Going Analog Podcast (Going Analog)

Our friend James Hudson, head of Druid City Games and the tabletop division of Skybound Games, joins us to revisit ethics in board game media, as well as answer the many questions we throw at him. Plus Christina asks how ugly game art happens, Shoe discusses the importance of story in games that don’t center around story, and Mike shares some of his favorite board game influencers.

Games we discussed -

Famed board game designer Dr. Reiner Knizia (Tigris & Euphrates, Lost Cities, Modern Art, and tons more) graces Going Analog with his bowtied presence. (You won't be able to hear the bowtie, but trust us that it was there, and it was glorious!)

We ask Reiner for some juicy stories about some of his most acclaimed designs and what he thinks about current board game trends...and then we spring a trivia quiz on him at the end -- just a sampling of what we do on The Board Game Quiz Show.

How well did the good doctor do? Listen to find out!

Games mentioned in this episode:

Intro:

• Tigris & Euphrates
• Modern Art
• Ra
• Ingenious
• Lost Cities
• The Quest for El Dorado
• L.L.A.M.A.
• Ankh: Gods of Egypt
• Dominion
• Magic: The Gathering
• Coffee Roaster

Three influential Reiner Knizia games:

• Modern Art
• Tigris & Euphrates
• Lost Cities
• Pickomino
• Lost Cities: Roll & Write
• Lost Cities: The Board Game
• Keltis

Gaming trends:

• The Quest for El Dorado
• My City
• Dominion
• Lost Cities: Roll & Write
• Criss Cross
• Exit
• Gorilla Marketing

Quizzing Reiner Knizia:

• Lost Cities
• Tigris & Euphrates
• Medici
• Taj Mahal
• The Lord of the Rings
• Ra
• Blue Moon
• Blue Lagoon
• Friday the 13th

David Sirlin, President of Sirlin Games, drops by to do a deep dive into video game influences on his tabletop designs, especially with the new Puzzle Strike 2! We also discuss how push-your-luck mechanisms and designing a board game universe.

Our chosen topics this week:

• David Sirlin (guest): How his game design draws from video game influences
• Christina (host): Push-your-luck in game design and some favorites in that genre
• Shoe (producer): Building a board game universe

Peter C. Hayward (founder of Blue Beard & Jellybean Games and designer of quirky games like Scuttle!, The Lady and the Tiger, and the upcoming That Time You Killed Me and Robotopia) joins Christina and Shoe to gush about so many mutually favorite games!

Topics this episode:

• Shoe (producer): What are some of your favorite board games that feature robots?
• Christina (guest): Which game do you secretly wish you had designed?
• Peter (guest): What have different games done with the worker-placement mechanic?

Prolific content creator/streamer Banzainator joins Christina and Shoe to talk what we love best: video and board games! What do we like better...and when? Also why do we keep going back to co-op games when...we think we don't really like them all that much? What types of games break through that barrier for us? Listen for fun times!

Timeline:

• 3:38 - Banz's game pick: Mice & Mystics.
• 10:15 - Going Analog's game pick: The Castles of Burgundy: Special Edition (w/ Vineyards Expansion).
• 17:48 - Going Analog's topic: board games vs video games.
• 29:32 - Banz's topic: co-op games, why we don't like them, why we still play them.

Anna Kipnis (ex-Double Fine) joins us to discuss games with uniquely human interactions, while Nick shares his favorite modern pub games, Christina highlights games that reveal players’ personalities, Shoe muses on how working in video games has influenced our board game preferences.

Games we discussed:

Designer Nikki Valens (Legacy of Dragonholt, Eldritch Horror, Quirky Circuits) drops by Going Analog again to discuss recent favorite co-op games, crafting mechanisms, and their latest project, the ambitious co-op, campaign-based Artisans of Splendent Vale.

Plus, which designers and artists would we pair together for our ultimate game-design dream teams?

Games mentioned on this show:

Intro:

• Eldritch Horror
• Mansions of Madness
• Arkham Horror
• Legacy of Dragonholt
• Quirky Circuits
• Artisans of Splendent Vale
• MicroMacro: Crime City
• Nemesis
• Grand Austria Hotel

Christina's topic: Recent co-op faves

• The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
• The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
• Forgotten Waters
• Shipwreck Arcana
• Team3
• Gloomhaven
• Artisans of Splendent Vale
• Sleeping Gods
• The Night Cage

Nikki's topic: Crafting examples in games

• Caverna: The Cave Farmers
• Descent: Legends of the Dark
• Le Havre
• Artisans of Splendent Vale
• Star Wars: Imperial Assault
• Mottainai

Shoe's topic: Board game design dream teams

• Caverna: The Cave Farmers
• Le Havre
• Feast for Odin
• Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef
• Wonderland's War
• Descent: Legends of the Dark
• Mansions of Madness
• Wingspan
• Mariposas

Euros, Euros, and gyros! We love a good Euro-style strategy game, but we couldn't cover all the great releases this year in just one podcast. Especially when we're chatting with fellow enthusiast Daniel Wahlen of The Game Table -- we just have so much to talk about! So in part one, we cover some fantastic remakes and sequels to some legendary classics.

(And yes, we did pause during one of our Euro gaming days to eat some gyros....)

Timeline:

• 3:12 - Age of Innovation.
• 18:13 - Bruxelles 1893: Belle Époque.
• 33:19 - Zhanguo: The First Empire.
• 43:22 - Other fantastic remakes/sequels! (Great Western Trails, Stefan Feld City Collection, Ultimate Railroads, The Castles of Burgundy...)

We're slamming the door on 2021 and looking forward to the new year! Older games we're itching to get to the table, long-awaited games we're anxiously waiting for, and neglected shelf-of-opportunity games that are finally coming due -- we bring back prolific content creator Ruel Gaviola to talk about them all!

Topics this week:

• Shoe (producer): Which older games are we excited to get to the table this year?
• Christina (host): Which 2022 games are we excited to play?
• Ruel (guest): Which games are you pulling off the shelf of shame/opportunity this year?

We have prolific content creator and Twitch streamer Beneeta Kaur on the show to trade opinions on our favorite expansions and underrated card games. And if you want to become our board game BFF, we discuss what qualities we value in a good gaming partner.

Timeline:

• 3.46 - Shoe's game pick: Earth.
• 8:47 - Beneeta's game pick: Mille Fiori.
• 12:51 - Christina's game pick: Rolling Heights.
• 16:22 - Shoe's topic: Our favorite underrated card games.
• 38:02 - Christina's topic: What makes a good gaming friend?
• 50:46 - Beneeta's topic: Great expansions.

Publisher Bitewing Games has a thing for designer Reiner Knizia (most recently with Zoo Vadis and the Mythos Collection's Illiad and Ichor). Now they're back at it with a new three-part, big-box, Knizia-palooza Kickstarter campaign. We had the opportunity to play one of those parts, SILOS (Secret Interlopers from Outer Space), a retro sci-fi (with cows!) rethemed version of Municipium...and we instantly fell in love. So we invited Bitewing founders Nick Murray and Kyle Spackman to chat about SILOS, other great area-control games, and board game series and franchises.

Timeline:

• 3:25 - Going Analog's game pick: Magic Maze Tower.
• 11:22 - Bitewing's game pick: Moonrollers.
• 19:48 - Going Analog's topic: SILOS and other great area-control games.
• 47:57 - Bitewing's topic: gaming series and franchies.

• Christina (host): Our favorite animal-themed games (10:36)
• Mike (editor): Board gaming as a lifestyle (19:59)
• Matt (guest): The rising prices of board games and their implications (32:27)

Kellen Laker, Red Tank from the popular podcast Board Game Barrage, joins Christina and Shoe to discuss Innovation and...fine, some games other than Innovation, too. 

Plus, we're old hands at gaming these days, so what do we try to keep in mind when introducing brand spanking newbies to tabletop games? And what stands out to us as the best marketing we've seen in the board game biz?

Topics this week:

• Christina (host): Which games do you consider your favorite "Forever Games"?
• Kellen (guest): Maintaining perspective when introducing new gamers to the hobby
• Shoe (producer): What are some examples of the coolest game marketing you've seen?

Things are a mess around the world, but many of us are just starting to socialize again. So what will we be playing first with our long-lost gaming buddies?

The prolific Jonathan Cox from JonGetsGames joins us to discuss this and more. Our chosen topics:

• Christina Ha (host): What board games are you most excited to play with your friends, post-lockdown? (2:24)
• Jonathan Cox (guest): How do we define "elegant design," and what are our favorite examples? (17:20)
• Mike Zipkin (editor): What difficulties are there in making board games media a full-time job? (35:28)

The games mentioned in this episode:

Christina's topic: Games you're excited to get to, post-quarantine

• Beyond the Sun
• Lost Ruins of Arnak
• Taxi Derby
• Fast and Furious: Highway Heist
• Ginkgopolis
• Anno 1800
• Trans-Siberian Railroad
• Irish Gauge
• Iberian Gauge
• 18XX
• Ticket to Ride
• Paris Connection
• Praga Caput Regni
• Telestrations
• Dixit

Jonathan's topic: Elegance in game design

• Taxi Derby
• Go
• Azul
• Gentes
• Concordia
• Calimala
• Hansa Teutonica
• Wingspan
• Pandemic Legacy
• A Feast for Odin
• Terraforming Mars
• Coloretto
• Arboretum
• Isle of Skye
• Tichu
• City of the Big Shoulders
• Whale Riders
• Irish Gauge
• Iberian Gauge
• Ride the Rails

Mike's topic: Board game content creation

• Ginkgopolis

Final thoughts

• Genotype

Ten years ago, your Going Analog hosts Christina and Shoe were obsessed with the digital collectible card game SolForge. Sadly, the daily (and nightly) sessions of lane-based combat mixed with a revolutionary upgradable-card system went away when the game eventually sunsetted (solsetted?). But, Richard Garfield (Magic: The Gathering, Android Netrunner) and Justin Gary (Ascension, Shards of Infinity) knew their co-design still had some...ahem, magic to it, so they revived it via Kickstarter as a tabletop experience, SolForge Fusion.

