2025 Award Judges

Nate Murray is the Director of Development for Liithos Entertainment and Publisher of Erasmus Fox. He has worked in tabletop gaming for a decade and was a founding member of the IDW Games team.

Erica is the Design Lead for Spin Master Games. She's designed over 25 games based on movies and IPs, such as the newly released Arizona Iced Tea game, Wicked the Game, and the Dumb Ways to Die card game (which earned a nomination for both Game Designer of the Year for the Play Creators Awards and as Adult Toy of the Year at the Toy of the Year Awards 2023). Erica is also a co-designer on games such as Bosk and the Mensa Select award-winning game, Kodama 3D. Occasionally, she also does development work such as Disney's Robin Hood Sheriff of Nottingham. Erica is the co-host of the long-running podcast Ludology, a podcast all about games, game design and the gaming industry.

Peter is the designer behind Fit to Print, as well as Tiny Towns and Wormholes. He is a freelance board game designer who hasn’t figured out how to make a game that isn’t a spatial puzzle. Peter lives in upstate New York with his wife and their two cats. In addition to playing board games, he enjoys disc golf, biking, and reading.

Chris Porter has worked in the creative industry for over a decade, specializing in branding, illustration, and marketing. He started game design in 2020, creating a game concept for his best friend as a gift. This spearheaded him to co-found Chris Couch Games, a publishing company based in Memphis, TN. The company's goal is to bring laughter and fun to the table with their unique board games designed for all types of players. Chris is a game designer, developer, and artist, and loves working with other game designers to help playtest and iterate on their creative ideas. He also serves as Partner/Creative Director at Baby Grand, a black-owned, creative agency in Memphis.

Jack is the Executive Director and a founder of The Bodhana Group, a 501c3 non-profit based in York, Pennsylvania, that uses tabletop gaming for education, capacity building, and therapy since 2009. They provide direct services as well as training for professionals and the community about how to unlock the power of gaming for international purposes. They also run Save Against Fear, a fundraiser gaming convention in York in November, and consult on game design and specialized programs.

Corey Thompson has a varied and eclectic background, from being raised by hippies and computer scientists, working in academia, to running a veterinary hospital. Strategy board games have always been an important part of his lifestyle from childhood through today. Corey has worked as news coordinator for The Dice Tower, and co-hosted podcasts Dice Tower Now, Board Game Insider, and Nerdabout. Additionally, Corey has worked with publishers Play to Z, Lucky Duck, Dead Alive, Crafty Games, and many others, and has dabbled in play testing and development. Most recently, Corey has been involved with the board game oriented YouTube channel and film studio Above Board, acting as co-founder and producer. Nowadays he is mostly a professional layabout, attending conventions or hosting board game retreats more often than not.

Chad founded 25th Century in 2016 which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. To date, the company has released 23 games and 2 puzzles, with over 10 new releases planned for 2023. When not playing games, he is an avid comic reader and craft beer enthusiast. And despite the sometimes quite drastic ups and downs, is a diehard Atlanta sports fan. He lives with his wife and their four rescue animals, two dogs and two cats: Toby, Chloe, Peaches, and Alley.

Nicole is the Kickstarter Games Outreach Lead. They have been in the games industry for 15 years and have been designing and developing games for a decade. Their first game, RESISTOR_, had a successful Kickstarter back in 2015. They're also a writer, editor, and avid tabletop and video gamer.

Robert Coelho is the designer of Stonks (Grok Games), Bravo! (Estrela Brinquedos), One Piece - Wanted (Elka Brinquedos), Urbs (Copag Games), and Marvel Comic Hunters (Bucaneiros Jogos, Spin Master, and Arcane Wonders), which won the Ludopedia Award for Best Family Game in 2020. As part of the Fiat Ludens collective, he co-designed Nuvens, Schrödinger, Várzea, and Sambiki Saru alongside André Teruya, Igor Knop, and Sérgio Halaban. Currently, he serves as Game Development Manager at Grok Games, working on various projects such as Àiyé, This is Mine, HiFi, and The Good, The Bad and The Goat. He is also the founder and coordinator of Joga Cuesta, a monthly public gathering held in Botucatu (Brazil), and one of the hosts of the Ponto de Ação podcast on the Covil dos Jogos channel.

