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Episode 5: Conventions, Cults & Complimenting Designers
147 Plays1 year ago
The Board Members discuss BGG Con, Pax Unplugged and the excellent experiences they had there. They discuss several designers and publishers who shone brightly as great human beings. Drew discusses how he accidentally started a doomsday flannel cult.
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Transcript
Welcome to the North Pole Gaming Podcast
00:00:17
Speaker
All right, welcome back to the horror game table podcast about board games and the amazing experiences you can have sitting around a table with other people. The show is being broadcast today from Santa's gaming library way up here at the North Pole. I'm one of your co-hosts, Josh, and I am joined around this deep green and red speed plot surface game table by the other members of the board, Andrew, Heather, and Drew. Hello, hello.
00:00:42
Speaker
Oh, it's been so long. This trek to the North Pole was so long. It took us ages to get here. Well, we had to be nice to the reindeer. Yeah, that's right. The planes only go so far. Right. It was that it was that last, you know, 60 mile walk that was a little rough. So how is everybody? Good. So good.
Conventions and Family Adventures
00:01:03
Speaker
I have missed. Yeah, busy. I've been I've missed talking to y'all through
00:01:09
Speaker
the internet, but in the last month, I've seen all three of you, so that's been an interesting experience. Isn't that fantastic? It was so good, and so bless your hearts for meeting me. That's true. It's like degrees of separation from Drew at this point. Right. Yes, that's how the world of board gaming is measured. What convention are you going to, Drew? Okay, we'll be sure not to go to that one.
00:01:35
Speaker
Well, you mentioned conventions. I mean, that is a big part of why we've been so busy. We've all been hitting up the convention circuit to end up the year, right? It's always just a big push at the end of the year, I feel like. That's the way that it's felt like, because going to BGGCon and then having the holiday the next week, and then the week after that was PAX Unplugged, it's just been all over the place.
00:02:03
Speaker
it's good to sit down, not have a convention coming up and to be able to do things like this wonderful podcast. Well, plus you have a little kiddo to come home to you now. So that's a whole new thing for you. Well, yeah, I mean, that's a great reason to not want to go to those. So I think, and then when he gets old enough, you know, I'll just be like, I'll just be like Josh and Andrew and take him to these conventions. Yeah, there you go.
00:02:29
Speaker
Yeah, this this BGG was my very first opportunity to take one of my sons with me to to a real game convention. He's been to the local one here, which is fantastic, but it's very much a local con. And and so that was, you know, his first opportunity and he was excited about it. So I got him out of school a couple of days and we went to BGG and he was his head was just.
00:02:55
Speaker
but it's beautiful to see that. It is beautiful to see that. At a board game convention, they blow up and it's confetti inside, so it's okay. That's right. Maybe a dice here and there, a little bit of dice, but that's better. It is fun taking your kids to conventions. I took my son to Dice Tower East, and that was his first one, and it was just a fun experience to be able to share it with him. How old was he when you brought him to Dice Tower East?
00:03:24
Speaker
10 yeah, so this was okay. So we brought all three of our kids to packs unplug this year and Our daughter's 15, right? She was fine. She's got her own phone. We're like you can go do your own thing or not like whatever But she didn't want to be alone. So she was kind of like clinging on to us, but was also like yeah All you're doing is interviewing people. It's so boring. I was like, well, they don't do stuff, right? Oh
00:03:47
Speaker
But then my 12 year old, he also had a phone and we're like, you can go kind of do your thing, but like, I just kind of want to know where you are, right? Because he's 12, right? Don't leave the convention center, obviously, that kind of stuff. But our nine year old.
00:04:01
Speaker
Wow, this is his first convention. It was so much more exhausting to add that third kid than either my wife or I expected. I cannot express how much more, and it's also possible that I hadn't been to a really big convention that I really worked.
00:04:23
Speaker
You know, when I go to a convention like Unplugged, like I'm working the convention floor, right? Like I have, I print out the expo map. I have highlights and outlines. Like I do with this whole, it's, it's crazy. I'm very dumb. Um, but like, so I'm working the show floor, right? Like I'm not there to, I mean, it's fun for me. It's my hobby, but I'm not there to work. Like you guys, but I'm also not there to just kind of wander around. So like I'm hustling the whole time and I haven't done that in a couple of years, but adding that third kid, man, whoo.
Lost and Found: A Parental Convention Tale
00:04:52
Speaker
He got lost once, we completely lost him. That was awesome. So I was doing an interview at the Wise Wizard booth. So Wise Wizard announced their new imprint Wacky Wizard Games for the younger crowd, which of course was of interest to my channel. And he's like, dad, I gotta go pee. I'm like, okay, you see that bathroom right there? Yeah, you see that? Okay, go to that bathroom. I'm gonna be right here.
00:05:17
Speaker
Go to that bathroom. Don't forget to wash your hands because he's that age and come right back to me here. He's like, okay. Right. So I finished the whole interview and I'm like.
00:05:28
Speaker
Where's my son? So I'm like. Because it's been way longer than it's been longer than I like like if he was if he was like I got to go pee and then he realized that he had to do more than pee like reasonable amount of time. So so I got fortunately I also am a man. So I went into the men's room. I did like you know the
00:05:50
Speaker
Drew, you haven't done this yet, but Josh, you have like the kind of the casual glance under this, like all the way to the stall. Just to look at the shoes. The shoe check. Yes, exactly. Are you looking for little feet or big feet? Exactly. So I did the shoe check and I'm like, nope. So I'm like, all right. But we thought about this. We figured this out. I had taken his air
Community and Connections Through Board Games
00:06:14
Speaker
tag off of his Kindle and put it in his back pocket.
00:06:17
Speaker
Oh, you're a genius. So I'm like, I got this. Right. Here's okay. Here's the dirty rotten truth about air tags. Air tags are really good if you want to locate something like in the world. And they're really good if you want to locate something like in 30 feet of where you are. But a convention hall.
00:06:37
Speaker
Not so good. Not so good. So I'm wandering around. I'm holding my freaking phone out like a compass. Like I'm like, where are we going with this? Never found him with that. I was looking down like so I texted my wife and it was a whole thing. And we're like, we're doing this. Like, you know how the enforcers do the sweep at the end of the show when they try to get people out? Like we're doing that with two people. Right.
00:07:02
Speaker
So eventually I looked down and like the sea of humanity parted and there he was, just like, he wasn't even freaked out. He was just like, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, like, Elliot, get over here. I'm going to murder you dead so that I never lose you again. And he's like, like, what? I'm like, do you even understand why I might be upset right now? I was like, no, I was just wandering around. He's like nine going on 50. So yeah. Anyway.
