The Board Game Secret Show

neongorillasgames
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shhhh....don't tell anyone but we talk to interesting people in the board game hobby.

  1. Oct 17

    The Founders Behind Cascadia, Calico and Point Salad | bgss ep_037

    Molly Johnson and Shawn Stankewich are two of the three founders of FLATOUT GAMES, the studio behind ๐ŸŽฒ CASCADIA and ๐Ÿฑ CALICO. They tell the story of an AEG exec brushing off POINT SALAD, why a small publisher stays on Kickstarter, and what a store owner said about their next game. Check out Perennial: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flatoutgames/perennial-0 โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ IN THIS EPISODE: ๐Ÿฅ— The AEG exec who said "thanks" and walked away from POINT SALAD ๐Ÿฑ A two-hour debate over one tile bag, a "53 versus 3 thing" ๐ŸŽจ Why there is no 100% black anywhere in Flatout's art direction ๐Ÿ“ฆ The $20-plus it costs to ship a CASCADIA to a home in the US ๐ŸŒฟ A store owner's advice: "don't make another nature-themed roll-and-write" ๐Ÿฆ Molly's role-play lion in a damp, horrible forest โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐Ÿ”— LINKS ๐ŸŽฒ Flatout Games โ–ถ https://www.flatout.games/ โค๏ธ Support My Work โ€” Join Cardboard โ–ถ https://crdbrd.app/ โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽง TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST! ๐ŸŽ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165 ๐ŸŸข Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4 ๐Ÿ”ต Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364 โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” โฑ๏ธ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Cold open 01:16 - Who are Molly and Shawn? 02:09 - Weather chat and Canadian prairie roots 03:47 - Gen Con week spent meeting partners 06:02 - Getting bit by game design in 2016 09:47 - The convention feedback that made it real 12:02 - AEG walks away, then an email lands 16:32 - The Cardboard Edison finals email arrives 18:47 - Propolis turns out to be a really old design 21:47 - Picking palettes with no pure black 27:47 - How the Flatout collab publishes games 33:02 - Two-hour debate over one tile bag 37:32 - Why small-box games stay at $25 39:47 - Why simple family games are a dying breed on Kickstarter 42:47 - Design is only 20 percent of the week 48:02 - No growth for growth's sake 54:47 - Why a small publisher stays on Kickstarter 1:06:47 - Calico's goal: sit on the shelf next to Azul 1:11:17 - Store owners say no more nature roll-and-writes 1:19:32 - Why the casual gamer crowd keeps growing 1:30:47 - Why Beth Sobel's art gets people excited 1:35:17 - Whisperstone, the puzzle-piece RPG, explained 1:48:47 - Three and a half years building an RPG 1:59:17 - How Perennial's polyomino tiles work 2:08:07 - What success looks like in five years #cardboard #bgss