Gene enjoys designing games that elicit creativity, empathy, and sometimes a head-scratching "Is this even a game?" After dabbling in digital games for and about civic engagement, Gene discovered the charm and affordances of tabletop games and hasn't looked back. Gene serves on the advisory board for the Unpublished Games Network and coordinates the "Designed the DMV" collective. His first analog game, StickerDoodle Town, is under contract with Hunters Entertainment.

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.

An only child, Julia was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland and earned a degree at Washington University in St Louis. As a young adult, she lived in Denver, where her son was born, and Carlsbad, California. She’s never been a “career person” but has had some interesting jobs and volunteer positions and she has often engaged in political activism. She immigrated to New Zealand in the year 2000 and eventually found her way into the board game industry, co-founding SchilMil Games in 2011 and designing five games alongside Amanda Milne. Wishing to concentrate on small box games, in 2014 she broke away to launch Cheeky Parrot Games. In the intervening years, it has become New Zealand's premier publisher of small box games, with nine published titles. Cheeky Parrot distributes its own plus additional titles, largely for other Kiwi publishers. With over 12,000 copies printed since its 2016 Kickstarter, including a German edition, Hoard is Cheeky Parrot's bestseller.

President of Underdog Games Studio (Trekking the National Parks, Trekking the World, Trekking through History), former Director of Online Marketing at North Star Games, Co-Founder of Move38, and avid game designer.

Eddie is a returning for his 7th year as a Cardboard Edison Award Judge. If you don't see him with his family you're likely to find him with a game within arm's reach, whether that's at home or at work. If you ever got a chance to meet him at a trade show or convention you'd understand his love and appreciation for gaming and if you haven't yet met him, you're likely to at some point.

Jon Cohn is a game designer and award winning novelist with over a decade of board game industry experience including design, development, writing, and publishing. While Jon has worked on games of varying complexity ranging from Munchking TMNT to the Pandemic-style Ghostbusters: Blackout, he typically focuses on making highly thematic games that are easy to teach, but hard to master. He currently works as lead designer for Stop The Killer Games, creating horror-themed games that are emphasize atmospheric and tense gaming experiences for cooperative and competitive fans alike. His most recent releases were Horror Taboo, and Thanksgiving, co-designed with film director Eli Roth.

Corinne Yeager (@CoffeeLghtWght) is a girl mom, plant mom, and game mom. Designing for 9 years. CE judging for 3 years. She has one published game, Exploring Galapagos, by Button Shy. She has many designs at various stages of the process, one of which is her longest design project (created in 2018, a Cardboard Edison submission in 2021) that will hopefully make its way into the world soon! She is always looking for ways in which familiar mechanisms can be inverted or stripped down to their simplest forms. This design ethos has greatly informed her own designs. She loves that relationship building is the primary goal of the board game community and has really come into her own as a designer and developer because of those relationships. Her main goal is to help others find their fit in the industry and help designers avoid snags in their own design processes. She has many tips on designing, testing, developing, attending conventions, and pitching games, so feel free to reach out to her if you want a slew of advice!

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

Lauren is a tenured assistant professor of astronomy and physics at Grand Rapids Community College. She served as co-host of the Playability Podcast for two years, judges several competitions including past Cardboard Edison Awards, playtests with local designer groups and at game conventions, and has designed games of her own (for more info, see cgsunit.com/games).

Tim Rodriguez, an award-winning game designer and publisher, works across various media including board games, role-playing games, video games, and interactive audio. Tim is also an avid cyclist, musician, textile artist, and martial artist.

An award-winning teacher and designer, Kathleen Mercury, M.A.T., M.E.T., has been pushing the boundaries of using design thinking to merge game design and instruction from elementary to collegiate levels for over 20 years. She has taught everything from the core subjects to Design and Gifted Intervention in schools from the midwest to California to overseas in Bucharest, Romania. Currently, she is a Lecturer in the School of Education at California Polytechnic Humboldt teaching and supervising student teachers and works freelance as a Games-Based Learning experience designer. Kathleen is a published tabletop game designer with Greece Lightning (2021), upcoming title Tulip Season, and others in the works. Kathleen thinks happiness comes from being able to create the life you want, and she feels very fortunate that she's been able to do that. KathleenMercury.com

Chris is the former host of The Board Game Workshop and the designer of In Vino Morte and the Tempus series of time-and-write games. He's excited to explore new frontiers in game design.

