Every Night Is Game Night

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.

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!

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 ab

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. 

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.

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-wit

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.

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.

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

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

Jason is quasi-back from exile with a whole new, post-baby episode. It's only Jason this time because real life and scheduling both suck. Anthony will definitely be back next week. But we're going to make the most of this week with reviews of some great games, as well as Jason sharing a bit of about himself and the trials and tribulations of having a newborn around. Jason says it in the pod, but it bears repeating - thank God for solo gaming! A perfect blend with a newborn in the home.  First up is My Little Scythe (8:05), the children's version of Scythe that was originally released as a My Little Pony print and play game. Stonemaier Games picked up it and gave it some truly gorgeous production, but does it stand up as an enjoyable game for kids and for adults?  Next up is 1066, Tears to Many Mothers (17:20), an asymmetric card-based historical war game that plays in 30-45 minutes. It's a Hall or Nothing game, and Tristan Hall loves his solo modes, so we got one here as well. Then we get into Dice Settler

Liz from Beyond Solitaire rejoins Anthony and Jason to talk about some games to while away your lunch hour at work.  First, we chat about Hero Realms (3:26), a variant of Star Realms with a fantasy theme. We love the original, but is this one possibly better? Liz then breaks down Multiuniversum (12:43), a puzzly card game about scientists closing portals which has a neat solo mode (even if the rulebook doesn't advertise it as such). Finally, Jason chats about a game in the Duelist line from Level 99, Professor Treasure's Secret Sky Castle (19:11).  For our discussion this week, we turn to the fans! If you have not joined our Facebook group, please check us out. A member of the group, Harrison Guzman, asked us to talk about games that would fit into someone's workday during lunch. Rather than just talk about it ourselves, we invited him and his girlfriend to join us and chat about how lunchtime games differ from regular old short games, and also give some tips and suggestions to draw people away from their c

Guess what? It's Anthony! With a special preview series episode featuring Swordcrafters designer/publisher Adam Rehberg.  This episode was recorded a couple of weeks before Essen so there are a handful of references to the upcoming show. You can look for the full release of Swordcrafters in mid-November.  Swordcrafters has some of the best table presence we've seen to date, and it was well worth discussing with the designer how it was built, what kind of hiccups come up during development of such a sweeping game, and how its family-friendly mechanisms played early on.  Join us for an interesting discussion about the genesis of a game, and how you can find Swordcrafters as it hits retailers in November. Adam also gives us a sneak peek at some of his upcoming Kickstarter projects for us to look out for, including a very interesting sounding abstract game Anthony will check out soon. 

Liz, Jeremy, and Jason geek out and go gaga over more delivered Kickstarter projects!  Jason begin by gushing over the uberly cute Rescue Polar Bears (7:19 - is that a word? it is now!). Rescue Polar Bears is a family weight cooperative game that evokes Flash Point: Fire Rescue. In other words, right in Jason's wheelhouse!  Liz then chimes in with Holding On: The Troubled Life of Billy Kerr (16:59). This cooperative game about giving palliative care to a dying man has caused quite a stir since being announced. Liz and Jeremy share some thoughts about the hype.  Jason leaps back in to talk about Champions of Hara (31:53), an adventure game with hand management that evokes one of the truly great solo games of all time... well, you know. Finally, everyone jumps back in to talk about the adventure themed Euro game, Archmage (42:59). This is another beautiful (and on time!) production from Starling Games/ Game Salute.

Adam and Brady Sadler are back! Two of our favorite personal designers of solo/ coop games return to the show with the new expansion for Street Masters, Aftershock. We love Street Masters here on ENGN. However, we recognize that some gamers encountered barriers when approaching it. We ask the Sadlers how they designed Aftershock not just for pure awesomeness, but to answer some of the criticisms that folks have had, including player scaling/ downtime at four players, rules issues in some scenario interactions, and lack of easy entry points for new players. Aftershock promises to address some of the issues and present the best possible product for you to check out.

