BGG Guide to Game Submissions | Wiki | BoardGameGeek

BGG Guide to Game Submissions

Game listings form the skeleton of the BoardGameGeek database. They are the objects around which everything else is built, and they are the primary reason that BGG exists.

Ideally every single tabletop game in existence has a listing in the BGG database so that you and others can find out what the game is, see pictures of it, read reviews about it, ask questions about it, record plays of it, and so on. We realize that this goal is impossible given that new games are created all the time and this database does not magically update itself to mirror reality — but with your help, this database can be a tiny bit more complete than it was the day before.

This guide explains in detail how to submit such game listings. Before explaining that, however, we'll first discuss which items can be added to the database, and when there is enough information to create an entry for such an item.

(Note that for the purposes of this guide, "game" refers to both games and expansions, except where noted.)

What Is a Game?

In the abstract, a game is an activity in which one or more people compete or cooperate toward a goal in which one or more of these individuals — dubbed "players" — either wins or loses. This definition includes solitaire games in which a player must make choices based on hidden information or randomized starting conditions (i.e., not puzzles) as well as solitaire dexterity games that feature an element of timed-play or scoring that allows a player to fail.

Admittedly this definition has a leaky border, and BGG admins must make judgement calls as to whether an item qualifies as a game for the purposes of inclusion in this database. Role-playing games, for example, are not included in the BGG database as they typically do not have victory or loss conditions; we catalog RPGs separately in our RPG Geek sister site. Similarly, while video games are indeed games, we catalog video games that have no physical element or components on our VideoGameGeek sister site.

For more details on whether a game is in scope for inclusion in the BGG database, please examine these Game Criteria.

How does an expansion differ from a game?

An expansion adds components to a game that change gameplay, but cannot be played on its own because you need to use components included in the standalone base game. By contrast, a scenario or variant gives players a new way to use existing components in a game, but includes no new components of its own. With two exceptions, BGG does not create listings for scenarios and variants; instead you are encouraged to post these materials in the "Variants" section of a game listing's forum or submit a file under the "Files" tab of a game listing.

Exception #1: Official non-periodical scenario bundles released by a publisher may receive an expansion entry.

Exception #2: Books released by a publisher for miniature games may receive an expansion entry, despite them having no additional components beyond the rules included in the text. (Miniature products that do not contain new rules, e.g., the miniatures themselves or books containing background material for the game's setting, are not considered expansions.)

Expansions created by fans that add game components that change gameplay must follow the Fan Expansion Guidelines.

Standalone games that may be used as an expansion for another game or as expansions for one another, e.g. Ascension: Dreamscape and Ascension: Dawn of Champions, should not be linked as expansions in the BGG database since they are each playable on their own. Instead, you should indicate their relationship to one another by using an "Integrates with" link.

In regard to collectible card games (CCGs), collectible dice games (CDGs), collectible miniature games (CMGs), and other CXGs, BGG typically creates one listing for the game as a whole and expansion listings for subsidiary products. Magic: The Gathering encompasses the entirety of MTG, whereas an item such as Magic: The Gathering – Core Set 2019 receives an expansion listing (despite being playable on its own) since it's effectively a part of the larger game. (We realize that this distinction is somewhat inconsistent with the use of "Integrates with" for standalone games sold in a non-randomized format, but this is a relic of BGG's original approach to cataloguing CXGs.)

If parts of a CXG are sold in blind packs — meaning that the contents of any particular pack are unknown - and entry is made for the expansion set (or brick, or season, or wave). If there are sets within sets, then the lowest level (i.e. the smallest set) will be used. If there are several products within such a set (a booster and a fat pack, for example), these are listed as different versions of that set.Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs. X-Men, for example, was sold as a boxed set with a predetermined set of cards and dice as well as in blind booster packs that contained two random cards and matching dice; the BGG listing for this game encompasses all of the cards and dice that comprise the entire set released under this name. Individual items from a CXG or from an expansion wave, brick, season, or set do not receive individual entries in the BGG database.

If an item can be used in a game but does not add rules or change gameplay, it is an accessory. See below for more information about accessories.

How does a compilation differ from a game?

A compilation is an item that contains two or more games or expansions in one box, specifically when those games/expansions already have individual listings in the BGG database. If a new release for a game combines the base game and one or more expansions, e.g., Hansa Teutonica: Big Box, it may receive a new listing in the BGG database, with the listing using a "Contains" link to link the existing entries for the base game and expansion(s) to the new listing.

