Fairy Designer: ましう (Mashiu) Publisher: Allplay Players: 2-10 Age: 6+ Time: 10 minutes Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4nf8PUR Played with review copy provided by publisher Every round, reveal a new card. Simultaneously, all players choose a hand gesture to guess … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/09/17/dale-yu-review-of-fairy/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
Sometime in the late 1980s, a Malaysian lion dance master had a spark of inspiration: What if the dancers jumped onto much, much higher platforms?As a result, the high-pole lion dance performance was born. This is an acrobatic variation of the performance in which lion dancers jump from pole to pole that range anywhere between 1 to 2.5 meters in height. This is no mean feat as the two dancers must synchronize their jumps, with the dancer in front constantly holding up a papier-mâché lion head.Ov
Piña Coladice Designer: Yann Dupont Publisher: Iello Players: 2-4 Age: 8+ Time: 10 minutes Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/45FYiMm Played with review copy provided by publisher Piña Coladice is a family party-game in which you roll the dice up to three … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/09/16/dale-yu-review-of-pina-coladice/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
The fact that our ants are anthropomorphized and super-intelligent should suggest "willing suspension of disbelief" to players, if necessary...To summarize the fundamental ideas the game was built upon, we can mention:* The incubation cycle: eggs, larvae, ants* Ant specialization: Explorers, Foragers, Garbagers* Card-based engine building: deed, skill, room cardsIf you have the patience to stay with us, we'll delve deeper into these points and retrace the highlights of the development we underto
To help these larvae become grown adults ready to take action in the world, you must feed them, so you want to increase food production to maintain a steady supply of adults, while also boosting egg production to then allow larger digging, exploring, and foraging actions.My player board, showing production on the bottom edge in food, leaves, and three types of eggs▪️ Evolve your colony to unlock unique abilities and secure supremacy over enemy nests.Evolution in ANTS takes the form of you playin
Destiny: Rising has been out for two weeks now and I think it's time we get it in front of more people's eyeballs.
A two-century old law about gambling prohibits taverns or similar from hosting games of chance with playing cards or dice.
These are the last of the games I played at the Gathering. It’s taken quite a while to get through them all but I hope you’ve found at least something of value along the way. I upped my rating … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/09/15/alison-brennan-game-snapshots-2025-part-24/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
If you play a face-up card from the table, you reveal the vertical card underneath — and you can play that immediately if it's the same value!Played cards in the discard pile are fanned out, and as soon as four cards of the same value are visible, the discard pile is removed from play, then the active player takes another turn.A JOKER is any value and played alone or with other number cards. To play CLEAR, remove that card — and the discard pile —from play, then take another turn. To play PUSH,
Escape from the Starline Express (v2) Designer: Alessandro Deriu Publisher: Professor Puzzle Players: 2-8 Age: 8+ Time: 90 mins on box (~45 min for 4 adults in our game) Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/487KRX1 Played with review copy provided by publisher … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/09/14/dale-yu-review-of-escape-from-the-starline-express-v2/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
<p>by <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1?bloggerid=19226" >Julian Tunni</a></p> <div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8983429"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/EWeFYs626AszfaeUJ_75Iw__small/img/yXAwjdlSkHKGcDoDd72DM0dAPs0=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8983429.png" border=0></a></div><b>Hello, Silence, My Old Friend</b><br/> <i>Case File: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/449893/cereal-killer" ><b>Cereal Killer</b></a></i><br/><br/>"It was a Tuesday. I'd been out of the design racket for years — too long. The ideas stopped coming, and the silence? It wasn't peaceful. It was the kind that hangs in the air like a loaded question.<br/><br/>"Then came a call from an old friend, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/128430/julian-vecchione" >Vecchione</a>. Said he was running an online workshop for board game designers. I figured I'd sign up — see what the fellas were up to these days, maybe even find a reason to care again. Didn't expect much, but the moment that first class ended, something clicked.<br/><br/>"The assignment was simple: Write a hook for a game that uses a pair of compasses. Yeah, compasses. Real specific. I sat there in my office, lit only by the blinking neon of a dive bar across the alley, trying to make sense of it, but the silence had other plans. One hour in, and my mind had gone rogue — thinking about crime, movement in the shadows, secrets hiding in plain sight. Hidden movement. Like something or someone slipping through the cracks of the city.