00:07:31
Speaker
See, Drew's still in that sweet spot where your kid is right where you left him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's so it's so easy when they're still in the carrier. Like when you can pick them up and put them down somewhere and you're done, it's fine. And then you have to like bring the cage. Right. Like, which is not it's not like a pack of players, the pack and play cage. Then you got to bring that. But it's still it's OK. Right. Yeah.
00:07:54
Speaker
But then after that like when they start climbing the walls of the packing plate From that point forward you're done. Yeah, that's when it gets hard. That's when things start breaking. It's yeah
00:08:05
Speaker
Look, I'm well aware that my problems, you know, even six months from now is going to be completely different than what it is right now. So it's all awesome. Like, let me, let me be honest. It's all awesome. But like this nine year old, he's like all the worst parts of me. So basically I'm like, after I'm done being mad at him, I look at my wife and I apologize. Like that's pretty much it. I'm like, this is freaking me. This is me.
00:08:30
Speaker
Oh, did you have to like stop and be like, what would I do? No, I didn't. I didn't go that far to the bathroom. No, because like, OK, I'm he's OK. He's a lot like me, but also he's the third child. He's yeah, the family. So he's got some of that. I'm an idiot in this in him. Whereas I was the first child who was just like headstrong and stubborn. Yes. Yeah. You just take control. Like you got the plan. You're the one. I mean, we I. Yeah. All the stereotypes, all of them. And my daughter as the first born is the same way.
00:08:59
Speaker
Yeah, my son is a first is a first first child. The one I took to Dice Tower East. So he was he's he's the best. He's the reason we had the second child. I do. I do tell my I do tell my my nine year old. I'm like, you know, if you were first, you might have been an only child. I know. They trick you. They trick you with that first kid. And so that's the so the moral of the story, what I'm picking up, what everybody's laying down is
00:09:29
Speaker
don't take your children to conventions. That's the story.
00:09:34
Speaker
so many babies though. I did too. So many babies it packs. So we brought like die cut stickers with us like for the family gamers you know and we had the ones that said like for the family gamers and we had the ones that said play games with their kids. Yeah. And I gave out a couple I think I gave you some Heather. Yeah I got some. But like on Sunday I was like I'm like handing them out like tic tacs I'm like let's go. Exactly. Like making it rain. And I'm like in the back of my mind I'm like every one of these costs 75 cents. Every one of these cuts are fast.
00:10:04
Speaker
But but like any time I held the door open for like a lady and like a stroller, I was like, here's our sticker like whatever. But it was cool to see so many babies. So you like tip the cab drivers and like the Uber driver. Yeah. And you know, you got to be impressed that.
00:10:23
Speaker
having gone to several conventions, just knowing what that takes out of you by yourself, right? That somebody was like, I'm going to bring a, I'm going to bring a small child with me and just, uh, you know, change that dynamic completely. It's, it's, uh, impressive to see people doing that.
00:10:37
Speaker
I spent a lot more time waiting in the Pokemon line than I had anticipated. I know that's the one thing my son saw in the pictures. He was like, I saw the Pikachu up in the air. And he's like, I want to go to that one next year. I mean, honestly, like, like, you know, this is all fun. And these stories, I think, are, you know, the secret sauce, right, of of like board game family kind of stuff. But I will say that, like,
00:11:04
Speaker
They do an incredible job. And honestly, I've actually never been to Gen Con. It's a thing, whatever. Or Origins. My wife's been to Origins. I haven't. But at least at Unplugged, they do an incredible job. The whole thing where you can go in and you can just paint a mini for free. Or you can bring your kids in and they just give you a free mini and some access to paint and all this stuff. And it's right on the show floor. It's not like you have to go to some
00:11:30
Speaker
hidden room somewhere. And then the Pokemon thing, if you wait in that line, and honestly, that line moved pretty quick. I think the longest we waited was half an hour, and that's when the line was all the way around the booth. And they sit down, and they walk you through a super basic pseudo game, and then they walk you through a normal game. And then when you're done, you go up to the counter, and they give you a free deck of Pokemon cards and a nice enamel pin.
00:11:59
Speaker
And it's all free. They just do a really good job. I didn't so much care about getting the stuff. I got a deck and I gave it to my son. Shock, right? But it's just really cool that they had that stuff. Because I mean, sure, I guess that could also be targeted to somebody with buying power. But it was definitely consumable by a 10-year-old. And I just thought that was so awesome that the Pokemon company had this giant booth. And they did that. They must have been running.
00:12:29
Speaker
1520 tables at once. It was really impressive. And like, I think that that stuff is really, you know, because a lot of people have talked about this, especially this unplugged because it's like, it's like really the first one, like where we're like, the board game industry is back. Like this year is like that. Oh yeah. And this, and this unplugged has been like that too. And it's just, it's incredible. Like there's so many new gamers now.
00:12:53
Speaker
And just to see games that I've known have been out for like five years and like just watching people discover them. And like, it's so great. It's so awesome to see people discover board games and to see publishers realizing
00:13:10
Speaker
that there's value in just making their stuff available for people to find it. You know what I mean? That was like, that's my, I mean, I guess Josh, like you didn't queue us up for like a takeaway from Unplugged, but like that was my biggest takeaway from this convention was like, just the fact that like the energy of discovery was awesome. I really just, it was so good.
00:13:34
Speaker
I definitely like it when you go to an experience like that and you feel that there's that genuine interest in making those connections with their fans. Obviously, there's business taking place and we all know that. Game companies
00:13:54
Speaker
you hope are out there not just to make money, but to make something that we all can enjoy as part of the hobby. Right. But I feel like, you know, those conventions done right, you can really see that shine through. Right. I mean, it's, you know, and I think that's where you you see more of that at some of the conventions that aren't GenCon. Right. Where it's not just, you know, where the the the largest players in the industry
Shared Experiences at BGGCon and PAX Unplugged
00:14:19
Speaker
aren't outshining everybody else with the
00:14:21
Speaker
the volume of their display and stuff, you know, but I saw a lot of that myself at BGG. And it's funny because I had a lot of the shining point of my experience this year, other than meeting Drew, which was awesome.
00:14:37
Speaker
Oh, thank you. But, you know, I took my I took my second son, my second oldest son, who's who's 14. And just in the prime of his, you know, getting interested in board games, he's always been kind of interested in it and he'll play games with me and stuff. But he's getting to be at that age now where like we can play anything. Right. And he's willing to sit down and play a Euro game with me and go toe to toe and beat me in most cases.
00:15:04
Speaker
But, you know, this was his first big convention that we went to. And so, you know, I had been to BGG before and so I kind of knew what all was going on. And obviously there's, you know, slightly different things happening every year, but there's a lot of the same things, right? And so I kind of had in my head what I wanted to, the notes I wanted to hit, but I also kind of wanted to let him pick too. So I kept kind of throwing things out there. We could do this or we could do that. What do you want to do?
