If you’re looking for Christmas gifts or just trying to fill the void of silence with your friends and family this festive season, look no further than the humble board game. Christmas is coming which means long, lazy days with your nearest and dearest, perhaps eating too much and definitely still spending too much time … Read more
Marc Daalder goes inside Wellycon, New Zealand’s largest board game convention to find out why the genre is having a renaissance. Snakes and Ladders sucks. At least, that’s according to BoardGameGeek.com, the near-definitive database for a hobby that has exploded in popularity in recent years. On BGG, as it’s known – or, affectionately/cringingly, “The Geek” … Read more
She’s hidden it from her friends and her family – but she’s ready to come clean. Auckland councillor Cathy Casey is a Scrabble addict. This is her story. After thinking long and hard about it over the summer break, I have finally decided to come clean about a very secret part of my life. In … Read more
It probably seemed like a good idea at the time to produce a local version of beloved board game Scrabble, featuring Kiwi slang and te reo words. But then the Scrabble diehards played it. New Zealand is a country with a proud history in competitive Scrabble. At this year’s Alchemist Cup, the world’s richest, most … Read more
In the latest episode of their Spinoff TV segment looking at stuff white people inexplicably like, comedy group Frickin Dangerous Bro – Jame Roque, Jamaine Ross and Pax Assadi – investigate white people’s love for the colonialist hexagonal fantasy board game. Previously: Frickin Dangerous Bro review Lululemon, kombucha and bath bombs Watch The Spinoff TV, … Read more
Kickstarter isn’t only the domain of backpack and fidget spinner innovators; it’s also good for indie board and card game makers. Pitched as a kid friendly card game built around vicious bears and violent babies, Bears vs Babies won some hard earned dollars from Douglas Moore. What’s his prognosis? Hype is one hell of a marketing … Read more
Year on year, board games are selling at historical rates – and one Waikanae dad is cashing in. Douglas Moore speaks with Shem Phillips, full-time board game designer and director of Garphill Games. * So Shem, could you tell me a little about yourself and how you came to be a designer? I’m 33, married with two … Read more
Rubbish knock-off licensing seems to hound every mega popular entertainment property out there. (Exhibit A). Among the most questionable products are boardgames based on video games – but the DOOM boardgame might just be an honourable exception, as Liam Maguren discovers. I’ve written about DOOM three bloody times for The Spinoff. I thought I had … Read more