We know so little about the planned board game releases of 2024, and yet it is already shaping up to be a killer year for gaming. Predictably, in assembling this list of my Most Anticipated Games of 2024, a lot of these titles come from creators that I closely work with as a publisher and/or that I obsessively follow as a fan. So don’t be surprised to see titles from Reiner Knizia, Bitewing Games, Allplay, and the like. If I had a crystal ball, then there would be loads more titles on this list from other publishers and creators who have not yet revealed their secrets. But regardless of any personal ties to them, I’m genuinely stoked for these 25 games, and today I’ll tell you why.
The following 25 titles are games that I have already preordered, plan to order, or are even games that I have already played and am simply excited for their official release when I can enjoy them further and bask in their final production. They are roughly arranged by their expected release date. Here we go!
Note: This original post was sucked into an internet black hole a few weeks after going live. Fortunately, I still had a copy of the text, but the many of the images and links from the original post will be missing here.
Marabunta
Expected Release Date – January 2024
Marabunta sounds like a very different kind of roll & write game where two players duel it out on a shared area control board via an “I split, you choose” mechanism. And it is designed by Dr. Reiner Knizia. Say no more.
Heat: Petal to the Metal — Heavy Rain Expansion
Expected Release Date – Q1 2024
Better buckle up, the hottest hotness of recent years — Heat: Pedal to the Metal — is expected to get an expansion in early 2024. It introduces two additional tracks (Japanese Grand Prix and Mexican Grand Prix) with new features like puddles, new “air intake improvement” upgrade cards to help with cooldown, a new tournament season, and an orange racer to allow for a 7-player game.
City of the Living
Expected Release Date – February 2024
The team behind Nightmare Productions is back with another Knizia reimplementation in City of the Living (originally printed in 2013 as Prosperity). Where the old version had players balancing global prosperity against impending pollution, this new version poses the challenge of rebuilding society in a post-apocalyptic world amid an onslaught of zombie invasions. Either way, I’m excited to see what this economic game co-designed by Reiner Knizia is all about.
Captain Flip
Expected Release Date – February 2024
New publisher PlayPunk and their debut release, Captain Flip, have a promising team at their helm. The company is founded by Antoine Bauza (designer of 7 Wonders, Hanabi, Takenoko, Ghost Stories) and Thomas Provoost (co-founder of Repos Production – known for publishing many of Bauza’s most famous works), and the game is designed by Paolo Mori (Ethnos, Libertalia, Dogs of War, Blitzkrieg) and Remo Conzadori (3 Ring Circus, Rise). With that kind of pedigree behind Captain Flip, and the premise of quick push-your-luck decisions, I’m fully interested in this family-weight filler.
Skyrise
Expected Release Date – March 2024
It’s hard to believe, but I backed Skyrise way back in June 2022. It seems that the extensive plastic components caused a significant delay in the production and delivery of this area majority, auctioning, city building game. But the good news is that production is finally wrapping up and expected to begin freight in early 2024. Roxley has had their hands full with so many spinoffs and expansions and sequels of their other IPs that Skyrise represents their first new IP since 2021’s Radlands.
Cascadero
Published by Bitewing Games
Expected Release Date – Q2 2024
One reason why Reiner Knizia is a legendary game designer is due to his killer offering of tile placement games featuring light rules yet heavy strategy. His most famous titles in this genre include Tigris & Euphrates, Through the Desert, and Samurai. And 2024 marks the latest entry into this list of legends with the release of Cascadero, a brand new Knizia design. The thing that makes Cascadero unique is the opportunity to set up and execute supremely satisfying combos while competing on a shared map.
Cascadito
Published by Bitewing Games
Expected Release Date – Q2 2024
Cascadito is the companion design and spin-off game to Cascadero. You can enjoy one or the other or both, as they each provide distinct experiences. The sensation of linking towns on a map which triggers combos along tracks is still present here, yet everything else is quite different. Players take turns drafting from the dice pool to fill in map spaces and advance up tracks on their own sheets. And the box offers 4 wildly unique sheets to explore and revisit. This one can be played in a shorter amount of time, features a solo mode, and is generally less in-your-face with the player interaction than its larger sibling.
Arcs
Expected Release Date – Q2 2024
The legendary team behind Root and Oath (also the designer or Pax Pamir 2e and John Company 2e) are finally releasing their next big box epic, this time rooted (ha ha) in a futuristic sci-fi adventure. Where Oath requires a much larger commitment from its participants (one huge rules teach with regular 2 or 3 hour play sessions thereafter), Arcs aims to provide a similar experience while being a bit more approachable and narratively disciplined. You can either do a one and done 90-minute play (with the more affordable base game box) or a 3-act campaign (with the huge expansion box), which is still less of a commitment than Oath.