By contrast, if a game release contains a new expansion not previously released separately, then this item should have a new listing submitted to the BGG database with a Reimplements link to the base game. (More details on both "Contains" and "Reimplements" below.)

(Note that new content does not always lead to a new game entry; see when to make a new entry for more details.)

Compilations of classic/public domain games, such as a game set containing chess, checkers, backgammon and pachisi, are out of scope for BoardGameGeek and do not receive a game listing. See Miscellaneous Game Compilation.

What is an accessory?

For the purposes of this database,accessories are items used in one or more specific games that do not add rules to the game or change its gameplay. Examples of accessories are wooden storage systems and upgraded components such as metal coins or painted miniatures. An accessory must be specific to a game to receive an entry. Accessories not specific to a game can be found in Miscellaneous Game Accessory, Miscellaneous Card Game Accessory, and Miscellaneous Miniatures Game Accessory.

Conversion kits that convert one edition of a game to another, e.g. Star Wars: X-Wing (Second Edition) – Galactic Empire Conversion Kit, are considered accessories, even if they add new rules or change gameplay. This definition also holds true for items that convert a game to a different game available separately. In general, a conversion kit contains replacement material that updates old components to new rules. Items that add only new content without revising existing material count as expansions.

What distinguishes a game system from a game?

Some games lack a proper "core" item, that is, a single product that contains all the rules and components necessary for a game and that is playable on its own. Perhaps you need several items to play the game, e.g. two different starter decks as with Brawl or Star Wars: Destiny, or perhaps several standalone products are released simultaneously, as with the initial four releases for Exceed Fighting System, any of which could serve as an entry point. For such games, BGG might establish a "game system" listing to serve as a central place for discussions for the game.

For a game system, a standalone item, e.g. Exceed: Red Horizon – Kaden, Eva, Miska, and Lily, will receive its own game listing, while an item that cannot be played on its own, e.g. Star Wars: Destiny – Boba Fett Starter Set will receive an expansion listing.

How do you know which type of listing to submit?

The when to make a new entry wiki page gives guidelines for determining when to submit a new game, expansion, or accessory listing to the BGG database.

If you would like to include a game version in your collection for something that does not usually receive a listing, such as a prototype, a game or an expansion that's part of a combined release, or a miscellaneous accessory, you may add a custom version to your collection. For details, please see this BGG thread.

When is a game ready for submission to the database?

If a game has already been published and you're holding a copy in your hands, then jump below and get started! If a publisher has announced a game and released "enough" information for you to submit a decent game listing — namely one with a description that goes beyond "Happy Funtime is a game." — then we invite you to submit a game listing. If a publisher has only teased a game, perhaps by releasing only its title or mentioning a game based on an IP without providing details, then hold off on submitting a game listing for now.

If you are the designer or publisher of a game, then we suggest you submit a game listing only when the game is 98.3% complete. More specifically, if the game is still being developed, hold off on submitting a listing because the game you describe now might differ from what the final game will be — and that can lead to sour feelings by players toward the designer or publisher for changing their mind or announcing a bad design that had to be fixed prior to publication. Better to hold off on submitting a game listing until you're only tweaking final details on cards or editing the rulebook.

How to Submit a Game Listing

Time to get to it...almost. Let's check two things first:

• If the publisher of the game is not listed in the BGG database, you should submit a publisher listing first. You cannot submit a game listing without a linked publisher, so you should submit a publisher listing prior to submitting a related game listing. Note that you can link to a pending publisher submission that hasn't yet been approved. Also, a publisher listing will not get approved until it is linked to at least one game listing, so you shouldn't wait until the publisher listing has been approved.

• Likewise, if any persons (designers, artists, developers, etc.) related to the game are not yet listed in the database, you should create person listings for them as well.

• Consider reviewing the list of pending game submissions to see whether another user has already submitted a listing for whatever game you have your eye on. If the title isn't included on that list, it's time to roll!

First, we need to open the game submission form. You can click on this link, or you can find it yourself by clicking on the Community pulldown menu at the top of the page, then clicking on Board Game under the "CONTRIBUTE" subhead.

