[Icehouse] Re: Ice Game Design Competition 2007

[Carlton Noles]

On 4/16/07, Brian Campbell <lambda at mac.com> wrote:
>
> On Apr 16, 2007, at 11:09 AM, David Artman wrote:
>
> > I'd like to see the competitions--open AND themed--focus on current
> > Looney Labs products and strategies. Basically, this means it
> > should be
> > playable by a totally new user for an investment of (say) no more than
> > ~$25. That's two stashes and Martian coasters, 3HOUSE (almost), two
> > stashes and Volcano caps, or a stash and a card game (except
> > Chronauts). So, a game which (say) calls for seven full monochrome
> > stashes would not qualify for either contest--a player must buy
> > 10HOUSE
> > to play, or a mix of Treehouse and monochromes through the LL site.
> > This
> > might not be a permanent submission requirement, but I'd like to
> > see it
> > as a major focus for at least a couple of rounds of contests. Think of
> > it in terms of ends: the Looneys can FAR more use a bunch of games
> > that
> > help initiate sales than a bunch of games that presume the player
> > has a
> > (nearly) complete collection.
>
> I would prefer a combination of the laissez-faire approach taken by
> the old competitions, with themed competitions that target currently
> available offerings for the first several themed competitions. In the
> old system you could submit games that required whatever extra
> components you wanted, with the caveat that people may rank lower
> games that just require too much stuff. There were no explicit
> criteria for voting; people could base their judgements on whatever
> they wanted, including that it required too much equipment. That way,
> if there was a strong community feeling that stuff that required too
> much equipment wasn't worth it, it would be reflected in the votes,
> without any rules imposed from on high, and with the opportunity for
> really great games that just happened to require more than some
> arbitrary cutoff to still be recognized. I think that having the
> themed competitions, with particular entry requirements, will be
> enough to spur interested in designing smaller, simpler games that
> are good entry level games.


I agree with Brian here. My intention when I originally brought up an 'Open'
format was that it be just that, open. Anything goes so long as it uses
Icehouse peices. I know there are several multi stash games out there as
well as 1 stach per player games and so on. yes it is possible that not
everyone will be able to play all the games submitted but in the end the
game just wont get as many votes. As an example if the Roleplaying game were
submitted i wouldn't be able to give it a good test as it requires ALL the
colors available and i only have six stashes. In fact until recently I
hadn't played Volcano because I lacked enough pieces. So some may not be
able to play all of the games but designers should be able to submit
anything they like in an Open competition.


> That said, MY notion for the "themed" contest is that it would not
> > just
> > be tied to a particular product (because both competitions essentially
> > have that as a requirement), but rather it would be something more
> > akin
> > to the Iron Game Chef competitions:
> > http://www.game-chef.com/
> > Basically, the competition organizer(s) would throw out four general
> > themes (mechanics, flavor, timing), and all submissions would have to
> > use at least three of them. Example: Turnless, Chessboard, Theft, the
> > Orient. The ultimate "end' of this sort of competition is (perhaps) to
> > inspire a new boxed set or create better bridges to the more
> > mainstream
> > board game and miniature markets (or RPGs?). And it pushes the
> > boundaries of creativity more than just "use Volcano Caps" would....
>
> That's an interesting idea, but I don't know how it will work in
> practice. Board game design is a bit different than RPG design, and
> having too many requirements may make the games too similar (in RPG
> design, there's a lot more room for creativity, since they are a lot
> more open-ended), so I don't know if this would transfer over
> appropriately. I'll definitely keep it in mind, and maybe try out one
> or two simpler themes (Volcano caps, Martian Coasters), and one or
> two Iron Game Chef style themes, to see which works better.
>
I Think this is an interesting concept as well. I think though perhaps the
"Iron Ice" (or maybe Cold Steel ;{)} ) competition could be a bit further
off or even a Special Additional contest with req's announced significantly
in advance. The IGDC in general was for folks designing games in general to
submit their designs for competition. Though I am certain some games were
designed specifically to compete that need not be the case. For the "Iron
Ice/Cold Steel/Whatever" competition the game almost certainly would need to
be designed specifically for that competition. I do think it could be very
fascinating to see what comes out of such a competition specifically because
of the similatities that could arise (thus making the differences that much
more significant). Such a competition could be come a great learning
experience for what constitutes excellent in game design.

Just sayin'
-- 
Carlton "Kermit" Noles
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