Going Analog Podcast

Jan 29 2025 148 ep. 62 mins 74

Going Analog Podcast artwork

The board gaming podcast where different industry guests bring a game and a topic for the group to discuss. By Christina Ha, Dan "Shoe" Hsu, and Mike Zipkin.

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148: What's hot for 2025? Plus: The state of board game social media (guest: Grant Lyon)

Jan 29 2025 56 mins

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? What's the buzz we're hearing from others in the biz? Comedian and board game content

147: The 2024 Games of the Year episode (guest: Beneeta Kaur)

Jan 13 2025 61 mins

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 actually played a good number of games in-person with Beneeta this year, so we know she has gr

146: Reviewed! 2 big-box games, 2 small-box games (and 2 in-between)

Dec 11 2024 46 mins

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.

145: The games we loved at BGG.CON

Nov 27 2024 47 mins

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: 2:41 - SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. 11:04 - Windmill Valley. 19:14 -

144: Spooky games, indie vs. in-house design work (guests: designers Ben Kepner, Dan Stong)

Nov 01 2024 57 mins

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 compared to working independently. Timeline: 3:45 - Going Analog's game pick: Babyon. 9:46 -

143: The best area-control games, the latest from Reiner Knizia (guest: Bitewing Games)

Oct 16 2024 71 mins

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 Interlopers from Outer Space), a retro sci-fi (with cows!) rethemed version of Municip

142: Let's party (game)!

Oct 03 2024 50 mins

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. This episode was sponsored by Magic Mind, our favorite Mental Performance Shot. As a sp

141: Good/bad second-edition board games, designing from theme up (guest: designer Ben Rosset)

Sep 18 2024 54 mins

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 deeply thematic designs, and how we feel about the various types of second-edition boa

140: Fancy components, how games delight and surprise us (guest: designer Chris Matthew)

Sep 04 2024 60 mins

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 Editions, the player boards are set into solid metal frames. What? And you can shoot th

139: The 2024 Gen Con Games of the Show (guest: Amanda Panda)

Aug 21 2024 34 mins

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 ready to report back. Plus, we tapped Twitch streamer Amanda Panda for her top picks, too