More than news: this is how creative board game journalism can be
Regalroulette, chat reviews, board game duels: media creators don’t just play with dice and cards, but also with formats. We show successful examples from practice.
News, listicles, commentaries, unboxings, shelf visits, interviews, publisher profiles, retrospectives, Orakel episodes, Let’s Plays, advent calendars and much more: media creators show in their blogs, podcasts and on YouTube just how inventive board game journalism can be. Here are a few examples for inspiration – naturally with no claim to completeness. If you know of other original contributions, feel free to share links in the comments.
Reviews & impressions
Limiting yourself can boost creativity. That’s what Karsten Grosser demonstrates in Mini-Quartett on spielekenner.de. In his column, he presents four games in four sentences each, for example QE:
Crazy idea: we have an unlimited amount of money to bid on companies. However, I usually don’t find out at what price the competition gets the contract. Whoever spends the most cash overall misses the final scoring. This keeps this extraordinary gambling game exciting right to the end.
Karsten Grosser
This format can also be adapted to other media: on Instagram, you could present four games in four images; on YouTube, four games in four minutes; or like the staff at Lausitzer Rundschau, who presented a game in one minute.
Could you limit yourself not in length but in sentence types? Would it be possible to write a two-page review using only questions? Wait a minute, hasn’t someone already done that? Wasn’t it L. U. Dikus (aka Jochen Corts) in spielbox issue 1/2013 with his review of Oddville?
Do we also appreciate how accessible Oddville is and how seamlessly all the elements fit together, even though the game is by no means simple and requires careful play to avoid falling behind? Isn’t it great that it unfolds its charm equally in every player count? Could it be that, in all this and in terms of feel, it resembles Klaus-Jürgen Wrede’s card-based Rapa Nui (Kosmos), to which exactly these qualities were attributed here in issue 1/12?
L.U. Dikus
Instead of tormenting ourselves with questions, we could also look for rhymes and curse about bad games. Sonja Domke on brettspielpoesie.de is particularly fond of reviews that start with a poem. In the podcast Bretterwisser, she presented her review of Der perfekte Moment in this way – sending us on a poetic journey.
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More informationOther text formats are also possible: haikus, minutes, diary entries – or even a sacred one. Udo Bartsch took inspiration from the Bible for his article “And the People Called It Spielreiz” in spielbox 1/2012.
The Moorbauern and Le Havre begat Ora et Labora. Brother Rosenberg spoke to his disciples: Go forth and play. But some doubted: Oh, Master, isn’t this the same old thing again? And Brother Rosenberg approached them and said: It is not. And the disciples said: Fair enough. And they played as they were told. And lo: it was not the same.
Tobias Franke, on the other hand, took a kangaroo as his model. His article on the game Exit – Die Känguru-Eskapaden sounds like a text by Marc-Uwe Kling.
“Not true at all,” the kangaroo shouts excitedly. “Also, that’s rich coming from you. Ever since you think you’ve made it, you’ve gotten pretty chubby and comfortable. And yet you still get others to do the work for you. Like with this EXIT game. You didn’t do that on your own either. There was that game-designing couple. And the publisher’s editorial team did a lot too. So don’t come here with ‘I’m a successful game designer’ just because you’ve hitched your wagon to a well-known brand. And when you’re stuck, you call Stuttgart. Because, oddly enough, there are still people living there, and not everyone’s here in Berlin.”
Apps can also provide inspiration. Every issue of spielbox features a chat review. In it, Stephan Kessler talks to another person about a game. The text and design look like a WhatsApp chat. Here’s an excerpt from the review of Everdell Duo with Johanna France, which appeared in issue 5/2025.
Hello Jo! Everdell has received various expansions and variants over time. How high is your fanometer?
Hmm, tricky. Well, I was initially, like so many others, completely enchanted by this world and, I’ll admit, have played almost everything at least once. But the excitement came more from the setting and the components than from the gameplay. 🤔
Same here. The strong dependence on card luck – whether the cards work well together – did bother me. And also the unequal number of turns, so some players have to wait at the end.
