Board Games Archives - The Board Game Family

5 Hot Games I’m looking forward to at SaltCon Spring 2026

SaltCon Spring 2026 is only a couple of weeks away and the excitement is building.

I’ve attended our local board game convention near Salt Lake City, Utah for 15 years and have loved seeing it grow every year. More than 2,500 people are anticipated to attend again this year to enjoy 4 days of gaming fun.

One of the aspects I look forward to each year is trying out some of the Hot Games.

These are recent board game releases that so many people are interested in playing that the organizers set up dedicated tables just for these games. Rather than only having a copy or two in the Game Library for people to check out. These games are always set up and volunteers are in place to teach the games over and over. That way a ton more people get a chance to try them out.

From the 8 Hot Games this year, the 5 I’m most looking forward to playing are:

February 25, 2026 Trent 0 Comments SaltCon

Board Games Family Games Game Reviews Party Games

Skull – Is it a fun game or colorful drink coasters?

Forget the regular preamble to a board game review. We’ll cut right to the chase – Skull is an absolutely hit with everyone we’ve introduced the game to.

It’s a short game packed with strategizing, guessing, second guessing, and bluffing. Yes, bluffing.

While players don’t actually lie during the game, the way they choose their disks and state how many disks they think they can safely flip, they can definitely influence other players into thinking one way or another.

To do well, you’ll need to anticipate what your opponents will do and try to call their bluff at the right times while also making careful choices yourself.

And that’s exactly why we keep playing Skull over and over again.

October 17, 2025 Trent 0 Comments 3-player, 4-player, 5-player, 6-player, bluffing

Board Games Family Games Game Reviews Party Games

Top Tier party game review

It’s always been popular to rank things.

By human nature, we feel compelled to place all sorts of things in order of preference.

And with the meteoric rise of our online world, ranking things have reached all time highs.

So why not make a new party along those same lines?

Top Tier, recently published by Indie Boards & Cards, is exactly that.

It’s a light party game where players take turns ranking contenders based on a crazy category and the rest of the players try to guess the rankings.

June 21, 2025 Trent 0 Comments 10-player, 4-player, 5-player, 6-player, 7-player, 8-player, 9-player, Indie Boards and Cards, party

Board Games Family Games Game Reviews

Finspan board game review

In 2019, Wingspan took the world by storm.

Rookie game designer, Elizabeth Hargrave, hit a home run on her debut board game with a Kennerspiel des Jahres win. Board game lovers and bird lovers alike all flocked to it. It’s a card-driven, engine-building board game featuring 180 unique birds. Since its initial publication, Stonemaier Games has sold over 2 million copies of Wingspan!

Inspired by that success, Stonemaier Games published Wyrmspan in 2024. It’s a dragon-themed board game with similarities to Wingspan but with plenty of unique elements and an added level of complexity.

Which leads us to the release earlier this year of Finspan.

With 125 unique fish cards, Finspan has players diving into the oceans for aquatic life. They’ll grow their collection of fish, discover fresh eggs, hatch them into young, and nurture them into schools to gain the most points.

So the big question is, “Is Finspan just a quick spinoff without substance, or is it a good game of its own accord?”

June 3, 2025November 15, 2025 Davin Perkins 0 Comments 2-player, 3-player, 4-player, 5-player, card, luck, solo, Stonemaier Games, strategy, theme

Board Games Family Games Game Reviews

The Search for Planet X deduction game review

I love logic puzzles.

In fact, a number of years ago, I bought a stack of back issues of Penny Dell Logic Puzzles so I could rattle through logic puzzles during flights on business trips.

As such, I also love good deduction board games.

I enjoy thinking through various logic conditions to figure out the solution in a deduction game before the other players. And modern deduction board games have come a long way from classic Clue.

So when I heard about The Search for Planet X, by Renegade Game Studios, it caught my attention.

I got a copy of the game at SaltCon Spring 2024, and was immediately hooked from my very first play. Since then, I’ve played it with family and friends – many of who have bought a copy of their own. Yep, it’s a good one.

May 20, 2025 Trent 0 Comments 2-player, 3-player, 4-player, deduction, logic, puzzle, Renegade Game Studios, solo, space, strategy

Board Games Family Games Game Reviews Party Games

Do You Even Know Me? party game review

Who hasn’t played a “get-to-know-you” game before?

They’re all over the place.

Whenever you find a newly formed group of people, you’ll find a “get to know each other” activity. We encounter them at school, at work, and at family reunions. Many such activities are merely spoken and don’t include any typical game-type components. There are also a slew of published party games that seek to achieve similar results.

So why are we reviewing Do You Even Know Me? – a similar game that’s new on the scene?

Because we appreciate the work of the person who created it!

(And we enjoy the game.)

April 5, 2025 Trent 0 Comments 10-player, 11-player, 12-player, 2-player, 3-player, 4-player, 5-player, 6-player, 7-player, 8-player, 9-player, group, party, social

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17 Games Mini Reviews – Played at SaltCon Spring 2025

I had a great time last weekend playing a bunch of new games with friends at SaltCon Spring 2025.

This year I was able to get in a few games after work Thursday night, a bunch of games for a full Friday, followed by a handful of games for half a day on Saturday.

Most of the games I played were new to me. Some game were hits that I’d love to play again. While other games fell flat and I was happy to move on.

If you’d like to know more about the SaltCon event itself, check out my post from last month covering the many things that happen at SaltCon. This post will focus on mini-reviews of the 17 games I played – in the order in which I played them.

March 11, 2025March 11, 2025 Trent 0 Comments board game, card game, cooperative game, dice game, drafting, luck, SaltCon, strategy, tile-laying

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SaltCon Spring 2025 one month away

It’s odd to think of Spring being in the air when we just rolled into February.

But I can’t help look forward to Spring when I think about the SaltCon Spring event coming up in one month!

Regular followers of our family board game reviews will be familiar with us sharing about the SaltCon game convention each year.

With the popularity of board games skyrocketing over the past decade, board game conventions have likewise grown in popularity. Chances are you can find one near you with a quick online search.

And SaltCon Spring is the board game convention I attend every year in Layton, UT. It’s local and it’s a lot of fun.

February 2, 2025 Trent 1 Comment SaltCon

Board Games Family Games Game Reviews

Stack City board game preview

A friend of ours has designed a new family board game and we’re excited to tell you about it.

Stack City, by Quinn Biesinger, is a competitive city-planning game in which players construct a 3D city full of business, community, entertainment, and service buildings. It has what we look for in good family board games—a good balance of strategy and luck.

And regardless of the outcome, because of how you’ve stacked the city, it’s always fun to sit back after the game and admire how the city turned out.

He’s been working on it for years, and we were able to participate in some of the original play testing for the game last year. After many revisions, his prototype is ready to share with the world in anticipation of his upcoming crowdfunding campaign early 2025.

January 14, 2025January 14, 2025 Trent 0 Comments 2-player, 3-player, 3D, 4-player, city building, family, Kickstarter, luck, strategy

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Games we played over the holidays

Happy New Year!!

We hope you all had a fantastic year-end with many holidays to celebrate with family and friends.

In our family, we celebrate Christmas. And we had a wonderful couple of weeks with plenty of gatherings where we could all be together. We visited a lot, had plenty of laughs, and watched a couple of fun movies. We also enjoyed time with extended family eating lots of food and catching up on all the goings-on.

And among the celebrations, we were able to play a handful of games.

January 7, 2025 Trent 2 Comments board, card, dice, family board games, holiday

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