00:15:30
Speaker
And the last day we were there, I had met a couple of friends up there and we'd kind of use that as an opportunity, just friends of mine from college that I haven't seen in a while. And so they were with us most of the weekend, but Sunday morning, they both got ahold of me. One of them had to catch an early flight and the other one just got ahold of me early in the morning and was like, man, I'm beat, I'm out.
00:15:49
Speaker
I can't I can't come up one more day. And and so it was just my son Matthew and I. And, you know, I was like, what do you want to do? And so, you know, I was thinking, well, we'll just find a game and play it or we'll sit down and find a demo somewhere. But I had a similar experience. Reaper Miniatures was running up a take and paint or paint and take whatever you call it. Yeah. And and it was a little off the beaten track. We kind of had to find the room, but I was aware that it was on the schedule. And I said, you want to go check that out because he's always
00:16:17
Speaker
kind of expressed interest. I do a little mini painting, a little mini painting. Well, that's because they're not big, right? They're minis. Right. Well, and they keep coming in the door. So I feel like I need to pay them. But at this rate, I'm going to be six hundred and twelve. Right. So so I was like, you know, hey, would you be interested in this? Because my thought was, you know, you can just sit down and mess something up and it's no big deal. And and we went in and the guys running the the Reaper room were just amazing and they were super helpful.
00:16:47
Speaker
And they set us down. Like you said, you know, it's your opportunity to just pick stuff up and work with it. And I thought we were going to be in there for like 15 minutes and we burned three hours and just had a blast. Right. And there were other people of various ages in there. And, you know, you're sitting there kind of just chit chatting with people while you're while you're doing it. And I just he was having such a great time doing it. And it was just, you know, it was a huge moment for me as a parent and as a gamer. So that was awesome.
00:17:15
Speaker
Heather, what's your story? I want to hear a fun story about a recent con. I feel like we all should share one. Of course. So my last one was PAX Unplugged. And honestly, it was really nice to go back because PAX Unplugged was my first convention ever last year. And so it was nice to bring it full circle and just see the difference that a year has made.
00:17:42
Speaker
Because a year ago, I knew everyone on social media, but I had never met anyone in person. And it just is amazing to me. My first year there, I got in a day before and I didn't really know anybody yet. So I was like, I can't hit anybody up and be like, hey, you want to go get some food?
00:18:04
Speaker
Um, and so I just kind of explored the city by myself. Like I literally just walked around by myself. I got my badge. Um, and then I went and looked at like the Christmas market there by myself, went and got food by myself. I just spent the whole day by myself. This year it's a stark, it was a huge difference because like it was just so hard to like find time to see everyone. Like when we arrived, I was immediately
00:18:32
Speaker
looking for the guy with fans, I'm sure. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, citing autographs, taking pictures. It slows you way down, doesn't it? I mean, it just is just a huge difference. Like I immediately was able to hit people up and be like, where are you? Let's hang out. Like, what are you doing? And they're like, we're here gaming. You know, so I met up with like Isaac from gaming with sidekicks and Bob, you know, from one board family, like
00:18:57
Speaker
Bob, by the way, you got to look out for Bob. Oh, I love both of them. Oh, I love them both to death. I met them both last year at PAX. We bonded over. That's what I met them for the first time. We bonded over watching these two guys dressed up as superheroes out in the median across the street from the convention center, like jumping for their pictures and like superhero costume.
00:19:20
Speaker
Yeah, that's funny. And it was like the best experience. That's when I met them for the first time and we exchanged cards and everything. And then every convention after, like they found me, you know, and have really like included me in things, which has just been really sweet. And so it was nice to like see them again this year. And I learned Barcelona on my first day, like there. Did Bob teach it?
00:19:43
Speaker
No, it was actually Ryan from Japanime Games. Okay. Because Bob taught me Hadrian's Wall. He is an incredible teacher. He is so good. It was Ryan and Isaac had played before. So it was Ryan, Isaac, and Grant.
00:19:59
Speaker
And I learned that Grant and I learned how to play Barcelona at the same time. So like neither one of us had played, but Isaac and Ryan had played. So they taught us how to play. But it was honestly just really fun. I mean, it was just a huge difference with this pax was compared to last pax. Like I felt more at home. I felt more relaxed. Like it was just cool to see everyone. You know, it's like a giant reunion, basically. I love the grant and go by his first name now.
00:20:26
Speaker
What? If somebody says Grant, everybody knows who you're talking about. I know, right? 100%. Well, it just blows me away how welcoming the community is in general. And I just love going to the conventions. And it just was really sweet that here I was back again at the same convention.
00:20:47
Speaker
I spent my first day alone at last time and I just had so many wonderful friends to hang out with this time. Awesome. So that, I mean, honestly, that was, that's like my biggest takeaway. It was just like a really nice family reunion.
00:21:00
Speaker
You know, that's one of the things that I always tell people when they, you know, when they, when they say like, why would you go to a convention? You can play games at home for free, you know? And I'm like, that's the experience, right? That it's, yeah, you can play games while you're there and you should, you know, but it's the experience of seeing all those people that maybe only see at that convention, right? But you see them year after year and it's an opportunity to, you know, touch base and laugh with them and, and, you know, and maybe you play a game, but maybe you don't, maybe you're just standing around talking, you know?
00:21:29
Speaker
It took us 40 minutes to get into the first room that we went to because we kept seeing people like on the way in the room, like the elevator door is open and it's like the tantrum house guys are there. I know that's the experience. I mean, I love it. Yeah. Well, my husband went to Origins with me. He was like, we can't walk five, you know, like steps without somebody knowing you.
00:21:51
Speaker
Stop being so famous. You can't get anywhere because you know everyone. We we had some extra board games because Hachette had just accidentally sent us doubles of a couple of games.
Giving and Networking at Conventions
00:22:04
Speaker
So we're like, what are we going to do with these? So we're like so we posted on like our Discord and stuff. We're like, if you just stop one of us and just say, hey, you know, like I know the family gamers,
00:22:14
Speaker
We'll give you a game like it's in the backpack to stop us and ask for a game and we'll just give it to you. And people recognized us and stopped us and asked for games. And that was awesome. Like it's just cool. You know what I mean? So that's fun. What an experience. Drew, how was your experience? Yeah, what's your story? I have one too many. No. I feel like I feel like going to BGGCon and going to PAX Unplugged, it was basically a blink of an eye and I was at both. So
00:22:44
Speaker
Two very separate conventions with two very different takeaways, but both pretty positive in that aspect. I would say for BGGCon, I would say that one of the experiences being that making really good connections, making
00:23:07
Speaker
of that nature being able to sit down, play. It was a very laid back convention to where I could sit down, play and be able to hear people's game. You know, uh, I felt bad because, um, I felt bad because, uh, Josh was with me, uh, um,
00:23:27
Speaker
at that convention and I left him at the booth for like two hours because I was doing a play test of a game that took two hours to learn how to play. But it was really, it was really cool. And in the fact that how many people would walk by the booth and really taught me that, hey, anybody can be a game designer. So many people walk by, I have a game that I'm working on, you know, how much would it cost to get this produced and everything like that.
