Industry Guests – 2024
Guest Emeriti
Ryan Macklin is a veteran tabletop game designer best known for his work on Fate, as well as his own Mythender and Katanas & Trenchcoats. He’s exploring app-centric approaches to tabletop games these days, at least when not dealing with a day job or cultivating his rural land.
Will Niebling is a game designer who began working part-time for TSR on the original Dungeon Masters Guide. He later became the executive vice president of TSR’s Sales and Marketing, as well as their convention director, including running a Gen Con game convention. He has been involved in just about every aspect of the gaming business: design, development, publishing, sales, and distribution, working or consulting for companies such as Random House, Berkley Publishing, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Capital City Distribution, Grenadier Miniatures, Wizards of the Coast, and Koplow Games. He was part of group that took over the company Mayfair Games, later leaving to form a new game company called Elfinwerks. He continues to develop games and work with a number of companies as a consultant on international partnerships. He has also served on the board of directors of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA), becoming a board member emeritus as well as contributing to numerous committees and programs. Will is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is married to his lovely wife Schar and has two kids, including his son William who has also pursed his own career in the games hobby.
Alexander Thomas is an author, game designer, dog lover, karaoke enthusiast, and all around nerd. He has been a forever GM since his father gave him a D&D starter box at 11 years old. You may know him as the line developer for Mutants & Masterminds at Green Ronin Publishing, as the author of the Titan City Chronicles novel series, or as Executive Producer of the Untold Stories Project actual play network on Twitch and YouTube.
His latest works include the upcoming Valiant Adventures Roleplaying Game, Astonishing Adventures Assembled, Chaotic Good Vol. 1, and Danger Zones. He lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and their princely Pomeranian, Bear.
Guests from 2023
Hello U-Con community. With much ado, we bring you our U-Con 2023 Guests of honor:
- Tanya DePass (Into The Motherlands RPG, Fifth Season RPG) EVENTS
- Matt Forbeck (Marvel Multiverse RPG) EVENTS
- Robert Schwalb (Shadow of the Weird Wizard RPG) EVENTS
- Alex Thomas (Mutants & Masterminds) EVENTS
Stay Tuned for more information about our individual Guests of Honor, you will not want to miss their events!
Introducing U-Con Talk: An Evening with Lenny
Register for U-Con Talk (to add it to your schedule)
The U-Con Team is excited to announce a new annual talk show event hosted by none other than Leonard Balsera. Lenny is a long time guest of the con with an amazing career, giving him all sorts of insight into the mind of game designers as well as the culture of the industry.
We also timed the event so you can grab some food and dine while you participate:
Friday 5-7pm in the Auditorium (seats 100).
Dinner and a show!
We hope you will find this to be a great way to start your convention weekend. So join us, have some dinner, learn more about our guests and their plans, and enjoy a little entertainment before you head off to your Friday night game.
We look forward to seeing you in the audience to meet our amazing guests!
Tanya DePass
Unfortunately, Tanya will be unable to attend U-Con 2023.
Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. I Need Diverse Games serves the community by supporting marginalized developers, attendance at the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helps assist attendance at other industry events, and is seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives. Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming, #INeedDiverseGames spawn point, and wants to make the industry better and more inclusive for everyone. She’s part of the Rivals of Waterdeep actual play stream on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep, a partnered Twitch variety broadcaster; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics online, at conventions and as a public speaker.
She’s also contributed to publications at Green Ronin, Paizo and Monte Cook Games and is the co-developer for the Fifth Season RPG based on N.K. Jemisin’s three time Hugo award winning Broken Earth trilogy. She’s the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a Twitch supported RPG and Actual Play stream, airing weekly on her channel, twitch.tv/cypheroftyr. Additionally, she is a Senior Annenberg labs Civic Media Fellow at USC. She’s also the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a new sci fi afro-futurist RPG developed with a team of all POC and Black creators; live streamed on her twitch channel, /cypheroftyr.
She’s named as one of The Game Awards Future Class 2020, a diverse group of builders, thinkers and dreamers whose voices elevate and diversify our artform. It recognizes individuals around the world who represent the bright, bold and inclusive future for video games. She was also named as one of Gamers of the Year 2020 by Kotaku along with three of her contemporaries. She was also invited to the Xbox MVP program in February 2021.
Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021.
