Going Analog Show

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 (23:35)
• Shoe (producer): Libertalia vs. Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest (37:57)

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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. Topics this week:

• Kwanchai Moriya (guest): What are some board games that you consider hidden gems? (12:42)
• Christina (host): What themes would we want Kwanchai to illustrate? (32:55)
• Shoe (producer): Which games would we like to give an art or graphic-design makeover to? (44:31)

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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 fictional, whom would you pick? (9:38)
• Wes (guest): What makes a game an "instant classic"? (19:07)
• Pat (guest): What about a game can stick with you after playing it? (29:20)

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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 match-ups on this episode:

• Shoe (producer): 7 Wonders vs. 7 Wonders: Architects
• Christina (host): Calico vs. Cascadia
• Amanda (guest): Funkoverse vs. Unmatched

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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 (producer): How do you go about culling your board game collection?

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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 some favorites in that genre
• Shoe (producer): Building a board game universe

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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 this year?
• Christina (host): Which 2022 games are we excited to play?
• Ruel (guest): Which games are you pulling off the shelf of shame/opportunity this year?

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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 game anyway? Turns out we obviously don't know! Check out a list of our winners below.

2021 Game of the Year (Party Game)

• So Clover! (everyone)

2021 Game of the Year (Light Games)

• Cascadia (James)
• The Crew: Mission Deep Sea (Shoe)
• Canopy (Christina)
• The Crew: Mission Deep Sea (Tom)
• Runners up: Dice Throne: Season One ReRolled, Cubitos, Night Cage

2021 Game of the Year (Medium-weight Games)

• Genotype (James)
• Genotype (Christina)
• Sleeping Gods (Shoe)
• Ankh: Gods of Egypt (Tom)
• Runners up: Red Rising, Shelfie Stacker, Summoner Wars (Second Edition), Kemet: Blood and Sand, Merchants Cove

2021 Game of the Year (Heavy Games)

• Sleeping Gods (Christina)
• Ankh: Gods of Egypt (James)
• Coffee Traders (Tom)
• Great Western Trail (Second Edition) (Shoe)
• Runners up: Grand Austria Hotel: Let's Waltz, Hadrian's Wall, Genotype

2021 New-to-Us Games of the Year

• Ginkgopolis (Christina)
• Nemesis (Shoe)
• Tapple (Shoe)
• Obsession (Tom)
• Meeple Land (Tom)
• The King's Dilemma (James)

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We love playing games in-person! But sometimes you want to scratch that board-gaming itch for a few minutes in the middle of the workweek. Or during a "break." Or, well, all the damn time. Playing asynchronously on Board Game Arena lets you do just that...a lot. Just don't tell our bosses.

Our BGA play pals Emerson Matsuuchi (designer of the Century series, Specter Ops, Reef, and the upcoming Foundations of Rome) and Jess Yi (frequent Going Analog contributor) join Christina and Shoe to gab about Board Game Arena vs. Tabletop Simulator, which games work best on the platform, and whether we can learn how to play (and enjoy) an entire game online without ever reading the rules.

Our topics this episode:

• Jess (contributor): Board Game Arena vs. Tabletop Simulator
• Christina (host): Which games are better on Board Game Arena, and which are worse?
• Emerson (guest): Our experiences playing "blind" on Board Game Arena

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Peter C. Hayward (founder of Blue Beard & Jellybean Games and designer of quirky games like Scuttle!, The Lady and the Tiger, and the upcoming That Time You Killed Me and Robotopia) joins Christina and Shoe to gush about so many mutually favorite games!

Topics this episode:

• Shoe (producer): What are some of your favorite board games that feature robots?
• Christina (guest): Which game do you secretly wish you had designed?
• Peter (guest): What have different games done with the worker-placement mechanic?

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