About Restoration Games

Rob and I started Restoration Games after a long talk about some of our favorite games from our childhood.

We went back and forth recalling great old games. “Remember this one?” “Oh yeah, I played that for hours!” We wanted today’s gamers to have a chance to experience some of these lost gems. As we started planning, we knew we couldn’t just reprint these games. Many had deep flaws or a simple disconnect with current gaming sensibilities or they would just be impossible to get the rights to. We would have to tweak them, modernize them … restore them. And so the idea for Restoration Games was born.

In building Restoration Games, we followed a few guiding principles:

Every Game Deserves Another Turn: There are many excellent game companies out there, making hundreds of excellent games every year. If all we were looking for were excellent games, we wouldn’t need to start our own company—we’d just buy those. Our goal is to find games lost to time and bring them back for another run. These are games that new gamers will love to discover and long-time gamers will love to share with their friends and family. We look for games that:

  • were published in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s (with an occasional dip into the early 2000s);
  • have been out of print for at least 10 years;
  • make you say: “Oh, yeah, I remember that game!”

Make Great Games: When restoring games, we want do justice to them and also give our customers the greatest value we can. When restoring a game, this “extra turn” gives us a chance to take the stuff we like and really make it the star. (Oh, and quietly discard the outdated stuff that’s not really working for us.) Our restoration process results in games that:

  • are accessible, approachable, medium-weight;
  • have the highest quality components;
  • reward repeat plays.

Do Good Works: We believe that making great games is itself a noble pursuit. Great games bring people together with laughter, and they create stories that persist in our memories long after the box goes back on the shelf. That spirit drives everything we do and why we are committed to:

  • ensuring our games are accessible to differently abled players;
  • representing all kinds of people in our art;
  • donating a portion of our profits to our charitable partners.

We are also committed to listening to our fans and our critics alike. We encourage you to let us know how we are doing, hold us to these standards we set for ourselves, and—if you feel like it—just say hi.

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The Team

JUSTIN JACOBSON

Board Game Necromancer

Justin@Restorationgames.com

Justin is an attorney. Damn good one. But mostly he loves games. So, after 20 years in the halls of justice, he gave that all up to start Restoration Games. How’s that going? You can tell the answer by the big grin on his face. Justin lives in South Florida with his wife (a “real” attorney), his two daughters, their dog Shyann (lab-whippet mix), and Laurel the cat (ragdoll). Between Justin and Rob, Justin is definitely the better cook. Game-wise, Justin likes to play all sorts of games from heavy Euros to pure Ameritrash, kids games with the kids, solo games with, well, himself. His favorite game of all time is Robinson Crusoe by Ignacy Trzewiczek, published by Portal Games. (But his second favorite game is Pandemic Legacy: Season 1.) Justin runs the day-to-day operations of Restoration Games, which means that when something goes wrong, it’s his fault. But don’t worry, he’ll fix it!

ROB DAVIAU

Chief Restoration Officer

Rob is a game designer and has been for more than two decades now. As Chief Restoration Officer at Restoration Games, his job is to find old games, fall in love with them again, and then edit and polish them for modern times. This means playing a lot of old games, which is a burden but someone has to do it. Rob lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and kids (although one is going off to college!) and designs original games in addition to restoring old ones. He has a passion for baseball and history, even so far as to have his college degree in Classical Civilizations. Rob has been a professor, copywriter, and PROFESSIONAL COOK, JUSTIN. He cut his teeth on 1st Edition AD&D and never stopped being a gamer.

JASON TAYLOR

Visual Restoration Wizard

 Despite his obvious lack of rhythm Jason is known to rock a nasty air drum solo in the middle of a brainstorm session. This explains the numerous dents on his Wacom pen and pencils. Jason brings that same enthusiasm into all his design and illustration projects. But of all the projects he’s ever worked on, board games are by far his favorite. No other project offers such a large and varying canvas to paint stories onto. His favorite game is a toss-up between Settlers of Catan (when he can convince 2 out of 3 of his kids to play), Heroscape, and Star Wars: Escape From Death Star (1977) (the first board game he ever played). Jason handles all of the art direction and graphic design for us. Basically, he is the guy who makes all of our stuff look amazing. And he has graciously offered to judge the cook-off between Rob and Justin.