Once you do that, you'll see the following game submission form, which is broken into three pieces so that we can cover stuff in related groups and have interludes. With that said, let's get started, examining each of the numbered sections on this form in turn:

0. Guide to Game Submissions: This link on the game submission form leads to this very page, so you're already here absorbing this info and putting it to use. Thanks!

1. Primary name

This is the title of the game, and the ideal format is "Title: Subtitle", with a colon separating the title from subtitle.

As of 2020, we are leaning away from automatically including long subtitles in the "Primary Name" field of a game listing, and we almost never want additional subtitles — but in some cases you just can't get away from them, especially when we want to disambiguate between identical names. What else are we going to label A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition) – Mother of Dragons except precisely that?

If you want to submit a "complete" name, use the "Title" or "Title: Subtitle" as the primary name, then include the "Title: Subtitle – Additional Subtitle" (with an en dash separating the subtitle from additional subtitle) in the "Note to Admin" field at the bottom of this form. We can include this "complete" name as an alternate name on the game listing while using the shorter "Title" or "Title: Subtitle" as the primary name.

If a game's title is composed solely of non-Roman/Greek/Cyrillic letter titles, we ask that a translated English title be included in parentheses after the original title. If the title is in, say, German, then leave the title in German and don't use an English title because most BGG users can type "Die enorme Fuß und die winzigen Toe" without much trouble. Typing "あ～した天気にニャ～れ!!", on the other hand, is more challenging, so here is our preferred way of listing the title of this game (depicted below): あ～した天気にニャ～れ!! (Wishing for Fine Weather!!).

If a game is released with titles in both a Romanized language and a character-based language — as with Little Town Builders, a.k.a. リトルタウンビルダーズ (depicted below) — then use "Little Town Builders" as the primary name and write in the "Note to Admin" field at the bottom of the submission Alternate title: リトルタウンビルダーズ so that an admin can add this title to the approved game listing.

For more details, see naming conventions.

2. Description

Ideally in this section you can submit a 1-4 paragraph description of the game in English written in a neutral voice that covers the game's setting, goal, and gameplay. The description for a game is the core of its entry, the foundation upon which the game is based. The description is the primary piece of information used to compare game entries and determine whether one game is the same as another.

In general, your goal is to describe the game in enough detail that the description wouldn't fit another game while not going into so much detail that you're describing the entirety of the game. By covering the setting, you tell us our role in the game world; by explaining the goal, you tell us what we're trying to do in this world; and by describing the gameplay, you tell us how to move toward achieving that goal. That sounds abstract and clinical, but your description doesn't have to come across that way. Feel free to include personality in the description, but keep away from marketing talk — "a minute to learn, a lifetime to master", "fun for the whole family" — and other nonsense like that.

If nothing else is handy, go ahead and use the description from the publisher, but please include a ''—description from the publisher'' footer (with the double apostrophes creating italic text in the wiki) and remove fluff sentences that relate more to selling the game than describing it.

Do not include a list of components in the description as components do not describe a game. Instead, wait until the game listing is approved, then add the component list to the "Community Wiki" section of the game listing near the bottom of the main page.

If you submit descriptions along the following lines, your submission will likely be declined or returned to you for revision:

A link to an external site.A stub submission of only 1-2 lines.Copy from a press release that speaks only to theme, with no information about what players do when playing the game.A non-English description. You can include a description in a non-English language (typically that of the designer or publisher), but include it below the English-language description and separate it from the former with •••.

Note that BGG staff might create a "stub" game listing that contains scant details about a game, but that's because (1) we're probably linking to the game in a news post and (2) we intend to follow up with more details once the publisher pushes out info. Yes, we sometimes break our own rules, but that's because we want to share info on games we know are coming!

Further information on this topic awaits at Game Description Guidelines

3. Short description

BGG introduced short descriptions in May 2020, and they will be used in many locations throughout the site to give users a taste of what the game is about (example below).

The short take on short descriptions is that you should write a sentence of at most 85 characters that attempts to convey the essence of this game. Do NOT use a subtitle or tagline from the box. Use punctuation and normal capitalization, and write in English. Omit the name of the game. (Exception: Expansions or spin-offs may mention the parent if it is not obvious from the item name.) Some examples of what not to do and what's better:

❌ "Crazy card-driven Viking battle game."❌ "Viking Blood is for anyone who wants to experience Ragnarök!"✅ Better: "Ragnarök has come! Secure your place in Valhalla in epic Viking battles."

