Tired of hoarding resources, majority-ing areas, and adding up victory points? Want to make your frenemy continuously act like they're milking a cow instead? Then let's talk party games! Shoe and Christina run through a bunch of new big-group activities to help you with your next big game night. This episode was sponsored by Magic Mind, our favorite Mental Performance Shot. As a special offer for our listeners, they're giving 40% off the next 10 (and only 10!) uses of this promo code. Go to https://magicmind.com/ANALOG40 and use our code ANALOG40 to get this deal. Timeline: 1:09 - Christina's game pick: Minos: Dawn of the Bronze Age.6:09 - Shoe's game pick: Nature.12:44 - Games that tweak party game formulas: Sync, Rabble, Lovestruck.24:59 - Team games: Belratti, Blank Slate: Challenge, Mini-Game Party.35:27 - Drawing games: Caution Signs, Speed Colors.42:37 - Quick hits: Task Team, Ultimate Dibs, I'm Kind of a Big Dill.

We were thrilled to meet Ben Rosset, co-designer of our favorite deduction games The Search for Planet X and The Search for Lost Species (as well as the classic Between Two Cities), at Gen Con 2024. Find out why that first meeting was ridiculous (in our eyes), what's Ben's creative process on his deeply thematic designs, and how we feel about the various types of second-edition board games. Timeline: 2:58 - Christina's game pick: Kronologic: Paris 1920.9:58 - Shoe's game pick: Sacred Valley.14:58 - Ben's game pick: Century: Spice Road/Golem Edition.23:05 - Going Analog's topic: designing board games around interesting themes.34:13 - Ben's topic: the good and bad of second editions.

Board games = cardboard. It's in the name of the material itself! But...what about An Age Contrived, a new Euro-style, action-programming strategy game designed by Chris Matthew of indie publisher Bellows Intent? It has magnetic bits, chunky Azul-style tiles, and in the Founder's and Collector's Editions, the player boards are set into solid metal frames. What? And you can shoot those tiles out with a spring/lever mechanism. Whaaaat?   We had to bring Chris on to ask how he balanced the component "wow" factor with manufacturing affordability -- and as a big gamer himself, Chris wanted to talk about how games have surprised and delighted us. We were delighted to chat with him, so give us a listen!   Timeline: 4:05 - Going Analog's game pick: Open Season.9:40 - Chris's game pick: Revive.16:36 - Going Analog's topic: An Age Contrived, balancing cool components with high costs.41:20 - Chris's topic: how games can surprise and delight us.

Last episode, we gave a quick recap of North America's largest board game convention, Gen Con 2024. But what everyone really wants to know is, what was best in show? We did our due diligence, played as many games as we could during and after the con (we know -- our lives are so hard), and are ready to report back. Plus, we tapped Twitch streamer Amanda Panda for her top picks, too, so listen up!  Timeline: 5:48 - 2024 Party Games of Gen Con.10:33 - 2024 Light Games of Gen Con.17:59 - 2024 Medium Games of Gen Con.27:30 - 2024 Heavy Games of Gen Con.

We're back from Gen Con! North America's largest tabletop gaming convention is now behind us, but our coverage is just beginning. In this episode, we share our stories from the massive show, plus a few impressions of our favorite games that we got to play. Stay tuned for lots, lots more. And make sure to check out Magic Mind, the "Mental Performance Shots" that we took to keep us going through the long days and nights in Indianapolis. Our sponsor is offering our listeners up to 48% off a monthly subscription! You'll get Magic Mind delivered right to your home, and you can cancel at any time. Find energy for your long gaming sessions -- plus, you'll be supporting Going Analog! Just go to magicmind.com/ANALOG20 and use promo code ANALOG20 to save up to 48% now. Timeline: 2:13 - Stories from Gen Con 2024.16:57 - The Gang.23:37 - Seers Catalog.30:26 - River of Gold.37:10 - Flip 7.41:36 - Rebel Princess.

