{"id":10377,"date":"2026-01-29T15:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/?p=10377"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:49:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:49:34","slug":"tonari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/blog\/2026\/01\/29\/tonari\/","title":{"rendered":"Friendly Fishing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Au d\u00e9but des ann\u00e9es quatre-vingt, lorsque j\u2019ai commenc\u00e9 \u00e0 m\u2019int\u00e9resser \u00e0 la cr\u00e9ation ludique, les auteurs de jeux de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 connus, ou du moins reconnus, se comptaient sur les doigts d\u2019une main. David Parlett, auteur du Li\u00e8vre et La Tortue<\/em>, \u00e9tait anglais. Les autres, Sid Sackson, Peter Olotka et l\u2019\u00e9quipe de Future Pastimes, \u00e9taient am\u00e9ricains. Nous savions vaguement que quelque chose \u00e9tait en train d\u2019\u00e9merger en Allemagne, mais aucun nom n\u2019\u00e9tait encore connu.
Le polyglotte et cosmopolite Alex Randolph \u00e9tait le personnage le plus \u00e9tonnant. On savait qu\u2019apr\u00e8s une enfance en Suisse dans de tr\u00e8s chers pensionnats, ce riche am\u00e9ricain, fils d\u2019ambassadeur, avait \u00e9tudi\u00e9 la philosophie et les math\u00e9matiques, avait \u00e9t\u00e9 agent secret, avait rapport\u00e9 d\u2019Inde l\u2019id\u00e9e de Stupide Vautour<\/em>, avait pass\u00e9 de longues ann\u00e9es au Japon o\u00f9 il \u00e9tait devenu un joueur de Shogi de haut niveau, avant de s\u2019installer \u00e0 Venise o\u00f9, avec ses amis Leo Colovini et Dario de Toffoli, il avait con\u00e7u Intrigues \u00e0 Venise<\/em> (a.k.a Incognito<\/em>). C\u2019\u00e9tait un personnage de roman, philosophe et voyageur, que je regrette beaucoup de n\u2019avoir jamais eu l\u2019occasion de rencontrer.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Les jeux d\u2019Alex Randolph sont souvent tr\u00e8s abstraits, presque math\u00e9matiques. Twixt<\/em> ou Ricochet Robots<\/em>, souvent consid\u00e9r\u00e9s comme ses chefs d\u2019\u0153uvre, sont sans doute un peu trop froids pour moi, je ne les ai jamais trop appr\u00e9ci\u00e9s. J\u2019ai en revanche beaucoup jou\u00e9 \u00e0 Intrigues \u00e0 Venise<\/em>, un jeu de d\u00e9duction dans lequel on doit d\u2019abord d\u00e9couvrir son partenaire avant de s\u2019entendre avec lui pour discr\u00e8tement remplir une mission commune. Superbement \u00e9dit\u00e9, ce jeu revisite avec humour et intelligence le Cluedo<\/em>, et m\u2019a sans doute donn\u00e9 envie de cr\u00e9er aussi mon jeu d\u2019enqu\u00eate, Myst\u00e8re \u00e0 l\u2019Abbaye<\/em><\/a>. Mais il y a bien d\u2019autres cr\u00e9ations d\u2019Alex Randolph auxquelles j\u2019ai beaucoup jou\u00e9 et joue encore \u00e0 l\u2019occasion. Stupide Vautour<\/em> est inspir\u00e9 d\u2019un jeu de cartes traditionnel indien sur lequel je serais curieux d\u2019en savoir plus, Ghosts (Fant\u00f4mes)<\/em> est un jeu de bluff et de tactique d\u2019une d\u00e9routante simplicit\u00e9. Sacr\u00e9 Chameau<\/em> est l\u2019un des jeux de course les plus originaux qui soient. Big Shot<\/em> est un jeu d\u2019ench\u00e8res subtil et original r\u00e9cemment r\u00e9\u00e9dit\u00e9 par mes amis cor\u00e9ens de Mandoo Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Les jeux d’Alex Randolph dans ma collection. Je croyais avoir aussi les Vampires mangeurs de tomates, une grosse boite, et Die R\u00fcsselbande, mais j’ai d\u00fb les donner ou les laisser \u00e0 Avignon..
