“It’s important to us that we find new CMON fans all the time”: CMON hires board game YouTube channel Man vs Meeple’s CEO to run its global marketing campaigns
Plus: “We cannot work without each other”: The White Castle’s husband and wife design duo Isra and Shei on creating as as team, design pitfalls, and which games impressed them in 2024
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Welcome to the latest BoardGameWire newsletter!
Our top story this week is about crowdfunded board game major CMON bringing in the CEO of tabletop gaming YouTube channel Man vs Meeple as its new global director of marketing. We have insights from David Waybright himself on what the moves means for CMON’s strategy and how he plans to balance the full time role with working on his YouTube channel - and how the channel will approach coverage of CMON releases now that he is employed by the business.
We also have an interview with husband and wife board game design duo Isra & Shei, the creators of games including The White Castle and The Red Cathedral, on working together as a creative pairing, advice for designers when pitching to publishers, and which games interested them most in 2024.
Today’s newsletter also features tributes to Spanish board game designer Dani Garcia, the rising star designer of Arborea, Barcelona and Windmill Valley, who has been diagnosed with progressive, degenerative disease ALS – commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. We wish Dani and his family strength and good fortune in this difficult time.
A reminder: I’ll be heading to the GAMA Expo trade show for the first time at the end of February, so if you’re heading along too and want to meet up, discuss our coverage, pitch some potential news or just play a game together, please do let me know! I am, as ever, available at mike@boardgamewire.com.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter!
Mike Didymus-True - Editor
“It’s important to us that we find new CMON fans all the time”: CMON hires board game YouTube channel Man vs Meeple’s CEO to run its global marketing campaigns
Crowdfunded board game major CMON has hired the CEO of tabletop gaming YouTube channel Man vs Meeple as its new global director of marketing, as it looks to continue expanding its player base beyond its traditional core market. David Waybright will work full-time on promoting upcoming crowdfunding and retail releases from CMON while continuing to run Man vs Meeple, which specialises in sponsored and unsponsored board game preview videos, game overviews and Top 10 lists. The channel has almost 75,000 subscribers.
The hire comes at a key moment for CMON, which is attempting to draw in new players while also keeping hold of fans of its long-running Zombicide series and other miniatures-focused crowdfunding projects.
“We cannot work without each other”: The White Castle’s husband and wife design duo Isra and Shei on creating as as team, design pitfalls, and which games impressed them in 2024
Husband and wife board game design team Sheila Santos and Israel Cendrero have been collaborating on their creations for almost a decade - and have sealed their status as notable eurogame architects in recent years with standout titles The Red Cathedral and The White Castle. The pair - who go by their board game design monikers Isra and Shei - sat down with BoardGameWire to talk about their journey into the industry, why working as a duo is essential for them, and the major error they see new designers making when pitching to publishers.
Kennerspiel des Jahres winning publisher Schmidt Spiele scores 11% sales growth outside Germany, total 2024 sales reached €57.5m
German board game publisher Schmidt Spiele‘s international sales soared by 11% last year, helping the Quacks of Quedlinburg maker to €57.5m in total sales across 2024. Schmidt said that total was almost identical to the previous year, despite a tricky 2024 domestically amid the closure or shrinkage of two major retailers stocking its games and puzzles.
Schmidt said it once again scored high levels of sales for its children’s and family games, and highlighted the Kennerspiel des Jahres win for Daybreak – published by Schmidt as e-Mission in Germany – as a huge positive.
Tributes pour in for Barcelona, Arborea designer Dani Garcia after diagnosis with motor neuron disease ALS
Tributes have flooded in for Spanish board game designer Dani Garcia after he announced he had been diagnosed with progressive, degenerative disease ALS – commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Garcia is a rising star in the industry following the success of his designs Arborea, Barcelona and Windmill Valley over the last two years.
Garcia’s 2025 releases are set to include Coming of Age and Windmill Valley expansion Blooming Sails, while an expansion for Arborea named Corruption is slated for later this year or early 2026.
Uwe Rosenberg’s project to plant 40,000 trees in Ghana gets backing from 18th publisher, tie-in Kickstarter game passes €20,000
Eminent German board game designer Uwe Rosenberg’s project to create a forest in the Ghanaian savannah – and provide fair employment for local people – is nearing its goal of bringing 20 board game publishers on board. Rosenberg, the designer of games including Agricola, Patchwork and A Feast for Odin, launched the Board Game Road project in 2022 alongside sustainability business Click A Tree, with the aim of planting 40,000 trees along a rural road in the country.
Rosenberg is also hoping to raise awareness about the project through a Kickstarter project for his namesake board game design Click A Tree, which has raised more than €28,000 with just over a week of the campaign to go.
The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick Taking Game unseats Sky Team to top weekly new owner charts | BGG Stats
Co-operative card game The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game has surged to the top of the new owner charts on BoardGameGeek just a few days after release, unseating 2024 Spiel des Jahres winner Sky Team after its latest spell at the top. The new trick taker from Asmodee North America’s developmental studio Office Dog jumped straight to top spot for the number of new owners adding games to their BGG collection between January 13 and 20, following weeks of interest and exposure on the website’s prominent Hotness section.
Spiel des Jahres winner Sky Team fell to fourth place after four weeks in the top spot, with the game showing significant longevity, having also spent seven consecutive weeks at number one in the summer of 2024.
Asmodee shakes up UK leadership structure to kick off 2025
Board game publishing and distribution giant Asmodee has changed up its UK leadership structure to begin 2025, with a trio of senior executives being given updated roles. Anil Boodhoo, who is celebrating his 20th year with Asmodee UK and its predecessor business Esdevium Games, becomes sales director overseeing three separate channels – hobby and independent, national retailers, and e-commerce.
Asmodee’s global business is currently preparing to “reignite” its strategy of buying up smaller board game publishers and distributors, as it readies itself for its upcoming split from troubled owner Embracer Group.
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Other news:
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Heblo, Nucleum, Turing Machine and Tribun seal wins in German Mensa’s MinD-Spielepreis 2024 - SpielBox
Outcry in Italy over German board game based on Sicily’s mafia wars - Guardian
Design Zone
Award winning game designer Matthew Dunstan explores how to make a living from board game design
Board game designers Sen-Foong Lim and Erica Bouyouris discuss the importance of understanding who the audience for a specific game is during the design, development, and publication process in the latest Ludology podcast
Lucky Duck Games’ chief sales and marketing officer Scott Morris dives deep into the business side of board game design
Kickstarter head of creator strategy Jonathan Ritter-Roderick moderates a PAX Unplugged panel of board game marketing experts
Designer Diary: Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game by John D Clair - BoardGameGeek
Designer Diary: The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game by Bryan Bornmueller - BoardGameGeek
Skeleton Code Machine explores the common elements of dungeon crawl games and how to make them better
The Decision Space podcast looks at the best 2024 board game decisions, and games they’re looking forward to in 2025
Joe Slack from The Board Game Design Course on designing to help make players feel smart
The Tabletop Takeaway podcast investigates what encourages people to share their thought processes, and how to prevent players from getting stuck
Job Watch
US - Game Designer, Board Games, Fantasy Flight Games
US - Senior Marketing Manager, TCGs, Fantasy Flight Games
US - Marketing Manager, LCG & Board Game, Fantasy Flight Games
US - Digital Manager, Fantasy Flight Games
US - Senior Content Producer, Fantasy Flight Games
US - Sales Director, North America, Longpack Games
France, Germany, UK - Business Development Representative – Board Game Market, Longpack Games
UK - Senior Marketing Executive, Osprey 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
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