This is the website of the London-based games designer, critic, consultant and player James Wallis.

What’s James doing?

James is setting up a trade body for the tabletop games industry in Britain and Ireland, BIG TABLE, which will launch at UK Games Expo at the end of May 2026.

James designed the board game SE!ZE in collaboration with F1 driver Charles Leclerc, a project for the agency Baby Teeth for their client Chivas Regal. SE!ZE premiered on 30 April 2026 as a key part of the film launching the Chivas whiskey blend 16, also created with Charles Leclerc, which got over 5m views in its first twelve hours.

You can catch James at UK Games Expo (29-31 May 2026), where he is running the Big Table booth (4-862) as well as four panels: Humour in Games; the Spiel des Jahres; the Game Design Masterclass workshop; and the Big Table State of the Industry talk.

James has a regular column in the games magazine Wyrd Science, and contributes to Senet, Secret Passages and Tabletop Gaming. He is co-host of the games-analysis podcast Ludonarrative Dissidents, which is currently concluding its third series.

What has James done?

James’s latest book is Everybody Wins, an overview of the greatest board games of the last 45 years, and a history of the board-game renaissance and the Spiel des Jahres, the biggest games prize in the world. The book was published by Aconyte in the US and UK, and is also available as an ebook and audiobook. As part of the publicity for it James made multiple appearances on BBC Radio 4 and Times Radio, and edited a six-part podcast, with interviews of games figures including Reiner Knizia, Matt Leacock, Peter Adkison, John Kovalic and Leslie Scott.

He wrote a chapter in What Board Games Mean To Me, an anthology of personal pieces edited by Donna Gregory, released at the end of 2023. The same year he also wrote on board games for the Daily Telegraph and other print periodicals.

From 2020-2022 James was studio manager at The Green Board Game Co. Ltd., a UK-based games studio that is part of the Asmodee Group of companies. He was responsible for completely revamping, re-artworking and relaunching the BrainBox line of educational games to a global market.

Before that, he was director of the games consultancy Spaaace, which he set up in 2007, as well as lecturing in games design and interactive narrative at the University of Westminster, London South Bank University and the National Film & Television School, and writing about games for Tabletop Gaming magazine and others. Spaaace continues to operate but is no longer his primary focus.

He co-wrote the book Board Games In 100 Moves with industry legend Sir Ian Livingstone. It was published by Dorling Kindersley in 2019.

The Game Design Masterclass, James’s workshop in tabletop game development, has been running for eighteen years. As well as introducing thousands to the best practices and tricks of the art of making good games, it’s been used by brands, businesses and large organisations to teach team building, project management, and iterative development. It has been run across Europe and in the USA, as well as spawning a sibling series of workshops in Australia, and regular appearances for the King’s Trust, the National Film and Television School, and games festivals across the continent. It has its own website: www.gamedesignmasterclass.com.

James was narrative designer for Insane Robots, the XB1/PS4/PC card-battling game from Playniac that released in 2018 (Metacritic 87%).

Alas Vegas, James’s kickstarted RPG of ‘flashbacks, blackjack and payback’ launched to the public in early 2018, to strong reviews (4.7 out of 5 aggregate at OneBookShelf) and good sales. It is on sale through all good online bookstores, and in digital form from DriveThruRPG, where it is a gold-level seller, and at Indie Press Revolution.

The third edition of James’s game of competitive boasting The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen was released by Fantasy Flight Games in December 2016, to rave reviews. The rights are back with James now, though digital copies are still available from DriveThruRPG, where it is a gold-level seller, and print copies from Indie Press Revolution.

The bottom-up reboot of 1980s classic RPG Paranoia, on which James was lead designer, was released by Mongoose Publishing in 2017.

The seventh supplement for James’s story-telling card-game Once Upon a Time (co-developed with Andrew Rilstone and Richard Lambert) is ‘Fairy Tales’, and like the base game it’s available at all good games shops.

James’s favourite game remains Acquire by Sid Sackson, and he will play you anywhere, any time, and lose gracefully.