Antoine Bauza (born 25 August 1978) is a French

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

. He designs

board games Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...

games and

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

as well as being an author of children's books.

Life and career

Bauza was born on 25 August 1978. As a teenager, he was very interested in

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

s, and wanted to become a

video game design Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

er. However, Bauza decided not to pursue video games as a career because he did not want to move away to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, where video game companies were hiring at the time. He instead decided to become a teacher. After reconnecting with friends who started to hold their own game nights, Bauza began making his first board game prototypes in 2003 during his free time while studying at the

Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres The Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres (IUFM; en, University Institute for Teachers Training) was an institution in each French teaching Academy (one for each region) which specialised in the training of primary and secondary teach ...

. An avid board game player, Bauza decided to start making board games in 2007. In 2010, he began working on board games full-time.

Board games

* ''Chabyrinthe'' * ''Draftosaurus'' * ''Ghost Stories'' * ''Hurry’Cup'' * ''Bakong'' * ''Pocket Rockets'' * ''Monster Chase!'' * ''Pony Express'' * '' Hanabi'' * '' 7 Wonders'' * ''7 Wonders Duel'' * ''Rockband Manager'' * ''Mystery Express'' * ''

Dojo A is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means "place of the ...

'' * ''Dr. Shark'' * ''Witty Pong'' * '' Takenoko'' * ''

Ali ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...

'' * '' Tokaido'' * ''The Little Prince: Make Me a Planet'' * ''

Terror in Meeple City ''Terror in Meeple City'' (Formerly ''Rampage'') is a board game created by & Antoine Bauza and published by . The game play involves using physical actions and various wooden game pieces to knock over buildings represented by cardboard tiles and ...

'' * ''Samurai Spirit'' * ''Victorian Masterminds'' * ''Welcome back to the dungeon'' *Last Bastion

Role-playing games

* ''Exil'' * '' Final Frontier'' * ''

Little Wizards ''Little Wizards'', also called ''Young Wizards'', is a 1987–1988 American animated series, created by Len Janson and Chuck Menville and produced by Marvel Productions and New World International. The series follows the fortunes of Dexter, a you ...

Video games

* ''Furry Tales'' * ''World of Lovecraft''

Awards

* ''Meeples' Choice Award'' (2010) for 7 Wonders * ''

Deutscher Spiele Preis __NOTOC__ The Deutscher Spielepreis (, ''German Game Prize'') is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine ''Die Pöppel-Revue'', which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, professionals ...

'' (2011) for 7 Wonders * ''

Kennerspiel des Jahres The Spiel des Jahres (, ''Game of the Year'') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence ...

'' (2011) for 7 Wonders * '' As d'or

Jeu de l'année The Jeu de l'année (French for ''Game of the Year'') was a French games award, given by the ''Association de Promotion et d'Evaluation des Jeux'' in October to outstanding parlour games * published during the previous year * published in the French ...

'' (2012) for Takenoko * ''

Spiel des Jahres The Spiel des Jahres (, ''Game of the Year'') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence ...

'' (2013) for Hanabi * Fairplay À la carte Award (2013) for Hanabi (in German)

References

External links

Antoine Bauza's designer page at BoardGameGeek

Antoine Bauza's designer page at RPGGeek

Antoine Bauza's website

Interview with Antoine Bauza (Little Metal Dog)

Interview with Antoine Bauza (Meeple Town)

Designer Spotlight: Antoine Bauza
Board game designers Living people 1978 births French game designers {{France-artist-stub