Game Design Showdown - July 2012
Tempus Fugit
"There's time enough, but none to spare." - Charles W. Chesnutt
We have a winner!
First Place The winning game with 10 votes is Firestorm by AndyGB - well done Andy :)
Second Place Only on vote shy with 9 is Banish the Beast by Avianfoo
Third Place At 8 Votes is Tumble Down by Tea is for Tim
Firestorm! 10 Banish The Beast 9 Tumbledown 8 Dice pie 7 Tipsy Travelers 7 Collect 5 6 Boxcars 4 Proximity 3 Clack Brawl 0 Tiles and Layers 0
Condolences to Clack Brawl and Tiles and Layers scoring no points this time round. Thank you all for your entries it was fun running the GDS this month - you guys are a really friendly and genuine bunch of people :)
On to the critique thread! Tell me why you voted for who you did, and why you didn't vote for who you didn't - let's be better game designers!
All the best,
Sam
This month, Seth is away and has kindly allowed me (Sam Mercer) to chair the Game Design Showdown.
What is this all about Sam? Well, last time I was here, we had a go at designing a dice game called Dragon Dice. A fun themed filler type game with dice. This time we will aim to further hone our craft and create a specialized game that plays in under 5 minutes. When pitching to publishing studios and the like, you would be a fool not to be able to explain your game in seconds. The point needs to be made with impact, importance and haste. In this busy modern world of ours, some people have less and less time to spend on things. Let's make a game for them.
A quick game then? Ok, so what else do I need to know?
Nothing.
Wait...no component restrictions or theme or whatever? Nope. The only thing this game needs to be is a game that will play in under 5 minutes. Set up time included, this game needs to take no more than 5 minutes to finish. I will say that I will allow up to 3 multiple "rounds" of the game to determine a winner as long as the "rounds" are very similar - perhaps with a minor adjustment (changing the starting player for fairness etc) but a "round" must be able to stand up as a very good reflection of the game on its own.
Standard Rules
http://www.bgdf.com/node/27
Explanation: The game must be described in no more than 200 words. Unless otherwise stated in the challenge, the entries do not need to be "fully completed and tested" rule sets ... there should be enough of a description, rules, examples, etc., to give other readers a good "feel" for the game ... the extent to which an author wishes to go is up to him -- it will be the voting of the readers that will decide the winner.
Submissions: The 10th of the month through the 17th.
Voting: 18th until the 25th. PM your votes to me, cogentesque.
Voting Format: Everyone can vote with a Gold, Silver, and Bronze award to their choice of candidates.
You may not assign any votes to your own entry!
Comments or Questions: Comments and questions about this Challenge can be handled on the Comments Thread.
CRITIQUES: After voting has closed the entries will be posted for comments and critiques. Post constructive critiques and commentary about the entries to this Challenge in the Critiques Thread
GDS Details: For more details on how these Game Design Showdown Challenges work, especially the details around the word count and graphics limits, visit the GDS Wiki Page.
Thank you all, I am really excited to see what your brilliant minds come up with :)
Sam
Proximity (2-4 players, 5 minutes)
Components: Tiles: 3 each of 5 colors Scoring Markers: 1 each of 5 colors
Setup: Place all tiles face down and scramble. Draw one tile and place face up in play area.
On Your Turn: Draw a face-down tile and play it. Each tile must be placed orthogonally to at least one other tile. For each tile that shares an edge with the tile you just placed, you get the scoring marker of that color.
Game End: When all fifteen tiles have been placed, the game is over. The player with the most scoring markers is the winner. In case of a tie, the player with the first color to be played (the setup tile) is the winner.
Strategy: Players can steal scoring markers from other players by placement of tiles. The color tile you are playing does not affect what color markers you get this round, but consider where you placeme that tile… another player may play adjacent to it. If you have the scoring marker of that color, maybe play that tile somewhere where other players will be less likely to play next to in the future.