Which magazines can I send my game for review?

Thank you for the response.

Yes my game is published and I'm trying to get exposure for the game. Thus, I thought of sending a game to game magazines to review.

My game is called "Mecca to Medina". It take place about 1000 years ago in the middle east and each player starts off with a City and trading route. You collect resources (based on your City) and you try to complete trading routes. Four trading routes win the game. Also, there are speciality cards (camel, caravans, etc..) and event cards which can change the tide of the game.

You mentioned to magazines. Do you know of any more?

Is there anywhere on the net which has the information on where to submit my games for "awards"?

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

I wasn't sure what type of reaction I was going to get with a "Muslim" themed game since no one has really done it before. Since the debut of the game, I have been happily amazed with the response that I have received from the media. In just the past few days, I have been giving both phone and radio interviews in both in the States and in the UK (after they read the article about the game on Yahoo http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/prweb/20050411/bs_prweb/prweb227620_1).

Although the game is made by "Muslim Games", it can be played by both Muslims and non-Muslims. I think Muslims will find it special because of the symbolism of the cards but non-Muslims will like it because they can play and enjoy it without having any prerequisites of Islam. Since many people collect unique games, I though Mecca to Medina will fall into that category.

To answer your twobob's question, I designed the game myself. I found the prices in the states weren't competitive enough so I had the games made in China. I playtested the game with Muslims, non-Muslims, gamers, nongamers, Americans and foreigners, young kids, and father (older crowd) and even an all girl game. The results were so good that I got paranoid...thinking that maybe people were being "nice" to me. So I decided to take it some people who I never met before and had them play test it. I made the prototype as professional as possible (took a long time). Once the game was over, 2 of them asked me where I bought it from because they wanted to get it (the other two didn't said it was "cool" but they didn't mention anything about buying the game). Nevertheless, I was happy with the results and soon after I ordered the games. Don't get me wrong, I had the game changed numerous times until I got the final product that is sold now. I estimate the game was play-tested about 20 times (about 3 to 4 times with gamers).

I made the video because I noticed most people that I play with, don't have the patience to read a 16 page manual on a new game. Living in the short-attention span age of television, people want the 5 minute "let's just play and we'll pick it up along the way" attitude so the solution I came up with was a quick summary video (which can be found on http://www.muslimgames.com/howtoplay.html)

I really like playing production games like Settlers but the drawback have always been that we need 3 to 4 people to play (and usually 3 people results in unbalanced game). If you want to play with 2 players, you have to buy the Settlers card game and if you have an extra friend over, you have to buy the extension. Thus, in order to have the 2 to 6 player option, you need to buy 3 games (which isn't easy for most people). In addition, most of my friends are non-gamers so the whole "setup time" idea doesn't really sell with them. I figured it would be cool to have a production game (different than Settlers) which can be played 2 to 6 players, without a board to setup (so you don't need surface) for a reasonable price. Thus, I came up with Mecca to Medina. My friends tell me that the "Muslim" themed game idea may scare off non-Muslims (even though its not a religious game) but I figure games like Through the Desert and Aladdin’s Dragon's work, why not Mecca to Medina.

I hope that answers your question.

My next step is to get the game reviewed the game and I plan to use the great advise you guys have posted (Thank you!).

If you guys have any advise, I all ears. This is my first game so I'm always open to gain knowledge from those who are knowledgable
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Baba Ali
www.muslimgames.com

Babaali, Would you be willing to share the contact information for the person in China? Just wondering, since I want to manufacture a card game in the future as well.

Thanks,

Rob

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