2019 Judges

Shari Spiro is the founder of Ad Magic / Breaking Games, printer of Cards Against Humanity and Exploding Kittens, and publisher of games like Game of Phones and Game of 49.

Chris Kirkman is the founder of Dice Hate Me Games, and is currently the Game Development Director at Greater Than Games where he finds awesome games and makes them awesomer. He enjoys podcasting, whiskey, and games with camels.

Paul Peterson started his career as a game designer in the card mines of Wizards of the Coast in 1994. There he worked on almost a dozen collectible card games including Magic: the Gathering, Pokemon, and Harry Potter. It is also where his first card game, Guillotine, was published. Since then he has bounced back and forth between the worlds of electronic and tabletop gaming, and his credits include games for PC, mobile, and Facebook as well as numerous card and board games such as Smash Up, Unexploded Cow, and as one of the designers for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.

Phil Walker-Harding designs board and card games that are accessible, intuitive and engaging. He hopes his designs can create social spaces for diverse groups of people to connect and have fun. After publishing his own games from 2007-2014, he is now focusing entirely on designing. He has recently enjoyed working with some great publishers all around the world including Kosmos, Gamewright, Z-Man Games, Abacusspiele, and CMON. His notable releases include Sushi Go!, Imhotep, Cacao, Bärenpark, Gizmos, and Archaeology: The Card Game

Curt Covert is the owner of Smirk & Dagger Games. A veteran of 13 years, his designs include Cutthroat Caverns, Nevermore, and Hex Hex. He is also the inventor behind Crayola 3-D Outdoor Sidewalk Chalk, which won Game Of The Year at NY Toy Fair in 2009.

Gil Hova is a game designer and publisher living in Jersey City, New Jersey. He has designed everything from word games to strategy games to party games. His games have raised almost $150,000 on Kickstarter to date, including The Networks, a strategy game about running your own television network.

Dirk is a social futurist and the creative director at Artana. He lives in the Boston, Massachusetts area with his wife and two younger children.

Nate Murray is the Direct-To-Consumer Manager for IDW Games. He is a crowd funding expert and served as the Head of Games for Indiegogo Creative. Murray is also the co-founder of Bread & Circuses, a gaming imprint co-created with designer Jon Cohn, whose games include Council of Verona and Picture It. He has been told he looks like if Dave Grohl gave up drumming and became a Real Estate Agent.

Chris is the designer of Lanterns: The Harvest Festival, which won a 2015 Mensa Award and was nominated for 2016 SXSW Best Tabletop Game of the Year. He enjoys hockey, sushi, and long walks on the beach, and his favorite color to play as is red, so leave it alone!

An inventive problem-solver by nature, Sandy is an avid gamer and playtester. Using her “all things logistics” know-how, this jack of all trades eagerly helps designers make their games the best they can be.

Steven Cole is both a game designer and game publisher. He is the owner of Escape Velocity Games and, of course, dozens of unfinished prototypes. He is a member of Table Treasure Games and is slowly getting the Baltimore Boardgame Design Group up and running. He can be found on Twitter @SteveOnGames.

Jordan and Mandy Goddard are a husband/wife game design duo living in Carmel, IN. They self-published their first game, Collapse, together in 2014, then released Lotus with Renegade Game Studios in 2016, and Death Note: Confrontation with IDW Games in 2018.

Mike Bonet is the host of the Who, What, Why game design podcast and the former co-host of the Ninja Vs Pirates Podcast. He's been podcasting off and on for almost 10 years total between both shows. Mike also owns lots of games and generally plays them when he can. He frequently loses to keep things interesting in the game.

Eric is the designer of Talon Strikes Studios’ Vinyl and producer of Cardboard Edison’s Cobras. He lives in Oyster Bay, NY with his wife, Meredith, and two sons, Ari and Eli.

3rd Generation Nerd. Long-time board game enthusiast, aspiring board game designer. EHS professional, amateur absent-minded professor.

