Going Analog Show

Plaid Hat CEO Colby Dauch and Marketing Manager Niki Shults team up to discuss some hot (spiteful content creation, life with mega publisher Asmodee, etc.) and not-so-hot (Candy Land??) on the Going Analog Podcast this week. They've put out some incredible and memorable board games over the years, so give them a listen! Timeline: 4:00 - Christina's game pick: Motor City. 6:20 - Niki's game pick: T...

This episode guest stars prolific and punny content creator Eric Yurko from What's Eric Playing?, a site full of fantastic board game photography and 1000+ (!) reviews. And as a founding committee member of the American Tabletop Awards (and a big fan of cocktails) Eric is THE go-to guy to talk games...especially which ones to play at which drinking establishments. Timeline: 5:45 - Eric's game pick...

We're a podcast! Therefore, we're contractually obligated to tell you our Games of the Year. But who wants to hear just Christina and Shoe squabble about their faves of 2022? Everyone would rather hear us and Mik and Starla from Our Family Plays Games squabble, so far be it for us to withhold this top-notch content from our listeners! So get ready for lots of discussions (and lots of yelling at Ch...

For our 100th episode, we had to make sure everyone's topics were epic. So we rounded up some of the Going Analog crew, including OG contributor Nick Suttner and writer Henry Stenhouse, to discuss... Timeline: 7:19 - Henry's topic: Board games that stand up to 100 plays...or more. 26:56 - Christina's topic: Your favorite board gaming moment ever. 39:22 - Shoe's topic: BoardGameGeek's top 100...sav...

We're back from chilly Philly where the PAX Unplugged board game convention just wrapped up. It's our fourth con of the year -- you'd think we've seen it all by now but nope! There were still plenty of new board games to discover and try out. With us to discuss the show are Kasey Girven (better known as Brain in a Jar) and Miguel Plylar-Moore (aka Johnny Deathhawk). They create/stream board game c...

We're back from BoardGameGeek's big show, BGG.CON 2022! Your hosts Christina and Shoe sit down to talk about their Top 10 games panel with Our Family Plays Games, stand-up comedy with Grant Lyon, our own live Board Game Quiz Show events, and of course, all the great games they got a chance to check out. Timeline: 1:47 - BGG.Con highlights, including our live Board Game Quiz Show! 4:50 - Our Family...

We recently spent six solid days playing board games. Seriously. It was exhausting -- but amazingly fun. We blame Going Analog contributor Jess Yi, who visited and forced us to play one board game after another. At the end, with bloodshot eyes and brains working at half speed, Shoe and Jess picked three games each to discuss. Hear their thoughts on... Timeline: 2:52 - Knight Fall 11:02 - Star Wars...

Can a board game kill ya? Nah...but Black Mold may try. This "co-op till it's not" survival-horror game has players taking as many actions as they can until they can no longer...hold their breath. You read that right. So we have questions -- lots of questions -- for our guest John de Campos, CEO of Terrible games and co-designer of Black Mold. Timeline: 2:37 - Oceans: Legends of the Deep 7:00 - Ve...

Logic-deduction board game Turing Machine challenges players to figure out a secret code using innovative punch-card verifiers that layer atop each other to "magically" reveal clues. How does it work?! We had to know, so we asked our guests from publisher Scorpion Masqué and Hachette Games to sit there and explain it to us. Oh, we also talk artwork and rulebooks, too. Topics on this episode: Chris...

Game designer Ryan Courtney loves making connections (if you've played Pipeline or Curious Cargo, then you know what we're talking about). His newest creation, Trailblazers from Bitewing Games has you -- you guessed it -- making and blazing connecting trails in nature. We invited Ryan as well as Bitewing co-founder Nick Murray to join our podcast to talk about this new project, other games that tr...

Gen Con 2022 saw the return of over 50,000 attendees (and four days of non-stop gaming) to Indianapolis -- and, most importantly, the return of Christina and Shoe to the big show! We invited Twitch streamer and content creator Amanda Panda to join us to discuss our experiences and the hot new games. Topics this episode: Christina (host): Hot games of Gen Con (15:31) Amanda (guest): Lighter party g...

Since you can download the fantastic and completely free Sunshine City from Coffee Bean Games, we invited designer Peter C. Hayward to talk some of our favorite lighter and heavier games in the roll & write genre. Shoe tries to articulate the idea of "hybrid" games of multiple ideas coming together to form one new product, and we discover Peter's complete fascination and almost encyclopedic knowle...

Johnny O'Neal, one of the brother cofounders of Brotherwise Games (publisher of Unearth, Call to Adventure, and the recently successfully funded Castles by the Sea), drops by Going Analog to discuss his design philosophy and asserts that every game needs to be shorter. We're pretty sure that's the takeaway. We also figured the co-designer of Boss Monster (in which you play as, well, the end-of-dun...

