Podcast · Leisure & Travel

The Board Game Secret Show

by neongorillasgames · English · Leisure & Travel

shhhh....don't tell anyone but we talk to interesting people in the board game hobby.

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 2 hr 5 min
Latest: 24 Sep 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

24 Sep 2026 · 2 hr 14 min

How To Run A Game Store 101 w/ Kylie Prymus | Games Unlimited | BGSS ep_035

Kylie Prymus took a dusty 1,000-square-foot shop doing $350,000 a year and turned it into a million-dollar store that sells no Magic, no Pokemon and no miniatures — on purpose. 🏪 GAMES UNLIMITED has been in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill since 1979, and the owner who bought it used to teach philosophy for a living.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🧪 The ALCHEMY talk behind the whole store: "a flower is just a weed with a marketing budget"🎁 Dead stock wrapped in butcher paper sold out in a week — the clearance table never did🟢 A counter above the demo bar with a big green button: the…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

22 Sep 2026 · 2 hr 2 min
Zero Strategy Is The Indie Publisher You Need To Know | Jeremy Stark | BGSS ep_034
Zero Strategy Games put a perfectly normal sheep on the cover of a horror game — and people did a double take all the way to a hit campaign. Jeremy Stark co-designed 🐑 THE SHEEP, 🗝️ SHUFFLE DUNGEONS and 🐉 UNHEIST.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🌪️ Surviving the Gen Con tornado in a 10×10 booth🍻 A board game company founded over "one drink after another"🏥 From project-managing Pennsylvania Medicaid to shipping board games💸 Where THE SHEEP's campaign money went — "I didn't go home with half a million dollars"🚫 Gamefound passed on UNHEIST: "not the type of game for us"🏮 His claim to…
15 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 51 min
The BIG Tend Episode | The Design, The Success, The Future | BGSS ep_033
Tend began as a Stardew-flavored side project Toby Sarnelle built just for his friends — then IV Studio co-founder Zac Dixon helped turn it into one of the most-requested flip-and-writes out there. 🌱 TEND's designers open up the legacy version that almost shipped, and the two expansions coming next — 🐝 HIVE and 🍷 CELLAR.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🧪 The legacy "mega sheet" — a tech tree of colored stars they spun on for six months, then cut🧱 Walls in the mines, doomed rondels, and IV's standing policy on Austin's ideas🎮 What years designing TWO DOTS taught Toby about hooking a…
12 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 30 min
Scam Tables, Board Game S*x Dolls & Mr. Beast | The Dragons Tomb Unfiltered | BGSS ep_031
Jeff Kornberg has taught hundreds of thousands of people how to play board games, and not one of those rules has ever been true. 📺 THE DRAGON'S TOMB is eight years of completely straight-faced tutorials with entirely invented rules — and the man making them spent his day job building 🎬 CONDÉ NAST's biggest YouTube series, with over 800 million views on videos he personally produced.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🚌 A Greyhound bus review so uneventful it killed the opening question🏙️ He gave away TINY TOWNS — all 375 pieces, one winner per piece, mailed in flat envelopes🎲 ROCK…
5 Sep 2026 · 2 hr 4 min
The Rise of Galactic Cruise | The Kinson Key Guys | BGSS ep_030
Support my work and join my community: https://crdbrd.app/Koltin Thompson took a sick day from teaching fourth grade to launch his Kickstarter. It did $300,000 in the first 24 hours. He went back to work the next morning anyway — state testing was coming — and his co-workers wanted to know what on earth he was doing there. That game was 🚀 GALACTIC CRUISE, and it just won Dice Tower Game of the Year. T.K. King, Dennis Northcott and Koltin of Kinson Key Games came on to tell the whole story.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🏆 Three Dice Tower awards in one night — and why Game of the…
1 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 35 min
Matthew Meeple Talks ASCENDANCY’s Breakout Success And COLA WARS | BGSS ep_029
Does Cola Wars match your taste? :https://crdbrd.app/hub/game/682109fe-a66d-402c-a141-f4f9cf13c2d6Matthew Meeple took his first game to Gen Con, put six people on it at once, and found out mid-demo that it literally could not be won. He raised $476,000 on it anyway. He's the founder of One More Turn Games — publisher of ⚔️ ASCENDANCY and the upcoming 🥤 COLA WARS — and he quit his job to do all of it.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🎲 A working cardboard vending machine that rolls your dice — no batteries, just a wooden dowel📦 The box fight: hundreds of backers arguing over a retro…