Tanya is the programming & diversity coordinator for OrcaCon and GaymerX. She also serves on the Board of Directors for OrcaCon and was named the Chair for Take This in January 2023. She often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. Her writing about games and games critique appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Wiscon Chronicles, Vice Gaming, Paste Games, Mic, and other publications. She’s the editor of Game Devs and Others: Tales from the Margins (2018, CRC Press) and contributed to The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox. (2019, CRC Press)
Matt Forbeck
Matt Forbeck is an award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author and game designer with over thirty-five novels and countless games published to date. His projects have won a Peabody Award, a Scribe Award, and numerous ENnies and Origins Awards. He is also the president of the Diana Jones Award Foundation, which celebrates excellence in gaming.
His latest work includes Hard West 2, Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus, the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game, and the Shotguns & Sorcery 5E Sourcebook based on his novels. He is the father of five, including a set of quadruplets. He lives in Beloit, Wisconsin, with his wife and a rotating cast of college-age children. For more about him and his work, visit Forbeck.com.
Robert Schwalb
Game designer and developer, Robert J. Schwalb hit the ground running in the roleplaying games industry nearly 20 years ago and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. With over 200 game books, magazine articles, digital articles, and a novel to his name, his design can be found in three editions of Dungeons & Dragons, Dark Heresy, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, A Song of Ice and Fire RPG, Star Wars Saga Edition RPG, Witch Hunter: The Invisible World, Numenera, The Strange, and in numerous other RPG products.
Robert spent much of his early career as a freelance writer and game designer, helping to produce Fantasy Flight’s Grimm, Green Ronin Publishing’s Book of Fiends and The Black Company Campaign Setting, along with several other popular game books. Robert soon after became a designer and developer at Green Ronin Publishing, where he worked d20 products, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and designed A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying.
In addition to his work at Green Ronin, Robert also produced game design and story work for Paradigm Concepts, for Witch Hunter: The Invisible World, and later began work for Wizards of the Coast, contributing to several 3rd Edition D&D sourcebooks such as Tome of Magic, Fiendish Codex 2, and Player’s Handbook 2, as well as sourcebooks for Star Wars Saga Edition.
Robert worked as contractor for Wizards of the Coast starting in 2008 and has spent his time there working on 4th Edition D&D products such as the Dark Sun Campaign Setting, D&D Gamma World: Famine in Far-Go, and the Book of Vile Darkness. During his last three years with Wizards, Robert was a member of the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons design team and his work can be found in the Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide, as well as in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, and the Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica.
In 2014, Robert launched his own imprint, Schwalb Entertainment, to produce roleplaying games, card games, and more. After a successful Kickstarter, he released Shadow of the Demon Lord, a tabletop RPG, in 2015. Since, with the help of three successful Kickstarter campaigns he’s supported his flagship game with nearly 200 sourcebooks, short supplements, adventures, and more. In addition, Schwalb has also released several 5th edition compatible game material, under the Max Press banner. Since, he’s released PunkApocalyptic: The RPG and is hard at work bringing his newest fantasy game, Shadow of the Weird Wizard, into your hands. You can find out more of his goings on at schwalbentertainment.com.
Leonard Balsera
Register for U-Con Talk: An Evening With Lenny (to add it to your schedule)
Leonard Balsera has worked almost every side of the hobby games industry, in a 15-year career that spans over 40 published titles. Starting as an assistant developer on Evil Hat Productions’ breakout 2006 pulp RPG, Spirit of the Century, he quickly amassed many writing and design credits working across the breadth of the industry for such companies as Pelgrane Press, Onyx Path Publishing, Margaret Weis Productions, and others. He won two Origins Awards in 2010 for his work on the acclaimed Dresden Files Roleplaying Game and was the lead designer on Evil Hat’s setting-agnostic Fate Core ruleset, which remains one of the most popular toolkit RPG systems in use today.
But in addition to his writing and design work, Leonard also has years of experience leading project teams and overseeing the creation, production, and publication of game products. Starting at Steve Jackson Games as an assistant developer for the Munchkin card game in 2012, he has since held positions as a marketing director, licensing manager, project coordinator and director, line developer, and even became the chief operating officer of a small game publisher. In those roles, he worked tirelessly to create diverse opportunities for creators to thrive and do their best work.
His work has even taken him beyond the boundaries of print, developing content for Geek and Sundry’s online series, Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana, as well as writing the script and designing the narrative for Armature Studios’ independent video game, Where the Heart Leads.
In short, Leonard’s career gives him a unique and holistic perspective on the work of publishing games at any scale, from the smallest of indie press to multimillion-dollar big box retail projects. He lives in Austin, TX with a cat and a rotating sample of the finest craft beers.
