2025, the summer I won every cribbage game but one
Playing Card Information
Teasers for Indie Games Night Market at PAX Unplugged 2025
More importantly, each card has a partial sentence such as "This ______ a pipe" or "This ______ winning" near the bottom of its face and either "is" or "is not" near the top.When you lead to a trick, you use two cards, with the top card indicating the suit and the bottom card completing the sentence. If you lead with a card in the "winning" suit, for example, you must flip around the second card (which can be any suit) underneath the winning card so that the sentence will read "This is winning".
Mark’s Bundle of 2025 Essen Game Thoughts
Five days. Forty-six plays. Four prototypes plus thirty games that were new to me. Unless otherwise noted, these are FIRST impressions… I only had the opportunity to play many of these games a single time with a physical copy. If … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/11/18/marks-bundle-of-2025-essen-game-thoughts/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
Designer Diary: The Evolution of Nature
My family, childhood friends, college friends, even my dad (who taught me chess when I was four). No one was interested.The experience Magic offers can be transformational, but the barrier to entry is high. For the past decade of my life, I've been trying to bring that experience to a wider audience so that others could share it with their closest friends.With Nature, I finally feel like I've arrived. It accomplishes everything I originally intended for Evolution.Why I Redesigned EvolutionNature
Dale Yu: Review of Toy Battle
Toy Battle Designers: Paolo Mori, Alessandro Zucchini Publisher: Repos Players: 2 Age: 8+ Time: 15 minutes Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/43EJ20K Played with review copy provided by publisher On land, on sea, in clouds, and even in space, battles are breaking … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/11/17/dale-yu-review-of-toy-battle/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
Game Review: Don't Botch the Broccoli, or A Seven-Minute Steam Sale
Eric Martin Given how much I liked designer Mark McGee's first release through his company How to Steam Broccoli — Tether, which I had backed during crowdfunding — when McGee offered a review copy of his second title ahead of its debut at PAX Unplugged 2025, I said, sure, let's give it a go.On the surface, Don't Botch the Broccoli has nothing in common with Tether aside from both being card games, but in practice both designs encourage you to bait opponents, then hope they'll make the move you w
Dale Yu: Review of Light Speed Arena
Light Speed Arena Designer: James Ernest, Tom Jolly, Leonardo Alese, Emanuele Santellani Publisher: Pegasus Spiele Players: 1-4 Age: 8+ Time: 5-10 min Amazon affiliate link: Played with review copy provided by publisher A real-time tabletop shooter in which you aim … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/11/16/dale-yu-review-of-light-speed-arena/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
Designer Diary: Khlor
I liked it so much that I decided to include an advanced mode in the rules as well.ConclusionAfter this entire journey, Khlor has become a game with many possibilities, but always guided by a clear design principle: simplify as much as possible to leave only the essential.This philosophy also helped me solve the final turn issue. I tried making the game last a fixed number of rounds, but it was messy; players put more effort into counting than playing, and depending on the number of players, the
Dale Yu: Review of Ghostbumpers
Ghostbumpers Designers: Inka Brand, Markus Brand Publisher: Deep Print Games Players: 3-6 Age:8+ Time: 15-20 minutes Amazon affiliate link: Played with review copy provided by publisher The monsters are terrorizing the fairground. You dive into a crazy bumper-car ride and … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/11/15/dale-yu-review-of-ghostbumpers/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
Game Preview: TEMBO: Survival on the Savanna
Maybe everyone moves two elephants to their ready area, maybe you get four and no one else gets any, or maybe you get five, while another player must return two.By playing a matriarch card, you somewhat reset the board, with the matriarch elephant moving to the far edge of the herd, all played elephants being returned to the reserve, and fallen trees placed upright to symbolize you moving to fresh lands with new food. You want to hold off playing matriarchs since the herd shrinks to one space, m
Designer Diaries: Tropicalia and Sinister Institute, or Two Games Nineteen Years in the Making!
