It’s awards season, which means that Germany’s back to tell us what games are popping off over there. And that also means we’re back to tell you what we think about what they think. More than that – we’re looking through the annals of Spiel des Jahres history to drafting the winningest games of all the winners! Which means you too can be a winner of $100! Just vote! Before everyone’s a winner, we talk about Chess, Vabanque, The Mandalorian: Adventures, and Path of Civilization.
It’d be great if we could only ever play our favourites. But sometimes, perhaps more often than not, we have to put up with playing games not because we want to, but because it’s the polite or kind thing to do depending on the company. This week, we’re talking about games that we don’t necessarily love, but for whatever reason we end up playing a lot of. Before we’re held against our will, we talk about Mr. Cabbagehead’s Garden, Sacred Rites, and Great Plains.
We’re joined by Richard Simpson of We’re Not Wizards, who is definitely not a magician, Victorian or otherwise, to talk about the line between game design and production. Should production values be an integral part of the discussion of a game’s merits, or should we learn to separate the two? Before we get productive, we talk about Doughnut Dash, Cities, Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra, and L.L.A.M.A.
While all games have some restrictions, some games are more willing than others to let you go off the rails. For instance, some leave the economy entirely in the hands of the players, free to tank it if they please. We look at how games do (or don’t) use player constraints to deliver unique experiences. Before we rein ourselves in, we talk about Tournay, Bullet♥︎, Wonder Woman: Challenge of the Amazons, and Container.
Mike DiLisio (of The Dice Tower, and Sporadically Board) makes his BGB podcast debut as the Fandango Tank! Mike’s trying to sell us on popcorn games. These are games that may or may not be … critically sound, but nevertheless provide fun experiences that we find ourselves returning to. But why wouldn’t we just play something more substantive instead? We investigate.
A lot can happen in a year. One year, baby! We did it. It’s our first anniversary, and we’re celebrating by … putting out an episode of the podcast. We got a couple of reader questions that we thought would be especially pertinent for this occasion, as we look back on the impact Board...