00:23:56
Speaker
Uh, in that, in that area, but I got to hang out with some people too, who I never really got the chance to hang out with at other conventions. So like Matt Ryan from Envy born games, like, like we hung out, we've been in the same like people group and things like that, but like this one, it was mostly him, myself, a couple, like a handful of other people and we would just go grab a drink. We'd go back, play a game. It would just be so much fun in that.
00:24:25
Speaker
And also I learned how bad, uh, bad he is at sheriff of Nottingham. So people are just not born buffers, man. No, it was actually funny because when he was the sheriff, he was like, he was like, I will take any and all bribes. He goes, any bribes at all. Anybody he goes, I'll take openly crooked. Yeah. Openly crooked. And everybody was honest with it.
00:24:53
Speaker
That was the great aspect of it. That was BGG compacts unplugged. Again, I'll keep it pretty short.
00:25:01
Speaker
Uh, as I was talking before we started recording, it felt like in this, this was a great networking experience because I view myself to be like someone who does enjoy some time to get to know people, get to talk to different people, get to spend time. And the way that I was able to, you know, introduce people to other people and things like that, uh, of that nature, I thought it was an absolutely.
00:25:27
Speaker
Uh, wonderful experience. I got to spend time with people at the coolest part for me. One of the, one of the major aspects of me of, for me was I've been talking to a handful of people work wise. I've been talking to them for.
00:25:45
Speaker
I would say a couple months now where they possibly want to print their game with what's games. But it's a whole different story as a gamer myself who, you know, looks at the work aspect of it, but as well as a gamer getting to go and be a part of their game to play their game that they've emailed me about over and over again and getting to experience. That is a really cool
00:26:13
Speaker
Experience, one of them being more specifically Mega Moth Studios. They are some content creators who are putting out a game that's heavily based from their Magic the Gathering background. So it's a really cool card game called X Seekers of Fortune. And I thought that that game was incredibly fun, as well as other people who are on these social media platforms who are designers that I got the chance to play with.
00:26:42
Speaker
What was that game? It was. Salty, scurvy sea dogs. There's a there. There's a content creator on TikTok. His name is Alex, and he has been creating content based around him, him designing his game. His his thing that really got him off and going on the platform is he played the world's longest version of Monopoly just and played a turn every single day.
00:27:09
Speaker
And he's going, I think he's like 90 days strong when he plays one dirt. So he he is also designing a game. I got to sit down until the. What were they called? Enforcers until the enforcers that packs on plug kicked us out. And so we played and it was a very interesting tile laying game where it was just it was really good. I enjoyed that very much. It was it was.
00:27:38
Speaker
It was, it was very simple to learn and how to play a lot of strategy in it as well. The art is not something that's overly grand and beautiful. It's not an Everdale by any means he did it himself. And it, it looks good for the game. Like I was like, this is dogs that are pirates. All that it is. And so I thought this is a really fantastic job. So, uh, those are my two.
00:28:07
Speaker
shout outs of people that I played with at at PAX Unplugged. I played with a lot more people and a lot more games, but that that's that's for another time and another tale. But those are the things that I got to take away is that it was a really cool experience to be able to network, see people understand that anybody can be a designer. It doesn't have to be somebody who, of course, works for a
00:28:32
Speaker
company or anything of that sort. They're looking to pitch out their game ideas to publishers or maybe they're self publishing themselves. And so, which was a really good encouragement from BGG con. It was a really good encouragement from packs unplugged. There was just so much. I, I enjoy working with the people who are just getting started, but not just that I get to see their games and their ideas. So I'm sorry, I've talked way too long, but that is,
00:28:59
Speaker
That's one of the cool things I took away was just that experience of seeing someone's idea and watching, hearing about it as long as I have. That was awesome. It's a unique perspective that you have because of your actual job that you can see those things, so that's cool. Absolutely. That's the thing that I do enjoy, seeing them go from paper that they've made in their house to
00:29:28
Speaker
seeing a prototype to seeing the actual game be printed.
Generosity and Creativity in the Gaming World
00:29:32
Speaker
But that was the walk away of those two. I was just like, I have no negatives about either one of these games. Like I I said, I have worked long enough with you that I feel like I could tell you if there were any negatives to this games, but I truly can't. So I think that they were ready to go. And I think their games will be awesome. So be on the lookout for both of those games.
00:30:06
Speaker
And one final thought too, apparently there's a rumor going around that I started a cult. We're not going to get into that too heavily, but that's another conversation for another podcast.
00:30:18
Speaker
Rumor has it the the entry is you have to wear flannel or plaid. I don't think that's a rumor. There might be photographic evidence. It was it was it was a coincidence that all of my friends decided to wear plaid on the same exact day to gather together to take a picture. It just it it was not
00:30:42
Speaker
anything planned whatsoever. And then immediately took off the flannel and plaid because Philadelphia was a lot warmer than it was the year before. Well, you mentioned cults. So I'm going to I'm going to pick up that that little cult drop. I want I have a publisher. I actually want to shout out because they did something super ridiculously amazing. And that is Panda Cult Games. Anybody know Panda Cult Games?
00:31:10
Speaker
I had a meeting with them. Their games looked fantastic. I got a quick run through. I thought it looked great. I was very intrigued. So, Panda Call Games makes the Shovel Knight miniatures game. So, I'm not like a big minis guy like that. I'm just, I mean, I know Josh is and maybe now I'm persona non grata or something. I don't know, but I'm just, I've never been, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I've never been a mini, like I'm fine with them. Like they're whatever, but like it's not, I don't, I don't seek them out.
00:31:35
Speaker
But my boys, I played Shovel Knight. I'm an old school video gamer. My boys played Shovel Knight. They really love it. My nine-year-old is obsessed with his grandmother's Atari 2600. He's super into retro games. So Shovel Knight was right up his alley. So on my expo hall map, it was highlighted. I had highlighted the panda cold booth because I wanted to bring the boys over to see Shovel Knight, just to see it because it's cool.
00:32:02
Speaker
And so they came over, and so Panda Cult is two people. I think they're a husband and wife team, but it's two people that basically are the company. And so they were giving a demo to my boys, and they played through the whole thing, and they're doing the whole deal, and they traded off because other people needed help or whatever. And they finished the demo, and they're like, so what do you think? And the boys are like, this is awesome. And I'm like, this game is not my budget.
