachine and P3 Paints revenue in the last 21 months, despite facing significant stock constraints in the first year due to heavy demand.
They told BoardGameWire, “Demand has been high and we’ve scaled production to meet it. Our US production capacity for Warmachine has increased by 70% since last March, with a 25% increase in Europe since August and new production facilities introduced in the UK in February 2026.”
The spokesperson added, “Steamforged has always had two strong sides, both retail and crowdfunding, and was originally founded as a miniatures game company. Warmachine’s growth has shown clear demand over and above expectations and has become a core focus to support that growth.
“Our board game crowdfunding projects are currently in various stages of production with the vast majority of creative work complete.
“Our intention to reduce new board game crowdfunding activity for the moment while we focus on supporting Warmachine’s growth meant we needed to restructure accordingly, which included a confidential redundancy process in Q1 of 2026 that’s now complete.”
When asked how the strategic shift towards Warmachine would affect previously announced future crowdfunds such as Tyrant, the spokesperson said, “Steamforged has always looked several years into the future and our internal roadmaps reflect that.
“As with any company, particularly one that works with other studios the way we have, that means many potential projects have been put on ice over the years as opportunities change and emerge. Some of those came to fruition later, and others didn’t.
“Tyrant was an early announcement and was always intended to be a slow build. Given our strategic focus, it’s not something we intend to move forward with in the foreseeable future.”
Asked what they expected Steamforged Games to look like as a business over the next couple of years, the spokesperson concluded, “Over the next two years, we expect Warmachine will continue its strong growth supported by our dedicated team and launch plans in the miniatures and hobby categories.”
The Diana Jones Award committee has picked a trio of TTRPG creators as the latest winners of its emerging designer program, who will each receive a $6,500 prize package that includes an all-expenses trip to Gen Con.
Glaiza Champion
Glaiza Champion, J Strautman and Kodi Gonzaga will also receive one-year memberships to trade bodies GAMA and the Tabletop Game Designers Association through the award, as well as prizes including prototyping credit at The Game Crafter, an online badge to Protospiel and a game demo spot on Gen Con TV.
The emerging designer program, now in its sixth year, seeks to amplify the voices of up-and-coming tabletop creators, with a particular focus on designers from marginalized communities.
Filipino-American designer Glaiza Champion describes themself as a ‘third-culture’ kid whose experiences span Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines and Korea.
Champion is a game designer, writer, performer, podcaster and variety streamer, whose work is rooted in tabletop roleplaying games and storytelling – with designs to date including Beef, Missing Month and Meet Your GelCub.
J Strautman
Toronto-based RPG designer J Strautman, who also works under the name Yes No Goodbye, combines game design with a career as a professional musician.
Strautman has released the GM-less zine-sized RPGs Contact and Insatiable Cravings, and in 2025 co-released A Fool’s Errand through Planet Arcana Games.
Alongside their design work, Strautman tours internationally as a professional bass player, and co-hosted, and scored and edited the tarot-infused science fantasy actual play podcast Planet Arcana.
Los Angeles-based designer Kodi Gonzaga began designing games in 2018, and has since created a growing catalogue of tabletop RPGs including Extra Ordinary, Misfits & Mayhem SRD, Down the Road Through the End of the World, Voxinn: A Firebrands Hack and In This Echoing World.
Kodi Gonzaga
Gonzaga is also a creative writer, actual play performer, Big Bad Con POC Scholar and former IGDN convention coordinator.
Other finalists in this year’s competition included Wyrmspan and Apiary designer Connie Vogelmann, Cretaceous Rails designer Ann Journey, and Elijah Djan – the co-creator of FinMaster, a game designed to help teach families about investing and enable positive discussions about money.
Also making the list of finalists this year was board game designer Gene Koo, who works to promote tabletop game designers based in the Washington DC metropolitan area.
Speaking to BoardGameWire after being selected last year, Leiman said the award had enabled her to attend Gen Con at a time when financial pressures and industry uncertainty would otherwise have made the trip impossible.
“Gen Con is an incredibly important convention for freelance designers to get their work noticed and signed,” Leiman said. “This amazing opportunity for underrepresented and underprivileged folks represents a great step in equalizing this dream of a creative field for all.”
The Diana Jones emerging designer award program was launched in 2021, with Jeeyon Shim picking up the inaugural award.
That award is presented to the person, product, company, event, movement, concept or any other thing that has, in the opinion of its committee, best demonstrated the quality of “excellence” in the world of hobby-gaming in the previous year – and is traditionally hugely wide-ranging in its choice of candidates.
Previous winners across the award’s 22-year run have included Blood Rage designer Eric Lang, Nigerian games industry publisher and evangelist NIBCARD, and the entire ‘actual play’ movement of people livestreaming and podcasting roleplaying games.
Last year’s Excellence in Gaming award was deemed a tie between author Rose Estes and the climate action-themed board game Daybreak, designed by Matt Leacock and Matteo Menapace.
Anmelden
