John Heath
We are excited to be welcoming John Heath to this year’s Designer Alley at #G2S2026!
A little bit about John and HighLow, in his own words:
Auditor by day, budding game designer by night - I have been playing games and maniacally tracking game play statistics since 2012 upon discovering there’s more to games than Uno and Monopoly.
I live in Maryland with my spouse Carrie (pictured below), two adult children and two cats and seasonally spend time in New Hampshire.
After attending 7 years of Unpub Prime as a playtester, I finally decided to give game design a go.
In May 2025, I sent a friend (Jason Tremblay, designer of the components) a spreadsheet of colored, snake ordered numbered cards and asked, “Is this something?”
That evening the cards were mocked up, and two days later the first playtest of HighLow happened - the cards worked…the playtest was a mess. But, it seemed to be something.
Fast forward 9 months, 110+ playtests, multiple graphical & rules revisions, HighLow has become streamlined as a gateway game with classic feel, or a warm-up to an epic game night.
I look forward to Granite State board gamers blind playtesting to help identify any needed rules clarifications.
Three Random Facts about John:
He lived and worked in Switzerland for two years, and speaks French
Non-board game interests include running, reading, guitar, movies, 3d design and printing
Celebrated game he has yet to play (but would like to): Gloomhaven
JOHN WILL BE SHOWING OFF HIS GAME HIGH LOW IN DESIGNER ALLEY AT #G2S2026
HighLow is a shared grid-building game where players vie for prime turn order positions to influence the card placement, add bonus cards to the grid, and claim territory to earn points. While the lowest or highest played cards give players the best options, players stuck in the middle need not fret, as they gain consolation tokens which can be kept for end game points or turned in for upgraded cards to be played on later turns.
Find out more about John’s games at https://linktr.ee/jahrileygames