Alex Thomas
Alexander Thomas is an author, game designer, dog lover, karaoke enthusiast, and all around nerd. He has been a forever GM since his father gave him a D&D starter box at 11 years old. You may know him as the line developer for Mutants & Masterminds at Green Ronin Publishing, as the author of the Titan City Chronicles novel series, or as Executive Producer of the Untold Stories Project actual play network on Twitch and YouTube.
His latest works include the upcoming Valiant Adventures Roleplaying Game, Astonishing Adventures Assembled, Chaotic Good Vol. 1, and Danger Zones. He lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and their princely Pomeranian, Bear.
Guests Emeriti
Will Niebling is a game designer who began working part-time for TSR on the original Dungeon Masters Guide. He later became the executive vice president of TSR’s Sales and Marketing, as well as their convention director, including running a Gen Con game convention. He has been involved in just about every aspect of the gaming business: design, development, publishing, sales, and distribution, working or consulting for companies such as Random House, Berkley Publishing, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Capital City Distribution, Grenadier Miniatures, Wizards of the Coast, and Koplow Games. He was part of group that took over the company Mayfair Games, later leaving to form a new game company called Elfinwerks. He continues to develop games and work with a number of companies as a consultant on international partnerships. He has also served on the board of directors of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA), becoming a board member emeritus as well as contributing to numerous committees and programs. Will is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is married to his lovely wife Schar and has two kids, including his son William who has also pursed his own career in the games hobby.
Marc Tassin is the founder of Mechanical Muse and the creator of the World of Aetaltis fantasy setting for Fifth Edition. In addition to his work on Aetaltis, Marc’s work has appeared in products ranging from Dragon Magazine to Shadowrun. In his free time he is the Producer of the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium, one of the largest genre and shared world fiction writing conferences in the world.
Past Guests of Honor
2019 Guest of Honor: Steve Kenson
Steve Kenson is a tabletop RPG designer and author. He has been working professionally in the field since 1995, when he began writing for FASA Corporation’s Shadowrun RPG, followed by work on it’s Earthdawn fantasy RPG. Since then, Steve has worked on well over a hundred RPG products. In 2002, he designed the Mutants & Masterminds Superhero RPG for Green Ronin Publishing and later became its developer. At Green Ronin, Steve has designed products for M&M, True20 Adventure Roleplaying, Song of Ice & Fire Roleplaying, and the Adventure Game Engine (or AGE) System. He has also started his own imprint, Ad Infinitum Adventures, publishing products for the Icons Superpowered Roleplaying game he designed. Steve maintains a website at stevekenson.com.
2019 Guest of Honor: James Sheahan
James Sheahan is a UK game designer. James entered the video games industry in 1997 working with various publishers on games of all types and on all platforms. With a life-long passion for gaming of all types, James worked his way into game design and, after working for a major advertising agency designing games for some of the world’s largest brands, James started his own game design consultancy in 2009, which included work for global clients such as Google and brands such as Coca-Cola.
James’s main fascination is in interesting and meaningful choices during games, and loves tabletop gaming of all sorts because the gameplay must be rich and pure as it cannot hide behind visuals. James has been fortunate to have had some ‘interesting’ moments in his career including being voluntarily tear-gassed by ex-SAS as research for a game, being given the official go-ahead for a Star Wars LARP (around 1993), and more.
Outside of playing games, James reviewed games on his blog for some years. Also, James has recently completed a Masters degree in Strategic Studies and Military History. James lays entirely unofficial claim to the world’s highest meeple record at 5,416m (17,769 feet). He is also oddly fascinated by playing games in their real location too such as when he played Alhambra at the Alhambra in Spain.
In tabletop games, James has designed Fallout: Wasteland Warfare as well as the Fallout: Wasteland Warfare RPG, co-designed Kung Fu Panda, designed a Siege of the Citadel expansion, and others.
Awards
2019 Fallout: Wasteland Warfare – Origins Awards – Miniatures Game Nominee
2018 Fallout: Wasteland Warfare – Australian Game Awards – Best Table Top Nominee
2019 Guest of Honor: Mike Selinker
Mike Selinker is a game designer, puzzle maker, and chief creative officer of Lone Shark Games, a company which he founded.
Selinker’s design and development credits include Betrayal at House on the Hill, Lords of Vegas, Thornwatch, Apocrypha, The Ninth World, Pirates of the Spanish Main, Axis & Allies Revised Edition, the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game, Risk Godstorm, and the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. He was a creative director for the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons and the Harry Potter Trading Card Game. He writes puzzles for the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, and Games magazine. His books include the puzzle novel The Maze of Games, The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design, Puzzlecraft: How to Make Any Kind of Puzzle, and Dealer’s Choice: The Complete Handbook of Saturday Night Poker.
