Our Team
Southwest Board Games is a small studio built by two people who believe the best games start with a story and end with everyone leaning in. Between us are a lot of prototypes, a lot of notes, and one shared goal: make games people are excited to bring back to the table.
Katie Emerick
Founder & Creative Director
Katie is a lifelong game lover, storyteller, and systems thinker who has spent much of her career figuring out how people, ideas, and complicated pieces fit together. At Southwest Board Games, she turns that particular combination into games — dreaming up the worlds, mechanics, and tiny moments around the table that make people want to play just one more round.
She leads game design and creative direction, which means her desk is usually covered in prototypes, half-written card ideas, playtest notes, and the occasional new idea that refuses to stay on the sidelines.
Kelly Reynolds
Co-Founder & Director of Operations
Kelly is a people-and-operations leader with a knack for bringing order to ambitious ideas. After years spent leading teams, improving customer experiences, building better processes, and making sure the details actually get handled, she now brings that same steady hand to Southwest Board Games.
She leads the operational side of the company — production, logistics, vendors, planning, and all the work required to turn Katie's stacks of prototypes into games people can actually put on their tables. She is also an enthusiastic playtester, occasional voice of reason, and firm believer that a good idea deserves an equally good plan for bringing it to life.
Say Hello
We're still early on the trail, and we love hearing from people who are curious about what we're making.
You can also read more about what we're building or catch up in Trail Notes.