<br/><br/>"I'd never played one of those games before besides the static <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2425/battleship" ><i>Battleship</i></a>. Not my usual beat. So I went digging. Found a clip of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/62640/jamey-stegmaier" >Jamey Stegmaier</a> talking about <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/438/scotland-yard" ><i>Scotland Yard</i></a>. Said what made it tick was Mr. X always leaving a clue, a whisper in the fog. That was it. The first real clue in this whole mess. I scribbled it down: <i>'Always leave a trace.'</i>"<br/><br/><b>Prototype First, Regret Later...</b><br/><br/>"A week later, I showed up to class with a confession and a stack of notes that broke all the rules. Said sorry, but in this line of work, you follow the game — not the instructions.<br/><br/>"I needed to see whether this thing had legs, so I did what I had to do. I built a prototype — slapped together what I had in mind with some mechanisms from an old case file, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/259393/lunes" ><i>Lunes</i></a>, my first published job, just to get something on the table."<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8996463"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/TQQUADimXF3sRTLd5E_jjg__small/img/u6jXKOQNOK6QnU3V0CcwDzjqiXA=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8996463.png" border=0></a></div></center><br/>"Called in <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameartist/151818/nani-dib" >Nani</a> — my partner in crime and life — and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/111552/aibel-nassif" >Aibel</a>, loyal associate from <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/35123/super-noob-games" >Super Noob Games</a>. We tested it. No fancy set-up. Just tension, shadows, and the thrill of the chase.<br/><br/>"And damn if it didn't feel real. A cat and mouse game in which the mouse had a knife and the cats had no clue where it was hiding."<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8996458"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/Hj3a-nzVXufffV0MU7JPNQ__small/img/lcvduSO5vYCylaNPZwRw5Ju-L3Q=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8996458.jpg" border=0></a></div></center><br/>"The premise? A team of detectives, each with their own quirks and baggage, sweeping a grid for clues. Meanwhile, the killer stalked the map, always one step ahead, leaving traces only because they had to. Compulsion. A golden rule: take a life, leave a trail. Sounded familiar. I named it 'Serial'. Worked in Spanish and English. That kind of duality...well, that's just good business."<br/><br/><b>Constraints and a Tight Deadline: The Case Shrinks, But the Stakes Don't</b><br/><br/>"December 2022. Deadlines hung in the air like the last cigarette in the pack. That's when I stumbled on The Game Crafter's <a href="https://www.thegamecrafter.com/contests/single-card-challenge" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">Single Card Challenge</a>. Just one card. One shot. Like Russian roulette with cardstock bullets.<br/><br/>"I messed around at first — clumsy ideas, dead ends in alleys that led nowhere. But then the fog lifted. What if I could strip this whole hidden movement racket down to its bones? One killer. One detective. Two souls dancing in the dark. That's all I needed."<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8996459"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/Fg5wHymB33vbZA3Gg4-0mQ__small/img/ZRMADBiEzeJH5UBkbOknCZ8frjk=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8996459.png" border=0></a></div></center><br/>"The map? Used to be spread across four cards, each a window into a twisted city grid. I crunched it all into a single slab: a 4-by-5 grid, clean and cruel. On the left edge, seven days ticked down like doomsday. Marked turns 2, 4, and 7 with an X. Not kisses — kills. Victims, to be precise. The killer had to feed. Compulsion, again. Some ghosts just don't rest.<br/><br/>"The real puzzle wasn't in the streets — it was in the fine print: <i>All the rules had to live on the back of the card.</i> No rulebooks, no excuses. That constraint turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons — it forced me to focus on what really matters in a design, and taught me how to simplify without losing depth.<br/><br/>"Thankfully, I still had a trick up my sleeve: including household items was permitted. Dice. Chips. Buttons. Hell, even beans. Then it hit me like a punchline in a dark alley: cereal. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/449893/cereal-killer" ><i><b>Cereal Killer</b></i></a>. The pun was cheap. The irony? Expensive."<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8996460"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/bj2KBI53zTreKwYxFVG1Pw__small/img/d4XYFHBsbMsHz_SAcMU-TlEw9qg=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8996460.png" border=0></a></div></center><br/>"As usual, I worked on the graphics and followed suit — minimalist to the bone, matching with the new not-so-noir theme I had stumbled upon.<br/><br/>"Game ran 5 to 10 minutes. Tight and snappy like a pocketknife in a bar fight. Quick playtests meant rapid evolution. I tuned it, tweaked it, shaved off the fat."