The Spiel

Title Hunt Puzzle by David Coleson. Each row of this puzzle is missing one letter (A-Z). Find the right letter and the title of a game will emerge. Solve the puzzle and you could win a prize!

Straight outta Krakow. We review two 2-player games from Polish publisher Galakta: King & Assassins and Metallum. Also, Bill Corey visits the padded cell to take a Sommelier Challenge and give us the scoop on the Spring Gaming Hoopla.

Boggle jackets and Big Bird money. A conversation with Bernie DeKoven, The Grand Poobah of Fun. We follow his career through mass market board games and video game design to his discovery of a Playful Path - a philosophy and the title of his latest book.

I think icon. We review Concept and La Boca, two games that ask players to communicate in fresh and unexpected ways: Concept through symbols and La Boca through shapes and colors.

Seasons Spielings! Eight guests from around the world join us in the padded cell to celebrate the holidays. Round-table discussions, Sommelier challenges, Swedish rhymes, bad jokes and a visit from Lyle Otterbein fill this virtual party with good cheer.

Packed for freshness... and fun! We review Polterfass, Luchador, Super Race and SOS Titanic. From wooden beer barrel and Mexican wrestler dice to dry-erase raceways and a flip-book ship, these games showcase novel components and innovative design.

Dave joins Stephen in the padded cell for a behind-the scenes look at The Spiel's 2013 Essen adventure. Lots of questions and reflections on the trip and experience at this year's International Game Fair.

Matthias Wagner discusses the success of Hanabi since winning the Spiel des Jahres (Germany's Game of the Year) for 2013. We also talk about a new edition of the modern classic puzzle game Ricochet Robots.

Konstantinos Kokkinis discusses two fictional settings: one scifi and one fantasy. Each world serves as the backdrop and backstory for a series of new games from Artipia: Archon, Shadows Over The Empire, Among The Stars: The Ambassadors and New Dawn.

Ted Alspach discusses the development and evolution of One Night Ultimate Werewolf, a new version of the mob mentality party game that plays in less than 10 minutes.