Podcast
Going Analog Show
Hosted by Going Analog · EN
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.
21episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
175: The 2026 American Tabletop Awards (guest: What's Eric Playing?)
1w ago01:03:04Tap to summarizeWe 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 it's always fun to do this each year: bring Eric on, discuss the winners and almost-winners, and tell everyone how we voted. Come join us to see what was the best of 2026! Er, we mean 2025! Chapters: Going Analog's Game Pick: VNTYPL8S. Eric Yurko's Game Pick: MicroMacro: Kids. The 2026 American Tabletop Awards: Early Gamers. The 2026 American Tabletop Awards: Casual Games. The 2026 American Tabletop Awards: Strategy Games. The 2026 American Tabletop Awards: Complex Games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →174: Big deck energy, Let's Go! To France (guest: designer Josh Wood)
3w ago00:54:42Tap to summarizeOur 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" makes for a great headline). What it's really about: the recent trend of huge decks of cards that supply most of the replayability for a board game. Josh gives us his POV as a designer of games with sizable...um, decks. We also ask him a million questions about Let's Go! To France as it gets ready to go live on Kickstarter, go over our respective "Game Picks," and more. Chapters: Going Analog's Game Pick: Bloodstone. Josh Wood's Game Pick: Yeti in the House. Let's Go! To Japan. Big deck energy (and how it affects replayability). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →173: A bunch of light/party games we wanna tell you about
Apr 3000:57:35Tap to summarizeLast 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
Transcribe →172: Time to get HEAVY...with these new heavy games (guest: The Game Table)
Apr 1601:02:00Tap to summarizeWe 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 podcast episode giving our thoughts on them. We have a bunch of new, newish, and future releases to cover, so listen in to see what we liked and didn't like about our plays. Timeline: 1:34 - Brass: Pittsburg. 12:59 - Speakeasy. 17:40 - The Great Library. 20:50 - Nippon: Zaibatsu. 27:05 - Thebai. 33:25 - Tianxia. 40:09 - Covenant. 45:14 - Barrage: Duel. 51:57 - Darwin's Journey: Oceania. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →171: The educational value of board games (guest: Fort Circle Games)
Apr 200:41:53Tap to summarizeFort 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 documents. It might sound a little dry, but Fort Circle is on a mission: to bring this knowledge to gamers while adhering to modern game-design sensibilities. They want you to learn a thing or three...while having fun. We invited Fort Circle founder and owner Kevin Bertram to talk more about his company's interesting philosophy and how games can be educational, without necessarily being educational games. Timeline: 2:38 - Going Analog's game pick: Behind the Lens: Photographing Earth. 6:50 - Kevin's game pick: Fortress America. 8:52 - More about Fort Circle Games. 17:52 - Kevin's topic: The educational value of board games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →170: The best board games we played at Dice Tower West 2026
Mar 1900:51:01Tap to summarizeWe'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 of time before we start buying more games to fill in those sad gaps on our shelves. Listen or watch to see what's got us excited after five days of conventioning! Timeline: 3:02 - Shoe's game pick: Pantheauction. 5:56 - Christina's game pick: Bullseye. 11:30 - Going Analog's topic: The best games we played from Dice Tower West 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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169: Board games bringing people together (guest: Grandpa Beck)
Mar 500:50:43Tap to summarizeOur 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 clarifications. That's why his chosen topic -- bringing people together through gameplay -- makes so much sense. Brent wants nothing more but to draw people to him and each other to enjoy the hobby he loves so much. Listen/watch as we discuss his work and play philosophies, how many texts from customers he gets per day, and more. Timeline: 3:03 - Going Analog's game pick: Pandora's Legacy. 5:48 - Grandpa Beck's game pick: Mille Bornes. 11:03 - Grandpa's Beck's topic: Bringing people together through gameplay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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168: 2026 board games we've played...and are excited about (guest: Andrew Stiles, designer)
Feb 500:46:50Tap to summarizeWe 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 Stiles, to settle this hugely important argument? He has a great topic for us, too. Since he gets to playtest so many games for his colleagues, he goes over several he's particularly excited to see finally released this year. And since we get to preview many titles ourselves, we get in on the conversation. Listen to see what we think are the most exciting games to watch for in 2026. Timeline: 7:55 - Going Analog's game pick: Snow Colony. 11:12 - Andrew's game pick: Castles of Mad King Ludwig. 15:41 - Andrew's topic: 2026 games we've played and are excited about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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167: The 2025 Games of the Year episode (guest: Candice Harris)
Jan 2201:10:00Tap to summarizeIt'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 board game crazy as we are, so check out what we thought were the best of the year. Timeline: The 2025 Games of the Year (hit up our website for the full list of winners and runners-up): 7:06 - 2025 Party Games of the Year. 18:10 - 2025 Light Games of the Year. 33:38 - 2025 Medium Games of the Year. 50:55 - 2025 Heavy Games of the Year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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166: The new age of great 2-player games, part 2 (guest: Grant's Game Recs)
Jan 800:50:46Tap to summarizeWe'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 - Going Analog's game pick: Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game. 7:45 - Grant's game pick: How to Save a World. Great 2-player games, part two: 15:02 - Everdell Duo. 18:31 - Kinfire Delve. 27:00 - Timber Town. 30:12 - Naishi. 32:54 - Zenith. 40:02 - Pillars of Fate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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