The Spiel - Mp3 Version

Geek Nation Tours organizes trips around a theme for people with a shared passion. We chat with Zak Gucklhorn who led a gaming trip through Germany, including castle and brewery tours, a Rhine cruise and culminating with a stop at the game fair at Essen.

We chat with Rob Dougherty from White Wizard Games about the runaway success of Star Realms and how this success has enabled them to launch new games like Epic, a fantasy card battle game, built around the same philosophy.

We chat with Spanish designer Jesus Torres Castro about his deduction game Watson & Holmes. Step into the shoes of Doctor Watson and work with Sherlock Holmes to solve a series of 13 unpublished cases.

Steffen Muhlhauser is fueled by a passion for abstract games. His company, Steffen Spiele, publishes games that are equal parts art, strategy and fun. Our conversation explores his dedication to beauty in all aspects of a game, from components to gameplay

Designer Dennis Kirps chats about Insect Hotel. It's a little known fact that beneficial garden bugs love to spend time in hotels. It's your job to fill as many rooms as you can, while keeping pesky spiders and cockroaches away.

Cubiko is small company that makes handcrafted strategy and dexterity games. Gavin Biernbaum talks about how he taught himself carpentry in order to bring his designs to life. We also chat about Jam Sumo, which is two flicking games in one.

Markus Nikisch is the creative director for HABA. We chat about the loud and crazy process of developing dozens of new titles for kids. We also discuss Spookies, Karuba and Adventureland, a new line of family games geared toward older children and adults.

Small companies, big fun. We review two small press games: Lift Off & Letter Tycoon. In Lift Off you use rockets & trampolines to get aliens off an exploding planet. In Letter Tycoon you build words to earn money & buy letter patents so you can cash in.

Play long and prosper. We review Star Trek: Five Year Mission - a co-op dice game where you play as the crew of the Enterprise - and Medieval Academy - a card drafting game where you play as squires training to be knighted by King Arthur.

We wrap-up this year's GenCon coverage with a chat about our experiences and impressions of the convention.

Todd Rowland drops by to talk about several new and upcoming games from AEG: Dice City, Smash Up: Munchkin, and Valley of the Kings: Afterlife.

Ignacy Trzewiczek chats about his 2nd book and 2 new games: Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot, a pirate dice game where players build mini cardboard ships and Tides of Time, a card drafting game where players guide a civilization through prosperity & collapse

Kevin Cook owns the largest dice collection in the world. We chat about his latest haul of dice from this year's convention (over 900 new dice!) and get an update on the size and future of the collection.

Paul Imboden chats about Paradox, a puzzle-based strategy game that uses the Match-3 concept (think Bejeweled). You play a scientist manipulating the time matrix to save the past, present and future of 15 different worlds threatened by a cosmic Quake.

From the height of silliness, a 1 minute bluffing game called Meow, to the beautiful but brain burning Mottainai, Asmadi Games has something for every player. Owner and designer Chris Cieslik chats about a bevvy of new and upcoming titles.

Flying Frog Productions prides itself on building game worlds with detailed backstories and characters. Brothers Scott and Jason Hill join us to chat about new releases for two recent horror-themed game worlds: Shadows of Brimstone and Dark Gothic.

Chad DeShon wants everyone to have a nice place to play. He talks about the development process that went into their design for an affordable hand crafted board game table.

Kevin Brusky discusses several new and upcoming games from APE: Arcadia, Chaos Cove, The Great Dinosaur Rush and Spirits of the Rice Paddy.

Justin Gary chats about the newest title from Stoneblade: Bad Beets, a bluffing game about kids trying to avoid eating their vegetables.

Christopher Badell and Chris Kirkman join us for a tag-team interview about the recent merger of their two companies & how it has helped them pool their business & creative resources. The result is 3 distinct publishing imprints all under the same roof.