  2. Sep 24

    How To Run A Game Store 101 w/ Kylie Prymus | Games Unlimited | BGSS ep_035

    Kylie Prymus took a dusty 1,000-square-foot shop doing $350,000 a year and turned it into a million-dollar store that sells no Magic, no Pokemon and no miniatures โ€” on purpose. ๐Ÿช GAMES UNLIMITED has been in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill since 1979, and the owner who bought it used to teach philosophy for a living. โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ IN THIS EPISODE: ๐Ÿงช The ALCHEMY talk behind the whole store: "a flower is just a weed with a marketing budget" ๐ŸŽ Dead stock wrapped in butcher paper sold out in a week โ€” the clearance table never did ๐ŸŸข A counter above the demo bar with a big green button: the metric is games played, not dollars ๐Ÿ›๏ธ Six weeks of opening a coffee shop at 5:30am, napping in a sleeping bag out back, then working the store till 7 ๐Ÿ“  "You're opening a business and you don't have a fax machine?" โ€” "Because it's 2015." ๐Ÿ“ˆ $350,000 in 2019 to over a million last year, out of 3,600 square feet with no event space at all ๐ŸŽฒ Why the heavyweight "greatest game ever" titles sell under a dozen copies a year while HOT STREAK sells 500 ๐Ÿšซ Why free demo copies are a trap: "you need skin in the game" โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐Ÿ”— LINKS ๐Ÿช Games Unlimited โ€” Pittsburgh โ–ถ https://gamesunl.com/ โ–ถ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJDWlkcNGxW4CFnRkpnuAPA โ–ถ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gamesunlimitedpgh/ โ–ถ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gamesunl โ–ถ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GamesUnl ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ Unbox Some Funcast โ€” Kylie's podcast โ–ถ https://rss.com/podcasts/unbox-some-funcast โค๏ธ Support My Work โ€” Join Cardboard โ–ถ https://crdbrd.app/ โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽง TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST! ๐ŸŽ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165 ๐ŸŸข Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4 ๐Ÿ”ต Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364 โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” โฑ๏ธ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Cold open 00:48 - Who is Kylie Prymus? 02:19 - The first game store owner on the show 06:30 - Alchemy, and the flower that's just a weed with a marketing budget 09:08 - Wrapping the dead stock in butcher paper 20:49 - Creating new gamers instead of acquiring customers 22:57 - No Magic, no Pokemon, no miniatures - on purpose 32:38 - The green button above the demo bar 35:55 - No free demo copies, because you need skin in the game 38:10 - Philosophy professor, coffee shop, game store 39:54 - Bob gets sick nine months into the apprenticeship 40:27 - The sleeping bag in the back of the coffee shop 46:08 - What you actually buy when you buy a game store 48:11 - "You're opening a business and you don't have a fax machine?" 51:34 - The pandemic move to Forbes Avenue 58:29 - "Are you guys new?" after 35 years down the hill 1:02:32 - $350,000 to over a million 1:08:34 - Third space is not a room full of tables 1:20:54 - Bare shelves, a fixed budget, and what to buy first 1:27:18 - The prestige heavyweights sell a dozen; Hot Streak sells 500 1:34:21 - Nobody needs anything we sell 1:45:10 - The Q4 stock-up, and buying 200 copies of one game 1:49:53 - Ordering 300 copies of a game you don't like 2:05:24 - Salaries, structure, and the staff who said "duh" 2:11:36 - Who else should I talk to? #cardboard #bgss

  3. Sep 22

    Zero Strategy Is The Indie Publisher You Need To Know | Jeremy Stark | BGSS ep_034

    Zero Strategy Games put a perfectly normal sheep on the cover of a horror game โ€” and people did a double take all the way to a hit campaign. Jeremy Stark co-designed ๐Ÿ‘ THE SHEEP, ๐Ÿ—๏ธ SHUFFLE DUNGEONS and ๐Ÿ‰ UNHEIST. โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ IN THIS EPISODE: ๐ŸŒช๏ธ Surviving the Gen Con tornado in a 10ร—10 booth ๐Ÿป A board game company founded over "one drink after another" ๐Ÿฅ From project-managing Pennsylvania Medicaid to shipping board games ๐Ÿ’ธ Where THE SHEEP's campaign money went โ€” "I didn't go home with half a million dollars" ๐Ÿšซ Gamefound passed on UNHEIST: "not the type of game for us" ๐Ÿฎ His claim to fame โ€” the lantern economy, and why it split their community ๐Ÿ‰ UNHEIST โ€” kobolds putting a sleeping dragon's stuff back before it wakes ๐ŸŽฒ A secret dragon dice-builder with minis on the way โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐Ÿ”— LINKS ๐Ÿ‘ Zero Strategy Games โ–ถ https://zerostratgames.com/ ๐Ÿ‰ The Unheist of Hearthburn House: Mansion Decorating Madness โ€” live on BackerKit through October 10 โ–ถ https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/zero-strategy-games/the-unheist-of-hearthburn-house-mansion-decorating-madness โค๏ธ Support My Work โ€” Join Cardboard โ–ถ https://crdbrd.app/ โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽง TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST! ๐ŸŽ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165 ๐ŸŸข Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4 ๐Ÿ”ต Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364 โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” โฑ๏ธ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Cold open 00:43 - Who is Jeremy Stark? 01:46 - The sheep cover that stopped David at Origins 03:26 - Gen Con: surviving the tornado in a 10x10 booth 05:51 - Should conventions actually make money? 11:00 - From Pennsylvania Medicaid to board games 15:15 - Why editors can tell he's a Magic player 18:25 - Cutthroat Cove, 750 backers, and one drink after another 29:06 - What made Shuffle Dungeons break out 32:35 - One campaign away from cutting hours 35:43 - Where The Sheep's campaign money actually went 40:37 - Paid ads, AI noise, and falling returns 44:18 - Why Unheist left Kickstarter for BackerKit 45:47 - Gamefound: "not the type of game for us" 49:07 - Shuffle Dungeons: double-sided cards, one-hour crawl 54:57 - It was never supposed to be co-op 1:00:25 - Why there's no day-one expansion 1:04:00 - What the hell is The Sheep? (and a plushie run) 1:09:15 - The rule they rewrote 10 times 1:16:10 - Jeremy's claim to fame: the lantern economy 1:22:26 - Killer sheep, The Black Sheep, and internal controversy 1:35:25 - Unheist: returning a dragon's stuff before it wakes 1:42:29 - Why it's literally called "stuff" 1:46:04 - A three-player minimum and no solo mode, on purpose 1:55:18 - What he tells new players to buy first 1:56:11 - Dragon minis and what's next for Zero Strategy #cardboard #bgss #unheist #zerostrategygames

