The man who’s designed over 700 board games: Meet Reiner Knizia 

Well that was a bit of a shock ... spotting myself doing a one handed 'I am not worthy' wave at Doctor Knizia as he walked past me at Essen this year ...

The man is an absolute legend. Highly respected for a reason

This is not just some guy. This is the godfather of high quality euro-style board games.

Heard his name mentioned countless times on boardgame YT channels. First time seeing and hearing him. Thanks for posting this.

He is one of the massive pillars that boardgaming hobby was built on.

I got "only" 100 of his games. Knizia is my favourite designer. A genius.

He is not my favorite game designer, but I respect him A LOT. Our hobby wouldn't be the same without him. Kudos.

As a game maker who's been making games since I was 5 or 6 and now being 31 I know what he means by the "curse of the ideas".

For y’all that don’t know, this man is on the board game Mt. Rushmore! Though it’s my first time hearing his voice 🎉

LOTR: The Confrontation is my favourite game. Highly respect Reiner Knizia.

I love a lot of board game designers but there is no one better than the great Dr. Reiner Knizia. His real testament is the FACT that games he designs are not only just 'respected' but played and beloved even 20+ years later after they were designed. Rulesets that are very simple yet house a DEEP level of strategy that is no other designer can even come close. I generally don't bother anyone at conventions such as designers or content creators, but if I had the chance to meet Dr. Knizia and even just give him a "we're not worthy" salutation: I'd do it in a heartbeat. He's my favorite designer and along with Sid Sackson, the father of modern board games: he's a pillar to this hobby. We owe him a LOT.

Great words from Master Reiner Knizia. Thanks for what you bring and have brought to the hobby for so many decades !

What a happy man.

What a great video about an amazing and humble creator. Thank you!

Been playing Knizia’s since 1994 … and still auto-purchase any of his new designs. Simply the best. And … where can I get those cushion covers 😊

Insane, didn't realize he made so many games

This man is legendary. Keep rocking!

Thank you for all your games! What a wonderful creator!

This is a man who is not afraid to play the odds for a hit.

A true legend!

He's one of my favorite designers. I know that with his prolific output, a lot of gamers consider to be hit-or-miss. However, I think gamers still recognize that he has put out some absolutely brilliant designs. I love his simple games that focus on one innovative mechanic. I especially love his many different takes on bidding.

That's more games than I will probably ever play in my life, and I consider myself a gamer!

Living legend. Some of my favorite games he made: Battle Line, Lost Cities, Quest for El Dorado for 2 players (although the last one can be played with 3 and 4 as well), Modern Art and Dream Factory are great auction games, Tigris and Euphrates is one of his heavier games and Blue Moon City is a hidden gem. Most of his games have very clear, simple rules but offer a lot of possibilities.

An epic designer.

What a wonderful charming man

This guy is a champ. My favorite designer.

Has someone compiled a list of his top 25 most loved games? I've only tried a few, like Tigris & Euphrates, and some 2 player games from 20 years ago.

I love Knizia’s games! He’s a good of the board game industry!

Love the instrumental

LEGEND.

A good 6 or 7 of them are pretty good too.

I have Sofa King many of his games. First was The Lord Of The Rings from 2002 with Jown Howe's art. That got me back into board gaming. Ingenious was next. Have 20 now.

Living legend!

Legend and hero

What a legend! Tigris & Euphrates is simply a masterpiece!

Lovely man!

Legends in the modern boardgaming world. Wishing that the industry will continue to grow to a level that can compete with computer games so he can get better recognition. Good game, just like good music, will stay on long, often outliving the creator.

Did anyone else notice the guy in the chair behind him just holding a huge stack of games?

Now I want a Knizia game where bridges are being thrown at you.

Danke für die tollen Spiele

Simply put: he is my favourite author. I have 400+ board games and some 120 are by Knizia, I even hold a Knizia-Index of 30. It means that I played at least 30 of his games 30 times each (for a total of more than 900 games just here...) His games just are perfect for my mindset: simple rules, and a lot of depth. He was considered one of the best authors at the beginning of the Century. Now, tastes have shifted. He once had several games in the top 100 on BoardGameGeek and now I think he has 1 or even none. He's not as popular anymore as he used to be, because people now are more interested in the number of minis and pieces in a box than they are interested in the real rules of the game. Currently, people just aim for "more", whatever "more" is: pieces, rules, complexity. I am still on the side of cleanliness and simplicity. I still appreciate his games so much! Among his 700 games, let's be honest, there are a lot of repetitions (a game Like Botswana has other 4 or 5 names...), and there are a lot of games that are really sub-par... on the other hand, his best games are absolutely fantastic and anyone who wants to approach modern board games, should try his best works. I once had him sign one card of my copy of one of his games (Colossal Arena), hoping that some good influx would help me in the board gaming world... so far it didn't help much but... I think it's better to follow the suggestions he is mentioning here.

