Alan Stone – Stonemaier Games

Alan Stone

Alan Stone (he/him) has been a boardgame player and fan since early childhood. At some point there was a realization that all the available games were just a matter of dice rolls, knowing trivia or acting silly all with a touch of strategy kicked in. These were all fun, but they lose steam after a while.

Then came chess, the perfect game because there is no luck and every game is different, but chess has an enormous learning curve and most people don’t play it. Alan wanted to play games with friends, but the market just didn’t seem to have the right fit.

Then Alan was introduced to a flood of new games within the span of a year. Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico, Carcassonne, and finally Agricola. All beautifully crafted strategy games with ever more diminishing reliance upon luck and a game that changes every time it’s played.

These new games had an enormous impact on Alan, as his social life got a little more geeky the gears began to turn on game creation. Meeting Jamey and collaborating on Viticulture has given Alan a creative outlet that can’t be matched anywhere else. Game creation is a joy as there is no problem that cannot be fixed with creativity and playtesting.

Alan grew up in central Missouri and now lives in St. Louis with his wife Erin, sons Eliot and Alex, cat (Blender), and dog (Felix).

Here’s a video featuring Alan’s favorite games (as of late 2020).