Women and Nonbinary Board Game Designers: Europe

In 2018, only 7 games of the top 200 on Board Game Geek had a non-male designer involved. (It's now up to 10.) I got tired of being called "one of very few non-male board game designers," so I started compiling a list and ended up with over 200 women and non-binary designers with published games.

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Germany

Inka Brand | Germany

Inka has over 40 published co-designs with her husband. They include Village -- which won the 2012 Kennerspiel des Jahres -- many titles in the Exit series, and more.

Andrea Meyer | Germany

@Andreacmeyer

Andrea is the owner of BeWitched-Spiele and designer of many games, including Linq and Ad Acta. She also helps organize an annual game designer conference.

Doris Matthäus | Germany

Doris is a board game illustrator (Carcassonne, Bohnanza, more) and designer. Her game designs include Frank's Zoo, Primordial Soup, and Mü & More.

Anja Wrede | Germany

Anja has has designed dozens of childrens' games since 1995, and opened her own publishing company, Edition Siebenschläfer, in 2009.

Sophia Wagner | Germany

Sophia won a Spiel des Jahres fellowship in 2015: a mentorship program for unpublished game designers. Her first game Noria made a splash in 2017, and she followed up in 2018 with the Boldest.

Karen Seyfarth | Germany

Karen has co-designer credit for Thurn and Taxis, which won the Spiel des Jahres in 2006. Her husband Andreas has said that she helped with all of his designs, including hit titles like Puerto Rico.

Karin Hetling | Germany

Karin won the Spiel des Jahres scholarship in 2011, and went on to be nominated for the Kinderspiel des Jahres in 2015 for her game Schatz-Rabatz. She has several other published children's games.

Lena Burkhardt | Germany

Lena is co-designer of Dragon's Breath, which won the 2018 Kinderspiel des Jahres. Her other titles include Schnapp die Schatze and Gardens of Versailles.

Carmen Kleinert | Germany

Carmen won the 2011 Kinderspiel des Jahres for her game Da ist der Wurm drin (There's the worm in it). She has several other published children's games.

Kristin Mückel | Germany

Kristin is the designer of Unicorn Glitterluck, Animal Upon Animal: Here We Turn, Number Dinosaur, and several other games for children.

Kirsten Hiese | Germany

Kirsten has over 20 published games for children. In 2016 she branched out into games for an older audience with Kerala.

Daniela Stöhr | Germany

Daniela's first game, Pictures, won the Spiel des Jahres in 2020.


Rita Modl | Germany

Rita is a photographer and game designer. Her first game, Men at Work, came out in 2018.

Katja Stremmel | Germany

Katja's first game, Krass Kariert (Cross Checked) was named Fairplay magazine's A La Carte prize for card game of the year in 2018.

Apolline Jove | Germany/France

Apolline is a French designer living in Germany. The idea for her first game, Farben, came from a language-class exercise that associated colors with words.

Anna Oppolzer | Germany

Anna is a game designer and art historian. Her family game Salamamba won critical acclaim in 2018. Other games include Qwantum, Beasty Bar, and Showtime.

Kathi Kappler | Germany

Kathi is the co-founder and managing director of Drei Hasen in der Abendsonne, a book and game publishing company. Games she has designed include Mutabo, Nullern, and several others.

Brigitte Ditt | Germany

Brigitte has several co-designs including Big Points, Nautilus, and Solaris. She also has written for the Spielbox, Germany's biggest game magazine.

Andrea Boennen | Germany

Andrea designed the games Floris and Nova. In her day job, she is an equal opportunity officer for her local government, working on issues related to women in the workforce.

Katrin Abfalter | Germany

Katrin is a linguist and graphic designer who has designed a series of escape room games for Schmidt Spiele and the quick color-naming game Point Up.

Sabrina von Contzen | Germany

Sabrina is a board game designer and owner and founder of the board game studio Dachsund Games based in Cologne, Germany. Her first game was Mint Condition which was released at SPIEL19.

Claudia Partenheimer | Germany

Claudia is co-designer of the game Lowlands, a 2018 Spiel des Jahres recommended game.

