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 Flame codesigner Ken Franklin (The Mansky Caper, Back to the Future: Dice Through Time, Tsuro: Phoenix Rising) to share some insight into how they turned the long-running co-op series into an evolving legacy experience. And while we're on the subject, what are other legacy games that we're fond of? And on a very unrelated topic, Ken educates us on the recent wave of gameplay-focused, Christianity-themed board games.

Timeline:

• 3:53 - Going Analog's game pick: ArcheOlogic.
• 10:03 - Ken's game pick: Kingsburg.
• 14:57 - Going Analog's topic: The development of Flash Point: Legacy of Flame, plus other legacy games we like.
• 32:37 - Ken's topic: Christian themes in gaming.

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 Playing? to hash them all out. How did Eric, Christina, and Shoe vote?

Timeline:

• 3:30 - Early Gamers category.
• 19:45 - Casual Games category.
• 35:51 - Strategy Games category.
• 53:52 - Complex Games category.

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 interrogate them about Wyrmspan, the new dragon-themed sequel to Elizabeth's now-classic and award-winning Wingspan!

What was it like designing a new game under the Wingspan name? How much did Connie and Elizabeth work together? And what counts as a dragon anyway?

Plus, the two have been busy on the convention circuit, so we discuss various board gaming shows and which ones we enjoy the most.

Timeline:

• 4:19 - Going Analog's game pick: Wroth.
• 9:11 - Connie and Elizabeth's game pick: Knarr.
• 16:10 - Going Analog's topic: Wyrmspan's development.
• 33:35 - Elizabeth and Connie's topic: Our favorite gaming events each year.

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 teamed up with our pals Raina and Phil from 1 Minute Board Games to take the next step in our gaming relationship: not just play "normal" board games (which we still do plenty of with them) but play ones designed to really dig down deep and get us talking about things that would normally not come up during sessions of Sea Salt & Paper. Listen in to see what we've learned about these experiences...and each other.

And on a very related note: social deduction! What's new and what are our faves in this class of games that have us lying to and manipulating each other?

Timeline:

• 4:41 - Going Analog's game pick: Great Western Trail: New Zealand.
• 11:52 - 1 Minute Board Game's pick: Dune: Imperium - Uprising.
• 18:33 - Going Analog's topic: "Getting to know you" games.
• 39:32 - 1 Minute Board Game's topic: Social-deduction games.

When we read that Eric Slauson (designer MonsDRAWsity, the upcoming Chucky game, and many more) likes to deal cards in a...very unique way, we knew we wanted to invite him on to discuss just how weird his board gaming habits are. Are we weirder? And how do YOU compare?

Plus, gamers always talk about how some games aren't "worth" the price -- how do we value each game's worth?

Timeline:

• 3:41 - Going Analog's game pick: Wyrmspan.
• 12:03 - Eric's game pick: Kinfire Chronicles.
• 19:25 - Going Analog's topic: Bizarre board gaming habits.
• 34:27 - Eric's topic: How do you value board games?

Though we fancy ourselves "omnigamers" -- gamers who enjoy all genres -- we're kind of fooling ourselves. There are certainly specific categories of board games we try to stay away from. But! With every "rule" (if you can call it that), there's gotta be exceptions, right? So we explore ours with Peter C. Hayward. The game designer (That Time You Killed Me, French Toast, Fiction) is very...discerning, so we couldn't wait to hear his thoughts on these matters.

Separately, we recently played a game of Istanbul with Peter, and he couldn't stop raving about how it got "quick turns" down just right. So that got us thinking...what other specific things do specific games get "just right"?

Plus: Play along with us on a round of Peter's new game, Apropos of Board Games!

Timeline:

• 3:31 - Going Analog's game pick: Apropos of.
• 12:06 - Peter's game pick: boop.
• 14:56 - Going Analog's topic: Specific things that specific games get right.
• 38:29 - Peter's topic: Games you like in genres you don't.

I know we just finished our 2023 Games of the Year episode, but we're so over last year. It's cult-of-the-new time -- what are the badass games we're looking forward to in 2024? We invited gaming sommelier Alex Hart of Might I Suggest a Game to help us out since he also just put out his list!

And while we're frequent boardgame recommenders, sometimes we run into a few that are super difficult to endorse for some reason. Which ones? Listen to find out!

Timeline:

• 3:15 - Going Analog's game pick: Last Light.
• 8:44 - Alex's game pick: Daybreak.
• 15:07 - Going Analog's topic: Our most anticipated games of 2024.
• 35:35 - Alex's topic: Games that we love that we have a hard time suggesting.

The end of 2023 means only thing: time to talk about the best board games of the year. And for this awards season, we invited board game content creator and standup comedian Grant Lyon to discuss our favorite party, light, medium, and heavy games that released over those 365 days. Do you agree with our picks? Did we miss any that would have changed our lives? TELL US.

Timeline:

The 2023 Games of the Year (see below for the full list of winners and runners up):

• 2:51 - 2023 Party Games of the Year.
• 14:03 - 2023 Light Games of the Year.
• 34:00 - 2023 Medium Games of the Year.
• 58:11 - 2023 Heavy Games of the Year.

New year, new(-ish) games! Christina and Shoe pit some newer board games against their predecessors or competitors: the new co-op King of Monster Island vs. the original free-for-all King of Tokyo, two-player Tokaido Duo vs. the original Tokaido, and head-to-head dice-chuckers Kapow! vs. Dice Throne.

Timeline:

• 1:39 - Shoe's game pick: The Fox Experiment.
• 10:36 - Christina's game pick: Ancient Knowledge.
• 17:56 - King of Tokyo vs. King of Monster Island.
• 27:44 - Tokaido vs. Tokaido Duo.
• 38:13 - Kapow! vs. Dice Throne.

What's better than a bunch of adorable, flower-pollinating honeybees? Putting those honeybees in space! New worker-placement game Apiary  is the buzzworthy debut design of Connie Vogelmann. We invited her on the podcast to see how she went from playtester to a proud creator of a high-production game by a big-time publisher. We also chat about what responsibilities designers, publishers, game teachers, and players have in preventing "bad play" plus some recommendations for smaller-group party games.

We're giving away a copy of one of those small-group party games, Stool Pigeon! To enter, just subscribe to our newsletter (look for the "subscribe" email field on the front page of our website). 

Timeline:

• 3:33 - Going Analog's game pick: Apiary.
• 19:06 - Connie's game pick: Life of the Amazonia.
• 23:15 - Going Analog's topic: small-group party games.
• 46:41 - Connie's topic: protecting against "bad play."

We are back and ready to cover more great Euro games with Daniel Wahlen of The Game Table! This time, we focus on the new hotness that 2023 has generously brought us, but if you're more into modern-day remakes or sequels to legendary classics, make sure to check out Part 1. In this episode, we give our impressions on...

Timeline: 

• 2:30 - Nucleum.
• 21:41 - Distilled.
• 30:45 - 3 Ring Circus.
• 43:18 - Noteworthy: Darwin's Journey, Stefan Feld's City Collection, Marrakesh, The White Castle.