Reiner Knizia is a prolific German-style board game designer. He was born in West Germany in 1957 and earned a doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Ulm before designing games full time. He is frequently included on lists of the greatest game designers of all time. Many of his hundreds of designs are considered modern classics, and many have won or been nominated for significant gaming awards, including the Spiel des Jahres and the Deutscher Spiele Preis. His notable designs include Amun-Re, Blue Moon City, Ingenious, Keltis, Lord of the Rings, Medici, Modern Art, Ra, Taj Mahal, Tigris and Euphrates, and Through the Desert. Many of his designs incorporate mathematical principles, such as his repeated use of auction mechanics.
Days of Wonder is a board game publisher founded in 2002 and owned by Asmodee Group since 2014. Days of Wonder distributes its games to 25 countries. It specializes in German-style board games and has branched out to include some online games. Days of Wonder has published games in several languages including English, Dutch, French, German, Russian, and Greek. Days of Wonder was co-founded by Eric Hautemont, Mark Kaufmann and Yann Corno.
Citadels is a German-style card game, designed by Bruno Faidutti, originally published in French as Citadelles by MultiSim in 2000, illustrated by Julien Delval, Florence Magnin, Jean-Louis Mourier and Cyrille Daujean as graphic designer for the first edition. Sometime later, Citadels was published in German as Ohne Furcht und Adel, which means "Without Fear or Nobility".
Alan R. Moon is an author of board games, born in Southampton, England. He is generally considered to be one of the foremost designers of German-style board games. Many of his games can be seen as board game variations on the travelling salesman problem.
Lord of the Rings is a cooperative board game based on the high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. Published in 2000 by Kosmos in Germany, Wizards of the Coast in the U.S., and Parker Brothers in the U.K., the game is designed by Reiner Knizia and features artwork by illustrator John Howe. In the game, each player plays a hobbit in the party, and the party will aim to destroy the One Ring. Upon its release, the game received a Spiel des Jahres special award. A slightly revised version was later published by Fantasy Flight Games.
Pirate's Cove is a board game designed by Paul Randles and Daniel Stahl, originally published in Germany in 2002 by Amigo Spiele, illustrated by Markus Wagner and Swen Papenbrock. In 2003, Days of Wonder republished the game with a new graphic design from Julien Delval and Cyrille Daujean. In the game, players play pirate ship captains seeking treasure from islands and bragging rights from defeating other pirates in naval combat.
Zooloretto is a board game designed by Michael Schacht, published in 2007 by Abacus Spiele and in English by Rio Grande Games. The premise of the game is that each player is the owner of a zoo, and must collect animals in order to attract visitors to their zoo. Having full, or nearly full, animal enclosures scores more points. However, if a player has too many animals such that they must be stored in their "barn", this causes them to lose points. Vending stalls also offer a means for players to score points with enclosures that are not full.
Deduction board games are a genre of board game in which the players must use deductive reasoning and logic in order to win the game. While many games, such as bridge or poker require the use of deductive reasoning to some degree, deduction board games feature deductive reasoning as their central mechanic.
Diamant is a multiplayer card game designed by Alan R. Moon and Bruno Faidutti, published in 2005 in Germany by Schmidt Spiele, with illustrations provided by Jörg Asselborn, Christof Tisch, and Claus Stephan.
Agricola is a Euro-style board game created by Uwe Rosenberg. It is a worker placement game with a focus on resource management. In Agricola, players are farmers who sow, plow the fields, collect wood, build stables, buy animals, expand their farms and feed their families. After 14 rounds players calculate their score based on the size and prosperity of the household.
Dominion is a card game created by Donald X. Vaccarino and published by Rio Grande Games. Originally published in 2008, it was the first deck-building game, and inspired a genre of games building on its central mechanic. Each player begins with a small deck of cards, which they improve by purchasing cards from a common supply that varies from game to game. Cards can help the player's deck function, impede their opponents, or provide victory points. As of December 2022, fifteen expansions to the original Dominion have been released.
Dixit, is a French board game created by Jean-Louis Roubira, illustrated by Marie Cardouat, and published by Libellud. Using a set of cards illustrated with dreamlike images, players select cards that match a title suggested by the designated storyteller player, and attempt to guess which card the storyteller selected. The game was introduced in 2008. Dixit won the 2010 Spiel des Jahres award.
Hanabi is a cooperative card game created by French game designer Antoine Bauza and published in 2010. Players are aware of other players' cards but not their own, and attempt to play a series of cards in a specific order to set off a simulated fireworks show. The types of information that players may give to each other is limited, as is the total amount of information that can be given during the game. In 2013, Hanabi won the Spiel des Jahres, an industry award for best board game of the year.
Splendor is a multiplayer card-based board game, designed by Marc André and illustrated by Pascal Quidault. It was published in 2014 by Space Cowboys, Asmodee. Players are gem merchants of the Renaissance, developing gem mines, transportation, and shops to accumulate prestige points. Splendor received positive reviews and received numerous awards, including winner of Golden Geek Best Family Board Game, and nominated for the Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year in 2014. The game also received a mobile application and an expansion released in 2017.
Colt Express is a railway-themed family board game designed by Christophe Raimbault, Illustrated by Ian Parovel and Jordi Valbuena, published in 2014 by Ludonaute and distributed by Asmodee.
Kingdomino is a 2016 tile board game for 2-4 players designed by Bruno Cathala and published by Blue Orange Games. In this 15-20 minute, family-oriented game, players build a five by five kingdom of oversized domino-like tiles, making sure as they place each tile that one of its sides connects to a matching terrain type already in play. The game was critically successful and won the 2017 Spiel des Jahres award, and was followed by several spin-offs and expansions.
Just One is a cooperative party game for 3 to 7 players, designed by Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter and published by Repos Production in 2018. In each round of the game, players write down a one word clue for the round's guesser, who must figure out the secret word for the round. Identical clues are discarded before the guesser sees them.
The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine is a board game for 3–5 players designed by Thomas Sing and released in 2019. In The Crew, a trick-taking cooperative card game with 50 missions, players aim to win tricks based on their task cards, but can only communicate limited information on their cards. Upon its release, The Crew received critical success and won numerous awards. A sequel, The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, was released in 2021.
Ark Nova is a strategic board game for up to four people. It was designed by game designer Mathias Wigge, and first published in 2021. In Ark Nova, players aim to score conservation and appeal points by building a zoo. Upon its release, Ark Nova received positive reviews and received several awards.
Cascadia is a 2021 board game designed by Randy Flynn and published by Flatout Games. In Cascadia, players draft and add habitat tokens and matching wildlife tokens to score victory points based on various scoring conditions. Upon its release, Cascadia received critical success, with reviewers praising its components, accessibility, and strategy, but also noting its lack of player interaction. Cascadia won the 2022 Spiel des Jahres and the 2023 International Gamers Award for the Best solo game.