United Kingdom & Ireland

Leslie Scott | England

@AboutJenga

Leslie Scott's Jenga has sold 80 million copies. She has designed dozens of other games, including Ex Libris.

Rena Nathanson | England

Rena designed Bananagrams with her family and is now CEO of the company, having sold more than 6 million copies.

Maureen Hiron | England

Maureen’s game Continuo has sold over 6 million copies since its 1982 release. She has over 70 published games including 7 Ate 9, Cosmic Cows, and the new Hochspannung.

Suzanne Robinson | England

@toyinventors

Suzanne has been designing toys and games as a part of Carterbench since 1988. She is frequently listed in the Mojo Nation 100 as one of the most respected inventors in the industry. Her most recent hit is UNO Flip.

Sophie Williams | England

@sophisaurus_rex

Sophie is co-designer of the games Hellboy and Newbury and Hobbes.

Janice Turner | England

@Dravvin

Janice is co-founder of Wren Games. They had a successful 2018 Kickstarter for their game Assembly, and have several more in development.

Hazel Reynolds | England

@Gamely_Games

Hazel is head of Gamely Games and designer of multiple games. Her game Randomise has sold over 50,000 copies and was featured on the venture capital show Dragon's Den in December 2018.

Sarah Kennington | Scotland

@Sarah_1fe

Sarah is co-designer of ORE-SOME and Microbrew, which she published through her company One Free Elephant.

Bez Shahriari | England

@stuffByBez

Bez's first game was picked up by Gigamic and is now published in 11+ languages as Yogi. Others include the game system Wibbell++ and Kitty Cataclysm. She also has worked as a board game developer.

Ruth Veevers | England

@cryptesque

Ruth saw her first co-design come out in 2018: Cryptid, a deduction game about hunting for bizarre and elusive creatures.

Rose Atkinson | England

@the_brackley

Rose is a developer at Inside the Box Games and has co-design credits on Aquanauts, Mars Rover, Crypt X, and NewSpeak.

Jen Carey | Ireland

@JenuinePanic , @Fickle_games

Jen worked in computer games before starting Fickle Games in 2015. She successfully Kickstarted the party game Rampunctious in 2017.

Angela Dickens | England

@Spanjj

Angela designed Gobblin' Gobblins and the forthcoming Arkosa, published through her company Toon Hammer Games.

Katalin Nimmerfroh | England

@AinoTenshiko

Kate is a Hungarian artist and game designer living in England. Her co-designs include [redacted] and Days of Ire: Budapest 1956.

Karen Rubins | England

@Kazmantra

Karen is a comics artist who designed Comic Turns, a storytelling game in which players arrange cards with comic panels on them.

Caitlin Russell | England

@piratesofpenryn

Cait is designer of Pirates of Penryn - which started as a small personal post parenthood project and ended with a successfully fulfilled Kickstarter.

Amanda Birkinshaw | England

Amanda is an independent game designer with a history of working at Hasbro and Mattel. Her game design credits range from Dungeons and Dragons: The Fantasy Adventure Board Game to award-winning children's game Jungle Runners.

Ellie Dix | England

Ellie is a teacher and educationalist who now designs family-oriented boardgames as director of The Dark Imp.


Holly Gramazio | England

@hollygramazio

Holly is a game designer whose work is not just for tabletops but also for physical spaces from museums to public squares. She founded Now Play This, a festival of experimental game design. Her designs include Art Deck, a collaborative drawing game.

Robyn Davies | Scotland

@TeamDigiSprite

Robyn is founder and Managing Director at the game development studio DigiSprite. Their first two games are Doomsday Bots and Adventure Mart.

Elaine Lithgow | Scotland

@TeamDigiSprite

Elaine is a member of the game development studio DigiSprite. Their first two games are Doomsday Bots and Adventure Mart.

Wai Yee | England

Wai Yee is the co-designer of Excavation Earth and Pocket Dragons.

