A game designer is a person who invents games at the conceptual level. Most game designers are "unsung"; for example, no one knows who invented Chess or Hearts.
However, there are many public figures in game design, including commercial game developers and game-inventing mathematicians.
Some game designers include:
Sami ElAtri
Salem Alanzi
Dave Arneson - Co-designer of Dungeons and Dragons, an early influential role-playing game
Frank Chadwick - Co-founder of Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) and designer of over 50 war and role-playing games, including Twilight 2000 and the Assault series
Troy Christensen - Designer of Phantasm Adventures, a 1980s role-playing game published in Japanese and English
John Horton Conway
Monte Cook
Jim Dunnigan - Founder of SPI Games and designer of over 100 wargames, including the PanzerBlitz/Panzer Leader system
James Ernest - president and lead game designer for Cheapass Games
Richard Garfield - collectible card game (Magic: The Gathering) and board game designer
Andrew Greenberg
Ed Greenwood
Gary Gygax - Co-designer of Dungeons and Dragons, an early influential role-playing game
Larry Harris
Stieg Hedlund - Started out in pen-and-paper games before moving on to electronic games
Steve Jackson (UK)
Jeff Kinney
Albert Lamorisse
Andrew Looney
Marc Miller Co-founder of GDW and designer / writer of Traveller and several board games
Mark Rein-Hagen
Mike Selinker
C.A. Suleiman
Jonathan Tweet
Michael J. Varhola
Mark H. Walker
Jordan Weisman
Tom Wham
Skip Williams
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