Pretzels, Playtests, Planets, and More! (April 8 2026 Livecast)

0:01 Hey, good morning. I'm Jamie from Stonemaier Games and I am here to spend approximately the next hour with you here on Wednesday morning or whatever time it is where you are. I hope you're doing well. I hope you're doing something today that brings you joy or that you're treating yourself in some way. Um I don't know if I have a you know, I actually am treating myself today a little bit because I just opened So, this this is a ChocXO love chocolate hazelnut chocolate that that I opened yesterday. I don't have this one I bought it like a month ago and I've been eyeing it for quite some time, but I finally delved into it yesterday. It was totally worth it. Really, really good. I see Michael actually, I have a question for you. Let me just throw out today's question of the day. You can obviously throw questions to me at any time. I have plenty of topics to discuss today, but a topic that I'm thinking about for my podcast recording, my Positively Board Gaming podcast with Mitchell, this Friday are heist games. So, I would love to hear your favorite heist-themed game. I can think of a few off the top of my head, but I won't mention them cuz I want I want you to go into it unfettered. What is your favorite heist-themed game? That is one of today's questions of the day. I also Yeah, I have another question for later.

1:15 I'll wait for 30 minutes in and then I'll ask the other question. Um Michael has a question right off the bat. He says, "Are you still collecting data for Tapestry?" Yes, Michael we So, we have a leaderboards for all not all of our games, many of our games where you can report your scores for various games and depending on how many reported scores we get impacts how often I update the leaderboard for that game, but Tapestry is one that we get so many reported scores on an ongoing basis that I update it one or two every one or two months. And so, we do continually get data for that. I have not seen any patterns that would indicate that we need to make any updates to Tapestry: Fantasies & Futures. So, we don't have any That's the third and probably final expansion for Tapestry. We don't have any plans to do any updates for those.

2:01 But, we still do collect the data just out of curiosity. So, please feel free to continue to report that data whenever you play a game of Tapestry. I do appreciate that. Monkey Butler says, "I hope Walter is adjusting well to the new space and that both you and Megan are finding joy in the new home." Thank you. Yeah, I I I am very much enjoying the new home and Walter seems to be adjusting well. He has spent a lot of time under my desk recently, which indicates to me that he uh needs and wants a safe space because it is kind of covered, it's off to the side, it's on this comfortable carpet. Um but it doesn't seem to be an indication that he is unhappy elsewhere in the house because he does go everywhere in the house as well. Garrett says, "Did you hear about Dropout's upcoming board game Kickstarter for Game Changer Home Edition? I think it launches in early May." I did not hear about that, Garrett, but that is very exciting. I love Game Changer. I'm really excited about the next season and depending on the game, I I I would say I'm glad I would be glad to buy a home version of Game Changer, but I am curious to see what they do with it before I fully commit to it. But, yeah, that's that's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing that.

3:11 Okay, so uh Arnault is curious about the pretzel topic. So, I'll talk about the three topics that I put on today's live cast: pretzels, play test, planets, and more. Pretzels on on What was it? Saturday. Saturday we had a couple friends over for dinner and I decided around lunchtime that I was going to make pretzels from scratch, soft pretzels from scratch. Love soft pretzels. And I had a recipe for pretzel challah bread and I thought how hard or how long could this possibly take? 4 hours later, I had nine beautiful pretzels. Totally worth it, but it took so much more time than I expected. It wasn't really how I wanted to spend 4 hours of my afternoon, and no one who ate them even mentioned anything about it.

4:02 So, I I don't even know if they were all that good. I liked them. But, um it was a good reminder to me, and you might have seen these on Instagram. If you check out Instagram @jamestegman, you'll see a photo of these. They They looked great. I thought they tasted great. Was it worth 4 hours of time? I would say no for nine pretzels. I would much rather have just gone to a bakery and and gotten them. But, it makes me appreciate I think, you know, making things from scratch like that makes me appreciate those who uh including the bakeries that um that make things like that. I'm sorry. I'm getting a text that I need to answer from our stage uh the the the people who are like working on our condo so we can sell our condo. Um Uh yeah, sorry.

