“Going Cardboard: A Board Game Documentary” is kicking off 2012 with a series of screenings across the globe.

The first screening was January 4th in Germany and then moved to screenings in the US starting on January 12th and continuing through February and March. And the current screening list also includes a stop in July in New Zealand.

We say Fantastic!

We just wish that one of the screening stops was closer to our home. We live in the land of the Sundance Film Festival where tons of independent filmmakers show their stuff every year. And our town is currently abuzz with all the films and their screenings. It’s too bad that “Going Cardboard” didn’t hit the Sundance circuit – you bet I’d be snagging some tickets.

The film was made by Lorien Green who discovered designer board gaming years ago through her husband and the mysteriously growing stacks of boxes in the basement game room (sounds familiar).

Here’s a description of the film from the “Going Cardboard” website.

Going Cardboard is a film about the new board gaming, a phenomenon going on right under your nose, probably in your very community! This film will take you into that world to meet the players and designers responsible for this radical departure from technology. And you just might discover it’s the hobby for you.

We highly suggest you check out the trailer for the film:

I’m excited to see the film as Lorien covers so many aspects of the industry – from interviews with tons of designers, publishers, reviewers (no, we’re not in it), players, and more to industry events and conferences.

And we love the quote on one of the pages about the documentary (so true):

Be warned; there’s a significant risk that after seeing Going Cardboard, you, too, will feel compelled to begin your own modest little board game collection. (average collection size: 300+ games)

We wish you much success Lorien!

Do all of your board games get jumbled together too?

When we saw this Baby Blues comic in yesterday’s newspaper, we just had to share it. Our day doesn’t seem quite complete if we don’t read Baby Blues. Even the kids love the funny family comic. So when it mentioned board games, we especially got a kick out of it.

It also reminded us of a number of comments we received from friends after they saw us on TV on Studio 5 and noticed the shot of our game closet. They mentioned how organized our game closet looked with games stacked nicely on the shelves. By comparison, while they only have a handful of board games, they’re laying disorganized on a closet shelf with all the pieces scattered amongst them.

They have to go somewhere.

Organized by Default
Of course, we can’t claim that our game closet has always been organized either. In fact, we didn’t start out with a board game closet even on the list. Our current board game closet was actually built to be a storage closet. And we planned for a cabinet in the family room where we’d place our games so we could easily pull them out to play. But then the family board game bug struck and before you know it, we got carried away.

With a current board game, card game, and party game count coming in over 250 we need to be organized. It’s that simple.

Thus our storage closet became our walk-in game closet. And when we’re looking for a game, we simply head to that section. Kind of like a library. We’ve put all the party games in one area and card games in another. The large box games are stacked near the back and the kid games are on the lower shelves. And so it goes.

Stormtroopers on the beach in '44.

If we didn’t organize it some way, we’d be overwhelmed.

Creative Kids
But the thing that I love about the Baby Blues comic is how the kids make creative use of the games. Who says you have to be limited by the rules of a game? And in a like manner, who says you have to keep the games separate at all?

Why not just have fun with your games in any way you choose?

We know there's treasure here.

In fact, that’s probably just how some board games get designed. The designers take parts of games they enjoy and then find creative ways to combine them with a new theme.

And if your game pieces do get mixed around, that might bring fresh life to some of your family board games. Why not have Star Wars characters storm the beaches in Memoir ’44 or Gold Miners look for treasure on Forbidden Islands?

So this week we challenge you to add some creativity to your family board game time. Mix it up a little and see what your family can come up with during your game time.

We’re often asked what our favorite new board games and card games are. And when the year rolls around to a new year, the question gets asked more frequently. Many people are anxious to hear what the best board games of the past year were.

While we’d love to give the definitive list of best board games to the world, it brings up a few issues.

1. With about 1,000 new board games releasing every year, there’s no way for one person to judge them all. How can one person or one family get through all those games to compare them?
2. With so many different types of games, how should we compare one against another (party game vs. a deeply themed strategy game) ?
3. When’s the best time to judge the games? Can we judge it like a movie with a singular experience or should it first stand the test of time?

So with those issues in mind, we’re happy to point you in a solid direction.

This month The Dice Tower podcast released 2 episodes focused on the Best Board Games of 2011. The great thing about this source for a “best of” listing is that contributors from around the world weigh in on what they believe the best games of 2011 were. They also break them down into various categories so it’s easier to compare one against another.

In regards to how soon a game can be declared “the best”, the final Dice Tower list will come out in the summer of 2012 – after many plays and rounds of nominations and voting from game reviewers across the globe. That’s when we’ll have a better feel for how the test of time will treat these new games.

With that in mind, here are the games that made The Dice Tower preliminary list of Best Board Games of 2011. (Of course, at the end we’ll also tell you which board games our family liked best from 2011.)

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Great 2-Player Strategy Game

Many abstract strategy board games have the objective of getting 5 in a row. And in that regard, Pentago is like many other games. However, there’s a twist to the game that makes Pentago unique – quite literally a twist.

The Pentago board is pretty cool. It’s made up of 4 quadrants that are twisted as you play the game – giving the game an added measure of strategy.

The rules are very simple to grasp – play a marble, twist a tile. But when you can get 5 in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally and the board keeps changing, it will take some wits to maneuver your win.

