Design Educator & Co-founder of CAPABLE

Rayna works at the intersection of design, strategy, and learning building systems that help students think better, not just design better.

She has taught at multiple universities across India and worked with early-stage brands on building clarity in their voice, structure, and user experience.

She believes board games are where all design disciplines intersect, a space where strategy, storytelling, systems, and visuals come together, and every designer has a role to play. For her, it’s one of the most holistic ways to demonstrate learning while still having fun in the process.

Game Designer

Siddarth RG is a game designer, studio co-founder and NYU Game Center graduate currently based in Bengaluru. His work spans physical and digital games including Grind House (Board Game), Skadi Tower (iOS and Android), The Bog Arcade (Alt-Controller), and tabletop RPGs. Through a playtest-centric approach, he creates experiences that bring players together. Siddarth is currently working on his next project - while living life playfully.

"If you've ever made house rules for the games you've played with friends and family, you've already practiced game design! If you enjoyed that process of making, breaking, and remaking rules, you should definitely bring that energy to the table and join us for Game Makers 2026."

Visual Explorer, Studio Psysai

She discovered game design in design school and has been hooked ever since. With two published titles—Banana Banana and Honeyscouts—and multiple collaborations in the learning industry, she brings both passion and practical experience to her craft.

Her greatest joy lies in mentoring. She has led workshops from a few hours to ten days, in settings ranging from cafés to classrooms, guiding participants as they transform ideas into playable experiences. Her mentoring style is supportive, a little chaotic, and highly invested—perfect for young creators who are curious, adaptable, and excited to explore the winding journey of game design.

Digital Product Leader, UX Specialist and creator of RuleGPT

Franz is a Digital Product Leader and HFI Certified UX specialist whose work focuses on simplifying complex systems to improve user understanding and engagement. Through his work in product management and product design, he developed a strong interest in how clarity and structure influence the way people learn and use products — including tabletop games.

Franz has worked on more than 15 published rulebooks and has seen firsthand the challenges game designers face when translating a well-designed game into instructions that are easy to follow, quick to reference, and intuitive for players encountering the game for the first time.

He also founded Meeple Labs, an open knowledge-sharing initiative that brought together designers, publishers, and enthusiasts through seminars and discussions focused on board game creation and publishing.

RuleGPT was created as a specialised assistant built on OpenAI’s GPT framework with a clear focus on rulebook drafting, editing, and writing. It helps designers structure their rules, improve clarity, identify gaps or ambiguities, and iterate more efficiently — while keeping all game design decisions fully in the hands of the designer.

Educator, Founder Paradice

Dharita Y Soni is an educator with over eight years of experience and a master’s degree in Education from MSU Baroda. Her research on using board games to teach mathematics demonstrated significant experimental results and inspired her to launch a board-game education venture - Paradice. A board-game enthusiast, Dharita uses games to teach critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and other skills through engaging, interactive experiences. She runs regular board game events on Wednesdays and Saturdays at various cafés, offers private events on request, and delivers sessions for schools, colleges, and corporate clients.

Educator, Filmmaker, Community Builder

Shradha Jain is a trans-disciplinary design practitioner and has been deeply engaged in design teaching and community building through tabletop games across the country. Her teaching portfolio encompasses a wide range of subjects, including fundamentals of game design, gamification, design thinking, introduction to digital board games, ethnographic research, documentary production and study of social ecology. She has played a pivotal role in establishing tabletop game libraries with a diverse collection of titles, fostering a culture of gaming within the academic and non-academic communities. Her game on history of Indian Coffee was shortlisted for the semi-finals of Zenobia Awards-II in 2024 and she is also the recipient of Gen Con participation grant for the years 2024 and 2025.

Playing is more than just fun and designing for play is a great way to learn what makes you happy. I firmly believe in the process driven engagement and would encourage everyone to embark on their journey of designing for play.

Founder - The Hive
Co-founder - Unboxed Board Game Club

Kruti Shah’s tryst with Euro-style board games began over a decade ago in 2015, when she got introduced to Ticket to Ride one fine February evening. What started as a means to reclaim "me time as a new mother," quickly turned into a deep and enduring passion. Over the years, she has witnessed the tabletop gaming ecosystem in India evolve — with new games, mechanics, designers, and an ever-growing community of players entering the fold.

Through this journey, Kruti has played 500+ games across 70+ titles (and is counting), discovering not just the joy of play but also the powerful learning and social experiences games create. She firmly believes in hands-on, experiential learning through games, and actively introduces children aged 5–12 to the hobby while encouraging families to join in.