Nathan is a part-time Skeptic, Magician, AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego(tm)), Boardgamer, and Lighting Tech in various amateur theatres. In his spare time, he holds down a full-time job doing Desktop Support in a public hospital. He’s been playing games on and off for many years, starting in the 90s with M:TG, AD&D and Settlers of Catan. He’s a regular attendee at NZ Gaming events, and has been involved in playtesting a number of prototype games. Since early 2012 he’s been collecting board games (with ~500 board games currently), and running board game groups - most recently in Taranaki, NZ. He was briefly a judge for the NZ Games Association (now defunct) in 2013.

Ian Zang is the designer of Genotype, Constellations, and Kingdoms of the Deep. With over a decade of experience in the board game industry, Ian's passion for playtesting and development has shaped his career. He is an adjunct faculty member in game design at Lawrence Tech University and serves on the board of Unpub, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting unpublished game designers.

Eric is owner of Talon Strikes Studios. He is the designer of Talon Strikes Studios' Vinyl and the producer of Cardboard Edison’s Cobras.

Loïc is a French game designer living in Norway. He mostly works with French publishers. His designs include Mafia de Cuba, Ladies & Gentlemen and Deadwood.

Roberta Taylor: I am an experienced analogue game designer specialising in accessible, family friendly games. I am passionate about designing games that create compelling opportunities for learning and conversation and am very interested in the space where play and serious ideas intersect.

Zach Connelly launched Royal N. Games back in 2015 focused on making small/light games with heavy interaction. Since then, he has published three titles under RNG (Main Event, DeathBot Derby, and LOTS) and has been published by Bicycle Games (Fumbling Ferrets).

Dave Beck (he/him) is a game designer and owner of Paverson Games, an indie board game publisher located in Wisconsin, creators of Distilled and the forthcoming Luthier. When Dave is not designing games in his basement lair, he is working at the University of Wisconsin-Stout as a Professor of Game Design and the Director and Associate Dean of the School of Art & Design, the largest higher-education art and design program in the Upper Midwest. In his spare time, he loves spending time with his family, even if they don't love to play board games as much as he does.

Matthew Dunstan is an Australian scientist and board game designer, based in Prague, Czech Republic. To date, Matthew has over 25 published games and expansions, the best known being Elysium (nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2015), Monumental, and the Adventure Games series. He also designs game experiences for education, including board games for synchrotrons, pop-up escape rooms for festivals, and card games for a film museum, and started a design blog, the Design 100, bringing together expertise from over 30 designers from all around the world.

Gabriel Toschi (he/him) is a Brazilian game designer and software engineer. His passion for games in all forms started as a child, and the first ideas for his own designs came soon after. Co-founded Piquinim, a studio focused on original microgames inspired by Brazilian culture. Between his published designs, Snowy Peaks, 1st runner-up on Cardboard Edison 2024, and a The Jetsons official game.

Dr. Wictz - designer of Robotech: Reconstruction and You Fool. Dr. Wictz also writes a blog on board game design at dr.wictz.com.

Dave Chalker is the award-winning game designer of Get Bit!, Thunder Road: Vendetta, and the Sentinel Comics RPG, and a member of the Unpub Advisory Board. He has over 20 years of game industry experience during which time he's playtested for dozens of companies, and a master's degree in publications. He lives in Maryland with his wife and three cocker spaniels.

Brett is an award winning game designer with an eye for fun. His first game was published way back in 2009 by Steve Jackson Games, but he is probably most well-known as the co-designer of Thunder Road: Vendetta for Restoration Games, in 2023. Brett is an advocate for public play and has been running weekly public board game nights at local pubs and taverns for nearly a decade.

Sabrina Culyba (she/her) is a Pittsburgh-based game designer and founder of indie game publisher Ludoliminal. Her game Diatoms won the Cardboard Edison Award in 2023. Ludoliminal has just completed Diatoms' Kickstarter fulfillment and will be bringing the game to retail in early 2025 through a partnership with 25th Century Games.

Mac is a game designer and editor by avocation and a non-profit tech professional by vocation.

Geoff Engelstein is an award-winning tabletop game designer, whose titles include Space Cadets, The Expanse, and Super Skill Pinball.

