2025: My Year in Games | Top 10 Board Games
Game Designer Adam Porter (Emberheart, Pikoko, Kompromat, Flip Pick Towers) discusses the year 2025 - his favourite games (including a heavily compromised Top 10), a designer that impressed him, achievements in game design and YouTube, and a wish list for the coming year.
'Adam in Wales: Legacy' is available worldwide, via Amazon's print on demand service, and as an ebook.
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For five thousand years, people have gathered together to play games. Each of those games has something to teach us; not just about rules, mechanisms, and themes, but also about the business of games, publishing, and achieving lasting success.
Award-winning designer Adam Porter explores the 100 most influential tabletop games in history, from timeless classics like Chess, Go, and Mancala, through mass-market icons such as Monopoly, Connect 4, and The Game of Life, to modern strategy hits like Terraforming Mars, Gloomhaven, and Wingspan.
Each chapter examines a landmark title, uncovering the design choices behind its impact and the lessons today's creators can draw from it. Whether you're a designer, player, or student of game design, this book offers inspiration, insight, and actionable advice, derived from the games that shaped the hobby.
About the author
Adam Porter is an award winning game designer from the United Kingdom, known for making accessible games suitable for families, and for his popular YouTube channel Adam in Wales where Adam talks candidly about his experiences pitching and licensing games to publishers. Many new designers have looked to Adam for guidance when taking their first steps in the board game industry. Adam's published games include Pikoko, Doodle Rush, Kompromat, Qwuzzle, Zooligans, Thrown, Big Bazar, Happy Hoppers, Ballot Battle, and Zing-a-Zam.
Adam's four previous books are available from Amazon worldwide.
- Adam in Wales: Board Game Designer Journal
- Adam in Wales: Playtesting
- Adam in Wales: Product Design
- Adam in Wales: Getting Published as a Board Game Designer
0:00 Introduction
2:03 Top 10 of the past 5 years
5:23 Designer Spotlight
6:30 Game Design Update
11:09 Youtube Round-up
13:25 Top 10 Board Games of 2025
29:19 2026 Wishlist