4:48 Uh Uh sorry about this. Um I'll tell them that I can't reply for the next hour. I'm in a meeting. I think that's easier than explaining that I'm on a live cast right now.

5:18 Sorry about that. Uh Yeah, so that's the pretzel. The play test or I hosted a small play test night with some local designer friends the other night, and we had a great time. I play play tested a game that I've been working on, and each of them brought uh one or two games that they're working on. And I can't really say anything about these games, but uh it is always fun to it's fun to play test with a variety of people, including sometimes other designers to get their perspective on games. Um Yeah. Hopefully Hopefully this solve the uh the Yeah, so and the last topic is planets. Uh I have been excitedly following the Artemis 2 Can we call it expedition? I guess they're not really exploring a new place, but they it is a Yeah, whatever Artemis 2. We'll call it an expedition.

6:07 It it is amazing that they've that they've done this and they're on their way back to Earth right now. Um and as part of that or related to that, Erica and I, my coworker Erica, filmed our favorite a video of our favorite space-themed games that we posted this past weekend on the Stonemaier Games YouTube channel. So, if you love the the theme of space, feel free to check out that video. That was a lot of fun to do. I always appreciate hearing Erica's perspective on games. I see some suggestions for heist-themed games. I hear a Clank from Austin. Cash 'n' Guns. I didn't think about Cash 'n' Guns as a heist game, but that makes sense. Yeah, I'll make some notes about these so I don't miss it. Um Clank Clank is definitely up there for me. I'm sure I'm guessing someone will mention Burgle Brothers at some point, so I'll mention that. Burgle Brothers. I see Caper mentioned below and Cash 'n' Guns.

7:02 These are heist-themed games. Stop Thief. I think Stop Stop Thief is is a heist. Stop Thief. Uh Helen mentions Burgle Brothers here. Aaron mentioned uh Magic Maze. I do think Magic Maze Magic Maze is a is a heist-themed game. Yeah, it's a it's a I guess it happens right after the heist, the escape part. Oh, Escape Plan is kind of a heist-themed game. Would you all say that Netrunner is a heist-themed game? Netrunner? I think it's pretty close to it. It's been a while since I played that. Uh Chris says, "When can we expect more info on the side versus Expeditions dueling game {slash} uh expansion?" Um, June. June is probably when we'll start doing that. However, I do have I can say that next Wednesday is when I will reveal the Fin Span expansion. You can see Fin Span on the Stonemaier shelf behind me. The Fin Span expansion I will reveal next Wednesday.

8:03 Aaron asks, "Would Sheriff of Nottingham count as a heist game?" Hmm. It's on the edge. I can see why you thought of it. I don't feel like I'm doing a heist when I play for I feel like I'm uh feel like it's more of a bribery game, but you are sneaking things in, which is definitely heist adjacent. I'm going to make a note of it, Aaron, because why not? It is really close and a creative answer, I think, for sure. Colt Express, great pick there. Yeah, a train heist.

8:40 You all are are uh over the well well on top of this impressively. Um, Joshua says, "Is there a heist somewhere in Vantage?" There is a heist somewhere in Vantage. One of the either the missions or a quest, there's a at least one heist-related thing cuz I do I love heist fiction. I really love heist fiction and um, I don't know if I've ever played like I love these suggestions. I love many of the games that you've mentioned today. I don't know if any of them really hit all the beats that I love about a in particular a heist movie, a great heist movie. Um, they come close. They had like they have like elements of it. Oh, there's the game What is the game that is a little bit similar to Space Base, but maybe it has the word the words bad guys in it. Bad Company. Bad Company, I think, is a is a heist game.

9:35 But, to me it didn't fully feel like like it it has the flavor of a heist but doesn't fully feel like uh a heist movie in the end. Um Yes, I've been I Yeah, if anyone's curious in joining me for the first time, this is the new uh or the our our our new house. It isn't a new house, but it is a new to us house that we are now in here.

