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In 2018, only 7 games of the top 200 on Board Game Geek had a non-male designer involved. (It's now up to 10.) I got tired of being called "one of very few non-male board game designers," so I started compiling a list and ended up with over 200 women with published games.
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East Asia
East Asia
Elisa Tanaka | Japan
@ piemaruElisa co-designed 閻魔裁判 (Last Judgment), a game that involves stacking small wooden blocks in order to remember good deeds and advance toward having a better life in the next life.
Kujira Nagisa | Japan
@kujiradamaKujira designed CMYK!, a colorful real-time tile-laying game, and Nebuta Beat, a card-driven dancing game.
Aya Matsunaga | Japan
Aya is a Japanese game designer and artist. She is also an Administrator of the Japanese board game site, ボドゲーマ (Boardgamer). Her games include BodoCa, Loving Penguin, and Ubergang des Barocks.
Madoka Kitao | Japan
@nemurinekoMadoka is a professional Shogi player and has been very active in getting girls and women to play. The first game she designed was a small Shogi variant for children named Dōbutsu Shōgi (Let's Catch the Lion!). Others include Nanahoshi and Ten. She runs Nekomado.
Rameru Suzuno | Japan
Rameru designed and illustrated Shupicchi General Election and Ramet Summit. She is also a board game idol and singer.
Kotori | Japan
@PhantomLabGamesKotori is part of the Phantom Lab design studio. Her games include Frog Stack, Heureka, and Astrios.
Kuon | Japan
@ kuondouKuon is a game designer and illustrator who says she aims to make adorable packages and easy-to-understand rules especially aimed at girls and beginners. Her company Kuondou also makes game-related accessories and TRPG t-shirts. Her games include Cat Nap, The Tribute of Prince Giuliano, and Cake Buffet.
Peke | Japan
@pekendackPeke is part of the indie publishing house Takamagahara. Her many games include Alpaca Pacapaca, Cinderella Magic, and Fly! Kiwi!
Lisa Matsuoka | Japan
@ unigames_infoLisa designed 真贋のはざまで (Shingan no hazama de), a bluffing auction game designed to teach western art history. An English edition is scheduled to be released in 2019, titled The Blackmarket.
Sora Takeda | Japan
@ takendasoraSora has been designing and illustrating board games since 2013. Her titles include Twinkle Trick Spirit, King Mouse's Arithmetic Poker, and Nekotsubo-Soroe! Her current passion is cat-themed games.
Sayaka Amioka | Japan
@sayakaYUxUYSayaka is part of KogeKogeDo. She designed Takara Island, The Little Witches and the Mysterious House, Witch's Coming! and Workshop Tonttu.
Aiko Oyama | Japan
@nanawari_gamesAiko codesigns with Toru Oyama as NANAWARI. Their games include Polarich and Madrino.
Lana Inagaki | Japan
Lana published her first game at the age of 9 in 2017. Her self-published Oboenasaikoro was picked up by Korean publisher Happy Baobab for release at Essen 2019.
Yu-Chen Tseng | Taiwan
Yu-Chen is the co-designer of Burano.
Aya Taguchi | Japan
Aya has co-designed several games, including Little Town, which was nominated for the Cannes As d'Or in 2020. Others include Skylands, Terrible Monster, Mystery Homes, and Goods Maker.
Azumi Date | Japan
@date_co_pzgAzumi is owner of a board game cafe, Asobi Cafe, and a Catan blog. She has designed the game Cattack! No. 1, a game about cats playing volleyball.
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Christina Ng Zhen Wei | Singapore
Christina's co-designs include Race for the Chinese Zodiac and Three Kingdoms Redux.
Wai Mei Theresa Syn | Singapore
Theresa designed and illustrated the game The Singaporean Dream, a satirical game about all of the things she and her friends were striving for. After the initial Kickstarter, it was picked up by the publisher SGAG.
Diah Rahmawati | Indonesia
Diah co-designed Pagelaran Yogyakarta, in which players manage Javanese theaters entertaining tourists.
Kanty Kusmayanty| Indonesia
@kNugrohoKanty is co-founder and COO of the Kumara game design studio. She designed the card game Mashup Monsters and has also designed games for Android.
Anggreini Pratiwi | Indonesia
@anggreiniPRAAnggi is the deisgner of Orang Rimba, a game about a local tribe threatened by illegal logging.
Mega Jauhari | Indonesia
Mega created her game Main Makin Kaya to educate young people about running a business.
Lovita Darwin | Indonesia
Lovita co-designed the boardgames Flipeek: Medieval and Stocktastic. She co-founded Coralis Game Studio., which also does mobile games
Fitriani Naim | Indonesia
@feiratochiFeira has co-designed two published games: Balloon and Le Voleur. She co-founded the design studio FeiraTochi.
Annisa Hasanah | Indonesia
@annisaa_potterAnnisa is a social entrepreneur who designed Ecofunopoly with the goal of fostering stronger green behavior. She has received several international and national awards for her work.
Goh Choon Ean | Malaysia
Goh is a photographer, filmmaker and game designer. Her first game, Kaki Lima, is about pedestrians navigating Penang's George Town market.
Lilian Lee | Singapore
Lillian is the creator of Say What, a card game for language fans to have fun with a range of languages including Malay, Cantonese, Hokkien, Mandarin, Singlish, and Japanese.
South Asia
South Asia
Saishraddha | India
Sai is founder of Studio Psysai. Her first games are Banana Banana and Honeyscouts. She has also worked on games in the educational sector.
Australia and New Zealand
Australia and New Zealand
Amanda Milne | New Zealand
@SchilMilAmanda co-designed Komodo, Raid the Pantry, Kenakalan, Granny Wars and Manifest with Julia Schiller. She now runs SchilMil Games, the company they co-founded.
Julia Schiller | New Zealand
@CheekyParrotJulia split off from SchilMil to create Cheeky Parrot Games. In addition to the games she co-designed with Amanda Milne, she recently put out Hoard.
Sye Robertson | Australia
@SyeRobertsonArtSye is an artist and graphic designer who is behind the Art & Graphic Design for Tabletop Games Facebook group. Their published games include Lightspeed, Just Chocolate, and Robots & Rockets.
@skybeargamesnz
Claire is a playwright and game designer whose first boardgame, Cat Capers, explored what cats do while their owners are away. She also published a visual novel that combines her love of cats and Shakespeare.
Nic Petty | New Zealand
@RogoNicNic (aka Dr Nic) wants to build a world of mathematicians through her social enterprise, Creative Maths. Her games include The Cat Pack, The Dragon Games, Multy Facty and Fraction Action.
Middle East
Middle East
Ora Coster | Israel
Ora's decades-long game designing career has included several mass-market hits, including Zingo and Guess Who?
Danna Banki | Israel
Danna is an illustrator and game designer who designs primarily for children and families. Her designs include Selfie Speed, Face to Face, and the co-op Snow Snow.
Africa
Africa
Yeside Osuolale | Nigeria
Yeside is the Creative Lead at Forerunner Games, a tabletop games company in Nigeria.
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