Tim Fowers, indie designer and publisher at Fowers Games, intrigues Christina and Shoe with the concept of "anticipation" and how it plays into dopamine-filled play. And because Tim is such a marketing mastermind, he drops a Fugitive 2 tease about...46 minutes into this episode. Christina talks to Tim about Paperback and Hardback, Fowers Games's two popular word/spelling games...and listen for a s...

Matt from YouTube's Board Game Bollocks drops by to (somehow successfully!) not swear while chatting about his gaming lifestyle, nihilism, and how Americans are so "happy and bouncy." Our topics this week: Christina (host): Our favorite animal-themed games (10:36) Mike (editor): Board gaming as a lifestyle (19:59) Matt (guest): The rising prices of board games and their implications (32:27) Learn...

It's rematch time! Amanda Panda, board game Twitch streamer and content creator, returns to argue over three fresh new matchups -- and we're throwing hands! Our matchups for this sequel: Christina (host): Namiji vs. Tokaido (12:27) Shoe (producer): G.I. Joe Deck-Building Game vs. Transformers Deck-Building Game (23:31) Amanda (guest): Kingdom Builder vs. The Guild of Merchant Explorers (40:48) Lea...

Mik and Starla of Our Family Plays Games join Going Analog to talk about the state of diversity and inclusion in the board gaming community, why they felt the need to start their new OFPG Voices channel, and which crowdfunding games we're most excited to get delivered soon! Topics this week: Starla (guest): The current state of diversity and inclusion in the board gaming community (8:22) Mik (gues...

The Going Analog gang has recovered from their Vegas trip to Dice Tower West. So how does this convention stack up to their other faves? What did they play? And how's the new remake of one of their fave board games? Topics this week: Christina (host): Our highlights from Dice Tower West and our tips for attending a convention (11:01) Jess (contributor): Comparing our favorite board game cons (23:3...

The Going Analog Podcast hosts our first full-time board game illustrator, and it's KWANCHAI MORIYA. He even showed up to our house with beef jerky! The prolific and versatile illustrator of many of your favorite games (including Dinosaur Island, Capital Lux, In the Hall of the Mountain King) recently commemorated his 100th piece of board game art, so we had to celebrate with him on our show. Topi...

Some friends from The Op join Christina to swap gaming stories and imagined celebrity gaming stories! Pat Marino (Game Design Manager and designer of Court of the Dead: Mourner's Call and Cuphead: Fast Rolling Dice Game) and Wes Ferrer (Lead Playtest Coordinator), with topics in hand, get on the Going Analog Podcast to discuss: Christina (host): If you could teach a game to any celebrity, real or...

Agricola vs. Caverna? We've discussed that hundreds of times, and the obvious right answer is Caverna. But what about 7 Wonders vs. 7 Wonders: Architects? Calico vs. Cascadia? And a more recent classic clash, Funkoverse vs. Unmatched? We brought on Amanda Panda, aka Panda8ngel, board game Twitch streamer and all-around enthusiastic gamer, to give us her opinions, we all agree: Shoe is wrong. Our m...

Mike Gnade, founder/CEO of Rock Manor Games (Set a Watch, Lawyer Up, and the upcoming Seas of Havoc) is our guest this week. The topics we each picked: Christina (host): What deck-building games do we first show to newbies? And then after they need to graduate to something more advanced? Mike Gnade (guest): Which Kickstarter board games pleasantly surprised you? And which disappointed you? Shoe (p...

David Sirlin, President of Sirlin Games, drops by to do a deep dive into video game influences on his tabletop designs, especially with the new Puzzle Strike 2! We also discuss how push-your-luck mechanisms and designing a board game universe. Our chosen topics this week: David Sirlin (guest): How his game design draws from video game influences Christina (host): Push-your-luck in game design and...

We're slamming the door on 2021 and looking forward to the new year! Older games we're itching to get to the table, long-awaited games we're anxiously waiting for, and neglected shelf-of-opportunity games that are finally coming due -- we bring back prolific content creator Ruel Gaviola to talk about them all! Topics this week: Shoe (producer): Which older games are we excited to get to the table...

Even though we've cautiously emerged from our social bubble, we figured we'd bring back our neighbor-friends and former bubble-ers James Hudson (Senior Director of Tabletop Games at Skybound) and Tom Twedell to discuss/argue about the games we played this year! Party Game of 2021 Light Games of 2021 Medium Games of 2021 Heavy Games of 2021 Favorite New-to-Us Games of 2021 What's a medium vs. heavy...