Kate Jenkins | England

@GutterheadGame

Kate is co-designer of Gutterhead, billed as "Pictionary meets Cards Against Humanity."

Nikita Sullivan | United Kingdom

@atikingames

Nikita is the founder of Atikin Games and has self-published two successful board games on Kickstarter (Tri To Win and Mini Memory Mischief) with other games currently in development.

Gemma Newton | England

Gemma Newton is a freelance copywriter, gamer, and Director of Moonstone Games. Her first game, Plotalot, was launched in 2020 on Kickstarter.

France

Marie Cardouat | France

@MarieCardouat

Marie is best known for having illustrated the award-winning game Dixit. But she is also a designer: her game Hop! was published in 2016.


Sylvie Barc | France

@EditionsLHR

In 1982, Sylvie's first game was published under the design team “Los Rodriguez”. She has more than 40 published games and her own publishing company, La Haute Roche.

Peggy Chassenet | France

Peggy is the co-designer of the award-winning game T.I.M.E. Stories.

Charlotte Filloneau | France

Charlotte is a board game illustrator and designer. Her game El Capitan has been translated into over 30 languages. Her most recent title is Check List.

Marie Fort | France

Marie has co-designed many games for children, including Splash, Oh My Gold, and Snail Sprint. Her game Valley of the Vikings won the 2019 Kinderspiel des Jahres.

Agnès Largeaud | France

Agnès says she started designing games because she was so dissatisfied with the choices for her own children. Her games include The Pied Piper and Abracademo.

Nathalie Saunier | France

Natalie's co-design Twin It! was nominated for the As d'Or for best game of 2018 in France. Her other titles include Flooping and Fishing Day.

Annick Lobet | France

Annick has several published games including Stratopolis and Traffic. Her legacy version of the game Zombie Kidz won the French As d'Or for best children's game in 2018.

Mathilde Spriet | France

Mathilde worked at Gigamic for years before publishing her first game, In Your Head (aka Focus).

Catherine Dumas | France

Catherine is co-designer of Vikings on Board, Gentleman Thieves, and Masques.

Nathalie Grandperrin | France

Nathalie co-designed two games with Bruno Faidutti: Animal Suspect and Speed Dating.

Laurence Gamelin | France

Laurence co-designed Hellapagos (Galèrapagos), recently released by Gigamic,

Christine Larquetout | France

Christine is the designer of Toutilix, a set of several different games that can be played with a deck of letters,

Ivy Colin | France

Ivy Colin co-designed Magic Cooking, released in 2013 by Robin Red Games.

Steffanie Yeakle| France

@steffanie

Steffanie is an American filmmaker, photographer and boardgame designer who lives in Paris. She worked for Mattell and Creata before becoming an independent designer. Her codesigns with Marie Chaplet include Paul and the Moon, Le Jour Qui Rend Super Happy, and several others.

Marie Chaplet | France

Marie designs with Steffanie Yeakle under the name Les Fées Hilares. Their codesigns include Paul and the Moon, Le Jour Qui Rend Super Happy, and several others.

Camille Boissel | France

@astrono_mots

Camille is an astronomer and science communicator. Her game Nebula is forthcoming from Exod Games.

Emmanuelle Piard and Barbara Turquier | France

Emmanuelle and Barbara are sisters and codesigners of the board game Et Toque!, in which players use erasable boards and magnetic tiles to make menus for crazy scenarios.

Sara Zarian | France/Austria

Sara designed the cooperative children's game Monsieur Carrousel. She also has a history of designing serious games.

Italy

Flaminia Brasini | Italy

Flaminia co-designed hot 2018 title Coimbra. She was also part of the Acchittocca team that designed Lorenzo il Magnifico, Egizia, and Leonardo Da Vinci.

Stefania Niccolini | Italy

Stefania has been designing board games for over a decade. Her co-designs include ZhanGuo, Railroad Revolution, the Long Road, Rhein: River Trade, and more.

Elisa Lenardi | Italy

Elisa is part of Spaceballoon Games and co-designer of Brides and Bribes.