Games by Alex Randolph in my collection. I thought I also owned the tomato-vampire game, I don’t remember its name, and Die R\u00fcsselbande, but I probably gave them or left them in my old home.<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

C\u2019est un peu par hasard que j\u2019ai jou\u00e9, \u00e0 la fin des ann\u00e9es quatre-vingt, \u00e0 un jeu beaucoup moins connu, Veleno<\/em>. La m\u00e9canique en est simplissime, chacun \u00e0 son tour d\u00e9pla\u00e7ant un pion commun pour prendre une pi\u00e8ce sur une case voisine. Ceux qui connaissent mes jeux savent que, si je me m\u00e9fie des jeux de coop\u00e9ration, j’ai en revanche toujours \u00e9t\u00e9 int\u00e9ress\u00e9 par l’id\u00e9e d’un pion unique manipul\u00e9 par tous les joueurs, syst\u00e8me que j’ai exploit\u00e9 dans Silk Road<\/em><\/a> ou Isla Dorada<\/a>.<\/em> Le syst\u00e8me de score de Veleno \u00e0 trois ou quatre joueurs, qui donne son nom \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9dition allemande du jeu (Gute Nachbarn<\/em> = le bon voisin) \u00e9tait tout aussi fascinant – chacun additionne son score de base \u00e0 celui de son voisin de gauche, et le total le plus \u00e9lev\u00e9 l\u2019emporte. Comme dans la vraie vie, le bon voisin, c\u2019est votre voisin de gauche, le mauvais, votre voisin de droite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gute Nachbarn, \u00e9dition allemande de Veleno.
Gute Nachbarn, German edition of Veleno<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pendant des ann\u00e9es, ce jeu a trott\u00e9 dans ma t\u00eate. L\u2019id\u00e9e me fascinait, la r\u00e9alisation me laissait un peu sur ma faim. Le plateau de jeu un peu petit, et les valeurs mal \u00e9quilibr\u00e9es des diff\u00e9rentes pi\u00e8ces, menaient en effet trop souvent \u00e0 des parties assez automatiques, o\u00f9 les coups \u00e9taient \u00e9vidents et le vainqueur connu apr\u00e8s deux ou trois tours. Une trentaine d\u2019ann\u00e9es plus tard, je me suis finalement pench\u00e9 sur Veleno<\/em> pour en faire une version qui me satisfasse, avec un plateau un peu plus grand et, surtout, beaucoup plus de vari\u00e9t\u00e9 dans les valeurs et les effets des jetons et d\u2019interaction entre les joueurs. J\u2019ai vite baptis\u00e9 mon jeu Tonari<\/em> – voisin en japonais – parce que cela sonnait bien, et parce que cela renvoyait \u00e0 la fois au m\u00e9canisme central et au nom allemand du jeu, Gute Nachbarn<\/em>, et au pass\u00e9 japonais d\u2019Alex Randolph (et \u00e0 mes accointances personnelles avec le Japon).<\/p>\n\n\n

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L’un de mes premiers prototypes
One of my first prototypes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Comme un roman, comme un morceau de musique, un jeu de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 ne sort jamais de nulle part, n\u2019est jamais totalement original, et c\u2019est tr\u00e8s bien ainsi. Toutes mes cr\u00e9ations ont \u00e9t\u00e9 plus ou moins influenc\u00e9es par d\u2019autres jeux que j\u2019avais appr\u00e9ci\u00e9 ou non, dont j\u2019ai voulu m\u2019inspirer ici ou me diff\u00e9rencier l\u00e0. Il reste que certains jeux sont plus originaux que d\u2019autres, et que Tonari<\/em> ne l\u2019est