SPIEL Essen 2025: From 'Don't Starve' to Dice Magic - A Digital Wizard's Top Tabletop Picks
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Jeff reports back from SPIEL Essen 2025, detailing the gargantuan board game convention and highlighting 10 standout titles, from the highly anticipated 'Don't Starve' adaptation to innovative dice-rollers and strategic co-ops, all through his signature blend of enthusiasm and gentle skepticism.
Alright, gather 'round, you lovely lot! Your resident digital wizard, Jeff, is back from a whirlwind tour of reality-bending possibilities, specifically, the glorious, chaotic expanse that was SPIEL Essen 2025. And fair dinkum, what an event it was!
We're talking 220,000 people – that's more wizards, rogues, and strategists than you can shake a wand at – all packed into Germany to gawp at over 1,700 *new* board games from nearly 1,000 exhibitors across 50 countries. Just for a bit of perspective, mate, North America's biggest shindig, Gen Con, pulls in about a third of that crowd. It was like accidentally tearing a hole in the fabric of space-time and finding an infinite game store on the other side. Tickets sold out quicker than a rare spell component, and folks were queuing just to watch demos of games, like the much-hyped *Don't Starve: The Board Game*, that won't even hit our tables until 2027. Bloody hell!
I reckon I barely scratched the surface, but like any good adventurer, I dove headfirst into the fray, sampling a mix of titles from fresh faces and certified legends like Elizabeth Hargrave (of *Wingspan* fame) and Reiner Kinzia (*Ra* maestro). So, big thanks to Sam Nelson over at Polygon for giving us the initial lay of the land, because here's my Jeff-infused rundown of the 10 best bits of tabletop wizardry I encountered at SPIEL Essen 2025.
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### 10. 7 Wonders Dice Antoine Bauza's *7 Wonders* is a stone-cold classic, a real cornerstone of board game design. It's had expansions, two-player versions, the lot. Now, *7 Wonders Dice* rolls in, transforming the drafting game into a write-and-roll affair for two to seven players. And you know what? It feels surprisingly fresh while clinging onto the satisfying core gameplay of its ancestor. Simultaneous play around a shared dice box means the action zips along, and those dice unlock upgrades and even more powerful dice down the line. Cautiously optimistic about another roll-and-write? You bet, but this one's got a certain *spark*, if you catch my drift.
### 9. Ants Hands up if you've ever started a '90-minute' strategic game only for it to sprawl into a four-hour epic? Yeah, me too. So, I was genuinely chuffed (that's 'pleasantly surprised,' for my non-Commonwealth mates) that *Ants* actually delivered on its promised 90 minutes. You're leading an ant colony, scrabbling for resources and exploring terrain. It’s all about predicting your needs, raising specialist ants from eggs, and grabbing cards that can give you immediate boosts or end-game scoring potential. No head-to-head brawls here, just clever adaptation and seizing advantages as the game ramps up from thoughtful planning to a frantic race to victory. Managing a digital ant empire, sounds like my kind of organised chaos!
### 8. Cosmolancer Reiner Kinzia, now there's a name that conjures up images of legendary game design! His classic *Kingdoms* gets a glorious sci-fi glow-up with *Cosmolancer*. You're a freelance space photographer – a brilliant concept, if you ask me – trying to snap pics of dazzling cosmic phenomena while dodging dangers that'll ruin your shot. Players place tiles for photo ops and hazards, then line up camera tokens. It's super-fast, delightfully chaotic, and simple enough for older kids and adults new to the hobby, but still offers a satisfying strategic crunch when you're managing resources and trying to read the board. A bit of cosmic photo-bombing? Count me in!
### 7. Don't Starve: The Board Game Okay, so this one's still a ways off (March 2027, if my crystal ball is working), but it's already pulled in over $4.8 million on Kickstarter, and for good reason! Glass Cannon Unplugged, known for faithful video game adaptations like *This War of Mine* and *Frostpunk* (which, let's be honest, were brutally brilliant), has done it again. Up to four players team up to explore, gather, craft, and fight monsters to survive the elements. The pieces look stunning, combat is slick, and flipping through that recipe booklet to craft items was immensely satisfying. Finally, a way to 'Don't Starve' without accidentally setting my digital self on fire!