10:05 Okay. Uh Paul says, "We've really been enjoying it while Paul's wife and him have really been enjoying Cozy Sticker Ville. Would Charterstone be a good one to try next? Is there any negative player interaction?" I think Charterstone is definitely a step up from Cozy Sticker Ville. I really love how easy it is to go game to game in Cozy Sticker Ville. I'm really enjoying it as well. Um Charterstone is a good next step, for sure. I think it follows it has a similar feel, similar theme. Is there negative player interaction? No. I mean, mo not that I can think of it almost at all. Like it is it is a very positive player interaction game where you are building things on a shared village that any player can potentially use as a worker place in a placement action spot.

10:50 Um it leans heavily into positive player interaction and not negative player interaction. I think the only thing that you might be able to construe as negative is at times in the game there's a there's a card display. Someone might take a card that you were really hoping to get, but um I wouldn't even I wouldn't even call that negative player interaction interaction. And in those cases, you could say, "Oh, I I was really hoping to get that card. Would you mind leaving that for me?" In a two-player game, the other person's probably going to be okay with that. Board game Eric mentions Hit the Silk. I have never even heard of that one, Eric. What is Hit the Silk about in terms of a a heist-themed game? See, I'll open it. So, Wendy, I'm glad Wendy that you mentioned this one. This is a heist-themed game that I am playing this Friday morning before I record my podcast episode with with Mitchell. So, we'll see if maybe that I'll probably do a top three and we'll see if that one makes the the list.

11:52 Philip mentions Escape: Curse of the Temple. Okay, keep the suggestions coming. I'm I probably I don't want to completely ruin the podcast episode. So, I won't I won't keep talking about it, but keep the suggestions coming. I mean I I might take notes of them as they come in. Um Oh, and now now the uh the handyman is now texting me. Um

12:24 I'll let them know. that they're There's three different people in play here. There's a There's a handyman, there is a cleaner, and there is a stager to make our our place look nice. Um So, I I Sorry about this. I was not expecting to do coordinate anything of this while while I was live with you, but I appreciate your patience. And someone above said that there's no need to apologize, but I do feel I do feel a little bad. Um Burn Cycle. Burn Cycle. I I said that I'd stop reading out loud heist-themed games, but you you continue to mention them. I will uh I will stop talking about heist for a little bit here.

13:12 Tom says, "Will the new small box Wingspan game be available to take to the pub this summer?" It is uh we are planning for a launch this summer on our web store for the uh shorter, lighter, more streamlined, small box wings wingspan game. So, that is that is currently the plan. Uh Ryan says the Wingspan expansion is awesome. Ryan's excited about it. I don't know if Ryan knows what it is yet. Ryan says, "How do you pick how soon after a game release to debut an expansion?" Well, typically we don't start working on the expansion until after a game is already released. Wingspan was released in early 2025. And so, then it depends on how well the the expansion goes in terms of development, uh design and development.

14:01 Um I would say a year is about the minimum that it would take for design, development, art, and production uh for it to happen. Uh so, I would say a a a year minimum, but we really do like to put a game out there and then listen to people, listen to people's opinions about what they like, what they don't like, what they what they want more of, what they want more focus on. Um it that's the the main reason that we don't really start working on or really focusing on expansions until after they're released. Sometimes uh we might dabble with them a little bit, especially if a game is like ready, but we haven't quite released it yet based on other elements in our schedule. But, we I would say almost always, if not always, we wait until we can get public feedback before um before finalizing the design and development of an expansion. And so, that inherently adds quite a few months after the game is released.

15:00 Yeah, good question. Uh Some other topics on my mind, in fact, uh speaking of the heist uh heist theme, I watched the movie Crime 101 this past weekend. It uh just came on streaming recently. It It it was pretty solid movie. It was kind of a slower burn heist movie. Um a little less focus on the heist itself, but it was really interesting and it was interesting seeing Chris Hemsworth in a in a very different role than than he usually plays. We also watched I have a group of friends that likes to watch much older movies or older movies and they picked Kung Fu Hustle as the movie over the weekend. And I can't remember if I've actually watched Kung Fu Hustle before, but it was actually quite entertaining. The action was quite good. There was a good amount of humor in it. It's definitely outlandish. It's It's cartoonish in a way even though it's live action, but Kung Fu Hustle I I enjoyed returning to that. And then the shows that we're watching right now, we're watching Monarch, we're watching Survivor season 50, and we just started For All Mankind last night. We also just finished um Oh, what was that show?

