Jéssica Gubert

If you’re wondering where to start with the Wingspan family of games, this guide compares Wingspan, Wyrmspan, and Finspan to help you decide which one best fits your taste, play style, and experience level. Back in 2019, a woman named Elizabeth Hargrave quickly became one of the world’s most prominent game designers with the release of Wingspan, an elegant engine builder inspired by her interest in birdwatching.

Board games like Overcooked usually share three things: real-time pressure, chaotic teamwork, and order-fulfillment goals that force quick decisions. If you love the frantic timer-driven energy of Overcooked, the five tabletop games below deliver that same “kitchen chaos” thrill—whether cooperative or competitive. A while back, when explaining the hype in Coffee Rush and what it’s all about, I mentioned that the most widespread fallacy about this game is that it feels like Overcooked.

In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, how about also taking some time to reflect on our relationship with the hobby of board gaming? Board games became a hobby for you because you found some sort of value and pleasure in that activity. For some, it might be the social fun, while for others it’s the battle of wits or the cooperative challenge. And yet, we often acquire bad habits that can make the whole experience unpleasant. Which habits are these, and how do we get past them?