Now SolForge is full-circling its career by returning to its original format. This time, however, the new digital game will work with its physical counterpart on a truly ambitious new platform.

We chat with Richard and Justin about SolForge and SolForge Fusion's interesting journey, with its ups and downs and ups again -- and what fans can expect from the franchise moving forward. 

Timeline:

• 3:32 - Going Analog's game pick: Critter Kitchen.
• 6:36 - Richard & Justin's pick: Dominion.
• 13:01 - Richard & Justin & Going Analog's combo topic: SolForge's journey from digital to physical and back to digital.

Sometimes substantive board game discussion topics are tiring. And pretty much all the time, we play a lot of new games. So this episode, Shoe and Christina just talk about some new, sexy games in a variety of sizes. HOT!

Timeline:

• 3:19 - Christina's big game: Mosaic: A Story of Civilization.
• 13:05 - Shoe's big game: Marvel: Age of Heroes.
• 26:58 - Christina's small game: Fiction.
• 35:18 - Shoe's small game: Marvel: Damage Control.
• 43:05 - Christina's expansion: QE: Commodities.
• 48:00 - Shoe's expansion: Unmatched: Houdini vs. The Genie.

How should game publishers and designers respond to recent political events? We also talk about premium components (the business behind them and how we do our own upgrading) and reissued/remade games like King of Tokyo Dark and Kemet: Blood and Sand.

James Hudson, senior director of tabletop gaming at Skybound Games (Sorcerer City, Superfight, Tidal Blades) joins us this week for this discussion.

Here's a full list of games discussed on the show:

Intro

• The Grimm Masquerade
• Guardian's Call
• Sorcerer City
• Wonderland's War
• Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef

Christina's topic: How should game publishers respond to calls for more inclusiveness vs. "less politics" in games?

• Dead of Winter
• Summoner Wars
• Bloodstone
• The Grimm Forest
• Guardian's Call

Shoe's topic: Board game remakes...do you buy them?

• Dune
• King of Tokyo
• King of Tokyo: Dark
• Kemet
• Kemet: Blood and Sand
• Caylus
• Caylus 1303
• Tribune
• Last Bastion
• Ghost Stories
• The Castles of Burgundy
• Carpe Diem
• Egizia
• Egizia: Shifting Sands
• Tokaido

Mike's topic: What are some premium upgrades you've personally added to games?

• The Castles of Burgundy
• The Estates
• Blood Rage
• Rising Sun
• Concordia
• The Grimm Forest
• Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game
• Chaos in the Old World
• Dune
• Crusaders
• The Crew

James's topic: Deluxe components from the manufacturer's perspective

• The Grimm Forest
• Sorcerer City
• Zombicide
• B-Sieged
• Copenhagen
• Ticket to Ride
• Blood Rage
• Gloomhaven
• Gùgōng
• Bloodstone
• Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef
• Valor & Villainy
• Pebble Rock Delivery Service

Final thoughts

• The King's Dilemma
• Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
• Lords of Vegas
• Star Trek: Ascendancy
• Twilight Imperium

The Going Analog gang has recovered from their Vegas trip to Dice Tower West. So how does this convention stack up to their other faves? What did they play? And how's the new remake of one of their fave board games?

Topics this week:

• Christina (host): Our highlights from Dice Tower West and our tips for attending a convention (11:01)
• Jess (contributor): Comparing our favorite board game cons (23:35)
• Shoe (producer): Libertalia vs. Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest (37:57)

Tim Fowers, indie designer and publisher at Fowers Games, intrigues Christina and Shoe with the concept of "anticipation" and how it plays into dopamine-filled play. And because Tim is such a marketing mastermind, he drops a Fugitive 2 tease about...46 minutes into this episode.

Christina talks to Tim about Paperback and Hardback, Fowers Games's two popular word/spelling games...and listen for a shocking revelation from Tim!

Topics in this episode:

• Tim (guest): Anticipation in games (15:12)
• Shoe (producer): Escape (not escape room!) games (25:44)
• Christina (host): Our favorite word (spelling) games (39:40)

It’s a holiday miracle! The crew are united in person, and we dole out awards for some of board gaming’s best - and worst - distinctions of 2018. From best components, to the most disappointing sequel, to the best beige game, to the most stressful game.

The end of 2023 means only thing: time to talk about the best board games of the year. And for this awards season, we invited board game content creator and standup comedian Grant Lyon to discuss our favorite party, light, medium, and heavy games that released over those 365 days. Do you agree with our picks? Did we miss any that would have changed our lives? TELL US.

Timeline:

The 2023 Games of the Year (see below for the full list of winners and runners up):

• 2:51 - 2023 Party Games of the Year.
• 14:03 - 2023 Light Games of the Year.
• 34:00 - 2023 Medium Games of the Year.
• 58:11 - 2023 Heavy Games of the Year.

Since you can download the fantastic and completely free Sunshine City from Coffee Bean Games, we invited designer Peter C. Hayward to talk some of our favorite lighter and heavier games in the roll & write genre. Shoe tries to articulate the idea of "hybrid" games of multiple ideas coming together to form one new product, and we discover Peter's complete fascination and almost encyclopedic knowledge of games you can play in a car.

Plus, Peter reveals details about an upcoming game to be published by BoardGameTables.com called Fiction!

Topics this episode:

• Christina (host): Favorite lighter and heavier roll-and-writes (16:35)
• Shoe (producer): "X meets Y" games (35:41)
• Peter (guest): Games for road trips or Disneyland lines (47:31)

Why are some games so hard to buy? Scott Morris of GTS Distribution explains the manufacturing/distribution process for us -- plus recent faves that we've been playing and some of the best worker-placement games (with a twist).

Games we discussed:

Though we fancy ourselves "omnigamers" -- gamers who enjoy all genres -- we're kind of fooling ourselves. There are certainly specific categories of board games we try to stay away from. But! With every "rule" (if you can call it that), there's gotta be exceptions, right? So we explore ours with Peter C. Hayward. The game designer (That Time You Killed Me, French Toast, Fiction) is very...discerning, so we couldn't wait to hear his thoughts on these matters.

Separately, we recently played a game of Istanbul with Peter, and he couldn't stop raving about how it got "quick turns" down just right. So that got us thinking...what other specific things do specific games get "just right"?

Plus: Play along with us on a round of Peter's new game, Apropos of Board Games!

Timeline:

• 3:31 - Going Analog's game pick: Apropos of.
• 12:06 - Peter's game pick: boop.
• 14:56 - Going Analog's topic: Specific things that specific games get right.
• 38:29 - Peter's topic: Games you like in genres you don't.

The 2023 edition of Gen Con, North America's largest board game convention, was the biggest yet -- breaking attendance records and our wallets so we could get the hottest games...to tell you about, of course! We asked American Tabletop Awards committee member, content creator, and general awesome gamer Ruel Gaviola to join us to discuss the show and to share our fave board games that we got to check out. 

We're a podcast! Therefore, we're contractually obligated to tell you our Games of the Year. But who wants to hear just Christina and Shoe squabble about their faves of 2022? Everyone would rather hear us and Mik and Starla from Our Family Plays Games squabble, so far be it for us to withhold this top-notch content from our listeners! So get ready for lots of discussions (and lots of yelling at Christina for cheating on her picks) in this episode!

Timeline:

Intro (before we get into the awards):

• 2:32 - Starla's game pick: Wonderland's War.
• 4:40 - Mik's game pick: Heat: Pedal to the Metal.
• 5:55 - Shoe's game pick: Keystone: North America.
• 8:37 - Christina's game pick: Blackout: Hong Kong.

The 2022 Games of the Year:

• 10:35 - Party games of 2022.
• 23:32 - Light games of 2022.
• 35:44 - Medium games of 2022.
• 50:22 - Heavy games of 2022.

Check out website to read the list of winners!

*Note: Our Family Plays Games is still working on their own Games of 2022, so their picks for this show are "as of today" but not necessarily final. Also, some games appear in different categories due to everyone's subjective opinions on weight.

Guest Elizabeth Hargrave (Wingspan, Mariposas) drops a hint about her next project while we discuss our four new topics:

1. Learning factoids in non-educational games

2. How we can make board gaming more inclusive for everyone

3. Games whose themes have inspired innovative gameplay

4. Designing games and finishing prototypes

Games discussed in this episode:

Intro:

• Wingspan
• Tussie Mussie
• Mariposas

Christina’s topic: How theme can lead to innovative gameplay

• Wingspan
• Mariposas
• Photosynthesis
• Wind the Film
• Remember Our Trip
• Here Comes the Dog
• Abomination: The Heir of Frankenstein
• Castell
• The Search for Planet X
• Viticulture
• Dead of Winter
• Battlestar Galactica
• The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 
• Scooby-Doo! Escape from the Haunted Mansion

Shoe’s topic: Educational games that aren’t educational games

• Wingspan
• Mariposas
• Tussie Mussie 
• The Search for Planet X
• Beez
• Arraial
• Tokaido
• Cytosis: A Cell Biology Board Game
• Virulence: An Infection Card Game
• Pandemic
• Photosynthesis 
• Castell
• Ticket to Ride
• 7 Wonders

Nick’s topic: How do you know which prototypes to move forward with; how do you know when a game design’s finished?

• Mariposas
• Wingspan

Final thoughts:

• Mariposas
• Wingspan: Oceania
• Beez
• The Search for Planet X
• Morels
• 7 Wonders
• 7 Wonders Duel
• 7 Wonders Duel: Pantheon
• Tokaido
• Hanabi

Tim Schafer (Double Fine) joins us to discuss why so many digital game creators are “going analog,” Shoe covers the best gateway games for video gamers, Christina talks unique game components, and Mike muses on being a responsible gaming parent.

