Blog Archives
Space-Cast! #35. But Then She Spilled Tea
For this month’s episode, we’re unexpectedly joined by Amabel Holland to discuss board games — except this time, we cover three titles in total, ranging from Kaiju Table Battles to Doubt Is Our Product and But Then She Came Back. Along the way, we dive into the advantages of board games over other artistic mediums, that New Yorker article, and Amabel’s birthday orgy. Be warned: there’s a chance that this episode should not be played at work, in the presence of impressionable children, or at church. That is, unless your church is the fun kind.
Listen here or download here. Timestamps can be found after the jump.
You End Up Becoming Yourself
Kaiju Table Battles is one of the most intensely personal games I have ever played. It’s like stumbling across a friend’s open diary and reading a few fervid paragraphs before recognizing the artifact for what it is. The impulse in that moment, in our culture, is to clasp the diary shut, and likewise clasp shut the memory. We shy away from earnestness so readily. How, then, do we respond when the earnestness stands on a stool and demands to be seen?
Amabel Holland has always been a designer who stretches and strains the medium to its absolute boundaries. Kaiju Table Battles takes both to their limit. Maybe beyond the limit. This is a legacy game, envelopes and all, which peels itself apart layer by layer, revealing new diary lines and rubber-suited monsters alike. Along the way, it questions the very foundations of play.
SPACE-BIFF! 