00:32:31
Speaker
I was like upfront or like, I just, I cannot, I can't, I mean, the box is, I can't do it. And then my 12 year old was like, dad, you could totally review this game. And I'm like, yeah, but like, I'm not, I'm not going to ask for $125 game. Like, I'm just not going to do that. Like, that's not my, I'm not that content creator. That's like, gimme, gimme, gimme. I'm just not right. And they're like, Oh,
00:32:53
Speaker
Oh, you can just take one. I'm like, and they like, like practically forced it on me. So so they were they were because they saw how much my boys were like in love with it. They're like, this is amazing. Like make some content. Don't feel obligated. Like if you are going to give me one hundred twenty five dollar game, number one, you're letting me buy the expansion.
00:33:13
Speaker
And number two, I am writing a review of your game. There is a social contract if you give me a $12 card game, in my opinion. I understand if you don't have it, but I have it. And if you're going to, first of all, I'm going to make my nine-year-old walk out of here with this box. I'm not carrying it. I mean, I don't mind, but I'm going to make him suffer. So they were so nice. They were so nice to my boys, and they were so wonderful. They were just wonderful people.
00:33:39
Speaker
And now I have this giant freaking box of Shovel Knight minis in my house. And, you know, we'll review it next year, but they've already like that's the game they've taken out and played like four times since we've only been back for a week. But like I'll look over and and the funny thing is my son, because I download a ton of video game music because I just I love video game music like he'll put on Shovel Knight music so they can play Shovel Knight the board game together. It gets very cute. So anytime I hear the eight bit music, I'm like I look over and I'm like,
00:34:09
Speaker
Just don't forget to clean it up, boys. But yeah, I just want to shout out the people over at Panda Cult because they were just incredible people. They were so nice. And they finally did relent and let me pay them for the expansion, which I was pretty good at. I told them, I was like, it's making me feel better if you let me do this. And they're like, don't worry about it. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not how this works. But I did want to give them a special shout out because they were incredible.
00:34:38
Speaker
that's fantastic that's really awesome yeah i the person that i was really excited to see at packs um and got to play their new game uh was aman from levity games um i've been following
00:34:56
Speaker
I met Ammon first at Gamma actually in March. Gamma was in March or April around that time. I met him then because he had Gnome Hollow, but he had the prototype.
00:35:11
Speaker
And he was showing it off, and that's pre the op, you know, and everything. So he like showed me how to play. And I just remember at Gamma, everyone talking about Gnome Hollow. It was like the big thing that people were talking about. And I was like, yeah, I'm in this game is like going to go places. And so we set up and I played Gnome Hollow on my Twitch stream. Like not long after that, he had it on Tabletop Simulator. We played it together. My Twitch stream to kind of show it off and
00:35:40
Speaker
And then he, when I saw him at Origins, he had meetings, you know, then it was like really becoming more, you know, he had meetings like Hasbro played it, like, all these companies played it and were like, giving him all these different offers. And now eventually, like, now it's the op is, you know, publishing Noam Hollow. And it's insane. Like, and he just kept saying over and over again, he was like,
00:36:03
Speaker
I'm just so surprised by like everyone is just so excited and the pre-orders are just out the wazoo like he's just so excited about it and I was like Ammon it's a really good game yeah you did a really good job and he still has like art control so he's updating the art and he was showing me the new images it packs
00:36:23
Speaker
and it just looks so beautiful and i'm just so excited and happy for him like seeing the original game at gamma and what it is now like and it's gonna premiere next gen con is when they're gonna release it and have it at next gen con like i'm just so excited for him and then he has his new game he was in the um
00:36:45
Speaker
What was that section called? There's a section that they got chosen. It was right next to Cosmos. I can't think of what it was called, but a couple of game companies got chosen to be featured in this little section at PAX, and he had a table there. And he had some stuff about Noam Hollow there so people could see it and they could sign up for the info and everything.
00:37:05
Speaker
But his next game is called Twinkle Twinkle and it is right up my alley. It's like a little square tiles and they're clear and they have cute constellations on them or wormholes or spaceships and technology and you're just placing them.
00:37:22
Speaker
on these boards that have all these galaxy images and they're literally like the art for the game he made in his kitchen using alcohol painting like alcohol dripping and painting and then he like changed the coloration of it and that's the game boards
00:37:38
Speaker
Um, and it's just really cool. It's kind of like, um, sushi go with the points. Like depending on where you lay, if you get like five meteors together, it's this many points. If you have two, it's this many. So it's like all about the configuration and everything. Um, and you can like swap out some tiles with other people's boards, but it's pretty much your own board that you're playing on.
00:37:59
Speaker
Um, but it was really, really good. So I'm very excited to see all the wonderful things that he's coming up with because I think he's very creative. He's very genuine. Um, and just a really nice person. Yeah. And it's a super sweet dude. Yeah.
00:38:14
Speaker
So I have to pile on to that story, but but but the story I'm going to tell is secondhand. So take that for what it's worth. OK, I heard from this girl that this guy at a game called no follow was awesome. So so.
00:38:31
Speaker
One of the game designers I've been fortunate to meet here in the last couple of years is Catherine Dreher. And I know Heather, you know her. I've seen Facebook traffic between the two of you and I was like, what a small world. I love her so much. So so she and her husband, George, came down to TokenCon here in Oklahoma City last year and we got the chance to to to see them. And it was just fantastic. We hit it off right away. But
00:38:59
Speaker
Um, but she had posted just the other day a story about him, uh, and, and how he had, I guess some 16 year old kid had come up to his booth and was asking him questions about, you know, designing a game and, and, but was being real timid about it. And I guess he was just like, you're a game designer. Well, do you have your game? And the kid was like, Oh, you know, I don't.
00:39:22
Speaker
You know, he didn't want to like toot his own horn and and apparently, you know, he just swept all of his own game off to the side and was like, put it out on the table. Let's make this happen, you know, and and show me your show me your idea just for for anybody who's doing your own thing. You're trying to get your own idea out there to stop and help somebody out who's who's one step behind you. He that's huge. He's the sweetest individual. Like he's so kind and just has no
00:39:52
Speaker
Um, concept of hell, like he just, he's, he's very, he, he underestimates how talented he is. And I think it's awesome that he's just so excited about where his stuff is going. And I'm really excited for him. You know, it's just very cool to see.
00:40:07
Speaker
And I think with that attitude, it's going to, you know, he's got. Oh, for sure. I mean, that makes me want to rush out and buy no Mahalo, right? Yeah, I know. It looks. Oh, it's the coolest game. And I told him, I was like, I played it on my Twitch channel first. No, he just he's a really, really cool human being. So it's definitely someone that people need to keep an eye on because he's going to keep designing. I mean, he has more stuff, you know, that he's thinking about and more stuff coming out in the future. So I'm very excited to see what happens with him.
