When buying a new board game what helps you decide which game to buy?
Is it the Publisher, the theme, the front cover or the Designer?
This is the first in a series of blog posts that look at just some of the deciding factors of how you choose which board games to buy.
In this blog post we look at the top 5 favourite designers as voted for on our facebook page poll by you!
We are going to start however, with an honourable mention that many gamers maybe surprised that didn't quite make the top 5: Stefan Feld.
Stefan's games typically follow the mid-heavy weight of board games. With the release the City Collection over the last couple of years which contains a mixture of new and updated version of existing games, he is still a household name for board gamers today.
Personally, I'm looking forward to Civolution, which is due very soon!
5. Dani Garcia
Dani Garcia's name is quite new to the world of board game designs, the oldest being 2023 with Arborea, but wow, Dani has hit the ground running with middle weight euro style games that have become instant hits such as Barcelona and more recently, the very colourful, Windmill Valley.
With an expansion Barcelona: Passeig de Gràcia still due for release this year as well as Diatoshi and a host of highly anticipated games expected for release in 2025, Dani is fast becoming a name whose name is an instant draw to any board game and is well deserved on this list.
4. Vladamir Suchy
If your prefer your board games on the heavier side, your likely to be familiar with Vladamir Suchy's work. Amongst Vladamir's most notable works is Underwater Cities, a card driven action selection game where players are expanding their very own Underwater City in a variety of ways to score the most points and achieve victory.
Vladamir's most recent successes are Woodcraft, a diced driven worker placement game and Evacuation, where players need to produce resources to move to a new planet, leaving as little behind as they can. This is also a great example of show casing a wide variety of themes in his games. There's already great interest being generated in the next title, Resafa.
3. Bruno Cathala
Chances are, you have a Bruno Cathala game in your board game collection whether you know it or not. Bruno has been credited with hundreds of titles spanning over twenty years, many of which would fall into the light-mid side of board games.
To this day, Jamaica remains one of the go-to games to introduce new players to the world of board games. However, 7 Wonders Duel is probably to game that draws the most attention and with Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth due for release next month there's no stopping this designers popularity.
2. Reiner Knizia
If your familiar with games such as Ra, Medici and Tigris & Euphrates, you're about to feel old. Dr Reiner Knizia's name has been synonymous with board game designs spanning four decades winning many, many awards along the way and is still going strong.
During this time period his games have spanned an incredible amount of styles and genres, most recently finding great popularity with the push your luck Mlem: Space Agency, showing that his name is still a big influence on board gamers today.
I have an embarrassing story of when I met Renier Knizia at Gencon 2008 at Reading University, ask me about it sometime.
1. Uwe Rosenberg
If you own a farming themed board game, chances are its by Uwe Rosenberg. With a design career spanning almost as long as the number two place on our list, Uwe can be considered among board gaming royalty with popular titles such as Bohnanza and Agricola.
Many of his designs do have similar themes, often involving a worker placement and a feeding mechanism in a bid balance expansion with upkeep. A Feast for Odin is possibly seen as one of his top titles with The Norwegians expansion seen as an essential addition to gameplay.
Still to come is the Nusfjord Big Box, which is very eagerly awaited for release this year, as is the Black Forest, which is a reimplementation of an earlier game, Glass Road.
Here concludes our Top 5 Board Game Designers as voted for by the followers of the Clownfish Games Facebook Page. If you'd like to be involved follow us here. You can also find us on Instagram, Discord & YouTube.
Do you agree with our findings? Our list features designers of new and old, what would it look like in twelve months time? Let us know your top designers and why in the comments!