| John Peake | |
| Nationality: | British |
| Occupation: | Game designer |
John Peake is a traditional board game maker and one of the founders of Games Workshop.
In early 1975, John Peake and his school friends – Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, who shared a Shepherd's Bush flat in London with him – wanted to make their own games; they chose the name "Games Workshop" for their company because it their intention would be to craft their games by hand.[1] Peake was a craftsman and began making backgammon games using inlaid mahogany with a cherry veneer and before long he started crafting sets for games such as mancala, nine men's morris, go, and tower of Hanoi.[1] Jackson, Livingstone and Peake began publishing the monthly games newsletter, Owl and Weasel (1975–1977), to provide support for their business.[1] Peake was not interested in the new role-playing game industry, and when he saw that Games Workshop was getting more involved with RPGs he left the company in 1976.[1]