The State of Games, Ep. 162 – The One About a Promising Future in Sales

From time to time here on the podcast we let TC take over the reins and dip into his ever-growing bag of industry insights and wistful shower thoughts. This time around, we take another look at past subjects like the possible market and Kickstarter bubbles, but also dig a bit deeper into what it means to sell a game and what it means to sell a product. Are board games that are created and marketed solely as products a good or bad thing for our industry? You’ll just have to listen in to find out! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 161 – The One About the Year That Was

Another year of gaming has passed, and it was bigger than ever! The hobby saw a record number of new releases in 2018 numbering in the thousands, and we’re here to honor some of the best and brightest of those. Bear in mind, of course, that there are only so many hours in a day and days in a year, so we weren’t able to play all the games. Just the best ones – you can trust us. So sit back and enjoy the year that was, and maybe you’ll even get some sneak peeks at a few games that will make up the year ahead! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 159 – The One About Played Out Games

Although the meat of this podcast might apply more to those gamers who have been punching cardboard for a few years, it’s still pretty clear that plenty of us have some games that – while they are still really great designs – we’d rather not hit the table as much anymore. And if you truly can’t relate to that we still have almost two hours of impressions for a ton of new hotness that you’ll want to know more about. It’s a big one to be sure, but we promise it won’t disappoint. Happy listening! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 157 – The One About Just a Little Filler

Last podcast we pulled out all the intellectual stops and dove head deep into the rabbit hole of Game Theory. Judging from the listener numbers that wasn’t exactly what all you dear listeners wanted to hear. Oh well, at least we had fun discussing it! We wanted to get deep again with a chat about rules, if they’re getting worse in board games, and what we might do to fix them, but we decided to table that one for another time, return a bit to formula, and focus on something a little less… filling. Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 155 – The One About Gen Con 2018

Welcome, dear listeners, to another podcast about the biggest show on astroturf (really) – Gen Con! Even though Gen Con has become almost nothing but business, business, business for most in the industry, it’s still a fun, amazing, and exhausting spectacle that we look forward to every year. Let us know if you have some great tales from the show, or, if  you played something awesome participating in GenCant. We’d love to talk about your adventures on the podcast! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 153 – The One About Origins 2018

It’s summertime and that means it’s time for the biggest gaming conventions of the year! It’s always great to kick off the season at one of our favorite gaming conventions, Origins Game Fair, and it’s hard to believe that this is the 7th year we’ve covered it on The State of Games. Both the podcast and the con have grown and changed through the years but the focus for both has, thankfully, remained the same – let’s get together and play some awesome games. Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 150 – The One About Going Back to the Well

Every now and then on the podcast we like to have a special guest, and it’s especially special when the guest not only wants to be on but also proposes a salient topic. This time around we have Seth Jaffee, who is not only a game designer and head of development for Tasty Minstrel Games, but also a long-time listener of the podcast. We’ve known Seth for about seven years now, and it’s awesome to be able to catch up with him somewhere outside of Twitter and the big conventions. Join us as we go deep into all sorts of territories – this is a long one, but it’s chock full of meat! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 148: The One About Unpub 8

We travel to a lot of gaming conventions each year but none are quite as unique or as special as the Unpublished Games Festival. In this, its 8th year, Unpub has grown from a tiny gathering of game designers at the VFW Hall in Dover, Delaware, to thousands gathering to make good games better at the Hunt Valley Resort just outside Baltimore, Maryland. Unpub has been an invaluable resource for designers as playtesters pour in to play, give feedback, and improve game designs. It’s quite possible that Dice Hate Me Games wouldn’t exist without Unpub, and I can guarantee you there are more than a few excellent game titles on your shelves... Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 147: The One About the Pros and Woes of Cons

Every year we travel to Charlottesville, Va. to visit one of our favorite board game conventions, PrezCon. Although we had just as much fun as we usually do we also played fewer games, so we had the idea to extend our conversation on this podcast to talk about our feelings about other shows we attend throughout the year. Over three hours later, and completely exhausted after talks of GenCon housing woes, body odor attacks, registration nightmares at Origins and such, we realized that might have been a tad ambitious. Our mistake is your gain, though – this episode is bursting at the seams. Enjoy! Read More  Read More

The State of Games, Ep. 146: The One About Expanding Your World

Love ’em or hate ’em, board game expansions are a huge part of the industry. Some companies survive just on expansions for their most popular titles, which can sometimes lead to consumer fatigue. They can often feel like cash grabs, but on occasion an expansion is released that not only provides more content for a game – it also makes that game better. So settle in Dear Listeners – we’re here to separate the suck from the essentials, all just for you. Read More  Read More