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James Ernest


James Ernest is a game designer and professional juggler who has been designing and publishing games since 1993. He began his game design career writing and designing for Wizards of the Coast. In 1996, he founded Cheapass Games which has published over 100 original games. In 2003, he joined with Mike Selinker to create Lone Shark Games. He is also noted for being a good poker player among the various game designers who play at various trade shows.

Abridged List of Notable Games


1996 Kill Doctor Lucky
1996 Give Me the Brain!
1996 Before I Kill You, Mister Spy...
1998 Lord of the Fries
2002-2005 Diceland Series
2003 Light Speed (with Tom Jolly)
2004 Pirates of the Spanish Main (with Mike Selinker)
2006 Gloria Mundi (with Mike Selinker)
2013 Pairs (with Paul Peterson)


Note: This is a different person than James Arnold Albert Ernst (1916-1989), an American pulp artist.



Sebagai artist di boardgame

Pairs  [2014]

Pairs is the name of the game, and pairs of cards are what players want to avoid.

The game uses a 55-card deck that contains one 1, two 2s, three 3s, and so on up to ten 10s. At the start of the game, shuffle the deck, then remove five cards...

Fish Cook  [2012]

Fish Cook is a simple Euro-style board game in which players take the role of chefs. The game is divided into several "days" that have two parts: Morning and Evening. In the morning, players buy ingredients from the fish market and farmer's market; i...