I knew the game needed a feeling of exploration and that players should be revealing the world tile by tile and finding various paths to follow, so I started drawing all sorts of possible map tiles in a notebook, experimenting with how different pathways would work, turning and intersecting with each other across tiles.Some early notes where I was experimenting with map tile design.One inspiration here was Tsuro as I have always loved how this game's tiles are almost a design lesson in how four
Talia Rosen: Fall Mini-Reviews
I’ve played some great games this fall, so it’s time for another round of mini-reviews about the 32 different board and card games from the last two months.  It looks like I haven’t done a set of mini-reviews since I … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/11/13/talia-rosen-fall-mini-reviews/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
The Story Behind Francis Tresham's The Judge in Circuit
The game is won by being the first crook to get into the required number of different prisons.Image: Tony BoydellFrancis said himself that winning this game is morally disgraceful and don't blame him if your teenage daughter or maiden aunt cotton on to the essential facts of a successful career quicker than you, but if you lose, it can still be fun, and winning will give a sense of achievement.The first thing I had to do was to find out how much work I was taking on. When returning from a drivin
Indie Games Spotlight: Game Market West (Fall 2025)
<p>by <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1?bloggerid=18977" >Johnny Chin</a></p> <div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8353121"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/tv_52ZpOYjMNIcrQcrj3-g__small/img/6k9J7FyarAXeZ0XwH5yF5utmIdE=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8353121.png" border=0></a></div>In September 2025, <a href="https://www.gamemarketwest.com/" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">Game Market West</a>, a tabletop game market where independent designers showcase and sell their newest games, returned to Guildhouse in San Jose, California. The venue received a lot of compliments this time around from both attendees and designers. Throughout the event was the usual steady stream of attendees, chatting with designers and playing their games. We had quite the line-up of games from a fan-made expansion to a social deduction and area control crossover. There was also a new drawing game, a genre we're a big fan of, along with trick-takers and climbers.<br/><br/>The aforementioned drawing game is <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/453195/paper-pencil-stencil" ><b><i>Paper Pencil Stencil</i></b></a> by <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/170543/jestin-brooks" >Jestin Brooks</a> and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/170419/jeremy-schichtel" >Jeremy Schichtel</a>. You use stencils to draw the word you've been randomly assigned. It's always nice to have a handicap, especially for terrible artists like myself. Usually it's time or difficulty in word choice that evens the playing field, but the predefined shapes are a cool twist.<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9133031"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/MqGW3kwsRI3c91CTe98RMQ__small/img/5m0cpKcmZXjdAiDXA162KiOzXx4=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9133031.jpg" border=0></a></div></center><br/>Next up, we have <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/450424/okay-duckies-now-lets-get-in-formation" ><b><i>Okay, Duckies, Now Let's Get In Formation</i></b></a> by <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/169889/ted-mann-schaller" >Ted Schaller</a> — a cute rubber ducky game that had a giant edition on display for all to play. Don't let the cuteness fool you, though, as the game is actually quite the crunchy spatial puzzle for two players. You're arranging your duckies on an ever-changing board to win. I was lucky enough to playtest it when the game was in development, so I had to grab a copy.<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9133032"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/vPggYLUfaiSY9NblTjbZUw__small/img/3vtUgi5EHI3VrtwFFFCJXIYm9IQ=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9133032.jpg" border=0></a></div></center><br/>Lastly, we have <b><i>Side Quest</i></b> by Sean Nakada, a classic feeling RPG board game with the customization of trading card games. This first version starts with a more level playing field in terms of the cards and scenarios for a better onboarding experience. There's a ton of different classes with thematic abilities and stat tradeoffs that have already been developed.<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9133035"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/2OyokC3XGFmajxLJLt28Jw__small/img/rsTbs2l1HdlJ6uy2wysLci8mYcw=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9133035.jpg" border=0></a></div></center><br/>For more pics of presenters, head to <a href="https://www.gamemarketwest.com/fall-2025-recap" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">the Fall 2025 recap</a> on the GMW website.<br/><br/>Thank you for supporting this indie movement. We always love to hear how we've inspired others to turn their idea into a game. In fact, a few designers were present who mentioned that, and even some attendees asked how they could be a designer for a future game market.<br/><br/>We'll see you at the next Game Market West on March 22, 2026! You can sign up for <a href="https://www.gamemarketwest.com/updates" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">updates</a> or as a <a href="https://forms.gle/oLFUPwkqKWDr1vPz7" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">designer</a>.<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9133027"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/RcEnJHeDPyNQQBbJGI2oFA__small/img/-3TbAizrWNMMBGOZAxfw1Q2_VN4=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9133027.jpg" border=0></a></div></center>
Dale Yu: Review of Deep Dreams
Deep Dreams Designer: Santiago Zanon Publisher: DEVIR Players: 2-5 Age: 8+ Time: 10 min Played with review copy provided by publisher Little Bruno has gone to sleep and will travel during the night between dreams. Our mission as dream guardians … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/11/12/dale-yu-review-of-deep-dreams/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
Enlarge The Gang, Take a Happy Holiday in Europe, and Engineer Wild Growth
You each start with a random flower, which come in five colors, and 5-7 seeds, one of which starts at the bottom of the track on your flower.On a turn, draft a new flower from one of the five fields and place a seed on bottom of its track, then all players "grow" flowers in the color of the field from which that flower was taken by moving the seeds on these flowers up one space on their track. (In the image below, all orange flowers would grow, including the one you just took if it's orange.)Eac
Heroscape: Here Be Dragons… and Pirates… and Some Very Creepy Forest Dwellers
In the last couple of weeks, the newest story arc of Heroscape arrived – and thanks to the kindness of family and friends, the new stuff has been hitting the table and I’m looking forward to giving you the lowdown … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/11/11/heroscape-here-be-dragons-and-pirates-and-some-very-creepy-forest-dwellers/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
Dale Yu: Review of Magical Athlete
Magical Athlete Designers: Richard Garfield, Takashi Ishida Publisher: CMYK Players: 2-6 Age: 6+ Time: 30 minutes Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/47vtTBj Played with review copy provided by publisher Magical Athlete is a racing game of pure chaos! Roll a die and … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/11/11/dale-yu-review-of-magical-athlete/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
Designer Diary: Pacts
Because you don't know what your opponent will choose, there's no longer any way to predict the outcome of a round perfectly.The second issue was that if a player stomped the first half, a lot of players felt like the game was already over, with no need to play out the second half. To remedy this, I added region tiles that change between the two halves so that more points are now available in the second half of the game.In addition, the regions that are worth the most points shift, which changes
Alison Brennan: Game Snapshots – 2025 (Part 28)
Every now and then I remind readers that all my snapshots are stored in BGG as comments – that’s roughly 3450 games and 270 expansions and counting. My username is alzsara. One approach to get easy access to these is … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/11/10/alison-brennan-game-snapshots-2025-part-28/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>