00:40:38
Speaker
How about you, Drew, did you have any special run ins with the publishers, designers? Oh, of course. I would definitely say if you met me, of course, that was a pleasure. I met I met Josh, I met Andrew. It was it was an absolute wonderful pleasure. And Heather, I got to see her again. So that's always always so. Same old, same old. Heather, have you met Josh? I haven't.
00:41:05
Speaker
So so Drew is the connective tissue of the podcast. Yeah, he's like the Kevin Bacon. Now you can get rid of me. Oh, man. Yeah, I was I was bound and determined to get to PAXU this year because you get you three were going to be there. And I said, man, that would be fantastic. And and unfortunately, my schedule fell apart. But we're doing it this next year. We're going to. Yes. Find someplace to be together next year. Live podcast. We can do this.
00:41:32
Speaker
Oh, that would be amazing. I'm down for that. They have the media. They do. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that would be fantastic. I think that would be great. So I'll mention two of the the two conventions that went to with BGG con impacts unplugged, two of them that really and then I'll mention something else that's kind of a special on third aspect. And I'll make it quick. The first one was there
Young Talent and New Ventures in Gaming
00:42:00
Speaker
was
00:42:00
Speaker
There was a game, and I've been sitting here on mute trying to look for the card. I can't find it anywhere at the moment, but the publisher, they slipped my mind. But I remember the game because I bought it, and I have a copy of it. But I would have to also look for that. So it's been wild since coming home.
00:42:21
Speaker
You do have a teeny baby. It's okay. I'm hoping you lose your mind. Like it's okay. It's okay. We've all been there. Oh goodness. So the game, the game that I saw at BGG con was called witchcraft. Now it's a pseudo social deduction game, uh, combined with a couple other factors within the game that I think that are super cool and super neat. But the cool part was, is that it was designed by a 15 year old.
00:42:50
Speaker
And it was a really cool experience to see like him and his dad working this booth from there in Dallas. And it was just a really cool experience. Wonderful people, very creative thought mind. And as well, they were just wanting to see what they could do next. They were like, we had this great idea. We got the game printed. Now we're trying to figure out what to do. And they were like, this is our first booth. We have no idea what we're doing. And I was like,
00:43:19
Speaker
You know, hey, I go to enough of these, please reach out if you need anything. Gave them my card. They gave me theirs, which is what I've been trying to look for up here. Uh, but, and I do feel bad that I could not think of it, but it's called witchcraft and a witch as in W H I C H craft.
00:43:36
Speaker
And so you're trying to find which player is the witch. And so it's a it's a pretty it's a pretty cool experience where everybody's playing as villagers, one individual is playing as a witch, another player is playing as the black cat who's helping the witch. So it's a.
00:43:55
Speaker
I thought it was a pretty creative thing, especially for a 15 year old to come up with and actually put that out there to do that. So, uh, yeah, definitely look up, uh, witchcraft, look that, look them up and be able to support them. Cause they do have more stuff that they're going to be coming out with here later on. So the dad's going to get more involved with the designing process too. So it's going to be awesome. Um, so that was my experience, uh, at BGG con, the people that really stuck out to me. And then I was like, I really need to.
00:44:25
Speaker
shine a spotlight on them, but then the other, other one being packs unplugged. And I will say this, uh, they did not have a booth, but they were working, you know, different areas, different spots had different places for play tests, but fight in a box seppy with conquest princess. Like if nobody backed that,
00:44:50
Speaker
Definitely missing out over on game found it was a fantastic experience as you got to as you got to save your ship as you were working together with your team to fight off and it had a lot of Combination of different things that were mixed together certain moves and resource management being able to pick up What you could whenever you move to different areas and different spots of the ship as well the enemy was drawing closer and it was in a
00:45:20
Speaker
Oh, man, what what is that arcade game from the from the 80s and 90s space space invader? Yeah. Yeah. And it had that type of vibe to it as the enemy drew closer each and every turn. It was it was wonderful. And there's also a video that the people that I play tested with, I play tested with other content creators and they were like, we're going to put this video out. And I was like, go for it.
00:45:46
Speaker
I got to level up my character and I had to describe what was the wonderful fashion that was built from this evolving into this wonderful new hero and what was their fashion because in the game of conquest princess fashion is power.
00:46:09
Speaker
So, uh, Seppi did a fantastic job working on that game. I'm very happy that I backed it and very excited to get a copy of it very soon. So I, I, and it was good to actually sit down and talk to Seppi instead of just the quick, hello, Seppi, good to see you, my friend. And then walk on actually sit down and him, him just having the absolute time of his life, the one of the best, like,
00:46:38
Speaker
teachers of a game that I've ever seen. There was never a moment where I was like, oh, I'm going to check out. I always was diving into that. And Heather got to play test it also and demo it also. Yeah, he is a really good teacher. He did like a learn as you play and he did a really good job of guiding you. Oh yeah. Like a good demo of the game and get a feel for it. And he made it fun too. So that was the great aspect of it.
00:47:04
Speaker
I had a really good experience at PAX Unplugged with Fight in a Box. Then one more shout out, Heather and I, our friend Nicholas Sparkman, who is working, who is collaborating with One First Games, his game Apothecary, their game funded, very recently Apothecary funded, it went through. Heather and I got, Heather play tested at a different time. I got to play test it at,
00:47:32
Speaker
Where was it? It was gamma is where I got to play test it. And so overall, wonderful game, wonderful experience. I have the demo copy. They were like, here, please take it and do a review over it. So I'm very excited to do that eventually when I get to it. But yeah, I did. I I'm very happy that their campaign ended so well and they were able to fully fund the game to with with more than what it what they were shooting for. So.
00:48:02
Speaker
Yeah, that's another one that it's kind of like Ammon's, like we've seen it at Gamma and then to kind of see how far it's come, like now in December, what it looks like because the art has changed. He's changed some of the mechanics, like some of the cards have been added. Yeah, it's just, it's cool to see a game grow. It really is. And Ammon is a wonderful human being and everyone that's listening and is a part of this podcast or wherever, what's happening should
00:48:29
Speaker
Be following Ammon and what he does in the future. Same thing with Nicholas Sparkman or as I like to call him Sparky. Sparky. Be sure to watch out what he's doing. Fantastic ideas and concepts. Big future ahead of both of them. Awesome.
00:48:47
Speaker
and neither of them have paid for this promotional time. That's right. That's right. This is what happens when you become friends with Drew. I know. Can I sneak one more in? Yeah, do it. Please do. Heck yeah.