Game designers Jon Gilmour (Dead of Winter, Dinosaur Island) and Ian Moss (Duelosaur Island, Wonderland's War) join us to discuss video games that would make cool board games, what video games have taught them about game design, our ideal gaming group, and how new RPGs make themselves stand out from the crowd.

Here are the games covered on the show:

Intro

• Dead of Winter
• Dinosaur Island
• Wasteland Express
• I Dissent
• Duelosaur Island
• Wonderland’s War
• Bunkers and Badasses

Ian’s topic: How do newer RPGs make themselves stand out?

• Bunkers and Badasses
• Kids on Bikes
• Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall
• Kids on Brooms
• Blades in the Dark
• Apocalypse World
• Fiasco
• ATMA
• The Quiet Year

Jon’s topic: What video games have you played recently that would make cool board games?

• Path of Light and Shadow

Shoe’s topic: What have video games taught Jon and Ian about game design?

• Dinosaur Island
• Duelosaur Island
• Taverns of Tiefenthal
• Quadropolis
• Dead of Winter
• Slide Quest
• Machi Koro Legacy
• My City

Christina’s topic: What makes the ideal gaming group for you?

• Innovation
• Sagrada
• Azul
• Concordia

Final thoughts:

• Sonora
• Crokinole
• Bunkers and Badasses
• Santa Monica
• Smartphone
• Food Chain Magnate

Women and people of color are barely getting proper representation in the board game industry. And how about the LGBTQ+ community? Even worse.

Joining us with no shortage of opinions on this matter is Theo, aka GeekyGamerGuy. Theo's a board game content creator on the frontlines, fighting for equality and representation in this hobby he loves so much. Listen to his heartfelt thoughts on this and more.

Timeline:

• 5:08 - Shoe's game pick: Ito. 
• 9:11 - Christina's game pick: Sea Salt & Paper. 
• 14:45 - Theo's game pick: Resist! 
• 19:55 - Christina's topic: What are your "guilty pleasure" games?*
• 33:11 - Shoe's topic: LGBTQ+ representation in board gaming. 
• 51:06 - Theo's topic: Great solo games. 

*Note: Theo inadvertently called his "guilty-pleasure game" No Dice when he meant Roll Out!

We talk about Plaid Hat's new storytelling adventure game Forgotten Waters, our other favorite pirate-themed games, and some of the most memorable characters in board gaming.

But...is quarantining slowly killing our love for board games?

We have three special guests! Video game designer Tim Schafer (whose work on The Secret of Monkey Island influenced Forgotten Waters), and Forgotten Waters co-designers Isaac Vega and Joe Ellis.

Here's a full list of games discussed on the show:

Intro

• Forgotten Waters
• Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn
• City of Remnants
• Dead of Winter
• Crystal Clans
• Raxxon

Christina's topic: What are our favorite pirate-y games?

• Forgotten Waters
• Sea of Legends
• Tiny Epic Pirates
• Sea of Nadia
• Jamaica
• Sea of Clouds
• Libertalia
• Citadels
• Merchants and Marauders
• Pirate's Cove
• Loot
• Xia: Legends of a Drift System

Joe's topic: Inspirations behind Forgotten Waters

• Forgotten Waters

Isaac's topic: What are the most memorable characters you've enjoyed in board games?

• Scythe
• Scythe: The Rise of Fenris
• Magic: The Gathering
• Twilight Imperium
• Dead of Winter
• Mice and Mystics
• Tales of the Arabian Nights
• Camp Grizzly
• T.I.M.E Stories
• Star Wars: Rebellion
• Dune
• Aftermath
• Abomination
• Takenoko
• Forgotten Waters

Tim's topic: How has quarantine affected how we think about board games?

• Descent: Journeys in the Dark
• The 7th Continent
• Sea of Nadia
• Smartphone Inc.
• Santa Monica
• Forgotten Waters

Final thoughts

• Forgotten Waters

The always fun, always funny Paula Deming from Things Get Dicey joins the podcast this week to discuss:

• Board games that really get us riled up (in good and bad ways)
• The games in our "shelf of opportunity" that we're most excited to get to
• Why we livestream playthroughs -- or not

The games discussed on this episode:

Intro: 

• Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef
• Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time

Christina’s topic: Games that get you hyped

• Dominant Species
• Targi
• Twilight Imperium
• Draw Your Own Conclusions
• Telestrations
• Escape: The Curse of the Temple
• Dungeon Fighter
• Flip Ships
• The Quacks of Quedlinburg
• Wonderland’s War
• Libertalia
• Modern Art

Shoe’s topic: What are the games in your backlog that you're most excited to get to (and why haven't you yet)?

• Too Many Bones
• Sleeping Games
• Near and Far
• Above and Below
• Adventure Tactics: Domianne’s Tower
• Space Base
• Space Base: The Emergence of Shy Pluto
• Machi Koro
• Lisboa
• Gallerist
• Formosa Tea
• Great Western Trail
• Viticulture
• CloudAge
• Pandemic Legacy: Season 0
• Clank Legacy
• Cutthroat Caverns
• Space Park
• Herd Mentality
• P for Pizza
• Gentes
• Pioneer Days
• Happy Salmon
• Power Grid
• Blockbuster
• MTV: The Throwback Music Party Game

Paula: Playing and live-streaming games online

• Hallertau 
• Fort
• Coatl 
• Targi
• Carcassonne 
• The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
• Lisboa
• Modern Art
• Blank Slate
• Wavelength

Final thoughts:

• The Lost Expedition
• Praga Caput Regni 
• City of the Big Shoulders

Gen Con 2022 saw the return of over 50,000 attendees (and four days of non-stop gaming) to Indianapolis -- and, most importantly, the return of Christina and Shoe to the big show! We invited Twitch streamer and content creator Amanda Panda to join us to discuss our experiences and the hot new games.

Topics this episode:

• Christina (host): Hot games of Gen Con (15:31)
• Amanda (guest): Lighter party games of Gen Con (34:16)
• Shoe (producer): Games that flew under the radar (50:34)

Plaid Hat CEO Colby Dauch and Marketing Manager Niki Shults team up to discuss some hot (spiteful content creation, life with mega publisher Asmodee, etc.) and not-so-hot (Candy Land??) on the Going Analog Podcast this week. They've put out some incredible and memorable board games over the years, so give them a listen!

Timeline:

• 4:00 - Christina's game pick: Motor City.
• 6:20 - Niki's game pick: The Guild of Merchant Explorers.
• 11:54 - Colby's game pick: Candy Land. Yes, that Candy Land.
• 17:24 - Colby's topic: The intersection of video gaming and board gaming.
• 35:36 - Christina's topic: Talking Plaid Hat's life before, during, and after the huge Asmodee aquisition.
• 53:33 - Niki's topic: Mean and spiteful content creation -- does it have a place?

The 2023 American Tabletop Awards were just announced, and as brand-spanking-new committee members, we at Going Analog of course wanted to chat about these elite games -- with two of the judges themselves, Nicole Brady of SAHM Reviews and Eric Yurko of What's Eric Playing? Listen to hear our thoughts!

Timeline:

• 2:45 - ATTA nomination process.
• 10:15 - Early Gamers.
• 17:40 - Casual Games.
• 32:18 - Strategy Games.
• 47:02 - Complex Games.

We did it, folks! We recorded our 2024 Games of the Year episode before the end of the year! (We didn't say anything about releasing it before the end of the year, though.) Joining us just under the wire is content creator and Twitch streamer Beneeta Kaur who contributed her own picks. We actually played a good number of games in-person with Beneeta this year, so we know she has great taste!

Tune in for our favorite party, light, medium, and heavy games of the year. What did we miss? What do we NEED to play? Tell us on our socials!

Timeline:

• 2:42 - 2024 Party Games of the Year.
• 13:42 - 2024 Light Games of the Year.
• 25:22 - 2024 Medium Games of the Year.
• 46:40 - 2024 Heavy Games of the Year.

Steve Nix (Gen7) joins us to discuss how game mechanics can trigger emotions, as well as how he built the world of his game, while Christina compares worker-placement to dice-placement games, and Mike goes over the pros and cons of game promo goodies

Games we mentioned:

Which games transport us to new places or worlds? What makes a good asynchronous digital game? And how does sheltering in place change how a designer goes about his business?

Board game designer Emerson Matsuuchi (Century series, Metal Gear Solid, Specter Ops) joins us to discuss.

Here's a full list of games discussed on the show:

Intro

• Century
• Metal Gear Solid
• Foundations of Rome

Christina's topic: What are your top board games that help you escape?

• Tokaido
• Namiji
• Tales of Arabian Nights
• Hive Mind
• King of Tokyo
• Mansions of Madness
• Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
• Dead of Winter
• Above & Below
• Near & Far
• Mice & Mystics
• Aftermath
• Forgotten Waters
• Suburbia

Emerson's topic: How important is it for a game to have something innovative?

• The Mind
• Dead Man's Cabal
• In the Hall of the Mountain King
• The Castles of Burgundy
• Lost Cities
• Codenames
• Paladins of the West Kingdom
• Architects of the West Kingdom

Nick's topic: Asynchronous digital games

• The Castles of Burgundy
• Lost Cities
• Carcassonne
• Patchwork
• Ticket to Ride
• Tokaido
• Ascension
• Shards of Infinity
• Lords of Waterdeep
• Kingsburg

Shoe's topic: How does shelter-in-place impact game design work?

• Infiltrator

Final thoughts

• Just One
• Rising Sun

How is it almost the end of 2024?! Christina and Shoe sneak in some more recent games and tell you about them.