E1 · 30 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 59 min
From Tables to Publishing 20 Games a Year, The Allplay Story w/ Chad DeShon | BGSS ep_028
Chad DeShon ran a million-dollar Kickstarter, added another half million in add-ons, and made basically nothing — then turned that wreckage into one of the busiest publishers in board games. He's the founder of 🎲 ALLPLAY, formerly 🪑 BOARDGAMETABLES.COM, and he runs the whole thing out of a limestone mine.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🕳️ The Allplay warehouse is inside a decommissioned limestone mine — down the road from 750,000 square feet of federal documents🪑 2014: he emails a stranger about a furniture order and ends up selling board game tables with zero woodworking…
E1 · 6 Aug 2026 · 2 hr 37 min
Wroth, Wreck & A Little Dice Throne | Manny Trembley | BGSS ep_027
Manny Trembly had never designed a board game when he made 🎲 DICE THRONE — he was a comic artist who'd just been laid off. Ten years, 40+ heroes and a Marvel licence later, he still draws it, designs it, and now runs his own studio inside Chip Theory building ⚔️ WROTH.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:💼 Laid off ten years ago this week — a prototype in Nate's kitchen two days later✏️ Comic artist first — an Eisner nod for PX, 3D models for MYST🎲 "Too asymmetrical, too many dice" — everyone told him it wouldn't work⚔️ Gavin Brown, Roxley, and the absurd EXCALIBUR box🌈 WROTH — built…
25 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 58 min
From Teacher To KTBG Founder | Helaina Cappel’s Story | BGSS ep_026
Helaina Cappel turned down more games than she published — and that's why KTBG and Burnt Island look the way they do. Teacher, publisher, and the one who rescued ⚓ ENDEAVOR off Z-Man's shelf and steered it into 🌊 DEEP SEA.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🎓 Teacher to publisher — FOODFIGHTERS at the kitchen table⚓ A year convincing Jarratt & Carl to hand her ENDEAVOR🌊 Leaving the colonization theme behind for DEEP SEA🌱 Zero plastic — "but it's flammable"🗝️ LAIRS: $33, three print runs, all sold out🔮 Ten more years of Endeavor━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS🎲 Kids Table Board Gaming &…
14 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 42 min
Justin Gary is a Pioneer | Magic, Ascension & LOTR | BGSS ep_025
He won a Magic: The Gathering national championship at 17 — the youngest ever — and got the cards he won with banned. Then he built Ascension in 18 months, bet his life savings on 10,000 copies, and sold out at Gen Con. Justin Gary of Stone Blade Entertainment opens up 15 years of design secrets: why balance is a misnomer, how the One Ring broke his game (and the story moment that fixed it), and what's coming in Ascension: The Lord of the Rings.Guest: Justin Gary — https://x.com/Justin_GaryStone Blade Entertainment: https://stoneblade.comJustin's podcast & book: Think Like a Game…
E1 · 8 Jul 2026 · 2 hr 23 min
John D. Clair is UNSTOPPABLE | BGSS ep_024
He invented card crafting — and he may have just reinvented deck building. John D. Clair designed 🚀 SPACE BASE, 🏴‍☠️ DEAD RECKONING, 🎲 CUBITOS, 🐎 READY SET BET, and 🔮 MYSTIC VALE — and his new "momentum" system in ⚔️ UNSTOPPABLE is the engine behind the smash-hit 👑 DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL board game. In this one, I review Unstoppable to the designer's face for the very first time.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE, WE GO DEEP:🧒 Designing his first game at 9 (thanks, Mom)💰 Quitting the day job — royalties, risk & the AEG deal🃏 Dominion, Ascension & why deck building is a design "cheat…
1 Jul 2026 · 2 hr 5 min
From Z-Man to Play-to-Z | 30 Years of Board Game Publishing | BGSS ep_023
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 DEEP:💰 The real economics of conventions🏆 Why Origins beats GenCon for a premiere🃏 The CCG days & Shadow Fist🤝 Betting on co-op when NOBODY wanted it📦 Under-printing Pandemic🌶️ His (spicy) take on…
24 Jun 2026 · 3 hr 15 min
Let’s Talk Rolling Deep & More w/ Peter C. Hayward | BGSS ep_022
