Guests of Honor!
James Ernest: Owner and founder of Cheapass Games:
Cheapass Games is a small tabletop game publisher in Seattle, WA. We have been making high-quality low-cost board and card games since 1996.
James Ernest began his gaming career in 1993 as a technical writer for Wizards of the Coast. He has written the rules for Magic: The Gathering a grand total of four times. Unfortunately, none of these was the lucrative first time.
Burdened with an abundance of unpublished games and alarmed by first-hand exposure to the tribulations of traditional game publishing, he launched Cheapass Games in 1996 with the flagship title Kill Doctor Lucky. The slow start of Cheapass Games in 1996 is marked by the fact that Kill Doctor Lucky won the Origins Award for Best Abstract Board game of the following year.
For ten years, Cheapass Games released about twelve games per year, winning several awards and bringing light and joy to the hearts of dozens of humans. However, James Ernest was not able to pay his rent with light and joy. Thus, with a heavy heart and an empty bank account, James Ernest shuttered Cheapass Games, fired all of his staff, and retired into a dark cave called the computer games industry, in which he was forced to subsist on a massive paycheck and decent benefits.
After more than five years in his cave, James Ernest has re-emerged Willy Wonka-style, producing new versions of his old games. Can new games be far behind?
The world waits with bated breath.
Follow Cheapass Games on Twitter: @cheapassgames
Follow James Ernest on Twitter: @cheapassjames
Henry Lopez: President and Head Writer of Paradigm Concepts, creator of the Arcanis Role playing system
Henry Lopez is the President and head writer for the roleplaying game company, Paradigm Concepts, Inc. and an attorney. Established in the Fall of 2000, PCI launched into the RPG industry with Henry’s first professional creation as well as PCI's flagship line, Arcanis. Initially a d20 product, Arcanis grew in popularity by providing an engaging fantasy world where many of the standard tropes were completely changed or turned on its head. Relying on an enthralling storyline, full of mystery, suspense, and political intrigue, Arcanis came into prominence when it was the first non-WotC d20 game accepted into the RPGA, giving away over 150 adventures and events for free during a seven year period.
Henry Lopez is also the creator of Witch Hunter: the Invisible World, a swashbuckling, colonial horror game set in an alternate history which released in 2007 as well as the new Rotted Capes, a mashing of the Super-Hero genre with the popular zombie apocalypse. With the end of 3rd edition, it was decided that PCI should forge out on its own designing and releasing the Origins award winning Arcanis: World of the Shattered Empires game in 2010.
Very proud of the work he and his team have done and continues to do, Henry carries on writing prolifically for all the RPG lines PCI has released thus far, as well as being the lead writer on the Legends of Arcanis MMRPG, debuting its second story arc this summer at Origins 2013. Being the proud recipient of two prestigious Origin’s Awards as well as an Ennie for Fan Favorite RPG Company, Henry takes great pleasure in exploring the different fantastical worlds he’s created as well as conversing with the many new friends he’s made due to this, his absolute favorite and best side job he’s ever had!