00:49:03
Speaker
So both of these guys, Nicholas and Ammon, are relatively, I'm saying relatively new to the space, like they're up and coming designers. And that's awesome. And I think that we need to see a lot of that. But I just want to give a shout out to somebody who's been in the industry for like 20 something years, who has undergone a pretty significant change recently. And I couldn't be more happy for him. And this is Jason Schneider with Happy Camper Games. Oh, my gosh. Yes.
00:49:28
Speaker
So yeah, so if you don't recognize the name Jason Schneider, he was the vice president of product development for game right for 20 years. He everything at game right all the incredible stuff at game right went through him. Game right got acquired by Buffalo. His position was made redundant or whatever. I don't know.
00:49:50
Speaker
Um, but, uh, so he, you know, he got laid off. Um, but you know, he, he landed on his feet. He kinda, I mean, he, he's, first of all, this dude is an incorrect, just an unbelievable dude, like unending positivity, just incredible man.
00:50:05
Speaker
Um, and like the day before, like, I mean, obviously he knew about this for a while because he had a booth and everything, but like the day before unplugged or like two days before unplugged, there was this announcement that Jason was starting his new, his new board game company called Happy Camper Games.
00:50:23
Speaker
And their first game was printed and available at the show. Because Game Right was never like a Kickstarter company. They were around before. You know, they're kind of like the old guard kids publisher, right? Like, HABBA Games is gone, by the way. I don't know if you know that. Oh, no, I didn't know that. It's been a long time. Yeah, so HABBA declared bankruptcy. HABBA USA.
00:50:44
Speaker
It's gone. Wow. It doesn't exist anymore. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, they're gone. And so so like game right is kind of like the last remaining old guard. But like even still, they're kind of a shell of what they were like that. None of the people like and I live 25 minutes from game right headquarters like Siaco in Newton, Massachusetts.
00:51:05
Speaker
none of the people that were there are there anymore, none of them. So they exist as a shell of themselves, but Jason has started Happy Camper and they released their first game, Trio, which had another, was it Nana in Spanish or something like that? Yeah, I think Nana is what people kept telling me. So it's the same game. Like if you have Nana, you don't need to buy Trio, but it was,
00:51:30
Speaker
a smash hit at the show. I brought so many people over to see it. I walked up to Jason. I gave him a huge hug. I'm like, I'm so, so happy for you. The former director of marketing for game, right? Like drove down, like she's not even in the industry anymore. She left the industry altogether, but she drove down to volunteer in his boots just to help him out, which goes to show you how awesome of a dude he is. Right. And I was like super happy to see her and like,
00:51:55
Speaker
It was like that family reunion thing, right? Just like a little micro family reunion in the trio booth. Beautiful. In the happy camper booth. So the game is called Trio. They sold out Sunday afternoon, which is perfect. You don't want to sell it on Friday. You don't want to sell it on Saturday. You want to sell it on Sunday. Yeah, I saw you on Friday. We were next to each other. Yeah. I bought it then. I was like, I'm buying it now. Well, I asked him. I was like, look, I will happily buy your game, or I
Game Reviews and Recommendations
00:52:21
Speaker
will review your game. You tell me what you want, and I'll do it. He's like, I'd rather get the word out.
00:52:25
Speaker
I don't think he needs to get the word out anymore. No, that's fine. Yeah, trio. I mean, yeah, it's this super simple card game. My 12 year old destroys us because he's got like practically a dead active memory. Mm hmm. It's fine. It's a little bit of like trick taking slash memory. It's super clever, super smart, plays really quick.
00:52:44
Speaker
It's called Trio from Happy Camper, and I could not be happier for Jason Schneider. Yeah, I taught it to Drew when we were our last the day we were leaving. We all went to like a little cafe in the Comcast in B.C. Universal building. And so fancy. Yeah, it's a fancy lunch. But we played some games. Trio Trio was one of them that we played. We opened it up and played that one. Nice.
00:53:11
Speaker
Yeah, Heather talked about it almost all weekend because, of course, Heather's my con buddy. So if you ever find Heather after the show or before the show, Heather's always with me. So and sometimes during the show. But yeah, no, it was it was so good. And Heather talked about it so much. I was like, all right, I'm going to go up. I actually bought their last copy. So that's tremendous. I walked up on Sunday and I go,
00:53:38
Speaker
I would like a copy. They go, Oh, okay. Well, let's go check. And they went and checked and they came back and they said, um, this demo copy right here on this table is, is it, and I go, I'll take it. I'll take it. There you go. I'll take it. Yeah. They gave you a discount because it had been played 700 times.
00:53:57
Speaker
No, no, no, it wasn't an actual demo one where they played it. It was it was like one of those like a display. Yeah, display one. They had like the sign taped to it or something. Yeah. Yeah. They had they had the sign. It was like, do not do not touch. And I was like, Yeah, I want to touch it. I want to take it. So there we go.
00:54:15
Speaker
I mean Drew's gonna pay a premium if you're gonna sell him something that says do not touch and he gets to touch it like oh yeah yeah you should have seen you should have seen Drew and Ben right at the at that CNN or not CNN at the Comcast Center they had a giant ball right
00:54:32
Speaker
Yeah it was some sort of experience with Steven Spielberg and made it or whatever and I walked up and Ben was with me and I was like Ben let's go see if we can touch that. Yeah they wouldn't touch it. They had like guards around it and everything like that and they were like. But they got to touch it.
00:54:52
Speaker
Yeah. I tried to talk Ben into, uh, I was a bad influence for Ben. I told him, I was like, Hey, let's go, you know, just a couple blocks away and touch the Liberty Bell. So those board gamers, come to town and ruin everything. We're just having a good time living life.
00:55:13
Speaker
I also did get to save a stamp when I went to PAX and I returned a review copy of a game to a publisher. I was like, Oh, nice. Nice. Here you go. Post curious. And they make lots of like puzzley storytelling type games. And they had a game on Kickstarter that was Morrison Game Factory. And it is fantastic. So a little shout out for post curious, huh?
00:55:39
Speaker
I'm intrigued by the name. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. It's very like all of their games are very they're story driven, but they're like story driven puzzle tales. Basically, there are lots of puzzles in it, but the Morrison game factory is cool because it has a lot of like board game puzzles and things that you're trying to figure out. But I would liken the experience to box one by Neil Patrick Harris. If you haven't played that also equally fantastic, cool, very cool, unique experience.
00:56:08
Speaker
Like escape room in a box vibes or a haunting in apex by wolf escape games Also very similar experience just a really unique Puzzle experience so they have they have really cool games like that
00:56:24
Speaker
So yeah, I was like, here's your game. Rita was like, oh, you didn't have to bring it. And I was like, no, I want to save a stamp. Here you go. But no, that's a really good one. I went to church this morning and handed out like 75 Christmas cards. Yeah, right. I was like, thank you for saving me 60 cents. Thank you for saving me 60 cents.
