Ted Alspach is an American game designer and CEO of Bezier Games, Inc. He is best known as the designer of ''Castles of Mad King Ludwig'', '' Suburbia'',
''One Night Ultimate Werewolf'', ''
Ultimate Werewolf
''Ultimate Werewolf'' is a card game designed by Ted Alspach and published by Bézier Games. It is based on the social deduction game, ''Werewolf'', which is Andrew Plotkin's reinvention of Dimitry Davidoff's 1987 game, ''Mafia''. The ''Werewolf' ...
'', and ''
Werewords
''Werewords'' is a board game for 4 to 10 players designed by Ted Alspach and published by Bézier Games in 2017. Players guess a secret word by asking questions. There are different roles randomly assigned at the start of play. Villagers try to ...
''. Alspach is also one of the world's leading experts on '' Adobe Illustrator''. He served as its Group Product Manager for several releases and published 18 books on it over the course of 20 years.
Early life and education
Alspach was born in New York on February 1, 1968, and grew up in Southeastern Pennsylvania. He credits his father and grandfather with instilling in him a love of board games from a very early age. He received a B.S. in Marketing from Messiah College in Grantham, PA. While there, he founded and published a school magazine there, ''The Grand Tham'', funded entirely by local business advertisements.
Career
As a college senior, Alspach interned at Laser Graphics 2000, one of the country's first graphics service bureaus. This turned into an opportunity in system design and training as the small company transitioned into Teeple Graphics (which enabled printing and graphics companies to move from analog to digital tools). During this time, Alspach designed two popular typefaces: RansomNote and LeftyCasual, the latter of which has been used for branding for
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
Levi Strauss & Co
Levi Strauss & Co. () is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's () brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, to o ...
.
Writing
As a result of developing training curriculum, Alspach began writing reviews and how-to articles for magazines such as ''MacAddict'' and ''
Macworld
''Macworld'' is a website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG Inc. It started life as a print magazine in 1984 and had the largest audited circulation (both total and newsstand) of Macint ...
''. He published his first book, ''The Macworld Illustrator Bible'', in 1995, which contained a foreword written by Pierre Bézier. Over the next several years, Alspach wrote more than 30 books on graphics and desktop publishing, including the bestselling ''Illustrator
For Dummies
''For Dummies'' is an extensive series of instructional reference books which are intended to present non-intimidating guides for readers new to the various topics covered. The series has been a worldwide success with editions in numerous lang ...
'' series.
Product Management
Alspach worked at
Adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
as Group Product Manager for
Illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
and the
Creative Suite
Adobe Creative Suite (CS) is a discontinued software suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development application software, applications developed by Adobe Systems.
The last of the Creative Suite versions, Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) ...
from 1999 to 2006. He oversaw the release of Illustrator 9, 10, CS, CS2, and Creative Suite CS, CS2, and was responsible for many transformative Illustrator features including Live Effects, Transparency, Envelopes, and the integration of Adobe Dimensions 3D software into Illustrator. At Adobe, he also authored a patent for vector-based flares.
Alspach also worked in product management at Intuit and
Corel
Cascade Parent Limited, doing business as Alludo (pronounced like "all you do"), is a Canadian software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in graphics processing. Formerly called the Corel Corporation ( ; from the abbreviation ...
, as well as gamification software company
Bunchball
Bunchball provides a cloud-based software as a service gamification product intended to help companies improve customer loyalty and online engagement using game mechanics.Age of Steam''. He founded Bezier Games in 2006 with the release of ''Start Player''.
Alspach's games range from social deduction and party games to mid-weight strategy games. He has carved out a unique niche with werewolf themed games, from ''Ultimate Werewolf'' to ''Werewords'' to the ''Silver'' series of card games. Alspach is credited as having designed over 80 stand-alone games and expansions.
Bezier Games, Inc. now publishes many games designed by Alspach, as well as other distinguished designers such as Tom Lehmann, Freidemann Friese, Scott Caputo, and
Rob Daviau
Rob Daviau is an American game designer known for creating legacy board gaming.
Career
He has guest lectured at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, and New York University on game design and has been a visitin ...
