August 2012 Game Design Showdown - "Grow up!"

Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.

And we have a winner!

I apologize for the delay, Gen Con was a blast. I now return you to your regularly scheduled GDS award ceremony...

1st place, with 13 points, Sociopathy by Taffer
2nd place, with 10 points, Fighting Trolls by melx
3rd place, with 9 points, What kills me makes me stronger by Gizensha
Other entries and their points:
6 points: Glenco by dobnarr
5 points: Urbs Salinarum by Mathew Rogers
5 points: Roll over Mars by regzr

Congrats to the winners! The critiques thread is now open for business!

Growth of scale: One of the things that I think can really give a game an epic feel is an increase in scope. Where the late game dynamics are bigger than in the early game and encompass much more... stuff. This month's Showdown challenges you to create a game that increases significantly in scope from beginning to end.

Pieces that scale: Most games have pieces (cards, tiles, and other bits) that are the same every time you play them. To go along with this month's theme of "growing up," entries must include pieces (cards, tiles, bits) that grow each time they come into play. In case it's difficult to have the pices physically grow, it is acceptable to have their effects grow instead :)

Word Limit: Let's go with an even 500 word limit this time.

Good luck!

June 2012 Game Design Showdown - "Pros and Cons"

Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.

April 2012 Game Design Showdown - "Fools Rush In"

Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.

We have a winner! I have tallied the votes, quite a few of them this month! Thanks for participating everyone! And without further ado, the winner is....

1st place, with 14 votes: Catch That Bunny! by Starflier

2nd place, with 9 votes: The Great Zvengali by TeaisforTim

3rd place, with 7 votes: Heavy Treasure hunt by AndyGB

and tied for 4th, with 5 votes:
Fools Rush In by BMinNY
While the Fairy is Away: The Revenge of Bunny Foo Foo by photeth
Lhasa by GreenO
Hart of the Forest by Matthew Rogers

All entries got at least 1 vote! Thanks again for participating. Congrats to the winners, I'll open up the Critiques thread now!

April is characterized by a few things - Spring, Easter, Passover, and a silly "holiday" called April Fool's Day.

I thought it might be fun to use one of these holidays as inspiration for April's Showdown, but not a theme restriction in itself... So be creative, and let's see some games about hoaxes, tricks, maybe even fish! If that doesn't float your boat, you could instead enter a game with some kind of (egg) hunt mechanism, or maybe a game about a series of plagues, or escape from bondage!

January 2012 Game Design Showdown - "Back 2 Basics"

Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.

We have a winner!
This month's winner, with 8 votes, is Valentine's Day Massacre!

It was a close heat for 2nd, with Chocolate Exchange coming out 1 point ahead of The legend of St Valentine.

And bringing up the rear was Pitching Woo over Love Me True, also by 1 vote.

Thanks for participating! I'll open up the critique thread now...

February GDS:

The move back towards the roots of the Showdown... short blurbs rather than full rules and images for the game entries... seemed to work out nicely last month, so let's keep that up. This time we'll go with a 300 word limit.

The challenge will be open for entries for a week, but I do not expect anybody to spend a week working on their entry. Rather the 1 week entry window should give everyone a chance to see the challenge and send an entry at their convenience.

Main Design Requirements:

• Theme Restriction: Valentine's Day.
  February is best known for Valentine's Day, a holiday honoring an early Christian martyr named Saint Valentine. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards known as "valentines". The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. This month's showdown challenges you to use some part of the history or tradition of Valentines Day as the theme of a game! Here's a link to Wikipedia for more info, in case you're interested.

• Mechanical Restriction: Two different play modes.
  This months' game must be not only playable both 2-player and multiplayer, but rather than "scale well" (here meaning providing a similar game experience across all player counts), it must provide a significantly different play experience between 2-player and multiplayer games.

• Word Limit: 300 words.

Guys, was the topic for this month's GDS not attractive enough? There were only 3 entries, and only 2 voters so far.

Is it the time of year? Because if the GDS isn't something this community is interested in participating in, then maybe there's no need to go through the motions month after month.