Decision Space
Decision Space is a board game podcast about the decisions in games.
Episodes
Episode 289- Shinzawathon
Pete and Paul create a tier list for every game designed by Taiki Shinzawa. They are joined by trick-taking expert Taylor Reiner, which is good because one of these games has only one total rating on BGG and it is from Taylor himself. That's how serious this guy is.
Time Stamps 18:00- early games 20:15- Maskmen 26:30- Charms 34:30- Luz 40:15- 9 Lives 44:30- Players Play 47:25- Ghosts of Christm...
Episode 288- Modern Art
An old school deep dive of an old school game! Pete and Brendan examine Knizia's classic auction game Modern Art and discuss what makes this game so thematic and thrilling over thirty years later.
Link to the 5 of a Kind kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boardgametables/through-the-mountains-through-the-desert-deluxe-more
Link to Pete's 5 of a Kind design diary: https://www.kickstarter.com/p...
Episode 287- Playing OGs Together
All four hosts are together for a discussion of the Old School games they played together during Brendan's visit to St. Louis. That Stefan Dorra... so hot right now...
Time Stamps 4:50- BattleCON: War of Indines 17:00- Hellas 30:00- Big Shot 48:15- Witch's Brew 1:03:00- Medina
Preplanners
Next week is a deep dive of Modern Art and after that we'll be making a tier list of the best games by ...
Episode 286- Cole Wehrle on Economic Games and An Infamous Traffic
Pete chats with Cole Wehrle about his history with economic games like Container and how these nasty designs inspired An Infamous Traffic, which currently has a second edition in development for Wehrlegig Games.
An Infamous Traffic on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/colewehrle/an-infamous-traffic-second-edition
Cole's design diaries: https://board...
Episode 285- Stonemaier Design Day 2026
All four hosts are together to share their experiences of hanging out together IN PERSON for Stonemaier Design Day. Paul talks about games he's working on for GameHead and Pete, Jake, and Brendan discuss the games they brought to showcase at the event.
Time Stamps 6:00- GameHead playtesting 23:00- about Stonemaier Design Day 29:45- Franchise Wars (Pete and Brendan's game) 41:30- Kiuic ...
Episode 284- Schotten Totten and Lane Battlers
Pete and Brendan explore the card game genre known as lane battlers and deep dive the 1999 Knizia Classic Schotten Totten that gave birth to these dueling games.
Time Stamps 5:15- what is a lane battler? 10:00- Schotten Totten deep dive 44:30- other lane battlers
Games Mentioned
Battle Line, Lost Cities, Hanamikoji, Radlands, Riftforce, Air Land and Sea, Marvel Snap, Compile, Toy Batt...
Episode 283- Indonesia
Pete is joined by Arnie, Jared and Luke to discuss Splotter's 2005 economic masterpiece Indonesia. These 4 have played the game sixteen times together this year and have learned a lot. Listen to their tales of business blunder and triumph!
Arnie's Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@analog_arnie
Luke's Podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/off-board-podcast/
Jared has nothing going on worth shar...
Episode 282- Gen Con Impressions
Pete and Paul recap their Gen Con experience and give quick impressions of games they picked up there!
Time Stamps 13:15- Trick to the Future 16:15- Jibber Jabble 20:30- Jusayo 24:30- Stonk Market 29:00- The Glorious Guilds of Buttonville 35:30- Soundwave Length 39:00- Grandma I'm Hungry 44:15- Sushi Go Chef's Party 48:00- Brave and Bold Bag Building Combat Game 52:15- Looney Tunes Hunting Wabbits 5...
Episode 281- Libertalia and Reimplementations
Paul, Brendan, and Pete discuss the benefits and potential pitfalls of making new editions of old games. Then they deep dive Paolo Mori's 2012 classic Libertalia and the excellent update from Stonemaier Games in 2022's Winds of Galecrest.
Time Stamps 2:40- second editions and reimplementations 22:00- Libertalia deep dive
Preplanners
Pete and Paul are going to chat about fresh pl...
Episode 280- Listener Questions
We open the mail bag to answer a bunch of questions from the Decision Space community!
