Stonemaier Games News 2026

Jamey Stegmaier, CEO of Stonemaier Games, broke tradition on Wednesday during his weekly vlog. Stonemaier Games has long kept news of upcoming releases very tight (other than cryptic notes in their release schedule with codenames for the upcoming games).

This time, Stegmaier chose to lay out teasers for all of the expected products for 2026:

The award winning and best selling nature game from Elizabeth Hargrave gets its fourth expansion. This one will focus on birds from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

The set will introduce a new type of bird card for the first time, a smaller card for hummingbirds.

Stonemaier did not share any details regarding the hummingbird mechanics, but a new board was also announced with a hint that it will focus on the new cards.

Viticulture will also get a brand-new expansion board, which Stegmaier called a “sibling” for Tuscany. It features a kind of “expert” worker mechanism that Stegmaier said “takes the pressure off of the ‘train a worker’ action”. The board powers up certain spaces for which ever player is the expert of that action. It is our understanding that all of the content for the new Viticulture expansion will find in the Viticulture / Tuscany bigger boxes, as it is essentially a “replacement” board, with one side consisting of the normal base game, and the other side with the new content. Also, Stegmaier confirmed that players will not need Tuscany to play — the board is compatible with either or both games.

Euphoria is now getting a bit of a facelift, with a brand-new Essential Edition (similar in vein to Viticulture and Tuscany). There will be a newly redesigned board that will apparently help distinguish the spaces for more players.

Finspan, the final game in the ‘Span trilogy, is also getting an expansion. Stegmaier showed off some of the new cards, which have new (unexplained as of yet) icons to enhance the play.

But maybe some of the biggest news came later in the vlog, when Stegmaier announced an unnamed standalone “duel” game using Expeditions and Scythe properties. Not only can players use factions from Scythe to “duel” characters from Expeditions, but the release will also come with a brand new faction for Scythe and new character(s) for Expeditions. (Players can even battle Scythe v Scythe factions if they choose.) It sounds like Stonemaier’s version of an Unmatched series, pitting IPs in the company against each other. Could we be seeing additional content down the pike?

For those of you that have been following famed artist and designer, Andrew Bosley, and his creation of a brand new world called Smoke and Bones, Stegmaier announced that there are at least three games in the works (most not to be seen next year): one game designed by Stegmaier himself, another with a team of designers, and finally, a game that will be coming in 2026 that he described as a “medium-heavy weight euro” with worker placement, engine building and tack advancement. Stegmaier showed off just a few pieces from Bosley’s artbook from the world, which Stegmaier said gives a “feel” for the world of the games:

For Origin Story fans, the competitive trick-taking game about creating your own superhero, Stonemaier Games will publish a new mini-expansion with twenty new stage five cards (the part where the superhero comes out.) Stegmaier did tease some of the art.

The final two announcements from Stonemaier Games are upcoming releases of a travel-sized version of Wingspan (essentially a cards only game) that fits into the size of a box of The Crew, and a new Stonemaier Games release of Namiji, the sequel to Tokaido. Recall that Stonemaier Games purchased the entire Tokaido world and its games from Fun Forge earlier this year.

Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!

— BJ from Board Game Gumbo