Game Designer

Mike Selinker

Mike Selinker is a U.S. game designer active from 1998 to 2013, known for card games, word games and wargame-adjacent designs.

13 Games

Biography

Mike Selinker is a prolific game designer and founder of Lone Shark Games. He wrote for TSR, served as Creative Director at Wizards of the Coast and held a leading role at Avalon Hill. He has published puzzles and game articles in magazines and contributed numerous games. Our database lists 13 of his games.

Career

In our data Selinker is active between 1998 and 2013. His work spans collectible and card games, wargames and word games. Common mechanics across his titles include Dice Rolling, Hand Management, Set Collection and Area Movement; Player Elimination appears several times. He has frequently collaborated with James Ernest and also worked with designers such as Larry Harris Jr. and Bruno Faidutti.

Most Famous Games

Top titles include Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords – Base Set (2013; 6 awards), Pirates of the Spanish Main (2004; 3 awards) and Lords of Vegas (2010; 2 awards). Other notable games are Unspeakable Words (2007) and Betrayal at House on the Hill (2004). Ten top titles are listed in our data.

Design Style

Selinker's designs often combine chance-driven Dice Rolling with card-based Hand Management and Set Collection, plus area-related movement concepts. Recurrent co-designs with James Ernest influence several projects.