The Little Metal Dog Show

Day Two from the Essen Show floor with more interviews than you can comfortably handle in one sitting! All of the following fine people are packed into one show:From NSKN Legendary Games, Andrei and Agnieska! -http://www.nskn.net/en2/Anne Cecile Lefebvre of Ludonaute Game! -http://www.ludonaute.fr/?lang=enDesigner of Lewis and Clark, Cedrick Chaboussit! -http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/140620/lewis-clarkNate Hayden of Blast City Games talks Mushroom Eaters! -http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/135508/the-mushroom-eatersIndustry legend Martin Wallace discusses Witches and A Study in Emerald! -http://www.treefroggames.com/Fabien from Matagot reveals their latest releases! -http://www.matagot.com/Richard Breese chats about the Key series, including the brand new Keyflower expansion, The Farmers! -http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122515/keyflowerTimothee Leroy of Blue Orange! -http://www.blueorangegames.com/Lynne La Placa from Ultra Pro reveals their new lines! -http://www.ultrapro.com/division.php?d=gFunforge CEO and King, Phillipe Nouhra, talks Tokaido, Quantum and ghosts! -http://www.funforge.fr/US/Duco designer Henrik Larsson discusses his new puzzle game! -http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/141102/ducoHenry Jasper unveils Grublin Games’ first release, Cornish Smuggler! -http://www.grublin.com/

Back to (vaguely) normal for a one off, then we'll return to our Essen 2013 coverage. On this show I chat with Jeremy Hogan, designer of Dreaming Spires, a game based around building your own Oxford college over the course of nine hundred years. I'm also joined by Tiffany "TheOneTar" Ralph - noted writer, reviewer and all round good egg - to discuss bringing new people into the hobby, why everyone should go to GenCon at least once and why Battlestar Galactica isn't for everyone...

The show begins in style with a whole bunch of interviews from the floor at the world's biggest games fair!

Essen Spiel - Day One! Nine interviews before the show even opens!

Just the one interview for this episode, but considering the fact that (a) I wasn't going to do another episode before Essen 2013 and (b) it's with the mighty Matt Loter, it's well worth the extra work to put it out! Matt's recently started his own publishing company, Prettiest Princess Games, and will be looking to unleash their first game - Glamazons versus The Curse of The Chainmail Bikini - after a hopefully successful Kickstarter that's running through October. Part bluffing game, part social commentary, we talk about everything from sexism in gaming to why Stephen Buonocore is possibly the most hardcore guy in gaming at the moment. There are also a few choice words in this episode, so be forewarned! The language can get salty!

In this, the final episode before Essen (because they take a bit of time to organise and I have a lot of writing to catch up on!), I talk to returning guests Leonard Boyd and David Brashaw from Backspindle Games. It's been some time since they last appeared (episode 20, in fact) with their previous game, the Discworld based Guards! Guards! Now they're back, a little older and wiser, and armed with two brand new titles: the abstract strategy of Codinca and the glorious dice-rolling mayhem of Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice! The guys will be heading to Spiel, so be sure to swing by their booth and check out their fine work.I'm also joined by the splendid Mike Elliot, the mind behind such big names as Thunderstone, Quarriors and (a personal favourite) the Harry Potter TCG. Seriously, it's really very good. His new game is called Sangoku, an interesting card game based in the Hells and Heavens of Japanese Mythology, and it's on Kickstarter now!

Another pair of quality guests get interviewed by a less than quality host on this latest episode of The Little Metal Dog Show! First up, Cardboard Jungle host Anthony Racano comes on to discuss his own show as well as the new Cardboard Studios project where he'll be producing the rather excellent Boardroomers. And as I couldn't get there myself, Anthony also gives us the highs and lows of this year's GenCon! Afterwards, Michael Coe from Gamelyn Games discusses his past, present and future projects from Rise all the way through to his latest Kickstarter: Fantasy Frontier!

This time around I'm joined by designer/publisher Martin Vaux to discuss his game Lords of War. After going down brilliantly at the UK Games Expo this summer, a second set has been released to increase the options for current players and hopefully bring in a few new ones! Afterwards, Piotr and Blaze, the minds behind a new project entitled We Are Darkness, come on the show for what will be the first in a series of interviews over the next year or so where we'll be following a game from its inception, through the development process and eventually - hopefully - worldwide success!

