Rio Grande Games is a

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

publisher based in Placitas, New Mexico. The company primarily imports and localizes foreign language German-style board games.

History

In 1995, Jay Tummelson began working for

Mayfair Games Mayfair Games was an American publisher of board game, board, card game, card, and roleplaying games that also licensed German-style board game, Euro-style board games to publish them in English. The company licensed worldwide English-language pub ...

. At that time, Mayfair had begun to import German-style board games for sale, without doing any localization. Tummelson first suggested that they incorporate an English translation, and then that they completely localize the game for American audiences. Tummelson acquired the rights for Detroit/Cleveland ''Grand Prix'', ''

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

'', ''

Modern Art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradit ...

'', ''Streetcar'', and ''

The Settlers of Catan ''Catan'', previously known as ''The Settlers of Catan'' or simply ''Settlers'', is a multiplayer board game designed by Klaus Teuber. It was first published in 1995 in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag (Kosmos) as ''Die Siedler von Catan'' (). ...

'', which were published together in 1996. One part of the localization process was to create original art and components. Tummelson thought that a better solution would be to use the same artwork and components as the originals and to share the cost of printing with the European publishers, as well. In 1998, he founded Rio Grande Games to take that approach. Since then, Rio Grande Games has published over 350 games and has had a significant effect on board gaming in the United States. The most popular of the games published by Rio Grande Games are ''

Carcassonne Carcassonne is a French defensive wall, fortified city in the Departments of France, department of Aude, Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. It is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the department. ...

'', ''

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

'', ''

Dominion A dominion was any of several largely self-governance, self-governing countries of the British Empire, once known collectively as the ''British Commonwealth of Nations''. Progressing from colonies, their degrees of self-governing colony, colon ...

'', ''

Power Grid ''Power Grid'' is the English-language version of the second edition of the multiplayer German-style board game ''Funkenschlag'', designed by Friedemann Friese and first released in 2004. ''Power Grid'' was released by Rio Grande Games. I ...

'', '' Race for the Galaxy'', '' Bohnanza'', and ''

Lost Cities ''Lost Cities'' is a 60-card card game, designed in 1999 by game designer Reiner Knizia and published by several publishers. The objective of the game is to mount profitable expeditions to one or more of the five lost cities (the Himalayas, th ...

''. More recently, Rio Grande Games has begun publishing its own games and has even begun licensing its games to partners in other countries wanting to localize the games in their local languages. Thus, ''Race for the Galaxy'' will soon be seen in Chinese, Korean, and others, as well as its original English, French, and German.

Notable games

Rio Grande has published a number of award-winning games. Spiel des Jahres *''

'' (2009) *'' Zooloretto'' (2007) *''

Thurn and Taxis The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis (, ) is a family of German nobility that is part of the '' Briefadel''. It was a key player in the postal services in Europe during the 16th century, until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, and beca ...

'' (2006) *'' Niagara'' (2005) *''

'' (2004) *''

Alhambra The Alhambra (, ; ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of the historic Muslim world, Islamic world. Additionally, the ...

'' (2003) *''

'' (2001) *'' Torres'' (2000) *''

Tikal Tikal (; ''Tik'al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the Pre-Col ...

'' (1999) *'' Elfenland'' (1998) *'' Mississippi Queen'' (1997) *'' El Grande'' (1996)

Deutscher Spiele Preis __NOTOC__ The Deutscher Spielepreis (, ''German Game Prize'') (DSP) is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine ''Die Pöppel-Revue'', which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, profes ...

*''

'' (2009) *'' Caylus'' (2006) *''

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

'' (2005) *''

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

'' (2004) *'' Amun Re'' (2003) *''

'' (2002) *''

'' (2001) *''

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his belo ...

'' (2000) *''

'' (1999) *''

Löwenherz ''Löwenherz'' (; ) is a German-style board game designed by Klaus Teuber and published in 1997 by Goldsieber in German and by Rio Grande Games in English. A revised edition, titled ''Löwenherz: Der König kehrt zurück'' (''Lionheart: The Kin ...

'' (1997) *'' El Grande'' (1996)

References

{{reflist

External links

Rio Grande's website
Board game publishing companies Companies based in New Mexico American companies established in 1998 1998 establishments in New Mexico Publishing companies established in 1998

History

Notable games

See also

References

External links