Every Night is Game Night

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Episode 121 - Designer Roundtable on Games with Non-Traditional Themes, pt. 2 Jan 11, 2019

Show notes

We are happy to be joined again by three designers of excellent games with non-traditional themes - Elizabeth Hargrave, designer of Wingspan; Sarah Reed, designer of Oaxaca: Crafts of a Culture; and R. Eric Reuss, designer of Spirit Island. In this half of the conversation we consider some larger picture questions that arise from their games. They share thoughts on how much background research went into all of their games, and also how they address the issue of problematic depictions of different cultures in games. Finally, we tackle the difficult issue of representation in the game designer and publisher communities. We hope this conversation sheds more light than heat, and that folks with lots of different perspectives can learn from it.

Episode 120 - Designer Roundtable on Games with Non-Traditional Themes, pt. 1 Jan 04, 2019

Show notes

Happy New Years, everyone! Our number one wish here at ENGN is to get more and more games that color outside of the lines, so to speak. New and different games makes the gaming hobby better all around. To that end, we gathered three designers of games with very non-traditional themes to share their thoughts - Elizabeth Hargrave, designer of Wingspan; Sarah Reed, designer of Oaxaca: Crafts of a Culture; and R. Eric Reuss, designer of Spirit Island. For this first part of the conversation, we consider questions about tying theme and mechanisms, selling games that don't have zombies and Cthulhu all over them, and some of the weirdest themes we've ever heard of. Thank you to some folks from the 1 Player Guild on BGG for providing excellent questions!

Episode 119 – PAX Unplugged 2018 Recap Pt. 2: More Reviews and State of the Industry Dec 28, 2018

Show notes

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone! We are very excited to continue bringing you old news – PAX Unplugged recap, part two!Jason shares about three more games that hit the table in and around PAX. First there’s Gem Rush, Second Edition (3:25), which is the first game that we will have reviewed twice on the pod. The Second Edition adds… more stuff! It doesn’t leave soot on your hands as you play! Jason is really excited to share about it.

The next game is also a reiteration – Cosmic Run: Regeneration from Dr. Finn’s Games (8:46). If you liked Deep Space D6, Jason thinks there’s a chance you’ll like this one even more.

We wrap up our reviews with one of the new adventure games from Martin Wallace, Wildlands (16:17). This one is getting a fair amount of buzz as a family friendly skirmish game with some Euro elements.

After the reviews, we get into some bigger conversations about the board gaming industry, particularly some of the mergers going on. Good friend of the pod Brenna Noonan stops by to chat about Game Salute’s acquisition of Victory Point Games. Then, Stephen Buonocore from Stronghold and Tricia Victor from Indie Boards and Cards talk about the new company they have founded, Indie Game Alliance. Finally, we take a look at the digital side with Jeremy from Handelabra Games – they of the recently completed Aeon’s End Kickstarter.

ENGN Episode 118 - PAX Unplugged 2018 Recap Pt. 1: Reviews and Previews Dec 21, 2018

Show notes

Last year, we went to PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, where we had a lot of fun, played a lot of games, and gathered clips from various attendees who spoke about the show. This year, we have two episodes for you! More games, more clips, and more coverage of the only convention that Jason gets to go to all year (hooray for newborns...). We start things off with two first impressions of some good games - with some more plays, we might get back to these for some proper reviews. First, Anthony and Chris from Board Gamers Anonymous join Jason for his first play of Teotihuacan: City of Gods (3:42), a Euro worker placement game where you get to construct your own pyramid out of tiles and... yes... score points. After that, Jason ran for cover from all the Euro goodness and found himself demoing The Reckoners (16:25), a cooperative dice rolling superhero game based on a series of novels by Brandon Sanderson. Designer Brett Sobol was good enough to give us his thoughts on his design goals for player experience here. For our sole proper review this episode, we take a look at Star Realms: Frontiers (25:50), the second full expansion for Star Realms. We take a particular look at the solo-coop space battle modules that this expansion includes, as well as the special, player-specific Legendary Commander packs which are sold separately. Finally, Jason spoke with one of the designers, Rob Dougherty, about the mechanical differences between Star Realms and Hero Realms. Finally, we get to some hot previews! We hear from the designers and publishers of 1001 Odysseys (39:18), The Everrain (49:55), and Comanauts (57:04). All three of these promise storytelling and adventure in their gameplay, so you know Jason will be all over these when they release!

Episode 117 - Should I Buy It, Pt. 3: Chronicles of Crime, and Beyond the Hotness Gift Guide Dec 14, 2018

Show notes

Thebrandt from the Portal Gaming Podcast rejoins the show to help us with the last of our "Should I Buy It?" series of deep dive, thorough reviews. We get into Chronicles of Crime, the new app-integrated case solving game from Lucky Duck Games. Brandt loves Detective from Portal Games, so we get into a comparison between the two, looking at what each of them offers in terms of complexity and fun factor. To wrap up this quasi-holiday themed series of episodes, Jason presents five games to get for yourself and/ or others which are "beyond the hotness" (28:00). These are games which were NOT released in 2018 (plenty of lists do that), but which are continuing to be supported by the publisher and which might be worthy additions to any game collection.

