#ian-livingstone

#ian-livingstone

The day Josh Wardle sold Wordle to the New York Times, in 2022, for more than a million dollars, should have been a moment of triumph. The game, which gives players six chances to guess a five-letter word, had unexpectedly become a global sensation, and Wardle had already begun to receive e-mails from puzzle designers seeking his input on their own ideas.

So popular is the fantasy game that its parent company Games Workshop is valued at a staggering 6bn and is almost ever-present on British high streets. The fact a niche interest game invented by self-confessed geeks has become a huge global business is a story almost as unbelievable as those played out on its customers' kitchen tables. Games Workshop started as a mail order board games company run by three friends

I wish this was a one-off blip in my regimented friendship schedule, but all through 2025 I played the world's slowest game of message tennis. I'd invite a pal for dinner, only for the world to turn, the seasons pass, grey hairs gather at my temples, before a date was finally locked in. This sentiment seems to be common among my circle.

We do have a few senior managers that are [experts on AI]: none are that excited about it yet. We have agreed an internal policy to guide us all, which is currently very cautious, e.g., we do not allow AI-generated content or AI to be used in our design processes or its unauthorized use outside of GW, including in any of our competitions,

The last five years have seen a tremendous resurgence of role-playing games, from the turn-based masterpieces of Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, to the action-packed Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. And staggeringly, it looks like that trend is set to continue well into 2026. While there's undoubtedly a handful of games we don't know about, even what we do have looks like it's going to make this another banner year for RPGs.

Welcome to this week's batch of crowdfunding campaigns. We have a variety of offerings here, so we hope you will find something that catches your eye. Also, if you want to chat with the BGQ team, join our Discord Server where we talk about games, movies, sports, and other fun stuff. Or, if Facebook is more of your speed, join our BGQ Gamers Facebook Group. Check it out and come chat about board games with us!

I feel I'm finally getting established enough that we can make a Mistborn game happen. ... This is at Step One only, but it's an encouraging One.

Trails Beyond the Horizon's new character, Ulrika, is like staring into the abyss of a broken TikTok algorithm, and while my knee-jerk reaction might have been shock and even a little disdain, over the next 100 hours, I grew to find the character's bit surprisingly genuine and, admittedly, hilarious. What first felt like a gimmick grew to become one of my absolute favorite parts of the game, enhancing the already distinct personality of the Trails games.

Creatively, we've always let our North Star be our own personal taste in terms of what we think is cool--what it is we enjoy and want to see. I've seen too many TV shows and books be swayed trying to please a lot of people, and in the process you end up losing the heart of what's there,