At The Hive, a creative space fashioned from her childhood home, Kruti runs regular gaming initiatives that bring together beginners and enthusiasts alike. What began as small community game nights has now grown into a larger movement. In February 2024, she, along with regular gamers at The Hive, co-founded the Unboxed Board Game Club, which has since hosted two editions of the Unboxed Game Fest (UGF), organised 100+ Saturday game nights, and curated retreats and tournaments for its members.

A marketing communications professional with nearly fifteen years of experience across academia and industry, Kruti is also an author. Her works include the medical thriller The Aquila Trials and texts on marketing communications.

Kruti’s vision is to make board gaming a meaningful and joyful ritual for families, turning game tables into spaces for bonding, conversation, and shared discovery.

Hacker by day, Gamer by night

A hacker by profession and an explorer by disposition, Saumil is the founder and CEO of Net Square, providing cutting edge information security services to clients across the world.

An internationally recognised speaker and instructor, Saumil spends his leisure time breaking software, enjoying sci-fi, playing board games, flying kites, trekking, travelling, and taking pictures.

My motto is - Go big, or go home!

Co-founders, Mozaic Games

Phalgun Polepalli and Shwetha Badarinath are the co-founders of Mozaic Games, one of India’s leading modern tabletop publishers, dedicated to sharing Indian stories through meaningful and engaging play. Together, they have built a strong portfolio of culturally rooted, globally relevant strategy and card games, helping position India on the international tabletop map.

Phalgun has been recognized as one of the Mojo Nation Most Influential Top 100 in the World for three consecutive years, reflecting their growing global impact. Beyond publishing, they co-organise TTOX (Tabletop Expo) — India’s largest tabletop gaming convention — and GAMX (Game Makers Expo), a platform focused on nurturing designers, publishers, and creators across the country.

In 2026, they led Mozaic’s landmark collaboration with Hombale Films to develop the officially licensed Kantara strategy card game, marking a major milestone in bringing iconic Indian cinematic IPs into the tabletop space.

Founder and Lead Designer, Zenwood Games

Sidhant Chand is the Founder and Lead Designer at Zenwood Games, a modern board game design, development, and publishing house based in Mumbai, India. With a commitment to creating engaging, intelligent, and meticulously crafted games, Sidhant embraces the motto: Home-Grown Inspiration, World-Class Design.

Over the course of his career, Sidhant has designed and published nine tabletop board game titles, many of which are recognized among the top games from the Indian subcontinent on BoardGameGeek (BGG). His standout creation, Tycoon: India 1981, is a deeply strategic economic game that delves into India’s industrial and policy landscape, captivating players across India, Europe, and North America. Other notable titles include Chai Garam, Parikrama, and Lakshadweep, all designed to uplift and represent Indian themes within the modern international tabletop game industry.

In addition to his work in publishing, Sidhant is passionate about game design education, mentoring, and community building. He frequently conducts talks and workshops on game design, development, and creative entrepreneurship, offering students practical insights gained from his experiences in building independent creative ventures in India. His approach emphasises thoughtful design, iteration, and long-term thinking, providing a grounded perspective on creativity at the intersection of culture, systems, and play.

Founder and Lead Designer, Kheo Games

Andy Desa is a board game designer who loves participating in Board Game Design Contests. He has won two game design contests: the 2020 Design Machine Contest for 12 Parsecs and the 2020 Feline and Wildlife Rescue Game Jam for Roll n Feed.

He is closely associated with Kheo Games, a Goa-based board and card game publisher. He co-designed Go Goa (2021) with Suyog Kamat, a roll-and-write game paying homage to the tourist destinations of Goa. His most high-profile published design is Nayakas, an asymmetric worker placement game published by GoIndia Games.

Andy is also a member of the India Board Game Designers Collective, where he served as an administrator for their 2025 Kickstarter campaign.

Professor, IIT Gandhinagar

Growing up with a love of puzzles and Martin Gardner’s books, Jyothi Krishnan pursued a PhD in mechanics and mathematics before returning to her long-standing passion for recreational mathematics. Her diverse professional background spans work as a programmer, bridge engineer, research mathematician, and school teacher. During her PhD, she discovered modern board games and later ran a game lab for children in Bangalore, teaching mathematical reasoning through play.

At IITGN, games form the centre of her teaching, research, and design practice. She offers courses on combinatorial game theory and the mathematics of games, curates and redesigns low-cost games for classroom use, and continues to develop new ones. Rahee, created with her team, won first prize in the Game in Development category at the 2024 European Conference on Game-Based Learning.