Brotherwise bets hobby games have become brands, recruits 20 publishers for miniature board game box collectibles line
BoardGameWire is proud to have our newsletter sponsored by the following companies, which help make our reporting possible. Please click on the logos to see what they can offer, and help support our work!
Welcome to the latest BoardGameWire newsletter!
Our top story this week details Brotherwise Games’ bet that hobby board games have reached the point where they have become brands in their own right - as the company launches Shelfy, a collectibles line of miniature board game boxes featuring titles from 20 tabletop publishers.
Brotherwise plans to debut ‘Season One’ of Shelfy at Gen Con later this month, featuring 28 miniature recreations of board game boxes for titles including Gloomhaven, Dune: Imperium and Boop. And while CEO Chris O’Neal told BoardGameWire the release is very much a “passion project”, it will be intriguing to see if it has legs to go beyond a first season, given the huge popularity of collectibles such as Funko Pops in recent years allowing people to show off their interests in collectibles form.
We also cover the launch of ColorSym, an incredibly slick-looking open-source colour identification system from a pair of board game designers, which they hope will give publishers a free tool for colourblind-friendly board game creation.
And in other news, Czech Games Edition chief executive Petr Murmak has confirmed US tariffs are the main reason American customers will pay about $30 more than their European counterparts for the publisher’s newly announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance board game, underlining how import duties are now directly shaping board game pricing.
Plus all the rest of the latest industry news, our regular links to designer-focused podcasts and articles, and a roundup of open job positions in the industry.
I hope you find this week’s newsletter useful, as ever, and chock full of interesting industry news that hasn’t been reported elsewhere.
And if you’re finding BoardGameWire coverage of use and look forward to these newsletters, please do help me keep it going by financially supporting the site! If you’re not already a supporter, you can become one here from as little as $1 a month, which you’ve got to admit is a bit of a bargain. If you can afford more, please just increase the quantity via that link.
If you’re able to support my reporting in other ways, such as sharing articles across places such as Reddit and other social media sites, that’s genuinely incredibly helpful too!
And if you work in the industry and are looking to advertise your business or its services to a readership of tabletop gaming professionals, please do take a look at BoardGameWire’s media kit for advertising and sponsorship opportunities.
Take care, and have a great week,
Mike Didymus-True - Editor
Brotherwise bets hobby games have become brands, recruits 20 publishers for miniature board game box collectibles line
Brotherwise Games is betting that hobby board game brands can travel beyond the tabletop by launching Shelfy, a collectibles line of miniature board game boxes featuring titles from 20 publishers.
The publisher will debut ‘Season One’ of Shelfy at Gen Con later this month, featuring 28 miniature recreations of board game boxes for titles including Gloomhaven, Dune: Imperium and Boop.
Designer pair launch ColorSym, giving publishers a free tool for colourblind-friendly board game creation
A pair of tabletop game designers have launched a free, open-source colour identification system they hope could become a common accessibility standard across the board game industry.
Unlike bespoke icon systems created by publishers for individual games, Luis Francisco and Chris Eastridge hope they have created a universal visual language that players can learn once and recognise across multiple titles.
Czech Games CEO says US tariffs drove $30 price gap between US, European editions of Kingdom Come: Deliverance board game
Czech Games Edition chief executive Petr Murmak has confirmed US tariffs are the main reason American customers will pay about $30 more than their European counterparts for the publisher’s newly announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance board game, underlining how import duties are now directly shaping board game pricing.
The publisher revealed it has eyes on a Spiel Essen release for the heavy euro adventure game, a Tomáš Holek and Vlaada Chvátil co-design based on the hit medieval RPG video game – which has sold more than 16 million copies across the original release and its 2025 sequel.
“We have a great story to tell, we just have to get better at telling it”: GAMA hires Kevin Ronnebaum as sixth comms head in as many years
Tabletop gaming industry association GAMA has hired Kevin Ronnebaum as its senior marketing and communications director – making him the trade body’s sixth communications lead since mid-2020.
His hire comes at a pivotal time for GAMA, which has followed several years of booming post-Covid growth by implementing a plan to become the “epicenter” of the global tabletop gaming industry.