Tim is a game designer and publisher as part of Galileo Games. He’s got a special fondness for two-player games and terrible puns. He spends his spare time making dice birds to torment Chris Kirkman.

Erik Herrington is a web engineer by day, indie game designer by night, and has been active in the game design world for the last five years. Soon, you will know his works. Now you will face his judgement.

Pam Walls is a board game designer based out of Toronto, Ontario. She is the designer of the party game Hold That Face, published by Hasbro in 2017. Pam is the founder of ProtoTO, Toronto’s tabletop game design convention, and Board Game Broads, a forum for women and gender non-conforming folks in the board game design community.

Australian judge Peter C. Hayward is an Australian game designer/author from Australia. He was born Down Under (Australia) and now lives in Canada*.

*not Australia. It's confusing, we know.

Dan Cassar's first game, Cavemen: The Quest for Fire, was published in 2012 by Rio Grande Games, and his second, Arboretum, published in 2015 by Z-Man Games, was nominated for two Golden Geek Awards. His third game, The Blood of an Englishman, won the 2016 Cardboard Edison Award for best unpublished game and was published that same year by Renegade Game Studios.

Carla Kopp is a game designer, developer, and publisher who currently lives in Huntsville, AL. She runs Weird Giraffe Games and co-owns Galactic Raptor Games. Her designs include Stellar Leap and Super Hack Override, with solo design credits on Fire in the Library and Dreams of Tomorrow.

Rocket Scientist by day, game player by night, and pilot on the weekends, Nick Kopp takes care of the business side of Weird Giraffe Games, from taxes to distribution. He's co-designed Super Hack Override and worked as a developer on Stellar Leap.

Zintis May-Krumins is a New Jersey game designer, working with other local designers in the NYC area. He's recently published Cave Paintings with RnR games, with a number of other projects in the works. He works as a web developer during the day, and his favorite games are Glory to Rome, Agricola, and Coup.

Tim is a local to Boston and has been involved in the tabletop game design community for some time. In addition to running and designing for Gameworthy Labs, he is the Vice President for BostonFIG, New England’s largest Indie Game Festival, where he runs the tabletop showcase. Tim is also the President of the Boston Game Makers Guild, as well as a judge for IndieCade. Tim is active in the game design community and has spoken on a number of panels, appeared on podcasts, and written a number of articles, all pertaining to game design.

Tim Armstrong is a Richmond, Va.-based game designer. He has three published games (Kaiju Crush from Fireside Games, Bad Maps from Floodgate Games, and Orbis from Space Cowboys). Outside of game design, he likes hiking in Shenandoah National Park, performing improv comedy, and trying weird flavors of Oreos.

Diane Sauer owns a business restoring old pinball machines and is a game designer and co-owner of Shoot Again Games. Her games include Conspiracy!, Pinball Showdown, and Bigfoot vs. Yeti.

Nick Sauer is a scientist and game designer and has a collection of close to 3,000 games. He is co-owner of Shoot Again Games. His games include Mystery Rummy Al Capone, Conspiracy!, and Looting Atlantis.

Dustin is in the middle of his second childhood, working full time in the tabletop industry as a game editor and producer. He runs on energy drinks, puns, and bad sci-fi.

Ben Begeal is not a game designer. He came up with the idea for Say What Again, but a bunch of real designers helped make it good. He develops games with Button Shy Games. He is no one of consequence.

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.

Doug Levandowski is a teacher and tabletop and RPG designer from New Jersey. Though he sometimes designs alone, he prefers the co-designing process. His projects include Kids on Bikes, Seven Minutes in Hell, Aunt Agatha's Attic, and In Name Only.

Brian is the President of Overworld Games and has co-designed games such as Good Cop Bad Cop, New Salem, Exposed, and Leaders of Euphoria: Choose a Better Oppressor. He discusses design and publishing philosophy on the Board Game Business Podcast.

Scott works for the Salvation Army in their imagineering department, which helps breed and foster creativity across the entire northeast U.S.A. Soon to have his first game published, he spends more time helping others improve their designs than anything else.

