PODCAST · leisure
Going Analog Show
by Going Analog
The board gaming podcast where different industry veterans bring a game and a topic for the group to discuss. By Christina Ha, Dan "Shoe" Hsu, and Mike Zipkin.
Episodes
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185: Life as a board game designer-turned-publisher (guest: Emily Vincent, Pink Hawk Games)
Board game design and board game publishing couldn't be more different (other than sharing a common descriptor in "board game"). One requires creativity and knowledge or experience in game theory. The other is just plain business: logistics, budgets, marketing, distribution, and so much more. So...
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184: Board game art and artists: The good and the bad (guest: Joe Wiggins, Allplay)
The guy in charge of art for publisher Allplay has some strong opinions about...art. How does his company pick what art and which artists go with which games? Who are the artists he loves working with, who's on his wishlist, and what happened to make him never want to work with a particular…
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183: New spins on great board games
Everywhere we look, there are sequels and remakes of some older (and some not-so-old) classics. We're suckers for super deluxe beautified versions of, say, The Gang, and we're loving the latest in franchises like King of Tokyo. We played a bunch of these fresh new takes and are ready to give you...
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182: Reviving older, classic board games (guest: Rob Daviau)
We've been playing so many board game remakes, redos, and sequels lately that we knew we had to invite Rob Daviau to the show. He's perhaps most well-known for creating the "legacy" concept and genre in which board games get permanently altered as players progress through their chapters (see:...
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181: The top board game conventions (and what they offer) (guest: Paula Deming)
Board game conventions: These massive gatherings of game makers, game players, and games can be so fun (and sometimes chaotic), but how do you know which to go to? You've got Gen Con, Essen Spiel, BGG.CON, PAX Unplugged, Origins, Dice Tower...and these are just the big-name ones. This week, we're...
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180: Gen Con 2026: The news, the games, the almost-tornado
Gen Con 2026 was eventful. We saw some big shifts in the tabletop industry, we previewed a trillion new games, and we even got a close call with a tornado. Yes, a real-life tornado. As cool as it would've been to see thousands of cards, dice, cubes, and other pieces swirling into the heavens, we...
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179: Interesting card games with a twist
Last episode, we had an expert come on the show to talk about trick-taking games. But we're not sure what's an "expert" for the broader category of just "card games" so...no guest today! Just Christina and Shoe talking about new cards games they got to try that all have one interesting element or...
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178: 7 new, different, and weird trick-taking games to check out (guest: Taylor's Trick-Taking Table)
You just can't miss 'em: trick-taking games are everywhere. Maybe there are too many -- but we did find some interesting new ones that are worth a closer look. And who better to join us in this discussion than Taylor Reiner of Taylor's Trick-Taking Table? Taylor's done it all in this category:...
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177: All the interesting bits from the 2026 UK Games Expo
It's always fun to get a peek at what goes on at these giant board game conventions in faraway exotic lands -- in this case, the United Kingdom. The 2026 UK Games Expo is behind us now, but our man on the inside (of the country) got to go and tells us all about it. Henry Stenhouse, frequent Going...
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176: Making board games is harder than making video games (guest: Tim Schafer, Double Fine)
Legendary video game designer Tim Schafer of Double Fine (Psychonauts, Broken Age, and most recently, Kiln) has been one of our board game buddies for years now. So we took advantage of that relationship and put Tim on the show, filmed right in Double Fine's studio. As our guest, he gets to pick...
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175: The 2026 American Tabletop Awards (guest: What's Eric Playing?)
We were a little late in getting Eric Yurko from What's Eric Playing? on the show to discuss The American Tabletop Awards. But hey, these are 2026's winners and nominees...for games released in 2025. So who's to say when we should be covering these things? We are also on the judging committee, so...
