The Root publisher is rebuilding. Leder Games has appointed Johnny Dale as its new executive director, alongside a clutch of fresh hires, after January's bombshell departure of designer Cole Wehrle, artist Kyle Ferrin and a chunk of senior staff to form Buried Giant Studios.
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Find events near youDale is not a board game industry name in the usual sense. He brings nearly two decades of leading creative teams across advertising, media and pharma, and he is better known to gamers as the person behind Eize Basa, a popular social account that has been making jokes about the hobby for years. He has also been a long-time friend of Leder, which probably matters more than the CV here.
Dale arrives with company. Senior graphic designer Jody Henning (Trick or Treat Studios), director of operations Jesse Wertz, and graphic designer Adam Jury have all joined in recent months. It is a meaningful staff-up for a studio that lost about a dozen people earlier this year, including former operations director Ted Caya and several other longtime collaborators.
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See how it worksAs part of the January split, Wehrle took Arcs and Oath with him to Buried Giant. Leder kept Root, which still sits inside BoardGameGeek's top 30 and remains the company's commercial engine. The pipeline Dale inherits is more eclectic than the Wehrle era: Kart, a backyard soapbox racing game, Taylor Shuss's dexterity mech-battler Creature Control, and a fishing-themed economic eurogame currently going by Trawl. The studio also continues to support Vast: The Crystal Caverns, Fort and Ahoy.
"We have a great pipeline of games in development, and I think players are going to be very excited about what's coming," Dale told BoardGameWire. The first real test will be Gen Con in August, where Leder usually shows new prototypes.
Sources: BoardGameWire | Leder Games | Buried Giant Studios
