Board Games as Media looks to be well placed to succeed in its aim to start conversations about board games. Readers already interested in board game studies will find much of interest, but those with most to gain are those new to the topic.

Rerolling Boardgames looks set to be an important volume in boardgame studies, adding to the small but growing number of books that take analogue games as their focus. Readers, whether they are game scholars, game designers, or keen players, will likely find much of interest in what is both an academically interesting and practical set of essays.

Achievement Relocked is a fascinating and genuinely useful book that will be of great interest to anyone interested in game design, as well as to players interested in understanding some of the impulses behind their own in-game decisions.

Readers and players with an interest in adventure games, and those interested in the genre’s many descendants, will undoubtedly find Reed, Murray and Salter’s book both useful and enjoyable.

In its nine chapters (plus the editors’ introduction), the book sets out to explore the long history of the association of warfare and games through readings of literary texts that range from the late-sixteenth to the early-eighteenth century.

This book does exactly what its title suggests: it’s an encyclopedia of game mechanisms, but it’s also rather more than that – it’s an engaging read that’s packed with insightful comment and an invigorating invitation to think about the future directions of tabletop gaming.

Playing Smart by Julian Togelius is the latest addition to MIT Press’s Playful Thinking Series. Readers familiar with the series will have an idea of what to expect – namely engaging, thought provoking, and fairly brief books.

Marco Arnaudo’s new book, Storytelling in the Modern Board Game joins the growing body of critical work on analogue games, finding a place alongside books such as Paul Booth’s Game Play (2015).

While it has been out for some time, The Dark Side of Game Play: Controversial Issues in Playful Environments (Routledge, 2015), proved to be such an interesting and thought-provoking collection that it seemed that a short review was in order.