Tabletop Curators for 2019
Tim Blank - BostonFIG
Tim has been running the tabletop showcase for 5 years now. He is also a staple in the Boston game design community. A designer himself, Tim has made a number of games, including the recently released Bumuntu by WidKids! In addition to his work with BostonFIG, Tim is the president of the Game Makers Guild, has judged for many other game design contests, has appeared on multiple podcasts, and has published many articles related to game design and breaking into the industry.
Ben Jones - BostonFIG
Indie Designer by Night, IT Professional by Day, Ben Jones spends most of his time building and refining systems (vague?) for others. Ben has been a constant presence in the indie tabletop development scene wherever he resides. When not working on his own designs or playtesting, you can find Ben playing the latest CCG.
Heather O’Neill - 9th Level Games
CEO of 9th Level Games and tabletop game designer. Most notable works are Schrodinger’s Cats and Meeple Party.
Nicole Perry - Sidekick Publisher Support & Jellybean Games
Nicole runs Sidekick Publisher Support and co-owns Jellybean Games. Nicole lives in New Haven, CT with her boyfriend Alex and their dog, Eevee. She's excited to see what either of them evolve into.
Kimberly Revia - Granite Game Summit
Co-founder and organizer of both Granite Game Summit and Stumptown Game Summit. Long time hobby board gamer and podcaster residing in New Hampshire.
Jennifer Graham-Macht - Keymaster Games
Jennifer is the Marketing Director for Keymaster Games. When she’s not doing board gaming stuff, you can find her in front of a video game saving the galaxy, or escaping with a good book or movie. Good luck, have fun!
Tam Myaing - Wee Big Games
Tam is an artist, engineer, entrepreneur, and an award-winning game maker. He has been creating digital and tabletop games since age 10, and professionally designs custom interactive play spaces for museums. He is the founder of Wee Big Games and Neuronic Games.
Kiva Fecteau - Gold Dragon Games
Kiva Fecteau is a published game designer, Director of Board Games for BFGCon, and Ambassador for the Md/D.C./DE area for Double Exposure’s Envoy program.
Gwen Ruelle - Runaway Parade Games
Gwen Ruelle is the co-owner of Runaway Parade Games, a new board game company. Their first game, Fire Tower, was released in January 2019.
Tony Tran - Independent Designer
No bio available.
JR Honeycutt - Waitress Games
JR Honeycutt is a consulting game designer, developer, and writer.
Ian Zang - Deep Water Games
Ian is the lead game developer at Deep Water Games. He won the Mensa Select Award in 2018 for his game Constellations.
Ryan Schoon - Man vs Meeple
Ryan is a game designer and board game content creator based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. He has contributed to the design of many games, including his own RPG “Gears of Defiance” and Aeon’s End: Legacy. He is best known as a content creator for his work with Man vs Meeple.
Daniel Zayas - The Daniel Zayas Company / LongPack Games
Daniel Zayas is the US Sales Manager for LongPack Games, a Shanghai-based manufacturer of some your favorite titles. In addition, Daniel runs The Daniel Zayas Company, a publisher of beautiful games. In his spare time, Daniel manages various Facebook communities, such as Tabletop Backer Party, Solo Board Gamers, and Board Game Fitness Challenge.
Rob Kalajian - A Pawn's Perspective
Media personality Rob Kalajian has been a staple in the board game world for many years. As a former writer for Purple Pawn and the owner of A Pawn’s Perspective, Rob focuses on board game reviews, events, and news. A self-proclaimed geek, Rob loves all things toys and games and even helps raise his four kids in his spare time.
Jeffrey Bourbeau - Brain Games / Dized / LudiCreations
Jeffrey Norman Bourbeau has worked in the tabletop industry professionally for over 10 years. He currently spends most of his time working for Brain Games, winners of the 2017 Kinderspiel des Jahres for their game 'ICECOOL.' Jeff also works as the NA Sales Manager for the software company Play More Games, developers of the board game companion app Dized, which is the 3rd most funded mobile app through crowdfunding. Jeff has also worked for many other companies and on countless games as well as on over 100 successful crowdfunding campaigns in one capacity or another.
Chris O'Neill - 9th Level Games
Chris O'Neill is an RPG and tabletop designer - best known for KOBOLDS ATE MY BABY! The Evil Wizard of 9th Level Games loves experimental games, zines, layout, and shouting.
Isaac Shalev - On Board Games
Isaac Shalev is a game designer with several published titles, including Seikatsu, and hosts the On Board Games podcast.
Joe McClintock - Ore: The Mining Game
Joe McClintock is the co-designer of Ore: The Mining Game, which is being published by Quick Simple Fun Games,was recently fully funded on Kickstarter, and was the winner of best tabletop game at BFIG in 2013. He formerly has been involved in various leadership roles at the Game Maker's Guild in Boston, and is an avid fan of board games of all shapes and sizes.