Timeline:

• 1:02 - Small-box games: Bottle Imp, Codex Naturalis.
• 14:10 - Medium-box games: Looot, In the Footsteps of Marie Curie.
• 26:30 - Big-box games: Rallyman: Dirt, Creature Caravan.

Mega gaming convention Gen Con 2019 is over! We team up with Board Game Spotlight to announce our games of the show, our favorite early prototypes (of games we won't see until 2020), why we buy what we buy at the show, and building communities.

Intro:

Emerson Matsuuchi (Century series, Reef, the upcoming Metal Gear Solid game) ponders what qualities of board games attract video gamers, Christina goes over what makes for a fun and helpful rule book, Nick pits Tales of Arabian Nights against Betrayal Legacy to discuss giving players meaningful story choices, and Shoe asks Emerson how he approaches designing games that can be merged together.

Uber content creator Ruel Gaviola (Geek & Sundry plus a million other things) joins us this week to talk about under-the-radar games that need more love, games we can play outside that won't get blown away, genres we don't like (and exceptions to them), and online communities.

Here's a full list of games discussed on the show:

Mike's topic: Games we can play outdoors

• Heckmeck
• Pickomino
• Q.E.
• Hanabi Deluxe
• Shobu
• Backgammon
• Dominoes
• Secrets
• Wavelength
• Pinnacle
• Jenga
• Azul

Shoe's topic: Recent under-the-radar board games

• The Shipwreck Arcana
• Deep Vents
• Oceans
• Pre-a-Porter
• London
• Mechanica
• Steam Park
• Brass
• MonsDRAWsity
• Telestrations: Upside Drawn
• Telestrations
• FUSE
• Dead Men Tell No Tales
• Stellar
• Arboretum
• Little Town
• Tiny Towns

Ruel's topic: Online gaming communities

• Wingspan
• Railways of the World
• 18XX
• City of the Big Shoulders
• Tokaido
• 7 Wonders
• Viscounts of the West Kingdom
• King's Dilemma

Christina's topic: Board game genres we tend to dislike

• Cthulhu Wars
• Rising Sun
• Kemet
• Eclipse
• Twilight Imperium
• The Shipwreck Arcana
• Werewolf
• Mafia
• Poker
• Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
• A Fake Artist Goes to New York
• Let's Make a Bus Route
• Kokoro
• Cartographers
• Fleet: The Dice Game
• Magic: The Gathering
• Level 7: Omega Protocol
• Star Wars: Imperial Assault

Final thoughts

• The Oracle of Delphi
• Time's Up
• Trial by Trolley
• Carpe Diem
• Scooby-Doo: Escape from the Haunted Mansion

Yes, our show is called Going Analog, so you know we love our video games -- but how do board games bring in the digital vibe that we love into the tabletop medium?

Luckily, we found the perfect guests to ask: Level 99 Games, the publisher of video-game-inspired fare such as the recent Bullet series, BattleCON, and Exceed! Joshua Van Laningham, Production and Design Lead at Level 99, and Ferdinand Capitulo, Head of Media at Level 99 and the Cardboard Stacker himself, join us to discuss which aspects we've seen in board games and how they designed the "feel" of certain video game genres into their lineup.

Plus, how is theme symbiotically integrated into certain game designs, and when does it pay to abstractify certain thematic steps (and when does it not)?

Topics this episode:

• Christina (host): What are some other games that have given us the "video game" vibe?
• Ferdinand (guest): What are some great examples of crafting mechanisms we've seen in games?
• Josh (guest):  Abstraction in board games

BoardGameGeek's Scott Alden (owner) and Lincoln Damerst (host of GameNight!) stops by to offer their thoughts on all three Azul games, the monsterous Abomination, and our favorite popular and under-the-radar games from BGGCON.

Games discussed:

Intro:

• Abomination
• Azul
• Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra
• Azul: Summer Pavilion

• Aquatica
• Marvel Champions: The Card Game
• Silver
• Silver Bullet
• Medium

• Soviet Kitchen Unleashed
• Colorful
• Match Me: What Color Is This?
• Tokyo Series
• The Magnificent
• Escape: The Curse of the Temple
• Automania
• Santa Maria
• Rebel Nox
• Capital Lux
• Offshore
• Horticulture Master
• Orchard Ocean
• Draw Your Own Conclusions
• Telestrations

• Tapestry

• The Mind
• The Mind Extreme
• Wavelength

We're back from BoardGameGeek's big show, BGG.CON 2022! Your hosts Christina and Shoe sit down to talk about their Top 10 games panel with Our Family Plays Games, stand-up comedy with Grant Lyon, our own live Board Game Quiz Show events, and of course, all the great games they got a chance to check out.

Timeline:

• 1:47 - BGG.Con highlights, including our live Board Game Quiz Show!
• 4:50 - Our Family Plays Games Top 10 games panel
• 8:21 - Grant Lyon's board game standup
• 12:09 - Exhibit Hall, Many Worlds Tavern
• 13:59 - Gaming stories
• 19:50 - BGG Top 5 games we played
• 20:07 - Starship Captains
• 27:13 - Lacrimosa
• 31:40 - Tiletum
• 36:40 - Atiwa
• 42:28 - Splendor Duel

We've got so many new board games to talk about this week that we decided to skip having a guest on, so we can just blab and blab and blab about what we've been playing lately. So yup, you're just getting all Christina, all Shoe this episode. And they're ready to dish on what they liked and what they didn't about each of these.

Timeline: 

• 1:16 - The Vale of Eternity.
• 9:19 - Faraway.
• 16:50 - Monumental.
• 24:36 - The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era.
• 32:47 - Heroes of Might & Magic III: The Board Game.
• 45:59 - Converge: Catalysts of Change/Sparks of Hope/Engines of Progress.
• 54:17 - Evergreen.

Special Guest Game Designer Jon Gilmour (Dead of Winter) tells us how board game experiences impact design, Mike shares some spooky games for Halloween, Christina tells us how to be a better gaming host, and Shoe craps on games that other people love.

Plaid Hat Marketing Manager Niki Shults and Multimedia Director Donald Shults talk board games -- and tons of D&D -- with us. Our topics: 

1. What are some new party games you can play over Zoom or within one average household?

2. Is Catan still the perfect gateway game? If not, what is?

3. What are your best childhood memories of playing board games?

4. House rules: How do you feel about them?

Here are the games covered on the show:

Intro:

• Forgotten Waters
• The Settlers of Catan

Shoe’s topic: Great party games for quarantine or households

• Telestrations
• Telestrations: Upside Drawn
• P for Pizza
• Herd Mentality
• Forgotten Waters
• Wavelength
• Just One
• Dungeons and Dragons
• Mastermind
• Master Word
• Corinth

Donald’s topic: Is Settlers of Catan still the best gateway game?

• Monopoly
• Magic the Gathering 
• Clue
• The Settlers of Catan
• Pandemic
• Dungeon Twister
• Dungeons and Dragons 
• Ticket to Ride
• Azul
• Wingspan
• Hanabi
• Starfarers of Catan
• Tokaido
• Megaland
• King of Tokyo
• Welcome to
• Yahtzee
• Dominion

Niki’s topic: Your first boardgame memories

• Uno
• Fireball Island
• Mouse Trap
• Dungeons and Dragons 
• HeroQuest
• Big 2/Deuce
• Go to the Head of the Class
• Dungeons and Dragons

Christina’s topic: Do you use house rules?

• Bye, Felicia
• Starfarers of Catan

Final thoughts: 

• Forgotten Waters

• 4:05 - Going Analog's game pick: Open Season.
• 9:40 - Chris's game pick: Revive.
• 16:36 - Going Analog's topic: An Age Contrived, balancing cool components with high costs.
• 41:20 - Chris's topic: how games can surprise and delight us.

Grant Rodiek of Hyperbole Games (Cry Havok, Farmageddon, Solstice) wants to know our three desert island games, while Shoe asks him about the life of an indie game designer, Christina shares what type of collector she is, and Nick attends Tokyo Game Market

Games we discussed:

Intro:
Cry Havoc
Farmageddon
SPQF
Imperius

We're publishing this episode on May the Fourth, and we somehow wrangled superstar designer Corey Konieczka (Star Wars: Rebellion, Imperial Assault, Destiny, and Outer Rim...phew!) for our Star Wars special show. Now at his own studio Unexpected Games (The Initiative, Voices in my Head, 3000 Scoundrels), Corey humors our geeky Star Wars board game questions and discusses what makes a design transcend its mechanics.

Timeline:

• 3:05 - Shoe's game pick: Darwin's Journey.
• 6:17 - Corey's game pick: Betrayal Legacy.
• 11:40 - Christina's game pick: Wicked & Wise.
• 15:47 - Shoe's topic: Designing Star Wars games.
• 32:10 - Christina's topic: Favorite Star Wars tabletop experiences.
• 41:29 - Corey's topic: Games that transcend mechanics.

This week, guest Theresa Duringer joins the board game discussion. She's the co-founder of Temple Gates Games, the developer responsible for digital ports of several popular tabletop games like Roll for the Galaxy or Shards of Infinity. And she's a pretty damn good baker, too.

Games we talked about:

Intro:

We're so obsessed with board games, that we enjoy them...even when we're not actually playing them. What are these "play-adjacent" activities that we love so much?

And what are our favorite components? And why on earth are we talking about jigsaw puzzles on a board game podcast?

The board games we discuss on this episode:

Christina’s topic: your favorite game components

• Everdell
• Tidal Blades
• Honey Buzz
• Wingspan
• Wavelength
• Blockbuster
• Potion Explosion
• Portal
• Dragoon
• Ascension
• Life Siphon
• Guts of Glory
• Mouse Trap
• Trouble
• Hungry Hungry Hippos
• HeroQuest
• Scrabble
• Jenga
• Junk Art
• Fireball Island
• Crokinole
• Pinnacle
• The Climbers
• Riff Raff

Shoe’s topic: What do you like doing with board games...outside of playing them?

