Board Game Authority

A while back I had the opportunity to speak with Joel Colombo, who has backed 180 different Kickstarter campaigns (he has since broken the 200 mark).  I wanted to talk with Joel to gain insight from a backer perspective.  What makes him click the pledge button?  Or maybe more importantly, what scares him away?  As always, you can listen to the podcast on iTunes, or via the embeded player right here on our site, and the excerpt can be found below. RICHARD MILES: Hi! This is Richard Miles of Board Game authority and today I’m with… JOEL COLOMBO: Joel Colombo. RICHARD MILES: Hi, Joel. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. We are in quite a few Facebook groups together. Facebook groups about board-gaming in general, some on the design aspect but a lot of groups focusing on Kickstarter, and from those groups I have learned that you are, for lack of a better word, a ‘Power Backer’. I don’t know what to call it. JOEL COLOMBO: It sounds weird. But yeah… RICHARD MILES: Yeah. You back a lot of Kick

In today's podcast, I get to talk with Chern Ann, co-founder of CoolMiniOrNot.  We discuss all things Kickstarter, and what it takes to manufacture a game with plastic miniatures.  We also discuss the humble origins of the CoolMiniOrNot website, how long CMON takes to plan one of their mega Kickstarters, why Chern Ann is active on Facebook board game publishing groups, why zombies was an easy sell, and more. Richard:                                Hi, this is Richard Miles with Board Game Authority, and today I am talking with… Chern Ann:                           Chern Ann from CoolMiniOrNot Richard:                                Thank you for taking the time out to speak with me today.  Most people are familiar with CoolMiniOrNot, at least in the board game industry. Can you tell us a little bit about your involvement with the company? Chern Ann:                           I am one of the founders of the company. We started it out in 2001 as a community site, for people to upload the pictures of painted

In today's podcast Randy Hoyt, of Foxtrot Games, goes into a lot of detail regarding all of the costs associated with running a Kickstarter campaign. We also talk about what it was like when Lanterns won the Mensa Select award, and we learn that Randy doesn't like getting wet. RICHARD:        Hello, this is Richard Miles with boardgameauthority.com and today my guest is RANDY:            Randy Hoyt, owner of Foxtrot Games. RICHARD:        Hi Randy, thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. You have a Kickstarter coming up for World's Fair, tell us when we can expect to see that? RANDY:            Yeah, we're targeting September 29th, which is about two weeks from when we're recording. RICHARD:        Now, we'll certainly get into World's Fair but, first let's talk about the other games that Foxtrot has. You have two games on store shelves right now, is that correct? RANDY:            That's correct, we have Relic Expedition, our first game. It's a jungle exploration game, think, like Indian

RICHARD:        Hello, Richard Miles here for BoardGameAuthority.com. We have a pretty good show for you today. Our guest for this episode is Gil Hova and I'd like to start introducing our guests a little bit like this: [awesome Gil Hova intro] but we'll see if that sticks. For now, I'll probably just stick to letting the guests introduce themselves. Today, we're going to cover Gil's philosophy of board game theory, what led to his decision to self-publish, why he's not looking forward to the new Star Wars movie, and of course, we'll talk a little bit about his upcoming Kickstarter campaign 'The Networks.' So today, I'm talking with... GIL:                  Gil Hova of Formal Ferret Games. RICHARD:        Gil, thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk with me today. I know that you are in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign that has 28 days left to go. It's called 'The Networks' and before we get into all that, and we certainly will talk a lot about that, I would like to, i

Recently, I got to talk with Emerson Matsuuchi of Nazca Games.  I've met Emerson twice now, once at Origins and once at Gen Con.  For those that haven't had the pleasure of meeting Emerson, let me attest that he is the nicest person in the board game industry.  And he makes great games.  In the podcast, we talk about what it is like having Plaid Hat Games publish your design.  We also talk about the companion app for Dead of Winter that Emerson is working on.  The Crossroad Cards are voiced acted, which is so cool.

While at Origins Game Fair, I was able to talk with Colby Dauch of Plaid Hat Games.  We mainly chatted about Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn and Specter Ops. I asked Colby how they decided how thier miniatures should look, specifically, how should a werewolf look for a Plaid Hat game? At their level, does the company image go into the thought process when creating art and miniautres? Turns out, Plaid Hat Games has used the same sculptor for all of their minis, and him and Colby were friends before either of them were professionals in the board game industry. Cool. (Apologies for the audio, it was recorded on the convention floor.)

While at Origins Game Fair this year, I tracked down Andrew Federspiel of Knapsack Games. We talked about their current Kickstarter, Apotheca, which has already reached its funding goal (congrats Knapsack team). I got Andrew to talk about the inspiration behind the games he designs and publishes, and there's even a teaser for Knapsack Games' next release, which will feature super heroes.

I got to talk to Jamey Stegmaier about the Stonemaier Games upcoming release, Scythe.  The transcription of the interview is below and you can always subscribe to iTunes and listen to the podcast there.  In addition to talking about Scythe and the hype engine that surrounds the game, I also ask Jamey a few unusual questions, which serve as the beginning of a, hopefully ongoing, segment I like to call "Inside the Designer Studio" or something like that.  The name is a work in progress.  Lots of laughs were had.  After seeing the amazing miniatures for Scythe, I cannot wait for this game to launch on Kickstarter. RICHARD:        This is Richard Miles with Board Games Authority and today I have the privilege of talking with… JAMEY:            Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier games. RICHARD:        Hi Jamey, thank you for agreeing to be on the show today and taking some time out of your day. JAMEY:            I think the last time we chatted was at Gen Con, when we had a good time just hanging out in the demo

A few days ago I was able to corner Jamey Stegmaier into doing a podcast with me. The transcription of the interview is below and you can always subscribe to iTunes and listen to the podcast there.  In this awesome episode, Jamie and I talk about Between Two Cities, which should launch on Kickstarter on February 25th.  We also talk about Viticulture and the cock jokes that can be made because of the rooster tokens, and then we discuss the Tuscany tile misprint and whether Jamey lost any sleep over that.  We also touch on the topic of board games being a great tool that introverts can use to connect with other people and how board games can be used either during or as a part of therapy. RICHARD:        This is Richard Miles with Board Game Authority and today I have the privilege of talking with... JAMEY:          Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier Games. RICHARD:        Alright, well let's jump into some Stonemaier Games news. In 2015 it seems like we will see at least two games from Stonemaier Games. We’ll se

  While at Gen Con I was lucky enough to run into Chris Leder, who was a delight to interview.  We talked about the new Deluxe Edition of Roll For It, which is absolutely beautiful (gallery below the interview transcript), and he teased us with a little info on the 10th Anniversary Luxury Edition of Tsuro. Richard Miles: Hello, this is Richard Miles with BoardGameAuthority.com and today I am with… Chris Leder: Chris Leder. I do retailer relations for Calliope Games and I'm the designer of Roll For It. Richard Miles: Tell us a little bit about why we should go out and be excited for the new release that's coming out? Chris Leder: Sure. Roll For It began… Most of my designs were strategic and my family and my wife would tolerate them but they didn't love them so I wanted to create something that my family would play and I could get more people around the game table. Roll For It was my attempt at creating something kind of fun for everybody. It’s cards on the table with dice images and you roll dice and you