Alexander Randolph was a designer of board games. Randolph's game creations include TwixT

TwixT

TwixT is a two-player abstract strategy game invented by Alex Randolph. It is a member of the connection game family, along with games such as Hex, Havannah, Y, PÜNCT and *Star...

, Breakthru

Breakthru (board game)

Breakthru is an abstract strategy board game for two players, designed by Alex Randolph and commercially released by 3M Company in 1965, as part of the 3M bookshelf game series. The game has been compared to Chess and Fox and Hounds, although it shows more characteristics of the Tafl games of the...

, Inkognito

Inkognito (game)

Inkognito is a board game for 3 or 4 players designed by Alex Randolph and Leo Colovini first published in 1988 by Milton Bradley Company. It has since been republished several times including by the company Venice Connection established by the designers and Dario De Toffoli.-Play Overview:It is...

 (with Leo Colovini

Leo Colovini

Leo Colovini is a designer of German-style board games born in Venice 1964. His most popular game is Cartagena. He is one of the few top board game designers who has owned a game store....

), Raj, Ricochet Robot

Ricochet Robot

Ricochet Robot is a puzzle board game for 2 or more people, designed by Alex Randolph. The game was first published in Germany in 1999 as Rasende Roboter. An English version was published by Rio Grande Games.- Editions :...

, and Enchanted Forest

Enchanted Forest (game)

Enchanted Forest is a board game designed by Alex Randolph and Michel Matschoss that requires players to remember the locations of fairytale treasures...

 (with Michael Matschoss).

Personal and early Life

Randolph was born on a ranch by the Colorado River

Colorado River

The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...

 in Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

. He attended school as a Swiss boarder, studying Philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and Semantics

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....

.

Early Careers

Randolph spent many of his early years in various occupations, including military intelligence and as an advertising copy editor in Boston.

Game Developer

In 1961, Randolph moved to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and became a professional game developer, performing initial work on TwixT

TwixT

TwixT is a two-player abstract strategy game invented by Alex Randolph. It is a member of the connection game family, along with games such as Hex, Havannah, Y, PÜNCT and *Star...

. During this time he became a dan player in Shogi

Shogi

, also known as Japanese chess, is a two-player board game in the same family as Western chess, chaturanga, and Chinese Xiangqi, and is the most popular of a family of chess variants native to Japan...

.

Randolph moved to Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 in 1968, continuing his career as a game developer with the company Venice Connection established with Dario De Toffoli

Dario De Toffoli

Dario De Toffoli is an Italian board game designer, gamebook author and elite games player who founded the games company Studiogiochi and established many games events. Born in 1953 Venice, after an early career as Chemist he entered the world of games. Winner of over 60 medals at the Mind Sports...

 and Leo Colovini

Leo Colovini

Leo Colovini is a designer of German-style board games born in Venice 1964. His most popular game is Cartagena. He is one of the few top board game designers who has owned a game store....

.

Awards

Spiel des Jahres

Spiel des Jahres

The Spiel des Jahres is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the stated purpose of rewarding excellence in game design, and promoting top-quality games in the German market. It is thought that the existence and popularity of the award is one of the major drivers of the quality...

Game of the Year

1982 for Enchanted Forest

Children's Game of the Year

1989 for Gute Freunde

1997 for Leinen Los!

Special Awards

1996 Most Beautiful Game for Venice Connection

1988 Most Beautiful game for Inkognito

Origins Awards Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame

2011 induction as a designer

2011 induction of TwixT

TwixT

TwixT is a two-player abstract strategy game invented by Alex Randolph. It is a member of the connection game family, along with games such as Hex, Havannah, Y, PÜNCT and *Star...

External links

• Alex Randolph's games at BoardGameGeek
  BoardGameGeek
  BoardGameGeek is a website that was founded in January 2000 by Scott Alden and Derk Solko as a resource for the board gaming hobby. The database holds reviews, articles, and session reports for over 45,000 different games, expansions, and designers. BoardGameGeek includes German-style board games,...
  
  
• A Talk with Alex Randolph (1988 interview)
• An extremely brief biography and a comprehensive list of created games
• Biography translated into English