Cole Wehrle

After graduation he worked as a manager of a group home for children with disabilities and as a research assistant. He then attended the University of Texas at Austin and earned his MA in 2012 and his PhD in 2017. While at UT, Cole was a member of the E3W interest group and the Digital Writing and Research Lab. His dissertation concerns how the experience of empire altered the way British writers imagined distances of time and space during the early and mid 19th century. It was directed by Samuel Baker and Neville Hoad. After his defense, he joined Leder Games in Saint Paul, Minnesota as a developer and game designer. His first game with Leder, Root, was crowdfunded in 2017 and published the following year along with its first expansion, the Riverfolk. Root was a massive success and has been translated into over a dozen languages. The following year he started Wehrlegig Games with his brother, Drew, which handles the publication of his historical games, crowdfunding Pax Pamir: Second Edition that fall. Pax Pamir released the following year. Its success allowed Drew to go full-time with Wehrlegig and provided them with the resources to tackle the second edition of John Company. While finishing up work on Pax Pamir, Cole helped develop Vast: the Mysterious Manor along with products for Root's Underworld Expansion. He began his tenure as Leder Games's Creative Director during the production of Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile. Oath was released in 2021 and its success helped Leder Games purchase its offices on Como Avenue in Saint Paul and further expand the staff. After Oath, Cole contributed to many projects from Root's Marauder and Homeland expansions to collaborations with external designers. Meanwhile, he and his brother Drew began work on the second edition of John Company which would be released in 2022. In late 2021, Cole began work on Arcs: Collapse and Conflict in the Reach and its expansion, The Blighted Reach. Arcs was released in 2024 to critical and commercial acclaim. He then collaborated with Zenobia finalist Jo Kelly on their game Molly House (2025). At the same time, he designed the forthcoming expansion Oath: New Foundations. In 2026 he left Leder Games to form a new company, Buried Giant Studios. He was joined by Kyle Ferrin, Drew Wehrle, and Ted Caya along with many of their longtime collaborators.