Cole Wehrle
Board Game Designer

Board Games in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
Historically, games are without authors. They are the result of evolutionary processes whereby subtle variations in play gradually emerge over thousands of years as games are shared from person to person. This began to change in the 19th and 20th century with the rise of mechanical reproduction, which allowed authors to quickly disseminate specific and identical versions of a game that could be said to have a single author. Recently, with the rise of accessible design tools and crowdfunding, a whole industry has grown up around author-centered game design. In this talk, game designers Nikki Valens and Cole Werhle Share their experiences in this growing field of authored games.

Cole is an ex-academic who abandoned the lucrative field of Victorian studies in favor of game publishing. He is the creative director at Leder Games and the designer of Root, which uses a children’s book aesthetic to explore the politics of police states and insurgency. Root and its expansions have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. With the help of his brother, Cole also publishes historical games covering subjects such as state formation in 19th century Afghanistan (Pax Pamir) and the rise and collapse of the British East India Company (John Company).

Tuesday, October 24, 12:15 pm
38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

Lunch will be served starting at noon. Registration required.