Every Night is Game Night

Latest Episodes:

ENGN PS 37 - The Shared Dream with John Borgese Oct 01, 2018

Show notes

We here at Every Night is Game Night love when we can preview a project that we've already reviewed and already know is good. Back in Episode 96, Liz, Jeremy and Jason covered a bunch of recently delivered KS projects including The Shared Dream, a big, scenario-based adventure game with an Arkham Horror feel, but with some interesting twists that made it unique.

The CEO and co-founder of ODAM publishing (as well as fellow New Yorker), John Borgese was good enough to stop by the show to talk about what's new with this project. Thanks to fan feedback, they have revamped the core box of The Shared Dream and are giving you a big expansion with more coop and solo play. John breaks down how the fans made the game better and what the new expansion has to offer.

ENGN 106 - Root: Deep Dive and Improve Your Play Sep 28, 2018

Show notes

When the year began and we were looking at the landscape of upcoming games, we didn't foresee that Root would emerge as a contender for Game of the Year. Even for those who don't see what all the fuss is all about, there's no denying that Root is generating a lot to fuss about.

What's the deal? Anthony, Jason, and special guest The Brandt from the Portal Gaming Podcast break down where it improves on Vast, how it succeeds at being both asymmetrical and accessible, and some issues people have.

For our Improve Your Play segment, we invited the designer of Root, Cole Wherle, to share his thoughts (22:01). We have a long discussion about general strategy for Root, as well as how to win with (or, perhaps more importantly, how to beat) each of the base game's four factions. Special thanks to my friend Harrison for helping out, who has played Root a bunch and who contributes his own perspectives.

Please do not be intimidated by the length of the show! A good chunk of the audio occurs after the outro music, where Cole talks about the expansion factions and gives some more general thoughts.

ENGN PS 36 - Lockup: A Roll Player Tale with Keith Matejka Sep 24, 2018

Show notes

Here at Every Night is Game Night, we give the people what they want. A follower on twitter, Lyle Freijo, tagged both ENGN and Thunderworks Games and equested a preview series for their latest game, Lockup. Keith Matejka and Jason quickly emailed one another and made it happen the same night. Ask and you shall receive!

Keith chats about the genesis of the new game Lockup, a worker placement game with a healthy dose of suspicion and mischief at the table. Keith focuses especially on the pain-staking process of playtesting and producing the most polished product they could provide.

He also talks a lot about the success of Roll Player and the slow process of turning it into a franchise. Yes, there are many, many more games in the Roll Player universe to come.

ENGN 105 - GenCon Reviews, pt. 5 - Hot and Heavy Euros Sep 21, 2018

Show notes

Anthony took a nap for last week's episode, so now it's time for Jason to hit the hay and let Anthony spread Euro wings. We chat some very hot Euros that were featured at GenCon this year. We also invited our friend, thebrandt from the Portal Gaming podcast, to help Anthony out in dissecting these games.

Today, we will discuss:

Newton - 4:21 Coimbra - 16:12 Wendake - 23:31 Founders of Gloomhaven - 36:06

ENGN 104 - GenCon Reviews, pt. 4 - Cooperative Games! Sep 14, 2018

Show notes

Anthony has run for the hills this week, making room for Jason to revel in new cooperative games from GenCon (don't worry, Anthony be back next week in all of his Euro glory). Jason also brought along a few friends from the One Stop Coop Shop YouTube channel and also CoOp Cast, Colin and Steve. Thanks for helping out!

They go over some fun games that were featured at the big show. Colin breaks down Talisman: Legendary Tales (4:14), a children's style adventure game that hearkens back (sort of) to the old Talisman game that many folks have played before. Jason and Steve then break down SEAL Team Flix (12:17), a flicking game about marines infiltrating some enemy bases. It's certainly unique, which we appreciate here on ENGN!

Jason and Colin then break down Kitchen Rush (22:54), newly released in the US from Stronghold Games. Kitchen Rush is a real time game about running a restaurant that Colin has played an estimated 40 times already (so you know it must be pretty good, at the very least). Finally, all three of the boys on the call have a nice, healthy debate about The Captain is Dead: Lockdown (36:03), a standalone expansion to The Captain is Dead from AEG.

ENGN Preview Series 35 - Planetarium: Primordial with Brenna Noonan Sep 10, 2018

Show notes

Jason is very, very, very excited to bring you an expansion to one of his favorite family-weight games. The Primordial expansion for Planetarium is current live on kickstarter. Brenna Noonan, who works for Game Salute and helped with the development with the expansion, stopped by the show to talk about how the two modules of the expansion directly addressed issues that people may have had with the base game.

