Francis Tresham (game designer)

Francis Tresham (1936 – 23 October 2019) was a British board game designer who produced board games since the early 1970s. Tresham founded and ran games company Hartland Trefoil (founded 1971), a company well-known for its Civilization board game, until its sale to MicroProse in 1997.^[1] His 1829 game was the first of the 18xx board game series^[2] and some of his board games inspired Sid Meier computer games such as Railroad Tycoon.

Tresham in 2011

Francis Tresham was the first to introduce a technology tree into his boardgames.^[3] This idea had a large influence on later board and computer games.

He was managing director of Tresham Games, which produced 18xx-style board games. In 2013, he was one of the first inductees in the UK Games Expo Hall of Fame.^[4] He died on 23 October 2019.^[5]

Published board games

• 1825
• 1829
• 1829 Mainline
• 1830
• 1853
• Civilization
• Revolution: The Dutch Revolt 1568–1648
• Shocks & Scares
• Spanish Main
• The Game of Ancient Kingdoms