WINNERS OF THE 2026
DIANA JONES EMERGING DESIGNER PROGRAM

The Diana Jones Award Committee is pleased to announce this year’s Emerging Designer Program Winners: Glaiza Champion, J Strautman, and Kodi Gonzaga! As our Emerging Designers, they’ll each receive a fabulous prize package worth over $6500:

The committee would like to congratulate our excellent winners:

Glaiza Champion

Website:
classicaladventuresfor.one

Games:
classicaladventuresfor.one/games

Glaiza (siya/them) is a Filipino-American third culture kid with cultural experiences from Brunei, Cambodia, Philippines, and Korea. They are a game designer, writer, performer, podcaster, and variety streamer that’s made their home in tabletop roleplaying games. Glaiza’s games are Beef, Missing Month, and Meet Your GelCub. Their passion is in storytelling—not just the big world impacting stories, but the smaller intimate ones as well. Find all Glaiza does over at classicaladventuresfor.one.

J Strautman

Website:
yesnogoodbye.ca

Social:
Bluesky
Instagram

J Strautman (they/them), a.k.a. Yes No Goodbye, is a Toronto-based RPG designer, professional musician, and award-winning podcaster. They’ve released two zine-sized games: Contact and Insatiable Cravings, both GMless and monstrous leaning; and in 2025 co-released A Fool’s Errand under Planet Arcana Games. They tour the world as a professional bass player, and co-hosted, scored, and edited Planet Arcana, a tarot-infused science fantasy actual play. Keep up with J’s work at yesnogoodbye.ca.

Kodi Gonzaga

Website:
kodigonzaga.com

Games:
Misfits and Mayhem
Down the Road Through the End of the World

Kodi (they/them) is a TTRPG designer based in Los Angeles, CA who began designing their first, slight disaster of a game in 2018. They’ve since created multiple games, including: Extra Ordinary, Misfits & Mayhem SRD, Down the Road Through the End of the World, Voxinn: A Firebrands Hack, and In This Echoing World. Kodi is also a creative writer, actual play performer, Big Bad Con POC Scholar, former IGDN convention coordinator, and cat lover. Learn more about Kodi’s work at kodigonzaga.com.

EMERGING DESIGNER PROGRAM FINALISTS

The committee would also like to congratulate our excellent finalists:

• Elijah Djan
• Annabel Lee Journey
• Gene Koo
• Connie Vogelmann

For more information about our finalists, see the 2026 Emerging Designer Program Finalists page.

SPONSORS

We’d like to thank the program’s key sponsor for this year, Gen Con LLC.

Our other sponsors & volunteers for the Emerging Designer Program include:

This year’s prize sponsors are:

ABOUT THE EMERGING DESIGNER PROGRAM

This program of the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming amplifies the voices of up-and-coming hobby game designers, with a focus on creators from marginalized communities, by featuring them during an expenses-paid trip to Gen Con. Its inaugural year was 2021, when Jeeyon Shim was our first Diana Jones Emerging Designer.

For more information about our previous winners and finalists, see our past-year Emerging Designer pages: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

CONTACTS

Questions? Please reach out to the program’s coordinators at edp@dianajonesaward.org. To contact the Diana Jones Award committee, email committee@dianajonesaward.org.