Our Vision

We started our company to get the chance to develop amazing games for a living. Everyone that works at or supports Helpful Goat Games has memories of the amazing moments that games can provide.

We want to help the world make more of those moments.

Our longtime experience with RPGs, across a variety of platforms, and our firsthand knowledge of the kinds of memories and experiences that RPGs can provide made them a logical starting place for our own game design ventures.

We have personally backed a number of Kickstarter projects, Patreon projects, and other independent game development initiatives. We are immensely glad to see the resurgence in independent game designers, and we’re excited to get to contribute to that resurgence.

We welcome you to our site, thank you for your attention, and hope that you are as excited as we are to take part in the Helpful Goat Games journey.

 

Our Team

 

Andrew Gilbert

Co-founder and benevolent dictator

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The creative force behind Helpful Goat Games, Andrew brings his expertise in research, philosophy, and literature to gaming. He helped found Helpful Goat out of a desire to share his creations with others who find gaming both fun and cathartic.

Andy’s PhD in Comparative Literature and his experience in film make him a unique designer focused on story and structure to build rule-based entertainment. Along with Galway, Andy has been a gamer most of his life cutting his teeth on NES and learning tabletop RPG systems when he was six. Such games have always been a doorway to making friends and an easy way to socialize. In fact, he would say that most of his friendships have begun over games, Galway included.

 
 
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Favorite/Influential Books

  • White Noise - Don Delillo

  • The Gone Away World - Nick Harkaway

  • After Dark - Murakami Haruki

Favorite/influential Video and Computer Games

  • Masters of Orion 3: Battle for Antares

  • Warlords

  • Xcom 2

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Favorite/influential board games

  • Dungeons and Dragons

  • Pandemic

  • HeroQuest

 
 

Galway Traynor

Co-founder and Non-benevolent Dictator

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Galway fills multiple roles at Helpful Goat, including Game Designer, Operations Expert, and Lead Writer. Galway founded Helpful Goat Games along with Andy to try to provide tabletop gamers with more outstanding options when it comes to enjoying his favorite pastime.

A long time tabletop and computer gaming enthusiast, Galway first played board games with his family, including Avalon Hill Strategy games with his older brother. Tabletop gaming continued to be an important part of Galway’s life, and he played with friends old and new through college and graduate school, meeting Andy in the process.

Galway understands firsthand the power of board games to add wonder, joy, and interest to someone’s life, even in the toughest times. He’s excited to have the chance to provide other gamers with the chance to make moments and memories shared with friends.

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Favorite/Influential Books

  • The Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov

  • Three Kingdoms - Luo Guanzhong

  • Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Favorite/influential Video and Computer Games

  • Mass Effect

  • Star Flight

  • Civilization

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Favorite/influential board games

  • Betrayal at House on the Hill

  • The Grizzled

  • Dungeons and Dragons