Game of the Year 2019 guest list: Imperial Settlers designer Ignacy Trzewiczek
The designer of Robinson Crusoe, Detective and more picks his favourite board games of the year.
Ignacy Trzewiczek is the designer of board games including Stronghold, Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island (and its spiritual successor First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet), Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game and the Imperial Settlers series, including this year’s latest instalment Imperial Settlers: Empires of the North. He also runs Portal Games, the Polish publisher behind all of the above games and more.
Matt [Jarvis, Dicebreaker editor-in-chief] is a funny guy. He sends me an email and asks me to choose the game from 2019 I liked the most.
Sure, Matt, I'll do it, it's a piece of cake. I played - let me check my Board Game Stats app - 108 unique games this past 12 months. I will easily pick the best one.
Dude, are you kidding me?! It's impossible!
Should I pick a heavy Eurogame like Underwater Cities, the brilliant design by Vladimir Suchy? I played it a dozen times with my wife this year, and it was always tight, always engaging, always challenging. I even stole one piece of the mechanics from it and used in my very own game called Empires of the North!
Or maybe should I pick Reykholt, which I totally fell in love with and in May played 11 times in a row?
Games are fun, so perhaps I should go with party games like Decrypto or Just One? I had so many laughs with them this year.
Pick the best memories of betrayal and treachery? Oh, yes, let me bring my all-time favourite: A Game of Thrones LCG.
Our hobby is rich with experiences, from heavy Euros to silly party games, from amazing wargames to smart gateway games, from story-driven legacy games to small fillers.
We have it all. Happy gamers we are.
Read more of Dicebreaker's Game of the Year 2019 coverage, including the Dicebreaker team's personal favourites and more designer picks.