FINALISTS FOR THE 2023
DIANA JONES EMERGING DESIGNER PROGRAM

The Diana Jones Award Committee is pleased to announce our 2023 Emerging Designer Program finalists. Congratulations to everyone! Our winners will be announced on May 5th, 2023.

Alison Cybe (They/Them)

Twitter: @AlisonCybe

Alison is a game designer and genre fiction author who consistently takes novel, humorous, and thoughtful approaches to the subject matter of their works, regardless of the subject. They also do excellent work organizing and networking people together within the TTRPG industry, and somehow has time left over to assist disabled designers to break into the industry and develop personalized workflows for their own individual needs. They consistently seek out sensitivity readers for content involving experiences they haven’t shared, out of a desire to both assure the authentic feel of their work and to avoid inadvertently putting people off due to some accidental faux pas.

Anthony Joyce-Rivera (He/Him)

Website: anthonydreams.com
Twitter: @AJoyce_Rivera

Anthony Joyce-Rivera is an Hispanic, two-time ENnie-nominated game designer, entertainment, and gaming military consultant, and an active-duty U.S. Army Strategist. He has self-published many adventures on the Dungeon Masters Guild and has freelanced for Wizards of the Coast, Critical Role, MCDM, Ghostfire Gaming, and other prominent companies. Anthony believes mentoring and creating opportunities for POC creators in the gaming industry is a top priority.

In October 2022, Anthony was one of the lead organizers of Big Bad Con’s POC Meet & Greet where POC writers, artists, editors, and creators met their fellow peers and gaming industry contacts, while non-POC industry attendees were invited with the specific goal of offering mentorship, publishing, or employment opportunities to the attendees of color. In January 2023 Anthony worked with Gamehole Con to provide several POC creators paid writing assignments to create Dungeons & Dragons Adventurer’s League modules to premier at Gamehole Con 2023. Additionally, in January 2023 Anthony became the Project Leader of a soon-to-be-announced TTRPG system using a multi-million dollar intellectual property, and he is ensuring the team is diverse and includes traditionally marginalized voices in prominent project roles.

Basheer Ghouse (He/Him)

Twitter: @basheerghouse

Basheer Ghouse is a tabletop RPG writer, cultural consultant, and game designer who’s worked for Wizards of the Coast, Critical Role, Paizo, Kobold Press, Rowan Rook, Deckard, and more since entering the field in 2019. He consulted on Ennie-winning Tal’Dorei Reborn, and wrote for Ennie-nominated Spire: Sin and Nebula-nominated Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. He’s currently working on the upcoming game Guns Blazing.

Most of his design work has been freelance, expanding on existing systems and settings for a variety of clients, but he has also published independent games. This Is My Final Recording marries the inevitable doom of Dread with the found-footage horror genre. It Was Never Yours takes gonzo heists and sets them against the British Museum. Trackin’ Sasquatch is about exploring the woods in the wake of personal tragedy and, maybe, finding something wonderful in the process.

Erin Roberts (She/Her)

Links: linktr.ee/erinroberts
Twitter: @nirele

Erin Roberts is a writer of stories and games who enjoys bringing imagined worlds to life. Highlights of her recent work include writing the adventure “Written In Blood” and creating its location, Godsbreath, for Journeys through the Radiant Citadel (D&D); adding to the world of Golarion in Lost Omens: Travel Guide (Pathfinder) with sections on art, architecture, time, and the calendar; expanding the culture of the Vlaka in Starfinder Interstellar Species; creating antagonists and organizations for players to oppose in Hunter: The Reckoning Fifth Edition; and contributing to third-party TTRPG projects including Anansi’s Tapestry of Lives (Neverending), Agents of the Empire (Ghostfire Gaming), and Moonlight on Roseville Beach (R. Rook Studios). Outside of her TTRPG writing, Erin is a published author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and interactive fiction, offers cultural consulting to TTRPG projects, and teaches creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin.

Kayla Dice(She/Her)

Links: socials.ratwave.uk
Twitter: @RatWaveGH

Kayla Dice (Rat Wave Game House) has been publishing games since December 2020. Her games focus on themes of alienation and connection, with emphasis on straightforward-to-grasp rules and evocative flavour. 

To use an example, Transgender Deathmatch Legend (2022) has an innovative approach to combat, playing out bloody street fights via a trick-taking mechanic, with strong vibes influenced by pro wrestling, 20-something UK trans culture, and actionsploitation films.

She has often integrated music into her work in artful ways. Some games, like How to Embrace a Swamp Creature, wear their musical influences on their sleeve, while other games, such as The Infinite Dancefloor and Follow Me in the Night; a Cursed Radio, fold music directly into play.

She is responsible for the graphic design of all of her own work and her books are beautiful in many ways. To use some examples, Old Gods and Young Guns has a layout inspired by comic books (specifically the work of Jack Kirby) and extensively uses public domain comic book art. The Man We Knew and Follow Me in the Night have very stark noirish looks, befitting their influences, while Fear the Taste of Blood takes inspiration from posters for classic monster movies.

Mary Georgescu (She/Her)

Twitter: @marymakesgames

Mary Georgescu is a game designer, storyteller, and games industry mentor. Her writing, art, games, and collaborations span diverse genres with uplifting and humorous tones and often feature innovative custom components.

As a mass market game designer at Exploding Kittens, she championed the Poetry for Neanderthals Franchise Line and led the development of Poetry for Neanderthals expansion More Cards Box 1 (including the Stay at Home Long Time Pack which reflected on all the things we’ve taught ourselves through social media during lockdown) and Poetry for Neanderthals NSFW Edition. She also pitched and led the development of the beloved Exploding Kittens: Cat Burglar Edition, which has returned to the US after its initial UK-exclusive release. 

As an indie game designer, she founded Haiduc Studio which successfully crowdfunded and released two zine TTRPGs: The Great Bork Team and Dream World Mercenaries, and co-founded Eat Melon Studio which published the adult storytelling card game Nothing to See Here with Clarkson Potter (a subsidiary of Penguin Random House.)

Seb Pines (They/Them)

Twitter: @smolghost

Seb Pines is a writer, bookmaker, and game designer making curiosities into roleplaying games and games into a collection of curiosities. They are also a co-founder of Good Luck Press where they publish experimental roleplaying games. Their interests lie with solo games and what experiences games can offer when they engage in a one-on-one dialogue with the player.

They are most known for their game Dwelling: A Solo Game for Ghosts which has won a Judges’ Choice ENnie, been chosen as a winner for The Awards, and was selected for the Tabletop Design Award at Indiecade. Seb themself was nominated at the inaugural Dicebreaker Game Awards as a Rising Star Designer.

Sen H.H.S. (She/Her)

Twitter: @SenHHS

Sen H.H.S. is a Taiwanese TTRPG writer who has lived in many different places over the course of her life. Her first TTRPG publication is a self-published adventure set in mythical neolithic China, released at the end of 2019. Shortly after, her in-depth cultural knowledge gave her a chance to participate in Paizo’s Pathfinder Bestiary 3. She has been a regular TTRPG contributor, sensitivity reader, and cultural consultant since, working remotely from Taiwan on projects based anywhere else in the world. Announcements in 2023 confirm that she is a cover author for the upcoming Rage of Elements rulebook and Season of Ghosts Adventure Path, and also a contributor to both Tian Xia Guide Books.

SPONSORS

We’d like to thank the program’s key sponsors for this year, Gen Con LLC and Bundle of Holding.

Our other Emerging Designer Program sponsors are:

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 the 2021 Emerging Designer page and 2022 Emerging Designer page.

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.