Christopher Badell

Than Games, the St. Louis publisher he started in 2011 and, after a brief and character-building intermission, brought back home in 2026. His fingerprints are on far more than Sentinels. As publisher and developer, he brought Spirit Island and Compile to the tabletop world and helped shape them into what they became — though he’ll be the first to point you toward their designers, as credit matters and those games speak for themselves. Christopher believes tabletop gaming isn’t about optimizing engines or winning rules arguments. It’s about the shared story you’re still excited about years later. He builds games that make people talk to each other, scheme together, and despair in perfect harmony. When he isn’t actively designing games or managing the chaotic joy of running an indie studio, Christopher can be found at Webster University, where he teaches Analog Game Design and Crowdfunding to the next generation of tabletop creators. He also co-hosts a frankly unreasonable number of podcasts — including The Letters Page, the Play Greater Podcast, and Ludological Alchemy: The Hypothesis — dissecting everything from comic book minutiae to the deep philosophy of game mechanics. Above all, Christopher is grateful to anyone who has ever sat down to play something he had a hand in. He’s been making games about beating impossible odds since 2011 and beating those odds the whole time. He likes his chances. He always has.