Are these monthly showdowns still ongoing? If they are can you please redirect me as i can't find them.
TIA
Nich
Is this still going on?
Fri, 05/05/2017 - 08:03
Sun, 05/07/2017 - 19:37
#1
Was wondering the same thing
Are these monthly showdowns still ongoing? If they are can you please redirect me as i can't find them.
TIA
Nich
I think my entry was so epically bad that it broke the tournament :(
Sun, 05/07/2017 - 22:48
#2
Yeah, not so much.
Over the last couple years, the participation has had a lot of competition from external contests - personal kickstarter projects - and the low-budget nature of the GDS.
This year we tried to make it an "annual" competition with monthly challenges to encourage the design. Unfortunately participation (except Frank's!) hovered around zero. It pains me greatly, since the GDS has been around in some form for more than a decade. I'm convinced it's simply outclassed, and not seen as useful now that there are so many great, larger contests out there for designers to partake in.
That doesn't mean it won't come back in some form, but it died since there was no participation in what was a wholly community driven contest (community as judges and entrants, with the prize of community feedback).
Thu, 06/01/2017 - 10:51
#4
A bit late; I just stumbled
A bit late; I just stumbled onto this thread...
Are these monthly showdowns still ongoing? If they are can you please redirect me as i can't find them.
TIA
Nich
I think my entry was so epically bad that it broke the tournament :(
You weren't the only one that broke this, brother!
The GDS pulled me into this wonderful world of game design. Sad to see the end of an era sent off so quietly.
The reasoning why the GDS may not be as popular given today's landscape chock-full of contests and kickstarters makes sense. But can it evolve into something else?
Would offering the GDS as a monthly--or even quarterly--design charrette, as a creative exercise, still be useful? Would still be useful as starting point for design inspiration? Maybe I'm just being nostalgic. The "hobby" is growing in size and scope and design is becoming a more serious pursuit. Which means designers are more focused on projects with a potential payoff.
Still, I can hope for a GDS 2.0!
Thu, 06/01/2017 - 17:01
#5
GDS 2.0
Unfortunately, in the past new members drawn to BGDF for the GDS did not actually translate into GDS submissions. There was a consistent drop in participation. Here's a graph.
Regardless of the ideas tossed around, this was the result. The first real change was this year, and participation did NOT come up.
Chances are this will become a less frequent event, with a small partnership with tabletopgeneration.com
Fri, 06/02/2017 - 01:04
#6
I agree with Rich's sentiment
I agree with Rich's sentiment that external contests have been competing with the GDS. I did a good number of GDS contests back when I joined in 2014, but now I have been more focused on finding and entering contests for more refined projects with chances of getting published.
For example, the annual Ion Award contest at http://saltcon.com/ion-award/ is a good opportunity to get your game ideas in front of a panel of publishers, and there are regular contests at https://www.thegamecrafter.com. The Gamecrafter's regular contests have been a bit daunting for me because of their expectations for more polished artwork and going through the Gamecrafter's editor, though I'll probably give one a shot soon.
It's not always easy to stay on top of what contest opportunities are out there. Maybe bgdf could use a resource page for external contest opportunities (especially those that are recurring)? I've always found the occassional links to contests posted here to be helpful, and I wonder if the site might benefit from a more structured version of this.
Sad to hear i was looking forward to this as i thought it would drive me to improve design, writing, and rapid prototyping. I'll keep an eye on this thread and hopefully we'll see it back in some form soon =)