Four up-and-coming designers win expenses-paid Gen Con trip in latest Diana Jones emerging designer program

The Diana Jones Award committee has unveiled this year’s winners of its emerging designer program, who will each receive a $6,500 prize package that includes an all-expenses trip to Gen Con.

Marceline Leiman, Ashraf Braden, Elliot Davis and Lyla McBeath Fujiwara will also receive a one-year voting membership to trade body GAMA through the award, as well as prizes including prototyping credit at The Game Crafter, an online badge to Protospiel and a game demo spot on Gen Con TV.

The contest, which is now in its fifth year, aims to amplify the voices of up-and-coming tabletop designers, with a focus on creators from marginalized communities.

Lyla McBeath Fujiwara is project lead for the Cosmere RPG, which in 2024 became the highest-funded tabletop Kickstarter ever at more than $15.1m, and is also the book lead for its hardcover campaign-length adventures.

Ashraf Braden is an African RPG designer living in Uganda’s Kampala District, and is best known for Legends of Uganda – a zine dedicated to bringing Ugandan myths and urban legends to the gaming table.

Brooklyn-based Elliott Davis is a game designer, publisher, podcaster, and artist best known for self-published releases including Project ECCO and Rom Com Drama Bomb.

Fellow winner Marceline Leiman, who has worked in design and development across publishers including North Star Games, Underdog Games and Asmodee studio Office Dog, told BoardGameWire she would never have been able to afford the “crucial” trip to Gen Con this year without being selected for the program.

She said, “Facing a tough and uncertain economic climate as a freelance designer and developer, and recently losing my job at Underdog Games due to tariffs, this opportunity with the Diana Jones Emerging Designer Award has afforded me the ability to attend Gen Con this year.

“Gen Con is an incredibly important convention for freelance designers to get their work noticed and signed. This amazing opportunity for underrepresented and underprivileged folks represents a great step in equalizing this dream of a creative field for all.

“Without it, I couldn’t afford to go, and thus would miss out on these crucial opportunities to connect with others in this industry. I’ve been to Gen Con twice, and both times has led to work opportunities from unexpected relationships formed during them.

“As a freelance designer, you never know when your next job might come from – and so being there becomes all the more important.”

Leiman said she plans to use the opportunity to pitch new designs including marble drafting game Pass the Peas, co-op limited communications rummy game Avalanche! and Uptown Ace, a pick-up-and-deliver card game inspired by the people of the New York City subway.

She also plans to show off rhyming word party game Know-It Poet, which had been signed Greater Than Games, but was returned to Leiman after the company was downsized by owner Flat River group last month, in the wake of the US imposing heavy import tariffs on China-made products.

Leiman added, “The social climate for trans folks is also becoming more dangerous and scary in the United States – and unfortunately Gen Con is based in Indiana.

“In previous years I have witnessed others and myself heckled by the locals of Indianapolis for our transness. So I encourage everyone to put out extra care for your trans friends in attendance this year especially.

“To new and upcoming trans designers: don’t stop pushing yourself to create. We deserve this space as much as anyone else. Don’t let fear and anger from others discourage you from being your fullest self, or stop you from creating art to your fullest extent. We need each other now more than ever.”

Leiman gave special thanks to Clarence Simpson, Tony Tran and Greg Loring-Albright for their encouragement and nominations for the Diana Jones Award program.

Other finalists in this year’s competition included Rook Feld, Kodi Gonzaga, Ashwin Kamath and Tejas Oza.

The Diana Jones emerging designer award program was launched in 2021, with Jeeyon Shim picking up the inaugural award.

Last year’s winners included Quinn Brander, a Cree designer of board games including economic city-building game Rebuilding Seattle, and Clarence Simpson, a half-Filipino designer of board games including The Wolves, which he created alongside Ashwin Kamath.

The emerging designer program is part of the wider Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming, which was founded and first awarded in 2001.

That award is presented to the person, product, company, event, movement, concept or any other thing that has, in the opinion of its committee, best demonstrated the quality of “excellence” in the world of hobby-gaming in the previous year – and is traditionally hugely wide-ranging in its choice of candidates.

Previous winners across the award’s 22-year run have included Blood Rage designer Eric Lang, Nigerian games industry publisher and evangelist NIBCARD, and the entire ‘actual play’ movement of people livestreaming and podcasting roleplaying games.

Last year’s Excellence in Gaming award was won by United Paizo Workers, who were among the first employees of a tabletop gaming company to form a union.