• The Castles of Burgundy
• Viscounts of the West Kingdom
• Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun

Final thoughts: 

• P for Pizza
• Scapegoat
• Air, Land, and Sea
• Viscounts of the West Kingdom
• Grifters

Professional comedian Grant Lyon (who also creates board game videos and co-designed Curmudgeon) joins us on the podcast this week. We talk about "old" (pre-2018) games that need more live, mechanics that we seek out or actively avoid, and more party games we love playing.

Games mentioned on this episode:

Intro:

• Curmudgeon

Christina’s topic: “Old” games that don’t get enough love

• Love Letter
• Lost Legacy
• Grand Austria Hotel
• Taverns of Tiefenthal
• High Society
• Take 5
• Take a Number
• Cover Your Assets
• Cover Your Kingdom
• Potion Explosion
• Sea of Clouds
• Lords of Waterdeep
• Raiders of the North Sea
• Dominions
• Raiders of Scythia
• Descent: Journeys in the Dark
• Gloomhaven
• Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

Shoe’s topic: More party games

• Cross Clues
• Codenames
• Curmudgeon
• MTV: The Throwback Music Party Game
• Blockbuster
• Who’s the G.O.A.T.?

Grant’s topic: Seeking out or avoiding games based on mechanics

• Lords of Waterdeep
• Champions of Midgard
• Everdell 
• Tidal Blades
• Architects of the West Kingdom
• Paladins of the West Kingdom
• Viscounts of the West Kingdom
• Kingswood
• Raiders of the North Sea
• Raiders of Scythia
• Sagrada
• Alien Frontiers
• Marco Polo
• Castles of Burgundy
• The Godfather
• The Godfather: A New Don
• Eclipse
• Beyond the Sun
• The Crew
• Gudetama: The Tricky Egg Card Game
• The Fox in the Forest
• The Fox in the Forest Duet
• Skull King

Final thoughts: 

• Curmudgeon
• Honey Buzz
• Beyond the Sun

Party game of the year! Light game of the year! Medium-weight game of the year! Heavy game of the year!

We grab two of our social-bubble gaming crew (James Hudson of Skybound and Shoe's co-worker Tom Twedell), and we all give our picks for the #1 games in all those categories for 2020.

Plus: What trends did we see in 2020 (and what might we see in 2021? And how did gaming get us through the rough patches of last year?

The games covered in this episode:

Intro:

• Bloodstone

Tom’s topic: Party and Light Games of the Year

• Cross Clues
• Codenames
• P for Pizza
• Telestrations: Upside Drawn
• MonsDRAWsity
• Silver: Dagger
• Silver
• My City
• Santa Monica
• The Crew
• Calico
• D&D Adventures Begin
• Fossilis 
• The Crew
• The Mind

Christina’s topic: Medium and Heavy Games of the Year

• Smartphone, Inc.
• Tidal Blades
• Dune: Imperium
• Lost Ruins of Arnak
• The Search for Planet X
• Sorcerer City
• Dwellings of Eldervale
• The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire
• Forgotten Waters
• Viscounts of the West Kingdom
• Rococo
• Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun
• Beyond the Sun
• Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy
• Alma Mater
• The Magnificent

Shoe’s topic: Top gaming trends of 2020 and what we are expecting for 2021

• MonsDRAWsity
• Rolling Realms
• Sorcerer City
• Tidal Blades
• Lost Ruins of Arnak
• Dune: Imperium
• Dominion
• Fort
• Honey Buzz
• Beez
• Queen Bee
• Hive Mind
• Mariposas

James’ topic: How gaming has helped us through rough patches in 2020

• Fantastic Factories
• Star Wars: Destiny
• My City
• Pandemic Legacy: Season 0

Final thoughts: 

• Mage Knight
• War of the Rings
• Tidal Blades
• Valor & Villainy
• Wonderland’s War

It's almost time for North America's largest board game convention, Gen Con! We've been frantically trying to cram in all the hot new games on our shelf of shame/opportunity before we discover...even more hot new games at the big show. We ask the busy Ruel Gaviola (board gaming showrunner, producer, podcaster, and host of several YouTube and Twitch channels) to tell us what he's looking forward to at Gen Con and which cool games he's been playing lately.

Timeline: 

• 1:44 - Gen Con preview.
• 17:51 - our thoughts on a bunch of new board games: What On Earth Are You Talking About?, Landmarks, Biomos, Finca, Clash of Magic Schools, Archeos Society, Evenfall, Pax Pamir: Second Edition, The Search for UAPs.

We've had so much fun with Friendly Skeleton's upcoming party game Trash Talk that we wanted to dedicate a whole episode to other light-hearted fare that's great for gaming groups. Are you more of a co-op party gamer...or do you prefer to go at it in teams? We asked Jacob Way, Head Skeleton at Friendly Skeleton (formerly Deep Water Games), to join us to show us how to party (game)!

Timeline:

• 5:50 - Going Analog's game pick: The White Castle.
• 11:42 - Jacob's game pick: Tichu.
• 16:04 - Going Analog's topic: Great co-op party games.
• 41:30 - Jacob's topic: Great team-based party games.

I know we just finished our 2023 Games of the Year episode, but we're so over last year. It's cult-of-the-new time -- what are the badass games we're looking forward to in 2024? We invited gaming sommelier Alex Hart of Might I Suggest a Game to help us out since he also just put out his list!

And while we're frequent boardgame recommenders, sometimes we run into a few that are super difficult to endorse for some reason. Which ones? Listen to find out!

Timeline:

• 3:15 - Going Analog's game pick: Last Light.
• 8:44 - Alex's game pick: Daybreak.
• 15:07 - Going Analog's topic: Our most anticipated games of 2024.
• 35:35 - Alex's topic: Games that we love that we have a hard time suggesting.

We were thrilled to meet Ben Rosset, co-designer of our favorite deduction games The Search for Planet X and The Search for Lost Species (as well as the classic Between Two Cities), at Gen Con 2024. Find out why that first meeting was ridiculous (in our eyes), what's Ben's creative process on his deeply thematic designs, and how we feel about the various types of second-edition board games.

Timeline:

• 2:58 - Christina's game pick: Kronologic: Paris 1920.
• 9:58 - Shoe's game pick: Sacred Valley.
• 14:58 - Ben's game pick: Century: Spice Road/Golem Edition.
• 23:05 - Going Analog's topic: designing board games around interesting themes.
• 34:13 - Ben's topic: the good and bad of second editions.

Ryan and Malorie Laukat from Red Raven Games join us to talk about board games we want to see made into video games, the most gorgeous game artwork, what makes for a good open-world board game experience, and how games encourage us to use our imagination.

Sarah Shah of Board Games in a Minute slows down just long enough to record a podcast with us. We chat about our favorite games centered around animals, our big pet peeves when teaching (or learning) a new board game, and publisher Capstone Games.

The games mentioned in this episode:

Christina’s topic: What are some of your favorite games centered around animals?

• Everdell
• Ecos: First Continent
• Gods Love Dinosaurs
• Evolution
• Oceans
• Endangered
• Calico
• Isle of Cats
• Beez
• Honey Buzz
• Aqua Garden
• Heaven and Ale

Shoe’s topic: What are your pet peeves when learning or teaching games?

• Innovation
• The Mind

Sarah's topic: Capstone Games

• New York Zoo
• Crystal Palace
• Terra Mystica
• Gaia Project
• The Estates
• CloudAge
• Coffee Traders
• Pipeline
• Cooper Island
• Renature 
• Curious Cargo
• Watergate
• Iberian Gauge
• Ticket to Ride

Final thoughts:

• Mr. Cabbagehead’s Garden
• Whistle Mountain
• Sleeping Gods
• 7th Continent

We're back from Gen Con! North America's largest tabletop gaming convention is now behind us, but our coverage is just beginning. In this episode, we share our stories from the massive show, plus a few impressions of our favorite games that we got to play. Stay tuned for lots, lots more.

And make sure to check out Magic Mind, the "Mental Performance Shots" that we took to keep us going through the long days and nights in Indianapolis. Our sponsor is offering our listeners up to 48% off a monthly subscription! You'll get Magic Mind delivered right to your home, and you can cancel at any time. Find energy for your long gaming sessions -- plus, you'll be supporting Going Analog!

Just go to magicmind.com/ANALOG20 and use promo code ANALOG20 to save up to 48% now.

Timeline:

• 2:13 - Stories from Gen Con 2024.
• 16:57 - The Gang.
• 23:37 - Seers Catalog.
• 30:26 - River of Gold.
• 37:10 - Flip 7.
• 41:36 - Rebel Princess.

We were sitting on a new stack of word games, so we asked our editor Mike Zipkin (he of fancy game upgrades and beige game tastes) to join us in covering Word Traveler, Illiterati, Mind Map, and ContraBanter. Plus, upgrading your board games is old news -- how do you upgrade your entire game room?

Timeline:

• 2:00 - Christina/Shoe's game pick: Captain Flip.
• 9:13 - Mike's game pick: StreetCar (San Francisco).
• 16:28 - Christina/Shoe's topic: new word games.
• 48:14 - Mike's topic: upgrading your game room.