16:12 Oh, we've We're up-to-date on Shrinking. I don't know if there are more episodes of Shrinking to come. I can't tell. What are you all watching right now? Have you watched any good movies or TV shows recently? Also, oh, I I almost put this in the title, but in the description of this video, if you check it out, there is a Twitch link because uh there is in the In St. Louis, there's a place called the World Bird Sanctuary, which I highly recommend going to if you come to St. Louis. It is a place where it's a bird rehabilitation center and for birds that can't survive in the wild, they can't be released, it is their home and they they they survive there, they thrive there, and even sometimes have jobs there. Like there is Megan and I sponsored a an aviary at the World Bird Sanctuary for a uh a great horned owl named Archimedes, who is really good and seems to really enjoy raising owlets that can be released to the wild.

17:11 Archimedes can't be released to the wild. He has a damaged wing. He can't fly a very very far. He can fly a little bit. But uh but he's very good at raising owlets and there is now a twitch stream of Archimedes on the World Bird Sanctuary twitch. So, if you look on twitch for World Bird Sanctuary or if you just click the link below in the description, you can hang out with Archimedes whenever you want. I've been kind of putting it on on idle on my other screen if I'm working on one screen just to see what Archimedes is doing. There's another owl on there, too. There's So, there's two owls that you can actually watch on that stream. But uh but yeah, that is that is Archimedes. That's a enclosure that we sponsored so that we could have these little owlets so we could have Archimedes raise these little owlets in a in a bigger space than he had before and then hopefully release them in the wild.

17:57 Oh, that's cool. Blades in the Dark. You know, I've heard I I said I wasn't going to talk about heists anymore, but I I have heard good things about that. Blades in the Dark. Maybe that's that'll be my first RPG in many years. Um

18:22 Sorry, I'm just letting them know this is the handyman. Let's see. Um Oh, yeah. You You all keep coming up with even more. I might have to do just a top 10 about heist games instead of a top three because you all keep mentioning great games that have at least part of the heist theme that I really enjoy. Michael said, "Did I miss snack of the day?" You did, Michael, but I'm happy to show you again. Today's chocolate of the day is this chocolate this hazelnut chocolate. It's a little bit lighter than I usually go. It's a 33% but I do enjoy it.

19:17 Um Oh, here's the So, Eric explains that Hit the Silk is a semi-cooperative game in which the team objective is to find the target cash between the players. The individual goal is to stay alive by securing a parachute. Interesting. Oh, that's the silk in question. That makes sense. Chad says, "What, if anything, would you ask a popular game reviewer if you could ask them about game design?" Hmm, that's a good question, Chad. What would I ask a popular game reviewer if I could ask them about game design? Um So, sometimes game game reviewers do things like, you know, their top 10 pet peeves about games, the top 10 things they wish more games would do. I generally appreciate those videos. I I I learn something from those videos. They're often just as much about product product design as they are about game design, but I do both here at Stonemaier Games, so um I'm interested in both of those.

20:11 Maybe that'll be Until I think of a better answer, that would be my answer. It would be, "What are the top three, top five, top 10 things that you would like that you love about specific games that you would love more games to do, whether it's about game design or product design?" I'd love to know that. Darren says, "Your next lot of releases are due in May and retail in June." So, this is uh Euphoria Essential and the Fins expansion are indeed due due then. Um they'll be available at the UK Games Expo, which is at the end of May. Darren, it depends on freight shipping. Freight shipping to the UK has been slow for the last couple years and it's gotten even slower with this I would say uh disastrous attack on Iran by by my own country um that I'm incredibly embarrassed about.

21:00 Um uh but uh yeah, uh I so, I I I doubt that that the the ships [clears throat] will get there in time for that. But, we'll do our best there. And if they are in there if they do get in there in time, it could be there, but I think it's highly unlikely, unfortunately. Uh, Ivan also asked about the Fin Span expansion. Ivan, I look forward to talking about it next Wednesday. So, next Wednesday will be the reveal of the Fin Span expansion. And then the following Wednesday will be the reveal of the new things not new things, the revisions and the composition of Euphoria Essential Edition. Gerd says, "Did you watch last week's episode of Shrinking?" I'm not sure we are emotionally ready for the finale tonight after last space. Okay. I we are caught up then and we haven't watched tonight's episode. Uh, it was a rough episode last last Wednesday. So, I have watched that. I can I can hear the I can relate to the emotional strife that you're talking about that you're referring to.

