The Spiel

Boggle jackets and Big Bird money. A conversation with Bernie DeKoven, The Grand Poobah of Fun. We follow his career through mass market board games and video game design to his discovery of a Playful Path - a philosophy and the title of his latest book.

I think icon. We review Concept and La Boca, two games that ask players to communicate in fresh and unexpected ways: Concept through symbols and La Boca through shapes and colors.

Seasons Spielings! Eight guests from around the world join us in the padded cell to celebrate the holidays. Round-table discussions, Sommelier challenges, Swedish rhymes, bad jokes and a visit from Lyle Otterbein fill this virtual party with good cheer.

Packed for freshness... and fun! We review Polterfass, Luchador, Super Race and SOS Titanic. From wooden beer barrel and Mexican wrestler dice to dry-erase raceways and a flip-book ship, these games showcase novel components and innovative design.

Dave joins Stephen in the padded cell for a behind-the scenes look at The Spiel's 2013 Essen adventure. Lots of questions and reflections on the trip and experience at this year's International Game Fair.

Matthias Wagner discusses the success of Hanabi since winning the Spiel des Jahres (Germany's Game of the Year) for 2013. We also talk about a new edition of the modern classic puzzle game Ricochet Robots.

Konstantinos Kokkinis discusses two fictional settings: one scifi and one fantasy. Each world serves as the backdrop and backstory for a series of new games from Artipia: Archon, Shadows Over The Empire, Among The Stars: The Ambassadors and New Dawn.

Ted Alspach discusses the development and evolution of One Night Ultimate Werewolf, a new version of the mob mentality party game that plays in less than 10 minutes.

Andreas Preiss gives a tour of 4 new games: Geistesblitz 5 to Noon, a crazy fun logic game; Polterfass, a press your luck game with beer barrel dice; Schmatz Spatz, a co-op game about feeding baby birds & an anniversary edition of Chicken Cha Cha Cha.

Spiel des Jahres winner Antoine Bauza talks about the inspiration and development of his crazy dexterity game Rampage. We also talk about the influence of Japan on his life and games and get a sneak peek at some games in the works.

Frank Heeren discusses Glass Road, a game from noted designer Uwe Rosenberg, that celebrates the 700 year old tradition of glassmaking in Bavaria.

John Lopez gives us an overview of Dutch publisher Quantuum Magic including their two latest titles: Two Crowns: a quick medieval battle card game and Hubbly Bubbly Brew, a kid's game about brewing potions.

Stephen Buonocore discusses Space Sheep: a co-op puzzle solving game with amazing bits, plus Going Going, GONE!: a real-time auction game designed by Scott Nicholson.

Fraser Lamont talks about Mush! Mush!, a sequel to their beloved sled dog race game, Snow Tails. We also discuss the history and philosophy of Fragor Games.

Mario Jugel and Robert Phillips talk about Admiral's Order, a Napoleonic era naval battle game that features hand-crafted wooden ships.

Stephanie Schulz talks about Ignis: a beautiful abstract strategy game, Ka-Boom: a tower building game with dice-catapults and Mauna Kea: a game about escaping a volcano from the designer of Eclipse.

Thomas Provoost talks about Rampage: an over-the-top dexterity game about monsters munching meeples, Concept: an elegant symbol driven party game, Mascarade: a bluffing/role selection game from Bruno Faidutti. and Sandwich: a game of creative cuisine.

Lorenzo Silva discusses the history of quirky, creative Italian game publisher Cranio Creations. We also talk about Steam Park, a charming theme park building game and the first expansion to the dice bouncing game Dungeon Fighter: Fire At Will.

Anne-cécile Lefebvre discusses SOS Titanic, a card game driven by mechanics drawn from Solitaire and Lewis and Clark, a game that retraces the famous American journey to the Pacific.

Designer Perpau Llistosella talks about 1911: Amundsen vs. Scott. Players guide two teams on an historic race to the South Pole. We also discuss 1-2-3, Now You See Me, a fun twist on the classic red light/green light.