It's almost time for North America's largest board game convention, Gen Con! We've been frantically trying to cram in all the hot new games on our shelf of shame/opportunity before we discover...even more hot new games at the big show. We ask the busy Ruel Gaviola (board gaming showrunner, producer, podcaster, and host of several YouTube and Twitch channels) to tell us what he's looking forward to at Gen Con and which cool games he's been playing lately. Timeline:  1:44 - Gen Con preview.17:51 - our thoughts on a bunch of new board games: What On Earth Are You Talking About?, Landmarks, Biomos, Finca, Clash of Magic Schools, Archeos Society, Evenfall, Pax Pamir: Second Edition, The Search for UAPs.

What's your favorite movie genre? And which board games can you play to relive those feels? We ask performer and board game writer Mx. Tiffany Leigh to chat about this. As someone who worked in movie production and a real-deal old-school video store, she has fantastic movie and game recs! (We got so into the movie topic that we ran out of time for Tiffany's topic -- raincheck!) Timeline: 3:51 - Christina/Shoe's game pick: Galactic Renaissance.14:30 - Tiffancy's game pick: The Taverns of Tiefenthal.24:24 - Christina/Shoe's topic: games for movie lovers.

We were sitting on a new stack of word games, so we asked our editor Mike Zipkin (he of fancy game upgrades and beige game tastes) to join us in covering Word Traveler, Illiterati, Mind Map, and ContraBanter. Plus, upgrading your board games is old news -- how do you upgrade your entire game room? Timeline: 2:00 - Christina/Shoe's game pick: Captain Flip.9:13 - Mike's game pick: StreetCar (San Francisco).16:28 - Christina/Shoe's topic: new word games.48:14 - Mike's topic: upgrading your game room.

Who doesn't love a beautiful nature game? Shoe doesn't, the grump. He just hates nature. But did he like the upcoming Everbloom, designed by our guest Ian Moss (Bunkers & Badasses, Dinosaur Island, Wonderland's War), from publisher Nerdvana Games? (Check out the Kickstarter!) We also discuss what makes a new deluxe or big box edition of a game worth a purchase. Timeline: 2:50 - Going Analog's game pick: Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy.8:06 - Ian's game pick: Canvas.15:30 - Going Analog's topic: favorite nature games.39:53 - Ian's topic: deluxe and big box versions of games.

We've got so many new board games to talk about this week that we decided to skip having a guest on, so we can just blab and blab and blab about what we've been playing lately. So yup, you're just getting all Christina, all Shoe this episode. And they're ready to dish on what they liked and what they didn't about each of these. Timeline:  1:16 - The Vale of Eternity.9:19 - Faraway.16:50 - Monumental.24:36 - The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era.32:47 - Heroes of Might & Magic III: The Board Game.45:59 - Converge: Catalysts of Change/Sparks of Hope/Engines of Progress.54:17 - Evergreen.

Legacy games can often light a classic franchise back on fire, as demonstrated by Flash Point: Legacy of Flame's successful Kickstarter. We asked Legacy of Flame codesigner Ken Franklin (The Mansky Caper, Back to the Future: Dice Through Time, Tsuro: Phoenix Rising) to share some insight into how they turned the long-running co-op series into an evolving legacy experience. And while we're on the subject, what are other legacy games that we're fond of? And on a very unrelated topic, Ken educates us on the recent wave of gameplay-focused, Christianity-themed board games. Timeline: 3:53 - Going Analog's game pick: ArcheOlogic.10:03 - Ken's game pick: Kingsburg.14:57 - Going Analog's topic: The development of Flash Point: Legacy of Flame, plus other legacy games we like.32:37 - Ken's topic: Christian themes in gaming.

The 2024 American Tabletop Awards winners were just announced, so we invited ATTA founder, fellow judging member, and content creator Eric Yurko of What's Eric Playing? to hash them all out. How did Eric, Christina, and Shoe vote? Timeline: 3:30 - Early Gamers category.19:45 - Casual Games category.35:51 - Strategy Games category.53:52 - Complex Games category.