. In addition to being the CEO of Bezier Games, Inc., Alspach continues to design new games and to develop titles from other designers.
Awards
''Suburbia'' and ''Castles of Mad King Ludwig'' won the Mensa Select award. His 2015 title ''One Night Ultimate Werewolf'' was on the Spiel des Jahres Recommended list due to its revolutionary app integration. In 2019, ''Werewords'' was a Spiel des Jahres finalist.
Game list
The following are the games and game expansions designed by Alspach, including original publication date:
*Age of Steam Expansion: Bay Area (self-published) ''2005''
*Seismic (Atlas Games) ''2006''
*Age of Steam Expansion: 1830s Pennsylvania / Northern California (self-published) ''2006''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Disco Inferno / Soul Train ( Bezier Games) ''2006''
*Start Player: A Kinda Collectible Card Game ( Bezier Games) ''2006''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Mississippi Steamboats / Golden Spike ( Bezier Games) ''2007''
*Age of Steam Expansion: America/Europe ( Bezier Games) ''2007''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Barbados / St. Lucia ( Bezier Games) ''2007''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Jamaica / Puerto Rico ( Bezier Games) ''2007''
*Ultimate Werewolf: Whitebox Edition ( Bezier Games) ''2007''
*Rapscallion ( Bezier Games) ''2008''
*Smarty Party - Gamers' Expansion ( Bezier Games) ''2008''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Secret Blueprints of Steam ( Bezier Games) ''2008''
*Ubongo Extrem Craxy Expansion ( Bezier Games) ''2008''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Vermont, New Hampshire & Central New England ( Bezier Games) ''2008''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Special 2008 Spiel Limited Edition: Essen Spiel & Secret Blueprints of Steam Plan #3 ''2008''
*Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition ( Bezier Games) ''2008''
*Start Player ( Z-Man Games, daVinci Games) ''2008''
*FITS Expansion #1: MOTS: More of the Same ( Bezier Games) ''2009''
*FITS Expansion #2: LOTS: Letters on the Spaces ( Bezier Games) ''2009''
*FITS Expansion #3: BOTS: Big Obnoxious Terrible Spaces ( Bezier Games) ''2009''
*Start Spieler (BeWitched Spiele) ''2009''
*Age of Steam Expansion: 1867 Georgia Reconstruction, South Carolina & Oklahoma Land Rush ( Bezier Games) ''2009''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Alabama Railways, Antebellum Louisiana & Four Corners ( Bezier Games) ''2009''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Beer & Pretzels ( Bezier Games) ''2009''
*Beer & Pretzels ( Bezier Games) ''2009''
*Beer & Pretzels: Purple Coaster Expansion ( Bezier Games) ''2009''
*Ultimate Werewolf: Classic Movie Monsters ( Bezier Games) ''2010''
*Ultimate Werewolf: Compact Edition ( Bezier Games) ''2010''
*Perpetual Motion Machine ( Bezier Games) ''2010''
*Age of Steam Expansion: California Gold Rush & Underground Railroad ( Bezier Games) ''2010''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Amazon Rainforest & Sahara Desert ( Bezier Games) ''2010''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Atlantis & Triland ( Bezier Games) ''2010''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Sharing & Really Friendly Sharing ( Bezier Games) ''2010''
*Ticked Off (R&R Games) ''2011''
*TieBreaker ( Bezier Games) ''2011''
*Ultimate Werewolf: Night Terrors ( Bezier Games) ''2011''
*Ultimate Werewolf Artifacts ( Bezier Games) ''2011''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Australia & Tasmania ( Bezier Games) ''2011''
*Age of Steam Expansion: African Diamond Mines & Taiwan Cube Factories ( Bezier Games) ''2011''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Outer Space & Reversteam ( Bezier Games) ''2011''
*Age of Steam Expansion: Orient Express & Disoriented Express ( Bezier Games) ''2011''
*Mutant Meeples ( Bezier Games, Pegasus Spiele) ''2012''
*Enter the Passage ( Bezier Games) ''2012''
*Suburbia ( Bezier Games,
Lookout Games
Lookout Games is a German board and card game publisher. The company published, among other games, the board game Agricola, which was honored with the ''Complex Game'' award by the German Game of the Year jury in 2008.
