The best games from Matthew Dunstan 🇦🇺👨 2026

Next Station: London invites players to take on the role of project managers tasked with the ambitious job of redesigning London's iconic underground network. The game challenges players to strategically optimize connections, incorporate as many of the city's landmarks as possible, and efficiently use the tunnels under the Thames, all while adhering to the city's specific requirements.

The Guild of Merchant Explorers is a unique and engaging strategy game that blends exploration with city-building elements. Players begin with a single city on their personal map and must skillfully expand their territory by placing cubes based on terrain cards drawn from a shuffled deck. The game emphasizes strategic planning and adaptability, with players aiming to efficiently complete areas, connect cities, and maximize their score through various means.

Large predators hunt smaller ones, but they are quick and can easily escape. Use your animal instincts to outsmart other players and discover which animals they send on the hunt. The first player to collect 5 food tokens is crowned the king of prey!

Explore locations, combine items, and experience stories in this cooperative game series by KOSMOS. Players encounter a mysterious narrative that unfolds as they communicate, search for clues, and collaborate to unravel the story's secrets. The gameplay emphasizes storytelling and exploration without time pressure, allowing for multiple pathways and solutions across three chapters, each lasting about 75 minutes.

Enter the world of Bubble Stories through two adventures where players are the heroes. Explore new locations by flipping cards to discover what lies ahead and uncover hidden treasures at the end of each journey. In the first scenario, search for friends in school, visiting places like the classroom, playground, or gym to complete your quest.

Travel to the Japanese city of Tokyo and compete to redesign its subway plans for the challenges of tomorrow. In each round, reveal the next station card and draw a subway line on your map. Optimize your network to collect as many stamps as possible while staying connected to the central green loop for maximum points.

Explore locations, combine items, and experience stories in this cooperative game series from the German publisher KOSMOS. Players are presented with a mysterious narrative that they must unravel through collaboration, discovering clues, and making choices that affect the story’s outcome. Unlike the EXIT: Das Spiel series, this game emphasizes storytelling and exploration without the pressure of time, allowing for multiple paths and solutions across its three chapters, each lasting about 75 minutes.

Players awaken in a medieval prison cell with no memory of how they got there. They must explore, combine items, and face strange creatures lurking in the old castle's dark rooms over three chapters. The game encourages cooperative storytelling and discovery without the pressure of time, allowing for multiple pathways and solutions. Each title features three chapters, each taking about 75 minutes to play, and can be replayed without damage.

In a distant future, civilization lies in ruins, and the echoes of the past conceal the tragic tale of its downfall. Players collaborate in a cooperative audio puzzle game, using a free app to listen to mysterious sounds and voices linked to game components. The goal is to piece together 24 parts of the story in the correct order, uncovering clues from the echoes to solve the mystery.

Players investigate strange events in an old building, taking on roles within a team to follow clues and shape the adventure. They explore locations, combine items, and unravel a mysterious story together. Unlike timed escape room games, this series emphasizes storytelling and discovery at a leisurely pace, with multiple pathways and solutions available. Each game comprises three chapters, each lasting about 75 minutes, and can be replayed without damage to the components.

Snap, twist, and have fun! In Light & Dark, two players compete to see if they can turn druids to the side of light or darkness. Flick druid discs across the table to try to convert your opponent's druids, or light and extinguish torches to win the game.

You’ve just received your new bookshelf, and now it’s time to display your favorite items: books, board games, portraits, and more. Players must take 1, 2, or 3 item tiles from a communal table, ensuring they are adjacent and have at least one free side at the start of their turn.

The spirit of a young girl haunts a Scottish mansion, and the echoes of the past hide the secret of her death. Players collaborate using a free app to listen to mysterious sounds and voices associated with the game components. Their task is to piece together 24 parts of the story in the correct order, using objects and the corresponding echoes to uncover clues and solve the mystery.

The New York underworld is concocting dark plans in an illegal bar, with echoes from the past hiding the identity of its leader. Players must discover this identity through a cooperative audio puzzle game. Using a free app, players listen to mysterious sounds and voices linked to game materials, searching for clues to piece together the story in the correct order.

Welcome to a magical kingdom where a brave princess, a devoted knight, and a fearsome dragon seek adventure. Players help them explore and fulfill their destinies by placing new land tiles and moving characters through mountains, forests, and plains. Complete the tasks in your storybook, and the first to read all the pages wins.

In the jungle of Costa Rica, players take on the role of explorers collecting rare and exotic animals to protect them from poachers while navigating diverse terrains and the constant threat of mosquitoes. Collecting as many specimens of one species is valuable, but having one of each species can also be advantageous. Each turn, players must decide whether to leave the expedition to gather encountered animals or to stay with the group for the chance to collect more later.

Life continues undisturbed in the sleepy English countryside. Players traverse the land with railway lines, connecting villages and managing the evolving demands of rural communities. They must strategically place stations and signals while balancing the quirky requests of the locals against limited resources in this challenging tableau-building card game.

Explore locations, combine items, and experience stories in this series of cooperative games from the German publisher KOSMOS. Players unravel a mysterious narrative through collaboration, investigating shared areas, interacting with characters, and searching for clues. Unlike the EXIT: The Game series, the focus here is on storytelling without time pressure, allowing for multiple pathways and resolutions to each story. Each title consists of three chapters, lasting about 75 minutes each, and can be replayed without any destruction of game materials. In this installment, immerse yourself in Crime Noir as you investigate, find clues, and engage with the characters you encounter.

Which Egyptian dynasty will be the most glorious? Players will pray to the gods to build monuments in their honor, ensuring their dynasty has a legacy for millennia. The game transports 2 to 5 players to ancient Egypt, where they create a necropolis filled with pyramids, obelisks, and tombs, selecting the best combinations of stones and arranging them for optimal glory.

In the world of international espionage, effective paths for mission completion are crucial. Players travel across Europe to complete their missions as quickly as possible, building routes between depicted locations. Expanding their limited network requires careful planning, as players must remove markers from one area to grow in another. The first to complete seven missions wins.

Linn and Leo from the popular true-crime podcast guide players through a real case from 1840, attempting to unravel the murder of Lord Russell. This cooperative audio crime game uses a free app that allows players to listen to mysterious sounds and voices linked to card motifs. Together, they arrange the 24 parts of the story in the correct order to solve the case.

Elysium is a strategy game set in Mythic Greece, where players take on the roles of demigods striving to gain the favor of the Olympian gods and earn their place in legends.