Guests of Honor: Mariam Ahmad & Omari Akil
U-Con is proud to welcome IGDN scholarship winners Mariam Ahmad & Omari Akil to this year’s convention!
The Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN) sponsors a scholarship to enable diverse game designers to attend Metatopia, the game design conference. Metatopia is held each November in Morristown, NJ. It’s a place where designers can find educational panels, get professional feedback on their game, and develop a larger sense of community.
Diversity doesn’t happen by accident. The scholarship covers travel, lodging, and a conference badge so that designers from underrepresented backgrounds can show off their games and make connections with industry professionals. The scholarship also includes mentorship with current IGDN members.
Mariam is a game designer, streamer, writer, editor, podcast creator and GM from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. Their current projects include producing and GMing The Musafirs podcast and working as a contributing writer for KS-funded projects like Tales and Tomes.
Omari is a game designer from New Orleans, Louisiana. He and his brother published their first game, Rap Godz, in 2019.
You can read more about Mariam and Omari on our Guest of Honor page.
He got re-involved with board gaming when he found a mostly intact copy of HeroQuest at a garage sale. He started volunteering at U-Con in 2015. His current favorites are Bunny Kingdom, Viticulture, and Star Realms, but he's always looking for the next great game.