Game Designer's Notebook - the birth of Breaking Away

Keeping It Simple - advice on games design from James Ernest of Cheapass Games

GCSE Graphics Course: Producing A Board Game

Tunnels & Trolls: 1984 interview with the designer.

Music To My Eras - musings on musical fashions

Mind Your Language - a rant about people who mangle the English language  

If you decide to invest in a Fiendish Board Game, who are you trusting with your hard-earned cash? Fiendish Board Games is a cooperative venture started by two occasional board-gamers, John Harrington (the short one) and Mike Woodhouse (the tall one).

John Harrington

John was once a game-design addict. Nothing stopped him from working on a new idea, unless it was Lin, his wife or one or more of his three children. Then he noticed that the world was awash with fantastic board games and it probably did not need any more, so he stopped designing games, though one day ... well, you never know.

He works as a journalist for a financial news web site and his hair is a lot greyer than it is in either of these photos, but at least he still has hair.

Scruffy games inventor demonstrates Office Politics to politely uninterested passer-by at the Games Fair in Essen.

Picture courtesy of Pete Card

Mike Woodhouse

Mike is very much the brawn behind the operation. More accustomed to play-testing than original thought, this self-proclaimed computer genius works for (and indeed is) Fiendish Business Systems. Currently he is contracting, accepting money from an investment bank in London  in return for doing some very clever stuff. Formerly editor of the seldom-lamented postal games zine Blackmail, Mike is now more famous for his rich fund of cricketing anecdotes.

When not found at the Valley, home of Charlton Athletic FC, Mike relaxes at home with his partner, Pam, his greedy cats and his two  children.  Since becoming a father Mike has had precious little time for face-to-face gaming, which means he still thinks 1830 is state of the art game design ... or he did until John lured him into the world of modern board games via online gaming site boitaujex.net.

Mike plays under the name OtterChaos and John under the name Fiendishgames.

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