Tag freelance

“I’m a lot less apologetic about the types of games I design”: Descent, Arkham Horror design veteran Kevin Wilson on heading back to freelance after Incredible Dream downsizing

Kevin Wilson, the veteran tabletop designer whose abundant list of work includes Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Arkham Horror and Cosmic Encounter, spent most of the 2010s working a successful freelance career after a decade at Fantasy Flight Games. Wilson became director of game design at Incredible Dream upon the company’s 2021 launch, but a tariff-disrupted year for the Kinfire series publisher has seen the business downsize to just two permanent staff - putting Wilson back into the freelance pool. He spoke to BoardGameWire about how his time at Incredible Dream has helped him hone his design strengths, why visibility as a freelancer is key and which of his older unpublished designs might now get another bite at the cherry.

“Keep the foot on the gas, and don’t get complacent!”: Wyrmspan designer Connie Vogelmann on making the jump to full-time board game design

Few board game designers score the kind of rapid success that has come to Connie Vogelmann - with her debut design Apiary from 2023 flying high in the BoardGameGeek rankings, and follow-up creation Wyrmspan selling "far beyond the wildest dreams" of publisher Stonemaier Games' founder Jamey Stegmaier following its high-profile release last year. That double success - and the "destruction" Donald Trump's administration has had on her work as a grants law attorney - has seen Vogelmann decide to take the plunge into full-time board game design. She spoke to BoardGameWire about navigating freelance design, branching out beyond worker placement, and the challenges that face full-time designers in the current economic climate.