photo from Knizia.de

Dr. Reiner Knizia has been designing board games since 1990 and is known as one of the most prolific game creators in the world, selling over 13 million games and books worldwide. He is responsible for over 700 published games and books and has received 32 awards according to his website, knizia.de. He has a Master of Science degree from Syracuse University and a PHD in Mathematics from Ulm University. Before becoming a full-time games designer, he was the Operations Director of a £10 billion mortgage company based in the United Kingdom. Knizia has also been awarded several personal awards including an induction to the Academy of Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame, an honorary membership to the Weiner Spiele Akademie, and a Board Game Geek favourite designer award. Simply put, Knizia is a legend in the board game community and the creator of some of our favourite games to play and teach at Hexagon.

Modern Art (1992)

Knizia made a name for himself early in his career as a designer with his trilogy of auction games, Modern Art, Medici, and Ra. Perhaps the most popular of these three is Modern Art, the game where players act as both the buyers and sellers of five magnificent paintings. They do this by putting a painting from their hand up for auction for other players to buy, but must pay the bank to buy it for themselves if no one ponies up the cash. Modern Art won the 1993 Deutscher Spiele Preis Best Family/Adult Game award and its re-release won multiple awards in 2008/09.

Samurai (1998)

Samurai is one of the games in Knizia’s well-regarded tile-placement trilogy that also includes Tigris & Euphrates and Through the Desert. Players compete to gain the favour of three factions in medieval Japan: priests, peasants, and samurai, which are all represented by different tokens on the board. By placing hexagonal tiles next to the tokens, players increase their influence over one of the three factions, and once the token is completely surrounded, it goes to the player who gained the most favour with the corresponding group. Samurai won the 1998 Meeples’ Choice Award.

Lost Cities (1999)

One of our favourite two player games, Lost Cities is a set collection card game where exploration is cool and all, but only if there’s profit in it. Players alternate taking turns playing a card from their hand on a matching expedition or discarding a card, and then drawing a new one from either the deck or a discard pile. The goal of the game is to earn the most points by only going on expeditions you will find profitable, and to play your cards in a way that maximizes their value. Lost Cities won the 2000 International Gamers Awards – General Strategy; Two-players, the 1999 Meeples’ Choice Award, and the 1999 Fairplay À la carte Winner.

Lord of the Rings (2000)

Coinciding with the release of the film adaptations, Knizia’s Lord of the Rings is a cooperative game in which each player takes on the role of a hobbit in the fellowship. Together they must traverse Middle Earth, resisting Sauron’s corrupting influence and destroy the one ring in the fires of Mount Doom. If the ring bearer is overcome by Sauron during the journey, Middle Earth and Sam’s taters are doomed. Lord of the Rings won the 2001 Spiel des Jahres “Literary Game” award, and spawned an excellent two player game titled Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation, in which one player controls the fellowship and the other player controls Sauron’s forces in a chess-like game of strategy.

Blue Lagoon (2018)

Area control and set collection collide in a colourful game of settlers reminiscent of Disney’s Moana. In Blue Lagoon, the goal is to collect as many resources as possible and expand your influence over the archipelago by placing your villages cleverly. Because you can only expand from the lagoon or from your own villages, a careful route is necessary to collecting all those shiny points.

Reiner Knizia has made more games than I’ve told dad jokes, and believe me, I’ve told my dad lots of jokes. Sometimes he laughs too. To check out a list of some of his notable works, head on over to this list on boardgamegeek.com or visit his website here.