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174: Big deck energy, Let's Go! To France (guest: designer Josh Wood)
Our industry guests pick the topic that they want to discuss on our show, and Josh Wood, designer of Let's Go! To Japan (and the upcoming Let's Go! To France), asked us if he can talk about "big decks." That was an immediate "yes" from us, without even knowing what he meant (Hey, "big decks"…
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173: A bunch of light/party games we wanna tell you about
Last episode got too heavy for us, so we're going super light this time around. Light games, party games...we have a dozen of them to chat about this week! Chapters: Game pick: Vantage. Light/party games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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172: Time to get HEAVY...with these new heavy games (guest: The Game Table)
We might need to make this an annual tradition: We get new heavy games in. We take forever to learn them. We then spend hours playing them (with our good friend Daniel from The Game Table, who even spent the night at our place this time to get in more gaming the next day). Then we record a…
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171: The educational value of board games (guest: Fort Circle Games)
Fort Circle Games takes history very seriously...but not overly so. Titles like Votes for Women and The Halls of Montezuma treat their subject matters with respect (the women's suffrage movement and the Mexican-American War, respectively) with research, consultants, and even facsimiles of...
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170: The best board games we played at Dice Tower West 2026
We're back from Dice Tower West, horribly dehydrated and almost 200 games lighter. While we offloaded a lot of our collection at the convention's flea market, we did get to play a bunch of new games (super shoutout to Grant's Game Recs for showing us the majority of them). So it's only a matter…
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169: Board games bringing people together (guest: Grandpa Beck)
Our guest this week is crazy enough to include his personal phone number in every game he sells. Brent Beck (aka "Grandpa Beck" of Grandpa Beck's Games) wants no barriers when it comes to learning his games, so he includes his digits in every copy in case you want to text him for rules...
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168: 2026 board games we've played...and are excited about (guest: Andrew Stiles, designer)
We had to bring in this episode's guest to settle something. In our 2025 Games of the Year show, Christina called Wine Cellar a runner-up for her Party Game of the Year. Shoe took issue with her calling the wine-making card game a "party game," so whom better to bring in than its designer, Andrew...
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167: The 2025 Games of the Year episode (guest: Candice Harris)
It's our yearly tradition now: We invite a new content creator on our show, and we discuss the best games of the year in several weight categories. Joining us for our 2025 edition is Candice Harris, formerly of BoardGameGeek and now doing her own thing with Kickin' It Creative. She's just as…
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166: The new age of great 2-player games, part 2 (guest: Grant's Game Recs)
We're back (and so is our guest, Grant Lyon of Grant's Game Recs) with a bunch more new 2-player games that we loved and want to tell you alllll about. Make sure to catch part 1 of our two-part special, so you can have more 2P recommendations than you'll know what to do with. Timeline: 1:28…
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165: The new age of great 2-player games, part 1 (guest: Grant's Game Recs)
2025 is "The Year of the 2-Player Game" -- at least according to our guest, professional comedian and board game content creator Grant Lyon of Grant's Game Recs. There have been so many good ones that came out over the past yeart that it's hard to refute that statement. So hard that, rather than...
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164: The best games we played at BGG.CON 2025 (and what's next for The Board Game Quiz Show)
Our favorite "just playing games" convention is behind us now, and...we did spend a lot of time just playing games. A LOT. BGG.CON features BoardGameGeek's legendary library plus the latest hotness from the king of board game shows, Essen Spiel, so we had no shortage of options. Listen in to see...
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163: 6 new drafting games worth checking out
A lot of drafting games have been hitting our table lately, and they're all putting their own twists on the genre. We've been enjoying them so much that we're dedicating this whole episode to our top picks. Plus, the sequel to Yomi, is here. Shoe's played a lot of fighting (video) games, so what...
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162: Why we can't make board games in the U.S. (guest: James Hudson)
All this business (or loss of) around tariffs has repeated raised a question from the gaming community: Why not just manufacture games in the U.S. instead of, say, China? James Hudson, game designer and owner of Druid City Games, took time out of promoting his Wonderland's War Duel Kickstarter...
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161: Autobattlers, card crafting, Mystic Lands (guests: John D Clair, John Zinser)
The OG card-crafting game Mystic Vale is getting a major makeover. Or is it a sequel? Whatever you want to call it, Mystic Lands is taking Vale's original concept of layering clear cards to create powerful combinations and streamling gameplay while beautifying the art. The result is a much better...
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160: Moon cakes + Moon Bunny, push-your-luck dice games
Let's try something new! For some reason (spoiler: the reason is laziness), we don't have a guest this week, so Shoe and Christina decided to feature the seasonally appropriate (for the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival) Moon Bunny and then discuss some exciting new push-your-luck dice games that we've...
