Test Coast Games – Details, episodes & analysis

 

In this special live stream episode for TCTC 2021, we speak to Brendan McCaskell, lead designer of the forthcoming Stars of Akarios from OOMM Games.  Brendan tells us all about what's in his big-box space game and the steps that led to its million dollar Kickstarter campaign! TestCoastGames-033-Brendan-McCaskell.mp3     

 We speak to Sharise Nicole  (Reecie), Producer at BeBold Games. 

Sharise tells us her origin story as a singer-songwriter and former beauty pageant queen turned game content creator.We learn about the challenges she faces in her role at BeBold; some technical, and others in the form of online trolls.   She tells us about her most inspiring person, a notable pop-star who lives day to day under incredible circumstances!
TestCoastGames-023-Sharise-Nicole.mp3

• https://twitter.com/BoldReecie 
• https://soundcloud.com/sharisenicole 
•  https://www.missthurstoncounty.com/ 
•  http://pungeoncrawl.podbean.com/ 

We speak to Randy Flynn, designer of Cascadia from Flatout Games coming in 2021. 

Randy tells us the origin story of his forthcoming games Cascadia and Tabriz, as well as how he met Flatout Games and joined their "CoLab" game design collective.
TestCoastGames-022-randy-flynn.mp3https://twitter.com/rf_seattle https://www.instagram.com/randy_flynn/https://www.flatout.games/cascadia-signup 

A panel of friends comes together to discuss the social and technical challenges of boardgame playtesting during Covid-19.  Featuring Kennedy Goodkey, Chris Morris, Marcel Perro and Mark Yuasa.We discuss a number of tools and topics including:

• BoardGameArena 
• Tabletop Simulator 
• Tabletopia 
• Discord 
• Vancouver Playtest Group 
• GAC virtual meetup groups 
• Nerdlab / Mastermind Groups 

TestCoastGames-021-playtesting.mp3

We speak to Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin and Shawn Stankewich, all tabletop game designers in their own right. Together they are Flatout Games, a board game design collaborative based in Seattle WA, and Winnipeg MB.The three tell us how Flatout Games started as a game review team, and naturally developed into the design collaborative we know today.We discuss their smash hit 'Point Salad' and how it came to be.We learn about the Flatout Games Colab, how it works and about the titles coming from the Colab in the future including 'Calico', and 'Cascadia'. The three tell us about their design philosophy and the spirit of collaboration that has lead to their success.

TestCoastGames-020-flatout-games.mp3
http://twitter.com/FlatoutGames

We bring you a Virtual Events Report with content accessible from wherever you are.  Tabletop.Events is hosting a digital protospiel con.The Vancouver BC game store, Magic Stronghold is taking their Magic the Gathering events online. Find out more at their Facebook page. Past TestCoast guest Scott Rogers is sharing daily challenges for "Pantone the Game on Facebook and Twitter.Storm Chaser Games is sharing daily challenges of their game "Medium" on Twitter.Asmodee has made some of their more family friendly games available as Print and Play files. Titles include games and demo from popular series such as Spot-It, Timeline and Unlock. This is on top of the Love Letter variant "Sender" that they released a few days ago. ButtonShy games has added a number of their titles to the dozens of free games available at pnparcade.com.Days of Wonder is offering a Print and Play version of their roll and write Corinth at their website.Osprey Games is giving away a number of free PDF downloads such as their fantasy wargame "Frostgrave" at their website.WizKids has made a version of their roll and write "Super Skill Pinball" from designer Geoff Engelstein available at their website.Portal games and Garphill Games has made print and play expansions for a number of their games available at their websites.More publisher responses to the Covid-19 pandemic can be found here:https://print-and-play.asmodee.funhttps://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/271049/publisher-covid-19-response-offers-free-stay-home And now for a podcast announcement:For a number of reasons outside of our control, we will be releasing the show on a less regular schedule. Please bear with us. We haven't given up just yet. I hope you will have patience with us as come to terms with the new normal in early 2020.We at TestCoast Games hope that you are staying safe and staying connected while distancing yourselves physically. We hope to see you at the gaming table very soon.
Virtual-Events-Report-005-april-2020.mp3

We speak to Andrea Driedger, owner of Adventure Dice and Communications lead for the Terminal City Tabletop Convention.We learn how Andrea started Adventure Dice from a place of adversity, and developed it into a successful business and an outlet for her creativity.We discuss how games can be used in the age of Covid-19 and how they must change to meet our current needs.Andrea recounts how difficult it was to cancel TCTC. But rather than succumbing to her own disappointment, she channeled it into the first ever, virtual TCTC on Twitch.
TestCoastGames-019-andrea-driedger-of-adventure-dice.mp3https://twitter.com/terminalcityconhttps://roll20.net/http://holdthefort.ca/

A panel of friends comes together to discuss how best to stay connected during this global pandemic. Featuring Nick Angiers, Mark Ellis, Marcel Perro and Mark Yuasa.
TestCoastGames-panel-001-stay-connected.mp3We discuss a number of tools and topics including:

• BoardGameArena 
• Tabletop Simulator 
• Tabletopia 
• Tilt 5 
• Vorpal Board 
• Teburu 
• Twitch.tv 
• TCTC Virtual Convention 
• Discord 
• GenCon / GenCan’t 
• Origins / Norigins
• Vancouver Playtest Group 
• GAC virtual meetup groups 
• Nerdlab / Mastermind Groups 
• Tokaido Digital
• Books by Geoff Engelstein
• Gametek 
• Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design