The Little Metal Dog Show

Michael has finally got off his butt to pull together the second (and final) episode from the Show Floor at Essen 2014! Truly, it is the finest way to celebrate Christmas. Gather your family around the hearth, plug your iPhone into its dock and listen to the wonderful events from the biggest games show in the world. Happy holidays, y'all! Who's on this one? Well...- Thomas Provoost from REPOS Production!- Matthieu Bonin from IELLO!- Kuro, Hisashi Hiyashi, Bakafire and Seiji Kanai from Japon Brand!- Ryan Metzler from The Dice Tower!- Ted Alspach from Bezier Games!- Travis Worthington from Indie Boards and Cards!- Stephen Buonocore from Stronghold Games!- Konstantinos Kokkinis from Artipia Games...all in the space of just over two and a half hours! Enjoy!

Hey there, dearest listener! Ready for another Little Metal Dog Show? Yes? Good! This time around it's two interviews with two people each, so essentially you're getting double the content for the same low, low price of free! First up, Dean and ErinRose from The Great Indoors join me to talk all about the joy and pain of putting together their brand new (potential) webseries. The story of a game night group who open their doors to a couple of new people and the mayhem that ensues, you can support their efforts on Kickstarter today! After that, James Wallis and Paul Dean come along to discuss Paranoia. Not the mental condition, no, but their reboot of the classic 1980s RPG involving clones, stupid rules and Friend Computer. Love The Computer, for The Computer loves you. Sometimes a little TOO much...

Welcome to Essen! The first of three special episodes taken directly from the show floor at the world's biggest gaming event has six interviews with some of the industry's finest (including one bona fide design legend!). This time around:- Eric Reasoner from Stuntkite Publishing, discussing the new release of Patchistory- eggertspiel's Wolf talks about Camel Up (it's definitely Camel Up, we checked!) and more- SdJ winner Michael Schacht joins me to talk about his new design, Hellweg Westfalicus- Pay Dirt, Yardmaster and Yardmaster Express are shown off by Patrick Nickell from Crash Games - Pierre-Gilles from Mushroom Games unveils their new title, Time Masters- Matagot's own Fabien talks Korrigans and the new Cyclades expansion, TitansThere'll be another special episode with more from the floor coming up soon - as always, thank you for listening!

Hot on the heels of our last episode, here's a pre-Essen Special where LMDS regular Tony Boydell (designer of Snowdonia, Ivor the Engine and more!) and I discuss what we think will be some of the highlights of this year's show. Four days of gaming greatness in southern Germany basically becomes nerd Christmas with hundreds (and we mean hundreds) of new releases to choose from, published by companies who flock to the world's biggest gaming event every year. There'll be controversy, there'll be excitement and there'll be the pair of us lovingly reading out our lists of Japon Brand pre-orders.Enjoy the podcast and we'll see you at Essen! Watch out for the special episodes too, packed out with interviews straight from the show floor!

Good day to you, dear listeners! Another episode of The Little Metal Dog Show appears to entertain you and give you another peek into the worlds of the folks who make the games we love to play. This time around it's Ben Harkins from Floodgate Games, discussing what he's been up to over the last year; we're talking Epic Resort, his brand new title that launched at Essen, as well as Legacy and his lovely little card game, King of Clubs. After that, I'm joined by Alex Gregory, creator of The Lounge - currently on Kickstarter, this new Mafia title aims to make the world's favourite big group game even bigger! 

A mini-episode of sorts this time around (mainly as it's a bit time sensitive). I'm joined again by Philip duBarry, this time to go indepth on his new game of steampunk heists and immense airships, Skyway Robbery. Currently on Kickstarter (for another two weeks at the time of writing), it's a truly engaging title that sees you travelling around the world, visiting exotic locations and attempting to get through some truly tricky traps in order to steal valuable items. We talk about development, the perils of putting such a big game out for crowdfunding and much more...

Another Episode of the show rolls off the audio production line, and this time it's a doozy! First of all, Darwin Kastle from White Wizard Games steps up to chat. Who? Well, just one of the guys behind one of the hottest games around at the moment: Star Realms. After pretty much taking over every square inch of space at Origins, he's gearing up to do pretty much the same at Gen Con 2014; we talk design, Darwin and co.'s background (which is hardcore) and all the usual rambling you expect from one of my interviews. After that, I'm joined by friends of the show Jason Kotarski and Philip duBarry to discuss their latest game Fidelitas. Currently going down a storm on Kickstarter, it's the first release from Jason's new company Green Couch Games, and I heartily recommend it.

A brand new episode of the show from the UK Games Expo brings another two big names from the industry to your ears! This time around it's the Z-Man himself, Zev Shlasinger, the head of Z-Man Games. While I normally get to grab a few scant minutes with Zev every year over at Essen, this is the first opportunity that I've had to sit down with him and catch up with him properly, talking not just about his company's latest releases but also the story behind Z-Man Games itself. Following that, I got to speak to Justin Ziran, the president of WizKids Games. Makers of this summer's hottest and hardest-to-find release (Marvel Dice Masters) they've come under some heavy fire regarding the shortages. Find out why and more besides in this interview!