Husband-wife team Ryan and Malorie Laukat of Red Raven Games (Sleeping Gods, Above and Below, Megaland) stop by with a few gaming topics in hand:

• Christina (host): Our ideal "3-course meal" of board games
• Malorie (guest): Culling our collections
• Ryan (guest): How our gaming tastes have evolved over time

The games discussed in this episode:

Intro:

• Above & Below
• Near & Far
• Empires of the Void II
• Eight-Minute Empires
• Roam
• Sleeping Gods
• Megaland
• Now or Never
• Surrealist Dinner Party

Christina's topic: Ideal 3-course meal of games

• Point Salad
• A Feast for Odin
• Letter Jam
• Blue Moon City
• Agricola
• Caverna
• Codenames
• Great Western Trail
• Race for the Galaxy
• Roll for the Galaxy
• Jump Drive
• New Frontiers

Malorie's topic: Culling games/hoarding games

• Yinzi
• Arkham Horror
• Twilight Imperium

Ryan's topic: How our gaming tastes have changed

• Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire
• War of the Ring
• Arkham Horror
• Strozzi
• Thunderstone
• Lords of Waterdeep
• Rising Sun
• Sleeping Gods
• Roam

Final thoughts:

• Tawantinsuyu: The Inca Empire
• Paladins of the West Kingdom
• Viscounts of the West Kingdom

Pandasaurus Games's Hunter Shelburne drops some industry knowledge as we preview the big Origins show, dissect this year's nominees for gaming's most prestigious awards, and reminisce over how we grew up with Steve Jackson Games.

Intro:
The Castles of Burgundy

Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier Games (Scythe, Viticulture) asks what we want out of a Civilization-style game, Mike blings out his components, Christina talks games that sound lame but are actually great, and Shoe explains why we go to game conventions.

BoardGameGeek's BGG.CON is always a good time: just days and days of straight gaming (with some delicious Texas BBQ sprinkled in throughout). So what did we play? And what stuck out to us? Christina and Shoe talk through the games, the show, and more in their big post-BGG.CON update.

Timeline:

• 2:41 - SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
• 11:04 - Windmill Valley.
• 19:14 - Video Game Champion.
• 27:26 - Pixies.
• 32:23 - Castle Combo.
• 36:49 - Quick hits: Black Forest, Forges of Ravenshire, Fishing, Wine Cellar, Everbloom.

We spend a lot of time with our friends playing board games, so we're bound to bond. But how well do we really know these people we've invited to our table?

We teamed up with our pals Raina and Phil from 1 Minute Board Games to take the next step in our gaming relationship: not just play "normal" board games (which we still do plenty of with them) but play ones designed to really dig down deep and get us talking about things that would normally not come up during sessions of Sea Salt & Paper. Listen in to see what we've learned about these experiences...and each other.

And on a very related note: social deduction! What's new and what are our faves in this class of games that have us lying to and manipulating each other?

Timeline:

• 4:41 - Going Analog's game pick: Great Western Trail: New Zealand.
• 11:52 - 1 Minute Board Game's pick: Dune: Imperium - Uprising.
• 18:33 - Going Analog's topic: "Getting to know you" games.
• 39:32 - 1 Minute Board Game's topic: Social-deduction games.

As US game groups start meeting up again, we chat with fellow social bubble-r James Hudson (Skybound Games) about quarantine's effects on us as gamers, which games surprised us, and the unintended effects of COVID on board game shipping and logistics. (Last topic = sad James)

Our topics for this show:

• Shoe (producer): Board gaming outside of the social bubble: what it's been like so far, what's changed, what are the challenges?
• Christina (host): Games that surprised you over the pandemic
• James (guest): How publishers are evaluating the short-term future, with current COVID conditions/trends

The games mentioned in this episode:

Intro:

• The Grimm Masquerade
• Guardian's Call
• Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef
• Wonderland's War
• Valor & Villainy: Lludwik's Labyrinth
• Robot Quest Arena
• Sky Towers
• Beyond the Sun

Shoe's topic: Board gaming outside of the social bubble

• Beyond the Sun
• Dune: Imperium
• Lost Ruins of Arnak
• Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef
• P for Pizza
• Dark Harvest
• Gorilla Marketing
• Eclipse
• Dwellings of Eldervale
• Monopoly

Christina's topic: Games that surprised us over the pandemic

• P for Pizza
• Forgotten Waters
• Sovereign Skies
• Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun
• The Gallerist
• Sheepy Time
• Lost Ruins of Arnak
• Dune: Imperium
• The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
• Obsession

James's topic: How publishers are evaluating the short-term future, with current COVID conditions/trends

• Wonderland's War

Gen Con 2019 is this weekend, and we’re too excited not to do a show all about it! Christina shares her favorite Gen Con memories, friends of the show Jess Yi and Joe Canalin talk about what to plan for as a first timer and lesser-know things to do there, while Nick bucks the trend with a review of the unique new bidding game Q.E.

Mike gives us the lowdown on Western Legends’ cowboy-in-a-box experience, Christina nerds out on the best modern word games, Shoe get tough on ethics in board game coverage, and Nick spends way too much money game-shopping in Japan.

All the cool kids are on TikTok, so Raina and Phil from 1 Minute Board Games make Christina and Shoe honorary Gen Z-ers this week! We discover Raina's allergy to real-time games, Phil's addiction to Android: Netrunner, and Christina needs to shut up about Innovation.

Our topics for this episode: 

• Christina (host): Favorite real-time games (3:57)
• Raina (guest): Which games do you and your partner not agree on? (15:21)
• Phil (guest): Games that we feel are the epitome of a board game mechanic (35:51)

The games mentioned in this episode:

Intro

• Don't Get Got

Christina's topic: Favorite real-time games

• Sorcerer City
• 5-Minute Marvel
• Captain Sonar
• Space Cadets: Dice Duel
• Magic Maze

Raina's topic: Which games do you and your partner disagree on?

• Azul: Summer Pavilion
• Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra
• Azul
• Memoir '44
• BattleLore
• Cthulhu Wars
• War of the Ring
• Werewolf
• Werewords
• Innovation
• Glory to Rome
• Medieval Academy
• Cosmic Encounter
• Android: Netrunner
• Star Wars: Rebellion
• Chess
• Exit: The Game
• Unlock

Phil's topic: Which games epitomize certain board game mechanics?

• Chinatown
• Twilight Imperium
• Dominion
• Ascension
• Moonrakers
• Lords of Waterdeep
• Agricola
• Caverna: The Cave Farmers
• The Quacks of Quedlinburg
• Deep Sea Adventure
• Clank!

Final thoughts

• Targi
• Hadrian's Wall

New year, new(-ish) games! Christina and Shoe pit some newer board games against their predecessors or competitors: the new co-op King of Monster Island vs. the original free-for-all King of Tokyo, two-player Tokaido Duo vs. the original Tokaido, and head-to-head dice-chuckers Kapow! vs. Dice Throne.

Timeline:

• 1:39 - Shoe's game pick: The Fox Experiment.
• 10:36 - Christina's game pick: Ancient Knowledge.
• 17:56 - King of Tokyo vs. King of Monster Island.
• 27:44 - Tokaido vs. Tokaido Duo.
• 38:13 - Kapow! vs. Dice Throne.

We just finished Halloweeeen! What are your favorite board games for spoopy season? We ask Creepshow: The Suspense-Building Game co-creators Ben Kepner and Dan Stong about what they like to play during this holiday...plus how they feel about designing while working in-house at a publisher compared to working independently.

Timeline:

• 3:45 - Going Analog's game pick: Babyon.
• 9:46 - Ben & Dan's game pick: Rattus.
• 21:19 - Ben & Dan's topic: spooky games.
• 45:40 - Going Analog's topic: indie vs. in-house design work.

Let's be honest: We'll make any excuse to talk with Elizabeth Hargrave, the Kennerspiel-winning designer of Wingspan, Mariposas, and Tussie Mussie. So our current excuse? We wanted to talk to her about her soon-to-be-released The Fox Experiment (published by Pandasaurus) and Undergrove (by AEG). So now we can nerd out about how Elizabeth marries a (usually) nature-related theme to game design -- and all the random things we've learned about the world and each other while board gaming.

Timeline:

• 2:13 - Going Analog's pick: Virtual Revolution.
• 6:26 - Elizabeth's pick: The Search for the Lost Species.
• 13:56 - Going Analog's topic: Behind the scenes of Elizabeth's design process.
• 26:27 - Elizabeth's topic: What have you learned (about the world, yourself, or your friends) from games?

Can a board game kill ya? Nah...but Black Mold may try. This "co-op till it's not" survival-horror game has players taking as many actions as they can until they can no longer...hold their breath. You read that right.

So we have questions -- lots of questions -- for our guest John de Campos, CEO of Terrible games and co-designer of Black Mold.

Timeline:

2:37 - Oceans: Legends of the Deep

7:00 - Veiled Fate

11:59 - Keystone: North America

17:00 - Shoe's topic: What's up with Black Mold?

32:19 - Christina's topic: Other games with great/interesting pitches

46:59 - John's topic: Pairing the right music with your board games

We hosted a huge party recently and got a ton of new board games to the table -- so we wanted to dedicate an episode to six of them!

You've wondered about the hot new sequel to Scythe, Expeditions, and we played it! Plus Marrakesh from Stefan Feld and Queen Games' City Collection, Vaalbara and Rauha from Hachette Games, Overboss Duel from Brotherwise Games, and District Noir from Pandasaurus Games. We've got opinions....

Timeline:

• 2:15 - Expeditions.
• 12:29 - Vaalbara.
• 17:55 - Overboss Duel.
• 22:32 - District Noir.
• 29:05 - Marrakesh.
• 35:41 - Rauha.

The OG crew are reunited, as Shoe celebrates some recent Kickstarter arrivals, Christina takes stock of the rise of the Roll & Write genre, Mike reflects on the role of ‘super filler’ games, and Nick pens a love letter to Castles of Burgundy.

Games we discussed:

Intro segment:
Splendor

• Christina (host): What deck-building games do we first show to newbies? And then after they need to graduate to something more advanced?
• Mike Gnade (guest): Which Kickstarter board games pleasantly surprised you? And which disappointed you?
• Shoe (producer): How do you go about culling your board game collection?

Bebo (Be Bold Games) brings the strangest/coolest topic to date. Also: most anticipated Essen releases, the biggest problems in the industry, and games that are/aren't worth the setup time.

Games we discussed:

Bebo's topic: Which 3 games in a trench coat are you?

