Immersed

People have experiences that are hard to explain all the time. But when do they actually reveal a deeper meaning? The game Mysterium plays with the idea of messages from the beyond—something its co-d…

The game The Networks puts players in the armchairs of TV executives. Designer Gil Hova tells us about the game’s origins and whether or not it’s meant to simulate what’s it’s like to schedule a TV n…

The island of Sri Lanka built its world-renowned tea industry using the infrastructure of its ruined coffee trade. The game Ceylon, designed by your hosts, went through a similar transformation durin…

Guillotine is a very silly game about a very somber subject. It’s hard to take it seriously… but that doesn’t mean we can’t try. In this episode, we talk with history professor Dr. Jennifer J. Popiel…

They say nothing goes according to plan. That was true of the dozens of assassination plots against Adolf Hitler while he led Nazi Germany during the 1930s and 1940s. And it’s also often true of the …

Hostage situations are dark material for a game, but the solo board game Hostage Negotiator puts you in the middle of one of these intense standoffs. We talk with designer and publisher A.J. Porfirio…

The global fight against infectious diseases has a new tactic called “genetic surveillance.” Dr. Bronwyn MacInnis leads a team of researchers that uses genetic surveillance to halt the spread of dead…

This time we’re tracking the movements of a killer, as we learn about a key moment in the dark story of Jack the Ripper called “the Double Event.” Clinical psychologist and author Dr. Mark Vogel is o…

Villa Milagro is a vineyard and winery in western New Jersey. There are green fields with trees along the edges, rolling hills on the horizon, and grape vines in nice neat rows. Chief winemaker Aud…

A good board game design can use the world around us to give players experiences that they might never get a chance to have in real life. But are these games actually true to life, or are they glos…