gu\u00e8re. La question qui se pose est donc de savoir o\u00f9 situer la limite entre la variante ou le d\u00e9veloppement et la cr\u00e9ation nouvelle. La limite entre les deux est floue, souvent arbitraire, et l\u2019auteur de jeux me semble le mieux plac\u00e9 pour en juger – j’ai d\u00e9j\u00e0 abord\u00e9 cela plus en d\u00e9tail ici<\/a>. En m\u00eame temps que je d\u00e9veloppais ce qui allait devenir Tonari<\/em>, je travaillais sur un petit jeu de cartes sur le th\u00e8me d\u2019une vieille dame donnant des miettes de pain aux pigeons, qui s\u2019inspirait d\u2019un autre jeu d\u2019Alex Randolph, Raj \/ Stupide Vautour<\/em>, et qui est finalement devenu Chawai<\/em><\/a>. C\u2019est \u00e0 l\u2019arriv\u00e9e, en y jouant avec mes amis, que j\u2019ai jug\u00e9 que les Pigeons \u00e9taient un jeu suffisamment original pour que je puisse consid\u00e9rer en \u00eatre le seul auteur, tandis que Tonari<\/em> n\u2019\u00e9tait qu\u2019une variation sur Veleno \/ Gute Nachbarn<\/em>, dont il conservait tous les \u00e9l\u00e9ments, se contentant d\u2019ajouter de nouvelles pi\u00e8ces. J\u2019ai donc pris contact, par l’interm\u00e9diaire de son agent Smart Cookie Games<\/a>, avec Michael Katz, le neveu et h\u00e9ritier d\u2019Alex Randolph, qui a bien volontiers accept\u00e9 de me laisser chercher un \u00e9diteur pour Tonari<\/em>, les futurs droits d\u2019auteur \u00e9tant partag\u00e9s moiti\u00e9-moiti\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Les \u00e9diteurs ne se bousculent gu\u00e8re pour publier des jeux de strat\u00e9gie abstraits. J\u2019ai essuy\u00e9 pas mal de refus avant que les am\u00e9ricains de IDW ne d\u00e9cident de le publier. Apr\u00e8s avoir vaguement consid\u00e9r\u00e9 le th\u00e8me du chaudron de sorci\u00e8re, un peu trop exploit\u00e9 ces derniers temps, avec notamment l\u2019excellent Les<\/em> Charlatans de Beaucastel<\/em> de Wolfgang Warsch, ils ont finalement opt\u00e9 pour la p\u00e8che. Le pion est devenu un chalutier de l’\u00eele de Kuchinoshima, apr\u00e8s la temp\u00eate, et les jetons de couleur du prototype des poissons de diverses esp\u00e8ces. Cela leur a permis de situer l\u2019action au Japon, et donc de conserver le nom que j\u2019avais donn\u00e9 \u00e0 mon prototype. Ils esp\u00e8raient un effet de gamme avec l\u2019excellent Seikatsu<\/em> de Matt Loomis et Isaac Shalev, lui aussi un jeu abstrait au th\u00e8me oriental un peu superficiel et se jouant aussi bien \u00e0 trois ou quatre qu\u2019\u00e0 deux. Le th\u00e8me de la p\u00e8che, bien que trouv\u00e9 apr\u00e8s coup, est \u00e9tonnamment coh\u00e9rent et magnifiquement servi par les dessins de Kwanchai Moriya, un illustrateur au style tr\u00e8s original. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Lors de sa sortie en 2019, Tonari<\/em> fut plut\u00f4t bien re\u00e7u par la critique, et j\u2019esp\u00e9rais qu\u2019il allait sinon devenir un classique, du moins rencontrer un certain succ\u00e8s et se vendre quelques ann\u00e9es. Malheureusement, quelques mois \u00e0 peine apr\u00e8s sa sortie, IDW d\u00e9cida de quitter le march\u00e9 du jeu de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 pour se concentrer sur ce qui \u00e9tait son premier m\u00e9tier, les comics. Le premier tirage du jeu fut vendu assez rapidement, et tout s\u2019arr\u00eata l\u00e0.<\/p>\n\n\n

