Re: [piecepack] RESULTS OF THE 5th PIECEPACK GAME DESIGN COMPETITION

["Mike Schoessow" <mikeschoessow@...>]

Congratulations to Clark for winning the Solitary Confinement competition! From the description, the game sounds great; it's very cool to have a pirate solitaire game!

Also, thankyou Karol, for your hard work.

-Mike


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Benedict 
  To: piecepack@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 12:29 PM
  Subject: [piecepack] RESULTS OF THE 5th PIECEPACK GAME DESIGN COMPETITION


  *******************
  Benedict's limp form stirred as the key grated in the rusty lock
  of  his confinement cell. The door opened, allowing the blinding 
  sunlight to illuminate the prisoner's dirt-streaked face for the
  first time in weeks.
  "Well?" asked Justice Seafarth, "Have you had enough?"
  "Yes, your honor, more than enough," Benedict mumbled weakly.
  "Out with it then!" commanded Justice Knizia.
  Benedict slowly stood up, swayed a little, then offered a piece of 
  scrap paper to the Justices. Seafarth snatched the note away as 
  Knizia kicked Benedict in the stomach for good measure.
  "You aren't getting out of here until you get this cell
  cleaned up.  Look at the state of it, bits of wood everywhere."
  Benedict sighed and looked around him. There was no way One 
  Man, Thrag, was likely to show up just to help him do 
  housework. If only he was being held captive in a magic 
  dungeon surrounded by monsters and dragons.

  *******************

  The Lord Justices read Benedict's note aloud:

  The results of the 5th piecepack design contest, Solitary 
  Confinement.

  There were 18 entries by 13 different authors:

  Brain Burn by Mark Biggar
  Cardinal's Guards by Mike Schoessow
  Coin Collectors by Don Kirkby
  Crocodile Hop by Tim Schutz
  Epic Funhouse  by Ron & Marty Hale-Evans
  Fuji-san by James Kyle
  Galaxy Express  by Matt Worden
  Lab Rats  by Mark Biggar
  Landlocked  by Eric Witt
  Mathrix  by Clark Rodeffer
  Matrix  by Jeff Barrett
  PieceGaps  by Chris Brooks
  Piece Packing Pirates  by Clark Rodeffer
  Piecepack Klondike  by Eric Witt
  Plans of Action  by Edward Pulley
  Skyscrapers  by Mike Schoessow
  Solo Salvo  by Eric Witt
  The Magic Bag by Rob LeGood

  Benedict's Overall Winner:

  Piece Packing Pirates by Clark Rodeffer

  As the name suggests this is a game of sea exploration, fighting 
  and booty collecting with a degree of economic management 
  thrown in for good measure. My first read of the (well-written) 
  rules made me want to try the game immediately, and I wasn't 
  disappointed. The game has it all: excellent integration of theme, 
  good replayability, good balance of strategy versus luck and 
  clever use of all of the piecepack components. I certainly 
  imagined myself as a hearty pirate plundering unsuspecting 
  ships, and feeling desperate when trying to out-run a larger 
  vessel. This was by far the game I had the most fun playing. 

  The game uses a couple of clever mechanics worth mentioning. 

  1. The sea (which is formed by placing the tiles suit-side down in 
  any pattern as long as all the tiles are connected) is explored by 
  moving your pirate ship onto the tile and turning it over. The suit 
  marker indicates the direction of the prevailing wind and the tile 
  number determines the chance of sighting an enemy ship. I 
  thought this was a neat multiple use of the tiles.

  2. A mechanic unique to the contest (and possibly unique in all 
  the piecepack games?) is the rule for movement of enemy 
  ships. The pirate ship moves first, then the enemy ships move. 
  What makes the movement phase interesting is that smaller 
  ships flee from the pirates whereas larger ships close in to 
  attack. In one game I played I found myself in trouble by attacking 
  a larger ship before my pirates were quite ready, resulting in a 
  lost battle, only to have the ship attack me straight back!

  The game does require the use of a 1-page play mat, which is 
  generally well designed. My only suggestion is that a black and 
  white version would be helpful for those who do not have access 
  to a color printer. The Booty track (green on yellow background) 
  looks the worst in B & W. A rules summary is also included, 
  which was helpful. 