❌ "A Deck-building adventure."❌ "A card-drafting deck-building push-your-luck fantasy adventure game!" (Don't just list mechanisms or categories.)✅ Better: "Push-your-luck to avoid waking the dragon while you steal his gold."

❌ "A promo card for Dominion."✅ Better: "Promo card that reveals the top three cards of the Black Market deck." (The base game is usually in the expansion name.)

❌ "Monsters, monsters, and more monsters!"❌ "An H.P. Lovecraft based horror game."✅ Better: "An unknown Elder God approaches the world—and you must solve mysteries to stop it."

❌ "Who will be victorious as the tide of battle sweeps across Europe?"✅ Better: "A strategic-level block wargame simulating World War II in Europe." (As the "documentaries" of the game world, historical wargames along with other heavier games may get more factual short descriptions.)

Further descriptions of how to write short descriptions can be found in this post.

4. Year released

List the year in which the game was first available for purchase through retail outlets. It doesn't matter if the game was released in a physical form or digitally.In practice, this means that we ignore situations where a smaller group of people gets the game earlier than the general release, through buying advance copies at a convention, pre-ordering or crowdfunding. Likewise, if there was a small self-published edition of a game before it was picked up by a major publisher, we will usually use the year of the major release for this field.

Obviously, when there was no such general release, the above does not apply. In that case, the year listed in this field should be the first availability of a game to people not involved with its creation, e.g., the date of a game purchased in advance at a convention or received through the fulfillment of a Kickstarter campaign.

If you do not know when this game was published (or will be published), this field should be left blank - there is no need to go guessing at the date.

5. Minimum and maximum players

In general, these fields are easy to complete because you can look at the box or publisher's website or retailer listing and see this information.

That said, the question isn't always clear because sometimes that information changes from one version to another, or from one publisher to another. When Uberplay released its version of For Sale, it added more components so that up to six people could play whereas the original edition maxed out at five players. Some versions of Puerto Rico include rules for playing with two, whereas the earliest editions allowed for only 3-5 players. What to do, what to do? We tend to allow for the widest range of players possible because even if your particular copy of PR doesn't have two-player rules, you can probably find rules to make it happen.

Additional complications: If a game is for 2 or 4 players but not for 3, we can't indicate that easily in our fields. Use the minimum and maximum numbers in the form, then note the player count restrictions in the game description. If a game is listed for "2+ players", meaning "any integer greater than 1", then use "99" as the maximum player count.

6. Minimum age

Again, this field seems easy, but different publishers have different standards. Many publishers in the U.S., for example, adopt a minimum age of 13+ or 14+ so that they don't have to undergo expensive CPSIA tests required for children's products even though a game labeled for ages 10+ is by no means a children's product! In these cases, we again tend to go for whatever the widest range is, working under the assumption that kids in Europe and Asia aren't that much smarter than kids in the U.S.

7. Minimum and maximum playing time

Once again, look to the box for such numbers. If only one value is given for a playing time, please place that number in both fields since the advanced search function on BGG lets you specify only one of them when conducting a search.

If a game lists a playing time of "30 minutes per player", please do the math and insert the low and high range in the submission form.

8. Category and mechanism

For these two areas, click on the link and choose whatever is appropriate on the lists presented. We know that BGG sometimes blurs categories and mechanisms in these lists, but that's a residue of twenty years of systematic changes in how we record information. (BGG vastly expanded the mechanisms it catalogs in 2019 as explained here and here.)

9. Family

For many games, you can search for reasonable sounding families and often find ones that already exist in the database: families related to themes, genres, history, countries and cities, animals, professions, movies, videos, and authors, and on and on and on.

10. Expands

Use this field if the item you're submitting is an expansion for an existing game and is not itself a standalone game. This last bit is important because when something is categorized as an expansion, then it cannot be ranked in the BGG system, no matter how many ratings it has. (We removed expansions from the rankings some years ago because expansions are nearly always rated higher than the base games. After all, if you hate the base game or are even indifferent to it, you'll likely avoid the expansion, which means that an expansion is played mostly by those who are more prone to like it.)

Note: The "expands" line should show all the items you need to have to fully use the expansion in question.Therefore an expansion to expansion would include the base game as well as the required expansion(s).

11. Integrates with

If a game is a standalone game, yet also serves as an expansion for another game (with that game likewise serving as an expansion for the title being added, as with the Ascension and Smash Up game families), then link to those integrable titles here.

