Standing on the bank of Lake Geneva in Montreaux, Switzerland.

I'm J.L. and I run Bent Pin, LLC, a one-person game design shop based in Covington, GA. I design small, quirky games that often contain a deep amount of play despite their box size. My goal is to remix traditional games into modern designs that delight and surprise players. I'm currently working to add to the next wave of infectious, heavier trick-taking games that demonstrate how the mechanic is more than just filler.

In addition to designing board and card games, I am a published short story and comic book writer, a former freelance tech journalist, and former professional DJ.

You can find me in Covington with my wife, Gwendolynne, sons Simon and Oliver, and two cats, Felix and Thea. In my spare time I enjoy reading Walter Mosley and Colin Dexter mysteries, traveling to France to spend time with my wife's family, and playing the piano and bass.

What Does "Bent Pin" Mean?

Growing up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains in North Carolina, storytelling is a part of my cultural DNA. Whether sitting by a devilishly hot wood stove listening to Uncle Roger and Aunt Shirley spinning wild yarns, or watching a guest storyteller enthrall me and a room of other, otherwise-rowdy elementary school kids with traditional Jack Tales or one of Br'er Rabbit's many antics, few things touch me to my very soul like a good story well-told.

Once, when I was in middle school, I found a book of slave folk tales on my basement bookshelf. As I flipped through the book, eyes gliding from story to story, one line arrested me. "I stepped on a pin. The pin bent, and that's the way the story went." This affirmation appeared at the end of several of the stories, and its meaning and power has sat with me since that day. A bent pin is a token that confers irrefutable proof of a completed action, an adventure undertaken and returned from, or even a joke or pun that birthed a laugh. It is the final accounting of the storyteller's performace.

The only thing that could challenge storytelling's hold on me is a good game. As a designer, I love emergent narrative the same as I crave intentional ones. Games don't only elicit play, but inspire stories. It's my hope that one of my games becomes part of your table's folklore.

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