Ever wanted to know how board games are made? We'll tell you some of the interesting bits we learned. Also, why do Awful and Awesome mean polar opposites?  Lastly, we review Istanbul the Dice Game by Rudiger Dorn and published by AEG.

If you know us, you know we love the simple and engaging designs of Phil Walker-Harding, a designer out of Australia. Well be prepared to inject your ear holes with the great sounds of him being interviewed by us. We discuss his upcoming game, Gizmos, talk about his design history, and learn a little about himself. Enjoy!

What games from one, two, or even ten years ago have you wanted to play but just haven't been able to yet? We revisit this topic from a year ago, originally recommended by Wayne Schliegel. Another listener mentioned we should come back to this topic every year or so, so here we are, a year later, following up on the original list, and adding a new 5 that we want to play. Off we go!

We finally did it. We finally played the longest, biggest game of our list of games we've wanted to try in our life. Want to hear our thoughts? You came to the right place!  We're also talking about curbing your criticism, and reviewing Welcome To by Deepwater Games. Happy listening!

It's the big 75, and we're reviewing the newest Century game from Emerson Matsuuchi and Plan B Games, Century: Eastern Wonders. How is this follow-up to the acclaimed Century: Spice Road?  Well, there's still spices, but there's no road. There's an ocean of islands for you to go about and ...still trade cubes. But it's fun. Check out our full thoughts!

We're going back in time and reviewing a classic game, Lords of Waterdeep. This game put Worker Placement on the map (pun intended) for a lot of folks, so how does it hold up six years later? Also, we discuss a little about the history of Roll and Write games and what makes them fun. Also, in honor of Wendy's birthday, we talk about birthdays around the world. Cheers!

Chris and Wendy go over their Top 5 light games. These games can be simple to play, easy to teach, easy to grasp for new players, playable in 10-30 minutes perhaps. We'll talk a bit about how we define a light game, and give our top 5 list. Share with us what your favorite light games are!

I feel the need, the need for building an engine of goods conversion to maximize contracts to earn the best imports! If you've ever said that, you need to listen to our review of Clans of Caledonia. We also have some fun discussion on push/press your luck games. Enjoy!

We have a special guest on today's episode, Randall Thompson, one of the co-owners of Caper Games. They are best known for Get Adler, the deduction card game, and have a space exploration game currently on Kickstarter called Vertium. Go check it out in its final week, and check out some great stories Randall has to share about designing games and living abroad in Germany for several years. Enjoy!

Who doesn't love donuts? And cute artwork? And Gamewright games? We're reviewing Go Nuts for Donuts, an adorable game of collecting the best set of donuts. We also discuss Tile Laying Games and their history a little, and we reveal the back story behind one of our oldest traditions: Hug Time. Enjoy!