173 – PAX Unplugged, Day Two – The Family Gamers Podcast

More PAX interviews! But first…

What We’ve Been Playing

Santa’s Little Helpers and the Ice Cube Jam – One of the first games we ever reviewed. You can now get it with nicer components than we have, for $20.

Bob Ross Happy Little Accidents – a group favorite (which we reviewed a while ago).

Spyfall – a hidden identity game great for groups of 6+.

Similo – has proved to be good for a large group!

Heist – a speed game where you cooperate to follow instructions on a short timer.

Skulk Hollow – a really neat asymmetric dueling game.

Cities Skylines – cooperative city-building. Intuitive, but with a lot of restrictions. “You’re never really happy with the engine you’ve put together”. There’s an awful lot of pieces to spread out on the table, though.

HUE – one of the Pack-O-Games. A tiny abstract game about connecting groups of the same color. Interesting in that your final remaining card determines which colors you will score.

Evolution videogame from Northstar Digital. (Free for iOS) The free version is completely playable, with easy AI and a single online multiplayer game per day. The full version (about $6) unlocks a lot of features you’ll want if you enjoy the game.

PAX stuff

Quirky Circuits (which the kids have been playing). What we wish Robot Turtles had been, mixed with cooperative gameplay like The Mind. “Blind cooperative deck programming.” Unfortunately, we’ve already broken a piece, but at least it’s not a game-changer.

Calliope Station Master – a re-release of a classic train-building game.

Deep Water had MonsDRAWsity prototype – “sketch artist for monsters”. Party game style, and we loved it. Coming in 2020.

Deep Water also had Floor Plan, coming soon.

We were excited for Wonderland’s War at Skybound – beautiful but disjointed. We hope they tighten it up before the Kickstarter.

Not a game: Our kids loved paint-and-take minis (even if it was somewhat torturous for Mom & Dad).

Metal Gear Solid – a great board game adaptation from IDW.

The Whatnot Cabinet – from Dr. Finn’s Games.

Roland Wright (the dice game) from Perplext (better known for Pack-O-Games). Mark down colored bits on your score sheet, but then you can erase bits for special powers.

Klask – We’ve seen it at conventions before. Feels a lot like air hockey, but there are several ways to score points. Available in 2- and 4-player versions, and incredibly quick to learn.

Interviews

We’ve given each interview a timestamp for your convenience.

(0:27:50) Bananagrams with Anthony

Bananagrams Duel – 2-player version of the classic, with letter cubes.

Appletters

Smart 10

The Furglars

Cheeky Butts – A cross between a memory game and hot potato, with a randomized timer.

(0:35:00) IELLO with John

King of Tokyo Dark

Ishtar

Farmini & the new Loki line of kids’ games.

Decrypto expansion “Laserdrive”

Big Book of Madness is getting an expansion in January.

(0:44:00) KOSMOS with Tom

Cities: Skylines – A video game turned board game. A perfect fit for PAX Unplugged!

Roll for Adventure

Tribes – a civ-building game that plays in about an hour.

(0:48:00) Oni Press with Amber

Claire interviews Amber about their new game Aquacorn Cove.

(0:51:00) Thunderworks Games with Keith

Skulk Hollow – (mentioned above). Asymetric fight for ages 8+. Look for it at pencilfirstgames.com.

Cartographers, Lock Up, Fiends & Familiars; and we’re still excited for Roll Player Adventures.

(0:55:20) Wild Power Games with Ryan

High Heavens – a battling game with very visual indicators (chip rings) and a mythology theme.

Streets of Steel

(1:03:00) North Star Games with Bruce

Oceans – “not just Evolution, underwater”! Gorgeous. See the Kickstarter webpage for pictures.

KS backers will get it very soon. Pre-orders should be coming in February, and it should be available in retail in April.

Paint the Roses – a Wonderland-themed cooperative deduction game.

The Taverns of Tiefenthal – a new game from Wolfgang Warsch, creator of Quacks of Quedlinburg, with dice drafting and deck-building.

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