Note that when you create an "Integrates with:" link on one game listing, a comparable link is automatically created on the connected game listing, so you don't need to submit changes to that listing in order to exhibit their two-way relationship.

12. Contains

This field is meant for products that contain multiple products that also have been released separately, such as 'Hansa Teutonica: Big Box, which differs from the Hansa Teutonica base game in that it includes all of the existing expansions. It can also be used for items that contain multiple games, such as . In this field, you can link all the products that are contained in this new product.

The contains field should not be used when a stand-alone game comes with promo material for another game, such as the 2014 release, which Lords of Xidit is packaged with two bonus cards for Seasons, a separate game set in the same world.

In general, a product that "contains" other products is excluded from the BGG rankings, as these games are already represented in the rankings by their existing entries, though exceptions are made for products that were "split" after their intial, combined release.

13. Reimplements

Is the game that you're submitting a new version of a previously released game and (this is the important part) the designer or publisher has stated this directly? The 2014 release Rattlebones plays very much like a Dominion with dice, and Rattlebones designer Stephen Glenn has stated that he was inspired by Dominion for this design, but in no way would we list Rattlebones as a reimplementation of Dominion.

More recently, the 2019 title Nova Luna is based on the 2016 title Habitats, with Habitats designer Corné van Moorsel bearing a co-designer credit on Nova Luna and the link between the two games being described in the Nova Luna rulebook, so BGG users a reimplementation link to connect these two designs and show their relationship to one another.

If, however, a designer or publisher has received a license, explicit permission, or endorsement from the designer/publisher of the older game, then we will list a new game as reimplementing an older one, as is the case with Dinosaur Tea Party, which is a licensed new version of the older game Whosit?. For this reason, BGG does not use a "reimplements" link to connect a public domain game with a new release (since no permission can be obtained).

A design that expands an earlier game or that integrates with an earlier game is not considered to reimplement it; please use the "Expands" or "Integrates with:" links instead.

14. People

Click on each link in these fields, find the appropriate person or people, then click on those names to add them to this game listing.

If you can't find their names, you are welcome to submit them to the BGG database. You can submit these names before or after the game listing, and you can link to pending designer/artist submissions that haven't yet been approved. (In the latter case, you may need to wait 5-10 minutes for the internal cache to register the initial submission before you can link to it in another submission.)

Only people that are actually credited in the game's rulebook or on the game's components should be added to the listing. If a designer or artist is uncredited, you can type "Uncredited" in this field, then choose "(Uncredited)" from the returned search results. For the other roles, only do this if you are sure there is an uncredited person involved (for example, not every game has miniatures, so there would not be an uncredited sculptor for such a game.

In general, we do not distinguish between how much or how little different designers and artists contributed to a game, listing their names in alphabetical order by family name. By request, we can tag one or more people as the primary contributors, which will place their names first on the listing with everyone else under a "+#" link, e.g. Betrayal Legacy.

15. Publisher

As with the section above, search for the publisher or publishers responsible for this game and click on them.

If a publisher is not listed, you should submit the publisher to the BGG database. You cannot submit a game listing without a linked publisher, so you should submit a publisher listing prior to submitting a related game listing. Note that you can link to a pending publisher submission that hasn't yet been approved.

If a game is available as downloadable content and not associated with a publisher, choose Web published for the publisher. If a game is released in a physical form by a designer and the designer lacks a publishing brand or identity, choose Self-published for the publisher. If the self-publisher does have a publishing brand, then use that brand instead of Self-published or Web published; do not list both.This same reasoning applies when a game has been published with the help of a service like The Game Crafter or Lulu. If a game is self-published through such a service without a publishing brand, then these services may be listed as the publisher. (In such cases, do not add self-published or web-published.)

If a published game does not have any indication of who published it, you can select "Unknown" as the publisher. If a game is added ahead of publication, and the publisher is not yet know or announced, you can use "Looking for publisher" as the publisher. You should not use these values when the publisher is known but not in our database - in such cases, you should first add the publisher to our database, as described above.

As with designers and artists, we can tag one or more publishers as the primary drivers for the release of a game, which will place their names first on the listing with everyone else under a "+#" link. Carcassonne, for example, has its publishers listed as "Hans im Glück + 34 more". German publisher Hans im Glück was the originating publisher for this design, so we want to recognize it as such in the BGG database. If you like this game, then you might want to investigate other designs from Hans im Glück to see whether those games might also be to your taste.