Chris Cormier - Geeky Goodies
Chris Cormier is one half of a husband-and-wife design team working in the marketing and graphic design world during the day and fighting crime, dragons, zombie attacks & global pandemics, while playing board games by night. Chris has been helping small and medium-sized businesses communicate their message and grow for more than 20 years as co-owner of a graphic design company, and Geeky Goodies has become his creative outlet to share his passion for board gaming and other geeky fandoms with the world.
Matt Fantastic - Forever Stoked / Elm City Games / killjoy / New Haven Game Makers Guild / FantastiCon
Matt Fantastic makes games. He's a founder/owner of killjoy, Forever Stoked Creative, Agora, Vice Games, Prettiest Princess, Elm City Games, the New Haven Game Makers Guild, and Fantasticon. He also does freelance game design/development, teaches game design at a number of universities, creative consults with big companies like Netflix and Yale, and generally helps solve whatever problems people throw his way.
Ryan LaFlamme - The Cardboard Republic
Ryan is the founding editor of The Cardboard Republic, a site with an analytical approach to game reviews and a soft spot for indie games, and the current president of the Tabletop Writers Guild, an online community for written gaming media.
Sam Liberty - Extra Ludic, INC
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Sam is a designer obsessed with how games make meaning. He was Senior Game Designer at the Engagement Lab at Emerson College, where he designed impactful games for organizations at the highest levels of government and civil society. He has created and run workshops on games for real world impact for organizations like the United Nations Development Programme and the MIT Media Lab, and has consulted for Boy Scouts of America and at primary schools on games curricula. As a consultant, he’s designed games for clients such as the U.S. Department of Defense and MIT Lincoln Labs. Additionally, he’s designed a number of award winning party, roleplaying, and tabletop strategy games. He currently lectures at Northeastern University on the topics of game design and game criticism and theory, and explores ways of spreading knowledge and changing behaviors and outlooks for a safer, more prosperous, and resilient world.
Breeze Grigas - Zephyr Workshop
Breeze is the creator of AEGIS Combining Robots and is a designer, artist and publisher of board games with cool, original worlds and characters.
Bevan Clatworthy - Tinkerbot Games
One half of the Tinkerbots crew and designer of Ghostel, this displaced Cornishman enjoys infecting anyone who stands still too long with his gaming lurgy.
Aerjen Tamminga - Aerjen Games
Aerjen is a game designer and psychologist with a private practice in the Netherlands. As The Geek Psychologist he specifically works with gamers, geeks and other awesome people.
Mike Bonet - Who, What, Why? Podcast
Mike has been the host of Who, What, Why? since its returned in 2014. Prior to that Mike was the co-host of the Ninja vs. Pirates Podcast from 2008 to 2012. Mike has been judging the FIG for the last couple of years as well as judging in other board game design contests.
Daniel Newman - Independent Designer
Daniel Newman is an almost-award-winning game designer and twitter personality. A couple people may have called him an influencer, but that's silly – he just tweets a lot. Ahead in the Clouds and Feat on the Ground were both published by Button Shy Games but are currently out of stock. Dead Man's Cabal and Rolled West will be releasing Spring 2019 from Pandasaurus Games and Tasty Minstrel Games, respectively.
Tim Rodriguez - Galileo Games
Tim Rodriguez designs and publishes tabletop board games and roleplaying games. He’s co-owner of Galileo Games and is currently working on "Hyperreality: The most anticipated reality TV gameshow roleplaying game, of all time!"
Michael Batista - Room & Board Games
Mike Batista is a game designer working in healthcare in Baltimore. There Mike designs and publishes games under Room & Board Games, directs a health insurance corporate venture team, and writes for Medgadget, a medtech blog.
Mike Gnade - Rock Manor Games
Mike Gnade painted his first Warhammer miniature at a Summer Camp back in 6th grade after losing a game of Magic. He's the father of two young girls, so there's no time for painting anymore, especially when he's in charge of small indie publishing house, Rock Manor Games.
Steven "Razlo" Bailey - Game Yay Fun
Designer of Billionaire Banshee, Re-Extinction, and other junk
Alex Cutler - n/a, various?
Alex Cutler is a lawful good game designer/developer/paladin. He founded the New Haven Game Makers Guild and lives in New Haven, CT with his girlfriend Nicole and their dog, Eevee. He enjoys good beer, bad puns, and moderate success.
Samuel Bryant - Runaway Parade Games
Sam Bryant is the co-owner of Runaway Parade Games and co-designer of Fire Tower.
Josh Heake - Precious Cargo Games
Josh Heake obsesses over fiction, wonders why his dog is such a dope, and creates games. He lives in the Philly suburbs and is a co-founder of Precious Cargo Games.