“We’ve been ready for this step!”: Allplay’s Joe Wiggins on its striking push into heavier games, bigger productions and new audiences
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Welcome to the latest BoardGameWire newsletter!
Our lead story this week covers Allplay's striking new strategic expansion, with the company launching three new lines that will take it well beyond the accessible, smaller-box strategy games it has become known for.
The move - Allplay’s biggest shift since its predecessor Boardgametables.com entered publishing in 2018 - stands out as one of the more ambitious publisher expansions this year, particularly as many companies have been turning towards smaller, lower-risk releases amid tariffs and rising manufacturing costs. Allplay COO Joe Wiggins spoke to BoardGameWire about the rationale behind the change, and why the success of its publishing partner program helped underpin the expansion.
We also look at the Tabletop Game Designers Association’s new effort to benchmark how fairly board game publishers treat designers, after its review of more than 50 standard contracts found widespread issues around areas including intellectual property, expansion rights and financial transparency.
The organisation’s Contract Scoring Rubric assesses agreements against 110 criteria, while its first industry-wide findings identify five publishers with the strongest contracts and reveal that the exercise has already prompted some publishers to change their terms.
And in other news, crowdfunded eurogames from smaller publishers had a standout showing at the latest Dice Tower Awards, accounting for half of the wins at the ceremony.
Kinson Key Games’ Galactic Cruise led the way with three awards, including Game of the Year, while Paverson Games’ Luthier picked up three more. The results offer an interesting counterpoint to the growing swell of larger publishers, big-budget productions and licensed IP across Kickstarter and Gamefound.
Plus we have 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.
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Take care, and have a great week,
Mike Didymus-True - Editor
“We’ve been ready for this step!”: Allplay’s Joe Wiggins on its striking push into heavier games, bigger productions and new audiences
Allplay is making its biggest strategic shift since its predecessor Boardgametables.com entered publishing in 2018 – launching a trio of new product lines aimed at markets well beyond the accessible, smaller-box strategy games that have defined it to date.
The publisher’s newly-announced Masterworks, Epics and Creations lines mark its expansion into heavyweight eurogames, large-scale adventure titles and licensed or fandom-driven games respectively – beginning with a remake of highly-regarded Chad Jensen design Dominant Species.
Who has the fairest contracts in board games? TTGDA launches publisher benchmark to improve treatment of designers
The Tabletop Game Designers Association has begun scoring and comparing the standard contracts board game publishers offer to designers, with the aim of improving how game creators are treated and paid.
TTGDA’s inaugural review of contracts from more than 50 board game publishers found “several critical areas where many standard publishing agreements fall short of fair practices”, such as 75% of publishers retaining rights to a game’s name after publication agreements end, and 40% able to develop expansions without consulting the original designer.
Crowdfunded euros from smaller publishers dominate Dice Tower Awards as Galactic Cruise claims game of the year
Crowdfunded eurogames from smaller board game publishers had a banner year at the latest Dice Tower Awards, accounting for half of the wins at the high-profile prize ceremony.
The biggest success of the night was Kinson Key Games’ Galactic Cruise, which was crowned game of the year in addition to picking up gongs for best strategy game and best game from a new designer.
“This is a time to be disciplined, focused, and clear about why a game deserves to exist”: industry veteran Scott Morris on launching new publisher Steelwing Games
Few people in the hobby game industry have seen as many sides of the business as Scott Morris – from leading global strategy at Lucky Duck Games, building publishing partnerships at GTS Distribution and running sales, marketing and social media at Arcane Wonders. Now Morris is applying that experience to his own venture as founder of Steelwing Games - and spoke to BoardGameWire about launching in a challenging market, and the lessons he is bringing from his varied career.
Gen Con tops 74,000 attendees as record-breaking show preps for much-needed venue, hotel expansion
North America’s biggest tabletop gaming convention, Gen Con, has continued its record-breaking run after more than 74,000 attendees left this year’s sold-out show bursting at the seams.
The convention, which has sold out before opening for three consecutive years, is operating at a hard capacity ceiling at the Indiana Convention Centre - but a significant floor space expansion is coming ahead of its 60th anniversary show next year.
Gen Con hires The Dice Tower’s Camilla Cleghorn as head of events as show looks to scale beyond record attendance
Gen Con has hired longtime The Dice Tower presenter and convention organiser Camilla Cleghorn as its new head of events, putting a familiar face from board game media in charge of planning and delivering one of the tabletop industry’s largest event programmes.
Cleghorn’s new role will see her lead Gen Con‘s events team and oversee the planning and execution of the massive convention’s event programming, while supporting the organisers responsible for the thousands of events run each year.
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Support BoardGameWire as a Paid SubscriberOther news:
TCGs drive PAX Aus tabletop expansion as organisers grow segment’s exhibition space by 7%
Trio of board game industry veterans launch full-service agency Best in Play
Asmodee’s quarterly net sales soar again to over €422m, board game revenue jumps 16%
The hall plans for Spiel Essen in October are now available online - BrettSpielBox
The latest Flip awards for unpublished games have been announced - Ludovox
Bonn Lab for Analog Games Starts Science Gaming - GamesMarket
Design Zone
Matthew Dunstan reflects on five years of being a full time game designer, and its pros and cons
A video from board game manufacturer Hero Time on prototyping and playtesting, which says designers who reach production faster are usually the ones who test earlier and cheaper
How Ginger Fox created games for Back to the Future, Jaws, ET, and Jurassic Park: in conversation with Benji Toner-Clewes - Mojo Nation
Designer Diary: Sniper Elite: Operation Kraken by David Thompson - BoardGameGeek
The Decision Space podcast digs into what the central questions are in different games, and think about how that can help players and designers
Joe Slack from The Board Game Design Course on how to make your own Kickstarter video (and what to avoid)
Québec: Redesigning Artwork and Accessibility by Anton Hallmann - BoardGameGeek
The Game Design Unboxed podcast chats with Ionah Nguyen, a Seattle-based board game designer, founder of board game studio Brainy Hearty, and co-founder and CEO of Everjoy Global - dedicated to bringing Vietnamese tabletop games to international publishers and distributors
The TableTop Takeaway podcast look at some of the game design decisions in app-driven board game Alchemists.
Garphill Games’ Shem and Sam Phillips and Zach Smith discuss the game design elements of Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon by Fabio Lopiano and Nestore Mangone
Job Watch
US - TRPG Publishing Lead, D&D - Wizards of the Coast
US - Senior Games Brand Manager - Goliath
US - Business Development Manager - OffDutyNinja
US - Document Accessibility Specialist - Steve Jackson Games
US - Production Lead - Dragon Shield
US - Part Time Social Media Manager - Packed House Games
UK - Head of Studio Operations - Games Workshop
UK - Head of Age of Sigmar Studio - Games Workshop
Korea - Regional Publishing Lead - Riftbound TCG
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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