The 2025 contest received 348 submissions, setting a new record and surpassing the previous year’s 339 entries. Designers from 27 countries contributed to this year’s pool, reflecting the global reach of the board game design community. From these submissions, 21 finalists were selected, representing a wide range of themes, mechanics, and creative approaches.

The finalists include:

• Athenia by Mark Holmes: A real-time plate reconstruction game for 2-5 players.
• Babble by Jonah Kagan: A strategic word-building game where players collaborate and compete to construct a tower of words.
• Bearden by Keith Donaldson: A tactical dice-placement game focused on creating artwork.
• Branching Out by Jeff Grisenthwaite and Eliot Michaels: A cooperative game about growing a 3D bonsai tree.
• Chainbreakers by Kyle Cushman: A card-drafting and contract-fulfillment game centered on bike mechanics.
• Dot Com by Sammy Salkind: An app-assisted economic strategy game with a real-time element.
• Free Range by Pedro Ometto: A farming game about organizing chickens.
• Ice Hotel by Bob West: A game where players rescue luggage from a melting ice hotel.
• Indie Alley by Mallory Hinks: A competitive card placement game about promoting indie bands.
• Invasion by Amelie Le-Roche and Ashwin Kamath: A deduction and spatial puzzle game featuring Humans and Aliens.
• Kingdom on the Rise by Piotrek Chojnowski: A competitive kingdom-building game with a stacking mechanic.
• Molcajete by Hugo Labravo: A game about making salsa with elements of cooperation and sabotage.
• Pip It by Jay Bell: A light-strategy dice-tossing game.
• Produce Bazaar by Adam Eschborn: A strategic game set in a farmers market.
• Renaissance Fair by Leo Taylor: A park-building game about creating a modern-day Renaissance fair.
• Slam Quest by Jay Bucciarelli and Phil Gross: A cooperative game where players communicate by slamming cards.
• Slopeside by Scott R Smith: A game about building a 3D ski resort.
• Theology by Manoj Gedela and Sabareesh Mamidipaka: A worker placement and area control game featuring Ancient Indian Gods.
• Time to Line by Adam Zwain: A tableau- and deck-building game about attracting guests to an amusement park.
• Triptych by Brooks Barber: A trick-taking game with a shared slide puzzle.
• Wildcrafters by Katie Tam: A competitive potion-crafting game.

Pitch videos for each finalist’s game are available on the Cardboard Edison website.

In the next phase of the competition, the finalists’ games will be evaluated by a panel of board game industry professionals. Judges will assess the games based on criteria such as engagement, originality of theme and mechanics, replayability, smoothness of play, and fit for the target audience.

The winner of the 2025 Cardboard Edison Award will be announced later this year. Past winners have gone on to achieve recognition and success in the board game industry.

The new edition of the game introduces several features, including three exclusive civilizations: the Gorn, the Tholians, and the Terran Empire. These additions aim to expand gameplay options and provide new strategic elements for players.

A key feature of The Final Frontier is the inclusion of a 15-scenario campaign mode, offering a structured narrative experience. The game also introduces Non-Player Civilizations, enabling solo play or the addition of more factions in multiplayer sessions.

GF9 has updated the rulebook based on community feedback, with the goal of reducing downtime and improving the overall gameplay experience.

This campaign is GF9’s third on Gamefound, following Firefly The Game: 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition and The Adventures of Conan. It is also part of a series of projects announced in 2024, with Dune: Kwisatz Haderach Edition expected to launch in late 2025.

For more details or to support the campaign, visit the Gamefound page for Star Trek Ascendancy: The Final Frontier.

Originally inspired by Ubisoft’s tactical first-person shooter, Rainbow Six Siege, the board game is designed for 2-4 players and features asymmetrical gameplay. Players take on the roles of attackers or defenders, each with distinct objectives. Attackers aim to breach and secure their target, while defenders work to fortify the environment and prevent their opponents from succeeding. The game includes detailed miniatures representing Operators such as Ash, Tachanka, Thermite, and Jäger, with over 60 Operators available across the core box and expansions.

