Plaid Hat Games
Plaid Hat Games is a hobby gaming company founded by game designer Colby Dauch. At Plaid Hat Games we not only want to make fun and engaging games, we want to make some good friends while doing it. Our goal as a game company is to make games you love to play, and to support the communities that form around our games. We have a community of players that join us on our forums and we have a weekly podcast that gives insight into who we are and what we are doing as a company.
A Great Game
As a company we have a vision for what we think makes a great game. I want to share that with you.
- A great game is fun.
- A great game creates an opportunity for you to make interesting, engaging, and challenging decisions that affect the outcome of the game in your favor.
- A great game allows you to directly engage the other players at the table.
- A great game is thematic (It is our belief that games should tell stories. They should draw players into their exciting worlds and put them in adventurous roles).
- A great game is unique. (We realize that unique might be in the eye of the beholder, but we like to believe that we are bringing something fresh to the table with each of our games.)
- A great game is pretty. (And by pretty, we mean it should look like something that excites you and makes you want to play it.)
Who We Are
Plaid Hat Games is made up of a team of muscle-bound hunks that impress everyone at parties with their wits, charm and good looks.
Colby Dauch is plagued with an extreme case of Attention Deficit Disorder
and he has been using that excuse as a crutch for his entire life. Colby drinks way too much Dr. Pepper,
he's overly critical of his closest friends, he wears a red and black plaid hat for God only knows why,
and he absolutely LOVES games! Colby is the owner and chief game designer at Plaid Hat Games.
Before designing Summoner Wars and founding Plaid Hat Games he did design work on Heroscape and
Battleship Galaxies.
Mr. Bistro is the heart of Plaid Hat Games, meaning he's red, full of blood,
and makes a mess if you squeeze him. As a small child, Bistro's mother refused to let him play those
demonic video game machines, so he turned to board games as means of compensation. He's been
tragically uncool ever since. Mr. Bistro has playtested countless game products over the years, and has
a few game credits to his name. His career really didn't take off until he met notoriously bad
businessman Colby Dauch, thus allowing his worst ideas to be unleashed upon the world. In addition to
Dungeon Run, be on the lookout for such future hits as Hot Dog City: Battle for the Chili Wieners, Cripes!
Look at the Pipes, and of course his magnum opus, Poopin' Joey.
Jerry Hawthorne simply refuses to grow up or, more accurately
stated, refuses to believe he's already grown up. Regardless, he spends his ridiculously limited free time
begging his family to play games he's created from various household items, chewing gum, and choice
bits fiendishly liberated from from his kid's toy-boxes. Jerry loves dice, and embraces luck even if it
doesn't always embrace him back. Jerry designed Mice & Mystics for Plaid Hat Games and has done
design work on games such as Heroscape and Battleship Galaxies.
Growing up, Cory Bullock was a lot like Ash Ketchum. Cory was one of the top under-18 Pokemon LCG players
in his home state, making regular top 4 appearances in tournaments, but never quite winning. Since then, he's
constantly striven to be the very best, like no one ever was - and always coming up short - in a bevy of card games,
miniature games, and every iteration of FIFA since 2009. He's devoted far too much time in the past two years to
Football Manager 2011, the Game of Thrones LCG, yelling at sports on TV, and Summoner Wars, the latter of which
he became the lead playtester for in 2012. He loves his alma mater, Wake Forest University, and never goes anywhere
without a trusty Wake Forest ballcap. They even make one in plaid he's got his eyes on.
While other kids were outside doing cartwheels, James Sitz was
memorizing all the city names in Civilization and meticulously following the directions to his Castle Lego
sets. When he's not slaving away on Plaid Hat Games projects, he likes throwing people,
eating burgers for half price, and short walks to specific points on the beach.
