James Ernest began his gaming career in 1993 as a technical writer for Wizards of the Coast. He has written the rules for Magic: The Gathering a grand total of four times. Unfortunately, none of these was the lucrative first time. Burdened with an abundance of unpublished games and alarmed by first-hand exposure to the tribulations of traditional game publishing, he launched Cheapass Games in 1996 with the flagship title Kill Doctor Lucky. The slow start of Cheapass Games in 1996 is exemplified by the fact that Kill Doctor Lucky won the Origins Award for Best Abstract Board game of 1997. For ten years, Cheapass Games released about twelve games per year, winning several awards and bringing light and joy to the hearts of dozens of hobby gamers. However, James Ernest was not able to pay his rent with light and joy. Thus, with a heavy heart and an empty bank account, James Ernest shuttered Cheapass Games, firing all of his staff, and retired into a dark cave in the computer games industry, from which he withdrew a massive paycheck and decent benefits. After more than four years in his cave, James Ernest re-emerged Willy Wonka-style, producing new free versions of his old games. Instead of Oompa-Loompas, he had gamers. And instead of saving them from the vermicious knids of Loompaland, he saved them from the high prices of mass-produced games. Or so he said! Now the care and feeding of the Cheapass Games product line has passed to Greater Than Games in Seattle, and James has once again retreated, this time to Crab Fragment Labs, a haven for his writing, design & podcasting projects.