Another episode rolls off the production line, investigating some of the more interesting tales out there in the world of boardgames! First up, the showrunners behind new webseries Board With Life come together to chat about the games they love and the lives of the people who play them - in their fictional world, of course. Following that I'm joined by Ben and Matt, the designers of Fleet and the new expansion (that's currently storming away on Kickstarter) called Arctic Bounty. One of last year's real sleeper hits, Fleet is now bigger and better... listen in to find out the story behind the game and why you should pick up a copy!

On today's show I'm joined by Jason Kotasrski, designer of The Great Heartland Hauling Company (Dice Hate Me Games). We discuss his relative newness to the world of design as well as his new game - currently on Kickstarter and being released by LMDS' own Sprocket Games label, FrogFlip!. Following that, podcast royalty abounds in a chat with Stephen Conway from long-running games show The Spiel, where we cover everything from documentary film making to their charitable foundation as well as Italian card games from five hundred years ago...

It's always the same when Daniel Solis comes on the show - we end up covering a wide range of topics and jabbering away for ages... and this time around on Episode 61, it's more of the same! We chat about his adventures into the world of POD with Koi Pond, the upcoming Belle of the Ball (which will be released through Dice Hate Me Games later this year), what it's like to work on the new Firefly RPG and more! I'm also joined by Brett Murrell, designer of the classic Duel of Ages, as we discuss the decade between the game's first release and the brand new second edition that's hitting tables around the world right now. Finally, Matthew Dunstan comes along to talk about Relic Runners which is due by Essen 2013 from Days of Wonder - not too bad considering it's his first game...

Another triple threat of interviews, squeezed into an hour of goodness! Kicking off with Joost Das of Fablesmith, we discuss how Oh No! Invasion! has been doing as well as their follow-up plans for Ortus, a two player strategy game with some rather interesting ideas. Patrick Nickell of Crash Games returns as well with a speedy plug for the excellent Council of Verona as well as the big reveal of their new series: Pub Games! Finally, Alan Gerding and Sean McCoy talk about how they're taking party gaming to the next level with the intriguing Two Rooms and a Boom...

A short and sweet look at this year's UK Games Expo which look place over the weekend of May 24th - 26th at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham! This year saw the country's biggest gaming convention move to a larger location which brought both challenges and splendidness in equal measures. There were games old and new, seminars aplenty, traders and buyers... all manner of things coming together to make this seventh year of UKGE the biggest and best so far. This episode brings together a few interviews I managed to grab with various attendees - have a listen and experience all the fun of the show for yourself!

A truly massive episode this time around, featuring some Epic games! First of all, from new British company Waits In Graves, Sam Lamont and Beth Hughes come along to talk about the labour of love that is Epic Death! It's a quick to play, easy to pick up game of adventuring through a fantasy world that's packed out with many rather familiar elements and a ton of dice rolling - well worth you checking it out - and it's all done in about half an hour. What more could you ask for?! Afterwards, Iraklis Grous of LudiCreations and Board Game Travel pops up and discusses their new release called Gear Piston. Set in the automobile industry at the start of the 20th Century, you'll be battling it out to create the best vehicle possible from a variety of components while trying to screw over everyone else - it's a great little Euro that serves as a perfect intro to the genre, and it's playable over on Board Game Arena too! Finally, the guys from Flip The Table are on! Another member of The Dice Tower Network, FTT is one of my favourite shows out there. Every episode sees them take a box from the dark side of the games room and investigate what it offers today's gamer; both good and bad. We chat about all manner of things (including what Robocop would be like if he was from England) and finish up with a traditional Flip The Table Battle of Wits... who will win? Listen and discover for yourself!

A simple one-on-one this time as I'm joined by Patrick Nickell from Arizona-based publisher Crash Games. As a one-man business, he's working hard to get good games onto tables all around the world while dealing with the day to day machinations of running his own company. With quality releases such as Rise and The Lost Dutchman already under his belt, we talk about the past, present and future of the company, including his current campaign for Paradise Fallen and the upcoming wonderfulness that is Council of Verona.