Check out how cool it is in Caleb’s video review.

Can the whole family enjoy Pentago?
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What defines a board game or card game?

In our view, the whole definition of a board game or card game revolves around it being something physical that you can touch, feel, and move around. Playing board games is all about the social interaction of sitting around, face-to-face and moving stuff around on the table or from hand to hand.

So what’s the deal with board games going digital? And do they still qualify as “board” games, “card” games, or “dice” games if they don’t have physical boards, cards, or dice?

So many board games have gone digital

Take your games with you.

With the rise of the iPod, iPad, iPhone, Android, and other mobile devices, digital gaming has gotten another big boost. It’s amazing what they can cram into mobile devices. And one of the most popular uses of these “phones” is actually games. It seems everywhere we turn, we’ll see people playing games on their devices.

Board games have also shot up in popularity over the last decade as more and more great board games and card games are developed and sold. So it’s really no surprise that the two forces should meet. And over the last year, we’ve seen a huge rise in the number of board games and card games that are being ported over to a digital medium.

Digital games have also gone physical

Bring on the birds!

As we’ve watched the rise of these fun board games being given their digital incarnation, we’ve seen the blurring definition of “board game”. Is it dependent on what medium a game starts out with? If it first comes to life as a physical board game and then goes digital, is it still considered a board game. But if it first comes on the scene as a video game and then goes physical, is it still a video game?

Because that has happened too. Angry Birds is an amazing example of that. Angry Birds may be the most popular game on digital devices. But did you also know, that not too long ago it came to life as a physical game where you build structures, place pigs, then fling birds to knock them down? So what is Angry Birds – a video game or a board game? Or can it be both?

Great Board Games gone digital

Great digital cooperative games.

Whatever we call them, one thing is for certain – great games will find a way to live. And in today’s world, that means they’ll go for whatever medium will support them and will gain a huge following. (And makes financial sense for the designers, developers, and publishers.)

So maybe instead we should be surprised if fantastic board games and card games don’t go digital.

Just to give you a glimpse, here are great board games that are now available for playing on mobile devices:
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So many games, so little time.

Our family had a great time playing lots of new board games and card games in 2011!

We also had a great time playing games that we’ve had for years.

In fact, it’s very relaxing to play a board game that we’re familiar with rather than always learning rules to new games. Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing all the new games that come out every year and learning how to play these fun games. But at times, it can feel like more work rather than relaxation. And to kids, familiarity is very comforting. So we make sure to intersperse both new and old games throughout the year.

So what are the board games that we played most in 2011?
Knowing what board games and card games we played most might be difficult if we didn’t have such a cool tool from BoardGameGeek.com (BGG) that let’s us track our game plays. Of course, most families that enjoy playing games, just play and don’t worry about recording what they play. But I guess that’s why the site has “Geek” in the name. For some reason, I find it cool to track things. And when there’s a tool for tracking game plays, and I can have access to it on my mobile device, why not record it?

You may have noticed in our right-hand sidebar a list of “Recently Played Games”. This little widget is pulled from the tool on BGG showing the last 5 games we’ve played. Pretty cool!

We can also run reports from the tool to find out what games we play most in a given period of time. Of course, since I’m not around all the time, I don’t keep track of what the kids play with each other or with their friends. So this list is what I (dad) have played the most in 2011. And while I’ve played a number of games with friends, you can bet that the majority of my game playing is with the family.

98 Different Games played in 2011
Ok – this is crazy to see, but I played as many different games in 2011 as I did in 2010 – 98!

That’s a lot of different games to play in 1 year – close to 2 different games per week. I knew we’d played a lot of different games, but to hit the exact same number as we did in 2010, is strange to believe.

So out of those 98 different games, which did we play the most?
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Our family was on TV yesterday!

A local TV station did a story on Building Family Traditions and they featured our family in the segment. It was a great experience and we loved having the chance to talk about the importance of family time.

They talked to us about the challenges that families face today and what we do to face those challenges as parents and as a family. One of the topics the segment focused on was being “intentional”, or as mom refers to it – being “deliberate” in our choices.

We’re highlighted in the first 3 minutes, but we’d highly recommend you watch the whole 10 minutes.They share great tidbits on connecting as a family and building on what you’re already doing.

The Studio 5 website also has some of the content written on their website if you’d like to refer back to some of the points they make in the segment. You can read it on their Building Family Traditions page.

Plus – this is a rare chance to get a glimpse of mom and her victory dance!

Ready, set, play!

One of the most common questions about board games is: “How long does the game take to play?”

That’s while you’ll often see this information printed on the side of a game box. It’s also why we started adding this info to our board game reviews.

When presented with a new game to play, inevitably people will ask about the length of the game.
They aren’t asking because they’re not interested in the game, but rather to get an idea about how much to invest in the game. Not how much money to invest/spend, but rather an investment of themselves.

In fact, whenever we’re presented with an activity, we make mental note about how much of a commitment we need to devote to that activity. It’s no different with our entertainment – movies, TV, books, or games. We want to know how long it will take because it means forgoing other options.

What’s the best amount of time to spend playing a game?
Well, it’s really a trick question because the answer depends on a lot of things. It’s like asking about what the best board game or best card game is. It all depends on the situation at hand.

Here are some potential situations that will affect the decision of optimal game length:
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