Selinker won three 2004 Origins Awards for Pirates, Axis & Allies: D-Day, and Betrayal at House on the Hill. His game Alpha Blitz was Games Magazine’s 1998 Word Game of the Year.
2019 IGDN Groundbreaker and Guest of Honor: Hakan Seyalioglu
Hakan is the co-designer behind Dialect: A Game About Language and How it Dies and 50% of Thorny Games, an independent design studio of larps and RPGs that tells new and unconventional stories. In his design, he’s deeply explored what language means for us culturally and emotionally, and how it can be an engaging mechanic for play. A GenCon Industry Insider and active member of the Bay Area design community, Hakan hopes to spread the word of play as a tool for empathy. Hakan helps computers keep secrets and crack codes (a genuine cryptographer).
Hakan really enjoys breakfast.
2019 Industry Insiders
Keith Matejka
Squick, streams, and storytelling. A Keith Matejka is a game designer, game publisher, and avid gamer out of Madison, Wisconsin. His small board gaming publishing company, Thunderworks Games, was founded in 2013 and has published seven games to date – Bullfrogs, Roll Player, Roll Player: Monsters & Minions, Blend Off!, Dual Powers: Revolution 1917, Lockup: A Roll Player Tale, and
Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale.
Contessa
ConTessa is an organization dedicated to increasing diverse representation in tabletop gaming by running events led entirely by marginalized people. We attend conventions all around the United States bringing games, seminars, workshops, and panels using our innovative convention-within-a-convention format. We aim to provide open, inclusive, and safe environments that diversify what a leader looks like within our hobby and to use the power of positive representation that broadens our hobby to include and welcome everyone.
2019 IGDN Sponsorship Winners
Mariam Ahmad
Mariam is a game designer, streamer, writer, editor, podcast creator and GM from Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. Their current projects include being the webmxster of ConTessa, producing and GMing The Musafirs podcast; writing a D&D5E South Asian campaign setting named Sarzameen (as part of her Patreon); and a contributing writer for KS-funded projects like Tales and Tomes. They can also be found streaming at Welcome To The Party RPG Twitch channel on shows such as Vibrant! Visible! Victorious!, as Didi in Adventures in Agni, and Babbar Sher in Emissaries of Avithna. When they’re not on social media (Twitter: @media_junkie , Insta: @drnsain), they enjoy spoiling their two cats and ‘Netflix & Knitting’.
Omari Akil
Omari is a new game designer from New Orleans, Louisiana. He and his brother published their first game, Rap Godz, in 2019 under Board Game Brothas, a company they started to help grow the gaming community by reaching diverse audiences with games that resonate with people of a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures.
Guests Emeriti
Will Niebling is a game designer who began working part-time for TSR on the original Dungeon Masters Guide. He later became the executive vice president of TSR’s Sales and Marketing, as well as their convention director, including running a Gen Con game convention. He has been involved in just about every aspect of the gaming business: design, development, publishing, sales, and distribution, working or consulting for companies such as Random House, Berkley Publishing, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Capital City Distribution, Grenadier Miniatures, Wizards of the Coast, and Koplow Games. He was part of group that took over the company Mayfair Games, later leaving to form a new game company called Elfinwerks. He continues to develop games and work with a number of companies as a consultant on international partnerships. He has also served on the board of directors of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA), becoming a board member emeritus as well as contributing to numerous committees and programs. Will is a graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is married to his lovely wife Schar and has two kids, including his son William who has also pursed his own career in the games hobby.
Marc Tassin is the founder of Mechanical Muse and the creator of the World of Aetaltis fantasy setting for Fifth Edition. In addition to his work on Aetaltis, Marc’s work has appeared in products ranging from Dragon Magazine to Shadowrun. In his free time he is the Producer of the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium, one of the largest genre and shared world fiction writing conferences in the world.
Brendan LaSalle has been writing and publishing in the game industry since 2002. He has written for Goodman Games, Fat Dragon Games, Troll Lord’s Games, Savage Mojo, Pandahead Publishing, Hand Made Games, and Legendsmiths. He has many adventures and source books, including the award winning Age of Cthulhu: A Dream of Japan. He is the creator of Xcrawl, working on a new edition for DCC called Xcrawl Classics (XCC). He lives in Georgia with his wife and puggle.