We’re only 12 days in to the 54-Card Game Design Contest and we’re already at 16 entries! So far they run the gamut: solo games, 4-8 player games, eurogames, “take that” games, games with awesome original art & graphic design, games that use a standard deck of playing cards. The team and I are working our way through the rules & cards of all of the “Component Ready” games and quite a few of them have gotten some great feedback in the less than two weeks they’ve been open to the public.
I’m continually amazed by the BGG community! Everyone is contributing to other designs in the contest. Whether it’s providing feedback on the rules, walkthroughs of how their plays went, ideas on how to improve/tweak/balance games, or graphic design & art suggestions, people just want to help make great games. I’m happy that we went this route to find games to publish – even if we don’t publish every single one, I’m confident that the feedback designers get on their games will help improve them and get them signed with other publishers.
Speaking of signing games… I think we’re dangerously close to signing our first game! One of the submissions we received was actually in a BGG design contest earlier this year (I won’t name any names since nothing is official yet…) I remember seeing the design during the contest and it seemed interesting but I didn’t get a chance to play it then. The contest was wrapping up right around the time Lorelai was born. So when it came in I started digging around on the design forums and looking into it. At first it seemed clever so I watched the playthrough video for it. Then I actually tried the game out (print & play files were available). And then I played it again. And again. And then I had Mike (one of the co-founders of SRG) play it. He was able to confirm my suspicion – the game was fantastic! We’re getting it in front of the rest of the team as soon as possible but I think this one is a keeper.
It’s exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time! We’re going to find a game that we love, make a commitment to publishing it, and do everything we can to get it out to the community. Hopefully we can do the game justice and put together something that the designer and the team can be proud of. I’m nervous, but I’m also confident that we can make it happen.
You should start seeing some more blog posts coming over the next few months. I plan on testing out contest entries as they become component ready so I’ll put some of my thoughts here. I’m sure the rest of the team will have inputs as well. Plus, if/when we sign a game we’ll update everyone and keep you in on the process of publishing.
Until next time!
