Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Going Analog Podcast

• We might need to make this an annual tradition: We get new heavy games in. We take forever to learn them. We then spend hours playing them (with our good friend Daniel from The Game Table, who even spent the night at our place this time to get in more gaming the next day). Then we record a podcast episode giving our thoughts on them.

  We have a bunch of new, newish, and future releases to cover, so listen in to see what we liked and didn't like about our plays.

  Timeline:

  • 1:34 - Brass: Pittsburg.
  • 12:59 - Speakeasy.
  • 17:40 - The Great Library.
  • 20:50 - Nippon: Zaibatsu.
  • 27:05 - Thebai.
    
  • 33:25 - Tianxia.
  • 40:09 - Covenant.
  • 45:14 - Barrage: Duel.
  • 51:57 - Darwin's Journey: Oceania.

Fort Circle Games takes history very seriously...but not overly so. Titles like Votes for Women and The Halls of Montezuma treat their subject matters with respect (the women's suffrage movement and the Mexican-American War, respectively) with research, consultants, and even facsimiles of documents.

It might sound a little dry, but Fort Circle is on a mission: to bring this knowledge to gamers while adhering to modern game-design sensibilities. They want you to learn a thing or three...while having fun.

We invited Fort Circle founder and owner Kevin Bertram to talk more about his company's interesting philosophy and how games can be educational, without necessarily being educational games.

Timeline:

• 2:38 - Going Analog's game pick: Behind the Lens: Photographing Earth.
• 6:50 - Kevin's game pick: Fortress America.
  
• 8:52 - More about Fort Circle Games.
• 17:52 - Kevin's topic: The educational value of board games.

We're back from Dice Tower West, horribly dehydrated and almost 200 games lighter. While we offloaded a lot of our collection at the convention's flea market, we did get to play a bunch of new games (super shoutout to Grant's Game Recs for showing us the majority of them). So it's only a matter of time before we start buying more games to fill in those sad gaps on our shelves.

Listen or watch to see what's got us excited after five days of conventioning!

Timeline: 

• 3:02 - Shoe's game pick: Pantheauction.
• 5:56 - Christina's game pick: Bullseye.
  
• 11:30 - Going Analog's topic: The best games we played from Dice Tower West 2026.

Our guest this week is crazy enough to include his personal phone number in every game he sells. Brent Beck (aka "Grandpa Beck" of Grandpa Beck's Games) wants no barriers when it comes to learning his games, so he includes his digits in every copy in case you want to text him for rules clarifications.

That's why his chosen topic -- bringing people together through gameplay -- makes so much sense. Brent wants nothing more but to draw people to him and each other to enjoy the hobby he loves so much.

Listen/watch as we discuss his work and play philosophies, how many texts from customers he gets per day, and more.

Timeline: 

• 3:03 - Going Analog's game pick: Pandora's Legacy.
• 5:48 - Grandpa Beck's game pick: Mille Bornes.
  
• 11:03 - Grandpa's Beck's topic: Bringing people together through gameplay.

We had to bring in this episode's guest to settle something. In our 2025 Games of the Year show, Christina called Wine Cellar a runner-up for her Party Game of the Year. Shoe took issue with her calling the wine-making card game a "party game," so whom better to bring in than its designer, Andrew Stiles, to settle this hugely important argument?

He has a great topic for us, too. Since he gets to playtest so many games for his colleagues, he goes over several he's particularly excited to see finally released this year. And since we get to preview many titles ourselves, we get in on the conversation. Listen to see what we think are the most exciting games to watch for in 2026.

Timeline:

• 7:55 - Going Analog's game pick: Snow Colony.
• 11:12 - Andrew's game pick: Castles of Mad King Ludwig.
  
• 15:41 - Andrew's topic: 2026 games we've played and are excited about.

It's our yearly tradition now: We invite a new content creator on our show, and we discuss the best games of the year in several weight categories. Joining us for our 2025 edition is Candice Harris, formerly of BoardGameGeek and now doing her own thing with Kickin' It Creative. She's just as board game crazy as we are, so check out what we thought were the best of the year.

Timeline:

The 2025 Games of the Year (hit up our website for the full list of winners and runners-up):

• 7:06 - 2025 Party Games of the Year.
• 18:10 - 2025 Light Games of the Year.
• 33:38 - 2025 Medium Games of the Year.
• 50:55 - 2025 Heavy Games of the Year.

We're back (and so is our guest, Grant Lyon of Grant's Game Recs) with a bunch more new 2-player games that we loved and want to tell you alllll about. Make sure to catch part 1 of our two-part special, so you can have more 2P recommendations than you'll know what to do with.

Timeline:

• 1:28 - Going Analog's game pick: Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game.
• 7:45 - Grant's game pick: How to Save a World.
  
