Hey Sejtroll, did you happen to check out the game design contest [at KublaCon]?
Seth wasn't in it, but I was. It was great overall: 14 games submitted, three or so were judged to be "publishable," one or two already had interested publishers, at least one was recommended to a publisher by a judge. The quality of the top three entries was incredible.
I entered Brimstone. Four of the games submitted were briefly playtested and dismissed, the remaining ten were judged. I made it into the ten, which was good; but I was dead last of those ten. (They only listed the top three or four in order, but I could tell!) All of the games were described and discussed in a session that lasted over two hours.
I didn't expect to win (I was disappointed anyway) but I entered because of the promised feedback from professional playtesters and designers, and I got it, so I'm happy. I learned a number of useful things, and I hope to be back next year with a much better entry!
A note to jwarrend: When I started posting here about Brimstone, you were kind enough to read the entire (rather lengthy) rulebook to answer my question about whether it was too derivative of A Game of Thrones. To recap, Brimstone is definitely derivative of AGoT and that was deliberate on my part. I was worried about whether it was too derivative, and Jeff's opinion was that it was.
But I asked the same question of the judges, and they waved it away: they didn't feel it was too derivative and did not mark me down for it. In fact they gave me credit for using the AGoT order system because it worked well in my game; said it wasn't original with AGoT either, so I didn't "rip it off"; I just used the right tool for the job. That surprised me quite a bit, and is one of the things I think I learned: now I have a better feel for what counts as an original game and what's too much of a ripoff. (Just the same, from now on I'm doing more original games. I had a reason for making Brimstone the way it was, but I have no desire to spend my time merely imitating others.)
He was certainly judging this year; he sat in the audience when the games were being discussed, and made witty, sardonic comments from time to time. You know his style. :) And I don't mean to imply that he was unhelpful -- the presenter did pretty good standup improv and kept us laughing, and Ernest was just helping out. He also contributed some well-thought-out comments about several of the games.
And before anybody asks: Knizia and Tom Jolly were also at the Con, but so far as I know did not participate in the contest judging. I didn't recognize anybody else among the judges, and I've already forgotten the names that were mentioned; they weren't familiar to me.
I did attend a couple of Knizia's seminars. He was worth listening to, and I picked up a few bits of good advice from him too.