Time Stamps 2:15- who would win? 4:50- what is a YOU game? 9:00- design choice you disagree with 18:00- design choice you love 23:20- games for roommates 27:30- games you wish existed 34:30- bad games we like 40:00- who you want to play a game with 44:30- spoiler strategies 50:00- emotional responses to games 53:0...
Episode 279- Sandbox Objectives and Frosted Blooms
This week Brendan tries to convince his co-hosts that "sandbox objectives" and "point salad" are not not the same thing. Jake isn't convinced. Also the gang deep dives the new polyomino game Frosted Blooms, designed by Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc.
Time Stamps 3:20- sandbox objective systems 30:00- Frosted Blooms deep dive
Preplanners
Next week is listener ques...
Episode 278- Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?
That types of questions do games ask us as players? When should I score? Who can I trust? Why did they do that? How should I sequence this? This week we dig into what the central questions are in different games and think about how this can help us as players and designers.
Time Stamps4:30- Who? 18:00- What? 26:00- When? 34:00- Where? 42:00- Why? 54:00- How?
...
Episode 277- Deckbuilding 301 and Slay the Spire
Trick-taking wiz Taylor Reiner joins Pete, Jake, and Brendan to take the next step on our deckbuilding exploration. This time we're going digital! How do games like Balatro and Slay the Spire build on physical games and where do they diverge? Also how are we seeing the reverse influence on tabletop games? Check out Taylor's amazing Youtube Channel: https://www.yout...
Episode 276- SD HistCon North 2026
Pete is joined by Cardner Babakitis of Odd Candy Games and Buried Giant Studios. They discuss the historical games they played at the inaugural SD HistCon North. Check out Cardner's games here: https://www.oddcandygames.com/
Time Stamps
15:00- Hellraisers in Kanawha County 19:30- An Infamous Traffic 2nd Edition 27:30- Baltic Empires 33:00- Penitent 42:00- Nicaea 49:00- John Comp...
Episode 275- Inside the Deck
This week Jake, Paul, and Brendan explore the different deck structures of card games. Things get mathy in this design focused discussion about how combinations of suits and numbers create different decision spaces in games.
Time Stamps
2:00- Air Land and Sea 13:00- The Fox in the Forest 21:45- Jekyll vs Hyde 27:45- Dracula vs Van Helsing 34:30- Coloretto 42:00- Pet Quartet 45:00- Flip 7 50:...
Episode 274- 2010-2014 Showdown
All four hosts are together to play a game as a way to choose a consensus list of the best board games from the early 2010's. The format here is from April Mitchell's This/That Showdown: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/463458/thisthat-showdown
Games Mentioned
BattleCon, Keyflower, The Resistance Avalon, The Castles of Burgundy, The Great Zimbabwe, Trajan, Charms, Haggis, Hanabi, Glen ...
Episode 273- dnup and Iterative Game Design
In this episode we talk about iterative game design. Why do designers go back to ideas they've already explored? On that note, we also discuss the new hotness dnup and how designer Kai Kajino built it upon the foundation of his modern classic hit Scout.
Timestamps
3:30- iterative design 32:20- Scout 46:00- dnup
Preplanners
We have another decade draft coming up soon!
Music a...
Episode 272- The Old King's Crown
Pete is joined by Jaffles ( https://www.youtube.com/@Jaffles-gaming ) to do a deep dive of the hottest game from last year: The Old King's Crown. They also chat about what types of games inspire players to dig deep and get obsessed.
Timestamps
5:00- why we get obsessed with games 18:15- intro to Old King's Crown 24:00- personal reviews 27:30- exploring the decision space 47:15- spring decisi...
Episode 271- Hand Management
Pete and Brendan dissect one of the most ubiquitous mechanisms in tabletop games: hand management. What kinds of puzzles can a hand of cards present to players and what makes it so timelessly satisfying?
Timestamps
3:00- defining hand management 18:00- why we love hand management 29:00- types of hand management 36:15- trick-taking and ladder climbing 42:45- hand management as a core mechanism 57:...
Episode 270- Interview with Phil Walker-Harding
Paul sits down for a wonderfully insightful discussion with game designer Phil Walker-Harding. Last week's tier list episode should have you primed to get into this man's head! They discuss game inspiration and how to design in ways that can heal game related trauma.
Timestamps
1:45- how Phil got into design 10:35- design philosophy 25:30- balancing games 36:30- what Phil...
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