Eric Buscemi is one of the co-founders of Punchboard Media, the writer behind the Cardboard Hoard blog and reviews, one half of the Patrick and Eric in the Morning podcast, and a contributor to The Shuffle podcast and The Cubist video show.  

Lauren is a professor of astronomy and physics at Grand Rapids Community College by day, and the co-host of the Playability Podcast by night. If she has free time, she also designs games (Match Quilt, Amino, Stars Inc.) and playtests games with local Grand Rapids designers.

Ian Zang is the lead game developer at Deep Water Games. He also works at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA where he creates and delivers professional development workshops for teachers and others interested in science communication. His game Constellations won the 2018 Mensa Select Award and was a Silver Medalist at the Serious Play Conference. 

Tam Myaing is an artist, engineer, entrepreneur, and game designer. He has been creating digital and board games since age 10 and is the founder of Wee Big Games and Neuronic Games. @TamAtPlay

Rob and Sean Moore have been creating instructional/gameplay/review videos for a couple of years now, often focusing on bringing comprehensive coverage to otherwise overlooked games. They both have experience in playtesting prototype games such as The Butterfly Garden and Indulgence, and they were judges for the 2017 Cardboard Edison Award. Outside of the gaming hobby, Rob is a historian/teacher and Sean is a filmmaker/musician.

Daniel Peterson does Product Acquisition for Indie Boards and Cards. He loves to find new and exciting games for Indie Boards and Cards to publish and to work with game designers to improve their designs. When he isn’t looking for new games to publish he enjoys spending time with his family.

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. Daniel was a finalist in the inaugural Cardboard Edison Award with Enemy Anemone and has been a judge every year since. His picks wound up winning, so he's a good guy to listen to, I guess.

Dave "The Game" Chalker is an award-winning game designer who started as an intern for Looney Labs in 2001 and has been designing his own games since. His credits include Get Bit!, Heat, Thief's Market, and a lot of playtesting of other published games. His playtesting group's style has been described as "brutal." He lives in Maryland with his partner and at least three dogs and one outnumbered cat.

Andrew is the founder of Knapsack Games and designer of Apotheca and Knee Jerk. Follow him on Twitter @knapsackgames.

Corry Damey is a UX/Graphic Designer from Seattle living in Twin
Falls, Idaho. He is the designer of Seasons of Rice, a three-time
contest-winning game.

Steven Aramini is an avid gamer who also loves game design. He is the designer/co-designer of Yardmaster, Circle the Wagons, Barker’s Row, Groves, Coin & Crown, Sprawlopolis, Tricky Tides, and Animal Kingdoms, which was chosen as the winner of the 2018 Cardboard Edison Award and is set to be published in 2019 with Galactic Raptor Games.

Chris is the designer of In Vino Morte and Fast as Lightning, both published by Button Shy Games. He is the host of The Board Game Workshop podcast and its game design contest. He is a member of the Game Makers Guild, Southern Mass Game Designers, and The Indie Game Report. He writes weekly blog posts on game design at BlueCubeBoardGames.com. Chris resides in Massachusetts with his wife, Mary, their dog Buddy, and their three cats, Koshka, Krypton, and Argon.

Burke Drew is a software engineer, political junkie, and board game designer/player/hoarder. He is a member of the Game Designers of North Carolina.

Aaron is a video and board game designer currently residing in Berlin, Germany. He is the 2017 winner of the Cardboard Edison Award for his game Castell, which was later published by Renegade Games. He has worked as a game designer for SilverTree Media, Electronic Arts, ngmoco:), ZipZapPlay, and Popcap, and is now Executive Producer at Super Lucky. Besides nurturing an overwhelmingly large collection of board games, other interests include world travel, playing piano, vegan cooking, and studying languages.

Chris and Suzanne Zinsli are the founders of Cardboard Edison. They are bloggers and advocates for the board game design community. As designers, their published titles include Ceylon, Cobras, and Tessen. LilyAnne Zinsli is a budding game designer.