  Great 2-player games, part two:
  
  
• 15:02 - Everdell Duo.
• 18:31 - Kinfire Delve.
• 27:00 - Timber Town.
• 30:12 - Naishi.
• 32:54 - Zenith.
• 40:02 - Pillars of Fate.

2025 is "The Year of the 2-Player Game" -- at least according to our guest, professional comedian and board game content creator Grant Lyon of Grant's Game Recs. There have been so many good ones that came out over the past yeart that it's hard to refute that statement. So hard that, rather than refute, we'll just create a two-part podcast special covering all the great 2P games we've been playing. This is part one!

Timeline:

• 2:00 - Going Analog's game pick: Origin Story.
• 9:38 - Grant's game pick: Pinched!.
  
  Great 2-player games, part one:
  
  
• 16:50 - The White Castle Duel.
• 19:59 - Madcala.
• 25:35 - Enthrone.
• 29:19 - Compile: Main 2.
• 35:33 - Scales of Fate.
• 39:17 - Bombastic.

Our favorite "just playing games" convention is behind us now, and...we did spend a lot of time just playing games. A LOT. BGG.CON features BoardGameGeek's legendary library plus the latest hotness from the king of board game shows, Essen Spiel, so we had no shortage of options.

Listen in to see what our highlights were and to get a tease of what we have in store for Season 6 of The Board Game Quiz Show.

A lot of drafting games have been hitting our table lately, and they're all putting their own twists on the genre. We've been enjoying them so much that we're dedicating this whole episode to our top picks.

Plus, the sequel to Yomi, is here. Shoe's played a lot of fighting (video) games, so what does he think about probably the most pure card-game interpretation around?

Timeline

• 0:53 - Going Analog's game pick: Yomi 2.
• 7:54 - 6 new drafting games worth checking out.

All this business (or loss of) around tariffs has repeated raised a question from the gaming community: Why not just manufacture games in the U.S. instead of, say, China?

James Hudson, game designer and owner of Druid City Games, took time out of promoting his Wonderland's War Duel Kickstarter (check out our preview!) to explain why it's so difficult. We've heard the facts from the board game industry before, but James has additional insight worth hearing out.

Timeline

• 1:30 - Going Analog's game pick: Everbloom.
• 4:58 - James' game pick: Galileo Galilei.
• 11:35 - Wonderland's War Duel, a new Wonderland's War expansion, Madcala, Off With Their Heads!, and an expansion to Tidal Blades 2.
• 22:03 - James' topic: Why making board games in America is so difficult.

The OG card-crafting game Mystic Vale is getting a major makeover. Or is it a sequel? Whatever you want to call it, Mystic Lands is taking Vale's original concept of layering clear cards to create powerful combinations and streamling gameplay while beautifying the art. The result is a much better game (from our one play), and now we have to suffer the wait for the November Kickstarter campaign to run and fulfill.

Designer John D Clair and CEO of publisher Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) John Zinser stopped by our home to play a full game of Mystic Lands with us (Shoe would rather we don't discuss the final scores). Before we would let them out of the house, however, we made both sit down to record this podcast. Clair is working on some autobattler game designs, so that was his topic for us this week.

Timeline

• 1:15 - Going Analog's game pick: Fight 5.
• 3:05 - John D Clair's game pick: Living Forest.
• 5:13 - John Zinser's game pick: Love Letter.
• 7:37 - Mystic Lands and card-crafting.
• 21:38 - John D Clair's topic: The new trend of autobattler board and card games.

Let's try something new! For some reason (spoiler: the reason is laziness), we don't have a guest this week, so Shoe and Christina decided to feature the seasonally appropriate (for the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival) Moon Bunny and then discuss some exciting new push-your-luck dice games that we've been enjoying.

Timeline

• 1:30 - Game pick: Moon Bunny
• 7:12 - Topic: push-your-luck dice games

We've been keeping an eye on the Kinfire series (which includes the cooperative campaign Kinfire Chronicles and tactical card game Kinfire Delve), and we walked away very impressed with our plays of the latest one in the franchise, Kinfire Council, a competitive worker-placement game set in the same world. Publisher Incredible Dream Studios is approaching gaming differently, so we asked CEO and co-founder Jane Hoffacker to discuss the massive amount of work that goes into designing a shared-universe space. And we continued the chat with Jane posing some thoughtful questions about cultural appropriation in gaming.

Timeline:

• 4:08 - Going Analog's game pick: Tea Witches.
• 8:25 - Jane's game pick: Dungeon Mayhem.
  
• 10:38 - Going Analog's topic: board game universes, the Kinfire series.
• 31:46 - Jane's topic: cultural appropriation in gaming.

