Mikko Saari - Finland

This section contains the columns of Mikko Saari, who will be reporting from Finland.

About Mikko Saari:

Mikko Saari is a Finnish gamer, best known for Gameblog, one of the first board game blogs. With a background of all sorts of games from board to card to computer to live-action roleplaying, Mikko jumped the Euro bandwagon with Settlers of Catan.

Mikko is heavily involved in the Finnish board game scene, being active in the Finnish Boardgame Society from day one. He also writes a regular game column in Finnish computer magazine Enter. Outside games and writing, Mikko has studied information studies to become a librarian.

Mikko currently resides in Tampere, Finland.

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Headlines

February 19, 2008 - Mikko Saari: Lautapelit.fi to Publish Modern Art in Finnish
April 12, 2007 - Mikko Saari: A new book on board games
August 1, 2006 - Mikko Saari: The only Finnish game designer dies
December 30, 2005 - Mikko Saari: Good games sell in Finnish
November 29, 2005 - Mikko Saari: An eye for Finland

Articles

Mikko Saari: Lautapelit.fi to Publish Modern Art in Finnish

Knizia’s favourite auction game Modern Art sees yet another edition, when Finnish board game publisher Lautapelit.fi publishes their version of the game. Instead of reprinting the game directly like they’ve done before, they’ve went and redone the art completely. That’s great, because the original Modern Art isn’t something I’d call beautiful (whether modern art is beautiful in real life is another debate).

Of course, gamers remember the fantastic art Mike Doyle did for the Brazilian edition of the game. When I first heart Lautapelit.fi was going to do Modern Art, I remember suggesting that they could use Doyle’s art instead of the original art. Well, they didn’t and now I’m glad of that. I’ve seen some samples of the new art and it’s really gorgeous.

Posted by Mikko Saari on February 19, 2008 at 12:30 AM in Columnists > Mikko Saari - Finland - Comments (5) - Link

Mikko Saari: A new book on board games

Books on board games are fairly rare, especially those that focus on the new games we love. This is unfortunate, but it is also about to change in Finland. BTJ, a smallish but energetic publisher is publishing a book on new boardgames. The book describes over 150 new board games, with the focus on games that are available now, either in Finnish or in the Finnish game stores. In addition of the games, the book will introduce readers to the world of board games: designers, publishers, awards, web sites - a complete newbie can grab the book, read it and become a gamer.

Posted by Mikko Saari on April 12, 2007 at 11:30 PM in Mikko Saari - Finland - Comments (4) - Link

Mikko Saari: The only Finnish game designer dies

Kari Mannerla, the best-known Finnish game designer has died of cancer at the age of 76. Mannerla’s most important game, Afrikan tähti (African Star or Diamond Hunt) was published in 1951 - he designed it when he was just 19. It was a smash hit; the game has sold over three million copies since, half of them in Finland (there are only about five million people in Finland).

Posted by Mikko Saari on August 1, 2006 at 02:45 AM in Mikko Saari - Finland - Comments (3) - Link

Mikko Saari: Good games sell in Finnish

Finland is a small market, very small - for example, New York has about four times as many people as Finland. Finnish language is also quite unlike any other language in Europe (except Estonian, which is even smaller market). Thus it’s no great surprise that relatively few non-mainstream board games have been published in Finnish.

However, the tide has turned. Settlers of Catan was finally released in Finnish in 2004, but it was Carcassonne, released the same year, that did the trick. Carcassonne won the game of the year award in Finland and is the point where I consider the Finnish board game revolution to start: Carcassonne sold extremely well. It had already sold well in English, but the Finnish edition, available in larger stores as well as the few specialist stores, was a big thing.

Posted by Mikko Saari on December 30, 2005 at 03:45 AM in Mikko Saari - Finland - Comments (0) - Link

Mikko Saari: An eye for Finland

Hello! I’ll be your eyes and ears in Finland, documenting the more interesting turns of the Finnish board game scene. Finland is experiencing the board game renaissance right now, as Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride, the three hot gateway games, were published in the last two years. More will come! The prolific Finnish publisher Lautapelit.fi is cranking up Finnish editions at good pace. They’ve certainly been superfast with Caylus, which is already coming in Finnish in January!

So, it’s all very exciting in Finland and I’m pleased to be able to report it all here. Thanks Rick for setting the website up, I know I’ve been missing my regular board game news!

Posted by Mikko Saari on November 29, 2005 at 01:27 AM in Mikko Saari - Finland - Comments (0) - Link

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