Through the Desert: Bazaar Expansion
Expected Release Date – Q2 2024
Through the Desert has long been a stone-cold classic of board gaming. Now that it’s getting an updated version from Allplay, they are also providing a few brand new expansion modules in this Bazaar Expansion (most of which are ideas from Reiner himself).
These modules introduce things like special watering holes (that replace regular point tokens), bazaars (that encourage connections between two points), Djinns (that change up the camel placement rules), and more.
Spectral
Published by Bitewing Games
Expected Release Date – Q2 2024
We’ve seen a lot of interesting logic deduction games in recent years with titles like Search for Planet X, Turing Machine, and Cryptid. But this genre is typically weak on player interaction aside from racing to find the ultimate solution first. Spectral aims to offer a refreshing experience by cranking up the player interaction and bringing more nuance to the deduction puzzle. Treasure hunters enter a haunted manor to discover and deduce the locations of gems and curses, then they compete for area majority around the most valuable rooms. All of this culminates in an exciting climax where players discover which rooms are cursed and which rooms dole out the most treasure.
Trailblazers: Sasquatch Expansion
Published by Bitewing Games
Expected Release Date – Q2 2024
Trailblazers is one of our most popular titles yet thanks to its approachable route building, charming portability, and surprisingly puzzly depth. It released last year alongside far more expansion and solo mode content than most players will ever have time to fully explore or master.
Rather than simply pile on more challenges or content, this year we’ve opted for something truly different. Trailblazers: Sasquatch Expansion is probably the most weird and wacky game we’ve ever published (and that’s including our many unrevealed titles). That’s because this expansion turns a fairly low-interaction, private map game into a high-interaction cooperative experience on a shared map with the potential for a hidden traitor being the secret Sasquatch.
Where Trailblazers is easy to plop down in front of 1-8 new players, the Sasquatch Expansion only plays 2-4 players and is best experienced with the same group across multiple sessions to enjoy an evolving meta.
A Message from the Stars
Expected Release Date – Q2 2024
Perhaps this is just a personal problem, but I can’t seem to wrap my head around the premise of any logic deduction game from a general overview. That’s at least the case with A Message from the Stars, and I imagine that’s the case for folks who hear about our own Spectral. But I’m certainly interested to check out this cooperative, word-based logic deduction challenge. Here the alien player and scientist players transmit and decode each other’s messages.
Galactic Renaissance
Expected Release Date – Q2 2024
I had the chance to play and preview this sibling design to Inis back when it initially crowdfunded, and within a few short months it’ll finally be delivering to backers. https://bitewinggames.com/galactic-renaissance-preview-should-you-back-this-spiritual-cousin-to-inis/
Here the drafting is replaced by deck building, and the king of the hill competition is replaced by a combotastic race, but one can still recognize that these area control games both come from the same designer. After enjoying my preview plays, I’m looking forward to seeing this one in its final, polished form.
Age of Rail: South Africa
Expected Release Date – Q2 2024
The next title in the Iron Rail Series pulls into station as Age of Rail: South Africa. This series maintains several common traits including auctioning for shares, building up railroads across a map, sharing incentives with your rival investors, learning the game on a single sheet of paper, and sometimes sabotaging your own company to hurt opponents more than yourself. I don’t know much about what makes this particular title unique other than the action selection system which sounds a bit like worker placement — actions can be blocked off to others until that player relocates to another action.
Things in Rings
Expected Release Date – Q2 2024
Ever since I sampled Things in Rings at a recent convention, I’ve been hungry to play it more. This quick party game has players racing to empty their hand of item cards by taking turns adding one item at a time to a Venn diagram overseen by “The Knower.” This special player facilitates the game by knowing the logic rules for each ring and accepting or rejecting each item that gets placed within or outside of the diagram. If your object is accepted (you placed it in the proper position), then you are one card closer to winning the game. If it is rejected, then “The Knower” repositions it to the correct spot and you must draw a new card into your hand from the deck. Over time, players will deduce the logic rules of each ring and hope to clear their hands first.
Assuming it lives up to that alluring first impression (and the delightful concept art I’ve seen), then Things in Rings is poised to become one of the best party games of 2024.
Fairy
Expected Release Date – Q2 2024
Much like recent dumb fun hits (such as That’s Not a Hat and Trio), Fairy is a game that sounds too mind numbingly simple to be… well, a game. But when it plays up to 10 players for only 10 bucks in less than 10 minutes, and when it causes your table to quickly erupt in a fiery passion, then Fairy might just be onto something here. Essentially, players are simultaneously revealing a hand gesture to make a bet on which suit will be revealed from the draw pile next. If your bet is correct, then you gain points. If your bet is incorrect, then you lose a point. First person to 15 points wins. I’ve played Fairy, and somewhat inexplicably, I need more Fairy in my life. I’m excited to see Allplay debut their “Tiny Box Line” of $10 games in 2024 with the likes of Fairy and others.
