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A helpful resource for all aspects of designing board games: game design, prototyping, playtesting, publishing, and much much more!

[GDS] DECEMBER 2013 "The Gifting Season"

Sun, 12/01/2013 - 17:00 — richdurham

We have a winner!

Christmas Crunch

The game of frantic shopping, partying, gifting, and regifting took first place by a slim ribbon! Fully tabulated results will be posted in the comments and questions thread!

December 2013 Game Design Showdown - "The Gifting Season"

Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.

Entries are in! Lots to look at this month. Take a read through below and send your votes to mindspike for tabulation.

December; the month of holidays, gifts and family. It should be a time of giving, and yet the games we play are "me, me, me! I want this wooden cube so I can build this token to make MORE WOODEN CUBES!"

We're going to challenge this a bit with the December GDS.

[GDS] NOVEMBER 2013 "The End is Near"

Fri, 11/01/2013 - 21:49 — richdurham

November 2013 Game Design Showdown - "The End is Near"

Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.

We have a winner!

The Housing Bubble

Edging out the other entries by a slim margin, The Housing Bubble takes the gold, while Quarreling Corsairs and The Last Castle tie for the silver. Check out the critiques thread for the points breakdown and join in the discussion!

The entries are posted!

**Please take the time to read them and then PM your votes to mindspike by the end of 16th.

  • Voting Format: Each person has 3 Medals (Gold, Silver, and Bronze - with values 3, 2, and 1 vote respectively) to distribute any way they choose among the GDS entries with the following restrictions:

    • Entrants may not assign any Medals to their own entry!

    • Entrants must assign all 3 Medals.

    • An entrant who does not assign all 3 Medals will receive a Pyrite Medal (-3 votes) as a penalty.

[GDS] OCTOBER 2013 "Balancing the Line"

Tue, 10/01/2013 - 15:44 — richdurham

October 2013 Game Design Showdown - "Balancing the Line"

We have a winner!

Wobbly Towers

Congratulations! Wobbly Towers ran away with the vote, garnering a medal from nearly every voter.
The full awards are posted in the Comments and Questions section.
Discussion is starting in the Critiques area. Join in!

Entries are in!

Take a look through the entries and have at them with your votes!

  • Voting: Through to the the 15th. PM your votes to mindspike.
  • Voting Format: Each person has 3 Medals (Gold, Silver, and Bronze - with values 3, 2, and 1 vote respectively) to distribute any way they choose among the GDS entries with the following restrictions:
    • Entrants may not assign any Medals to their own entry!
    • Entrants must assign all 3 Medals.
    • An entrant who does not assign all 3 Medals will receive a Pyrite Medal (-3 votes) as a penalty.

[GDS] SEPTEMBER 2013 "Oldest Game Ever Found"

Sun, 09/01/2013 - 13:01 — richdurham

September 2013 Game Design Showdown - "Oldest Game Ever Found"

We have a winner!

The Court of Mesopotamia

Congratulations to Parthon. Now head over to the critiques for some discussion, or to the comments area to see the breakdown of the voting.

Thank you entrants!

The extended deadline drew out a few more entries, so we have 5 interesting games for you to vote on!

Make sure to send your votes to mindspike by the end of next Friday, September 20th.

[GDS] AUGUST 2013 "Atomic Intelligences"

Thu, 08/01/2013 - 17:44 — richdurham

August 2013 Game Design Showdown - "Atomic Intelligences"

We have a winner!

Missile Dice took the gold medal position by very slim margin! Congrats!

Breakdown:
Missile Dice: Gold x2, Silver x2, Bronze x1
Where's My Lunch?: Gold x2, Silver x2
Strange Matter: Gold x2, Silver x1, Bronze x2
States of Matter: Gold x1, Silver x1, Bronze x4
Nuclear Family: Gold x1, Silver x2
Atomic Goats: Bronze x1

I know everyone's at Gen Con right now, but let's go talk about these games anyway!

It's time.

The entries are posted!

Take a look - even if you didn't enter, but especially if you did - and then send your votes to mindspike via private Message by the end of Friday, August 16th.

Voting: Award a Gold, Silver, and Bronze (worth 3,2, and 1 points respectively) Medals to your three favorite entries. Any entrant that does not award all three Medals will receive a Pyrite Meal (that's "Fool's Gold") worth -3 votes!

[GDS] JULY 2013 "Order of Play"

Mon, 07/01/2013 - 15:48 — richdurham

JULY 2013 Game Design Showdown - "Order of Play"

WE HAVE A WINNER!

School of Fish

Swam away with the lead spot with a full quarter of all the votes.
Runners up:
Dirty Business
Space Conquest
Agronomics

Now let's get over to the board and talk about them! Thanks for sending in all the entries this month, and here's to an unstructured rest of the summer!

[GDS] JUNE 2013 "Everyone's a Villain to Someone"

Sat, 06/01/2013 - 22:21 — richdurham

We have a ... tie!