• Caverna
• Battleline
• Junk Orbit
• Rebel Nox
• Wingspan
• Flamme Rouge
• Web of Spies
• Detective: City of Angels
• Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
• Caverna: The Forgotten Folk
• Barenpark
• Tokaido

Mike's topic: Essen Spiel games we're looking forward to

• Terramara
• Maracaibo
• Ecos
• Cat Lady
• Evolution
• On Mars
• Deep Blue
• Abyss
• Azul: Summer Pavilion
• Marco Polo 2
• Vast
• Root
• Merchant's Cover
• Pret-a-Porter
• Paranormal Detectives

Christina's topic: Games that are and aren't worth the set-up time

• Yinzi
• A Feast for Odin
• Mysterium
• Dixit
• Muse
• Eclipse
• Terra Mystica
• Pipeline
• Teotihuacan
• Star Wars: Imperial Assault
• Gloomhaven
• Aftermath
• Mice and Mystics
• Stuffed Fables
• Twilight Imperium

Shoe's topic: What are the biggest problems with the board game hobby/industry today?

• Cards Against Humanity
• Monopoly
• The Settlers of Catan
• King of Tokyo
• Ticket to Ride
• Pickomino
• Mousetrap
• Care Bears: On the Path to Care-a-Lot
• Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game

Final thoughts:

• Munchkin
• Crown of Emara
• The Primary
• Hive Mind
• Decrypto
• Blockbuster
• Time's Up: Total Recall
• Monikers
• Taboo

Why we'll never get some of our friends to play board games; the best laugh-so-hard-we-always-cry games; board game movies (our faves and the ones we'd like to see); and whether high-production trailers are good -- and bad -- for Kickstarter campaigns.

Games discussed on the show:

• Clue
• Jumanji
• Battleship
• The Castles of Burgundy
• Pandemic
• Pandemic: Legacy
• Settlers of Catan
• One Night Ultimate Werewolf
• Gloomhaven
• Root
• T.I.M.E Stories
• Scythe
• Nine Tiles Panic
• Mice & Mystics
• Aftermath
• Above & Below
• Near & Far

• Lost Cities
• The Mind
• Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective
• Crokinole

• Telestrations
• Draw Your Own Conclusions
• A Fake Artist Goes to New York
• Head's Up
• Skull
• Cards Against Humanity
• Funemployment
• Hive Mind

Shoe's topic: Are fancy video trailers too fancy? Or are they necessary to stand out?

• Unsettled
• SHASN
• Dogs of War

• Imperial 2030
• Cry Havoc
• Nokosu Dice

When we read that Eric Slauson (designer of MonsDRAWsity, the upcoming Chucky game, and many more) likes to deal cards in a...very unique way, we knew we wanted to invite him on to discuss just how weird his board gaming habits are. Are we weirder? And just how do YOU compare anyways?

Plus, gamers always talk about how some games aren't "worth" the price -- how do we value that, exactly?

Timeline:

• 3:41 - Going Analog's game pick: Wyrmspan.
• 12:03 - Eric's game pick: Kinfire Chronicles.
• 19:25 - Going Analog's topic: Bizarre board gaming habits.
• 34:27 - Eric's topic: How do you value board games?

Designer Jordan Draper (Tokyo Series, Import/Export) joins us to discuss his innovative oeuvre, and integrating diverse themes into games, while Nick reps his favorite travel games, Christina ponders expectations of game length, and Shoe tells us how games changed his life.

Games we discussed - 

Intro:

Rob Manuel (Indie Megabooth, ex-G4TV/Geek & Sundry) discusses what it takes to be a successful board game content creator, plus how to talk to non-gamers about board games over the holidays, why there aren't more negative game reviews, and some Ravensburger appreciation

Games we mentioned:

Intro:

We just wrapped up last year with our 2024 Games of the Year episode, so naturally, it's time to move on with our lives and think about what gets us all excited about 2025. What are we looking forward to playing? What have we previewed previously and are now eagerly awaiting the retail release? What's the buzz we're hearing from others in the biz?

Comedian and board game content creator Grant Lyon joins the show to share his thoughts on the biggest offerings for this new year. Plus, with the roller coaster that's TikTok and the continued rise of online toxicity, just how are we looking at board game social media these days?

Timeline:

• 4:45 - Going Analog's game pick: Andromeda's Edge.
• 14:18 - Grant's game pick: Dice Throne.
• 19:38 - Going Analog's topic: 2025 games we're looking forward to.
• 45:44 - Grant's topic: the state of board game social media.

New game publisher Bitewing Games has not one, not two, but THREE Reiner Knizia games to offer in their upcoming Kickstarter. How does a brand spanking new publisher sign the famous, prolific (famously prolific?) German designer Reiner Knizia?

We invited Nick Murray and Kyle Spackman, cofounders of Bitewing Games, to chat with Christina about how it all went down! Plus, we have opinions about our favorite game genres and game length vs. enjoyment.

Topics for this week:

• Christina (host): What are the challenges of being a first-time publisher? How did you sign Reiner Knizia?!
• Nick (guest): Which game genres do you never get tired of? Which ones are you over?
• Kyle (guest): Are game length and game satisfaction proportionally related? What are our faves on either side of the spectrum?

Games mentioned in this episode:

Intro:

• Soda Smugglers
• Pumafiosi
• Hot Lead
• Social Grooming
• Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
• Ticket to Ride
• Mandala
• Lost Cities: Roll & Write
• Lost Cities
• Ra: The Dice Game

Christina's topic: Challenges of being a first-time publisher, signing Reiner Knizia

• Con Artist
• Chinatown
• Hanabi
• Soda Smugglers
• Sheriff of Nottingham
• Pumafiosi
• Hot Lead
• ShipShape

Nick's topic: Insatiable genres that you never get tired of or genres that you're over

• Crystal Palace
• Tigris & Euphrates
• Yellow & Yangtze
• Brass: Birmingham
• 7 Wonders
• Lost Ruins of Arnak
• Dune: Imperium
• Lost Cities: Roll & Write
• My City
• Ultimate Werewolf
• Mysterium
• Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
• Werewords
• Insider

Kyle's topic: Game length vs. satisfaction

• Dune
• Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition
• Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
• Root
• Pax Pamir
• Scythe
• Terra Mystica
• Love Letter
• Lost Legacy: The Starship
• Social Grooming
• Nine Tiles Panic
• Wordsy
• Tussie Mussie

Outro:

• Junk Art
• Akrotiri
• Kingdom Rush
• Belfort

It's our 50th episode! We celebrate by discussing:

• Our top 3 games in BoardGameGeek's top 100
• Our favorite genres (and our favorite game in that genre)
• The best moments from our podcast so far
• The board game that got us into board gaming

Here are the games we mention on the show:

Mike's topic: Favorite game in our favorite genre

• Gloomhaven
• Hansa Teutonica
• 7 Wonders
• Libertalia
• Campy Creatures
• R (BraveRats)
• Orleans
• Caverna
• A Feast for Odin
• Alien Frontiers

Shoe's topic: Top 3 games in the BGG Top 100

• Caverna
• Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar
• Codenames
• 7 Wonders
• La Boca
• Wingspan
• Innovation
• Caverna: The Forgotten Folk
• Terra Mystica
• Crokinole
• Lords of Waterdeep
• The Castles of Burgundy
• Broom Service
• Hansa Teutonica
• Lords of Vegas
• Troyes
• Terraforming Mars
• Chess
• Boggle
• Monopoly
• Go
• Black Angel
• San Juan
• Concordia

Nick's topic: The game that got us into board gaming

• HeroQuest
• Magic: The Gathering
• Vampire: The Masqerade
• Talisman
• Catan
• Monopoly
• Monopoly: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition
• Sorry!
• Trouble
• Puerto Rico
• Bohnanza
• Thunderstone
• Illuminati
• Car Wars
• Arkham Horror

Final thoughts

• War of the Ring

We're back from chilly Philly where the PAX Unplugged board game convention just wrapped up. It's our fourth con of the year -- you'd think we've seen it all by now but nope! There were still plenty of new board games to discover and try out.

With us to discuss the show are Kasey Girven (better known as Brain in a Jar) and Miguel Plylar-Moore (aka Johnny Deathhawk). They create/stream board game content -- and she's a neuroscientist! And they love to talk board gaming, so have a listen as we discuss...

Timeline:

• 3:29 - Shoe's game pick: Deal with the Devil
• 12:34 - Kasey's game pick: Electropolis
• 21:47 - Miguel's game pick: Bitoku
• 32:56 - Kasey's topic: The most exciting or promising games we saw at PAXU that aren't out yet
• 55:34 - Miguel's topic: The games we were surprised to see at PAXU and the ones we wish were there
• 1:05:50 - Shoe's topic: How does PAXU stack up to other board game cons?

What's better than a bunch of adorable, flower-pollinating honeybees? Putting those honeybees in space! New worker-placement game Apiary  is the buzzworthy debut design of Connie Vogelmann. We invited her on the podcast to see how she went from playtester to a proud creator of a high-production game by a big-time publisher. We also chat about what responsibilities designers, publishers, game teachers, and players have in preventing "bad play" plus some recommendations for smaller-group party games.

We're giving away a copy of one of those small-group party games, Stool Pigeon! To enter, just subscribe to our newsletter (look for the "subscribe" email field on the front page of our website). 

Timeline:

• 3:33 - Going Analog's game pick: Apiary.
• 19:06 - Connie's game pick: Life of the Amazonia.
• 23:15 - Going Analog's topic: small-group party games.
• 46:41 - Connie's topic: protecting against "bad play."

What are our favorite two-player, solo, and roll-and-write games? Do you want to restart or fail forward when you lose a cooperative adventure? And we all love designer Uwe Rosenberg!

With guest Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier Games (Wingspan, Tapestry, Scythe).

