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It’s Your Turn…

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

[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.

[GDS] MARCH 2013 "Turn the Tide"

Mon, 03/11/2013 - 13:45 — mindspike

We Have a Winner!
The votes are in, and this month's Game Design Showdown winner is.....
Waves of the Earth
by Munio

And the final tabulation is:
1st place (9 votes): Waves of the Earth by Munio
2nd place (8 votes): One Rule Word Game by regzr
3rd place (6 votes): Tide to the Moons by silasmolino
4th place (5 votes): Wormhole by GreenO
5th place (2 votes): Fox and Weasel by KrisW

Thanks to all of the game designers for participating in this impromptu game design showdown!
The Crtiques thread is open for business!

GDS Hiatus? OR community participation... Turn the Tide!

Tue, 03/05/2013 - 00:20 — sedjtroll

Hey all,

It looked like my last idea for the Game Design Showdown wasn't too well received. Sorry about that.

The last week has been pretty hectic, with a death in the family, other family in town, hell breaking loose at work, and the Dungeon Roll kickstarter blowing up. I have not had a minute to put together a challenge for this month, and from the looks of things, I'm not going to be able to.

[GDS] FEB 2013 "Class-ic Civilization"

Thu, 01/31/2013 - 21:03 — sedjtroll

February 2013 Game Design Showdown - "Class-ic Civilization"

Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.

One of the well known holy grails of board game design is a streamlined, 2-hour civ game. There have been many versions of civ games, from the old classic Civilization (and Advanced Civilization), to more streamlined attempts such as Tempus or Vinci. Through the Ages, Twilight Imperium, and the new Clash of Cultures are some more examples of long, detailed civ games, and there are civ games that are much quicker and more abstract such as 7 Wonders and Roll Through the Ages.

[GDS] JAN 2013 "Time Marches On"

Wed, 01/02/2013 - 21:03 — sedjtroll

January 2013 Game Design Showdown - "Time marches on"

Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.

We have a winner!

The votes have been tallied and the winner is...

The Tower

By Black Oak Games

Here's how the final votes panned out: 1st place with 13 votes: The Tower, by Black Oak Games
2nd place with 11 votes: PopulatiOn, by JustActCasual
2nd place with 11 votes: Faulty Towers, by bowling_m_h
4th place with 10 votes: Maya's Offer, by bike
5th place with 3 votes: A survival game, by regzr
6th place with 0 votes: Revolution, by Alumidon

Congrats to everyone who entered! The Critiques thread is now open for business!

Not only is it the start of a brand new year, but just last week the Mayan calendar flipped as well. Fortunately the prognosticators of the end of the world were a little off, and as it always has, time marches on!

Mechanic Restriction: Rondel with a unique twist.

Component Restriction: Non-trivial 3D Gameplay Element

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by Dr. Radut