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, satisfaction, and winning, why Flip Seven sparked a friendly fight, the $120k debt that nearly ended it all, the "offer he couldn't refuse," and the absurd timeline that took Rolling Deep from first prototype to…
15 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 48 min
We Talk Board Games & Books w/ ⁨@ZeBoardandShield⁩ | BGSS ep_21
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 he merged books and board games onto one account, the narrative campaign games worth your table (Dragon Eclipse, Oathsworn, Spire's End), a hot take that might get him canceled (Castles of Burgundy is…
6 Jun 2026 · 2 hr 51 min
The Unhinged Takes of ⁨@BigPasti⁩ + Much More | BGSS ep_20
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. 👇🎲 Back his game, SUNLIT'S EULOGY, on GameFound: https://gamefound.com/en/projects/dear-euthyphro-studio/sunlits-eulogy📺 Subscribe to BigPasti: https://www.youtube.com/@BigPastiSupport this show by becoming a…
4 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 53 min
He Made 40+ Elder Scrolls Videos | BGSS ep_019
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 he treats his channel like a library instead of a newsstand, and what it actually takes to build a niche board game channel without selling out to the algorithm.If you've ever been told "the only way…
30 May 2026 · 2 hr 7 min
The IV Studio Episode | BGSS ep_018
@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 reputation for quality across many titles while Austin keeps losing his rondels every time he goes on vacation.We talked about the moment they stopped making ads and decided to make the thing…
23 May 2026 · 1 hr 53 min
Hangin’ With @BoardGameHangover | BGSS ep_017
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 channel you love — failed outdoor videos, box-sliding rituals, child labor allegations, two years without a paycheck, and why they're "cowards" who won't launch a Kickstarter. Plus a lightning trivia round…
20 May 2026 · 1 hr 17 min
Dani Garcia is a Genius | His Rise, Design & Diables | BGSS ep_016
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 extended look at Diabolus, his upcoming crowdfunding game inspired by the Ball de Diables — a Catalan fire festival Danny has attended over 100 times. It's unlike anything he's designed before.In January,…
17 May 2026 · 2 hr 22 min
He Left America & Became Asia’s Board Game Expert | @CardboardEast | BGSS ep_015
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 publishers get wrong, and what the data says about who's actually buying board games.Go Follow @BezierGamesInc and @CardboardEast Support this show by becoming a member: https://www.crdbrd.app/pricingJoin the…
12 May 2026 · 2 hr 38 min
❯ Mike is my Co-op Sommelier | BGSS ep_014 | OneStopCoOpShop Conversation
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 Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-showWant to work together?: https://crdbrd.app/hub/creator/neon_gorilla00:00:00 - Intro00:04:43 - How Mike took over One Stop Co-op…
9 May 2026 · 2 hr 5 min
The Man Behind Board Game Bollocks | BGSS ep_013
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/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-showWant to work together?: https://crdbrd.app/hub/creator/neon_gorillaFollow Bollocks here: https://www.youtube.com/@BoardGameBollocks TIMESTAMPS:0:00 - Board games in a…
5 May 2026 · 2 hr 5 min
This Board Game Channel Is A Hidden Gem | BGSS ep_012 | The Grove
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 : https://www.youtube.com/@TheGroveGamesJoin the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-show—————————————————————————⏱ TIMESTAMPS0:00 Intro & cold open0:36 Hot dog…
2 May 2026 · 1 hr 31 min
The Definitive Tom Vasel | He Built A YouTube Empire | BGSS ep_011
Tom Vassel has been the face of board game media for over two decades — hundreds of written reviews, 21 years of top ten lists, a YouTube channel (@thedicetower ) a podcast and conventions. In this conversation we go beyond the games. Tom talks about what it actually cost him to go full time, what it costs him to stay honest, and what shaped him long before any of it started.Support the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund: https://www.jackvasel.orgJoin the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-showWant to work together?:…
29 Apr 2026 · 2 hr 6 min
The Playthrough King | A Conversation with Canje Studios | BGSS ep_010