The distribution of votes this time worked out into a three-way tie! This was unquestionably a difficult challenge, and big kudos to all designers who participated! Let's get ready to go big next month!

Entries are posted!

This was a tough challenge this month, and only three entries made it in to the June GDS. Flex those critiquing muscles and have at it! As usual, you have one week to read the entries and send in your votes. Votes are being tallied by Mindspike, so PM him with your votes by the end of Monday, June 16th.

Also, for a change this month, The Critiques thread will remain open during the duration of the vote to encourage discussion!

Remember the voting format!

  • Voting Format: Each person has 3 Medals (Gold, Silver, and Bronze - with values 3, 2, and 1 vote respectively) to distribute any way they choose among the GDS entries with the following restrictions:
    • Entrants may not assign any Medals to their own entry!
    • Entrants must assign all 3 Medals.
    • An entrant who does not assign all 3 Medals will receive a Pyrite Medal (-3 votes) as a penalty.

June 2013 Game Design Showdown - "Everyone's a Villain to Someone"

Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.

A lot of stories involve a hero saving the world. Sometimes a villain or catastrophe is going to happen and the hero must preserve the status quo, and others the catastrophe has already happened and the hero must fight to return the world to a pre-catastrophe, idyllic status. But what about heroes that are actively trying to improve the world, but they just differ in what they think an "improvement" is. Aren't they each playing hero to the other players' villains?

[GDS] May 2013 "Change, she is a comin'."

Wed, 05/01/2013 - 13:53 — richdurham

May 2013 Game Design Showdown - "Change, she is a comin'."

Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.

We Have a Winner!

-=&=-

Tymor

The Good Earth is coming back into her own!

Huge thanks to everyone who played this month; voting breakdown follows:

  • Tymor - 29%
  • Caterpillars & Butterflies - 24%
  • Kronopolis - 21%
  • Elemental Cycle - 19%
  • Merry-Go-Round - 2%
  • Rivers of the Underworld - 2%
  • Lir's Challenge - 2%

Now let's go talk about them!

Entries are posted!

There were seven entries to the May GDS, all posted below. As usual, you have one week to read the entries and send in your votes. Votes are being tallied by Mindspike, so PM him with your votes by the end of Wednesday, May 16th.

Remember the voting format!

  • Voting Format: Each person has 3 Medals (Gold, Silver, and Bronze - with values 3, 2, and 1 vote respectively) to distribute any way they choose among the GDS entries with the following restrictions:
    • Entrants may not assign any Medals to their own entry!
    • Entrants must assign all 3 Medals.
    • An entrant who does not assign all 3 Medals will receive a Pyrite Medal (-3 votes) as a penalty.

With Seth calling in the troops for backup, Mindspike and myself are taking over responsibility for the GDS. The rules are the same, the process is the same, only now you should PM (richdurham) with your entries. When voting time comes around, Mindspike will be your man. With that, let's get down to it.

(Relatively) IMPORTANT POST about the future of the Game Design Showdown!

Tue, 04/23/2013 - 16:28 — sedjtroll

The Game Design Showdown is one of my favorite aspects of BGDF. I remember when it started, as a 5-minute thing in the chat room, and then it grew to a week long design exercise. I'd hate to see it go.

Over the last couple of months I've noticed that I have had trouble posting in a timely fashion, and coming up with interesting challenges, and often times this has led to low participation. For that I apologize. However, I'd rather see the GDS re-invigorated than to quit doing it... but it appears I'm not the one to make that happen...

So, I am putting out the call...

[GDS] APRIL 2013 "Let's Get Kickstarted"

Tue, 04/02/2013 - 15:17 — sedjtroll

April 2013 Game Design Showdown - "Let's Get Kickstarted"

Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.

Entries are in!

Only 2 entries this time, so it's head to head!

As it turns out, both entries received the same number of votes! So we have a tie - 2 winners this month :)

I will open up the critiques thread. I don't know about anyone else (and by the participation in this month's challenge, maybe I'm alone in this), but I think Kickstarter dynamics are fascinating, and they seem like a great basis for a game to me :)

Thanks to both participants, MysticHobo and mindspike!

"Let's get Kickstarted - Let's get Kickstarted in here!"
(my sincerest apologies to the Black Eyed Peas)

Crowdfunding: Ever since Alien Frontiers and Eminent Domain knocked down the door, Kickstarter has become a major force in the hobby game industry. Crowdfunding has allowed many new games find their way to the marketplace, and has even provided a way for several small publishers to thrive where traditional publishing methods would have put them out of business even before they'd even started. Some people like this new evolution of the industry, and some hate it - but either way it's tough to deny that crowdfunding has become a fact of life.

This month's showdown challenges gives you the opportunity for some social commentary if you like. It challenges you to create a game which uses crowdfunding dynamics as a game mechanism. You don't need to actually make your entry about using Kickstarter, indiegogo, or any other similar crowdfunding site (though you could). But the entries should all feature dynamics and mechanisms that apply to the current crowdfunding craze.

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by Dr. Radut