Moonrollers
Expected Release Date – June 2024
I’ve played Moonrollers, and I liked it enough that I had to pledge for my own copy. That’s because Bitewing Games has had the chance to collaborate with the designer of Moonrollers, Robert Hovakimyan, on some upcoming projects and we’ve been very impressed with this new designer’s output. Moonrollers features spicy push-your-luck, neat shared incentives, and is strongly influenced by Reiner Knizia’s design philosophy (and you know I can get enough of Knizia-esque games). Most importantly, Moonrollers keeps the focus on dice chucking drama like my favorite dice games.
Undaunted 2200: Callisto
Expected Release Date – September 2024
Undaunted is the bee’s knees of snappy, tense, streamlined war games. But up to this point, it has spent all of its time in the World War II setting. In 2024, it finally breaks free of those confines and goes way off into the future and way out into outer space. But this is no simple skin swap where tanks are replaced by mechs and AK-47’s are placed by laser rifles. Knowing David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin, they’ll undoubtedly make the sci-fi vehicles and weapons feel bonkers strong. And this box appears to contain four double sided game boards rather than a bunch of modular tiles to make up the map. Plus, the game will offer 2-player, 4-player, and solo options.
Kabuto Sumo: Sakura Slam
Kickstarter Launch – January 2024. Expected Release – Q3 2024.
Long live Kabuto Sumo — the disc pushing wrestling match between epic bug characters illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya. Sakura Slam is not another expansion to Kabuto Sumo. Rather, it is a standalone sequel which I hear will feature a classic square wrestling ring and undoubtedly some new dexterity and physics challenges to enjoy.
Calimala
Expected Release Date – September 2024
Calimala is another reskinned edition of a game I’ve played and discussed in the past.
This one originally hit my table at a time when I was burnt out on beige Eurogames with generic themes and presentations (and my initial thoughts on the game certainly reflect that mood). Ultimately, this was one design that I purged from my collection, but I never quite purged it from my mind. Something about the bitey gameplay lingered with me, and I’m thrilled to see that it will soon break free of its original look with a new presentation from Ian O’Toole. I’m hoping that this new version will help me uncover a newfound love for the clever Calimala.
River Valley Glassworks
Kickstarter Launch – March 2024. Expected Release Date – Q3 2024.
Publisher Allplay is on a quest to capture the hearts of Azul fans across the world with their major 2024 release, River Valley Glassworks. Here you’ll be drafting glass pieces from a river of flowing tiles and adding that glass to your shop. Some glass types are more rare than others, and part of the strategy is deciding which columns to fill with which types. It already appears to be starting on the right foot with charming artwork from Andrew Bosley and clackety glass tokens which are drawn from a bag.
Night Witches
Kickstarter Launch in 2024. Expected Release Date – TBD
Anything with David Thompson’s name on it (co-designer behind Undaunted, Resist, General Orders, and more) is bound to catch my attention, which is why Night Witches is on this list. This solitaire or 2-player cooperative game features the famous female pilots of World War II running missions across a 10-session campaign (where each session lasts about 30 minutes). On top of that, the game will be illustrated by Ian O’Toole. Count me in!
A Teaser for Bitewing’s Next Kickstarter
We’re not ready to spill all the beans quite yet, but you better believe we have some major tricks up our sleeve for our 2024 Kickstarter plans. Hopefully these vague descriptions of our next three games will be enough to whet your whistle until we’re ready to fully unveil them:
- [Redacted] is a modern, multi-rondel Eurogame with a timeless design ethos — clean systems, tight interaction, and focused scoring.
- [Redacted] is an old-school, shared board tile laying game with a refreshing twist — dual-layered placements of tiles and dice.
- [Redacted] is a classic, hidden gem Knizia card game with an evolved ruleset — removing past flaws while enhancing exciting strategies.
I hope you’re ready to see these games soon, because we’re already working on the preview copies with our factory. Be sure to subscribe to the Bitewing Games Newsletter so you don’t miss their grand reveal and Kickstarter launch.
What are your most anticipated board games of 2024? Share in the comments below!
Article written by Nick Murray. Outside of practicing dentistry part-time, Nick has devoted his remaining work-time to collaborating with the world’s best designers, illustrators, and creators in producing classy board games that bite, including the critically acclaimed titles Trailblazers by Ryan Courtney and Zoo Vadis by Reiner Knizia. He hopes you’ll join Bitewing Games in their quest to create and share classy board games with a bite.
Disclaimer: When Bitewing Games finds a designer or artist or publisher that we like, we sometimes try to collaborate with these creators on our own publishing projects. We work with these folks because we like their work, and it is natural and predictable that we will continue to praise and enjoy their work. Any opinions shared are subject to biases including business relationships, personal acquaintances, gaming preferences, and more. That said, our intent is to help grow the hobby, share our gaming experiences, and find folks with similar tastes. Please take any and all of our opinions with a hearty grain of salt as you partake in this tabletop hobby feast.