22:05 Oh, cool. Here's a movie recommendation. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. It's funny and also inspiring to me as and and filmmaker as an indie film. Cool. Yeah, I've I've heard good things about that. So, I appreciate the recommendation and I'll I'll check that one out. Peter says, "I just received the Advantage new cards and booklet. Why use a large box rather than a padded envelope like Amazon uses? Seems more expensive for you." Um, so Peter, I think this is a good question. I a couple things that you got to know here. We contract out to fulfillment centers. And when we um, when someone orders if you if you just ordered that product, what the fulfillment center should have done is put a label directly on that product. If they did not do that, if they used a larger box, uh, please let me know. And you're letting me know here, but the best way to let me know is to take a photo of it and send it to contact@stellamaris.com.

23:01 Uh, I'm clarifying this because it is not me individually packing these packages. It's not even Stonemaier Games packaging these packages. It is we give instructions to the fulfillment centers to package things the way that we want them to. And the way that they should package a singular order of a Vantage update pack is to put a label directly on that pack. There shouldn't be any other packaging at all. So, if that's what if that did not happen, please take a photo of it and send it to us so that we can tell the fulfillment center that they are not sending it the way they they should have. Joe might be listening to this right now. He sometimes puts it on in the background, and Joe can look into this, but it is the most helpful to have a photo, and even better to have your order number. Um if you email us from the email from which from which you placed your order, uh we can often look it up.

23:48 Uh but even then, it's helpful for you to tell us your region as well because we have fulfillment centers where we work with fulfillment centers in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe. So, we have to narrow it down to different web stores. This goes for everyone. If you ever receive something from Stonemaier Games, and you were baffled by the packaging, it just seems like a waste that they packaged in such like maybe a big box for small product, we always want to know that. We want the photo. We want uh we want the order number because then we can go to the fulfillment center and give them feedback so they can improve for the future. Uh so, I always appreciate knowing that. Peter, I even appreciate your comment just as it is, but we can actively do more to to prevent it from happening in the future if you provide a photo and your order number in an email to us.

24:34 Aaron mentioned some great movies recently, Project Hail Mary, which we saw and loved, and then the Super Mario Galaxy movie. Aaron says, "Mario movie is what I would describe as cotton candy fun, but zero substance." That's what I expect from a Mario movie. I mean, part of it, right, is just to see the Mar the Mario universe on the big screen, which is pretty cool for those of us who have that nostalgia. So, I I'm in it just for that.

25:03 I see a lot of suggestions here for TV, movies, things like that. Ryan says, "Have you watched the YouTube documentary of called Listers? It's a great and hilarious summary of bird watching by two brothers from Collinsville." Ryan, someone recommended that recently. I'm not going to click off my screen cuz I'll probably freeze, but I made a note of it and I'm going to make a note in a different place that'll help me remember it better. So, uh I appreciate you you mentioning that. I do want to watch it, but I have not watched it yet. Jonas says, "I'm I'm getting ready to start a YouTube channel doing intros, reviews, and play-throughs of board games and miniatures games. Any tips for starting a YouTuber?" Uh I do have some tips. Um there's a there's a big compilation of tips on our website. If you go to the Stonemaier Games and you look up um content creation, I have a big list of content creation stuff. If you look up uh specifically go to You know, I'm going to click off the screen. This is going to probably make me freeze, but if you go to blog and then go to entrepreneurship and marketing, you'll see a big section on content creating and that will definitely give you some ideas.

26:09 Um One if I can say one thing, Jonas, it would be actually two things. I'll go do two things. One is um don't decide I I highly recommend against deciding upfront exactly what your channel will be because it it starting out, it is a matter of discovery of seeing what you actually enjoy filming and making and talking about and also seeing what people what resonates with your viewers. So, I recommend not waiting any longer uh and filming that Go ahead and film that first video cuz the first video is the hardest to do. Uh I think often times people put it off, but I I say that the first barrier is the biggest. Um just make the first video. Just make a video. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be like It doesn't have to define your channel. Just make a video and then make a second one and keep on going like that. Um and learn as you go. See what what is actually fun for you. The other thing though, as you are experimenting with those different videos, is I do recommend trying to do something that's a little different than other YouTube channels that also talk about games.

