Wolfgang Kramer (born 29 June 1942 in Stuttgart) is a German board game designer.
As a young child, Wolfgang Kramer used to play games with his grandmother, and said he developed a positive attitude about games because "she always used to let me win."[1] Although he started buying games in his teens, he found there wasn't much variety, so he started to modify some rules. His friends enjoyed the new rules and suggested he design his own games.[1]
While studying commercial science, Kramer started to develop a racing game that didn't use dice for movement. While working as an operations manager and computer scientist, he developed his new movement system into an abstract game called Tempo, and published it in 1974. He later modified this game into a car racing game called Formel Eins (Formula One).[1] While still working full-time, he designed and published several more games, two of which won the Spiel des Jahres.
Kramer became a full time game designer in 1989. He has designed over 100 games, many which have been nominated for or have won the Spiel des Jahres. He has frequently collaborated with other designers, notably Michael Kiesling and Richard Ulrich.
In 1984, Kramer invented a player score track that ran around the perimeter of the board for his game Heimlich & Co.. This type of scoring track became a feature of German-style board games, and is called the Kramerleiste (Kramer track) in his honour.
Kramer is also an author of mystery novels, including Der Palast der Rätsel (The Palace of Mysteries) and Die Rätsel der Pyramide (The Mysteries of the Pyramid).