  4. Sep 15

    The BIG Tend Episode | The Design, The Success, The Future | BGSS ep_033

    Tend began as a Stardew-flavored side project Toby Sarnelle built just for his friends โ€” then IV Studio co-founder Zac Dixon helped turn it into one of the most-requested flip-and-writes out there. ๐ŸŒฑ TEND's designers open up the legacy version that almost shipped, and the two expansions coming next โ€” ๐Ÿ HIVE and ๐Ÿท CELLAR. โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ IN THIS EPISODE: ๐Ÿงช The legacy "mega sheet" โ€” a tech tree of colored stars they spun on for six months, then cut ๐Ÿงฑ Walls in the mines, doomed rondels, and IV's standing policy on Austin's ideas ๐ŸŽฎ What years designing TWO DOTS taught Toby about hooking a player fast ๐Ÿ„ The one-cow problem Toby would patch in TEND tomorrow ๐Ÿ HIVE: four apiaries, bee dice, and a true roll-and-write inside a flip-and-write ๐Ÿท CELLAR: a three-game mini campaign where your first farm sets up your last ๐Ÿ“ฆ "Bring me three expansions and a standalone" โ€” and what comes after HIVE and CELLAR โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐Ÿ”— LINKS ๐ŸŒฑ Tend by IV Studio โ–ถ https://shop.iv.studio/products/tend-board-game ๐Ÿ Tend: Hive & Cellar Expansions on Gamefound โ–ถ https://gamefound.com/en/projects/iv-studio/tend-expansions โค๏ธ Support My Work โ€” Join Cardboard โ–ถ https://crdbrd.app/ โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽง TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST! ๐ŸŽ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165 ๐ŸŸข Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4 ๐Ÿ”ต Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364 โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” โฑ๏ธ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Cold open 00:42 - Who are Toby Sarnelle and Zac Dixon? 01:59 - How Toby ended up on the same box as Zac 02:58 - From Two Dots lead designer to board games 06:48 - "I didn't even know scratch-offs were possible" 09:14 - It was never supposed to be a Stardew game 12:42 - The legacy mega-sheet that almost happened 18:14 - Walls in the mines, and why they died 19:01 - IV's no-rondel policy 20:30 - A redesigned Monopoly was Toby's first prototype 21:59 - What board games can do that video games can't 34:55 - What Toby would patch in Tend today 37:16 - The one-cow problem 38:57 - The fishing feedback they get most 51:10 - Tend was a deck builder a week before prototype 54:59 - Hive and Cellar come out of the legacy version 56:50 - How Hive's apiaries work 1:08:39 - Awards, without the Kickstarter records 1:16:37 - Cellar: a three-game campaign 1:27:08 - "If you play an expansion, engage with it" 1:36:57 - "Bring me three expansions and a standalone" 1:38:56 - Why ship expansions as a set 1:43:35 - The big box 1:49:37 - A new direction for the scratcher 1:50:18 - Wrap #cardboard #bgss #tend

  5. Sep 12

    Scam Tables, Board Game S*x Dolls & Mr. Beast | The Dragons Tomb Unfiltered | BGSS ep_031

