The Family Gamers

153 – Ann Losito, TWIST Gaming – The Family Gamers Podcast

July 22, 2019 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

Our special guest for this episode is Ann Losito. She runs the TWIST Gaming channel with her c0-hosts Matt and Josh. TWIST was the first ever Twitch partnered channel that is focused on board games. Andrew met Ann at last year’s PAX Unplugged. They played Deep Sea Adventure together, with Claire, and had a great time. TWIST is best known

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Andrew, Anitra, Interview, TWIST gaming, Twitch

152 – Con and ReCon – The Family Gamers Podcast

July 17, 2019 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

We are finally back into the normal routine (more or less) after a month of con-related craziness. We’ll talk about highlights from Anitra’s trip to Origins and Andrew’s trip to Dice Tower Con.

Constellations: Hexagonal Stargazing!

July 15, 2019 Updated: November 24th, 2020 Andrew Smith Reviews

Constellations is a tile-laying, pattern matching game for 2-4 players, lasting from 30-60 minutes. The game was designed by Ian Zang and Dante Lauretta and beautifully illustrated by Ashley Kenawell. Lay hexagons to grow the night sky and score points as you match patterns on your tiles!

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Andrew, educational games, set collection, stars, tile laying, Xtronaut

Gunkimono: Building Armies for Honor!

July 2, 2019 Andrew Smith Reviews

In Gunkimono, you are a daimyo warlord, building armies and gaining honor to establish your strongholds. Gunkimono is an area control, tile drafting and placement game for 2-5 players and takes about an hour to play. Is Gunkimono a Feudal Masterpiece, or a Futile Mess?

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Andrew, area control, Japan, Renegade, Tile Drafting, tile laying

SNAP Review – Tokyo Jutaku

June 14, 2019 Updated: February 14th, 2021 Anitra Smith SNAP Reviews

Have you always wanted to be an architect? Try your hand at creating towers to fit in tight spaces in Tokyo Jutaku, a speed building game from Jordan Draper Games.

149 – Origins Preview with the Kirbys – The Family Gamers Podcast

June 10, 2019 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

We have a great conversation with Ellen and Randy Kirby, of We Game Together, about all things gaming and kids… and what we’re looking forward to at Origins this year.

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Andrew, Anitra, convention, dice tower network, Interview, origins, trade, We Game Together

IceCOOL 2: Frozen Boogaloo

June 4, 2019 Updated: March 3rd, 2021 Anitra Smith Reviews

When the teacher’s away, the penguins will play! Each player will take a turn being the hall monitor (or Catcher) while the other penguins (Runners) try to collect fish hanging over the doors. IceCOOL 2 is a sequel and/or expansion that we prefer slightly over the original IceCOOL.

148 – FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) – The Family Gamers Podcast

June 3, 2019 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

We all have experiences in life we don’t want to miss. FOMO, or fear of missing out, seems to hit particularly hard when it comes to hot new boardgames. Between Kickstarter and conventions constantly hyped on social media, how can we deal with this irrational response?

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Andrew, Anitra, Board Games, convention, deals, fear, Kickstarter

147 – Isaac Villa, Gaming with Sidekicks – The Family Gamers Podcast

May 27, 2019 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

This week we’re happy to welcome Isaac Villa. He runs a site similar to ours, called Gaming with Sidekicks. We first met at PAX Unplugged, and we’re always happy to talk with other family-focused gamers. Gaming with Sidekicks branched off from a different website; the founders met while playing Dice Masters competitively. At one point, they had four different podcasts!

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Andrew, Anitra, Family Gaming, Gaming With Sidekicks, Interview

SNAP Review – Shadows in Kyoto

May 25, 2019 Updated: March 20th, 2020 Anitra Smith SNAP Reviews

A two-player game of hidden identity. Move your agents across the board and try to get agents with *real intelligence* into your opponent’s home row.

146 – Top 5 Family Food Games – The Family Gamers Podcast

May 20, 2019 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

Who doesn’t like food? There are tons of great food games, and we can’t play them all. We rank our top 5, from preschooler-friendly to adults-only.

Play along as we try a food-themed round of Order of Invention. You’ll be surprised which food innovation came first!

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Andrew, Anitra, Family Gaming, food

144 – All Filled Up! Top 10 Filler Games – The Family Gamers Podcast

May 6, 2019 Andrew Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

We’ve got a top 10 today – yes, actually 10! Inspired by some filler games we recently received in the mail, and looking forward to hanging out with One Board Family (because we talked filler games when we had them on the podcast), we decided we’d talk about our favorite filler games today. First we thank Breaking Games, whose game

Tiny Towns: A Miniature Masterpiece!

May 6, 2019 Updated: November 12th, 2020 Andrew Smith Reviews

We have loved Tiny Towns since the moment we laid eyes on it. The simple mechanics of the game left us to wonder how it was possible a game like this hadn’t already existed. Place wooden cubes in configurations to collapse into a building – so simple, our 4-year-old can play, but a surprising amount of depth and strategy as well.

143 – Joe Comings, Art of Boardgaming in an RV – The Family Gamers Podcast

April 29, 2019 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

It’s our friend Joe from ArtOfBoardGaming.com! How does he keep up with boardgames now that he’s on the road? Can we recommend a dice-heavy game that he’ll actually enjoy?

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Andrew, Anitra, Art of BoardGaming, Board Games, Interview, storage, travel

142 – Abstraction! Top Abstract Games – The Family Gamers Podcast

April 22, 2019 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

Episode 142: Abrastraction! Top Abstract Games

Abstract strategy (or abstract puzzle) games are Anitra’s favorite! Let’s talk about what makes these games great for family game night.

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abstract, Andrew, Anitra, Battle Sheep, Board Games, Classic Games, Family Gaming, puzzles

141 – Joe Hopkins, Endangered – The Family Gamers Podcast

April 15, 2019 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

Endangered: A game of sruvival by Joe Hopkins

Let’s talk to Joe Hopkins, the designer of Endangered. Endangered is on Kickstarter right now. Published by Grand Gamers Guild, with art by Beth Sobel and Ben Flores, we think it looks great!

140 – Build Me Up, Buttercup – The Family Gamers Podcast

April 8, 2019 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

Building Games: Tournament of Towers, Castellan, Sprawlopolis, Supertall, Machi Koro, The Stars Align

Building games! We’re taking a lot of liberty with this idea, but centering around creating a “structure” you can see throughout the game. What’s your favorite?

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Andrew, Anitra, build, city building

My First Castle Panic: So Easy a Child Can Do It!

April 2, 2019 Updated: November 29th, 2020 Andrew Smith Reviews

Playing Castle Panic (a fantastic game) with my 4-year-old felt more like giving instructions to an unwilling robot. He wasn’t enjoying himself, and I wasn’t enjoying him not enjoying himself. Would My First Castle Panic be different?

My First Castle Panic is a cooperative tower (castle) defense game for 1-4 players ages 4+ that plays in just 20 minutes. Team up and protect the castle from monsters coming to knock it down! Throw the monsters in jail and save the castle!

138 – Time is Ticking – The Family Gamers Podcast

March 26, 2019 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

We talk about the use of time in boardgames. Time and time travel can make for an interesting theme, and some games use interesting time mechanics to add tension to the gameplay.

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Andrew, Anitra, cooperative games, real time, timed game

SNAP Review – Shikoku: The Middle Path

March 22, 2019 Updated: March 4th, 2023 Anitra Smith SNAP Reviews

In Shikoku, you learn that coming in first isn’t always the best. We try to tackle this game with rules that are easy to learn, but hard to explain, in about 8 minutes of audio.

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