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The Board Game Secret Show

neongorillasgames 12 Episodes Jun 30, 2026

A podcast that features conversations with interesting people in the board game hobby. The show explores various aspects of board gaming, from design to community, with a focus on the people behind the games.

Episodes

From Z-Man to Play-to-Z | 30 Years of Board Game Publishing | BGSS ep_023 Jun 30, 2026 7489 One of the most storied résumés in the entire board game industry. Zev founded Z-Man Games, published 🦠 PANDEMIC and the first English 🌾 AGRICOLA (and basically invented the "animeeple" by deluxing it), signed the original ENDEAVOR, spent seven years exploding the WizKids catalog with ~100 games, and now runs his own publisher — ✨ PLAY TO Z. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE, WE GO

Let’s Talk Rolling Deep & More w/ Peter C. Hayward | BGSS ep_022 Jun 24, 2026 11701 Board game designer Peter Hayward (Rolling Deep, Things & Rings, That Time You Killed Me) sits down for a wide-ranging, 3-hour conversation about what actually makes a game fun, why he's stepping back from designing to chase screenwriting, and how he reverse-engineered the feeling of Balatro into a tabletop roguelike. We get into the apex of game design, the difference between fun, satisfac

We Talk Board Games & Books w/ ⁨@ZeBoardandShield⁩ | BGSS ep_21 Jun 15, 2026 6501 I need your help to keep this going. The #1 way you can support me is join my community here: https://crdbrd.app/ Zeshawn from Board and Shield has played over 500 board games — and he's just as deep in the book world as the board game one. In this episode of the Board Game Secret Show we go all the way down the rabbit hole: how a Game of Thrones version of Risk pulled him into the hobby, why

The Unhinged Takes of ⁨@BigPasti⁩ + Much More | BGSS ep_20 Jun 6, 2026 10249 BigPasti makes $1,000 a month on YouTube, refuses every free game publishers send him, and is building his own game designed to make you miserable. So we sat him down and ran through 20 of the spiciest board game takes on the internet — Earth, Secret Hitler, Zombicide, FOMO, sleeving, AI art, and whether the designer even matters. Agree? Disagree? Drop your own hot take in the comments. 👇 🎲

He Made 40+ Elder Scrolls Videos | BGSS ep_019 Jun 4, 2026 6802 Daniel from@thinkgaming fled his country in 2022 with no job, no money, and no plan. Three years later he's running one of YouTube's most dedicated nerdy strategy channels — 500+ hours into Elder Scrolls, the official How-to-Play creator for Too Many Bones, and somehow he's never missed an upload week. We talked about losing everything in a single day, sleeping on a friend's couch in London, why

The IV Studio Episode | BGSS ep_018 May 30, 2026 7618 @iv-studio-games started making commercials for Nike, Amazon, and Bad Robot. Then one Christmas, Zac invited Austin over to "just make a board game" — for fun, for nostalgia, no plan. That became Moonraker. Six years later, IV Studios is one of the most design-forward indie publishers in the hobby — shipping on 9-to-12-month timelines, running 800-person community tours, and somehow maintaining a

Hangin’ With @BoardGameHangover | BGSS ep_017 May 23, 2026 6774 Two Latvian guys, one YouTube channel, zero plans to stop — I sat down with Jānis G and Jānis T from Board Game Hangover to talk about building one of the most creatively ambitious channels in the hobby from Riga, Latvia, going viral with Eternals, refusing publisher money on principle, and what it actually costs to do this full time. We get into the messy reality of running a board game channe

Dani Garcia is a Genius | His Rise, Design & Diables | BGSS ep_016 May 20, 2026 4639 Danny Garcia has quietly become one of the most thoughtful designers in board games — and in this episode, we go deep on exactly why. We talk about his unconventional design process (he builds entire games in his head before writing a single note), his obsession with action selection, why theme always comes first, and what it means to share your culture through cardboard. We also get an extende

He Left America & Became Asia’s Board Game Expert | @CardboardEast | BGSS ep_015 May 17, 2026 8490 Jay runs @CardboardEast one of the most unique channels in the hobby. He spent nearly 20 years living in Taipei, learned Chinese and Japanese, and became one of the best windows into Asian board game design the English-speaking world has. Now he's back in the US as Marketing Manager at Bézier Games. We talked about what drew him to Taiwan, the Tokyo Game Market experience, what Western publish

❯ Mike is my Co-op Sommelier | BGSS ep_014 | OneStopCoOpShop Conversation May 12, 2026 9509 Mike Kelley of One Stop Co-op Shop sits down to talk the real side of board game content creation — review ethics, publisher horror stories, and much more. Then we break down his framework for what actually makes a great solo or co-op game, using his recent reviews as the lens. Plus: an unannounced mech game reveal you won't want to miss. Subscribe to @OneStopCoopShop Join the Secret Club He

The Man Behind Board Game Bollocks | BGSS ep_013 May 9, 2026 7510 The NSFW Episode Beware ;) My @BoardGameBollocks conversation. He is human, hilarious and incredibly thoughtful. Whether you agree with his takes or not I can assure you this conversation shows a side you almost surely have never seen before. If you don't know Bollocks then even more reason to sit down with us and hang out for a while. Join the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub

This Board Game Channel Is A Hidden Gem | BGSS ep_012 | The Grove May 5, 2026 7489 Eleven friends from college in central Arkansas turned game night into a YouTube channel — and they're in debt doing it. In this episode I sit down with Matt, Eli, and Robert from The Grove Games to talk Twilight Imperium betrayals, why they refuse to trash a game even when it's bad, and what it actually takes to build something real in the niche of all niches. 🔔 Subscribe to @TheGroveGames : h

The Board Game Secret Show

Episodes

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