Liz and Jeremy are back! The creative minds behind Jambalaya Plays Games (https://jambalayaplaysgames.com/) and Beyond Solitaire (http://www.beyondsolitaire.net/) are here to share about their continuing and terrible KS acquisition disorders!  For the Kickstarter preview this week, we talk about a game that's already out and whose expansion is (or, at least, should be) live as we drop the episode - Expedition (4:17). It's a card-base RPG that has an app, as well as tons of fan-created content. These are not things that every gamer looks forward to! They break down whether this project integrates those things in ways that folks might find appealing.  We then turn to some recently delivered games. Jeremy tells us about Sailing Toward Osiris from Daily Magic Games (13:03), a gateway-level worker placement game from the same publishing house as the Valeria line of games. Liz then shares about End of the Trail (18:54), a clever little card game with some bluffing and negotiation that also has a solo mode. Finall

PWe welcome back Brenna Noonan from Starling Games to talk about their newest 1 vs. many game, Anomaly, live on Kickstarter on October 21, 2018.  This project was formerly called Ø: Fear Nothing. However, it struggled out of the gate, so Starling decided to pull the plug, repackage, offer a lower price point, and present the same game with a different name - Anomaly. Jason gives a bit of context for the campaign relaunch before presenting the episode. After the preamble, we present the former episode in its entirety. Where you hear the name "Ø: Fear Nothing", please translate that in your head as Anomaly. We get into where the (former) name came from and also how Anomaly distinguishes itself mechanically from similar 1 vs. Many games like Specter Ops. Anomaly probably has a bit too much interaction here to support solo play, but fans of high level, above the table cooperative play might be very interested in what it has to offer. Finally, somewhere in the episode, Jason gets on his soapbox and beseeches gamer

Liz Davidson joins Jason to welcome Carla Kopp to the show, who is the founder and CEO of Weird Giraffe Games. Our original intention is to review Dreams of Tomorrow, which is live on Kickstarter on the day this podcast drops. We eventually get to that, after we have some fun chatting about random stuff first . Dreams of Tomorrow is a 1-6 player light card game whose main selling point is a rondel system where players interact with one another to take actions, get cards, make sets, and mess with their neighbors. We get into mechanism talk, of course. Carla also lets us peek behind the curtain for a very interesting story about how Dreams of Tomorrow dodged quite a bullet, in terms of its theme.

Welcome to an episode that, as of about a week ago, Jason never intended to record! Over one weekend, Jason banged out a full solo campaign of Scythe: The Rise of Fenris. It was so good that it merited an immediate podcast about it.  Jason rides solo this week for a non-spoiler chat about Scythe: The Rise of Fenris (3:48), specifically what the different modules offer and whether it's a must for Scythe players (it is). After that, Jason gets into the two most recent modules for TIME Stories, Estrella Drive and Brotherhood of the Coast (18:30).  SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS We clear yet? Now that we are in spoiler-ville, we invite Jamey Stegmaier to come along for the ride to chat about The Rise of Fenris (23:08). Are you the type of person who, after they watch their favorite TV show or movie, wants to gobble up all the extras, including the DVD commentaries? We have a treat for you! Jamey pulls back the design curtain on The Rise of Fenris and gives us details about mods that were left on the cutting room f

For our final installment of GenCon reviews, we are dialing it back a bit and talking about some light, family weight games. In a way, we thought it was fitting since that's at the heart of what GenCon releases are all about - games meant to hit a lot of tables and where lots of families and groups can have a good time. Anthony leads off with a beautiful card game that masquerades as a worker placement, Everdell (4:20). Starling's parent company, Game Salute, has a negative reputation around the board gaming world, yet games like Everdell seem to promise a new era for the company. Jason jumps in next and talks about The Big Score (15:09), a drafting game with a solo variant from our friends at Van Ryder Games. Anthony then tells us about Petrichor (24:14), a game about... rain? It certainly has a unique theme, and Anthony will let you know whether it has mechanisms to match. Finally, and as a fitting capstone, Jason breaks down one of the hottest, most anticipated games of the con - the newest Forbidden gam