He has written several books, including Achievement Relocked, and Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: An Encyclopedia of Mechanisms. The latter now serves as the basis for the mechanism directory on BoardGameGeek.

He is also a noted podcaster. From 2007 to 2021 he was a contributor to the Dice Tower, the leading table-top game podcast, with a series on the math, science, and psychology of games. He also hosted the first 200 episodes of Ludology a weekly podcast on game design beginning in 2011.

Geoff is an adjunct professor of game design at the NYU Game Center, and has spoken at a variety of venues, including GDC, Pax, Gencon, Rutgers, and USC. He has degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is currently the president of Mars International, a design engineering firm.

Freelance tabletop game designer and developer, with focus on rulebooks and rule structures – see bit.ly/rulesforrules for a summary of the principles and practices that guide my work. I also run and curate a tabletop game library and rental store with over 1000 titles since 2013.

Brazilian author of games, including Landmarks, Savernake Forest, Superstore 3000 and others.

Pat Marino is a game designer and the Director of Hobby Games at The Op. In his current role he evaluates new game titles to strategically plan the hobby game rollout, which includes design, development and a lot of inventor relations. His published designs include Mountains out of Molehills, Cuphead Fast Rolling Dice Game, Express Route, Court of the Dead: Mourners Call, Fire Nation Rising and more. Pat holds a PhD in Leadership Studies and can be found on Instagram and TikTok with the handle @DrPatMakesGames.

Hey everyone! I'm a designer & developer for Smirk & Dagger Games. Almost a decade of LGS Retailer experience has helped provide me a good perspective on appealing products, and a lifetime of gaming has provided me with keen insight on design and balancing. Every game has a golden nugget of opportunity, and it's up to us to pull it to the forefront and let it shine!

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.

Chris Barrows is the creator of the Tabletop Express YouTube channel, where he and their team of "conductors" run the live board game call-in show, "Call Aboard." With a focus on live content - including interviews, reviews, and live playthroughs - the channel is home to a passionate community with an active Discord. In addition, Chris is the co-owner of Traveling Boards, a board game company dedicated to growing the tabletop gaming community. Traveling Boards organizes engaging events, assists local businesses, communities, and schools in developing exciting board game programs, and strives to make tabletop gaming accessible to everyone. He is currently the Secretary of the Board of Trustees for the Verona Public Library - where he previously created a board game club and launched the collection that presently serves this community today. He previously served on various other boards in the community, including President of the Verona Public Library Foundation, and was a member of the Verona Foundation for Educational Excellence. 

Chris is most proud to be a father to two kids who inspire him every single day - and is grateful that they have taken on the same passion for board games (what's dinner without board games, after all) - as well as inspired by the brilliance of his supportive wife, Mary Alice.

Charlie McCarron is a board game designer, developer, art director, and educator. His first major game Four Humours won 3rd place in the 2019 Cardboard Edison Awards and is published by Adam’s Apple Games. Charlie’s 18-card icebreaker game Guesswork won Button Shy’s Numbers on Cards Contest (Round 2) and is published by Button Shy Games. His word-building game Alphabet Stoop is published by Pops & Bejou Games.

Charlie also works as a designer and developer for Floodgate Games, and most recently designed the 30 unique modes in Skyrockets: Festivals of Fire.

Tony Tran is an avid board game designer and overall gamer. He started making games in 2014, and it has become a permanent hobby in his life. In addition to his own designs, Tony has started a monthly design group called Game Makers Guild Nashville and the day-long design event Nashville Game Design Fair to foster new designers and grow a community in the Nashville area. Tony won the New Voices Scholarship for Tabletop Network in 2019.

Thomas Hornemann is a New Jersey-based tabletop game designer, avid playtester, writer, and creative editor. He is one of the three owners and founders of Diner State Games. Currently unpublished, he has won a BostonFIG award for his game Gerrymandering.

Tim Blank is a staple in the Boston game design scene. He is a Vice President and board member for BostonFIG, the world's largest indie game convention, as well as President of the Game Makers Guild. In addition, he has taught Game Design at both Northeastern University and MIT since 2019. His published games include Oh My Gods!, Bumuntu, and 2022's Yosemite. Aside from board games, Tim also designs Escape Rooms. He has been a judge for the Cardboard Edison Award since 2017.