A graphic designer for about twelve years, David Richards finds soul
satiating comfort through the wanton torment of cute, tiny pixels. When he isn't preaching against the
use of heinous fonts, such as Comic Sans and Papyrus, you'll find him sobbing heavily beneath his
computer desk whenever Plaid Hat Games' fans (aka, "Dougs") give credit to the illustrators for his
graphic design prowess. A fan of all things geek, he became truly interested in boardgames when he was
introduced to the Milton Bradley title, "Mystery Mansion" at the age of ten. He has been doing design
work for Plaid Hat Games since the very beginning, working as the lead graphic designer for 'Summoner
Wars' and 'Dungeon Run', and as co-graphic designer for 'Mice and Mystics.' He even designed the
company logo. Don't act like you're not impressed!
John Ariosa is three babies sitting on each other's shoulders under a large
coat. John was trained as an industrial designer but spent all his time drawing spaceships and orcs
instead of studying human factors and market research. He started his career in the game industry as an
intern on Battleship Galaxies and since then has moved on to work as an illustrator on a number of titles
including Summoner Wars, Dungeon Run and Mice and Mystics. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his loving
wife and their herd of cats.
Isaac Vega is a strong, proud, independent woman that don't need
no man. He has an unhealthy addiction to Anime and has been black listed by Square-Enix due to his
obsessive fascination with Final Fantasy. After being introduced to Plaid Hat Games, by his overly
intrusive mother back in 2010, Colby has taken this budding designer under his wing and propelled Isaac
into the wonderful world of board games. Although he still considers himself somewhat of a noob, Isaac
just can't stop designing prototypes. With two games already well on their way to be released and a
plethora of others in development, Isaac Vega is truly becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Chad spent most of his early life ... well, doing nothing of any consequence. Growing up in a weird
mind control cult kinda sucks the ambition right out of a body... brain... whatever. After gaining his
majority and regaining (parts of) his own mind he went to college where he was once again brainwashed
by another cult led by the devious but brilliant Richard Garfield! He sunk so much money into that
game its truly amazing he could afford to get so fat! Food costs money, ya know!! But it wasn't all
for naught. Eventually, chasing Magic cards lead Chad to a game store where he was indoctrinated into
the miniature gaming community and he finally found a permanent prison..er ...home. Painting figures
lead to conversions lead to the idea that maybe he could sculpt his own figures. So he tried it and
finally he was free!!! Now he has sculpted two games for Plaid Hat, Dungeon Run and Mice & Mystics.
He has also been lucky enough to have had figures cast with Reaper Miniatures and Armor Cast. Glory be!!!
Peter Wocken wasn't like every other kid, you know, who dreams
about being an astronaut. To quote Peter on the subject, "I was always more interested in what bark
was made out of on a tree. Richard Gere's a real hero of mine. Sting. Sting would be another person
who's a hero. The music he's created over the years, I don't really listen to it, but the fact that he's
making it, I respect that. I care desperately about what I do. Do I know what product I'm selling? No. Do I
know what I'm doing today? No. But I'm here, and I'm gonna give it my best shot." Peter helped rebrand
the PHG website along with the help of our coder Joe. Peter is a freelance Game Graphic Designer,
and worked for Fantasy Flight Games as a Marketing Graphic Designer and Game Graphic Designer.
Alex Eding has an extreme addiction to spotlight. If he is not the
center of attention in any given situation, he is simply not happy. He also thinks he is hilarious. Alex's
background in music and his "snowball's chance" hopes of forging a career as a voice over artist
convinced Colby Dauch to bring him into the fold at Plaid Hat Games. Alex is the Producer and Editor of
the Plaid Hat Podcast. His shining personality and "face for radio" will lend him great advancement in
the field of podcast fame.
Joe Ellis was born in a DOS prompt and raised by a two-dimensional array of integers. When he was discovered by
scientests, he spoke no English and only communicated in binary. He stumbled along in life, lost in an endless recursive
algorithm, until he discovered board games, a critical communications bridge for Joe to the human
world. Eventually he traded in his native logic-based thinking for a couple liberal arts degrees, providing him
with the perfect combined skill set for running the Plaid Hat Games Web site. When not playing board games or
coding a new feature at PlaidHatGames.com, Joe's hobbies
include hanging out with his wife and other friends, and claiming Peter Wocken's work as his own.