We also get a quick preview of the expansion for Everdell, also currently on Kickstarter.

Brenna then goes into some shop talk about Game Salute. People hear the name "Game Salute" and they have feelings about it. Brenna gives her honest reaction to Game Salute's poor reputation, as well as what she and her company have done to rebound and move forward.

Check out the project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sparkworks/planetarium-primordial-expand-your-planetarium-uni

ENGN 103 - GenCon Reviews, pt. 3 - Expansions Sep 07, 2018

Show notes

Our post GenCon coverage rolls on with expansions for some of our favorite games.

Jason starts off with a review of Tiny Epic Defenders: The Dark War (4:17), as well as the second edition of the base game, Jason answers whether this one will have a chance to convert folks who may have been on the fence about it from the first edition and whether it has something new to offer. Anthony takes the baton for an expansion to one of our favorite games - the Prelude expansion for Terraforming Mars (11:23). Short answer: just get it, it's pretty awesome. Jason comes back with Near and Far: Amber Mines (16:51), which includes a long awaited cooperative mode. Anthony's final expansion is the Beyond the Gates Expansion for Paper Tales, which adds a solo mode to this card drafting game.

Finally, Luke and Jason duke it out over one of the biggest expansions to land this year - Sentinels of the Multiverse: Oblivaeon (34:20). One of us liked it, one of us didn't, so it was a lot of fun to go back and forth about it. We hope you enjoy us geeking out over this one, as well.

ENGN Episode 102 - GenCon Reviews, pt. 2: Games That Tell Stories Aug 31, 2018

Show notes

Our massive, multi-part GenCon recap rolls on! This week, we have some games that are heavily soaked in story and narrative. If you are looking to engage your family and/ or game group in some immersive experiences, we have some good picks for you.

First, Anthony talks about Spy Club (3:20), a card-based game where you act as Nancy Drew-esque kid crime solvers, tracking down suspects and righting wrongs in your own home town. Anthony and Jason come down on surprisingly different sides of the fence for that one. Jason then describes and compares Z-Man Games Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger with the Graphic Novel Adventures from Van Ryder Games (13:35). They both cover the same ground, but do so in very different ways and for different audiences. Finally, Anthony chimes back in and talks about Detective: A Modern Crime Story from Portal Games (22:51).

Comparing all of these experiences led both of us to discuss the broader nature of theme in games - what does "theme" actually mean, what makes a game truly thematic, etc. We didn't plan to have that conversation at all, so it felt really organic and exciting to discuss something near and dear to our hearts (well, at least one of us...).

ENGN Preview Series 33 - A Thief's Fortune with Konstantinos Kokkinis Aug 28, 2018

Show notes

It's been a little while since the last Preview Series pod, but we are back with a fun little card game (you know Jason loves his card games). Konstantinos Kokkinis, founder and CEO of Artipia Games, joins the show to chat about A Thief's Fortune.

This is a card drafting game with some neat mechanisms meant to highlight a richer storytelling element than you might find in similar games. Konstantinos gives his pitch for how the tactically inspired mechanisms lend to the theme, and also discusses the solo mode.

After we chat about the game, Jason pokes his nose into the behind-the-scenes of the last Kickstarter project for this game. This is not the first launch of A Thief's Fortune - it was launched earlier in the year, but pulled four days in. Konstantinos was very honest about why Artipia pulled the project, how they dealt with miffed backers, and what they did to make this project better.

KS Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/241478362/a-thiefs-fortune-by-artipia-games?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=thief%27s%20fortune

ENGN Episode 101 - GenCon Reviews, pt. 1: Dice and Card Games Under 30 Mintues Aug 24, 2018

Show notes

Holy GenCon reviews! This is the first of a multi-part series where we cover all of the fun stuff we played post-GenCon. There was a LOT of games and, to our surprise, much of it was pretty good! We won't keep all of these games on our shelves, but we can say that pretty much everything we talk about over the next few episodes will appeal to someone out there in our audience.

This week, we chat about "filler" games. We do not mean that term pejoratively! These are games that might slide into anyone's collection and provide fun for families and gamers alike.

Trainmaker (6:52) Railroad Ink (11:30) Istanbul: The Dice Game (17:27) Palm Island (24:53) Maiden's Quest (29:28) The Draugr (39:07)

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