About

me01Hi, I’m Chris Marling. I started GoPlayListen in 2011 as a place to talk about going (on holiday), playing (board and computer games) and listening (to music) – but it has since largely become a place for game discussion.

As of mid 2019 I’d posted around 150 board game reviews alongside posts on designing board and card games, gaming conventions, designer Q&As and a collection of basic guides for people getting into the hobby – as well as occasional ramblings on anything from running to what I’m reading.

I’ve had five games professionally published. My first board game design Empire Engine (with Matthew Dunstan) was published by AEG in 2014 and by Pegasus in Germany in 2015. Armageddon (with David Thompson) followed in 2016, published by Queen Games, with Pioneer Days (again with Dunstan) published in 2017 by TMG. My first solo design Witless Wizards was released by Drawlabs in 2018, with Europe Divided (again with David Thompson) hits the shelves early in 2020.

In my day job I’m a professional journalist/editor. If you have a game you want reviewed or event covered, please get in contact. But please note: I cover games I’ve played and events I’ve attended, or will be attending. I don’t do ‘news’ and/or cover press releases.

I’m also happy to provide comment on anything to do with the board game industry for your blog or news story, or write content for your site about board and card games. I’ve been a guest on podcasts such as Board Games to Go and The Game Pit, so am happy to get on Skype and chat. And I’ve done judging/panels at cons and for awards, if you’re looking for that kind of thing (I’m a co-organiser of LoBsterCon too).

If you want to get in contact about anything board gaming, please do so via Board Game Geek or Twitter.

Outside of gaming I’m a mortgaged-up 40-something living in East Anglia. I’m a recovering music obsessive with a terrible diet – happy days.

6 thoughts on “About

  1. Hey hello! I tried to find an email or any other form of contact that could offer a bit more space than Twitter, unfortunately, all I found is a way to comment here, hope it’s fine… My name is Hubert Spala, speaking in lieu of UK/Polish publisher, Rombo Games, hoping to find some feedback and help in our ongoing project 🙂

    I will tell you a little bit more about Publish or Perish: http://www.publishorperishthegame.com

    This is a game in ongoing development process at the moment, however on our webpage you can see more about how the game is going to look and feel. It is a family board game with mobile app (hybrid game) designed for 2-6 players from 8 years old up. It is simple enough for kids to grasp it but offers enough competitive challenge for adults as well.

    Publish or Perish is a deduction game where you have to discover the secret properties of the subatomic particles (called hypersymmetry). In order to do so you have to clash particles against each other in the collider and observe the results. After few smart experiments you will be able to deduct the secret properties of some of the particles and trying to build a solid publication paper that will give you a lot of points.

    This is an example of deduction: Assuming that the secret property of particle 13 has been discovered and it is circle, if a player experiments with particle 13 and 7 and the result is circle and square, the player can deduct and publicate that particle 7 has square as secret property. Of course, this is the simplest case of deduction because particles have charges (positive or negative) and belong to different groups (leptons and quarks) and all this need to be taken in consideration when experimenting and publishing.

    Long story short, we capture the essence of the publish or perish motto. As a scientist you need to struggle with the decision of continuing your research and risk that other person will be faster than you or publish your findings to be safe but waste the opportunity of more discoveries.

    I hope you find it interesting enough, It would be great to hear your questions and your feedback about the concept. The webpage will be updated regularly with the progress of the game. 🙂

  2. Hi Chris Marling,
    I heard that you sometimes talk and write about games coming through Kickstarter. I am currently running a Kickstarter campaign for the tabletop game B.E.E.S. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/156924102/bees
    The concept behind the game is that Spirits contain a renewable energy source called Quintessence, and it is your job to collect a quota of Spirits and Quintessence.
    Please check it out and if this game interests you, I would appreciate any promotion you could give it.

    Thank you,
    Christopher Grabowski

  3. Hi Chris,

    You have a cool board game page. I wonder, are you also interested in writing about digital game aides?

    If the answer is yes, then you might be interested to know I have developed an AI to play certain tabletop board games against. Kind of like an old style chess-computer but then operated from your mobile device.

    The software is currently undergoing a lot of changes in terms of how it “thinks” and I have started a Kickstarter campaign to try and add more games to the list.

    Check it out if you are interested:
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flyingdutchie/website-for-various-tabletop-solo-ai-and-other-gam

    If not, then my apologies for bothering you.

    Regards,

    Daan

Have your say!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.