Summer 2002 piecepack game design contest RESULTS

[Ron Hale-Evans <rwhe@...>]

Congratulations to the winner of the Summer 2002 "Ludic Synergy"
piecepack game design contest:

  Alien City, by Michael Schoessow!

This was the stand-out winner of the contest.  It has super replay
value, as in "Let's play this again NOW!".  Everyone who has played it
so far has not just liked it, but _really_ liked it; Marty is on the
way to becoming an Alien City junkie.

This game may not be just the best of the contest, but one of the best
piecepack games we've seen.  The "German-style" scoring mechanism is
highly novel, yet easy to learn, like the rest of the game.

The rules mesh well, and there are no superfluous, "fiddly" rules, in
our opinion.  In addition, the strategy seems quite deep, and you can
learn more of it on replaying the game.  Multiple strategies are
possible, including both offensive and defensive ones.  Even the
aesthetics of the game are interesting and fit the theme: the organic,
wooden piecepack components representing the undeveloped plots of land
contrast well with the crystalline buildings of the alien city
(Icehouse pyramids).

Hooray for Alien City and its designer, Michael Schoessow!  Michael,
please email me your snailmail address, so we can make sure you get
your prizes.  (We also need to talk about whether you want to run the
next contest, and so forth.)

In addition, although this was not initially part of the contest, we'd
like to announce two runners-up, which, although we think they need
tweaking, are not only playable as they stand, but replayable, with
several interesting and creative features.  Coincidentally, they both
use double-six dominoes as their second game system.  In alphabetical
order, they are:

  Ley Lines, by James Kyle

  Pawns Crossing, by Michael Schoessow and Stephen Schoessow

Surprising no one, James Kyle's Ley Lines is a worthy entry.  The
rules are succinct, and not only does everyone who see it exclaim
"What a cute board!" (it's a map of the British Isles), but it was the
only entry to cause a paranormal event in our house during
playtesting.  (Okay, a big smiley here.  We had lit some candles, and
one of the candle holders exploded while we were debating the "lines
of cosmic energy".  A shard of glass shot out about eight inches and
frightened our dog.  I want to stress that this did not affect our
judgment of the game!)

Pawns Crossing, by Michael Schoessow and his brother Stephen, is also
a fun game.  The "Amazing Labyrinth"-style mechanic in which you slide
rows and columns of the board around makes the game more strategic
than it appears at first glance.  Other strategic and tactical
elements become apparent as the game wears on -- for example, some
dominoes are good "Pushers", and others are not.  Well worth a spin.

Both of these games can be played with three or four players, and
Pawns Crossing can be played with two.  Our advice if you want to try
some of the games from the contest is: if you have two players,
definitely try Alien City.  If you have three or four, give Ley Lines
or Pawns Crossing a try.

In fact, the other four games in the contest all have something to
recommend them, and depending on taste, you may like some of them
quite a lot.  We will also be happy to give feedback to the designer
of any game in the contest, in private email or on the piecepack list,
as the designer prefers.

An amusing side-note: every game in the contest could have been
disqualified on some technicality.  We chose to disqualify none.

You can find PDFs for all seven games in the contest at the following
URL:

  http://www.ludism.org/piecepack/contest200206/

Alternatively, you can visit the official site for the contest at
Piecepack.org, where you will find a list of the games and a link to
the contest rules, then visit the Piecepack Games Page, where all the
contest games are linked:

  http://www.piecepack.org/DesignContest/LudicSynergy.html
  http://www.piecepack.org/PiecepackGames.asp

Finally, we'd like to say that if we were running this contest again,
we would do a few things differently, such as having blind judging,
and permitting entries in HTML format (e.g. web pages).  It would
probably be a good idea for us to discuss contest mechanics with
whomever runs the next contest.

Thanks!  It's been fun, and a real privilege to act as midwives to
some very cool games.

Ron and Marty Hale-Evans

p.s. As Alien City is an Icehouse game as well as a piecepack game, I am 
cc'ing this to the Icehouse list.

-- 
         Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... & rwhe@...
           Center for Ludic Synergy, Seattle Cosmic Game Night, 
Kennexions Glass Bead Game &  Positive Revolution FAQ: http://www.ludism.org/
Home page & Hexagram-8 I Ching Mailing List: http://www.apocalypse.org/~rwhe/