27:10 Um the thing that certainly makes it unique is you, you sharing your perspective, your opinions, things like that. Um but there are a lot of formats out there that have been kind of I don't want to say done to death because I am glad that they exist. But I always enjoy something that's just a little different, something that makes your channel a little bit different, a reason to subscribe to another yet another board game YouTube channel. Um but I I would say most importantly the difference is you. So let giving yourself uh the opportunity to shine and be informative and invaluable and entertaining to your audience is uh is the most important thing in the end. And that you're And that you have fun with it. Those are all of course my opinions.

27:57 See, Jeff also went to Mario Galaxy. I am interested. I don't know if I will see it on the big screen. But uh but would you all recommend that? Do you think it's a Do you think it's a big screen movie or one that could be just as enjoyable on the small screen? Lori, I'm excited to watch uh season 2 of Your Friends and Neighbors too with Jon Hamm. We haven't We haven't started doing that yet, but coming soon.

28:23 Mark says, "Did you see the upcoming Game Changers board game?" Someone mentioned it earlier, Mark. I am excited to see that. Mark says, "With not much info right now, are you considering backing it based on how fun the Game Changer episodes are?" I just learned about it today. So I I love Game Changers, so I'm curious to see what they do with it. Um Yeah, I'm I'm just I At this point I would say I'm in an area of curiosity. I I Whenever I think about buying a game, I do have to think about am I actually going to get this to the table. And so, I need to learn a little bit more about the game to see what it is before I can make that decision.

29:00 Mud song says that their dream are is large box games with components for only two players because that's how they have to play 95% of my games. No change to the game just less stuff to pay for that I will never use. Impossible, right? Um I mean there are an abundance of two-player games. In fact, my second question question of the day today is what is your favorite head-to-head game? Your favorite head-to-head game. Often these are head-to-head dueling games. Um let me know about that in the comments. Like head-to-head and this is a game I'm looking for games that specifically play at either only two players or only one to two players. Um

29:39 [clears throat]

29:42 And so, there are games certainly in this genre. Um quite a few games in this genre. So, but you want large box. You want you want big epic duels. Um and there are games that do that too. I I There are a few games that people might recommend in the comments. Um but I can also see why I mean at Stonemaier Games we typically uh we try to make those games accessible to higher player counts too because they're for that 5% of the time or 10% or 15% when you are playing with more people and you want to show that off the game off with more people for to more for more people. It is nice to have this higher player counts as well. But, I hear that you're saying that most of your games are played two players and you want a big epic experience with that. I think you will be hopefully pleased by the size of versus expeditions games this summer. It is a It's not a huge box, but it's a fairly big box and there's a lot of stuff in the box specifically for two players.

30:36 Yeah. Dan mentions the show ponies. We watched that a few months ago, Dan. It is a really good series. I hope you continue to enjoy it. We really enjoyed it. Uh Darius says, "We were playing the we the whole Span series last week, Wingspan, Wormspan, and Fin Span. I wonder how you came up with the fin the Wormspan idea. Was it while thinking about improved mechanisms for Wingspan? Did it lead you to a new design that you needed a new theme?" So, Darius, a few years ago we were talking internally about if we wanted to explore other themes in the Wingspan in the world of Wingspan. And we came up with the idea of uh of having one game that was a little bit heavier, a little bit more complex than Wingspan.

31:24 And we debated in terms of the theme we did debated between dragons and dinosaurs. We went with dragons. And then we also said, "Okay, well, what if we would also like a game that's a little bit lighter, a little bit more of a stepping stone to Wingspan? And let's go with fish for that one." I don't I can't remember the other options for that one, but uh fish definitely came out on top. Um And so that's it. We kind of created the idea for the trilogy. And then we went to Elizabeth and we the designer of Wingspan and said, "What do you think about this idea for a trilogy? Uh do we do you want to be the designer of any of these games or do you just want to work as a developer on them?" She chose developer. And that's when we worked with uh Connie, who we knew from Apiary, on the first one, Wormspan. And we worked with um designers Michael and David who had already started dabbling in a design that they thought might be a good fit for a lighter Wingspan style game. And they were ended up working on Fin Span.

