We’ve unlocked access to Matt Forbeck, Aaron Trammell, and Adrianna Burton for the inside scoop on the Diana Jones Award Emerging Designers Program, their best tips for game designers, and who’s on their wish list to party and game with at their annual awards ceremony…
How did you become involved with the Diana Jones Award’s Emerging Designer Program (EDP)?
Matt: After running the Diana Jones Award for 20 years, the committee decided to take what cachet we’d earned and use it to do some good in the adventure gaming industry by helping to amplify new voices. Ken Hite originally proposed the idea, but we decided to bring Camdon Wright on board to make that idea a reality. He and his teammates—particularly Aaron Trammell and Adrianna Burton—have done an amazing job with it each year.
Aaron: I had been working as a jury member for the EDP for a few years when Camdon Wright asked me if I would be willing to carry the torch after his time as program chair was completed. I had just published a book about inequity in the tabletop games community called The Privilege of Play, and this seemed like an ideal opportunity to get involved and help foster opportunities for the kind of people who have historically been neglected by the community, so I was enthusiastic to continue Camdon’s excellent work in developing the EDP.
Adrianna: Well, I followed Aaron! My first time at Gen Con was in the First Exposure Playtest Hall (FEPH), testing an educational game for a project through my university. I had a great time and really wanted to do another Gen Con — I’ve been hooked ever since! So the following year, as everyone was putting out calls for DMs or other kinds of volunteers, I looked to Aaron for advice. I couldn’t imagine a better fit for myself than a nonprofit looking to uplift newcomers to the space, especially as I felt so new myself.
What is your favorite thing about being involved with the EDP?
Matt: I love meeting the new designers each year and introducing them on stage at our ceremony at Gen Con. If new voices don’t enter a field, it’s bound to stagnate, and I’m happy to see so many different voices join us.
Aaron: I get to meet amazing designers every year and learn from them. What could be better?
Adrianna: Working with the designers! Each group is unique, fun, and so creative. It’s honestly a privilege to guide them around Gen Con and help them find cool, professional opportunities. From running or playing their games to making sure everyone’s where they need to be at any given time, I’m always having a blast. At the end of every show, it’s always really rewarding to watch our designers form a support group they can take forward.
As a program designed to spotlight new designers, what advice would you give to those starting or early in their game design careers?
Matt: Ask questions from those with more experience. Most game designers are happy to share their hard-earned lessons with others. It’s generally a friendly, open community of enthusiastic folks who love games, too.
Aaron: DON’T GIVE UP! The tabletop industry, like most other creative industries, rewards people who can cling on and keep creating. Every successful designer I know has a bookcase full of prototypes and not-quite-ready games that they cut their teeth on before publishing their hit. If you hang in there long enough, you’ll get noticed, and, even more importantly, you’ll make some amazing friends along the way.
Adrianna: Make sure you have a clear vision of the experiences you want your players to have, because you can never play a game the same way twice. Whether that’s collaboration or competition, serious or fun (or even frustrating), focusing on what you want someone to leave the table thinking or feeling can help guide the design process.
What is a memorable moment you’ve experienced while playing tabletop games with friends, and how has that influenced your approach to collaborative work for the EDP?
Matt: Running the Diana Jones Award is a lot like running a roleplaying game — you get a lot of great people together and have some fun. At the same time, you try to do something that matters, even if it only means something to you and your friends. And if you’re lucky, other people enjoy it, too!
Aaron: I still remember playing games with my friends in our basements in high school. It was the one time I felt like I truly belonged, and it was also a period of profound social development for me. I want everyone to be able to enjoy an experience like this, but for that to be true, game design must be open to new ideas from designers with diverse backgrounds and interests. The EDP’s mission to highlight designers who have been historically marginalized in the tabletop space aligns perfectly with this vision.
Adrianna: I could spend forever telling you about my current home game. I won’t, though! Probably the most memorable moment was when another player and I had to literally slip out of our chairs and sit down on the ground. We had six players at the time, and the typically quiet person was having a super emotional scene with our GM, who was playing the children of someone the player’s character had killed. It was super deep. I think that also loops back to the above question, with my focus on a player’s experience. I bring that focus on affect to my admin work—I want to make friends with everyone!
If you could invite any three game designers, past or present, to the awards ceremony, who would they be, and what do you think would be the hottest topic of discussion?
Matt: I’d probably bring Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson back and have them regale the audience with stories about the dawn of adventure gaming—and who deserves the most credit for starting it. Then I’d add in H. G. Wells and have him talk about how his Little Wars was one of the first sets of miniatures rules, which eventually led to games like Chainmail, the precursor of Dungeons & Dragons! The current hot topic would be if there’s an ethical and responsible way to use AI tools in game development—and if they’re worth bothering with at all.
Aaron: I would invite Glaiza Champion, J Strautman, and Kodi Gonzaga. They won this year’s award and deserve the opportunity to revel in the ceremony’s fun! I’ve met many of my heroes, and I’m pretty shy…so it’s usually a letdown. But getting an opportunity to see what’s on the horizon… I wouldn’t miss that opportunity for the world.
Adrianna: Stick with me, okay. I’d pick Dragon Quest creator Yuji Hori, TSR phenom Jean Wells, and Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke, under the general theme of dragons. I’d probably ask them a bunch of insane questions, like what kind of elemental dragon is the strongest. I hope they’d have a blast at the ceremony, though, it’s a pretty chill event. I’d also get them to play our designers’ games at some point—I’m sure they’d have really good feedback, or even learn a thing or two, especially from our board and card game folks.
About the Contributors
Matt Forbeck
Matt Forbeck (he/him) is an award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author and game designer of over thirty-five novels and countless other books and games. His projects have won a Peabody Award, a Scribe Award, and several ENnies and Origins Awards. He also runs the Diana Jones Award Foundation and 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 kids. Learn more about Matt and his work at forbeck.com.
Aaron Trammell
Aaron Trammell (he/him) is an Associate Professor of Informatics at UC Irvine. He writes about how Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and board games inform the lived experiences of their players. Specifically, Aaron is interested in how these games further the values of white privilege and hegemonic masculinity in geek culture. He is a co-founder of the journal Analog Game Studies and wrote two books: Repairing Play (MIT Press, 2023) and The Privilege of Play (NYU Press, 2023). To learn more about Aaron, visit aarontrammell.com.
Adrianna Burton
Adrianna Burton (she/they) is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on intersectional positionalities and politics in new media and fandom, particularly in roleplaying games. Their work has been published across venues such as Game Studies, the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, and Analog Game Studies. Adrianna is a founding member of the Tabletop Research in Practice Collective and a copyeditor at the Journal of Games Criticism. Stay tuned for their dissertation on worldbuilding in Dungeons & Dragons. Find Adrianna at adriiadventures.carrd.co.