Alan R. Moon (born 18 November 1951) is an

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

board games A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

, born in

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He is generally considered to be one of the foremost designers of

German-style board game A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game (generally just referred to as board games in Europe), is a class of tabletop games that generally feature indirect player interaction, lack player elimination, ...

s. Many of his games can be seen as board game variations on the

travelling salesman problem In the Computational complexity theory, theory of computational complexity, the travelling salesman problem (TSP) asks the following question: "Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible ...

Career

Moon has worked as a game designer for

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the compan ...

Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known as Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. It remained family owne ...

, and Ravensburger F.X. Schmid USA. His first published game was Black Spy (Avalon Hill, 1981), inspired by the classic card game, '' Hearts''. But his first game that got him attention was ''

Airlines An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in ...

'', published by the German company Abacus in 1990. He started his own publishing company, White Wind in 1990 and ran it until 1997. He now publishes his games through other companies, such as

Ravensburger Ravensburger AG is a German game, puzzle and toy company, publishing house, and market leader in the jigsaw puzzle market. History The company was founded by Otto Robert Maier in Ravensburg, a town in Upper Swabia in southern Germany. He began ...

and Days of Wonder. Since 2000, Moon has been a full-time freelance game designer, with dozens of games to his credit. Moon has won the

Spiel des Jahres The Spiel des Jahres (, 'Game of the Year') is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the purpose of rewarding family-friendly game design, and promoting excellent games in the German market. It is thought that the existence an ...

award twice, for '' Elfenland'' in 1998 and for '' Ticket to Ride'' in 2004; ''Ticket to Ride'' has won almost two dozen other awards worldwide.

Selected list of games

:''a full list is available from Moon's website in the

external links An internal link is a type of hyperlink on a web page to another page or resource, such as an image or document, on the same website or domain. It is the opposite of an external link, a link that directs a user to content that is outside its d ...

section.'' * '' Capitol'' with Aaron Weissblum (2001,

nominated,

Deutscher Spiele Preis __NOTOC__ The Deutscher Spielepreis (, ''German Game Prize'') (DSP) is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine ''Die Pöppel-Revue'', which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, profes ...

5th place) * '' Das Amulett'' with Aaron Weissblum (2001, Spiel des Jahres nominated, Deutscher Spiele Preis 10th place) * ''

Diamant The Diamant rocket (French for "diamond") was the first exclusively French expendable launch system and at the same time the first satellite launcher not built by either the United States or USSR. As such, it has been referred to as being a key ...

'' with

Bruno Faidutti Bruno Faidutti (born 23 October 1961) is a historian and sociologist, living in France, who is best known as a board game designer. Early life and education Bruno Faidutti studied law, economics, and sociology, eventually earning a doctorate in h ...

(2005) * '' Down with the King'' with Glenn and Kenneth Rahman (1981) * '' Elfenland'' (1998, Spiel des Jahres winner, Deutscher Spiele Preis 3rd place) * '' Get the Goods'' with Mick Ado (1990, Spiel des Jahres nominated, Deutscher Spiele Preis 4th) * ''

San Marco San Marco is one of the six sestiere (Venice), sestieri of Venice, lying in the heart of the city as the main place of Venice. San Marco also includes the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Although the district includes Piazza San Marco, Saint Mar ...

'' (2001, Spiel des Jahres nominated, Deutscher Spiele Preis 7th place) * '' Ticket to Ride'' (2004, Spiel des Jahres winner) * ''

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

'' (1999, Spiel des Jahres nominated, Deutscher Spiele Preis 3rd place)

References

External links

Alan R. Moon's website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moon, Alan R. Board game designers Living people 1951 births

Career

Selected list of games

See also

References

External links