AVA GARFINKEL
RESUME
WORK EXPERIENCE
Hasbro - Associate Game Designer
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Lead Game Designer for Hasbro’s two franchise brands Monopoly and Clue, responsible for ensuring innovative, accessible, and high-quality gameplay experiences across all franchise expressions.
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Collaborate with major licensors including Warner Brothers, Mattel, and Disney to create licensed games that align with Hasbro brands and licensor expectations.
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Responsible for evaluating and developing inventor submissions across many categories including franchise, portfolio, preschool, and party.
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Work directly with the CEO on the design and development of a strategy board game to be used as an internal corporate training tool.
June 2023- Present
PROJECTS
Monopoly Go
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Designed and developed a board game based on the popular Monopoly GO app. Recognized by PureWow and Good Housekeeping in 2024 for best kids’ games.
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Worked on an extremely aggressive schedule to design, test, refine, approve, and manufacture product for an on-shelf date less than one year from project kickoff.
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Designed preliminary CAD with considerations for injection molding manufacturing.
Hasbro, Fall 2023
Monopoly Board Crawl
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Designed and developed an adult party game version of the classic Monopoly board game, working towards the broader company mission to expand Hasbro presence in the party game category.
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Worked closely with narrative, graphic, and legal partners to ensure consistency across Monopoly brand and clear differentiation from competitor game Drinkopoly.
Hasbro, Fall 2023
Little Chef
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Worked collaboratively with an interdisciplinary team to design and fabricate an electronic board game for children ages 7+ to teach the fundamentals of coding.
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Acted as lead designer to design, model, refine, and construct all game components.
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Created a project road map to guarantee a completed looks-like and works-like prototype within a 6-week timeframe.
MADE, Summer 2022
EDUCATION
Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design
Master of Art in Design Engineering (MADE)
July 2022 - May 2023
Brown University
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
September 2018 - May 2022
AWARDS + RECOGNITION
Hero of the Realm: Awarded internally to teams and individuals at Hasbro who have had a tremendous impact on the business. Received for my work on Monopoly Go.
Rising Start Innovator of the Year 2024: Recognized by the People of Play organization at the annual TAGIEs for my work on Monopoly Go.
Top 100 Most Influential People in Toy and Game Design Today: Recognized by Mojo Nation in their 2025 edition of the most influential figures working in toy and game design.