LINDSAY DAVIAU

Production Superhero

Lindsay Daviau began her illustrious career in tabletop games at Hasbro, where she served as graphic designer and art director on projects such as Heroscape, Sorry Sliders, Bop It!, Guess Who, and many more. She began working with Restoration Games to help out during the hectic production schedule on the company’s first three games and quickly revealed herself to be invaluable. As Production Superhero, she not only helps make the games look good, she makes sure they get done right and on time. Just so happens, the company’s CRO, Rob Daviau, is her husband. So she’s officially banned from judging the cook-off. Sorry, that’s just the way it is.

SUZANNE SHELDON

Master-Of-Fireworks

In the dark drear that is the Internet, Suzanne is a bucketful of sunshine. She has been a vocal advocate for inclusiveness, diversity, and accessibility in the hobby —- core principles of Restoration Games. As Master of Fireworks, she makes sure people take notice of everything we’re doing and that we put on a good show, from our digital face to community outreach to convention presence. As for the cookoff, she has one thing to say: “May the best pie win!”

JENN SKAHEN

Chaos Wrangler

Jenn wrangles the chaos.

NOAH COHEN

Epic-Level Excelomancer

Summoning the pivot tables.

BRIAN NEFF

In-House Time Traveler

Brian got his start in video games but soon realized the tabletop world was for him. Since 2016, he has been melding story and mechanics together to make games come alive. Brian has worked with Restoration Games since 2019 as the In-House Time Traveler, updating games that came out before he was born. His job is to make sure all the rules and story fit into the updated box, in part by shaving off the prickly bits through tons of playtesting. When it comes to the cookoff, as long as he gets to eat good food, he’s happy.

STEPHEN BAKER

Petit General

Manning the Gribeauvals.

IAN REED

The Technicolor Wrench

As a classic car enthusiast, Ian sees the similarities between cars and games — both mechanical works of art. That is his approach when he restores cars and and games. Ian found his calling “in the paint booth” creating art files, alongside Jason and Lindsay, making sure games and marketing are ready to roll. Ian got started in the games industry in the late 90’s, working for Wizards of the Coast retail, running Friday Night Magic and Warhammer leagues. This started his motor towards game design, and led to his own wooden abstract game, Convert. Ian spent 6 years doing graphic design, illustration ,and game development for Breaking Games. He was also their point of contact for conventions and trade shows. Today, you might hear him roaring around the Philadelphia suburbs in his diesel-swapped ‘95 jeep, pretending he’s one of the cars in Thunder Road: Vendetta.

JOSH WILLENBRINK

Meeple Mover

Josh gets games on tables. When he is not creating a shipping plan or updating a dataset, you can often find him playing board games, building his comic collection, or discovering new music. Josh has a particular interest in collecting banned and ‘pre-code’ horror comics from the 50s. When not investing time into his hobbies, he also loves to meet new people and learn about their experiences. Josh’s friends often describe him as “not funny” and “from Ohio.”

JOSH HEAKE

Frown Inversion Engineer

While not working in the frown mines, Josh H. works as a freelance writer and editor for ttrpgs. He’s specialized in support class skills in the board game industry, helping a variety of companies with customer service and conventions. He also is an axe throwing coach, and competes in axe and knife throwing tournaments. He regularly checks if his friends are ghosts, and if they’re hydrated.

BETH ERIKSON

Lead Marketing Alchemist

Beth is a weaver of stories, organizer of chaos, and a hoarder of knowledge. She’s an eclectic individual whose journey took her through fashion design, book publishing, video games, and tabletop, including work on the Pandemic game line, launching Pandemic 10th Anniversary and Pandemic Legacy Season 0, along with licensed versions of Love Letter with Marvel and Lucasfilm. A proud geek, her shelves overflow with books, games, figures, and fan art of all categories —a delightful curse that feeds into ever-growing wishlists. She loves picking up new crafts and is exploring the art of bookbinding. Often called the “mom friend,” she’s a meticulous planner, diving deep into research (ask her about Doctor Who) and creating spreadsheets to track entertainment consumed or travel plans. Beth believes everyone should be welcome at the table and passionately continues to create positive, open-minded spaces in gaming.