About me

I'm Robert @StartPlayer, a board game designer and games app developer based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. By day I'm a mobile app developer, but I'd love to design board games full time instead — and move to Italy.

I've been involved in the modern board game hobby since 2004. Before that I'd been a teenage tabletop wargamer. I fell out of love with that hobby in 2003 when I saw someone try to win a line of sight argument with a laser pen. Through that group I learned Diplomacy, which took me into playing online and finding people who had a whole selection of new and exciting games from Germany. I loved how the rules were clear — no line of sight arguments, no tug of war with a tape measure to see if a unit is in range.

I first properly got into designing around 2019 after trying out prototypes at the Playtest Area at Airecon. I thought "I could have a go at this" — and haven't stopped since. During Covid I got very involved in online playtest groups and am now a regular at PlaytestUK meet-ups in the North of England.

I design games across all weights — from light and quick to heavy and thinky. I enjoy games of all lengths; all I care about is that my decisions matter. I'm drawn to games with strong player interaction and just the right amount of personal suffering to keep things enjoyable. If I don't leave a game with a feeling of some regret about my choices, then I've not enjoyed it.

When I'm not designing games I play far too much poker, and I'm learning Italian — I passed CILS A2 and I'm working towards CILS B1 in December 2026. I like to visit friends in Rome. I'm practising boardgames vocab a lot and would love to do playtesting there. I'm also coeliac and love to bake gluten-free treats.

You can regularly find me at Playtest UK Leeds or at Beyond Monopoly in York.

Other fun facts about me:

• I once played bassoon in the world's largest orchestra.
• In 1993 (I think) I was voted "best Mega-zine writer" on an old Teletext page, under the pseudonym The Air Freshener Man.
• I used to perform live around Leeds as a one-man music act called The Air Freshener Man, using a 4-track cassette recorder, a handheld fan, my own shelf, and a stuffed toy penguin.
• I won £750 on defunct Channel 5 quiz show BrainTeaser.
• I've been on winning teams for both the Airecon and Tabletop Scotland board games pub quiz.