233 – with Alex Radcliffe – The Family Gamers Podcast
On this episode, we talk with Alex Radcliffe, founder of BoardGameCo and ambassador for boardgames all over the internet. His mission is spreading the love of board games and we just love it.
But first! Our fact for this week: 233 years ago (1788) the US constitution was finally ratified by enough states to become the binding document for the United States government. “Today the U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution in operation in the world.”
Thanks to our sponsor, First Move Financial. If you want help planning for your kid’s college education or finding other smart decisions that could help you at tax time, you can go to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers. There’s a link there to set up a 15-minute call to see if First Move can help you.
What We’ve Been Playing
Truffle Shuffle (AEG) – arrange chocolates for your customers, with a neat partial-reveal layout.
10 Days in the USA – a family favorite, but not great for beginning readers. We love how everyone wants to show their roadtrip plan at the end of the game.
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner (25th Century Games) – our youngest absolutely loves the unnecessary rubber chicken that comes in the box. We appreciate that the really zany silliness (Chicken Dance competition, anyone?) is interspersed with more serious game play.
Santa Monica (AEG) – Alex is surprised how interesting this game has been – a lot more than he was expecting.
Calico (AEG) – Andrew used the Family Gamers Community to pressure Anitra into “finally” playing after receiving this for her birthday. It’s a nice abstract game with many layers of puzzles.
We discuss why we don’t (yet) have Isle of Cats.
Via Magica (Hurrican / Luma Imports) – we’re really enjoying this “magic bingo” game that’s much simpler and more approachable than Ecos.
Court of Miracles (Lucky Duck Games) – kind of worker placement & area control; fight for domination over 5 different areas on the board.
Unmatched: Buffy (Restoration Games) – Alex doesn’t like Unmatched (and that’s OK!). This set has been our least-favorite thus far. I think we’re just outside the target audience.
Go Nuts for Donuts (Gamewright) – a long-time family favorite. Simultaneous play and simple pattern matching keep this approachable at all ages.
Ctrl (Pandasaurus) – fun, glad we got to try it, but not our favorite. Andrew waxes poetic about Shifting Stones.
Tempus Imperium – one of Anitra’s favorite. “A roll and write with no rolling”.
Mia London and the Case of the 625 Scoundrels (Scorpion Masque) – memory game where you want to reconstruct the portrait of the “scoundrel” based on which cards you’ve seen.
SNAP Review – Cloud Control
If I point at a cloud, can you guess what I see in it?
Create cloud shapes for the rest of the players to guess your secret word(s). See the video or read the transcript on the SNAP review page.
Alex Radcliffe
Figuring out a way to get more boardgames (in 2011-ish) turned into BoardGameCo; first as a hobby in his basement, and then a full-fledged operation starting in 2014. He started a Youtube channel in late 2019, and has joined the podcast “The Weekly Quack” at Quackalope.com.
There’s three ways (that I know of) that you’re doing this.
Podcast
The Weekly Quack – a variety show, with “Shelf or Sell?”, “Medley Minute”, and “On the Radar”.
Videos
BoardGameCo Youtube channel – it’s really cool to see how much Alex has grown the channel. He asks really timeless questions.
The videos feel very natural, while also being helpful.
Alex discusses why videos and podcasting are better formats for him than photos or written content.
He has goals for some new videos he’d like to do, but that’s not feasible right now (lack of time, need to invest in more equipment).
Board Game Co, the company
Board Game Co buys, sells, and trades used board games (and some new games). We think of it like GameStop but for board games.
This was our first interaction with Alex, and we’ve traded through BoardGameCo a few times.
They’re heavily based on BoardGameGeek and are responsible for something like 50% of the games traded there.
It’s not necessarily the best choice for everyone, but it’s a great way to quickly trade or sell many games at once. It’s much easier than trying to do many one-to-one trades (especially with shipping)!
We still recommend local game stores that take trades, and math trades (which are cool but crazy), but if those aren’t working for you, Alex’s company is the next best solution.
Wait, one more thing – Kickstarters!
We ask Alex about a few Kickstarters he’s really excited for.
CoraQuest (we interviewed Dan a few weeks ago): if you missed the Kickstarter, you can still pledge here: https://gamefound.com/projects/coraquest/coraquest#/
Night Market
Super Fantasy Brawl
Chai: Tea for Two (coming soon)
It’s a Wonderful Kingdom (soon)
Puzzlemaster Octonauts
Beasts of Balance: Rebirth
Factory Floor
Block & Key
Find Alex Online:
Find Us Online:
Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/community
Twitter (X): @familygamersaa
Instagram: @familygamersaa
TikTok: @familygamersaa
Youtube: TheFamilyGamers
or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord
Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.
Check out our new Family Gamers and Play Games with Your Kids merchandise – T-shirts, hoodies, and mugs – at thefamilygamers.com/merch.
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