History
The company was fo ...
Indie Boards & Cards
Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Gaming
*Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies
*Indie game, any game (board ...
) ''2015''
*Castles of Mad King Ludwig Secrets ( Bezier Games) ''2015''
*One Night Ultimate Vampire ( Bezier Games) ''2016''
*One Night Ultimate Bonus Pack 2 ( Bezier Games) ''2016''
*America (with
Friedemann Friese
Friedemann Friese (born June 5, 1970) is a German board game designer, currently residing and working in Bremen. His trademarks are his green-colored hair and games whose titles begin with the letter "F". The majority of his games, self-publish ...
Werewords
''Werewords'' is a board game for 4 to 10 players designed by Ted Alspach and published by Bézier Games in 2017. Players guess a secret word by asking questions. There are different roles randomly assigned at the start of play. Villagers try to ...
( Bezier Games) ''2017''
*Ultimate Werewolf: Hunting Party ( Bezier Games) ''2017''
*The Palace of Mad King Ludwig ( Bezier Games) ''2017''
*Werewords Deluxe Edition ( Bezier Games) ''2018''
*Ultimate Werewolf Legacy (with
Rob Daviau
Rob Daviau is an American game designer known for creating legacy board gaming.
Career
He has guest lectured at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, and New York University on game design and has been a visitin ...
Bézier Games
''Bézier Games, Inc.'' is a privately owned American tabletop game publisher, known by hobby gamers for ''Castles of Mad King Ludwig'' and ''Suburbia (board game), Suburbia'', and known to casual gamers for the ''One Night Ultimate Werewolf' ...
) 2022
Book list
The following are the books written by Alspach, including original publication date (English versions only):
*Macworld Illustrator 5.0/5.5 Bible ''1994''
*The Complete Idiot's Guide to QuarkXPress ''1994''
*The Complete Idiot's Guide to Photoshop ''1994''
*Microsoft Bob ''1995''
*Internet E-Mail Quick Tour ''1995''
*The Mac Internet Tour Guide ''1995''
*Macworld Illustrator 6 Bible ''1996''
*Official Kai's Power Tools Studio Secrets ''1996''
*The Complete Idiot's Guide to Word on the Macintosh ''1996''
*Photoshop 4 Complete ''1997''
*The Complete Idiot's Guide to PageMaker ''1997''
*Acrobat 3 Visual QuickStart Guide ''1997''
*Illustrator Filter Finesse ''1997''
*Illustrator 7 Bible ''1997''
*PageMaker 6.5 for Windows Visual QuickStart Guide ''1997''
*PageMaker 6.5 for Macintosh Visual QuickStart Guide ''1997''
*ImageReady Visual QuickStart Guide ''1998''
*Illustrator Effects Magic ''1998''
*PhotoDeluxe 2 Visual QuickStart Guide ''1998''
*Illustrator 7 Studio Secrets ''1998''
*Illustrator 8 Bible ''1998''
*PageMaker 6.5 Plus for Windows Visual QuickStart Guide ''1999''
*PDF with Acrobat 4 Visual QuickStart Guide ''1999''
*PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 4 for Windows Visual QuickStart Guide ''2000''
*Illustrator 9 for Dummies ''2000''
*Illustrator 9 Bible ''2000''
*PageMaker 7 for Windows and Macintosh Visual QuickStart Guide ''2001''
*Illustrator 10 Bible ''2002''
*Illustrator CS for Dummies ''2003''
*Illustrator CS Bible ''2003''
*Illustrator CS2 Bible ''2005''
*Illustrator CS3 Bible ''2007''
*Illustrator CS4 for Dummies ''2008''
*Illustrator CS4 Bible ''2008''
*Illustrator CS5 Bible ''2010''
*Board 2 Pieces: Of Dice and Meeples ''2011''
*Board 2 Pieces: Something Smells Gamey ''2011''
*One Night Ultimate Compendium ''2017''