He's the man

I interupted my board game design session for this :)

This is my first time seeing Knizia, and hearing him talk, he neither looks nor sounds like I expected him to! Knowing that he was an expert mathematician, I didn't expect such a friendly and loving looking and sounding man.

Thank you, Doctor! :)

He even had a pretty good DS game back in the 2000s

I've played many of his games. They're usually not my top favourites but always good for a change of scenery. The main critique if his games is that the game mechanics are detached from the theme which I agree with but don't mind personally. My favourite game of his is the original version of Lost Cities (two player game). The theme is "expeditions" but if you think about it it's just a row of numbers and betting cards that you have to play in order. You can actually play this game with two sets of regular playing cards if you mark some of the cards from one set. I think Knizia is a master of inventing game mechanics (like in Ingenious). Very few people can make a living solely on being a board game designer and he is one of the chosen few. Props to him and his career! I remember listening to an interview with him once and his original professional was in the sciences if I remember! Was it physicist or statistician or engineer? A very smart man.

Awesome designer! Would love to meet him for a beer sometime for a chat :)

At 3:19 is that a Futurama reference? Surely hope so!

This dude is such a rock star in the bg world. I'm surprised more people aren't wilding out as he walks around the convention. Would love a longer video with him. Should have a Masterclass.

My only Knizia game is Lotr Confrontation but that one is a hoot. Should probably try some other ones.

The GOAT.

I love his style of games. Simple, effective but whacky. Sad that it's overtaken by gigantic clockwork-like games or dice-chuckers these days. Abstracts are still around, but they seem to stuck in certain specific mechanics like drafting or tile-laying.

"Brains in bottles" - that is a very good inspiration for the next game. Can't wait to play it. Legend.

Just finished a Explorers play with my kid.

Curious what games are in his top 10.

"A lot of things initially start in my mind." Well, I guess that's a pretty good place for an idea to start.

what games has he made

The Isaac Asimov of board games.

We are all equal around the table. This, right here, this is what I hold to, it's a good part of why I love tabletop gaming. Everyone coming together to play, share in the experience and have fun, it's wonderful.

Live his games. Bit strange he now looks like Baron Samedi from Atmosfear

Oh mais c’est le Shruberry le bar !!!!

Nice to see the mainstream media picked this up

LEGEND... (having some AP).... DARY!

what a god

He's epic

I wonder if non gamers really know the extent of influence Kinzia has on board game design and the industry as a whole. I can put it bluntly that as important as Ali is to boxing, Kinzia is to board games.

> Even the very very deep 3 to 4 hour games ... Grognards: 🤨

what a chad

What's with the dude standing behind him with the stack of games? They couldn't find a table to stack those on?!

Play test = data to experiment

i think I'll catch him up on his contributions, given a few years.

Undu colong nih mantape

We must respectfully say that the San Francisco game shown in the video was a bit boring lol. But I love many of his other games.

Ima rotting here thinking seven board games I have made is impressive and then I see this 😢 Loll very impressive haha this Notivated me!

Are a big chunk of the 700 ....that 1 game with a bunch of games in it?

My Island pls ;) ;)

A kid who forgot to grow up. How wonderful.

700 board games? I published 6,6K drawings on DeviantArt!

Possibly the closest to genius in modern board gaming I can think off. Name another designer that creates so much game with so few rules. I’ll wait…

For as much as I respect mr Reiner, not even his games are "perfect"

Ah yes, the most based board game designer ever

he is a genious and some of his games are my favourite, but I wish he had designed "only" 350 games with more care and testin, rathe than 700, 500 of which are quite forgettable.

Aren't you board?

Anybody can design 700 boardgames... making a fun boardgame is something totally different though...

So..the Mozart of cardboard 🤔

There are too many board games these days.

Respect to the guy who made many great games. But the images supporting his 'diversity' comments really didn't help. Poor job Euro News.

What is he compensating for? 😂

3:40 I disagree with Knizia here. We are not equals if you've brought to the table a game you're good at, and others at the table have never played it before. And this is quite likely. Even an experienced gamer has played only a small fraction of the games that are out there. There are far too many board games. What would be better is quality, not quantity. Better games, not more games.

700 boring AF board games...

Yes and 500+ of his games are bad. The man is all about quantity over quality.

That sort of intelligence is hard to believe. He really has something special most other humans don't. I can't even PLAY games with a weight higher than about 3.2 without extreme distress. LoL

Numbers ≠ Quality

Sadly, the Board Game industry has gone crazy W0ke. Thxs, for you keeping it non-W0ke Knizia!

And none of them is good!!

I suppose that if you’ve designed over 700 board games, you deserve the right to wear a bow tie like that.

Great words from Master Reiner Knizia. Thanks for what you bring and have brought to the hobby for so many decades !