We knew Connie Vogelmann, designer of Apiary, was holding something back the last time we talked to her. So we brought her and Elizabeth Hargrave back to interrogate them about Wyrmspan, the new dragon-themed sequel to Elizabeth's now-classic and award-winning Wingspan! What was it like designing a new game under the Wingspan name? How much did Connie and Elizabeth work together? And what counts as a dragon anyway? Plus, the two have been busy on the convention circuit, so we discuss various board gaming shows and which ones we enjoy the most. Timeline: 4:19 - Going Analog's game pick: Wroth.9:11 - Connie and Elizabeth's game pick: Knarr.16:10 - Going Analog's topic: Wyrmspan's development.33:35 - Elizabeth and Connie's topic: Our favorite gaming events each year.

We spend a lot of time with our friends playing board games, so we're bound to bond. But how well do we really know these people we've invited to our table? We teamed up with our pals Raina and Phil from 1 Minute Board Games to take the next step in our gaming relationship: not just play "normal" board games (which we still do plenty of with them) but play ones designed to really dig down deep and get us talking about things that would normally not come up during sessions of Sea Salt & Paper. Listen in to see what we've learned about these experiences...and each other. And on a very related note: social deduction! What's new and what are our faves in this class of games that have us lying to and manipulating each other? Timeline: 4:41 - Going Analog's game pick: Great Western Trail: New Zealand.11:52 - 1 Minute Board Game's pick: Dune: Imperium - Uprising.18:33 - Going Analog's topic: "Getting to know you" games.39:32 - 1 Minute Board Game's topic: Social-deduction games.

When we read that Eric Slauson (designer of MonsDRAWsity, the upcoming Chucky game, and many more) likes to deal cards in a...very unique way, we knew we wanted to invite him on to discuss just how weird his board gaming habits are. Are we weirder? And just how do YOU compare anyways? Plus, gamers always talk about how some games aren't "worth" the price -- how do we value that, exactly? Timeline: 3:41 - Going Analog's game pick: Wyrmspan.12:03 - Eric's game pick: Kinfire Chronicles.19:25 - Going Analog's topic: Bizarre board gaming habits.34:27 - Eric's topic: How do you value board games?

Though we fancy ourselves "omnigamers" -- gamers who enjoy all genres -- we're kind of fooling ourselves. There are certainly specific categories of board games we try to stay away from. But! With every "rule" (if you can call it that), there's gotta be exceptions, right? So we explore ours with Peter C. Hayward. The game designer (That Time You Killed Me, French Toast, Fiction) is very...discerning, so we couldn't wait to hear his thoughts on these matters. Separately, we recently played a game of Istanbul with Peter, and he couldn't stop raving about how it got "quick turns" down just right. So that got us thinking...what other specific things do specific games get "just right"? Plus: Play along with us on a round of Peter's new game, Apropos of Board Games! Timeline: 3:31 - Going Analog's game pick: Apropos of.12:06 - Peter's game pick: boop.14:56 - Going Analog's topic: Specific things that specific games get right.38:29 - Peter's topic: Games you like in genres you don't.

I know we just finished our 2023 Games of the Year episode, but we're so over last year. It's cult-of-the-new time -- what are the badass games we're looking forward to in 2024? We invited gaming sommelier Alex Hart of Might I Suggest a Game to help us out since he also just put out his list! And while we're frequent boardgame recommenders, sometimes we run into a few that are super difficult to endorse for some reason. Which ones? Listen to find out! Timeline: 3:15 - Going Analog's game pick: Last Light.8:44 - Alex's game pick: Daybreak.15:07 - Going Analog's topic: Our most anticipated games of 2024.35:35 - Alex's topic: Games that we love that we have a hard time suggesting.

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.

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.

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."