Attention tabletop gamers, geeks, nerds and lovers of sci-fi!
Art thou desirious of filthy lucre and fame? Canst thou craft a wondrous and bedazzling, never-before-seen game of dice? Durst thou tax thy mental capacity in this Herculean endeavor? If so, we challenge thee to complete this arduous quest:
Create an interactive game that uses characters from outer space as its pieces. Evil forces have turned these poor, wretched souls into cubes (dice) and left them with just six basic emotions (displayed on sides of the dice) which you must utilize for scoring.
The conquering hero whose game is chosen by our council of elders shall receive the princely sum of $500 along with the distinguished honor of having his or her name engraved in the rulebook until the stars themselves do cease in their heavenly rotation.
In other words, forever.
The game we seek must be played in accordance with the following rules:
1. The rules should be relatively simple, using two identical dice per player whose sides contain icons representing the following emotions: sad, happy, angry, neutral, crazy, and mellow. There are no numbers or pips on the dice, so the game should be scored some way other than numerically.
2. There should be no limit to the number of simultaneous players, and the only other materials required to play the game should be generic chips (it should be a betting game).
3. The game should begin with each player having the same pot (number of chips) with each chip having a unit value of one (these are not casino chips with multiple denominations).
4. The game should involve betting and strategy, with successive elimination rounds such that when you're out of chips you're out of the game.
Entries should be sent to "DiceGame@Headz.com" and there may be more than one winner (each winner will receive $500). The competition ends on November 30, 2013 and the winner (or winners) will be named shortly thereafter.
Now go forth, and let the game designing begin!
Hi Guys (and Gals),
Sorry for this delayed response, but we thought that we'd signed up to be notified whenever there were any comments and that apparently was not happening, so we only realized there were questions when we came back to modify the contest. We will address those questions, now:
From Dralius:
Q: Will we retain the rights for games submitted?
No, you will be assigning all the rights to us (we have modified the original post to reflect this omission).
Q: What do you plan on doing with the winning game/s, [when] will they possibly be published?
In about 6-9 months (we hope). The game will not be published as a standalone game but as alternate use for a figurine.
Q: If published, is there any further compensation?
No, the contest prize is the only compensation, but everyone who submits a serious entry will receive a copy of the product.
From Drunknmunky:
Q: Is there an official page for this?
Yes, "Headz.com," but there is no content as of yet. But you are welcome to gaze longingly at our lovely "Coming Soon" page!
Q: Is this to be published?
Geez, we sure hope so!
Q: Is so at what volume is it to be published?
Hard to say, but most likely a first printing of 5,000 pieces.
Q: Is there contractual fine print?
Heck yeah! Anyone who wants a copy of the rights contract may request one by email before committing themselves to designing a game. But the short version is that you will be assigning all rights to us.
Q: I only ask because without disclosing the intent, you will have no rights to publish anything sent to you as no submitter would have a contract for you to publish their game design. Also would be nice to know if this is worth it to enter over other, more professional, game design competitions.
We would never publish anything without the consent of the designer! In other words, just because someone submits a design does not grant us any rights to use said design. We'd have to pay them money and they'd have to accept our terms.
From Zodiac Team:
Q: If it's my game, do I not decide what is and isn't in the rulebook?
Nope. Once you sell us the rights we can do anything we want with the rulebook, including translating it to Klingon. If you don't like the final product you don't have to accept any credit. This is necessary because there may be more than one winner, and the final game could end up being a melange of several designs (in which case ALL the designers would offered a credit).
Q: To me it sounds like you're trying to get someone to make a game for you.
Um, yeah...for $500.
Q: Please stop me if I'm wrong.
You're not wrong.