    Jeff Kornberg has taught hundreds of thousands of people how to play board games, and not one of those rules has ever been true. ๐Ÿ“บ THE DRAGON'S TOMB is eight years of completely straight-faced tutorials with entirely invented rules โ€” and the man making them spent his day job building ๐ŸŽฌ CONDร‰ NAST's biggest YouTube series, with over 800 million views on videos he personally produced. โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ IN THIS EPISODE: ๐ŸšŒ A Greyhound bus review so uneventful it killed the opening question ๐Ÿ™๏ธ He gave away TINY TOWNS โ€” all 375 pieces, one winner per piece, mailed in flat envelopes ๐ŸŽฒ ROCK PAPER SCISSORS DELUXE: Beth Sobel art, Chip Theory lore, and a real Rodney Smith how-to-play ๐Ÿค– The $2,000 AI sex doll review โ€” 357,000 views, his biggest video in eight years ๐Ÿช‘ He reviewed a board game table nobody ever sent him. Then the "scam" table turned up. ๐Ÿ“ง He invented a fake game, asked 300+ creators what they'd charge for a good review, and kept every answer ๐Ÿ“ฑ "Hey, this is Mr B" โ€” the text that flew him to Greenville โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐Ÿ”— LINKS ๐Ÿ“บ The Dragon's Tomb โ–ถ https://www.youtube.com/@TheDragonsTomb ๐Ÿ’œ The Dragon's Tomb on Patreon โ–ถ https://www.patreon.com/TheDragonsTomb โค๏ธ Support My Work โ€” Join Cardboard โ–ถ https://crdbrd.app/ โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽง TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST! ๐ŸŽ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165 ๐ŸŸข Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4 ๐Ÿ”ต Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364 โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” โฑ๏ธ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Cold open 00:50 - Who is Jeff Kornberg? 02:35 - Gen Con: Whisperwood, and a suitcase that stayed small 06:58 - What Dragon's Tomb actually is โ€” fake rules, played straight 08:48 - The Tiny Towns giveaway: 375 winners, one piece each 10:21 - 'You ran a Kickstarter' 12:38 - Rock Paper Scissors Deluxe โ€” Beth Sobel art, Chip Theory lore 16:27 - Reverse pranking: the companies who never check the channel 18:18 - Do publishers mind? The PAX Unplugged fake-rules event 19:49 - Never breaking โ€” the deadpan, and four takes a line 20:57 - The $2,000 AI sex doll 23:53 - Did YouTube demonetize it? 26:32 - The tutorial he refunded 31:51 - Kinson Key sweeps the Dice Tower Awards 34:56 - They want the footage โ€” and they won't pay for it 42:03 - Reviewing a board game table that didn't exist 44:31 - The 'scam' table nobody else got sent 45:45 - The fake game, and 300 creators asked to sell out 51:34 - A $3 campaign for the experience of crowdfunding 56:49 - The day job: Condรฉ Nast, and 800 million views 1:00:57 - Fuse, Google's $2M, and learning what makes people click 1:06:28 - The AI lemonade stand: ChatGPT vs Claude 1:08:14 - 'Hey, this is Mr B' โ€” the text out of nowhere 1:11:12 - Greenville: D&D, Catan and poker night 1:16:29 - 'I could save you so much time and money.' He didn't care. 1:19:21 - The best celebrity he ever worked with: Weird Al 1:23:10 - The Pandasaurus wrestling match, and the pizza guy 1:25:03 - Filming Jackie Chan 1:27:23 - Thanks, and a PAX Unplugged plan #cardboard #bgss