Derek from Canje Plays joins the show for a wide-ranging conversation that starts with board games and goes deep into life, loss, and community. We talk about how Derek found his way into the hobby after losing his father, how content creation gave him a new sense of purpose, and what keeps him going despite YouTube's brutal algorithm. Plus: his top game picks, thoughts on solo vs. co-op, and why playthroughs might be the most underrated format on the internet.Sub to @CanjeStudios Join the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-showWant to work…
17 Apr 2026 · 2 hr 25 min
The BoardGameCo Conversation | Crowdfunding, Conflicts & Ethics | BGSS ep_009
Alex Radcliffe is the CMO of GameFound — the platform quietly eating Kickstarter's lunch in tabletop crowdfunding. He's also one of the most watched board game reviewers on YouTube. That's one person. One very uncomfortable conflict of interest.We get into all of it: how GameFound actually handles bad actors behind closed doors, whether crowdfunding is thriving or dying, the ethics of reviewing games when you know the people who made them, and why full transparency in this hobby might be impossible anyway.Also: the Quack breakup, his BoardGameCo origin story, and he admits on camera that he…
14 Apr 2026 · 2 hr 15 min
The BIG Chip Theory Interview | 20 Strong x AR, Eldre Scrolls, TMB2 & More | BGSS ep_008
I sit down with Ryan and Salem from Chip Theory Games to talk about the three new Awakened Realms 20 Strong decks — Tainted Grail, Ether Fields, and Nemesis — plus a massive announcement about what's coming next from Chip Theory. We get into the design philosophy behind each deck, how Salem went from customer support to lead designer, and why these three decks are the most different from anything 20 Strong has done before.Join the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-showWant to work together?: https://crdbrd.app/hub/creator/neon_gorillasupport the…
8 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 39 min
The Board Game Renaissance Man | Chris Porter | BGSS ep_007
Chris Porter isn't just a board game designer. He's also a publisher, a graphic artist, a branding expert, a YouTuber, and a soccer player — and somehow he's doing all of it at the same time.In this episode, Chris walks us through the origin of Chris Couch Games — from a hand-illustrated Marvel game made for a bachelor party to a growing catalog of beautifully designed, sneakily strategic titles. We talk about what it actually takes to launch on Kickstarter as a small publisher, the design philosophy that shapes every game he makes, and why he believes friction is the secret ingredient to…
4 Apr 2026 · 1 hr 45 min
The BIG Arcs Interview w/ Cole Wehrle | BGSS ep_006
Cole Wehrle — designer of Root, Oath, Pax Pamir, and Arcs — joins the Board Game Secret Show for a wide-ranging conversation on storytelling, frustration as a design tool, and why he walked away from Leder Games to found Buried Giant. Plus: the new Arcs expansion, Lost Vaults & Faded Leaders, is live on crowdfunding now:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/colewehrle/arcs-beyond-the-reachJoin the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-showWant to work together?: https://crdbrd.app/hub/creator/neon_gorilla 00:00:00 - Intro & Cole's origin story 00:03:00…
3 Apr 2026 · 3 hr 2 min
He Interviewed w/ Tom Vasel Before Starting ⁨@howiroll | BGSS ep_005
Welcome to the Board Game Secret Show!Ryan Guerra from How I Roll had never made a single video — then he cold emailed Dice Tower and Game Boy Geek, and everything changed. In this episode, we talk about his unlikely start in board game content creation, his top 10 games (which I roast), building publisher relationships, the magic of board game community, and my dream to bring games to children's hospitals across America.Find @howiroll here: https://www.youtube.com/@howirollJoin the Secret Club Here: https://www.crdbrd.app/hub/clubs?club=the-board-game-secret-showWant to work together?:…

About The Board Game Secret Show

shhhh....don't tell anyone but we talk to interesting people in the board game hobby.

The Board Game Secret Show is a English leisure & travel podcast from neongorillasgames. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: neongorillasgames
Language: English
Category: Leisure & Travel
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 2 hr 5 min
Latest episode: 24 Sep 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id6785378165

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