<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8996461"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/rUltu9cKcuiTZS-VG5FmSA__small/img/qExGdKJePmx9k1Yr-jreDe9fxQY=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8996461.png" border=0></a></div></center><br/>"When I finally hit submit, I wasn't expecting applause. I was already happy I'd pulled it off.<br/><br/>"Out of 267 entries, <i>Cereal Killer</i> made the top 3. A tiny game about a compulsive murderer. So <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/2456/the-game-crafter-llc" >The Game Crafter</a> printed two thousand copies of <i>One Card Cereal Killer</i>, giving them away as a promo item to their customers."<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9030708"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/kuh4bN21hMSI00OBFpSAhA__small/img/kTApi-HnRE-7cA1-F6tDkNaD6t0=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9030708.jpg" border=0></a></div></center><br/><b>Adapt to Circumstances: Small Game, Big Moves</b><br/><br/>"Come 2023, me and the gang at Super Noob Games decided to give the killer a passport. We'd been dormant since 2020. Needed a clean start. Something lean. <i>Cereal Killer</i> fit the bill.<br/><br/>"Wallet games were the new craze in Argentina — fit in your pocket, punch like a heavyweight. Think about <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/369301/dia-de-playa" ><i>Día de Playa</i></a>. Perfect for our growing but fragile industry. Big dreams, small budgets. That's the hustle in our land, but we always find a way to keep on track.<br/><br/>"While I fine-tuned the game, we assembled a playtest group with some of the best game designers from Buenos Aires. Met every Friday at Punto de Partida, a bar that smelled of coffee and cardboard. Playtests got brutal, precise. No fluff, no lies. Just designers tearing through mechanisms like a pack of hounds on a scent. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/378395/one-card-cereal-killer" ><b><i>One Card Cereal Killer</i></b></a> left that room sharper, meaner, ready to walk the streets."<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8996464"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/g7jYuSwxhe_2IpOS7Qf_6g__small/img/FjQYiufnleE44OxJjAzeBcbsXvs=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8996464.png" border=0></a></div></center><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8996462"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/yVxil_hy7t9IbUCQstE5QA__small/img/O6DSTNbkzKQAxIXiIHIZz67LwLs=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8996462.jpg" border=0></a></div></center><br/>"We launched the game with a couple of creepy video ads, courtesy of my old partner in crime, filmmaker Nacho Sesma. The thing exploded. Went viral across Latin America like a bad rumor in a smoky room. We weren't ready for the attention — but then again, no one ever is."<br/><br/><center><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctER4sjLy10">Youtube Video</a></center><br/><center><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn9nC7ex650">Youtube Video</a></center><br/><b>A Furry Friend: Every Detective Needs a Dog</b><br/><br/>"A few months later, I was back in the lab with Aibel. We were chewing on an idea — adding a third player to the mix. Not just any player. A dog. Lola, the police mutt.<br/><br/>"It clicked instantly. A silent third partner. Loyal, instinctive, and with no ego to muck things up. Alpha player syndrome? Gone. This canine worked on scent and trust. Barks and bites. A nose for justice.<br/><br/>"Lola fit like a puzzle piece that had been missing since day one. We gave her a second card — an expansion of the killer's turf. Gotta give the wolf room to run, right? The detectives from the first draft made their comeback. The old gang, reborn. Stronger. Smarter. Doggier."<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8996465"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/0CZE99UoWLlNZfRWx1BSTA__small/img/IAiIxcuM8yn7AIM20Etl75XCTG0=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8996465.jpg" border=0></a></div></center><br/><b>Extra! The Cereal Killer Thrills the Streets of Madrid!</b><br/><br/>"Then the phone rang. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/30490/primigenio" >Primigenio</a> — big dogs from Spain — wanted a license. Said they'd publish <i>Cereal Killer</i> across Spain and Latin America. I poured a drink. Took a long, silent sip. This thing was really happening.<br/><br/>"[user=Il Folletto]Francesco[/user] from <a href="https://mobvanguard.com" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">M.O.B. Vanguard</a>, our secret agent, helped dot the i's. Before long we were neck-deep in development with [user=Kawaisima]Nancy[/user] and [user=Ushikai]Sergio[/user], two sharp minds who didn't miss a beat. They wanted a bigger box, higher-end components. No more beans. No more buttons. This was the deluxe edition — same killer, new suit."<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8996782"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/GuZaytq73FSxvb-6v_0P0g__small/img/I1fi-BEXLtmcbHjTh9ghZE7Q8v8=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8996782.jpg" border=0></a></div></center><br/>"Working with them was a dream. Clean, honest collaboration. No surprises. No blood in the water. Just mutual respect and a shared love for the dark, twisted thing we'd built.