The past 12 months has not been without challenges for the association, however, including losing long-serving executive director John Stacy last October, contending with the fallout from Donald Trump’s volatile tariff policy, and falling foul of a series of incidents which have caused dents to its reputation.
Indie publisher Eurydice Games hits almost £400,000 in revenue while hand-making every copy of its game in a garage
As board game publishers continue to grapple with volatile manufacturing costs, tariffs and freight disruption, UK-based Eurydice Games is celebrating reaching almost £400,000 in lifetime revenue without ever outsourcing production.
Each of the 7,000 copies of dexterity-based space skirmish game FlickFleet and its expansions has been laser cut and assembled by Eurydice co-founder Paul Willcox in his garage, with the company estimating it has now produced well over 400,000 individual laser-cut components.
Enjoying BoardGameWire?
Great! We love writing about all the board game news that isn’t being properly covered elsewhere. But to continue doing that, we need your support! If you’ve found our writing interesting or useful and want to help us continue our reporting, please consider becoming a paid subscriber - for as little as $1 a month! - by clicking the button below.
Support BoardGameWire as a Paid SubscriberOther news:
Take Time follows Swiss Gamers Award win by securing Austrian game of the year prize
Wayland Games parent Wyld Holdings buys tabletop storage giant Battle Foam in latest expansion move
Hot Streak, Speakeasy, Fate of the Fellowship among this year’s Origins Awards winners
Ludovox has a report on Gigamic’s current strategy as the Hachette-owned French publisher celebrates its 35th anniversary
Jamey Stegmaier discusses the importance of playtesting a game’s product design through the lens of new title Wingspan Pocket
The Bremen Deaf Center has launched the DGS Games project, a website in which game rules are explained in German Sign Language with subtitles - giving deaf people better access to games.
Design Zone
Unpub is running speed pitch events at Gen Con focused on different underrepresented groups, in partnership with Women in Toys, Rose Gauntlet Foundation, and Tabletop Gaymers
Dutch publisher 999 Games is organizing a designer day, in which creators can present their ideas to the publisher - SpelopTafel
Registration is open for the International Game Inventors Convention at Spielwarenmesse next year
The Third Edition of Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design, by Geoff Engelstein and Isaac Shalev, is released this month
Brooks Barber from Hawk Dove Games argues that effective game design has no universal rules - and that designers should frame their decisions based on narrative, theme and intended player experience.
Sidekick Games’ Asger Harding Granerud on Tembo, Hutan – and 10 years of Flamme Rouge - Mojo Nation
Designer Diary: Mythic Baths by Karl Lange - BoardGameGeek
The Decision Space podcast explores iterative game design by looking at Kai Kajino’s titles Scout and dnup
looks at hand management and the puzzles it can present players
Danni Loe and Jen Graham-Macht explore what a blockbuster movie-like strategy for a tabletop release could look like using the tools shared in Harvard professor Anita Elberse's book Blockbusters
Joe Slack from the Board Game Design Course posits five ways to know when your game is done, and how to prep for self-publishing
Danielle Reynolds on The Game Design Unboxed podcast chats with Matthew Dunstan about design communities, digital playtesting and creating successful print-and-play games
The TableTop Takeaway podcast talks risk, reward and predictable markets by looking at tile-laying hit Azul
The Garphill Games team Shem Phillips, Sam MacDonald and Zach Smith regularly discuss games they've played together with a focus on game design elements - this time looking at the nominees for the Kennerspiel Des Jahres 2026
Job Watch
US - Senior Game Producer - Asmodee
US - Organized Play Relationship Manager - Fantasy Flight Games
US - Art Coordinator - Ravensburger
US - BoardGameArena Game Developer - Warren James
UK - Game Designer - Modiphius Games
UK - Digital Marketing Assistant - Wayland Games
All these jobs are from the very excellent Tabletop Game Jobs Facebook Group - head there to take a look at all the latest listings
That’s it for this week - please share this email with your friends and colleagues if it’s been useful or interesting!
And if you value BoardGameWire sourcing exclusives and covering all the most important industry news, please help support me to keep doing so by becoming a paid newsletter subscriber - or, if it’s more convenient, supporting us on Patreon:
Support BoardGameWire as a Paid SubscriberSupport us via Patreon
