I haven't played near enough games to rank the top game designers, though I have played enough games to know which I like. Some have a designer in common. I have also developed a general knowledge of game mechanisms and themes associated with certain designers. I decided to share a few of my favorite game designers. I hope you will chime in with some of your favorite game designers in the comments. Eric M. Lang Eric Lang has become one of the top designers in modern board gaming. He has been credited as the designer or co-designer of a large number of games. Currently, Eric is the Director of Game Design for CMON. My favorite game of his is Blood Rage: An awesome game design that includes territory control, card drafting, and incorporates the use of beautiful miniatures with a Viking theme. Some other games designed or co-designed by Eric Lang I'd like to highlight are: Chaos in the Old World: This Fantasy Flight game based on the Warhammer universe is probably the first Eric Lang game I ever played. Rising Sun: A feudal Japan themed game is the follow-up to Blood Rage. Unfortunately I've not had a chance to play this one. Ankh: The third in the series following Blood Rage and Rising Sun. Ankh will be a Kickstarter project this fall. I've seen the miniatures and it looks great! Dice Masters: A very popular collectible dice game system by Wizkids. Cthulhu: Death May Die: Co-designed with Rob Daviau (see below). I had a chance to demo this yet-to-be-released game at Gen Con 2019. Its a fun adventure, mission-based game set in H.P. Lovecraft's horror world. Bloodborne: The Board Game: Co-designed with Michael Shinall. My friend Nikki and I had a chance to demo this upcoming game. Another mission-based co-op adventure game set in the dark world of Bloodborne. Eric even sat in as the demo leader for a round of the game we played... what a thrill! For more information about Eric M. Lang click here. Rob Daviau Rob is designer or co-designer of a multitude of games and is the co-founder of Restoration Games. Rob Daviau has been designing and in many cases, breathing new life into older titles. My first experience with a Rob Daviau game was probably Risk 2210 A.D.: an updated design of the classic game of RISK. I enjoyed the re-imagining of RISK in this futuristic setting, utilizing moon regions and mechs for troops. Other great titles credited to Rob are: Downforce: A re-envisioning of a classic racing game. Mountains of Madness: A cooperative game based on the H.P. Lovecraft novel. Heroscape: Rise of the Valkyrie: A miniatures adventure and skirmish game with constructible terrain. Pandemic Legacy: The legacy edition of the popular Pandemic series. Axis and Allies: Pacific: Very successful series of World War II themed strategy board games. Betrayal at house on the Hill: A semi-cooperative adventure game. See my previous post with a critique of this game. For more information about Rob Daviau click here. Martin Wallace Martin has been a top designer in this modern era of hobby board gaming for many years. Some of his titles go back to the 1990's. Age of Steam in 2002 was probably the first game of his that I had heard of. He is noted for a number of "train games". In 2018 he designed two vastly different games that both caught my attention. I have included them as the first two games in my highlight list below: AuZtralia: This game draws from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos and ties it to an alternate reality where the Old Ones are awakening in the outback of Australia. A wonderful mixture of resource gathering, management and combat. Wildlands: A card-driven miniatures skirmish game. Easy to learn/teach, especially for this genre of miniatures skirmish games. A Study in Emerald: The predecessor to AuZtralia, this game takes place in nineteenth century England, combining the world of Sherlock Holmes with the Cthulhu mythos. Discworld: Ankh-Morpork: Based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld. I enjoyed playing a demo game during Gen Con several years ago. Steam: One of Martin's most popular "train games". A reimplementation of his earlier game, Age of Steam. Brass: Lancashire and Brass: Birmingham: The former "Lancashire" is the original game of Brass which is a relatively complex Euro-game from 2007. The latter "Birmingham" is the equally complex sequel released more recently in 2018. If you'd like to read more about Marin Wallace on Board Game Geek click here. When I first started gaming, I didn't pay attention to whom the designer was. Many times publishers like Milton Bradley and Parker Bros. who mass produced board games didn't always credit game designers. Now, in this modern era of hobby board gaming, designers are receiving credit and gaining notoriety. The designers I have listed are just three of the ever-growing list of great board game designers. The body of work from these three alone is quite impressive. You may have other game designers whom you admire. Share your favorites in the comments below or post on King's GameNight Facebook page and weigh in on whom you think are the best board game designers.
Enjoy this awesome hobby and... Game on!
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