History of Rio Grande Games

I first started thinking of starting Rio Grande Games in 1997. I was a big fan of family strategy games such as are produced in Germany and wanted to find ways to make them available to people in the US. At first, I simply imported German games and added English rules. After a few months, I decided that I needed to publish full English versions of these games to reach the English-speaking market, so I launched the Rio Grande Games in March of 1998 to publish family strategy games in English.

The mission of Rio Grande Games is to promote the playing of family strategy games in the United States. We are particularly interested in getting families playing these games together. We feel that too many families have gotten away from spending time together. Playing good games together is a great way for families to spend social time together. Unfortunately, the quality of games published in the United States has not kept pace with those published in Germany, where families still spend a lot of time playing games together. As a result, families in the United States have drifted apart and spend their time watching TV or playing computer games separately instead of together.

As most of the really good family strategy games are designed and produced in Germany, Rio Grande Games works with the German publishers to publish English versions of these great games. To make the games we produce truly English, we translate all components into English: box, board, cards, rules, etc. We select games for their great mechanisms and for the high quality of their components. Our games, like the Germans, use wood and Plexiglas for many of the pieces, have gutterless boards that lie flat, and use linen paper to wrap the boards and boxes. To keep our quality high and our costs down, we produce our versions with the German versions using the same printers and, thus, the same quality components.

By working together with the German publishers, I can bring these great family strategy games to the United States at reasonable prices and often at the same time they are released in Germany. This allows those who have been fans of these games to get English versions as quickly as they could get German version shipped across the ocean.

My first games were released in May of 1998. Since that time, the games have won numerous awards from magazine, newspapers, and others in the United States. Five of my games were selected for Games Magazine's Games 100 for 1999, including Fossil as the Game of the Year. For 2000, Games Magazine select 23 Rio Grande Games for the Games 100, including Torres as Game of the Year. And for 2001, another 23 games made the Games 100, including Aladdin's Dragons as Game of the Year. In 2000, Mensa chose Zertz as one of their Mensa Select © games. Lost Cities and Tikal received Gamers' Choice awards in 2000. Ido, Ta Yü, and many other games have been chosen by newspapers as their favorites in their holiday buyer's sections. For 2002 Games Magazine placed 22 Rio Grande Games in the Games 100 including Java, Babel, and Africa category winners. Also, Barnyard Critters received a Learning Teacher's Award © for 2002. Princes of Florence received Gamers' Choice awards in 2001.

Through the end of 2004, Rio Grande Games has published over 170 games and promises many more for 2005.

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