[Icehouse] Ice Game Design Competition 2007

[Andy Looney]

Hi Everyone!

I'd just like to say that I think this would be great. I know the whole 
Icehouse community is still wondering whatever happened to the guy who was 
doing it before, and more importantly, what the results of the last contest 
were, but clearly it's time to start moving forward again without him.

Meanwhile, speaking of things that were supposed to have been done more 
than a year ago and are still in limbo, I'm *finally* starting to get back 
to 3HOUSE, albeit slowly. (My deepest apologies for the lateness of this 
product, BTW.) Eventually, 3HOUSE will be done, and when that happens, I'll 
be starting to think about a second volume in that series. I have the title 
all picked out: 2HOUSE: 2 Games for 2 Treehouse sets.

2HOUSE will provide the perfect in-between step for the consumer of the 
future, who'll be able to start with a Treehouse set, then expand it with a 
2nd Treehouse set and a copy of 2HOUSE, before going on to 3HOUSE and that 
third Treehouse set. (And yes, obviously, there could be a 4HOUSE as well 
someday, but that's getting way too far ahead of things...)

And what will 2HOUSE contain? At the moment, I have no idea. Offhand there 
aren't any games I know of that are well suited for 2 Treehouse sets and 
nothing more. However, I'm thinking people will rise to the challenge if I 
issue it, so here we go.

Please note, however, that I haven't officially announced or promised 
anything in this message. These are just some thoughts I've been having. 
That said, Looney Labs published the first 4 games that were IGDC winners 
in an issue of Hypothermia, so it's reasonable to assume the company might 
do something similar again, if someone were to resume the Contests and 
actually carry them through to completion.

In any event, as I said, I encourage you to start running these contests 
again! But as before, we at Looney Labs prefer to leave the management of 
such activities up to the fan community, so as to maintain impartiality and 
stuff. But don't take our professional detachment as a lack of thinking 
it's cool! We totally think it's great and we wish they were being run by 
someone!

-- Andy

--On April 14, 2007 12:59:18 AM -0500 James Hazelton 
<jameshazelton at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello.
>
> It seems that there is a general call for another IGDC. Recently, there
> have been complaints of a lack of procedure for getting your games
> played. Game are being churned out all the time, and a lot of them really
> deserve to be recognized. It's been a year and a half since the last
> competition--a time before some of us got into pyramids--so why don't we
> start up another one? I don't see how the fact that the last guy went
> AWOL keeps the rest of us from trying again. I would like to put to the
> floor a motion to start up another IGDC. Would this be feasible? I think
> it would be nice to focus on game created post-Treehouse. That is, both
> Treehouse games and games made with the Treehouse sales strategy in mind.
> Perhaps games that use a Treehouse set, a Treehouse die, Martian
> Coasters, or Volcano caps could have a better chance of getting in the
> contest. (Or not; whatever, really.) If we have a lot of entries--a
> definite possibility since there hasn't been a IGDC in so long--there
> might be enough material for two formats: a Treehouse Competition and a
> Classic Competition. We'll need a new competition organizer, but I'm sure
> someone will volunteer. There could even be a small group in charge, if
> no-one has time to manage the whole thing. I would throw my hat in the
> ring if it came to that.
>
> Fixing up the Wiki is great and everything, but it won't get people
> playing our great new games. I missed the first five competitions, so I
> would really like to see this manifest. Does anyone else agree?
>
>
> James