The Game Design Masterclass was created by veteran games designer James Wallis as a one-off event for the London Games Festival in 2006. Ten years later it has been run on three continents, at games conventions, in universities, for corporations and charities, in many games cafes, and once on an island in a Norwegian fjord. Clearly, people like it.

All the Masterclass tutors are professional games designers with at least two published titles and a decade of experience in the industry.

James Wallis (UK and Europe)
‘The godfather of indie game design’, James had his first article on games published in Warlock magazine in 1984 and hasn’t looked back. He’s the co-designer of the modern classic storytelling card game Once Upon a Time and created The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, now renowned as the progenitor of the ‘story game’ genre. Having spent the 1990s running the largest RPG publishing company in the United Kingdom, these days James lectures in game design in London South Bank University, has a column in Tabletop Gaming Magazine., and is co-writing a history of board games for Dorling Kindersley with games legend Ian Livingstone. His latest tabletop game is Alas Vegas.

Steve Dee (Australasia)
Steve is a twenty year veteran of the game industry, having worked on games like Betrayal at House on the Hill and Letterhead, and winning four Ennie awards for his work in roleplaying games, which has included games like Vampire, Doctor Who and every edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. He’s also worked as a gaming critic, columnist, consultant, panellist and convention organiser, and publishes his own games through his company Tin*Star Games. He’s never met a meeple he didn’t like.