Aaron Lim is a tabletop gamemaker, occasional games educator, and community organizer based in Malaysia. He's made storygames like An Altogether Different River and Spectres of Brocken, and runs the fortnightly playtesting meetup Playtest Zero.

Pam Walls is an award-winning, independent board game designer based out of Vancouver, Canada. Her published games include Hold That Face (Hasbro), Act Fast Speed Charades (Outset Media), Blob Party (Wiz Kids) and Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls (Ravensburger). She streams on Twitch and posts weekly videos about game design on her YouTube channel.

Jeff Johnston, Pair of Jacks Games, designs fun family games, ones you'd love to play with your favorite nieces and nephews. He's worked with publishers like Gamewright, Breaking Games, and Education Outdoors

Leon started in the board game industry in 2014 at Nice Game Publishing and Nice Game Shop where they brought the best game from East Asia to a wider audience. In 2019 he joined Korea's largest board game distributor and publisher Korea Boardgames.

At Korea Boardgames he is a game developer and project manager having overseen the production of games like Four Gardens, Nirvana and our just announced game Terra Pyramides.

Matteo has been managing Volpe Giocosa since 2016, with the aim of spreading the word of hobby board games in Italy.

We are interested both in the strategic aspect and in the educational one, passing through mathematical, social and historical themes.

From the inexperienced player to the more addicted ones, we believe there is a game for everyone.

Kellen Freeman is a maker and designer. He oversees a public makerspace and enjoys teaching people how to create things. He has been a judge for Cardboard Edison for a few years. When not working he enjoys watching movies and playing games.

Ellie is an independent board game designer specialising in mass market family games. She is owner of The Dark Imp, which houses her blog and self-published games. She is author of the book, The Board Game Family: Reclaim your children from the screen. Ellie has games licensed to several publishers including Gamewright, Ginger Fox, Indie Boards and Cards, Quarto, Laurence King, Clarendon Games and Outset Media. She also designs games by commission (within and outside the game industry) and provides consultancy services for new designers.

Recent rewards and recognition include:

- Mojo 100 Most Influential Figures in Toy and Game Design 2024

- Winner of Hasbro Women Innovators of Play Contest 2023

- Cardboard Edison Board Game Design Blog of the Year 2023

- Gold Winner Independent Toy Award 2023

Rich has had diverse game design work over the last two decades. He has designed over 30 published or public event games across mediums. From digital audio adventures (Twisted Tales series for Grabbit Entertainment), transformational games for social good organisations (Hohi 1816 tabletop game, End-danger mega game for Four Paws International, etc), games for street festivals, large events, and personal hobby games for tabletop (Award nominees Dirty Little Secrets, Skip Jack, etc).

Rich is a regular speaker at academic and industry conferences on games and gameful learning, recently the Games Based Learning Conference, Play by Play, and the NZ Association of trainers and developers conference.

Finally, in his role at the University of Auckland Rich works in the leadership of the faculty of Creative Arts and Industries to shape teaching and learning strategies and - yes - smoosh in playful design and games.

Heather is the CEO of 9th Level Games. 9th Level is a small indie game design and publishing house known for blending humor, great mechanics and fun for over 20 years! Heather has designed tabletop board games and roleplaying games including Schrodinger's Cats, Pavlov's Dogs, Meeple Party, and Venture Village! Find out more at 9thlevel.com or follow @9thlevelgames.

Eric Yurko writes and does board game photography for What's Eric Playing?, a board game review website which just celebrated 1000 reviews! When not doing that, Eric also serves on the American Tabletop Awards Committee, a group of US-based media and content creators working to find and promote great board games released in the US each year. You can find him on Twitter @whatseplaying or on Instagram @whatsericplaying.

Connie Vogelmann is an attorney by day and a game designer by night. Her first two published games are Apiary and Wyrmspan (but she has more in the works!). Connie's favorite games to play and design are midweight euros, and she especially appreciates elegance in games. She lives in Washington DC with her partner and two pampered cats.

Dale holds a master’s degree in digital game theory and design and has applied that knowledge to the field of tabletop gaming. He has developed games for Mythic Games and Thunderworks Games including Roll Player: Fiends and Familiars, Solomon Kane, Reichbusters: Project Vril and Hel: The Last Saga.

His movement from digital to analogue gaming could in part be due to his partner and primary gaming companion, who is blind. The greater tactility of tabletop games allows him to share his passion with greater accessibility. Or at least that’s what he tells himself as he orders an increasing volume of ‘deluxe’ components.