Hey everyone! It's been a little while, but The Little Metal Dog Show is back with a blast of an episode! First of all, it's the glorious return of gaming's most splendid and naughtiest chap, Tony Boydell! Following the fantastic success of his beautiful game Snowdonia, he's back with a new release that will tug at the nostalgia glands of plenty of gamers of a certain age: Ivor The Engine. Recorded prior to the 2014 UK Games Expo, we discuss the game itself and ramble off into many (and I mean MANY) topics. After that, something of an exclusive for LMDS when I get to sit down and speak with one of the most powerful men in gaming, Christian Petersen. Not only is he a highly talented designer (with games like Twilight Imperium and Game of Thrones under his belt), he also happens to be the founding owner of a little company called Fantasy Flight Games. We talk LCGs, the history of the company, Kickstarter and the possibility of an FFG Theme Park (NOTE: THIS IS NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN). It was great to meet Christian in the flesh - he's a great chap and I think that comes through in our talk!

Two new interviews on your favourite Little Metal Dog Show this time around! First of all I get to speak to Richard and Emily Gibbs from 64oz. Games, the team behind a new Kickstarter project that aims to make the games we love accessible to blind and partially sighted players through the use of Braille. It's an excellent project and I definitely recommend checking it out - we'll also be working with them in the future to make our own releases from Sprocket Games accessible too! I also get to speak to the man behind The Agents which blew up last year into something of a phenomenon. Saar Shai joins me to discuss the game, the campaign, and his plans for the future...

It's another Triple Threat episode! This time I'm joined by Scott Almes, whose Tiny Epic Kingdoms recently took Kickstarter by storm and surpassed his expectations by miles. He also happens to be doing a brand new game for Sprocket Games in the near future, Of Mice and Lemmings, so of course there's a bit of chat about that! Justin Blaske's up next, a first time designer who is currently crowdfunding Area 1851. This is a neat game of drafting, collecting the right cards and building some utterly ludicrous inventions and truly deserves your attention! Finally, I sit down with the one and only James Ernest, designer of legendary games like Kill Doctor Lucky, Lords of Vegas and... The American Idol Collectible Card Game? We discuss a wide range of stuff including his latest design, Pairs.

No, no, it's not an offshoot of Tom and Eric's show, but a brand new episode of Little Metal Dog! After a little while away (medical issues, ie: my spine is a mess!) we have returned with another pair of splendid interviews for your listening pleasure. First up, I'm joined by Mat Hart and Rich Loxam, the guys behind tabletop skirmish sports game Guild Ball which is currently destroying it on Kickstarter. After hitting their £30,000 funding goal in under twelve hours, you can expect some pretty big things for this interesting take on the medieval 'sport' of Mob Football. I also got the chance to spend some time (while in Germany at the Nuremberg Toy Fair) with the man at the top of Chessex Dice, Don Reents - we talk about the history of the company and how he plans to keep Chessex ahead of the pack in future.

This episode we look back and look forward. It's something of a tradition for gamers to look at the past year, especially if you're in the podcast world - so who are we to buck the trend? First of all, I have a long and rambling (though hopefully entertaining!) talk with Snowdonia dude Tony Boydell where we cover... well, pretty much everything ever. It's mildly terrifying. I also brought together the two excellent writers who contribute to littlemetaldog.com, Emma Laslett and Stuart Platt, to run down our favourite games of 2013 (as well as a few of the duffers) and what we're looking forward to in the new year!

Something of a thematic hangover for this first episode of 2014 - it's more space and more ponies! First up, I get to chat with Joey Vigour from Mirror Box Games about their first Kickstarter - Chaosmos. A fantastic game that takes inspiration from the classic Cosmic Encounter, the KS campaign has been spectacularly successful already, and on hearing our chat you'll see why. Joey and the team have such passion for their creation, it's fantastic to see them do well! I'm also joined by Darrell Hardy, lead designer on the My Little Pony CCG, who gives us an insight into how you go about putting together a whole new game from scratch as well as reveals his new project: Ghost Punchers!

After moving the Little Metal Dog office from once side of our hometown to the other, we finally have the internet again... and what's the first thing we do? Sort out the latest episode of the podcast, of course! And this one's a cracker. First of all, I'm joined by Gail Tilden - the VP of Marketing for US company Enterplay - to discuss their first tentative steps into the world of running a CCG. Now, while many companies are moving away from the world of collectible card games, Enterplay happen to have a license in their hands that will potentially take over the gaming sphere:My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic! Bronies rejoice!I'm also delighted to welcome Corey Young on to the show. His new game,Gravwell, is the epitome of an overnight success story that took years to happen. Published by Cryptozoic Entertainment and released next Saturday (December 20), it's very different to their normal lines but that's no bad thing. When half of your Twitter timeline is getting excited about a game that you've not been able to play yet, you know you should be paying attention. We talk about conventions, playtesting and butlers, as well as diving deep into the universe ofGravwellitself.