32:24 Uh I might have to cut today's chat a little bit early today. Um but uh cuz I keep getting notifications about the house. Um maybe yeah. Sorry about that. I'm a little distracted today. Chad says, "When packing your games for the move, was there any boxes that you packed with extra bubble wrap?" Um not not for the games, no. I mean, I I have I work in the business of cardboard, so I have no problem with dings and dents on my boxes. I really care about what's inside the box, and even then, I'm fine with dings and dents. So, no. I as much as I treasure my games, I I don't um I I I I don't care about dings and dents on them. I'm I'm totally fine with that.

33:10 Have you watched Outlander? Actually quite good from the beginning to this season's end. I watched part of the first season of Outlander, and then there was a certain scene in that season that was so incredibly um off-putting. I'm using the word off-putting. And I know it was designed to be off-putting. Um but it was like I why why would you do this to anyone? Like both fictional characters and the audience that you're asking to watch this scene. That I was like, I am if this is what the writing is like on this show, I'm I'm out. Um like I'm getting queasy just thinking about this scene. It was it was so terrible to watch. I literally I I I I I kept I I don't know. I I stopped I stopped watching after that scene, and then we never go back to it.

34:03 Um I've heard people say, "Oh, well, that's a it was a really important moment for this character and and and their development." Um but uh I didn't need that. I didn't need I didn't need that scene in my life or in my mind. Yeah. See some great head-to-head dueling suggestions here. Yeah, I'm asking for your Today is favorite heist-themed game and favorite uh head-to-head dueling game. Also mentioned the new Strixhaven set for Magic. I'm curious about that as well. Uh what else is going on today as I'm distracted thinking about some some other stuff here. I went to the farmers market the first farmers market at Tower Grove was this past weekend in St. Louis. Really really enjoyed that. I love the farmers market here in St.

34:50 Louis. Um and been working on some proofreading revisions for a product that we're hoping to to get into production very very soon. And oh, Rolling Realms live play. Yesterday was round was game 91 round one of my my game Rolling Realms. Use these big custom dice in Rolling Realms. Uh and you can play along with me or just hang out. So that'll be 3:00 Central Time today will be round two and then round three will be tomorrow. And um Oh, there's one other game. Oh, Origin Story posted an update for Origin Story a couple days ago. So if you're curious to see another teaser for the Origin Story mini expansion coming out this summer, feel free to check out the Origin Story newsletter. It's always These newsletters are always always archived on the games page on our website. So even if you don't want to subscribe to yet another newsletter, you can always periodically check on the main games page on our website and see what I've talked about there.

35:50 Um so yeah, there there's a a new teaser spoiler image spoiler card on there that you can check out. Think those are all the topics that I was going to talk about today. If you missed out earlier, I made pretzels this past weekend it took longer than I than I thought. I had a playtest night the other day and thinking about planets in terms of the space-themed video that Eric and I filmed for last weekend and the Artemis 2 expedition and how that's going.

36:21 Armando says, "Have you considered changes you would make to some of your favorite games if you had published them?" If you had published them. Oh, the solo mode they added to Brass Brass: Birmingham gave me the idea. So, I've a few videos like this. Like my my favorite games um that that we could have published are still my games or that we would have at least considered doing that because they fit into our publishing uh model. I I don't think I mean those games are my favorites for a reason. Like I don't see much in them that I would want to change. Um so, it isn't something that I thought much about, honestly. Every now and then I do play a game that I really enjoy and I make a little tweak to it uh so that I can continue to get it to the table. It's pretty rare that I do that though.