The gameplay emphasizes strategy and adaptability, with destructible maps and a variety of Operator abilities allowing for diverse tactics and replayability. Steamforged Games, which has previously developed tabletop adaptations of games like ELDEN RING, DARK SOULS, and Resident Evil, will now oversee the production, development, and distribution of 6: Siege – The Board Game.

Rich Loxam, co-founder and CEO of Steamforged Games commented on the acquisition:

Rainbow Six Siege has a legacy that speaks for itself, and there’s plenty still to explore on the tabletop. We’re thrilled to be working with Ubisoft to take 6: Siege – The Board Game forward, and look forward to welcoming fans into our community.

In addition to the reprint and new content, Steamforged Games has reached out to backers of the original crowdfunding campaign run by Mythic Games who may have had unfulfilled orders. The studio has offered to assist these backers in completing their purchases.

Set in Halloway, a land where the dead whisper to the living and natural forces can be shaped by will, Our Queen Crumbles is designed to be played in a single session. Players take on roles from a selection of character archetypes, sharing two central playbooks: The Queen and The Assassin. The game emphasizes character development over traditional power progression, with each decision driving the narrative forward and revealing more about the characters’ stories.

The Hallowed Edition introduces new features, including variant playbooks for the Queen and the Assassin, an alternate map with different backdrops, and additional artwork by the original illustrator, Al Lukeheart. The BackerKit campaign will fund the production of a boxed edition containing 30 reusable laminated cards with rules and handouts. Players can use water-based markers to write on the sheets, erase their progress, and replay the game with new outcomes.

The game encourages players to create their own conflicts, intrigue, and answers to the world’s mysteries. Questions like the identity of the Little Stone God, the significance of the Salt and Iron crowns carried by the Knight of Whispers, and the secrets of the Tree Under the Mountain are left for players to explore and resolve.

Originally published as a 24-page zine, Our Queen Crumbles gained a following and was later translated into Italian as Nostra Maestà Infranta by NessunDove. The Italian edition included 12 alternate characters from the Retainers expansion, adding replayability. The Hallowed Edition builds on this foundation, offering a more comprehensive experience for both new and returning players.

The BackerKit campaign, launching on May 1st, will support the production of the boxed edition. Head over to the campaign page to sign up to get notified when the game launches.

Widget’s Workshop blends card crafting and spatial set collection into a tabletop experience. The game begins with players dropping 80 custom-shaped, semi-transparent part cards onto the table, creating a randomized pile of components. Players take turns using one finger to extract parts from the pile, aiming to collect matching pieces to build robots and golems. The pile’s unpredictable nature—with parts often hidden, partially obscured, or flipped—introduces an element of strategy and chance to the gameplay.

Once players gather the required parts, including left and right arms, left and right legs, and a head or torso, they can assemble unique constructs. The game offers over 1 million possible combinations, each with its own illustration and name. Scoring is based on how well the attributes of the parts align, encouraging players to optimize their builds for higher points.

The game builds on Phase Shift Games’ signature “drop-style” mechanics, seen in previous titles like Dungeon Drop and Drop Drive. This approach randomizes setup and incorporates physical interaction into the core gameplay. Players must carefully extract parts from the central pile, navigating its shifting structure to find the pieces they need. The card crafting aspect allows players to combine collected parts into unique constructs, with scoring determined by matching attributes.

As part of BackerKit’s Pocketopia program, Widget’s Workshop is designed to be compact and portable, making it suitable for a variety of play environments. The small-box format aligns with the program’s focus on accessible and travel-friendly tabletop experiences.

The three sets—Realm of the Grafted King, Weeping Peninsula, and Stormveil Castle—are designed to function as standalone campaigns or as interconnected adventures. Pre-orders for these sets will open today, allowing fans to secure their copies ahead of the release.

The board game aims to capture the essence of the video game, immersing 1-4 players in the dark and sprawling world of the Lands Between. Players take on the role of the Tarnished, exploring iconic locations, encountering familiar characters, and engaging in tactical combat against deadly enemies. Each set features a connected narrative, enabling players to create their own stories within the game’s rich lore.

Realm of the Grafted King offers the most extensive campaign, spanning over 50 hours of gameplay. Weeping Peninsula and Stormveil Castle each provide more than 20 hours of replayable content. All three sets can be combined for a larger, interconnected adventure, offering players a variety of ways to experience the game.

