Thanks for all the great feedback on the Essen shows. I still have a few more to release when I can get a chance (and shake the jetlag after three weeks out of the country).

At this time of year, I always appeal to listeners doing their holiday online shopping to please shop through the Amazon.com link on the top left corner of the page here. If you search for items you are going to buy on Amazon anyway, a small percentage of your purchase goes to BGB to help keep the podcast going. It is no additional cost to you but helps out here, especially now that I am getting all those Essen bills in (eek!) And it couldn't be easier - just search for your item and then go through the regular purchase process.

Thanks for supporting the show and for listening to Boardgame Babylon.

Another Essen show with some brief comments and then I dive right in on Reinhard Staupe's Havana, Nils Funkemeyer's Sherwood Forest and Michael Sohre's silly dexterity game, Cheese.

Warning - I meant to edit this show all week but never had time while I am down here in India. So, here it is, warts and all.

Thanks for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

Finally a second show from Essen. In this one, I talk about Martyn F's TWRS (designer and game shown to the side here), Dirk Henn's Colonia and Inka & Markus Brand's Wurfel Ligretto (which I'll note since in the podcast I neglect to say the designers for this title).

This is pretty much how I think I'll do my Essen shows - a brief vignette or two and then three quick reviews of games (roughly, one I like, one I didn't particularly and then a filler or lighter game).

And if you watched the live streaming from the Boardgamegeek.com booth at Essen, you saw a lot of me! I am there for the Czech Games Edition demos, Colonia, part of the Jay Tummelson interview and at various other times. The BGG.COM booth was the place to be and I'm thrilled I got to attend the show for their debut. I hope they make it back again next year.

Thanks for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

More Essen shows are on the way soon. Unfortunately, limited internet access in Germany prevented me from having enough time to upload 'casts and being at the show for the first time didn't help either.

In light of the fact that Geekdo/BGG did so many cool live broadcasts on UStream and that other podcasters were on-hand, I've decided to keep my podcasts to game reviews and thoughts on the show. I did a few interviews but didn't follow the sensible advice of conducting them in quieter spots and the noise is not good - plus, there would be some overlap. So, as I spend a couple of weeks in India for work, I'll record and upload some shows to talk about the event and my attempts to play Uwe Rosenberg's new At The Gates of Loyang (the only game I brought to India) solo over the course of my trip here.

Unfortunately, the time and money involved in making the trip to Essen means that I am going to bow out of BGG.con, which is coming in less than a month's time. I am selling my BGG.con pass and although I have a friend looking in to selling it, you can feel free to e-mail me with an offer. Although some find selling the pass at a premium untoward, I was encouraged to do so by many folks. I certainly wouldn't mind something to help offset the costs of the Essen trip and the chance to bring all these podcasts to you.

Thanks again for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon. A new show will go up shortly and many more will follow in the next two weeks.

BGB is podcasting from Essen and this is the first in a group of shows. I recorded this one quickly on Wednesday night of the show and then added to it the following morning - but it was done quickly and there is no time to edit. Hope you enjoy the 10 minutes of it.

Better shows with proper analysis and discussion will follow soon.

Thanks for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

Yes, can you believe it? Two BGBs in a week? I guess it's all those energy drinks...

No, it's that I am getting ready to head out to Essen for Spiel this year and want to clear the backlog as much as I can. I also really want to get this show out, which I think is an interesting one in the Stories of Self-Publishing series. Tasty Minstrel Games is a new kid on the block and they have two new games on the way to debut at BGG.con. Hear about that, their path to publishing, and their exciting 2010 lineup on this show.

And if you plan to be in Essen, I'd welcome the chance to meet up with BGB listeners! Please drop me an e-mail and let me know if you expect to be at the show. Essen Spiel experts who want to show me around are certainly welcome! ;) Heck, I'll take beer, food and travel recommendations (need to take a train from Frankfurt to Essen on Wednesday...) I have a press pass for the show and will cover it extensively in audio and probably video, too. Very excited to finally get there after longing to go for...oh...too long... 

Thanks again for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

Show Notes

Boardgame Babylon is back with a great new volume of BGB's Q&A series. I'm honored to have another favorite game designer on the show and this time, it's the award-winning Jason Matthew - he of Twilight Struggle and 1960: Making of a President fame. Jason was good enough to join us for Gateway 2009 and agreed to sit down and answer some questions about his history in games, his ludography, his background and how it influences his game theme choices, and some of his design process with collaborators. I quite enjoyed his comments and I hope you will, too.

Gateway 2009 was also my first convention running the Board Games department and I'm calling it a success despite a few mishaps here and there with scheduling. But we also replaced the old library with an awesome new library of great titles, adding some terrific events, ran a qualifier for the Rio Grande Design Contest and drove a 10% increase in turnstile attendance even in this still-in-recovery economy. I'll chalk it up as a success - largely thanks to an amazing staff of volunteers who put up with me (especially the wonderful Gayle Charboneau). I'll talk more about the show in an upcoming episode and reveal more about plans for Orccon 2010, where we will be honored to have Matt Leacock as our Guest of Honor and will host a couple of truly major events that I can't wait to reveal.

Your feedback is GREATLY appreciated. Please send it to the link on the side, post here or on the BGG Guild for the podcast.

Thanks for listening to Boardgame Babylon.

After an early summer break, Boardgame Babylon returns with a session review show featuring some of the top games from our demo tables at Gamex 2009, including:

Days of Wonder's Small World designed by Phillip Keyaerts

Z-Man's Archaeology: The Card Game by Phil Harding

Asmodee's Snow Tails by Fraser and Gordon Lamont

I was a bit out of practice and so I convinced Christina to join me on the microphone since she's actually played all the games included – and she ends up getting us to also talk briefly about Friedemann Friese's Fast Flowing Forest Fellers and a game I mentioned liking before on this podcast, Antoine Bauza's Hurry'Cup.

Also mentioned during the show was the convention debut of short film "Boggle Nights". If you'd like to see this fun view into the 'world of competitive Boggle' by filmmakers Richard Castrence and Rachel Hart, check it out here. Gamers should find some good laughs in it.

Thanks for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

I don't have a proper theme for this show so I'm throwing it into my Q&A series even though I'm the only one asking the questions. However, I'm very happy to have one of my favorite guests back on the show – board game developer and graphic artist jim pinto (yes, he's like k.d. lang and e.e. cummings).

Longtime BGB listeners will remember the inimitable Mr. pinto as a special guest on my first Stories of Self-Publishing shows and I've been trying to get him back since. Here, we talk about game design, the industry and his work for Alderac Entertainment Group, who are entering the board game market big time. They're local heroes in Southern California (as the guys responsible for the brilliant CCG "Legend of the Five Rings") and I'm glad to see them get into the kind of games we talk about on BGB. I hope you enjoy our freewheeling chat – I sure enjoyed having it.

As I mention on the show, please feel free to follow me on Twitter (bgbabylon), link to be on Facebook or LinkedIn and please become a "Fan" of Boardgame Babylon on Facebook so I can get one of those cool unique URLs for the show.

Thanks for downloading and listening to Boardgame Babylon.

P.S. Yes, that sandwich is jim pinto. It was hard to interview him without getting hungry but I managed it.