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M\u00eame si, signe d\u2019un public vieillissant, quelques \u00e9diteurs se sont r\u00e9cemment sp\u00e9cialis\u00e9s dans les nouvelles versions de classiques un peu oubli\u00e9s, il reste plus difficile de trouver un nouvel \u00e9diteur pour un jeu qui n\u2019est plus sur le march\u00e9 que de faire publier une nouveaut\u00e9. Dans le cas de Tonari, cela \u00e9tait rendu plus ardu encore par le fait que toute nouvelle \u00e9dition devrait supporter la comparaison avec la premi\u00e8re version, dont le mat\u00e9riel \u00e9tait magnifique. En fait, je n\u2019essayais pas vraiment. J\u2019avais bien ajout\u00e9 Tonari<\/em> \u00e0 la petite liste d\u2019une vingtaine de jeux \u00e9puis\u00e9s que je pr\u00e9sentais \u00e0 l\u2019occasion aux \u00e9diteurs susceptibles d\u2019\u00eatre int\u00e9ress\u00e9s, mais ce n\u2019\u00e9tait pas celui que je poussais avec le plus de conviction  – les jeux que je cherche le plus assidument, et jusqu\u2019ici sans succ\u00e8s,  \u00e0 faire republier sont Waka Tanka<\/a>, M\u00e9nestrels<\/a>, Small Detectives<\/a>, <\/em>et China Moon<\/a><\/em> \u2013 si vous \u00eates int\u00e9ress\u00e9s, contactez-moi.<\/p>\n\n\n

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En f\u00e9vrier 2025, je me suis rendu aux Etats-Unis, pour participer \u00e0 Louisville \u00e0 la GAMA, un salon que je recommande et o\u00f9 je retrournerai peut-\u00eatre lorsque la situation politique aux Etats-Unis sera redevenue saine et que les \u00e9trangers y seront \u00e0 nouveau bienvenus. C\u2019est l\u00e0 que j\u2019ai rencontr\u00e9 Paul Salomon de Gamehead<\/a>, qui se pr\u00e9parait \u00e0 publier outre-Atlantique deux de mes jeux, Venture Angels et Vabanque. Je lui ai alors laiss\u00e9 mon habituel catalogue de cr\u00e9ations et de jeux pouvant \u00eatre r\u00e9\u00e9dit\u00e9s. Quelques jours plus tard, je re\u00e7us un mail enthousiaste o\u00f9 il me disait ne pas avoir r\u00e9alis\u00e9 plus t\u00f4t que j\u2019\u00e9tais l\u2019un des auteurs de Tonari, un de ses jeux favoris dont il avait tr\u00e8s envie de faire une nouvelle version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le d\u00e9fi \u00e9tait de faire de ce jeu une \u00e9dition qui se diff\u00e9rencie suffisamment de l\u2019original et qui soutienne la comparaison avec la tr\u00e8s belle premi\u00e8re \u00e9dition de Tonari. Il a \u00e9t\u00e9, je pense, relev\u00e9 avec succ\u00e8s.
Le jeu lui-m\u00eame a connu quelques changements importants.
Au verso du plateau d\u2019origine se trouve un second plus grand, permettant des parties plus longues, et jusqu’\u00e0 5 joueurs. Cela nous a amen\u00e9 \u00e0 imaginer de nouveaux types de poissons, comme le Kingfish (qui n\u2019a pas de nom par chez nous car il n\u2019existe pas en Europe) donnant une victoire imm\u00e9diate au joueur qui en attrape, selon le nombre de joueurs, 2 ou 3, ou le Lunker, un gros poisson qui rapporte 5 points uniquement au dernier joueur \u00e0 en avoir pris un. Il devient aussi possible de varier les configurations de jeu, en ne pla\u00e7ant pas toujours dans le lac \u2013 car c\u2019est maintenant un lac \u2013 les m\u00eames poissons.