And let’s not even talk about the tree blocking the view… 😅 Despite our criticism, Everdell has a large and enthusiastic fanbase. And even though there are some issues, I was really pleased to see that Everdell is getting a cooperative variant. The game exudes so much cosiness – it practically screams for a relaxed co-op experience!
It’s not just people who can have a conversation – games can too. A shop somewhere in Germany. Ankh is placed next to Kemet on the shelf. As soon as the saleswoman leaves, the games glance around, make sure they’re alone, and start talking. Christoph Schlewenski eavesdropped on their dialogue in spielbox 2/2022 .
Kemet: I’m more of a bash-’em-up game, and you’re more – how should I put it? Yes, underhanded.
Ankh: Underhanded? That’s a nice word. I’d love to have something like that on my box: “An underhanded game from Egypt”.
People have no ear for such linguistic gems.
It’s a real shame.
I’d like this note on my box: “Please pronounce the title ‘Blood and Sand’ in the deep voice of a heavy metal singer.”
BLOOD and SAND!
Yes! BLOOD! AND! SAND!
Sounds good.
That’s what I’m saying! Oh – there’s a customer.
Come over here, to the back! Go on! Buy us!
We’re great!
You’ll get your money’s worth with us!
Benjamin Stolz has also brought two games to life in his podcast Benny Botters Spieleshow. Fromage and Formagio chat with him in the cheese shop.
Interviews
As well as reviews, interviews also change their character through restrictions. In Black Stories, you can only answer with “Yes” or “No”. This rule also applied to Sebastian Wenzel’s Black Stories interview on kulturgutspiel.de (then still called zuspieler.de).
It makes sense to talk to authors, editors or publishers about games. Why not choose a different focus? For the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Daniel Wüllner interviewed game designer Eric M. Lang for the series Reden wir über Geld. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s all about money.
Your parents probably weren’t particularly thrilled when you said you wanted to make games your career?
My parents are very German, very conservative. Both worked at Lufthansa. They wanted me to take a proper job with a secure pension. My parents’ no was a foregone conclusion. To them, games aren’t an intellectual pursuit.
Did that change when you could pay your own bills?
I was single for a long time and lived in cheap shared flats. I could take care of myself.
And when commercial success came?
I’ve only been earning really good money for about five years. That reassured my parents a bit. Now they’re proud of me, even if they still don’t quite understand what I actually do.
Authors don’t reinvent the wheel every time. Some board game articles are also based on existing formats. In the Süddeutsche Zeitung magazine, an “interview without words” appears every Saturday: people answer questions with grimaces and poses. The series “Ohne Worte” on kulturgutspiel.de works similarly. Illustrators and graphic designers answer with drawings, such as Dennis Lohausen.
How much freedom do you have when designing games?
Dominik Zöllner doesn’t preview new releases before SPIEL Essen like so many others in his podcast Brettspielgalaxie. Instead, he interviews publishers’ representatives in the series “vorSPIEL = nachSPIEL”. He followed them over several months. In fact, the podcast regularly offers different perspectives on games and the industry. For example, Zöllner does a fact check with a forester about the game Forestry. In an interview with programmers, he explains how a board game makes it onto the digital platform “Board Game Arena”.
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More informationOn the YouTube channel Better Board Games, there was a section called Heart Games. Frederik Malsy took over the concept for his Boardcast and, in “Spiele des Lebens”, talks to people about their playful life stories.
In the podcast Spielkulturerbe , Stephan Zerlik and Alexandra Kemmerer regularly invite various guests to explore a topic from multiple angles – always with a focus on the cultural value of board games.
Other formats
There are many top-ten lists. Many are similar. They gather the best games for families, for connoisseurs or for holidays. Even the Brettagogen’s top-ten lists often focus on classics, for example games for two players. What’s special: in Making a Top Ten, they don’t just present their list, they develop it during the podcast.
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More informationMarcus Scheib, who used to write game articles for the Lausitzer Rundschau, recommended Halloween games together with Christoph Dick, Thomas Brendel and other guests on Better Board Games, not in the usual top-ten list but in a cinematic story.
As well as films, TV shows can also be adapted. Steph Kessler showed how this can work with an adaptation of “Familienduell” on Better Board Games. In the “Brettspiel Duell”, a team took on the chat. This format also involved the community.