Here's a full list of games discussed on the show:

Intro

• Wingspan
• Viticulture
• Scythe
• Euphoria
• Tapestry

Shoe's topic: What are our favorite two-player and solo games?

• Lost Cities
• Hanamikoji
• Jixia Academy
• Onitama
• 7 Wonders Duel
• 7 Wonders
• Shards of Infinity
• Shards of Infinity: Shadow of Salvation
• SHOBU
• Jaipur
• War Chest
• War Chest: Nobility
• Patchwork
• Pathfinder: Adventure Card Game
• The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
• Arkham Horror: The Card Game
• Coffee Roaster

Jamey's topic: How do we feel about replaying scenarios vs. "failing forward" in cooperative games?

• Forgotten Waters
• Gloomhaven
• Pandemic Legacy
• Legacy of Dragonholt
• The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth
• T.I.M.E Stories
• Forbidden Desert
• Atlantis Rising
• Arkham Horror

Christina's topic: Favorite beginner-friendly and heavy-duty ___-and-writes

• Second Chance
• Qwixx
• Ganz Schon Clever
• Fleet: The Dice Game
• Rolling Realms
• Welcome to...
• Silver & Gold
• On Tour
• Cartographers
• Doppelt So Clever
• MetroX
• Welcome to New Las Vegas

Jess's topic: What are our favorite Uwe Rosenberg games?

• Agricola
• Patchwork
• Caverna: Cave vs. Cave
• Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small
• Viticulture: Moor Visitors Expansion
• A Feast for Odin
• Caverna
• Caverna: The Forgotten Folk
• Bohnanza
• Cottage Garden
• Fields of Arle
• Le Havre
• Ora et Labora

Final thoughts

• Kingdomino
• Pinnacle
• Scythe
• My Little Scythe
• My Little Scythe: Pie in the Sky
• Rolling Realms
• Euphoria

How do we pick which board games to cull when we move? What is gaming life like in the military? What's considered a classic nowadays? And what's our ideal convention experience -- deadly viruses aside, that is?

Lizzy Funkhouser (Board Game Spotlight) and Derek Funkhouser (Skybound Games) join us to discuss!

Here's a full list of games discussed on the show:

Intro

• Medium
• Q.E.
• The Walking Dead: Something to Fear
• Herbaceous Sprouts

Derek's topic: What makes an evergreen or classic board game?

• Axis & Allies
• Azul
• Ticket to Ride
• Dominion
• Settlers of Catan
• 7 Wonders
• Risk
• Paladins of the West Kingdom
• Marvel Champions: The Card Game
• Nemesis
• Terraforming Mars
• Twilight Struggle
• The Castles of Burgundy
• Viticulture
• Architects of the West Kingdom
• Quacks of Quedlinburg
• Tidal Blades
• Gloomhaven
• Blood Rage
• Carcassonne
• Monopoly
• Scrabble
• The Game of Life
• El Grande
• Wingspan

Christina's topic: What's your ideal convention experience?

• MetroX
• The Taverns of Tiefenthal

Lizzy's topic: How do you decide which games to cull or keep?

• Azul: Summer Pavilion
• Herbaceous
• Mombasa
• Gears of War: The Board Game
• Chaos in the Old World
• World of Warcraft: The Board Game
• StarCraft: The Board Game
• T.I.M.E Stories
• Small World
• Ginkgopolis
• Rococo
• Orleans
• Arboretum
• Lords of Hellas

Shoe's topic: What is board gaming like while deployed or in the armed forces?

• Magic: The Gathering
• The Crew
• Skull King
• The Resistance
• The Resistance: Avalon
• Hanabi
• Hive Mind
• Codenames

Final thoughts

• The Godfather: Corleone's Empire

Maybe you've heard of that hefty game called Gloomhaven, the #1 game on BoardGameGeek for over 5 years. Or its heftier sequel, Frosthaven, the highest-funded gaming project on Kickstarter ever. We're not sure how their designer, Isaac Childres, had time to chat with Going Analog, but we weren't going to pass up the opportunity. We pick his brain on all the -havens, his upcoming plans for the franchise, modern-day crowdfunding, and his love for "dry Euros."

Timeline:

• 4:03 - Shoe's game pick: Familiar Tales.
• 7:22 - Isaac's game pick: Gaia Project.
• 13:00 - Christina's game pick: nana.
• 15:12 - Shoe's topic: the growing Gloomhaven/Frosthaven universe.
• 26:40 - Isaac's topic: the current state of crowdfunding.
• 35:19 - Christina's topic: how Isaac's love of "dry Euros" plays into his design philosophy.

Dan "Shoe" Hsu shares his favorite games of Gen Con, Christina Ha discusses an unfortunate part of con culture, Mike Zipkin chooses his own adventure with House of Danger, and Nick proclaims his love for the minimalist brilliance of Oink Games. Join us!

This episode guest stars prolific and punny content creator Eric Yurko from What's Eric Playing?, a site full of fantastic board game photography and 1000+ (!) reviews. And as a founding committee member of the American Tabletop Awards (and a big fan of cocktails) Eric is THE go-to guy to talk games...especially which ones to play at which drinking establishments.

Timeline:

• 5:45 - Eric's game pick: Mists over Carcassonne.
• 11:39 - Shoe's game pick: Orichalcum.
• 18:00 - Christina's game pick: Great Western Trail: Argentina.
• 23:25 - Shoe's topic: Which American Tabletop Award winner would you keep?
• 36:40 - Christina's topic: Which games would you bring to a beer hall, vineyard, and cocktail bar?
• 56:45 - Eric's topic: What's our process for culling games?

The OG crew are back together - in Mike’s living room! Nick has some best practices for teaching games, Shoe brings tales from a trip to BGG.CON, Christina screams about games that make us yell, and Mike gives us a hot tip on an unsung party game.

This is a special Voltron Podcast episode with Boards Alive's Aaron Cassidy!

(Touchy subject) We talk about the recent drama and controversies in the board game biz (and whether we can separate the art from the artists).

(And not-so-touchy) On a lighter note, we also discuss video-game-licensed board games and deckbuilding in games we wouldn't call deckbuilding games.

Shoe: Board games based on video game licenses that you've enjoyed or are excited about

• Bloodborne
• Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time
• Bloodborne: The Card Game
• The Witcher
• Civilization
• Civilization: A New Dawn
• X-Com
• This War of Mine
• Level 7: Omega Protocol
• Rampage/Terror in Meeple City
• Exceed
• BattleCON
• Portal
• Mechs vs. Minions
• Railways of the World
• Megaland

Christina’s topic: Deckbuilding in games you wouldn’t call deckbuilding games

• Dune Imperium
• Lost Ruins of Arnak
• Viscounts of the West Kingdom
• Dominant Species
• Dice Throne
• The Gallerist
• On Mars
• Lisboa
• Great Western Trail
• Newton
• Food Chain Magnate
• Concordia
• Rococo
• CloudAge
• Mombasa
• Blackout Hong Kong
• Paladins of the West Kingdom
• Luxor
• Taverns of Tiefenthal
• Shards of Infinity
• Ascension

Aaron’s topic: Can we separate the artist from the work?

• Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar
• Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun
• Pax
• Bios
• High Frontier
• Puerto Rico
• Great Western Trail
• Mombasa
• Maracaibo
• Lewis and Clark
• Teotihuacan: City of Gods

Hosting this podcast isn't all just fun and games...no, wait, it actually is! Check out this episode for our impressions of a hilarious adventure game where monsters thrive in a human-less world, a deckbuilding game with cute robots smashing each other, the sequel to our favorite logic-deduction game, a roll-and-write version of Tetris, and two party games (one involving literal junk and the other guessing your friends' D&D-style alignments).

Timeline:

• 1:45 - Freelancers.
• 12:19 - Trash Talk.
• 19:49 - The Search for Lost Species.
• 27:23 - Kiss the Goblin.
• 31:10 - Robot Quest Arena.
• 37:28 - Number Drop.

We knew Connie Vogelmann, designer of Apiary, was holding something back the last time we talked to her. So we brought her and Elizabeth Hargrave back to interrogate them about Wyrmspan, the new dragon-themed sequel to Elizabeth's now-classic and award-winning Wingspan!

What was it like designing a new game under the Wingspan name? How much did Connie and Elizabeth work together? And what counts as a dragon anyway?

Plus, the two have been busy on the convention circuit, so we discuss various board gaming shows and which ones we enjoy the most.

Timeline:

• 4:19 - Going Analog's game pick: Wroth.
• 9:11 - Connie and Elizabeth's game pick: Knarr.
• 16:10 - Going Analog's topic: Wyrmspan's development.
• 33:35 - Elizabeth and Connie's topic: Our favorite gaming events each year.

Who doesn't love a beautiful nature game? Shoe doesn't, the grump. He just hates nature. But did he like the upcoming Everbloom, designed by our guest Ian Moss (Bunkers & Badasses, Dinosaur Island, Wonderland's War), from publisher Nerdvana Games? (Check out the Kickstarter!)

We also discuss what makes a new deluxe or big box edition of a game worth a purchase.

Timeline:

• 2:50 - Going Analog's game pick: Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy.
• 8:06 - Ian's game pick: Canvas.
• 15:30 - Going Analog's topic: favorite nature games.
• 39:53 - Ian's topic: deluxe and big box versions of games.

Last episode, we gave a quick recap of North America's largest board game convention, Gen Con 2024. But what everyone really wants to know is, what was best in show? We did our due diligence, played as many games as we could during and after the con (we know -- our lives are so hard), and are ready to report back. Plus, we tapped Twitch streamer Amanda Panda for her top picks, too, so listen up! 

Timeline:

• 5:48 - 2024 Party Games of Gen Con.
• 10:33 - 2024 Light Games of Gen Con.
• 17:59 - 2024 Medium Games of Gen Con.
• 27:30 - 2024 Heavy Games of Gen Con.