00:56:45
Speaker
Oh, goodness. I'm taking I'm taking pictures for Christmas cards tomorrow. So we're going to try to get that done. Yeah. So so thank you all for bringing up Christmas cards. So there you go. I'm done, man. I'm done. See, this year will be fine because your your newborn is just going to lay there and look. Uh huh. Uh huh. It's it's it's you get a couple of years down the road when they don't want to sit still. Oh, yeah.
00:57:13
Speaker
I've got a great one when I took my kids to see before I had the third child. I took my kids to see Santa and my daughter was she must have been like one and a half, maybe close to two. And she's sitting on Santa's lap and she's like just cry like a mouth wide open in her hands like this. She's going.
00:57:32
Speaker
Oh, like she's just crying and my son is like looking at her just smiling like the biggest smile. It's the best photo. Yeah, that's when you end up having seven hundred pictures taken just to get the one. Oh, yeah. They're like squeaking the toys behind the camera like. Right.
00:57:54
Speaker
I can remember when my oldest two were were quite a bit younger that there was a couple of years where, you know, we had to have taken 100 pictures just to get one. Oh, yeah. Was face front and smiling. All right. I think we're coming up on that time. So we'll go around the table one more time and everybody.
00:58:11
Speaker
Tell the folks out there where they can get a hold of you or find out more about what you are working on. Let's start with Heather. Yeah, thank you. I you can find me all over social media. Borgamey Mama on all social media platforms. I stream on Twitch twice a week, normally Wednesday and Saturday nights, 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time soon to be central now, though. I'll be moving in a week and a half.
00:58:38
Speaker
Oh, you're going to be in my time zone. I will be. And then you can also find me on TikTok right now. I'm doing a fun advent calendar. It's an escape room advent calendar video a day. This is the third year I've done it. It's what blew me up on TikTok originally. So you want to check out some fun advent content, go to TikTok. But otherwise, I don't have anything else coming up other than a giant big move to
Holiday Wishes and Reflections
00:59:04
Speaker
Wisconsin. So it's a lot colder than Florida.
00:59:07
Speaker
Good thing you got that flannel. I know. I think I didn't buy that flannel for Drew Day. How about you, Drew? Oh, my goodness, Drew Day. That's what I'm going to call it next year. So it's going to be marketed as officially known as Drew Day. No, no, no. Well, we'll talk about that later on when things come to fruition for that. But marketing is going to be, you know, branding is on point.
00:59:36
Speaker
Um, so where you can find me, you can find me on YouTube, you can find me on Instagram, you can find me on TikTok. Those are the most common places that you can find where you can see me every day posting one to two videos a day where I'm just doing shorts reels or just TikToks of me just goofing off.
00:59:56
Speaker
talking bad about cards against humanity. Or maybe I'm just, you know, just goofing around talking about how I'm flipping the table over. I have a lot of reviews that are going to be coming up and a lot of things that's going to be going on and happening. One of the big things is this upcoming Thursday on December 14th. I will be going live on TikTok with Heather and a couple of other content creators, and we are going to play the game. It's kind of a fun story.
01:00:26
Speaker
So we're getting together to play that and have just an awesome time together. But where you can find me is welcome to boredom, and that is welcome to boredom board spelled kind of like board games, if that makes any sense. But you can find me on there. You can it's all over the place, same place, same spot. You can find me welcome to boredom. And as well, you can see all the flannels and everything that I'll be
01:00:52
Speaker
walking through and wearing and, you know, mentioning something about, you know, just a bunch of friends getting together and listening to each other and talking about flannels and board games. And as we are in the possession of getting possibly a ranch to work together and just... This is a cult. How dare you? How dare you?
01:01:15
Speaker
So thank you so much. And I am super excited and hope to see you all soon. Feel free to give me a visit on those channels. Awesome. And Andrew. Yeah, so you can find all of our stuff at Family Gamers AA on pretty much everything. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, everything. The A in the A is for Andrew and Nitra, who is my amazing co-host, partner, wife, hero, whatever.
01:01:43
Speaker
Yeah, so we're doing all sorts of fun stuff. Tomorrow we are releasing our review for Space Explorer's Age of Ambition, the seven module expansion for Space Explorers. So if you like Splendor, but you want something a little more complicated or a lot more complicated, definitely want to check that one out.
01:02:00
Speaker
And yeah, every Friday we've got a YouTube video that comes out talking about some game, five minutes or more. Should be five minutes or less, but that never happens. But yeah, that's pretty much what we're doing. Two reviews a week, having a great time doing it. And eventually we'll come out with that Shovel Knight review.
01:02:21
Speaker
And that's how it starts, Andrew. Then you'll have to get another game with minis and another game with minis. I mean, they are cool minis, though, like I got to give them credit, right? But I don't know, whatever.
01:02:37
Speaker
So you can find what what I've been working on here quite a bit, actually, here recently at salamandergames.com. We've been working on our newest game, Hot Diggity Dog, which is almost ready for Kickstarter. Pretty excited about that. Whoop, whoop. Hot Diggity Dog. Hot Diggity Dog. Yeah. Where you're you are all hot dog vendors in a baseball stadium trying to outsell each other during the. I like it. I like how baseball game. So, yeah, I'm
01:03:07
Speaker
frantically trying to get the last of our graphic design work done and get some review copies out there so that we can move forward. That probably isn't going to happen before Christmas, but shortly thereafter. We're working on several other prototypes, and I'm pretty excited about what the new year is going to bring for us. So that's great. We're also on all social media. Let's play Salamander.
01:03:29
Speaker
You can also find the show at The Corner Game Table on most of the social media outlets. And we have a website, TheCornerGameTable.com, where you can find out more about the show and the people that are on this show.
01:03:45
Speaker
And we promised not to go two months before our next. Right. Yeah. Consey's kind of got slowed down. So. Oh, yeah. Right. I mean, there's a couple of times in a year where that might happen. Right. So everybody's kind of busy and doing things. But yeah, we'll make sure that that's minimized. So.
01:04:04
Speaker
So yeah, with that, we will bid a fond farewell to our listeners and hope that they join us again next time in a couple of weeks for a more interesting discussion about the board gaming industry.
01:04:18
Speaker
Have happy holidays, too. Happy holidays, everybody. Happy holidays, everyone. Remember to wear your flannels while you play your board games. Absolutely. Don't give all your money to Drew. Not all of it. It's a good membership program. It's your tithing. Just save your tithing. Be wary of the Kool-Aid. The bowl is in the shape of a meat, but you can't resist. Right. Right. I love it. I love it. Bye, everybody.