Gateway 2021 Guests
Jeff Siadek
Jeff Siadek is the designer of Battlestations, Lifeboat, Who Would Win? and a couple other dozen games that are even more obscure. Jeff's design sensibilities are focused on user experience and agency. His games are about living in a shared world for a brief moment that gives each player a chance to shine even if they eventually fail miserably. Life is indeed a cooperative game and we all win by making it better for one another.
Jeff has been a fixture at the local shows since the seventies and is thrilled to be back at his beloved convention.
Madi Jacobs
Madi Jacobs, (previously known as Matt Jacobs) is an Emmy award-winning software developer, comic writer, and the illustrious game designer/publisher of Stupid Users: BETA. Madi has been a gamer since the days of the Commodore 64. Her childhood was centered around D&D, learning to code, running a BBS (google it), finding every Easter egg in Mario, and creating stories.
Fusing her love of comic books, coding, and game design, Madi teamed up with her business partners, Mandy Jacobs and Brett Beers to form Dent Ventures. Their company spent three years developing and playtesting Stupid Users: BETA. They designed and iterated (literally) thousands of cards while receiving invaluable support and critique from countless play-testers across dozens of gaming conventions.
In the fall of 2018, Dent Ventures launched a Kickstarter campaign to successfully publish Stupid Users: BETA the game and graphic novel.
Her love for games and story continues. Madi and Dent are hard at work on two very different games; a dueling game based on a sci-fi western and a second battling game based on a futuristic space epic written by her father. She plans to begin play-testing early in 2022.