Cozy is the new zombie. Or Cthulhu. Seriously -- just keep your eye on those store shelves (especially over the next few months), and you'll likely see so many new board games themed around the art of non-conflict. Maybe you'll be cuddling up with kitties. Or you'll be sitting around, peacefully matching tiles at your own pace. Or you'll be arranging books around your home in ways that please only you, as in our guest's co-designed A Place for All My Books.

Alex Cutler joins the podcast this week to talk about what exactly makes a game "cozy." Plus we lean into his experience as a developer (not just designer) to learn what makes for a good product. Sure, great gameplay is a must -- but what else will make gamers want to make that purchase?

Timeline:

• 3:15 - Going Analog's game pick: Black Forest.
• 6:59 - Alex's game pick: Fishing.
• 10:33 - Going Analog's topic: cozy games.
• 22:12 - Alex's topic: what makes a game a good product.

We love Gen Con so much, we couldn't fit everything into our Games of the Show episode. And Corey Thompson loves Gen Con so much that he became a part-owner of the giant North American gaming convention.

Corey leads Above Board TV, cohosts the Board Games Insider podcast, co-owns Play to Z Games, and...lots more that will just take up way too much space to write all out. So he was the perfect guest to invite on our show to chat about about more Gen Con highlights -- and some of our recent and classic two-player favorites.

Timeline:

• 3:48 - Going Analog's game pick: Panda Spin.
• 7:30 - Corey's game pick: Giberrers.
• 10:57 - Going Analog's topic: final Gen Con thoughts and highlights.
• 29:36 - Corey's topic: great two-player games (classic and new).

We're back from North America's giant gaming convention: Gen Con 2025! Did you miss us? Don't answer and don't worry -- we've got the coverage for ya.

We sit down and talk about SO MANY GAMES -- over 20 of 'em in this episode alone. Which did we like? Which were the best in show for us? Listen to find out!

Timeline:

• 4:21 - 2025 Party Games of Gen Con.
• 13:00 - 2025 Light Games of Gen Con.
• 35:42 - 2025 Medium Games of Gen Con.
• 53:10 - 2025 Heavy Games of Gen Con.

We love unique gaming experiences, especially from those tough-to-find games in Asia. Why are they so different from Western-made games? And what are the differences between games that originated from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, or other parts of the East?

Jay Bernardo, marketing manager at Bezier Games and content creator at Cardboard East (which specializes in covering board games from Asia), was kind enough to join Going Analog to teach us the ways. We also recommend some new games that play best at 5 or 6 players!

Timeline:

• 3:29 - Going Analog's game pick: Finca.
• 8:35 - Jay's game pick: Dune (1979 version).
• 18:01 - Jay's topic: East vs. West board games.
• 41:51 - Going Analog's topic: 5- to 6-player games.

Do you enjoy hosting a handful of people for game night? How about a few hundred? That's what these three tried for the first time about a month ago in Burbank, CA: Dustin Staats, content creator and owner of online and brick-and-mortar retailer BGE Tabletop; George Caceres, owner of board game cafe Game N' Grounds; and Dae, owner of board game store Fire & Dice, came together to put on the very first LFG Con this past June.

We asked Dustin to join us on the podcast to talk about how their convention dreams started and what it took to make them a reality. Plus, Dustin shares how he made the transition from board game content creator to board game retailer. Listen in!

Timeline:

• 3:53 - Going Analog's game pick: Dark Heists.
• 8:58 - Dustin's game pick: Scythe.
• 11:59 - Going Analog's topic: Running a game convention (for the first time).
• 25:47 - Dustin's topic: From content creator to retailer (how I opened my brick & mortar store)

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: Babylon.
• 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.

Game time! We catch up on a bunch of reviews for new games and expansions -- tune in to find out how much we liked them! And whether Christina ever found her Pringle.

Thanks to the publishers for providing review copies.

Timeline:

New games:

• 1:30 - The Architects of Amytis.
• 6:24 - Medieval Academy.
• 11:41 - Combo.
• 15:55 - Star Trek: Star Realms.

New expansions:

• 21:45 - Evergreen: Pines and Cacti.
• 27:52 - Ancient Knowledge: Heritage.
• 34:44 - Sky Team: Turbulence.
• 40:31 - Rebel Princess: Happily Never After.

The 2025 American Tabletop Awards were just announced! (Whispers offstage inform us that they were announced back in April....)

Well, we're now ready to talk about them after our extended break. With ATTA cofounder and content creator Eric Yurko of What's Eric Playing?, we react to the recently crowned finalists and winners -- and tell you how we each voted as part of the judging panel.

Timeline:

• 7:08 - Early Gamers category.
• 17:54 - Casual Games category.
• 30:29 - Strategy Games category.
• 40:03 - Complex Games category.