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159: Board game universes, cultural appropriation (guest: Jane Hoffacker, Incredible Dream)
We've been keeping an eye on the Kinfire series (which includes the cooperative campaign Kinfire Chronicles and tactical card game Kinfire Delve), and we walked away very impressed with our plays of the latest one in the franchise, Kinfire Council, a competitive worker-placement game set in the...
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158: Cozy games, what makes a game a good product (guest: Alex Cutler)
Cozy is the new zombie. Or Cthulhu. Seriously -- just keep your eye on those store shelves (especially over the next few months), and you'll likely see so many new board games themed around the art of non-conflict. Maybe you'll be cuddling up with kitties. Or you'll be sitting around, peacefully...
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157: Great 2-player games, final thoughts on Gen Con (guest: Corey Thompson)
We love Gen Con so much, we couldn't fit everything into our Games of the Show episode. And Corey Thompson loves Gen Con so much that he became a part-owner of the giant North American gaming convention. Corey leads Above Board TV, cohosts the Board Games Insider podcast, co-owns Play to Z Games,...
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156: The 2025 Gen Con Games of the Show
We're back from North America's giant gaming convention: Gen Con 2025! Did you miss us? Don't answer and don't worry -- we've got the coverage for ya. We sit down and talk about SO MANY GAMES -- over 20 of 'em in this episode alone. Which did we like? Which were the best in show for us? Listen to...
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155: Games from Asia, great 5/6-player games (guest: Cardboard East)
We love unique gaming experiences, especially from those tough-to-find games in Asia. Why are they so different from Western-made games? And what are the differences between games that originated from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, or other parts of the East? Jay Bernardo, marketing manager at Bezier…
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154: Running a first-time game con, going from content creator to retailer (guest: LFG Con)
Do you enjoy hosting a handful of people for game night? How about a few hundred? That's what these three tried for the first time about a month ago in Burbank, CA: Dustin Staats, content creator and owner of online and brick-and-mortar retailer BGE Tabletop; George Caceres, owner of board game...
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144: Spooky games, indie vs. in-house design work (guests: designers Ben Kepner, Dan Stong)
We just finished Halloweeeen! What are your favorite board games for spoopy season? We ask Creepshow: The Suspense-Building Game co-creators Ben Kepner and Dan Stong about what they like to play during this holiday...plus how they feel about designing while working in-house at a publisher…
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153: Reviews! New games! Expansions!
Game time! We catch up on a bunch of reviews for new games and expansions -- tune in to find out how much we liked them! And whether Christina ever found her Pringle. Thanks to the publishers for providing review copies. Timeline: New games: 1:30 - The Architects of Amytis. 6:24 - Medieval…
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152: The 2025 American Tabletop Awards (guest: What's Eric Playing?)
The 2025 American Tabletop Awards were just announced! (Whispers offstage inform us that they were announced back in April....) Well, we're now ready to talk about them after our extended break. With ATTA cofounder and content creator Eric Yurko of What's Eric Playing?, we react to the recently...
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151: We're back! Tariffs, designing science games (guest: Dominic Crapuchettes)
We're back! Again! Tune in to hear all our excuses about why we haven't been podcasting recently, then stay to hear our guest, fabulous designer (Evolution, Wits & Wagers, Oceans) and North Star Games founder Dominic Crapuchettes! We talk about the upcoming Evolution sequel Nature, tariffs (gah),...
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150: The TOP 10 games of all time!
Imagine the longest, most suspenseful drumroll ever....... Sorry we've been MIA, but real life has been unforgiving and busy. Luckily, we're making it up to you by commemorating our 150th episode with our TOP 10 GAMES OF ALL TIME! We invite Ultimate Beige Gamer and Going Analog Editor Mike Zipkin...
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149: Film influence and playfulness in game design (guest: Phil Walker-Harding)
Did someone say Phil Walker-Harding? Praise be! The prolific designer (Sushi Go!, Barenpark, Imhotep, Gizmos, Adventure Games, and so many more!) joins Christina and Shoe to talk about how his film background has surprisingly influenced his design process. Plus, Phil's been noticing the...
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148: What's hot for 2025? Plus: The state of board game social media (guest: Grant Lyon)
We just wrapped up last year with our 2024 Games of the Year episode, so naturally, it's time to move on with our lives and think about what gets us all excited about 2025. What are we looking forward to playing? What have we previewed previously and are now eagerly awaiting the retail release?...
