Going Analog Show

Latest Episodes:

125: The 2023 Games of the Year episode (guest: Grant Lyon) Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

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.

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124: King of Tokyo vs. King of Monster Island, Tokaido vs. Duo, Kapow! vs. Dice Throne Jan 04, 2024

Show notes

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.

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123: Space bees! Plus small party games, "bad play" design (guest: Connie Vogelmann) Dec 14, 2023

Show notes

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."

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122: Euros Special, pt. 2! The hot new games of 2023 (guest: The Game Table) Nov 30, 2023

Show notes

We are back and ready to cover more great Euro games with Daniel Wahlen of The Game Table! This time, we focus on the new hotness that 2023 has generously brought us, but if you're more into modern-day remakes or sequels to legendary classics, make sure to check out Part 1. In this episode, we give our impressions on...

Timeline:

2:30 - Nucleum.
21:41 - Distilled.
30:45 - 3 Ring Circus.
43:18 - Noteworthy: Darwin's Journey, Stefan Feld's City Collection, Marrakesh, The White Castle.

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121: Euros Special, pt. 1! The best new (and old) remakes/sequels (guest: The Game Table) Nov 16, 2023

Show notes

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...)

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120: SolForge Fusion, digital to tabletop to digital (guests: Richard Garfield/Justin Gary) Nov 02, 2023

Show notes

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.

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119: Her design secrets/inspirations, what we learn from gaming (guest: Elizabeth Hargrave) Oct 19, 2023

Show notes

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?

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118: Party time! Co-op vs. team party games (guest: Jacob Way/Friendly Skeleton) Oct 12, 2023

Show notes

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.

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117: Video vs board games, why we play co-ops when we don't like them (guest: Banzainator) Sep 28, 2023

Show notes

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.

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116: The Arkham Asylum Files -- a behind-the-scenes look at this most ambitious game Sep 14, 2023

Show notes

We haven't played anything quite like The Arkham Asylum Files: Panic in Gotham City. This super premium, augmented-reality, multimedia experience is a pricey box at $149 for a one-time (maybe? -- listen to learn more) playthrough. Is it worth it?

To dig into how The Arkham Asylum Files is pushing the boundaries of tabletop gaming, we invited Animal Repair Shop and Infinite Rabbit Holes Senior VP of Interaction Design (and magician!) Michael Borys to discuss the epic design and production processes, the countless creative and budgetary challenges, and how "being the dot" influences everything he works on.

Timeline:

4:55 - Christina and Shoe's game pick: The Arkham Asylum Files: Panic in Gotham City.
17:14 - Michael's game pick: Wiz-War.
22:30 - Christina and Shoe's topic: bringing augmented reality to tabletop.
40:35 - Michael's topic: being the "dot"!

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