Voulant \u00e9viter les parties trop br\u00e8ves, l\u2019\u00e9diteur a souhait\u00e9 modifier la mani\u00e8re dont le jeu se termine. La partie ne s\u2019arr\u00eate plus imm\u00e9diatement lorsqu\u2019il n\u2019est plus possible de d\u00e9placer le bateau sur une case voisine, puisque l\u2019on repart alors de l\u2019\u00eele centrale, et ce jusqu\u2019\u00e0 ce que cela ne soit plus possible. C\u2019est le point de r\u00e8gle que nous avons le plus discut\u00e9, car, m\u00eame si certaines parties un peu courtes pouvaient \u00eatre frustrantes, la possibilit\u00e9 de provoquer la fin de partie \u00e9tait pour moi un \u00e9l\u00e9ment tactique important du jeu, surtout \u00e0 deux joueurs. J\u2019ai propos\u00e9 une solution interm\u00e9diaire, avec deux sorties de p\u00eache, matin\u00e9e et apr\u00e8s-midi, et c\u2019est ainsi que je joue d\u00e9sormais.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Le th\u00e8me de la p\u00eache, imagin\u00e9 par l\u2019\u00e9diteur pr\u00e9c\u00e9dent, fonctionne parfaitement, et il a donc \u00e9t\u00e9 conserv\u00e9, mais on p\u00eache d\u00e9sormais dans un lac, et les vari\u00e9t\u00e9s de poisson sont celles que l\u2019on rencontre dans les d\u2019Am\u00e9rique du Nord. Le plateau de jeu en tissu imprim\u00e9 recto-verso est absolument splendide. Les illustrations d\u2019Alisha Giroux <\/a>pour Friendly Fishing<\/em> sont aussi charmantes et color\u00e9es que celles de Kwanchai Moriya pour Tonari<\/em>. Le chalutier japonais est devenu une barque, et les p\u00eacheurs des animaux anthropomorphes, une mode tr\u00e8s pr\u00e9sente dans les jeux de soci\u00e9t\u00e9, que j\u2019ai cherch\u00e9 \u00e0 expliquer il y a quelques temps dans un long article<\/a>. Bref, Friendly Fishing est superbement \u00e9dit\u00e9, et je lui souhaite une vie plus longue qu\u2019\u00e0 Tonari.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Friendly Fishing<\/strong><\/span>
Un jeu d’Alex Randolph & Bruno Faidutti<\/span>
Illustr\u00e9 par Alisha Giroux<\/a><\/span>
2 \u00e0 5 joueurs \u2013 30 minutes<\/span>
Publi\u00e9 par Gamehead<\/a>, 2026<\/span>
Boardgamegeek<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I became really interested in boardgame design in the early eighties. In these times, we had a handful of games and didn\u2019t know much, if anything, about their designers. There were very only a handful of names. David Parlett, the designer of <\/em>Hare and Tortoise, was British. The other ones, Sid Sackson, Peter Olotka and the Future Pastimes team, were Americans. We vaguely knew something was beginning in Germany, but no names were famous yet. The polyglott and Cosmopolitan Alex Randolph was the most fascinating character. We knew that a after a golden childhood in very expensive swiss boarding schools, this scion of a rich American family, whose parents were ambassadors, had studied philosophy and maths, had worked as a secret agent, had brought a cute card game, <\/em>Raj, from India, had lived in Japan and become a first rate Shogi player, and then had settled in Venice where, with friends Leo Colovini and Dario de Toffoli, he had designed <\/em>Inkognito, a secret agent game during the carnival of Venice. Alex Randolph was a character just out of a European novel, and I deeply regret having never met him.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alex Randolph playing Shogi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of Alex Randolph\u2019s designs are abstract, if not mathy. <\/em>Twixt and <\/em>Ricochet Robots are often said to be his masterworks, but I\u2019ve never been much fond of them, they feel too cold for me. I have played much more games of <\/em>Inkognito, <\/em>Intrigues \u00e0 Venise in French, a deduction game in which one must first find out one\u2019s partner before discreetly communicating with him about our common mission. Gorgeously edited, it revisits <\/em>Clue with humor and subtleness. This game showed me that there was something more to do with Clue, and probably motivated me to design <\/em>Mystery of the Abbey. There are many other Alex Randolph designs I played a lot and still occasionally play. <\/em>Raj \/ Hol\u2019s der Geier is inspired by a traditional indian game about which I\u2019d like to know more. <\/em>Ghostsis a deceptively simple tactical and bluffing game. <\/em>Camel Go is one of the most original racing games. <\/em>Big Shot, recently republished by my Korean friends at Mandoo Games, is a gem of an auction game<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Alex Randolph in Venice, with a copy of Veleno.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the late eighties, I incidentally played a lesser know Randolph design, <\/em>Veleno, an abstract with very simple mechanisms.<\/i>Each player on turn moves a common pawn on a board, capturing a token on a neighboring space. Those who follow my creations know that, while I am wary of cooperation games, I have always been interested in games with a single pawn moved by allplayers, and idea I have already used in <\/em>Silk Road<\/a>or <\/em>Isla Dorada<\/a>. The other fascinating aspect of Veleno is its tricky three and four players scoring system, in which each player adds their left neighbor\u2019s score. This clever rule gave its name to the German edition of the game, <\/em>Gute Nachbarn– the nice neighbor. In <\/em>Veleno, you have a good neighbor on your left, a bad one on your right, and you’re the good neighbor of your bad neighbor.
