A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game, is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and multiple ways to score points. Eurogames are sometimes contrasted with American-style board games, which generally involve more luck, conflict, and drama. They are usually less abstract than chess or Go, but more abstract than wargames. Likewise, they generally require more thought and planning than party games such as Pictionary or Trivial Pursuit.
The Spiel des Jahres is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence and popularity of the award was one of the major drivers of the quality of games coming out of Germany, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s. A Spiel des Jahres nomination can increase the typical sales of a game from 500–3,000 copies to around 10,000, and the winner can usually expect to sell as many as 500,000 copies.
BoardGameGeek (BGG) is an online forum for board gaming hobbyists and a game database that holds reviews, images and videos for over 125,600 different tabletop games, including European-style board games, wargames, and card games. In addition to the game database, the site allows users to rate games on a 1–10 scale and publishes a ranked list of board games.
Larry Harris Jr. is a game designer.
Richard Harvey Berg was a prolific American wargame designer. He was inducted into the Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame in 1987.
Uwe Rosenberg is a German game designer and the co-founder of Lookout Games. He initially became known for his card game Bohnanza, which was successful both in Germany and internationally. He is more recently known for developing many highly-acclaimed strategy games, such as Agricola and A Feast for Odin. As of March 2023, his games held six of the entries on BoardGameGeek.com's top-100 board games of all time.
Darwin Paul Bromley was an attorney and a game designer who had worked primarily on board games.
Heinz Meister is a prolific board game designer from Germany. He is credited as the designer of over 150 board games or game items. Only a few game designers from Germany such as Reiner Knizia, Wolfgang Kramer, and Michael Schacht are known to have more tabletop game design credits. Meister won the Kinderspiel des Jahres award for best children's game in 1995 with Karambolage and in 1992 for Galloping Pigs.
Reinhold Wittig is a prolific award-winning board game designer and geologist from Germany. He is credited as the designer of over 125 board games or game items.
Tyrone S. Bomba is a prolific American board wargame designer, credited as the designer of over 125 board wargames and game items. Bomba is the recipient of the James F. Dunnigan Award, has been inducted into the Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame for his contributions to the wargaming industry, and several of his games have won Charles S. Roberts Awards.
Craig Besinque is a wargame designer from British Columbia, Canada, who grew up in Arcadia, California. Most of his games are block wargames which have World War II as a theme. In 1991, his game East Front, co-designed with Tom Dalgliesh, won the Charles S. Roberts Award for Best World War Two Game, a James F. Dunnigan Award for playability and design, and the Origins Award for best Modern-era wargame. His game Triumph & Tragedy was the runner-up for the best 2015 Golden Geek Wargame. His other popular games have included Rommel in the Desert and Hellenes: Campaigns of the Peloponnesian War.
Jonathan Leistiko is a prolific board game designer from Pflugerville, Texas, who grew up in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Leistiko is credited as the designer of over 100 board games or game items since the year 2000 and is credited with more board game and card game designs than just about any living American-born game designer outside of the wargaming field other than fellow Texan Steve Jackson and James Ernest, owner and lead designer of Cheapass Games.
Kevin S. Zucker is an American wargame designer, historian, author, and musician.
Rob Daviau is an American game designer known for creating legacy board gaming.
Michael Gray is an American game designer from rural Massachusetts known for his board game designs for Milton Bradley. He eventually became the Senior Director of Global Concept Acquisition for Hasbro's games division. Game reviewer Tom Vasel has called him "the wisest man in all of board gaming."
David Brad Talton Jr. is a prolific American board game designer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who runs the company Level 99 Games.
Robert Markham is a prolific American wargame designer. His game Raid on St. Nazaire won the 1987 Charles S. Roberts awards for Best World War II Board Game and Best Wargame Graphics.
Christophe Boelinger is a prolific game designer and game artist from France. His most famous game is Dungeon Twister. Boelinger is credited as the designer of over 60 board games or game items. He is known as a fan of theme, unique styles, and fantasy settings, stating that he always searches for the theme of a game first except for abstract games.
Michael Menzel is a prolific game artist and occasional game designer from Germany. As the designer of Legends of Andor, he won the Kennerspiel award.
Rodger B. MacGowan is an artist, game developer, art director and magazine publisher who has been active in the board wargame industry since the 1970s. MacGowan is a prolific artist of cover art for wargames, and the wargaming magazine he founded, Fire & Movement, won the Charles S. Roberts Award several times while under his editorial control.