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147: The 2024 Games of the Year episode (guest: Beneeta Kaur)
We did it, folks! We recorded our 2024 Games of the Year episode before the end of the year! (We didn't say anything about releasing it before the end of the year, though.) Joining us just under the wire is content creator and Twitch streamer Beneeta Kaur who contributed her own picks. We…
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146: Reviewed! 2 big-box games, 2 small-box games (and 2 in-between)
How is it almost the end of 2024?! Christina and Shoe sneak in some more recent games and tell you about them. Timeline: 1:02 - Small-box games: Bottle Imp, Codex Naturalis. 14:10 - Medium-box games: Looot, In the Footsteps of Marie Curie. 26:30 - Big-box games: Rallyman: Dirt, Creature Caravan....
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145: The games we loved at BGG.CON
BoardGameGeek's BGG.CON is always a good time: just days and days of straight gaming (with some delicious Texas BBQ sprinkled in throughout). So what did we play? And what stuck out to us? Christina and Shoe talk through the games, the show, and more in their big post-BGG.CON update. Timeline…
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143: The best area-control games, the latest from Reiner Knizia (guest: Bitewing Games)
Publisher Bitewing Games has a thing for designer Reiner Knizia (most recently with Zoo Vadis and the Mythos Collection's Illiad and Ichor). Now they're back at it with a new three-part, big-box, Knizia-palooza Kickstarter campaign. We had the opportunity to play one of those parts, SILOS (Secret...
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142: Let's party (game)!
Tired of hoarding resources, majority-ing areas, and adding up victory points? Want to make your frenemy continuously act like they're milking a cow instead? Then let's talk party games! Shoe and Christina run through a bunch of new big-group activities to help you with your next big game night....
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141: Good/bad second-edition board games, designing from theme up (guest: designer Ben Rosset)
We were thrilled to meet Ben Rosset, co-designer of our favorite deduction games The Search for Planet X and The Search for Lost Species (as well as the classic Between Two Cities), at Gen Con 2024. Find out why that first meeting was ridiculous (in our eyes), what's Ben's creative process on his...
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140: Fancy components, how games delight and surprise us (guest: designer Chris Matthew)
Board games = cardboard. It's in the name of the material itself! But...what about An Age Contrived, a new Euro-style, action-programming strategy game designed by Chris Matthew of indie publisher Bellows Intent? It has magnetic bits, chunky Azul-style tiles, and in the Founder's and Collector's...
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139: The 2024 Gen Con Games of the Show (guest: Amanda Panda)
Last episode, we gave a quick recap of North America's largest board game convention, Gen Con 2024. But what everyone really wants to know is, what was best in show? We did our due diligence, played as many games as we could during and after the con (we know -- our lives are so hard), and are…
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138: Gen Con 2024! Our thoughts on the big show and 5 of the games we loved
We're back from Gen Con! North America's largest tabletop gaming convention is now behind us, but our coverage is just beginning. In this episode, we share our stories from the massive show, plus a few impressions of our favorite games that we got to play. Stay tuned for lots, lots more. And make...
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137: Prepping for Gen Con, our thoughts on some new board games (guest: Ruel Gaviola)
It's almost time for North America's largest board game convention, Gen Con! We've been frantically trying to cram in all the hot new games on our shelf of shame/opportunity before we discover...even more hot new games at the big show. We ask the busy Ruel Gaviola (board gaming showrunner,...
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136: Games for movie lovers (guest: Mx. Tiffany Leigh)
What's your favorite movie genre? And which board games can you play to relive those feels? We ask performer and board game writer Mx. Tiffany Leigh to chat about this. As someone who worked in movie production and a real-deal old-school video store, she has fantastic movie and game recs! (We got...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Going Analog Show have?
Going Analog Show currently has 185 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Going Analog Show about?
The board gaming podcast where different industry veterans bring a game and a topic for the group to discuss. By Christina Ha, Dan "Shoe" Hsu, and Mike Zipkin.
How often does Going Analog Show release new episodes?
Going Analog Show publishes regularly with 185 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Going Analog Show?
You can listen to Going Analog Show on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Going Analog Show?
Going Analog Show is created and hosted by Going Analog.
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