<br/><br/>"The new version? It's around the corner. And it's heading for SPIEL Essen 25, where the biggest names in the business gather to whisper about cardboard crimes."<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8991704"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/3C89J_IjDP-1ctGDlj8vbw__small/img/iK9rRECgyTm2rskMXjml_SsuVXc=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic8991704.png" border=0></a></div></center><br/>"Meanwhile, I wait.<br/>Back in the silence.<br/>Back where it all started.<br/>The killer's still out there.<br/>And I've still got a compass on my desk.<br/>Just in case I need to find my way again."<br/><br/><center><b>•••</b></center><br/><i>He...Hello... One two... Julián speaking now.</i><br/><br/>Thank you, Detective, for your thoughtful words. Working with you has been a pleasure, like a coffee, hmm..., in the morning, uh... Okay, I'm not as good as you with analogies. I get it. English is not my first language anyways.<br/><br/>Thank you, too, reader! I didn't want to write a technical diary, yet I did still want to share some details on how the game was conceived. If you have any technical questions, just let me know and I'll be happy to answer in the comments.<br/><br/>Have fun!<br/><br/><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/96341/julian-tunni" >Julián Tunni</a>
August 2025 Games I played for the first time this month, from worst to best, along with my ratings and comments. Sabobatage – 4/10 So long as I have kids this age, it seems I’m destined to get roped … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/09/13/josiahs-monthly-board-game-round-up-august-2025/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
He played that game with Fractal Juegos, and they were interested in signing it, but AEG ended up signing the design.Even so, Fractal Juegos and I kept in contact over the years.At SPIEL Essen 23, we pitched the game a lot and had quite some interest, but the most memorable pitch was for Fractal Juegos. I was pitching alone to Simón Weinstein, who works at Fractal Juegos as editor, in one of the cafeterias since the publisher booth was already taken for other meetings. The intention was to pitch
10 Days in the National Parks Designers: Alan R. Moon and Aaron Weissblum Publisher: the Op Players: 2-4 Age: 10+ Time: 30 minutes Played with review copy provided by publisher Amazon link: https://amzn.to/4oGJi8A LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN! Set out the … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/09/12/dale-yu-review-of-10-days-in-the-national-parks/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
Since you would gain two cards each turn and (most of the time) lose only one, you would watch your city grow throughout the game.Special building cards would carry symbols that interacted with many of the cards — and all of this would be fueled by many different sets of cards, of which you would need only eight per game.So how did my game address my criticisms of Guildhall? First, this game would also have direct interaction, but I hoped it would be less severe. I tried to mitigate the sharpnes
Then for each color you played, if you have any "free" (i.e. unpaired) cards, see whether another player has a free card of the same color and opposite gender; if so, take one of these cards to create a pair in front of you, with the holder of the "stolen" card being compensated by 1-2 points from the reserve.To end your turn, refill your hand to eight cards by drawing 1-3 cards, one each from different stacks. When enough stacks have been depleted, the game ends, with each player revealing one
Star Explorer Designer: Lukasz Szopka Publisher: Queen Games Players: 1-4 Age: 8+ Time: 30 minutes Played with review copy provided by publisher Star Explorer is an international version of Night Sky Explorers, a game released in 2024 by Lucrum Games … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/09/11/dale-yu-review-of-star-explorer/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
After three rounds, whoever has the most points wins.Fun fact: In 1998, Clementoni released a Wolfgang Kramer game called Über den Wolken that has players trying to land their planes through a fog of clouds at specific German geographic features and locations.▪️ Another new Zoch title is Tobias Tesar's Käpt'n Memo, which was demoed at Berlin Brettspiel Con in mid-2025.In this 2-5 player game, players take turns being the captain of a ship that sails in a sea conveniently sized at 7x7 tiles, with
This may not help because every journey is different but in case it does … When I first transitioned, my gaming friends were my first safe space whereas the world at large was a source of acceptance anxiety for me. … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2025/09/10/alison-brennan-game-snapshots-2025-part-23/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
They appear on a random game night or pop up while you're doing something completely unrelated, and that's when the magic happens...but first, let's add a bit of context.I ([user=flipper83]flipper83[/user]) generally tend to design Eurostyle games (like Phoenix: New Horizon or Concilium Urbis), and Eugeni ([user=Urgeniu]Urgeniu[/user]) excels across the board, though he truly shines when it comes to creating brilliant party games and fillers (like The Lie, Oh My Park!, or Imperfect Job).We had j