Collaborators
Isaac Childres
Isaac loves board games. He was going to be a physicist (got his PhD and everything), but then decided it would be more fun to design and publish board games for a living. He hasn’t regretted that decision yet.
Isaac is the founder and driving force behind Cephalofair Games. He started the company back in 2014 to self-publish his first game, Forge War, and has since led a growing team that handles design, development, writing, art direction, promotion, publishing, and fulfillment for all games ever since.
Isaac’s “magnum opus,” Gloomhaven was Cephalofair Games’ second title, published in early 2017. He could not be happier with the reception it is receiving and has since published three additional titles set in the same world: Forgotten Circles, Founders of Gloomhaven, Jaws of the Lion, and is hard at work designing the highly anticipated "sequel" Frosthaven.
He is generally a fan of heavier Euro board games like Gaia Project and 18XX, though he does have a soft spot for dungeon crawlers and RPGs. You can read all about his unhealthy love of board gaming here.
Isaac lives in Lafayette, Indiana, with his wife Kristyn and his dog Millie.
Price Johnson
Josh McDowell
Creative Director & Graphic Design
Josh McDowell started playing board games after his wife encouraged him to find an inexpensive hobby. The joke is on her, as that encouragement turned into an expansive collection and regularly scheduled game nights. Then again, it also turned into his job.
Josh brings over 20 years of graphic design experience to Cephalofair as their Associate Creative Director. He’s worked at Purdue University since 1998, producing graphics and video for athletics, the performing arts series, and the College of Agriculture. He has also worked as a freelance designer since 2002, creating touring video for country stars like Vince Gill, Martina McBride, and Brad Paisley, and creating graphics and video productions for corporate clients like Ford, Syngenta, and Bank of America.
His love for games drew him into freelance game design, and since 2015, he’s created visuals for many publishers including Ravensburger, Stonemaier Games, Renegade Games, and Restoration Games.
He lives in Indiana with his wife and three children, gamers in the making. You can find his portfolio at www.behance.net/mcscowl.
Alexandr Elichev
Illustrations & World-Building Artist
Alexandr lives in Ukraine, Odessa and works as a freelancer and specializes in several styles: sci-fi, cyberpunk and fantasy. He’s looking for exciting projects in the styles that he likes. Most of all, he is proud of his artwork for cards in board games.
He dreams to release his comics and develop an indie game with a small group of people In the future. You can see his portfolio at http://kotnonekot.deviantart.com/.
Francesca Baerald
Cartographer
Francesca is a freelance cartographer and illustrator from Italy working in the game and publishing industry for companies such as Blizzard, Games Workshop, Square Enix, and Dark Horse.
In her studio, she happily draws maps and paints illustrations, imagining new ways to build fantastic or dangerous worlds. She always looks forward to new exciting projects!
You can check her works at www.francescabaerald.com.
David Demaret
Dungeon Tile / Scenario Artist
David is a freelance artist and art director who specializes in science-fiction and heroic fantasy art.
In a previous life, David worked in the video game industry for more than 20 years, creating 2D and 3D art for famous games like Duke Nukem 3D, Alone in the Dark, Lord of the Rings, Driver, Counterstrike, King Kong, Star Trek, and Legacy of Kain.
His hidden passion, however, was illustrations as he was always inspired by the art of Chris Foss and Frazetta, so he started a new career to pursue illustration for board games as well as book and music album covers.
His work includes art for Mythic Battles, Batman: Gotham City Chronicles, Joan of Arc, Claustrophobia 1643, HEL, and is now focusing on creating atmospheric map tiles for the world of Gloomhaven.
Marcel Cwertetschka
Play-testing & Development
Marcel lives in Vienna, Austria, working as a freelance developer, proofreader, and play tester on projects from Cephalofair, Fantasy Flight Games, Forged by Geeks Games, and others.
His contributions include design of Cephalofair's first expansion, Forgotten Circles, and is a contributing designer, developer, play-tester for Jaws of the Lion and Frosthaven.
He also teaches math and cognitive science for adults. He and his fiancee host a sprawling board game collection for friends, family, and "research" for the possibility of his own game one day.
Team "Satire"
Design & Development
Alexander JL Theoharis, Joe Holmes, and Zac Cohn got their start as the creators of Satire's Extended Battle Goals and the custom Curseborn class, both unofficial fan-made content for Gloomhaven.
Their early contributions to the Cephalofair community quickly grew into a more significant partnership with Cephalofair such as tutorial, event, battle goal design in Jaws of the Lion and brand new upcoming systems, events, and mechanics in the highly anticipated sequel Frosthaven.
Andy Nellis
Writer
Andy Nellis is a writer and editor specializing in fiction, narrative design, and health science. He has written and edited in a range of industries including film, medical research, higher education, and tabletop gaming. In 2015 his screenplay "More Cowbell" won the Nantucket Film Festival's Tony Cox competition. He is currently finishing a Masters of Fine Arts.
Chris Kessler
Support and Sales Manager
Bringing 20 years of customer service, sales, and inventory management experience to the team, Chris joined Cephalofair full-time in 2020, taking lead over project fulfillment, convention sales, and customer support. Whether you need a tracking number or replacement part, Chris has your back!
Sculptors:
Cephalofair Games is also grateful for the sculpting work of James van Shaik in Gloomhaven; Chris Lewis, Andrew Cothill, and Chad Hoverter for their work on Jaws of the Lion and Frosthaven; and Tom Mason for his work on Forgotten Circles and Frosthaven.
Editors:
Gloomhaven would also be nowhere without the editing skills of Mathew G. Somers, Jason D. Kingsley, and Jim Spivey.