  6. Sep 5

    The Rise of Galactic Cruise | The Kinson Key Guys | BGSS ep_030

    Support my work and join my community: https://crdbrd.app/ Koltin Thompson took a sick day from teaching fourth grade to launch his Kickstarter. It did $300,000 in the first 24 hours. He went back to work the next morning anyway โ€” state testing was coming โ€” and his co-workers wanted to know what on earth he was doing there. That game was ๐Ÿš€ GALACTIC CRUISE, and it just won Dice Tower Game of the Year. T.K. King, Dennis Northcott and Koltin of Kinson Key Games came on to tell the whole story. โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ IN THIS EPISODE: ๐Ÿ† Three Dice Tower awards in one night โ€” and why Game of the Year was the one T.K. was watching for ๐Ÿ˜ญ Turning in a resignation, tears in the school bathroom, and going full-time into board games ๐Ÿค’ The sick day that launched a $300,000 Kickstarter โ€” and the co-workers who asked why he came in ๐Ÿš€ "I'm calling it Galactic Cruise for now" โ€” the placeholder name that never went away ๐ŸงŸ The Frankenstein prototype, and a first version that was wider and shallower than the game you know ๐Ÿ“‹ Who actually made that player aid โ€” the one people call the best they've ever seen ๐ŸŽจ Getting to Ian O'Toole: "you have to meet 20 people before you meet Ian" ๐Ÿ›ธ EXCURSIONS โ€” why it's a whole new game and not an expansion โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐Ÿ”— LINKS ๐Ÿ›ธ Excursions โ€” a Galactic Cruise Game (launching soon on Kickstarter) โ–ถ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kinsonkeygames/excursions-a-galactic-cruise-game ๐Ÿš€ Galactic Cruise โ–ถ https://kinsonkeygames.com/galactic-cruise ๐ŸŽฎ Kinson Key Games โ–ถ https://www.kinsonkeygames.com/ ๐Ÿ’ฌ Kinson Key Games on Discord โ–ถ https://discord.gg/ZSCRGYJfUC ๐Ÿ“บ Kinson Key Games on YouTube โ–ถ https://www.youtube.com/@kinsonkeygames3478 โค๏ธ Support My Work โ€” Join Cardboard โ–ถ https://crdbrd.app/ โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽง TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST! ๐ŸŽ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165 ๐ŸŸข Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4 ๐Ÿ”ต Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364 โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” โฑ๏ธ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Cold open 00:43 - Who are Kinson Key Games? 04:39 - Three Dice Tower awards in one night 07:10 - How two friends started making games 14:32 - Dennis finds them at Proto ATL 22:30 - Going all in on the first day of 2023 27:22 - Doing the math on quitting a salary 28:51 - The resignation, and a $300,000 launch 32:42 - "I am calling it Galactic Cruise for now" 34:38 - The first version was wider and shallower 35:18 - The Frankenstein prototype 45:09 - Why T.K. loves worker placement 48:32 - Where Developments came from 56:37 - Building the Progress Track 58:25 - Teaching people how it scores 1:01:40 - Achievements and Advancements 1:08:59 - The top-ranked player in the world 1:14:25 - The player aid everyone remembers 1:22:43 - Landing the art on a debut game 1:34:10 - Pitching the Achievements expansion 1:40:18 - Excursions - and why it is not an expansion 1:56:45 - Publishing other designers 2:01:59 - Weight, box size and delivery dates #cardboard #bgss #galacticcruise

  7. Sep 1

    Matthew Meeple Talks ASCENDANCYโ€™s Breakout Success And COLA WARS | BGSS ep_029

    Does Cola Wars match your taste? :https://crdbrd.app/hub/game/682109fe-a66d-402c-a141-f4f9cf13c2d6 Matthew Meeple took his first game to Gen Con, put six people on it at once, and found out mid-demo that it literally could not be won. He raised $476,000 on it anyway. He's the founder of One More Turn Games โ€” publisher of โš”๏ธ ASCENDANCY and the upcoming ๐Ÿฅค COLA WARS โ€” and he quit his job to do all of it. โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ IN THIS EPISODE: ๐ŸŽฒ A working cardboard vending machine that rolls your dice โ€” no batteries, just a wooden dowel ๐Ÿ“ฆ The box fight: hundreds of backers arguing over a retro 1985 box nobody can fit in a Kallax ๐Ÿ˜ฐ The delay email he was "terrified" to send โ€” and why the replies changed how he runs campaigns ๐Ÿ•น๏ธ "We actually can't win the game" โ€” the Gen Con demo that sent ASCENDANCY back to the drawing board ๐Ÿฅค How he saw an 80s nostalgia game in Cameron Fleming's prototype from the title alone ๐Ÿง  Two battlefields โ€” "mind share" in the consumer's head, "shelf share" in the aisles of Thirst City ๐Ÿ’ผ Hire executives, fire them for the salary savings, and send interns to file TPS reports โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐Ÿ”— LINKS ๐Ÿฅค Cola Wars on Gamefound โ–ถ https://gamefound.com/en/projects/onemoreturngames/cola-wars ๐ŸŽฎ One More Turn Games โ–ถ https://onemoreturngames.com/pages/cola-wars ๐Ÿ“บ One More Turn Games on YouTube โ–ถ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMpadGN6IfX_gt5WhTFdytg โค๏ธ Support My Work โ€” Join Cardboard โ–ถ https://crdbrd.app/ โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽง TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST! ๐ŸŽ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165 ๐ŸŸข Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4 ๐Ÿ”ต Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364 โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” โฑ๏ธ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Cold open 00:40 - Who is Matthew Meeple? 01:59 - He quit his job to go all-in on One More Turn Games 03:41 - ASCENDANCY funded fast - would he do it again? 07:15 - Why his FIRST game was a huge asymmetric 4X 08:33 - What the first campaign actually taught him 12:00 - Never missing an update - ethics or compulsion? 13:48 - The box fight: retro and unstorable, or shelf-friendly? 18:33 - Will COLA WARS go retail? 20:35 - The update he was terrified to send 22:51 - Is crowdfunding oversaturated? 31:35 - The crazy vending machine dice tower 34:23 - Publisher trust, and the CMON problem 39:15 - Why he switched from Kickstarter to Gamefound 41:09 - The Gen Con demo where nobody could win the game 50:42 - Cutting the scope to actually ship 1:00:23 - ASCENDANCY is going digital 1:01:33 - The crafting game he still wants to make 1:03:45 - Finding Cameron Fleming at Gen Con 1:07:33 - What 20 years in advertising brought to the mechanics 1:09:53 - Shelf space: fast food to fine dining 1:12:48 - How a cardboard vending machine rolls dice 1:14:30 - Market research: buying your way out of bad luck 1:20:59 - Why your mind share halves every year 1:23:20 - Vice presidents, and the Ari Gold problem 1:25:31 - Hiring executives - and interns who ruin everything 1:32:11 - What is in store for the campaign #cardboard #bgss #colawars