In his spare time, he enjoys creating home-brew expansions as well as providing advice and feedback at his local playtest meetups; of which one published success is FlickFleet by Eurydice Games. He is based in the UK with his partner, two children and black Labrador guide dog who is the real brains behind his work.

Danielle Reynolds is a lesbian game designer most known for working on Caution Signs and HerStory. She won the 2024 Play Creator Rising Star Award and was published in the Mojo Nation 100 celebrating the most influential people in toys and games for 2023. She works for Wise Wizard Games as their Project Director and in her free time hosts the “Game Design Unboxed: Inspiration to Publication'' and “Proud to Gayme” podcasts. She also volunteers as a Director with Tabletop Gaymers and is an Advisory Board member of Tabletop Game Designers Association among other things. Her goal is to help promote more diverse faces in gaming through designing and volunteering!

Making games is a game by itself, and I'm figuring out how to win...

Brazillian board game designer and developer, product manager in his non-spare time. Author of Landmarks, Abroad and more yet to be announced, has games in every possible genre.

Myles Wallace has always loved games and the power they have to bring people together to share meaningful, fun experiences. He has been designing games since 2011 and is the president of the ATX Game Designers Club, a flourishing community of passionate game designers and playtesters. He is incredibly grateful to this community and owes much of his success to their countless hours of playtesting, feedback, and friendship. Hailing from Austin, Texas, Myles works for a nonprofit doing community outreach and at home lives with his wife and cat.

Joseph Z Chen is a Seattle area game designer most known for co-designing and self-publishing Fantastic Factories. He also did game development for Verdant, Knitting Circle, Point Galaxy, and Propolis and is active in the game design community helping playtest up and coming games. He was also a past LUCI Award game design judge.

Kristy and Jared have been playtesters for over 10 years, having tested games by hundreds of designers including many of their other fellow judges. And as to date, they have been thanked by more designers than they have left crying.

Matt primarily does freelance design and development as the creative director and founder of Forever Stoked. They also own a game shop/library (Elm City Games), are an adjunct instructor of game design, publish indie weirdness with killjoy and Prettiest Princess, are a Creative Director at Sex+, founded the New Haven Game Makers Guild, organize Fantasticon, and do consulting for corporate, NGO, and institutional clients like Netflix and Yale.

Andrea started as Development Lead at Forever Stoked Creative in 2020 and was made a full partner in 2023. As an award-winning developer, editor, and designer, she has a wide range of experience across the dozens of shipped titles she's had a hand in, but the parts she enjoys most are systems development and rules writing. She loves solving puzzles, be they crosswords, editing rules, or rock climbing beta.

Sean and his brother Rob put together a series of board game instructional/review videos on YouTube called Overly Critical Gamers, usually focusing on obscure titles that didn't get much coverage. Generally being willing to give any game a chance to prove itself based on the merits of its unique mechanics, they feel what they bring to the table as reviewers is the context of being able to compare and reference to similar titles - if you play a lot of games then you develop a sense of what usually works and what doesn't.

During the pandemic, Sean turned his focus to streaming video game content on Twitch, but he still finds the time for the occasional game night where he and his brother will often find themselves discussing the pros and cons of what they're playing and trying to propose potential improvements.

Marceline Leiman is a freelance game designer, developer, and professor at NYU Tisch based in Brooklyn, New York. She is most known for her solo mode designs in games like Oceans and Trekking the World: Second Edition, as well as her self-published game High Tide. She has published games with North Star Games, Greater Than Games, Underdog Games, Office Dog, Clarkson Potter, and Elephant Laboratories.

Federic Benito is one the three owners and founders of Diner State Games.

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 15 years 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.

Lyss Menold is an illustrator based in Lansing, Michigan. As a child they loved to go to bookstores, not just to buy books, but to browse the isles and see all the beautiful covers. Eventually this love for illustration led to pursuing a BFA in illustration at Kendall College of Art and Design, and then later an MFA in illustration from Hartford Art School’s low residency program. After graduation they worked as the in-house artist for Wyrd Miniatures and Dogmight Games, and taught at Kendall College and the College for Creative Studies. Now they work freelance, creating art for tabletop games under the supervision of two fluffy dogs.

