Shows / Going Analog Show
Going Analog Show
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
- Going Analog Show
186: Working with IPs - challenges and lessons learned (guest: Jay Cormier, Off The Page)
Our guest this week has been making games for a decade and a half now. In recent years, however, he's been working with a lot of licenses such as the WWE…
Going Analog Show185: 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…
- Going Analog Show
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?…
Going Analog Show183: 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…
Going Analog Show182: 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…
- Going Analog Show
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…
- Going Analog Show
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…
- Going Analog Show
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…
- Going Analog Show
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…
- Going Analog Show
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…
- Going Analog Show
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…
- Going Analog Show
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…
- Going Analog Show
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)…
- Going Analog Show
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!…
- Going Analog Show
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…
- Going Analog Show
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…
- Going Analog Show
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…
Going Analog Show169: 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…
Going Analog Show168: 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…
Going Analog Show167: 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…
Going Analog Show166: 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…
Going Analog Show165: 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…
Going Analog Show164: 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…
Going Analog Show163: 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…
Going Analog Show162: 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…
Going Analog Show161: 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…
Going Analog Show160: 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…
Going Analog Show159: 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…
Going Analog Show158: 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…
Going Analog Show157: 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…
Going Analog Show156: 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…
Going Analog Show155: 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…
Going Analog Show154: 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…
Going Analog Show144: 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…
Going Analog Show153: 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…
Going Analog Show152: 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…
Going Analog Show151: 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…
Going Analog Show150: 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…
Going Analog Show149: 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…
Going Analog Show148: 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…
Going Analog Show147: 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…
Going Analog Show146: 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…
Going Analog Show145: 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…
Going Analog Show143: 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…
Going Analog Show142: 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?…
Going Analog Show141: 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…
Going Analog Show140: 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…
Going Analog Show139: 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…
Going Analog Show138: 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…
Going Analog Show137: 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…
Going Analog Show136: 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…
Going Analog Show135: Fun new word/social games, upgrading your game room
We were sitting on a new stack of word games, so we asked our editor Mike Zipkin (he of fancy game upgrades and beige game tastes) to join us in covering Word…
Going Analog Show134: Nature-themed board games, deluxe/big box editions (guest: Ian Moss)
Who doesn't love a beautiful nature game? Shoe doesn't, the grump. He just hates nature. But did he like the upcoming Everbloom, designed by our guest Ian Moss…
Going Analog Show133: 7 new/new-to-us board games (and what we liked/didn't like about them)
We've got so many new board games to talk about this week that we decided to skip having a guest on, so we can just blab and blab and blab about what we've…
Going Analog Show132: The best legacy games, exploring Christian themes (guest: designer Ken Franklin)
Legacy games can often light a classic franchise back on fire, as demonstrated by Flash Point: Legacy of Flame's successful Kickstarter. We asked Legacy of…
Going Analog Show131: The 2024 American Tabletop Awards (guest: What's Eric Playing?)
The 2024 American Tabletop Awards winners were just announced, so we invited ATTA founder, fellow judging member, and content creator Eric Yurko of What's Eric…
Going Analog Show130: Wyrmspan, our fave tabletop events (guests: Elizabeth Hargrave, Connie Vogelmann)
We knew Connie Vogelmann, designer of Apiary, was holding something back the last time we talked to her. So we brought her and Elizabeth Hargrave back to…
Going Analog Show129: Social deduction, "getting to know you" games (guest: 1 Minute Board Games)
We spend a lot of time with our friends playing board games, so we're bound to bond. But how well do we really know these people we've invited to our table? We…
Going Analog Show128: Bizarre gaming habits, how we value board games (guest: designer Eric Slauson)
When we read that Eric Slauson (designer of MonsDRAWsity, the upcoming Chucky game, and many more) likes to deal cards in a...very unique way, we knew we…
Going Analog Show127: Games we love (in genres we hate), what some games get right (guest: Peter C. Hayward)
Though we fancy ourselves "omnigamers" -- gamers who enjoy all genres -- we're kind of fooling ourselves. There are certainly specific categories of board…