  8. Aug 30

    From Tables to Publishing 20 Games a Year, The Allplay Story w/ Chad DeShon | BGSS ep_028

    Chad DeShon ran a million-dollar Kickstarter, added another half million in add-ons, and made basically nothing โ€” then turned that wreckage into one of the busiest publishers in board games. He's the founder of ๐ŸŽฒ ALLPLAY, formerly ๐Ÿช‘ BOARDGAMETABLES.COM, and he runs the whole thing out of a limestone mine. โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ IN THIS EPISODE: ๐Ÿ•ณ๏ธ The Allplay warehouse is inside a decommissioned limestone mine โ€” down the road from 750,000 square feet of federal documents ๐Ÿช‘ 2014: he emails a stranger about a furniture order and ends up selling board game tables with zero woodworking experience ๐Ÿ“ฆ THE DUCHESS lands at $499 against a $4,000 market and funds in minutes โ€” then 25 containers arrive damaged ๐Ÿ’ธ "Everybody had to get their table, or the whole business just went away" ๐ŸŽฒ He played QE, emailed the designer to ask if he could publish it, and accidentally became a publisher ๐Ÿท๏ธ Every review started "this is QE by BoardGameTables.com" โ€” the naming problem that forced the ALLPLAY rebrand ๐Ÿงฒ His pitch advice for designers: whatever is unique about your game has to be in the first two sentences โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐Ÿ”— LINKS ๐ŸŽฒ Allplay โ–ถ https://www.allplay.com/ โค๏ธ Support My Work โ€” Join Cardboard โ–ถ https://crdbrd.app/ โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” ๐ŸŽง TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST! ๐ŸŽ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165 ๐ŸŸข Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4 ๐Ÿ”ต Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364 โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ”โ” โฑ๏ธ CHAPTERS 00:00 - Cold open 00:57 - Who is Chad DeShon? 01:04 - His office is inside a limestone mine 03:42 - The founder story starts with a furniture order 07:40 - The first table sells the day after the website goes live 09:59 - The Duchess: gamers touch the table and walk away 12:18 - Cold-emailing furniture factories in China 13:18 - $499 against a $4,000 market โ€” funded in minutes 18:00 - 25 containers of tables arrive damaged 20:20 - A $1M campaign that made basically no money 24:37 - Redesigning the table around the UPS weight limit 27:24 - Dropping table parts in his basement to test the boxes 32:11 - What he learned watching Geek Chic go under 36:19 - Moving production out of China 42:37 - Why BoardGameTables.com became Allplay 46:38 - On Tour, then QE โ€” how he became a publisher 50:27 - Rescuing Container and Through the Desert 56:01 - The nine-game Kickstarter, and what went wrong 1:00:14 - About 20 games a year, and why that number stops here 1:05:21 - Things in Rings, and still waiting on their Wingspan 1:12:27 - COVID, containers, and forecasting the impossible 1:18:59 - Why QE was never re-themed with animals 1:23:51 - Enchanted Ivy, their first solo game 1:30:58 - The convention booth as a marketing machine 1:34:59 - Jibber Jabble at Gen Con 1:42:04 - Mountain Goats Legacy and Sail Legacy 1:48:20 - Rapid fire: one table, one game forever #cardboard #bgss #allplay #cardboard #bgss #dicethrone #wroth

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About

shhhh....don't tell anyone but we talk to interesting people in the board game hobby.

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  • Creator
    neongorillasgames
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    36
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    ยฉ Copyright 2026 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Board Game Secret Show

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