Winners, honorees, and finalists are encouraged to use the logos provided here to celebrate their achievement. Media outlets may also use them in coverage of the Diana Jones Award. A package of web- and high-resolution images is available below. You’re also welcome to use any other images on our site to promote the award.
About the Diana Jones Award
The Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming was founded and first awarded in 2001. It is presented annually to the person, product, company, event, movement, concept or any other thing that has, in the opinion of its committee, best demonstrated the quality of “excellence” in the world of hobby-gaming in the previous year. It has been described as “the Nobel Prize of gaming.”
The Diana Jones Award committee is a mostly anonymous group of over 50 tabletop games industry professionals that includes game designers, publishers, creatives, and consultants.
Past winners of the Diana Jones Award include industry figures such as Peter Adkison, Jordan Weisman, and Eric Lang, the boardgames Dominion and Ticket to Ride, the roleplaying game Fiasco, the YouTube show TableTop with Wil Wheaton, and the concept of streaming tabletop RPGs known as Actual Play.
The Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming: This is the full name of the award. It’s also referred to in brief as the Diana Jones Award, and winners are selected by the Diana Jones Award committee.
Diana Jones Award Winner: The person, product, company, event, movement, concept, or thing that has won the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming for a particular year.
Diana Jones Award Honoree: One of several exemplars of a Diana Jones Award winner that is a concept. They’re mentioned by name in the press release for that year’s award.
Diana Jones Award Finalist: One of 3 to 7 people, products, companies, events, movements, concepts, or things that are mentioned by name at the Diana Jones Award presentation. One of them is selected by committee vote to be the winner. A finalist is equivalent to a silver medal or second place in some other awards.
Nominees: One of possibly several dozen people, products, companies, events, movements, concepts, or things that are put forward by Diana Jones Award committee members for voting. 3 to 7 of them are selected as finalists. Nominee identities are not released publicly.
About the Diana Jones
Emerging Designer Program
This program of the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming amplifies the voices of up-and-coming designers, with a focus on creators from marginalized communities, by featuring them during an expenses-paid trip to Gen Con. Its inaugural year was 2021.
Nominees: Unlike the Diana Jones Award, nominees are submitted by the general public. Nominees are not announced by the committee.
Emerging Designer Program Finalist: Finalists are selected by the Emerging Designer Program committee members and announced publicly (with permission).
Emerging Designer Program Winner: A designer selected by the full Diana Jones Award committee, to be showcased at Gen Con in a particular year, is called “a Diana Jones Emerging Designer” or “a winner in the 20XX Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program” or “a Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program Winner”. There may be multiple winners in any year.
CONTACTS
You can reach out to the Emerging Designer Program’s coordinators at edp@dianajonesaward.org, or contact the Diana Jones Award judging committee by emailing committee@dianajonesaward.org. Committee chair Matt Forbeck is at matt@forbeck.com.