We just finished Halloweeeen! What are your favorite board games for spoopy season? We ask Creepshow: The Suspense-Building Game co-creators Ben Kepner and Dan Stong about what they like to play during this holiday...plus how they feel about designing while working in-house at a publisher compared to working independently. Timeline: 3:45 - Going Analog's game pick: Babylon. 9:46 - Ben & Dan's game pick: Rattus. 21:19 - Ben & Dan's topic: spooky games. 45:40 - Going Analog's topic: indie ...
Jul 03, 2025•58 min•Ep. 144
Game time! We catch up on a bunch of reviews for new games and expansions -- tune in to find out how much we liked them! And whether Christina ever found her Pringle. Thanks to the publishers for providing review copies. Timeline: New games: 1:30 - The Architects of Amytis. 6:24 - Medieval Academy. 11:41 - Combo. 15:55 - Star Trek: Star Realms. New expansions: 21:45 - Evergreen: Pines and Cacti. 27:52 - Ancient Knowledge: Heritage. 34:44 - Sky Team: Turbulence. 40:31 - Rebel Princess: Happily Ne...
Jun 26, 2025•48 min•Ep. 153
The 2025 American Tabletop Awards were just announced! (Whispers offstage inform us that they were announced back in April....) Well, we're now ready to talk about them after our extended break. With ATTA cofounder and content creator Eric Yurko of What's Eric Playing? , we react to the recently crowned finalists and winners -- and tell you how we each voted as part of the judging panel. Timeline: 7:08 - Early Gamers category. 17:54 - Casual Games category. 30:29 - Strategy Games category. 40:03...
Jun 05, 2025•57 min•Ep. 152
We're back! Again! Tune in to hear all our excuses about why we haven't been podcasting recently, then stay to hear our guest, fabulous designer ( Evolution , Wits & Wagers, Oceans) and North Star Games founder Dominic Crapuchettes! We talk about the upcoming Evolution sequel Nature , tariffs (gah), and Dominic's process when designing a science-based game. Timeline: 1:39 - Nature. 8:45 - Going Analog's game pick: Super Boss Monster. 12:26 - Dominic's game pick: The Gang. 17:32 - Going Analo...
May 22, 2025•43 min•Ep. 151
Imagine the longest, most suspenseful drumroll ever....... Sorry we've been MIA, but real life has been unforgiving and busy. Luckily, we're making it up to you by commemorating our 150th episode with our TOP 10 GAMES OF ALL TIME! We invite Ultimate Beige Gamer and Going Analog Editor Mike Zipkin to join us to share our individual top 10 lists. Whose taste will reign supreme? Which Going Analog-er is your favorite board game soulmate? You'll have to listen to find out.
Mar 27, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 150
Did someone say Phil Walker-Harding ? Praise be! The prolific designer ( Sushi Go! , Barenpark , Imhotep , Gizmos , Adventure Games, and so many more!) joins Christina and Shoe to talk about how his film background has surprisingly influenced his design process. Plus, Phil's been noticing the "playfulness" inherent in some games recently. Why is he excited about this, and what does it mean for his own designs? Watch or listen to find out! Timeline: 3:01 - Going Analog's game pick: Rivages. 5:32 ...
Feb 20, 2025•48 min•Ep. 149
We just wrapped up last year with our 2024 Games of the Year episode , so naturally, it's time to move on with our lives and think about what gets us all excited about 2025. What are we looking forward to playing? What have we previewed previously and are now eagerly awaiting the retail release? What's the buzz we're hearing from others in the biz? Comedian and board game content creator Grant Lyon joins the show to share his thoughts on the biggest offerings for this new year. Plus, with the ro...
Jan 30, 2025•56 min•Ep. 148
We did it, folks! We recorded our 2024 Games of the Year episode before the end of the year! (We didn't say anything about releasing it before the end of the year, though.) Joining us just under the wire is content creator and Twitch streamer Beneeta Kaur who contributed her own picks. We actually played a good number of games in-person with Beneeta this year, so we know she has great taste! Tune in for our favorite party, light, medium, and heavy games of the year. What did we miss? What do we ...
Jan 14, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 147
How is it almost the end of 2024?! Christina and Shoe sneak in some more recent games and tell you about them. Timeline: 1:02 - Small-box games: Bottle Imp , Codex Naturalis . 14:10 - Medium-box games: Looot, In the Footsteps of Marie Curie. 26:30 - Big-box games: Rallyman: Dirt, Creature Caravan.
Dec 12, 2024•46 min•Ep. 146
BoardGameGeek's BGG.CON is always a good time: just days and days of straight gaming (with some delicious Texas BBQ sprinkled in throughout). So what did we play? And what stuck out to us? Christina and Shoe talk through the games, the show, and more in their big post-BGG.CON update. Timeline: 2:41 - SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence . 11:04 - Windmill Valley . 19:14 - Video Game Champion . 27:26 - Pixies . 32:23 - Castle Combo . 36:49 - Quick hits: Black Forest , Forges of Ravenshi...
Nov 27, 2024•47 min•Ep. 145
Publisher Bitewing Games has a thing for designer Reiner Knizia (most recently with Zoo Vadis and the Mythos Collection's Illiad and Ichor ). Now they're back at it with a new three-part, big-box, Knizia-palooza Kickstarter campaign . We had the opportunity to play one of those parts, SILOS ( Secret Interlopers from Outer Space ), a retro sci-fi (with cows!) rethemed version of Municipium ...and we instantly fell in love. So we invited Bitewing founders Nick Murray and Kyle Spackman to chat abou...
Oct 17, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 143
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 http...
Oct 03, 2024•51 min•Ep. 142
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....
Sep 19, 2024•55 min•Ep. 141
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 compone...
Sep 05, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 140
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 Med...
Aug 22, 2024•35 min•Ep. 139
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 monthl...
Aug 08, 2024•48 min•Ep. 138
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 ...
Jul 18, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 137
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 Tiefent...
Jul 05, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 136
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 you...
Jun 20, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 135
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...
Jun 06, 2024•57 min•Ep. 134
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 ...
May 16, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 133
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 edu...
Apr 25, 2024•50 min•Ep. 132
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....
Apr 11, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 131
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 ...
Mar 28, 2024•53 min•Ep. 130
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...
Mar 14, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 129
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 - G...
Feb 29, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 128
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 ...
Feb 15, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 127
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:...
Feb 01, 2024•59 min•Ep. 126
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...
Jan 18, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 125
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 . 38:1...
Jan 04, 2024•58 min•Ep. 124