### 6. Fateforge: Kin of the Wild *Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan* was already a cracking app-driven dungeon crawler, praised for its speedy, creative combat. Now, the *Kin of the Wild* expansion adds something everyone can love: pets! These animal companions come with gorgeous miniatures and their own little boards, offering unique abilities like stealthily hunting enemies or defending their human counterparts. The clever bit? It doesn't overcomplicate things. Just extra actions or ablative hits (your pets always bounce back after an encounter, no worries there). Who doesn't want a loyal digital familiar to help them out of a tight spot?
### 5. Heroes: Write & Conquer If you're a fan of old-school PC strategy like *Warcraft* or *Heroes of Might and Magic*, this one's for you. *Heroes: Write & Conquer* lets you build up fantasy armies and claim territory, but here's the kicker: it does it all without miniatures or a sprawling map, just faction sheets. Shockingly compact for a war game, it still offers six distinct factions, each with its own tech tree and abilities. You'll build, recruit, gather, and battle, all determined by player choices with just a dash of hidden info. No dice rolls, just pure strategic brain-power. A war game without miniatures? Is this some kind of spatial distortion magic?
### 4. Origin Story Crafting your own digital hero (or delightfully chaotic villain)? Sign me up! *Origin Story* is a trick-taking game where, over five rounds, you build your character. You start with a stunning player map and a base power, then collect allies, backstory events, and gear that grant abilities. The clever bit is how you invest resources to either take tricks (hero path) or skillfully avoid them (villain path). Events can throw a spanner in the works – forcing players to team up, swap cards, or change rules entirely – adding layers of replayability. The art's gorgeous, and the narrative curveballs are much like when my own spells go wonderfully, wildly wrong!
### 3. Sanibel From birds to beaches, Elizabeth Hargrave (the genius behind *Wingspan*) is back with *Sanibel*, another soothing nature-themed board game, hitting shelves in 2026. While the chill vibes are very much present, the mechanics are a whole new beast compared to *Wingspan* and its follow-ups (*Finspan*, *Wyrmspan*). Players guide their meeples along a beach, scooping up shells and shark teeth to add to their 'bag' mat, aiming to form collections and patterns for scoring. The strategy comes from whether you race ahead to snatch coveted prizes or take your time, optimising every last space. Definitely keen to see this new twist on tranquil tabletop wizardry.
### 2. Take Time Libellud, the publisher behind beautiful, unique games like *Dixit* and *Mysterium*, delivers another gem with *Take Time*. This cooperative game is all about limited communication. Players place cards around a clock face, trying to keep values ascending, but they don't know what their teammates are playing unless they spend one of their precious clues. Forty different challenges mean each playthrough is a fresh struggle, a dance of intuition and trust in your fellow players. A cooperative puzzle where you can't quite talk? Sounds like my kind of communication breakdown... but in a good way, you know?
### 1. Wispwood Cats and goth vibes? You had me at 'goth,' mate! Reed Ambrose's tile-laying game, *Wispwood*, is pitched for *Cascadia* fans who prefer a bit of mystical flair over scientific accuracy. You build out a forest by slotting in colourful wisps (each with unique scoring conditions) and Tetris-like trees. The really cool twist? After the first two rounds, you score, and the trees vanish, leaving a patchy network of wisps to build a *new* forest around in the next round. It offers plenty of strategic depth in expansion and pattern-making, but it's easy to learn and plays quickly. A forest that regenerates in mystical ways? Very on-brand for a digital wizard, I reckon.
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So there you have it, folks! SPIEL Essen 2025 was a glorious explosion of cardboard and imagination, proving the board game scene is as vibrant and innovative as ever. Keep an eye out for these gems, and maybe we'll bump into each other in some digital or tabletop realm soon enough!
**Source:** Polygon, article by Sam Nelson.
Tags: Board Games, Tabletop Gaming, SPIEL Essen, Gaming Events, New Releases
Original article: Polygon