ENGN Episode 116 - Should I Buy It, Pt. 2: Arkham Horror 3rd Ed. Dec 07, 2018

Show notes

You guys asked for Arkham? You're getting some Arkham! Every year, we get more and more content from the Cthulhu-verse, especially from Fantasy Flight. This year, we are getting a brand new edition of the grand-daddy of them all - Arkham Horror. How different is this new edition? Should folks who love and/ or own the second edition give this one a close look? I invited noted Arkham-ologist Luke Hector, the Broken Meeple, on to the show to help us figure that all out (4:06). As a bonus, this episode also has part two of a crossover from our friends at Co-Op Cast. We were joined by Roy Cannady of Epic Gaming Night to talk about some of the expansions to the LCG (42:16), since we noticed that expansions don't get nearly the coverage merited by their popularity and sales numbers. We talk anout the second full cycle here, The Forgotten Age. Check out Co-Op Cast for part one, where we talk about the Dunwich Legacy.

https://m.soundcloud.com/user-318456537/coop-cast-se-episode-62-dunwich-legacy-arkham-lcg-cycle-with-every-night-is-game-night

ENGN Preview Series Episode 42 - Four Game Salute Kickstarter Projects with Brenna Noonan Dec 05, 2018

Show notes

After a brief paternity-induced hiatus, the Preview Series is back! We have a bit of an odd duck for you today. Jason wanted to cover the Nemo's War Kickstarter and generally catch up with Victory Point Games, so he reached out to see who would want to come on. After a while, all roads led to good friend of the show, Brenna Noonan with Game Salute.

Brenna hops on the pod, not only to chat about the new Kickstarter for two mini-expansions for Nemo's War, but also three other projects that have launched under the Starling Games imprint - Archmage: Ascendant, Shadowrift: Boomtown, and King's Forge: Masterworks. All four of these projects are expansions with niche audiences, so we're happy to bring them to you. Check out if you want to hop on these evergreen titles.

ENGN Episode 115 - Should I Buy It? Part One: Heroes of Terrinoth Nov 28, 2018

Show notes

Happy Eve of the Holiday Season, everyone! 'Tis the season to get off the fence on some hot releases and buy some stuff. Over the next three episodes, we are going to give you some deep dive consumer guides on some of the hottest releases of the end of the year - Heroes of Terrinoth, Chronicles of Crime, and Arkham Horror 3rd Ed. All three of these games are, in their own ways, the latest iterations of larger genres or game systmes. So we're here to give you the facts and the context that you need.

This week, Jason is joined by Jay Imbrenda, a longtime adventure gamer who wrote an excellent review of Heroes of Terrinoth over on its BGG page. We get into critical distinctions between HoT and it's antecedent, Warhammer Quest ACG - in a nutshell, HoT has more character and quest options, but lacks a campaign in the starter box. We then get into hero mechanisms, the different quests, comparisons to other adventure card games, and a lot more.

ENGN Episode 114 - 2018 People's Choice Top 100 Solo Games Part 2 Nov 23, 2018

Show notes

It’s happening!

Every year, Jason and Anthony welcome Kevin Erskine for the biggest two-episodes of the year. This week, Kevin is back, along with Liz Davidson from Beyond Solitaire to discuss the second half of the 2018 People’s Choice Top 100 Solo Games from the 1 Player Guild on BGG.

Join the crew as they discuss the numbers and trends behind this year’s top 100, and run through games 50-1 on the list. If you’re interested in seeing what everyone is excited about in 2018, hide your wallet in a locked safe and join us for part one of our epic top 100 breakdown.

Check out the current top 100 solo games list on the 1 Player Guild on BGG here: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/248275/2018-peoples-choice-top-100-solo-games

ENGN Episode 113 - 2018 People's Choice Top 100 Solo Games Part 1 Nov 16, 2018

Show notes

It’s happening! Every year, Jason and Anthony welcome Kevin Erskine for the biggest two-episodes of the year. This year, Kevin is back, along with Liz Davidson from Beyond Solitaire to discuss the first half of the 2018 People’s Choice Top 100 Solo Games from the 1 Player Guild on BGG. Join the crew as they discuss the numbers and trends behind this year’s top 100, and run through games 51-100 on the list. If you’re interested in seeing what everyone is excited about in 2018, hide your wallet in a locked safe and join us for part one of our epic top 100 breakdown. Check out the current top 100 solo games list on the 1 Player Guild on BGG here: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/248275/2018-peoples-choice-top-100-solo-games-100-41

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