Marta Ciaccasassi | Italy

@Moonxrain

Marta is a game designer, developer and Kickstarter consultant. Her co-designs include Mysthea and Barbarians: The Invasion.

Chiara Zanchetta | Italy

Chiara is the co-designer of the games Monkey Temple and So Typisch!.

Spain

Sheila Santos | Spain

@io_shei

Sheila co-designed Aloha Pioha, Mondrian: The Dice Game, and Ramen, with several more forthcoming.

Sandra Santiago | Spain

@CircusBG

Sandra's first game, Circus, won a Spanish "best unpublished game" award, the Concurso de Protos, and will be released in 2019.

Judit Hurtado | Spain

Judit is co-designer of Bedouin, Haftlings, and 10 Negritos.

Nuria Casellas | Spain

@nucaica

Nuria is designer of Endless Pass: A Viking Saga, released in 2018. With her company Cucafera Games she also designed a "passport" that helps people find all of the dragons in Barcelona!

Paz Navarro Moreno | Spain

@PaznmP

Paz designed the game MONSTArgh! She is also part of the podcast Ya Nos Toca?!.

Valle Pacheco | Spain

Valle designed and illustrated No Game Over, a card game inspired by the world of video games.

Laura Frias España | Spain

Laura's first game, Trick or Boo, was released at Essen 2019.


Beatriz Grifol | Spain

@tamuzgames

Beatriz is a singer-songwriter and game designer, and founder of Tamuz Games. Her games include Dry Bones and Mi Saquito de Huesos.


Netherlands

Chislaine van den Bulk | Netherlands

Dutch designer Chislaine van den Bulk has eight published games, including Lino, Hands, and Bonje in de stal.

Liesbeth Bos | Netherlands

@Liesbethnl

Liesbeth has dozens of published games for children, but says her design interest is starting to shift toward heavier games. She also works as a localization agent for board game publishers.

Natalia Wojtowicz | Netherlands

@Wojtowicz_N

Natalia is a wargamer who designs simulations for the Civil-Military Cooperation Center of Excellence in the Hague. She has also designed a wargame intended for the hobby market.

Vicky Swers | Netherlands

Vicky is a Belgian designer living in the Netherlands. Her first game, Adventures in Neverland, is a narrative board game set in the world of Peter Pan.

Other Europe

Åse Berg | Norway

Åse is co-designer of Rattus, Packet Row, Oregon, and Galapagos. She’s also an organist and choir leader.

Frederica Scott Vollrath | Denmark

@FSVdesign

Freddie runs Oxford Games Ltd with her mother Leslie Scott and has recently founded FSV Design ApS. She has published 2 games (Jungoeira with Matinex and Slappy Camper with Mindware) and has 3 more games coming out 2021.

Tina Christensen | Denmark

@giddygiraf

Tina is the co-designer of the games Among Nobles and Colonies. She also works as a scientific adviser on climate change at the Danish Meteorological Institute.

Emelie Van Rodin | Sweden

@SoWGameDev

Emelie's first game, State of Wonder, is a 4x card game that started as a school project.

Mín Štachová | Czech Republic

Min is the co-author of Lost Ruins of Arnak and an employee of Czech Games Edition.

Agnieszka Kopera | Romania

@BashfulThe6th

Agnieszka started NSKN, now merged with Board and Dice Games. She co-designed Exodus: Proxima Centauri and Progress: Evolution of Technology.

Ledha Guerova | Bulgaria

Ledha is co-designer of the heavy deckbuilder-and-miniatures game BATTALIA.

Joanna Kijanka | Poland

Joanna is a designer at Portal Games. She has co-designed several expansions for games including Imperial Settlers, 51st State, and Alien Artifacts.

Anna Sobich-Kamińska | Poland

@AnnaSobich

Anna is a game designer and writer with over a dozen published games in Polish.

Janet Kneisel | Switzerland

Janet's games include Spooky Castle and DREIst. She won the 2011 scholarship for new designers from the Spiel des Jahres organization.

Liesbeth Vanzeir | Belgium

Liesbeth is the co-designer of the game Emira.