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For years, I had this game in my thoughts. The simple and elegant system was fascinating, the actual game play a bit lacking. The small playing board and the unbalanced values of the colored tokens often made for scripted games, in which movements were obvious and the winner determined in two or three turns. Then two years ago, on a whim, i dig up my old copy of <\/em>Veleno and started to think of this game as I would like it, with a bigger board, more variety in the tokens and the scoring, and more interaction between players. I soon named my game <\/em>Tonari, meaning neighbor in Japanese, because it sounded nice for an abstract, because Alex Randolph had had a japanese life, because it reminded of the German name, <\/em>Gute Nachbarn, and the central idea of the game, and because at that time I was trying, with little success, to learn some Japanese.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My final prototype.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like a novel or a piece of music, a boardgame never comes out of nowhere, is never entirely new and original, and it\u2019s for the best. All my designs have been more or less influenced by other games, games I had liked or disliked, and an attempt to generate similar or dissimilar experiences. The truth is nevertheless that some games are more original than other ones, and Tonari belongs to the least innovative ones. It is not always easy, even for a seasoned game designer like me, to trace the line between minor development of an existing system and really new game. The line is often blurred (an idea I discussed at more length here<\/a>). While I was working on what will become <\/em>Tonari, i was also designing a light card game inspired by another Alex Randolph\u2019s design, <\/em>Raj. This game, featuring an old lady giving breadcrumbs to pigeons, was finally published as <\/em>Miaui<\/a>. It is after both games were nearly finalized, when playing them with friends, that I decided the pigeon game was original enough to be considered a new creation, while <\/em>Tonari was only a variation on Veleno<\/em> \/ Gute Nachbarn, because while it added new pieces, it kept all the original elements in the game. Through his agent Smart Cookie Games<\/a>, I contacted Michael Katz, Alex Randolph’s nephew and heir, who kindly accepted that I could look for a publisher for <\/em>Tonari, and that if I found one, royalties will be shared half and half.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Publishers are a bit wary nowadays of publishing abstract games. I proposed <\/em>Tonari unsuccessfully to several of them, and it\u2019s finally IDW which, probably encouraged by the success of Matt Loomis & Isaac Shalev\u2019s <\/em>Seikatsu, decided to publish it. They didn\u2019t want to go full abstract, but finding the right setting wasn\u2019t easy. There were too many recent games about witch cauldrons, including Wolfgang Warsch\u2019s outstanding <\/em>The Quacks of Quedlinburg. They finally settled on fishing, with the common pawn being a trawler, and the tokens of different colors different varieties of fish. Placing the action in Japan, in the Southern Kuchinoshima island, after a great tempest, even allows us to keep the name I had chosen for my prototype, <\/em>Tonari. Even though it was an afterthought, the fishing theme works surprisingly well, and is well rendered by the art of Kwanchai Moriya, an artist with a very specific style with whom I had not worked before. I am particularly fond of the cover art.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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When <\/em>Tonari was published in 2019, it got good reviews, and I had some hope it would, if not become a classic, at least got steady sales for some years. Unfortunately, only a few months after it got on the shelves, IDW decided to quit the boardgaming business and focus on what was its core business, comics. The first print run sold quite fast, and that was it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Even when, due to the aging audience, a few publisher have recently specialized in revamping older classics, it is still harder to find a new publisher for an older out of print game than for a brand new game. It was even harder for <\/em>Tonari, due to the high quality of the first edition to which the new one would inevitably be compared. That\u2019s why I didn\u2019t try very hard. I had added Tonari to the short list of about twenty older games looking for new editions I occasionally gave to publishers, but the ones I was pushing the hardest were <\/em>Waka Tanka<\/a>, Minstrels<\/a>, Small Detectives<\/a> and <\/em>China Moon<\/a> \u2013 if interested by these ones, please contact me !