MesomorphGamesContest1

Mesomorph Games Contest 1

You can read the relevant information for the first Mesomorph Games piecepack game design contest below. This information is mostly taken verbatim from MG's website and from email to the piecepack mailing list.

For details on other contests, see Competitions.

Mesomorph Games Piecepack Design Contest (October 2004 to August 2006)

MG has released two piecepack expansions, the FourSeasonsExpansion and the PlayingCardsExpansion. This contest is intended to spur authors to begin incorporating the unique aspects of these new products into game designs. All submissions must make use of a Mesomorph Games expansion (either 4 Seasons or Playing Cards) as an integral part of the theme or mechanics of the game.

Deadline

18 February 2005, 5:00 PM EST

The Judge

Dave Boyle of Mesomorph Games
Judging will be blind; the Judge will not find out the Authors' identities until after the winning entry has been selected.

The Prizes

The winner will receive $50 and any one Mesomorph Games product.
While we cannot guarantee widespread fame and adulation, we feel pretty confident this will follow as well.

No Purchase Necessary

Printable versions of MG's piecepack expansions are available for download at Piecepack.org.

Contest Rules

Deadline

18 February 2005, 5:00 PM EST.

Judging will be blind; the Judge will not find out the Authors' identities until after the winning entry has been selected. (See Where to Submit Entries below.)

Requirements

1. Submitted games must make use of an MG piecepack expansion (4 Seasons or Playing Cards) as an integral part of the theme or mechanics of the game. Any games not meeting this requirement will be rejected.

2. Each submission MUST be freely redistributable or they cannot be included on www.piecepack.org and therefore will be rejected.

3. All submissions MUST include the following header information as the first few lines of the rules:

<Title>
A game for the piecepack by <Author's Name>
Version <Number>, <Date>
Copyright (c) 2004, <Author's Name>
<Number of> Players, <Number of> Minutes
Equipment: <Equipment Needed>

4. Each entry MUST be proofread prior to submission.

5. Games may make use of additional bits (such as money or tokens for example), or of other non-obscure game systems in addition to the piecepack. However, additional components should not overshadow the use of the piecepack in the game. If gameplay requires it, entries may be submitted that require the use of more than one piecepack.

6. While Authors are encouraged to submit their games early, there will be no penalty or stigma for sending in changes or updates to your game rulesets up to the deadline, and entrants are encouraged to submit updates based upon their own continued play testing.

Where to Submit Entries

7. Please note that the contest Mediator will not be judging content, only removing identifiable text and checking that all Authors have complied with these contest rules.

8. Entries should be sent to the contest Mediator [Karol] at: submissions @ mesomorph . com (without the spaces). Please make sure the following is in the subject line of the submisson: "MG Contest: [name of game] " where [name of game] is replaced by the actual name of the game. (E.g. MG Contest: Swollen Ostrich) This makes it much easier to go back to Authors with questions later.)

If the submission meets the contest requirements, the contest Mediator will strip all identifying names/e-mail off of the entry and send the entry to the Judge, then send confirmation of receipt and pass along back to at least the Main Contact. If the submission does not meet requirements at least the Main Contact will be notified.

Judging

9. Judging will be subjective. Factors such as integration of new sets/pieces into the game, how enjoyable the game is, clarify and completeness of rules, length of game, and relative levels of skill and luck required will all be taken into account. In the end, it will be the subjective opinion of the judge that decides the winner.

10. The winning submission will be announced as soon as a winning entry has been selected.

Contest Wrap Up

11. In tandem with the announcement of the winning submission the Judge will send feed back on all entries to the Mediator who will send a copy of this feedback to each of the Authors.

12. Following the close of the competition, after each Author either gives permission to post their rule set "as submitted" or sends in an updated version of their rule sets (see above), submitted games will be added to the Games Page of the www.piecepack.org site by the Mediator.

Questions

Questions and comments are always welcome. If you're worried that your question will give your game away, please send it to the contest Mediator (see #8) who will forward it on to the Judge. Likewise, if necessary, the Judge may send questions to the ruleset Authors via the contest Mediator.

All entrants are encouraged to join the piecepack Yahoo! group if they have not yet done so.

The Entries

Here are 14 of the 17 entries in the contest. Information will be added as it becomes available.

The Winner

PiecepackLetterbox, by RonHaleEvans

While we had several games which were very good, Letterbox had the best combination of game play, solid design, and logical and necessary integration of a piecepack expansion (the whole point of the contest, remember).

I'm only going to pass along feedback privately, and only if you actually want it. So if you are an author of one of the entries and you are interested, let me know and I'll send it to you some time after GenCon.

Also, if you submitted a game and have since updated the rules, please let me know so I can get the correct version up on piecepack.org.

--DaveBoyle, 9 August 2006