Episode 19 - Programmed Action

Explicit content warning

02/01/20 • 59 min

It's February, and we're releasing a new episode, just as we planned to do several months ago. Speaking of planning things in advance, this month we're talking about programmed action games! Join us as...

- We discuss a smartphone app for a very old game (with a very old-school website)
- A discussion of Yaquinto's Album Games requires Frank and Brian to explain to the younglings what an "album" is...
- We drool over Lego Super Robo Rally and River Dragons Giant and Mechs vs. Minions (which, contrary to what we say in the episode, is still available for $75!)
- We have an interview with another game designer...but it's just Frank.
- Joe creates a bizarre hybrid of two great game designers.

Apologies for Frank's audio - it sounds a bit like he's caught in a matter transference beam, but we promise he's fine.

A few other links to things we mention that you might find interesting:

The World War I Gotha bomber
Realmspeak, for all your Magic Realm automation needs
Baba Is You

As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments on any or all of these items, and especially a review on iTunes if you have the time and inclination!

- Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
- Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

- We discuss a smartphone app for a very old game (with a very old-school website)
- A discussion of Yaquinto's Album Games requires Frank and Brian to explain to the younglings what an "album" is...
- We drool over Lego Super Robo Rally and River Dragons Giant and Mechs vs. Minions (which, contrary to what we say in the episode, is still available for $75!)
- We have an interview with another game designer...but it's just Frank.
- Joe creates a bizarre hybrid of two great game designers.

Apologies for Frank's audio - it sounds a bit like he's caught in a matter transference beam, but we promise he's fine.

A few other links to things we mention that you might find interesting:

The World War I Gotha bomber
Realmspeak, for all your Magic Realm automation needs
Baba Is You

As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments on any or all of these items, and especially a review on iTunes if you have the time and inclination!

- Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
- Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

Previous Episode

Rob Daviau talks RETURN TO DARK TOWER!

Bonus episode time! The amazing Rob Daviau (@robdaviau on Twitter) returns to tell us about Return to Dark Tower, which will be live on Kickstarter on January 14 (less than a week away)! This promises to be an amazing, high-tech game combining two great design talents (Rob and Isaac Childress of Gloomhaven fame) with a substantial chunk of technological wizardry and a healthy dollop of nostalgia. Rob also drops a few tidbits about Pandemic Legacy: Season 3 (!) and Cthulhu: Death May Die as a bonus on top of your bonus, because we like you that much.

We apologize for the lousy sound quality here; we had a lot of technical issues getting the interview to record at all, and wound up going with about our fourth-choice solution. You can still hear all the good stuff, though. Make sure to swing by Restoration Games' website so you don't miss the Kickstarter when it goes live next week - this one is going to be a doozy!

And, as always, comments, questions, suggestions, and iTunes reviews are always appreciated!

Next Episode

Episode 20 - Drafting Games

Happy March! It's time to discuss drafts, and not the ones that may be sending winter chills through a not-quite-sealed door. Nope, this is about picking the best options for you from a hand of cards, and then passing your unwanted dross to your neighbor.

- Richard Garfield shows up at the beginning and the end of the episode
- We talk about the early history of drafting in card games, as well as an interesting set of draft-specific Magic cards that Joe couldn't remember the name of (it was Conspiracy).
- Frank saves a classic game from oblivion, and gets a thank-you from the designer (although he remembers the wording a little wrongly).
- He also tells us a little bit about the Ancient Times before BoardGameGeek and his own contributions to its early days.
- We discuss The King's Dilemma, which is barely a drafting game at all but which we wanted to talk about anyway. And here's an entry from Bruno Faidutti's blog about its relationship to the cool mobile game Reigns.
- Mike is too sick to be on this episode, but Joe assures us that he is definitely not dead and buried in the backyard.

As always, we appreciate your listening and would love to hear your comments on any or all of these items, and especially a review on iTunes if you have the time and inclination!