Contributors

Thank you to the following industry professionals for contributing their time and expertise to Around the Table! Please enjoy their articles throughout this issue. If you would like to contribute to future issues of Around the Table by suggesting a topic or writing your own article, please email media@gama.org.

Matt Fantastic does freelance game design, development, and art direction for publishers around the world as the Creative Director of Forever Stoked, the studio they founded over a decade ago. They also co-own a game shop/library (Elm City Games), are sometimes an adjunct instructor of game design, publish indie games, books, zines, vinyl records, and other creative weirdness with killjoy and Prettiest Princess, founded the New Haven Game Makers Guild, are on the board of the Tabletop Mentorship Program and GameDev CT, organize Fantasticon and the Connecticut Festival of Indie Games, and do consulting/ fixing across the game industry as well as for corporate, NGO, and institutional clients like Netflix and Yale. Growing up in a family of gamers, educators, artists, and community organizers along with an adolescence filled with basement shows and political protests, Matt’s professional life is rooted in collectivism, art, nerdery, social justice, and DIY punk rock. Frank West is a game designer based in Bristol, England, and self publishes through The City of Games. In 2015 he started working on The City of Kings which turned into his first published board game, launched via Kickstarter in 2017. Over the next few years Frank continued to enhance The City of Kings universe through expansions for The City of Kings board game, and new games including Vadoran Gardens and The Isle of Cats. Nowadays Frank continues to design, develop, and publish games while mentoring new publishers looking to start their careers. You will find him at many conventions around the world including the UK Games Expo, Gen Con, and Essen, and he’s always happy to have a chat so don’t be afraid to say hello.