About
TEAM
Dirk Knemeyer
Producer & Co-Host
Dirk is a tabletop game designer primarily focused on games about history, science, technology, and business. His designs include the Tesla vs. Edison series of games, Einstein, and Tomorrow. Dirk views game design as an art form that lets him tell stories about the world. His favourite games to play include Diplomacy, League of Legends, and Puzzle Strike.
David V. Heron
Producer & Co-Host
David is a digital game designer who has spent the last decade of his career focusing on games-as-a-service. His most recent project was Star Trek Timelines, a love-letter to his favourite television series. David has since shifted to working as a design consultant, helping several AAA studios adapt to live-op focused designs. His favourite games include Dungeons & Dragons, X-Com, and Dark Souls.
Erik Ririe
Producer
Erik is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in games at the University of Utah. He’s a history, mythology, and language buff who adores humanity’s astounding diversity and similarity across time and space. He believes in the goodness of our drive to create art and has chosen games as his preferred form of expression. Erik’s favorite games include Dark Souls, 80 Days, Wildermyth, Journey, and The Legend of Zelda (Breath of the Wild or The Wind Waker).
Avery Paez
Editor
Avery is a lifelong game design enthusiast, having made her first AD&D knockoff at the tender age of ten. That original passion has remained, but her designs have gotten significantly more competent.
Kathryn Hymes
Panelist
Kathryn is a co-founder of Thorny Games, an award-winning game studio out of Berkeley, CA. She specializes in analog play, particularly the tabletop RPG and LARP varieties. She collects board games in different languages. Previous Gen Con Industry Insider, regular conference speaker, bad theremin player.
The Game Design Round Table is by game designers, for game designers. Since 2012 we’ve explored the art and craft of game design from the perspective of tabletop, digital, and role-playing games.
We believe that diversity and inclusion are essential, not just to make the world better but to make the design and even play of games better. As you may be aware, the game design community is predominantly made up of white males. We’re predominantly white males, too; that’s OK. But we are committed to bringing you a flow of guests that are as diverse in their demographics as they are in the type of games that they make.
The Game Design Round Table organizes our show in different series, providing editorial structure to the more ~300 shows we’ve published. Go to the Series page to check out our episodes from recent years, or head over to the Archive section to dive into the deep, rich history of our show.
Our listeners are the reason why we are here. If you like what you see and hear, do consider sharing on social media and with your friends. Thank you for being part of our journey.
Alumni
During our 7+ years on the air we’ve been blessed with an incredible collection of co-hosts who helped bring TGDRT to life. They continue to do meaningful things in game design - and join us as guests from time-to-time as well. Click on their name to check out what they’re up to.
Cole Wehrle
Co-Host
Dave Nelson
Audio Engineer
Harrison Pink
Co-Host
Jon Shafer
Co-Founder & Co-Host
Michael Hermes
Audio Engineer
Rob Daviau
Co-Host
Skye Larsen
Producer & Editor