37:11 Yeah. Eric says uh have I watched Love on the Spectrum? I've never watched Love on the Spectrum, no, but I've heard very good things about it. I don't watch I would say any There are no dating style shows that I watch that I can think of. I I do love reality competition shows, but I I don't think I watch any dating shows at all. Maybe there's an exception I'm thinking about. Tony says, "Just got a notification that his Kickstarter for Even Deeper Regrets is shipping soon. Did you back it and on a related spooky note, did are you still playing Dredge?" I only played Dredge for like one weekend, but I really really did enjoy Dredge, Tony. Um and I did not back Even Deeper Regrets. I did enjoy I've only played Deeper Regrets Deeper Regrets once, and I did really enjoy it, especially for the art.

37:59 I filmed a video recently about my favorite designers who are also illustrators, and so that the game is definitely on that list. Our favorite games where the designer's also the illustrator. Follow up to a two-player question. I only recently picked up Viticulture and Euphoria, loving them both as two-player games, but I understand the non-feasibility of two-player only editions. And one other thing to tag on there is you are I think you are right that the like three-to-five player components in those games or three to six for Viticulture, they do add a cost to the game. But I would not say they add a significant cost to the game. They probably added around $10 to the game. Um Uh most of the components in the game would be there either way. Possibly not exactly in those quantities and certainly not the player components in the games in the game, but most of the components would be there exactly as they as they were. So I I'm sure there are there are some games where you would save a considerable amount of money if they didn't have the full player count. But uh for most of our games, you wouldn't save that much um to to cut out the player counts. Think that I'll say $10 to $15. $10 to $15, which I guess does add up over time if you're buying a bunch of games.

39:16 Monkey Butler says, "I've never heard of anyone escaping movers without at least some damage to something. Was there Was there anything that got damaged that bothered you more than the rest?" Um you know, the movers I I would say the main thing is the movers uh on the way into our house, they something hit the door frame and did a little bit of damage to it. Um it's just superficial damage, but it's one of those things where you know, you hire movers to to not damage that the house that they're moving into. Um But hey, it could have could have even been me. Maybe I bumped my Maybe I bumped into the into the door frame and didn't realize it. So I certainly can't blame anyone for doing that. It's a very minor thing. Arnau says, "I wasn't able to buy the soap from Stonemaier last week, but I went to Jenna's Etsy site, Nerdy Bird Nest, and she was selling soap samplers for heels of soap the leftovers." Oh, that's great. Um so if anyone is looking for like the the leftovers from Stonemaier the Stonemaier soap, it you can check out Nerdy Bird Nest on Etsy and um hopefully Jenna will also make more Stillmyer soap.

40:26 So, a few of you are relating to the type of scene that I'm talking about even in other shows. I see one mention for The Walking Dead, one for Bone Tomahawk. And uh yeah, it's it's it's an interesting choice to do that in a show. Uh yeah, an interesting choice.

40:48 I see another heist scene game that I'm going to put on the list. So many good suggestions today, thank you. Big Dogs Media says, "Do you like your standing desk? I was thinking about getting one." I do really like the standing desk. This is in an Uplift standing desk. It definitely gets me um standing up, sitting down quite a bit more than I than I would otherwise and um yeah, I I really really enjoy it. I have a pretty big one here. I like a big desk desk space.

41:20 Joshua says, "Have you seen the upcoming game Entropia?" Entropia involves building a galaxy. Oh, that sounds pretty cool. No, I have not seen Maybe I've seen a little bit about it, but I don't remember anything. Um uh yeah, I I can't recall anything specifically about that, but I'm intrigued by it. Sean says, "When did I miss the room change?" Happened last week. We moved around 12 days ago to uh a new to us house.

41:54 Oh, cool. Okay, I'm going to scan for any other questions here and end a little bit early today uh because I am a little distracted by the many texts that I'm getting about the the condo, our old condo, our previous condo that we have multiple people trying to work on. So, thank you all for your patience today for a shorter than usual live cast. If there's anything that I missed, any questions that I missed, please let me know in the comments on YouTube and I will answer them later. I'm going to go try to deal with this stuff. Uh but it was as always wonderful to hang out with you to hear your your picks for favorite uh dueling games, head-to-head games, and your favorite heist-themed games, and your various answers and questions as usual. So, yeah, have a great week. Treat yourself to something good. I will see you next Wednesday for the Finspand expansion reveal. Next Wednesday.

42:41 Take care. Bye.