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.

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!

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.

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.