16. Version Information

Versions were added to the BGG database in 2009, and the goal behind listing them is to allow you to track exactly which version of a game you own, to indicate which version you're selling in the marketplace (although doing so is optional), and to compare the images for this or that version that's been released over the years.

A version is an edition of the game that's available to the public in some manner, whether as a manufactured product, a print-and-play version of the design's rules and components, or a set of rules published on a website. A prototype does not count as a version.

What's the difference between a version of an existing game and a new game? It's a fine line, and something that's tough to define, although some BGG admins have tried to do so in lengthy detail. As mentioned above, Uberplay's For Sale that allows up to six players is listed as a new version of the original Ravensburger For Sale, even though the component counts differ, but Game of Thrones: Westeros Intrigue is listed as a separate game from Penguin even though they're arguably more similar than the two For Sales. We accept that we're inconsistent and will undoubtedly stay that way, as noted in a [blogpost=28064 February 2014 BGG News post], but we also apologize for the confusion. We do what we can.

Sometimes multiple versions of a game are announced at the same time, say, a German version from Hans im Glück and an English one from Z-Man Games. That's where the "Clone This" link at the upper right comes in. You can first add whatever information is the same for both versions of the game (box size, year of release, artist, etc.), then click "Clone This" to create a second version listing with all the info that you've already entered, then you can finish each version listing with information unique to that version (publisher, language, release date, etc.) The "Add Another" link works similarly, but copies none of the information that you've entered.

For further information on versions, please consult theVersion Guidelines.

17. Version nickname

We have guidelines for how to name versions (and do many other things), but nicknames tend to be all over the place.

In general, we prefer a format of "(language) edition" or "(language)/(second language) edition" or (when more than two languages are involved) "(abbreviated language)/(abbreviated language)/(abbreviated language) edition", e.g. "EN/FR/GE edition", but many other combinations exist. These version nicknames are used in places such as convention previews, so including the language is helpful information for potential players.

18. & 19. Version publisher and Version artist

Search for and click on the appropriate names for these fields based on whatever version you are currently entering.

20. Year published

This field should show the year in which this version was released. See therelease date for details.

21. Product code

Most publishers use a code — a series of numbers or letters or combination of both — to designate each title they release. They do this because manufacturers, distributors, and retailers want to use standardized codes to prefer to product instead of names that sometimes have to be parsed to determine exactly what one is talking about. Do you mean Risk: The Lord of the Rings or Risk: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition? Which chapter pack for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game did a customer order: A Time of Trials or A Time for Wolves?This field should not be used for the item's ISBN or ASIN.

22. Dimensions

You can choose one of the preset sizes commonly used by publishers, or you can enter the exact dimensions yourself.

In the latter case, enter the largest dimension as the length, the next largest as the width, and the smallest dimension as the depth. Yes, one box might have a portrait view and another a landscape view, but (1) you can see how the art looks from the box cover image and (2) if you consistently list dimensions from large to small, you can more easily imagine how one box size compares to another.

Additionally, note that the default for this field is inches. To submit lengths in centimeters, choose this option from the pulldown menu.

23. Weight

Note that the default weight is pounds; use the pulldown menu to choose kilograms.

24. Languages

Click on the link, then select the language(s) to match the rules included in the game. If a publisher has posted, say, Portuguese rules for a game on its website but doesn't include these rules in the box, do not choose "Portuguese" for this version listing.

Don't see the language you need? Include a note to the admin with your suggestion. We've added Bulgarian, Vietnamese, Esperanto, and many other languages to the database to accommodate game submissions, but the request to add a language should be connected with a game submission, not made independently.

25. Release date

List the date on which the game was first available for purchase through retail outlets. In practice, this means that we ignore situations where a smaller group of people gets the game earlier than the general release, through buying advance copies at a convention, pre-ordering or crowdfunding.

Obviously, when there was no such general release, the above does not apply. In that case, the release date should be the first availability of a game to people not involved with its creation, e.g., the date of a game purchased in advance at a convention or received through the fulfillment of a Kickstarter campaign.In such cases, the release date of a version may be before the "Year released" listed in the header.

If you do not know when this version was published (or will be published), this field should be left blank - there is no need to go guessing at the date.