The gameplay features a card-driven combat system with a unique grid-based mechanic, requiring players to strategize and collaborate to overcome challenges. From battling lowly Godrick Soldiers to facing the formidable Grafted King, the game promises to deliver a challenging and immersive experience.

Steamforged Games is known for its high-quality miniatures, and the Elden Ring board game is no exception. The sets include intricately detailed figures that bring the world of Limgrave to life, from the Tarnished heroes to the monstrous bosses.

In addition to the core sets, Steamforged has introduced exclusive Mega Boss expansions, including Flying Dragon Agheel and Erdtree Avatar. These expansions add new bosses, enemies, and equipment, as well as a mounted combat mechanic. Orders that include these expansions will ship separately, starting April 24th, 2025.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Join Castle Panic

UVS Games, in partnership with Fireside Games and Paramount Consumer Products, will release a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT)-themed version of the cooperative board game Castle Panic. Scheduled for release later in 2025, this edition will integrate the TMNT universe into the game’s mechanics, allowing players to defend New York City from familiar villains like Shredder and the Foot Clan.

Originally released in 2009, Castle Panic has been a popular choice for cooperative gameplay, requiring players to work together to protect their castle from waves of enemies. The TMNT-themed version aims to maintain the core gameplay while introducing elements from the TMNT franchise.

Further details, including sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes content, will be shared as the release date approaches.

New Edition of Roll For It! in Development

UVS Games has also partnered with Calliope Games to release an updated version of the dice game Roll For It! in 2025. Known for its fast-paced and accessible gameplay, Roll For It! has been a favorite among casual and competitive gamers since its initial release.

The new edition will retain the core mechanics of the original game but will feature a new theme designed to appeal to a broad audience. While specific details about the theme have not been disclosed, UVS Games has indicated that it will align with their approach to incorporating popular culture into gaming experiences.

In Solar Gardens, players take on the role of visionary architects specializing in carbon-neutral engineering. The goal is to design and build the most impressive rooftop garden by strategically drafting and placing tiles. Players must balance efficiency, beauty, and sustainability as they compete to create the best garden on the block. With a shared pool of resources, every decision counts, whether focusing on renewable energy, artistic design, or a harmonious blend of both.

The game supports 2-5 players and features 90 illustrated tiles and an easy-to-learn rulebook.

In Finspan, players act as marine researchers, collecting fish from different ocean depths, hatching eggs, and forming schools. The game introduces three zones—the Sunlight Zone, Twilight Zone, and Midnight Zone—that house a variety of fish. Instead of traditional resources like food tokens, players use cards from their hand as a form of currency, which can later be recycled.

Designed by David Gordon and Michael O’Connell, with contributions from Wingspan designer Elizabeth Hargrave, Finspan incorporates familiar mechanics while introducing new elements to differentiate it. Hargrave commented on her involvement, noting that while she was not the lead designer, she contributed feedback during development to ensure the game aligned with the style of Wingspan while offering a unique experience.

The artwork, created by Ana María Martínez, Catalina Martínez, and Mesa Schumacher, features 125 fish cards with detailed illustrations and educational facts. Like Wingspan, Finspan supports one to five players and includes a solo mode designed by Automa Factory. Gameplay focuses on building a collection of fish, hatching eggs, and completing objectives to score points.

The rulebook for Finspan has been made available online, offering players an early look at the game’s mechanics. With its release date approaching, Finspan aims to appeal to fans of Wingspan and players interested in exploring a marine-themed strategy game.

The expansion introduces a campaign mode that allows players to experience a connected, three-act narrative, blending flexibility and storytelling. With the ability to pair any combination of Elder Ones and Episodes, this mode creates a unique experience with every playthrough. Alongside this new gameplay structure, Forbidden Reaches includes fresh content, including investigators, episodes, and monsters, as well as new mechanics like investigator skills and location effects, adding further depth to the game.

A highlight of this release is the inclusion of a crossover featuring Godzilla, which introduces the legendary monster to the game and provides a unique twist to the gameplay.

The crowdfunding campaign has surpassed $1.5 million, far exceeding its initial $300,000 goal within minutes of launching.