We're back! Again! Tune in to hear all our excuses about why we haven't been podcasting recently, then stay to hear our guest, fabulous designer (Evolution, Wits & Wagers, Oceans) and North Star Games founder Dominic Crapuchettes! We talk about the upcoming Evolution sequel Nature, tariffs (gah), and Dominic's process when designing a science-based game.

Timeline:

• 1:39 - Nature.
• 8:45 - Going Analog's game pick: Super Boss Monster.
• 12:26 - Dominic's game pick: The Gang.
• 17:32 - Going Analog's topic: tariffs impacting the board game industry.
• 29:42 - Dominic's topic: designing science/real life games.

Imagine the longest, most suspenseful drumroll ever.......

Sorry we've been MIA, but real life has been unforgiving and busy. Luckily, we're making it up to you by commemorating our 150th episode with our TOP 10 GAMES OF ALL TIME! We invite Ultimate Beige Gamer and Going Analog Editor Mike Zipkin to join us to share our individual top 10 lists. Whose taste will reign supreme? Which Going Analog-er is your favorite board game soulmate? You'll have to listen to find out.

Did someone say Phil Walker-Harding? Praise be!

The prolific designer (Sushi Go!, Barenpark, Imhotep, Gizmos, Adventure Games, and so many more!) joins Christina and Shoe to talk about how his film background has surprisingly influenced his design process. Plus, Phil's been noticing the "playfulness" inherent in some games recently. Why is he excited about this, and what does it mean for his own designs? Watch or listen to find out!

Timeline:

• 3:01 - Going Analog's game pick: Rivages.
• 5:32 - Phil's game pick: Acquire.
• 9:27 - Going Analog's topic: How Phil's film background influences his game design.
• 25:56 - Phil's topic: Playfulness in game design.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tired of hoarding resources, majority-ing areas, and adding up victory points? Want to make your frenemy continuously act like they're milking a cow instead? Then let's talk party games!

Shoe and Christina run through a bunch of new big-group activities to help you with your next big game night.

This episode was sponsored by Magic Mind, our favorite Mental Performance Shot. As a special offer for our listeners, they're giving 40% off the next 10 (and only 10!) uses of this promo code. Go to https://magicmind.com/ANALOG40 and use our code ANALOG40 to get this deal.

Timeline:

• 1:09 - Christina's game pick: Minos: Dawn of the Bronze Age.
• 6:09 - Shoe's game pick: Nature.
• 12:44 - Games that tweak party game formulas: Sync, Rabble, Lovestruck.
• 24:59 - Team games: Belratti, Blank Slate: Challenge, Mini-Game Party.
• 35:27 - Drawing games: Caution Signs, Speed Colors.
• 42:37 - Quick hits: Task Team, Ultimate Dibs, I'm Kind of a Big Dill.

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.

• 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.

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.

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.

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.

What's your favorite movie genre? And which board games can you play to relive those feels? We ask performer and board game writer Mx. Tiffany Leigh to chat about this. As someone who worked in movie production and a real-deal old-school video store, she has fantastic movie and game recs! (We got so into the movie topic that we ran out of time for Tiffany's topic -- raincheck!)

Timeline:

• 3:51 - Christina/Shoe's game pick: Galactic Renaissance.
• 14:30 - Tiffancy's game pick: The Taverns of Tiefenthal.
• 24:24 - Christina/Shoe's topic: games for movie lovers.

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.

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.

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.

Legacy games can often light a classic franchise back on fire, as demonstrated by Flash Point: Legacy of Flame's successful Kickstarter.

We asked Legacy of Flame codesigner Ken Franklin (The Mansky Caper, Back to the Future: Dice Through Time, Tsuro: Phoenix Rising) to share some insight into how they turned the long-running co-op series into an evolving legacy experience. And while we're on the subject, what are other legacy games that we're fond of? And on a very unrelated topic, Ken educates us on the recent wave of gameplay-focused, Christianity-themed board games.

Timeline:

• 3:53 - Going Analog's game pick: ArcheOlogic.
• 10:03 - Ken's game pick: Kingsburg.
• 14:57 - Going Analog's topic: The development of Flash Point: Legacy of Flame, plus other legacy games we like.
• 32:37 - Ken's topic: Christian themes in gaming.

The 2024 American Tabletop Awards winners were just announced, so we invited ATTA founder, fellow judging member, and content creator Eric Yurko of What's Eric Playing? to hash them all out. How did Eric, Christina, and Shoe vote?

Timeline:

• 3:30 - Early Gamers category.
• 19:45 - Casual Games category.
• 35:51 - Strategy Games category.
• 53:52 - Complex Games category.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."