Jon said I’d probably like Fetz, because it’s a lying game. It is true that many of the games I design have some form of deceit. I like that kind of psychological play. I like having a bit of gaming the people in games and not only problem solving. Fetz is a game from Thailand and it is the best party game winner of the 2026 Thailand Board Game Awards.  The game

 Yay, I have a Golden Meeple! This is my avatar on BoardGameGeek.com. I recently received a GeekMail informing me that I have a new achievement microbadge - the Golden Meeple. This is for reaching 10,000 likes. I've been on BGG since August 2003. I used to upload many files - my concise reference sheets. That is why I have that fourth microbadge, Herculean file uploader. I didn't realise

This is one very eye catching box cover! Ba-dum-tss! The game title is as literal as can be. You play a pack of wolves, and you compete with other wolf packs to be the dominant one on the map. You get to experience the life of a wolf, and all this is done using several clever mechanisms.  The map is divided into regions, and there are five terrain types. Those six

This is my theory, and it might not be entirely correct, but I'm sure it is at least partially true.  I have been a hobby gamer for many years, but I have only been in the industry side of it for about 5 years. I count from 2022, the year Dancing Queen was released. I have met many, many nice people in the industry. Game designers, game publishers, play organisers and so on.

Dokkoi is a family business from Japan which makes boardgame accessories. They were at TOBE 2026 in Taipei, and I got this set of component trays from Kotaro-san as a gift. He's an amazing guy. He speaks both English and Chinese, and he learned to speak Chinese by himself when in Japan.  This is a set of six trays The material is a soft rubber, so the

I feel pressured when I write about 5-Minute One Piece, because I feel reading my post should not take more than 2 minutes. This is a real-time game that is played in 5-minutes when you have four players. With a different player count, the time limit is adjusted. Your goal is to defeat all enemies in the enemy deck before time runs out.  Every player picks a

Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game is a spin off of the hugely successful Terraforming Mars. The background story is the same. You are mega corporations working on making Mars habitable. Three things need to be achieved. You need to create oceans. You need to increase the atmospheric temperature. You need to increase the oxygen level. Once all three are achieved, the game ends,

  Paladins of the West Kingdom is a title from Garphill Games. They make many good heavy strategy games, and they have a certain style to their games, both in art direction and in gameplay. In Paladins of the West Kingdom, you need to protect your medieval city from foreign attacks. You need to build walls, defeat attackers, maybe convert them. The stars of the show are the

At the Asian Board Games Festival in Penang in August, I did a game exchange with Vito of Homp, an Indonesian game design studio. I still have not managed to play some of the games, but they look good and I want to showcase them. Sultan Spices was inspired by a children's book called Sultan Kecil Mencari Rempah (Little Sultan Hunts for Spices).  Back of the box

Thurn and Taxis by Karen and Andreas Seyfarth was the 2006 Spiel des Jahres winner. Andreas Seyfarth designed Puerto Rico (published in 2002). It was hugely popular and when it didn’t win the Spiel des Jahres many people were upset. Then a few years later Thurn and Taxis was released and won the SdJ. I have played it many years ago, and at the time didn’t find it interesting.

I was interviewed (in Chinese) by Feminine magazine, a Malaysian lifestyle magazine that has been around for many years. Several other local game designers were interviewed as well. More links below.  Teaching Malaysian Holidays Buddhima's interview article, in which he talks about boardgames, education, and children. Buddhima is part of the

  Renature is a game from master duo Wolfgang Kramer (El Grande, Tikal, Take 5) and Michael Kiesling (Azul, Tikal, Linko). It is a mid-weight game about nature, animals and trees. It is a tile placement game, and the tiles are dominos, each half showing an animal. During game setup, every player gets his own pile of face-down tiles, and a starting hand of three tiles. You play

This is a small part 2 of sharing my experience at TOBE 2026 (Taiwan Original Boardgame Expo). Part 1 is here. This is a photo dump. Throughout my three days exhibiting at the fair, I had very little time to visit other booths or try other designers' games. I basically demoed my games at my own booth 8 hours straight for three full days. I had a little time in the mornings before

Before starting to write about That Time You Killed Me, I checked whether it is a design from Japan. It isn’t. It gives me the vibes. Partly from the name. Partly from the minimalistic components. Partly from the unusual concept. This game toys with the idea of time travel. This is a two player abstract game in which you fight in the present, in the past, and in the future.&

Pocket Empires is a 2-player card game from Indonesia by Nomas Kurnia. It is a minimalistic 18-card game that can be played in 10 minutes. The basic game contains six different civilisations. The game has now been expanded to have more civilisations. A solo game has also been developed.  In Pocket Empires you and your opponent will build your respective 3x3 grid of

Pan Am is a 2020 game by Peter Lee and Prospero Hall. One thing I find interesting about Prospero Hall is they are a whole team of people designing games together. They have been involved in many games, including several big titles. I think they work on not only the game mechanisms, but also the whole product design.  The box cover of Pan Am certainly caught my eye

TOBE 2026 (Taiwan Original Boardgames Expo) was 25-27 Sep 2026. I participated as an exhibitor. TOBE was first held in 2017. I had never visited TOBE before, so this was not only my first time being an exhibitor, it was my first time ever attending. One thing different about this exhibition for me was my wife Michelle joined me to be my helper. I have exhibited at many boardgame

Yokai Hyakki Hakko is a game from… you guessed it… Japan! This is a small box card game about collecting monsters and ghouls from Japanese lore. There are eight types of monster cards. You will be collecting them. If you manage to collect all eight types, you win immediately. If no one manages that, the game ends when the deck runs out. You determine who wins by points. For

I should call this game Warlords of the Spring and Autumn, or something along these lines. This Reiner Knizia title was first released in 2005 in German, as Bankuberfall. An English edition was  released in 2007, and it was called Gravediggers. A Japanese edition Bank Robbers was released 15 years later, in 2022, and so was the Chinese edition 《乱炖春秋》, which I would

Reversalers is a 2-player microgame from Japan, designed by Ryusei Nakata of Ryusei Games.  You randomly set up five treasure cards to be fought over. Treasure cards are worth points. Some have a fixed number of points, while for others the point values depend on other factors, for example the fighter card played by your opponent, or the fighter card remaining in your hand. The