Diego de Moraes is a Brazilian graphic designer, game designer, and the head of Dijon Jogos, a Brazilian board game publisher. He is the creator of games such as "Os Incríveis Parques de Miss Liz" and "Cosmos." Additionally, he has developed and edited games like "Heróis de San Villano," "Camisa 12," and "Persona non Grata."

Chris Chan is an art director who grew up in Rochester, N.Y. He attended New York University and pursued playwriting for a time. Chris began his game design journey while working the late shift in a Greenwich Village chess store. He started exploring non-chess game designs while attending Virginia Commonwealth University for art direction and advertising. Chris' advertising career introduced him to the friends with whom he would co-design his first published game, The Night Cage by Smirk & Dagger Games. That process also introduced Chris to the hobby game community which he's thrilled to be a part of now. When he isn't designing board games, Chris is probably out running or taking photos.

Diane Sauer became a personal trainer after she retired from her pinball restoration business in 2022. She is a game designer and co-owner of Shoot Again Games. Her games include Conspiracy!, Pinball Showdown, Bigfoot vs. Yeti, Born to Serve, and the upcoming Jumping Jackalopes. 

Nick Sauer is a scientist and game designer and has a collection of over 3,000 games. He is co-owner of Shoot Again Games. His games include Mystery Rummy Al Capone, Conspiracy!, Looting Atlantis, Born to Serve, and Jumping Jackalopes. In addition, he has worked on a number of role-playing games including several from the Kids on Bikes series.

Alex Blakeney has been bouncing around the board game industry for over 10 years doing everything from retail to teaching game design. Currently he is a wearer of many hats at Steve Jackson Games.

Beanbag Jolly-Amerika - Bean (n): An edible, kidney-shaped seed, borne in the long pods of a leguminous plant. / Bean is an occasional poet, non-practicing architect, youth services & board game librarian, and dad to two small humans. He resides in NYC, and despite what you may have heard, is not actually from Antarctica. His heart is covered in paisleys. He enjoys bright colors, long novels, crossword puzzles, and the company of rabbits.

Dan Thurot is a board game critic who writes mostly at his own site, Space-Biff!

Eight years ago, Lindsey made the move from a successful culinary career to full-time game designer. Since that time, she has written and designed for multiple popular board and role-playing games and has published two successful solo designs of her own. Lindsey has a deep passion for world building and storytelling and loves crafting the vibrant worlds of Rose Gauntlet. Being a little girl who sought out female heroes beyond princesses, she appreciates the power that diverse themes and characters can have on others. Through Rose Gauntlet she hopes to help gamers gain new perspectives and understanding through her stories and become inspired to tell their own.

Sam has been designing digital and analog games for years and currently manages Protospiel Michigan.

Jessica Spears is a Young Adult Librarian at Brooklyn Public Library. She loves board games, but professionally sets up and runs a lot of video game programming of one sort or another. She helped found the Board Game Library at Brooklyn Public Library, a collection of circulating board games, and runs some sort of game program once or twice a week. Currently she is probably playing Spirit Island and eating pie.

Nathan Weisman is a veteran designer and developer with over a decade of experience, and a successful track record adapting the world's biggest IP into games for mass audiences. As part of Prospero Hall, Nathan designed Back to the Future: Back in Time, Marvel Villainous Ultimate Power, and Disney’s Haunted Mansion: Call of the Spirits among titles. After leaving Funko, Nathan worked with Cut.com to create a line of party games including Humblebrag and Keep it 100. Nathan continues to work on designing and developing for the world's biggest brands, including being the lead developer on the Maestros Media’s Donald Duck: Happy Camper.

Hana is the youngest member of Cardboard Edison. She is an avid gamer who also loves to read, tumble, cheer, act and do activities in the gifted and talented program at her school.

LilyAnne has been playing games since she could walk and is a member of Cardboard Edison. She is involved with numerous organizations including Girl Scouts, National Honor Society, Student Council, Literary Magazine and also enjoys playing the bass clarinet, cheerleading, acting, and street hockey.

Suzanne Zinsli is co-founder of Cardboard Edison. She is also very active in her local community, being a Girl Scouts leader, co-coordinator of the elementary school PTO, and VP of the high school PTO.

Chris Zinsli is co-founder of Cardboard Edison. Outside of the gaming industry, he is a journalist working in podcasts.