120: SolForge Fusion, digital to tabletop to digital (guests: Richard Garfield/Justin Gary)

When we read that Eric Slauson (designer 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 how do YOU compare?

Plus, gamers always talk about how some games aren't "worth" the price -- how do we value each game's worth?

Timeline:

• 3:41 - Going Analog's game pick: Wyrmspan.
• 12:03 - Eric's game pick: Kinfire Chronicles.
• 19:25 - Going Analog's topic: Bizarre board gaming habits.
• 34:27 - Eric's topic: How do you value board games?

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 a game of Istanbul with Peter, and he couldn't stop raving about how it got "quick turns" down just right. So that got us thinking...what other specific things do specific games get "just right"?

Plus: Play along with us on a round of Peter's new game, Apropos of Board Games!

Timeline:

• 3:31 - Going Analog's game pick: Apropos of.
• 12:06 - Peter's game pick: boop.
• 14:56 - Going Analog's topic: Specific things that specific games get right.
• 38:29 - Peter's topic: Games you like in genres you don't.

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: Last Light.
• 8:44 - Alex's game pick: Daybreak.
• 15:07 - Going Analog's topic: Our most anticipated games of 2024.
• 35:35 - Alex's topic: Games that we love that we have a hard time suggesting.

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.
• 14:03 - 2023 Light Games of the Year.
• 34:00 - 2023 Medium Games of the Year.
• 58:11 - 2023 Heavy Games of the Year.

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.
• 38:13 - Kapow! vs. Dice Throne.

What's better than a bunch of adorable, flower-pollinating honeybees? Putting those honeybees in space! New worker-placement game Apiary  is the buzzworthy debut design of Connie Vogelmann. We invited her on the podcast to see how she went from playtester to a proud creator of a high-production game by a big-time publisher. We also chat about what responsibilities designers, publishers, game teachers, and players have in preventing "bad play" plus some recommendations for smaller-group party games.

We're giving away a copy of one of those small-group party games, Stool Pigeon! To enter, just subscribe to our newsletter (look for the "subscribe" email field on the front page of our website). 

Timeline:

• 3:33 - Going Analog's game pick: Apiary.
• 19:06 - Connie's game pick: Life of the Amazonia.
• 23:15 - Going Analog's topic: small-group party games.
• 46:41 - Connie's topic: protecting against "bad play."

We are back and ready to cover more great Euro games with Daniel Wahlen of The Game Table! This time, we focus on the new hotness that 2023 has generously brought us, but if you're more into modern-day remakes or sequels to legendary classics, make sure to check out Part 1. In this episode, we give our impressions on...

Timeline: 

• 2:30 - Nucleum.
• 21:41 - Distilled.
• 30:45 - 3 Ring Circus.
• 43:18 - Noteworthy: Darwin's Journey, Stefan Feld's City Collection, Marrakesh, The White Castle.

Euros, Euros, and gyros! We love a good Euro-style strategy game, but we couldn't cover all the great releases this year in just one podcast. Especially when we're chatting with fellow enthusiast Daniel Wahlen of The Game Table -- we just have so much to talk about! So in part one, we cover some fantastic remakes and sequels to some legendary classics.

(And yes, we did pause during one of our Euro gaming days to eat some gyros....)

Timeline:

• 3:12 - Age of Innovation.
• 18:13 - Bruxelles 1893: Belle Époque.
• 33:19 - Zhanguo: The First Empire.
• 43:22 - Other fantastic remakes/sequels! (Great Western Trails, Stefan Feld City Collection, Ultimate Railroads, The Castles of Burgundy...)

Ten years ago, your Going Analog hosts Christina and Shoe were obsessed with the digital collectible card game SolForge. Sadly, the daily (and nightly) sessions of lane-based combat mixed with a revolutionary upgradable-card system went away when the game eventually sunsetted (solsetted?). But, Richard Garfield (Magic: The Gathering, Android Netrunner) and Justin Gary (Ascension, Shards of Infinity) knew their co-design still had some...ahem, magic to it, so they revived it via Kickstarter as a tabletop experience, SolForge Fusion.

Now SolForge is full-circling its career by returning to its original format. This time, however, the new digital game will work with its physical counterpart on a truly ambitious new platform.

We chat with Richard and Justin about SolForge and SolForge Fusion's interesting journey, with its ups and downs and ups again -- and what fans can expect from the franchise moving forward. 

Timeline:

• 3:32 - Going Analog's game pick: Critter Kitchen.
• 6:36 - Richard & Justin's pick: Dominion.
• 13:01 - Richard & Justin & Going Analog's combo topic: SolForge's journey from digital to physical and back to digital.

Let's be honest: We'll make any excuse to talk with Elizabeth Hargrave, the Kennerspiel-winning designer of Wingspan, Mariposas, and Tussie Mussie. So our current excuse? We wanted to talk to her about her soon-to-be-released The Fox Experiment (published by Pandasaurus) and Undergrove (by AEG). So now we can nerd out about how Elizabeth marries a (usually) nature-related theme to game design -- and all the random things we've learned about the world and each other while board gaming.

Timeline:

• 2:13 - Going Analog's pick: Virtual Revolution.
• 6:26 - Elizabeth's pick: The Search for the Lost Species.
• 13:56 - Going Analog's topic: Behind the scenes of Elizabeth's design process.
• 26:27 - Elizabeth's topic: What have you learned (about the world, yourself, or your friends) from games?