<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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In February 2025, I went to GAMA in Louisville, a really nice game fair I heartily recommend. I\u2019ll probably attend it again when the political situation in the US will be back to sanity and foreigners will again be welcome. That\u2019s where I met Paul Salomon and the small team of Gamehead, who was already planning to publish in the US two of my games, <\/em>Venture Angels<\/a> and <\/em>Vabanque<\/a>. I gave him my small catalog of new designs and older stuff available for publication. A few days later,\u00a0 I received an enthusiastic email from Paul, where he told me having not realized before that I was one of the designers of <\/em>Tonari, one of his favorite games, and one he was certainly willing to republish.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge was to make a new version that would be sufficiently different from the original game, and that will look as nice as the gorgeous first edition. I think we achieved it.
There has been a few major changes to the game itself.
The cloth board is double sided, with a larger board on the back of the original one, making for longer games with up to 5 players. Of course, this gave us the opportunity to add new types of fishes, like the Kingfish, which brings an instant victory if you get 2 or 3, depending on the number of players, or the Lunker, which brings 5 points but only to the last player who caught one. This means that there can now\u00a0 be different set-ups, with different types of fishes in the lake \u2013 because the Eastern sea has become a North-American lake.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To avoid the occasional very short game, the publisher decided to change the end game trigger. The game now doesn\u2019t end when it is not possible to catch a fish on the neighboring space, and the boat starts again from the central island, until this is not possible anymore. This was the rule we discussed the most because, even when short games can be frustrating, the possibility for the players to trigger the end game was for me, especially in two player games, an important tactical element. I suggested a compromise, two rounds of fishing, morning and afternoon, and that\u2019s how I now play.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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The fishing storyline imagined by the first publisher worked perfectly, and we kept it for this edition. The setting is now a forest lake, and the fishes are more or less those one can find in North America. The cloth printed board is really nice, and the art by Alisha Giroux<\/a> is as cute and colorful as that by Kwanchai Moriya for the first edition. The Japanese trawler has become a cute small wooden boat, and the fishermen anthropomorphic animals \u2013 a recent trend in boardgames I recently tried to explain in a long article<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friendly Fishing looks gorgeous, and I wish it a longer success than that of <\/em>Tonari.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Friendly Fishing<\/strong><\/span>
A game by Alex Randolph & Bruno Faidutti<\/span>
Art by Alisha Giroux<\/a><\/span>
2 to 5 players \u2013 30 minutes<\/span>
Published par Gamehead<\/a>, 2026<\/span>
Boardgamegeek<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Au d\u00e9but des ann\u00e9es quatre-vingt, lorsque j\u2019ai commenc\u00e9 \u00e0 m\u2019int\u00e9resser \u00e0 la cr\u00e9ation ludique, les auteurs de jeux de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 connus, ou du moins reconnus, se comptaient sur les doigts d\u2019une main. David Parlett, auteur du Li\u00e8vre et La Tortue, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[464,553,463,462],"class_list":["post-10377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tonari","tag-alex-randolph","tag-friendly-fishing","tag-kwanchai-moroya","tag-tonari"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Friendly-Fishing-Cover.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2HNOP-tonari","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10377"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19345,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10377\/revisions\/19345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faidutti.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}