Danielle Reynolds: 'Honestly, games can be quite intimidating'

The award-winning game designer, podcast host and advocate on the state of the tabletop games industry and what goes into making a great family game

Danielle Reynolds with some of her credited games

Awards. Who needs ‘em. Not us here at The Generations Games.

Nah. We’re fine about not being able to have ‘award-winning journalist’ on our Twitter bio while others who write stuff titled ‘I went to an Aldi like a freaky working-class oddbod: here’s how I survived the ordeal’ gather 20 industry gongs a year.

Besides, we’d only trip on the stairs, Jennifer Lawrence-style, anyway. Or slap the host in response to an ill-conceived joke just before receiving the accolade.

So, anyway, it’s OK. Who needs recognition?

Well, someone who has picked up some well-deserved official praise is advocate, game designer, podcast host and director of the non-profit, diversity-promoting Tabletop Gaymers, Danielle Reynolds.

The HerStory co-creator, from Springfield, MA, scooped the rising star award at the Play Creators Conference in London last month for having 10 designs out in three years as well as her advocacy work.

Danielle’s busy. In addition to putting the finishing touches to family games such as Caution Signs and the upcoming, nudge-nudge-titled Balls!, and joining the advisory board of the Tabletop Game Designers Associations, founded by Geoff Engelstein, Elizabeth Hargrave and Sen-Foong-Lim, she also launched the Proud to Gayme podcast in May. This goes alongside other hosting duties such as on Game Design Unboxed.

Phew, so there’s a lot to go through. Luckily, Danielle’s been very generous with her time and sat down for a chat with us about these projects, the state of the tabletop games industry and what goes into making a great family game.

You’re hosting the Proud to Gayme podcast, which launched in May. What’s its mission? 

DR: It’s with Tabletop Gaymers. That’s the non-profit. We decided, because I already had podcasting experience, it would be a good idea, but also because there’s not a lot of podcasts in the tabletop queer space and we thought that would be an additional add-on to what our non-profit focuses on. Because I’m a director there, visibility is probably the pillar I can help with the most.

Each episode will feature either a non-profit, gaming group or individual that’s making moves that are productive in the queer space.

It’s a fun little project. It’s low-key compared to my other projects as this one comes out every month while the others are every two weeks.

I’m super-excited to get Isaac Vega talking about Rose Gauntlet. They’re a non-profit/publishing company. So on the non-profit side he puts on events that help women, the Big Gay Dinner, which is LGBTQ+ and also the Bipoc Lounge at GenCon, so he’s someone who is helping multiple minority groups in the industry, which I find frickin’ amazing.