Speaking of quizzes: they’re a popular format. They come in different forms. A prime example is the board game quiz with the podcasts Bretter Late Than Never, Alles außer Toplisten, Anonyme Ludoholiker and Der Boardcast plus rotating wildcard guests.
Guido Heinecke analyses game covers in the “Galerie” section of Spiel doch!. In issue 1/2026, he looked at Cascadia Junior.
This composition is balanced, with the large bear in the foreground drawing attention. Meanwhile, the fox and the fish in the water add a dynamic movement. They are at eye level with the viewer, creating an emotional connection. The peaks in the background give the image depth.
On his blog fjelfras, Tobias Franke regularly names an employee of the month, sometimes it’s Eara from Die Legenden von Andor, sometimes the Kronkoren from Bierpioniere, sometimes Kiddo (from Meister Makatsu). In his texts, Franke explains what makes the character special and discusses the games in which they appear.
Kiddo proves that size is no obstacle. Despite not having the best physical attributes, she uses cunning, cleverness and sophisticated tricks to master the challenges set by Meister Makatsu. With courage, intelligence and a dash of madness, she handles every situation. In doing so, she shows that intelligence is often stronger than stubbornly sticking to supposedly safe winning tactics.
And sometimes, it’s enough to take a classic approach to stand out from most posts in blogs, podcasts and video formats. Christoph Post and Jürgen Karla publish a monthly news programme as a podcast, Branchennews der Brettspielbar. By the way, the two have also edited the Handbuch Brettspiele published by Springer Nature.
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More informationGlosses are also a classic form of presentation. Yet they are rarely used in board game journalism. That’s why we’re highlighting Johanna Kuroczik’s satire Hautarzt für eine Nacht, which appeared in the FAZ.
“Together with the online erotic retailer Amorelie, [the AOK] is releasing the game ‘Skintimacy – The Sensual Skin Cancer Check’. In it, the sexual partner becomes a ‘dermatologist for a night’ using ‘Action’ or ‘Question’ cards. […] The AOK is undoubtedly doing pioneering work here. Not only does it bypass the staff shortage in healthcare professions, it also opens up entirely new possibilities for other medical specialties, such as ‘French kisses for dental health – does your partner have cavities?’. A vision test with suggestive photographs instead of meaningless letter combinations is also conceivable. And how prostate cancer screening could involve sexual partners in the future is still completely open.”
Another classic format is the press review. On brettspielministerium.de, Johannes Blumenberg links to well-executed articles in a monthly media review from his perspective. Blumenberg also used the game Am Goldenen Fluss to show how meta-reviews with AI could be automated.
Opinions on the game’s flow are divided. The Brettspiele-Dude praises the constant reward aspect of every action and calls it a “fantastic flow”. Die Brettspieltester and the Brettagogen also confirm that the game has a very clean, smooth structure with little downtime. For TU JOUES OU QUOI !!!, the game is “dynamic” and pleasantly easy to manage. But the other camp is more reserved: Das Ministerium finds the flow “too predictable”, a structure that, while smooth, is sometimes lacking in tension. Udo Bartsch goes further, calling the game “linear” – a neatly constructed system with no real surprises. For him, moves often become too obvious, which reduces the quality of decision-making.
Machbarkeitsnachweis: KI-generierte Zusammenfassung von verschiedenen Rezensionen
The ‘Spiel des Jahres’ association compiles the opinions of several jury members on a game in its review roundup. The blogger network Beeple also puts games in the spotlight. A game is briefly introduced, after which Beeple members share their opinions. The Spiel des Monats at Better Board Games works in a similar way. The site angespielt.de, formerly ludoversum.de, calculated an average score from multiple reviews years ago. However, the site has been inactive for years.
Looking for more examples
The mentioned posts reflect only a small part of the diverse gaming media landscape. There’s much more out there – so I’d be happy to receive additions in the comments.
By the way: You can find a constantly updated overview of many posts from over 200 playful blogs, podcasts and YouTube channels on zuspieler.de. If you’re looking for topic ideas, check out the magazine Null Ouvert. In the footnotes, you’ll find more than fifty topic suggestions.