For the release date, if you have only the year, use the pulldown menu to put in the proper year; if you know the month as well, use that pulldown menu; if you know the precise day, add that detail, too. If instead you know only a range of months — say, "Jul/Aug 2015" — or the quarter — e.g., "Q3 2015" — that a game is due out, then use the "custom override" box and put that date information in place.Entering Month/Year or D/M/Y will make this data available to the Gone Cardboard section on BGG's main page.

Do not use a season in the release date, such as "Spring 2020". That term means sometime between late March and late June 2020 for those in the northern hemisphere and late September to late December 2020 for someone in the southern hemisphere — which is probably not what the publisher had in mind. If a publisher insists upon using seasonal release dates for some bizarre reason, then translate those seasons for version listings on BGG: Spring = Q2, Summer = Q3, Fall/Autumn = Q4, and Winter = Q1 — assuming that the publisher is in the northern hemisphere, mind you.

26. Release comment

Use this section to note extra details about a game's release, such as "Debuting at Gen Con 2015" or "Releasing in Europe in Aug 2015 & in North America in Oct 2015", to help other users know when they might be able to play the game in question or get their hands on it.

27. Release status

Is a game available to the public at large? If so, it's "released"; if not, it's "unreleased". A game sold via crowdfunding or at a convention is not considered released unless the game won't have a retail release.

28. Pre-order type

If a publisher is running a crowdfunding campaign for a game or taking pre-orders through its own website prior to a game's release, click the pulldown menu to choose the appropriate type of pre-order.

If you complete this field and the next three pre-order fields, then a pre-order link will show in the "Official Links" section beneath the game's description (as shown below); if one of these fields is left incomplete, then no such link will appear.

Filling out these fields will also allow the version to show up in the Crowdfunding Countdown on BGG's main page.

29. Pre-order URL

Use the URL of the crowdfunding project or the publisher's website where pre-orders are being taken. (We treat crowdfunding projects the same as pre-orders because from our point of view they function the same way: You pay money in advance of the game being available with the expectation of receiving the game at a later date.)

30. Pre-order start date and Pre-order end date

Complete both of these fields — all six pulldown menus — in order for the pre-order link to appear on the game page itself. No, six pulldown menus is not ideal, but that's what we have.

31. Note to admin

Use this space for whatever material can't be included in the fields above, including material that supports the existence of the game you are submitting: a URL to an announcement on a publisher's website or a designer's Twitter feed or a retailer's game page; alternate names in different languages since you can submit only one name for the game; additional details about the release date; a note that you've submitted listings for the designer or publisher separately; how this game differs from a similar game already listed in the database; and so on.

If you are the designer or publisher of the game that you are submitting, please let us know! Then if we have questions about the listing, we know exactly the person to contact for answers.

When including a link to an image, thread, game entry, etc., please include the entire link so that it is clickable rather than the ID number of the item, e.g., write "https://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/265476/monopoly" rather than "Image 265476".

32. Save

Yes, we're finally there. Smash that button!

What Happens to Submitted Game Listings?

Once you submit a game listing, the name of that submission will appear in the "pending board games" queue. At some point a BGG admin will review the submission, then they will approve the submission as is; skip over the submission because they have only a few minutes between other tasks and aren't clear whether they can approve this or not; add information based on what they've seen somewhere; send you questions to clarify the listing; or decline the submission for a reason they will explain in a note to you. Whatever happens, you will receive a GeekMail letting you know the new status of your submitted game listing.

In general, game submissions are approved from one hour to two weeks after being submitted. The response time varies depending on many factors, but as a rule, the more complete the game submission, the faster it will be approved. Sometimes a publisher announces a new game, for example, and a user submits a listing with nothing more than a name, a linked publisher, and a few lines of description; such a submission will likely sit in the queue for a while in the hope that a more complete submission will appear.

In most cases, the game listing will be approved first, then any related designer/artist/publisher listings will be approved later by a separate admin. Once a game listing is approved, you can then submit images, files, web links, forum posts, and so on. For information on how to do so, please see these wiki pages:

If approved, your game listing will join more than 130,000 others in the database (as of November 2020), and in most cases it will barely be seen again, at least by the majority of the people who use the site. For some users, though, they will carefully monitor the page, possibly even subscribing to it so that they can answer rules questions or see what reviewers have to say. Every game is somebody's baby...