  All in all a worthy winner of the contest, congratulations, Clark!

  Justice Seafarth's Runners Up:

  Two games stood out in addition to the winner. In alphabetical 
  order they are: Cardinal's Guards by Mike Schoessow and 
  Galaxy Express  by Matt Worden. 

  Cardinal's Guards is a well-presented very good themed 
  abstract with interesting mechanics. The 24 tiles are placed as a 
  suit-side down 5x5 square (representing chambers of the 
  castle) with the center square open (a common formation for the 
  tiles in the contest). The pawns are musketeers who must visit 
  the chambers in a certain order. The interesting mechanic here 
  is that the musketeers move as `runaway rooks', only stopping
  if they encounter guards (coins) or the center square (tunnel 
  entrance leading to any of the 4 corner chambers).  The majority 
  of guards start the game outside the 5x5 square of the castle - a 
  mechanic I haven't seen before - and as the game progresses 
  they can be placed inside the castle, which is essential in order 
  to provide `blocks' to allow your musketeers to end their
  runaway moves on the right squares.  Points are scored for 
  searching chambers as well as defeating guards. This results in 
  a game where searching all the rooms is possible, but defeating 
  all the guards as well is tough. Well done, Mike.

  Galaxy Express is a clever themed game of delivering shipments 
  to 6 different planets (arms coins) placed on an wraparound 8x6 
  grid formed by 12 grid-side up tiles in order of the delivery queue 
  (determined by the crown coins). The rules are great and include 
  a sample game at the end that has what are probably the nicest 
  diagrams of all 18 entries. The heart of the game is deciding 
  how to approach each of the planets with the limited thrust (sun 
  coins) and brake (moon coins) resources. This clever system 
  made me feel like I really was flying a ship of the `cheapskate 
  operation' mentioned in the introductory blurb. Great game, Matt.

  Justice Knizia's Honorable Mentions:

  Cleverest overall concept: Epic Funhouse by Ron & Marty-Hale 
  Evans. This is a series of 6 mostly abstract games that are 
  played in the 6 rooms of an amusement park in a not too-distant 
  dystopian future.  Also contains the only dexterity game of the 
  contest.

  Most aesthetically appealing: Fuji-san by James Kyle.  This is a 
  themed abstract that manages to evoke the feeling of a classic 
  oriental game in both the play of the game as well as the 
  physical shape of the playing area.

  Best theme: Matrix by Jeff Barrett. Jeff and I share an enjoyment 
  of William Gibson's cyberpunk, and Matrix is based on the novel 
  Neuromancer complete with Cyberspace, Ice, Data Forts and 
  Icebreakers.  Excellent idea to adapt the genre to the piecepack, 
  Jeff. This is also the game that I think has the most potential to 
  be truly outstanding with some work on the rules and gameplay. 
  The customizable icebreakers also made this game stand out.

  Thanks to everyone for submitting games and making this a 
  great contest.  If you would like specific feedback for your game 
  please let me know by email. As there are a lot of games, please 
  be patient when waiting for a response, but I will be trying hard to 
  respond as fast as possible so that any updates can be made 
  quickly in order to get the games posted at piecepack.org asap. 

  Phillip

  A note from Karol:

  Congratulations to the winner! I am pleased to have each of 
  these games added to the growing piecepack game list.

  I would like to get the contest games posted to the piecepack 
  website as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours of permission 
  or submission). To help motivate the authors we are going to 
  post only polished games onto the games page - if authors are 
  satisfied with the way their games were written and submitted 
  please simply send me a note to that effect and I can take it from
  there. Otherwise please make any changes you'd like and then 
  send me the file again. If there are any questions please contact 
  me [Karol] directly.

  Respectfully, we request that authors DO NOT post games 
  elsewhere until they are on piecepack dot org that is designed to 
  be the place for folks to go to find all the games - let's work 
  together to keep it that way!

  I would like to remind everyone that the prize includes a 3rd 
  Edition with CD-ROM rules that include the contest entries -More 
  incentive to get the games or permission in to me [Karol] : 
  submissions @ piecepack . org (without the spaces).

  Thanks,
  Karol




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