Zach Gage

Zach Gage is an independent game designer based in New York City who makes deep games that are easy to get into, often by taking a classic game and changing only its tools or starting conditions. He is best known for SpellTower, Really Bad Chess (2016), which gives each player a random set of pieces, Sage Solitaire, Good Sudoku, and Knotwords, a clue-less crossword puzzle made with collaborator Jack Schlesinger that later came to Apple Arcade as Knotwords+.

Gage and Schlesinger also co-founded Puzzmo, a daily puzzle site that combines classic crosswords with Gage's own games and new titles, with Schlesinger building many of the puzzle generators. Gage runs a newsletter and Discord for players and shares his design thinking in interviews and AMAs.