Nicholas Fortugno

Nicholas Fortugno (born May 13, 1975) is an American game designer and educator. Fortugno is a faculty member at the City College of New York and is Director of the Digital Game Development program at that university. Fortugno is also CCO of Playmatics LLC, a New York City-based game development studio focusing on casual games and co-founded with Margaret Wallace.

Fortugno is perhaps best known for designing Diner Dash, a top-selling casual game developed by Gamelab, and the award-winning Ayiti: The Cost of Life. In addition to his large body of digital work, Fortugno has been involved in the design of numerous non-digital projects, including board games, collectible card games, large-scale social games, and live-action role-playing games (LARP).

Since 2002, Fortugno has taught game design and interactive narrative design throughout New York City, including at Parsons School of Design, School of Visual Arts, Columbia University, and Long Island University, finding a permanent teaching home at City College of New York in 2022. Fortugno is also a writer and critic of interactive and immersive narrative, writing for the immersive review site No Proscenium and producing his own substack, Immersed in New York.