Isaac Childres
Isaac Childres
He/Him
Owner / Lead Game Designer
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 their 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.
My Design Philosophy
Cephalofair Games makes epic board games that break the mold. People like to fit games into categories they can easily understand: heavy games, light games, deck-builders, dungeon-crawls. But I have no desire to fit my games into predefined holes.
My design philosophy is start a project with a strong, thematic concept, and build the game organically from there, integrating fun mechanics where they fit naturally. The end goal is to create epic game experiences that are approachable, but also reward strategy and planning over luck and randomness.
I want players to get the following from my games:
- Accessibility when playing for the first time.
- Room to expand and refine strategies over many repeated plays.
- Many opportunities for deep decision making and a minimization of randomness.
- Challenging and complex systems to explore.
If this sounds like a good time to you, I encourage you to check out some of my games.