Piecepack Contest #9: The Iron Piecepack Designer CURRENTLY BEING JUDGED

UPDATE Episode 2 has been judged! see Iron Piecepack Designer Episode 2 for results and judging notes!

Overview

Welcome to Kitchen Table Stadium: an arena built into every home where games aren’t just played - they’re made. The motivation for creating Kitchen Table Stadium is to encounter new games that can be considered true artistic creations…

In this imaginary game show (lovingly yoinked from Japan’s culinary TV sensation The Iron Chef), the world’s boldest game creators go head-to-head as they create games that use challenging “ingredients” to pair with the creative urges of their own piecepack gaming palates. Each episode provides a different challenge that designers can choose to sink their teeth into:

• Episode 1: The Iron Chef
• Episode 2: Piecepack Matchsticks
• Episode 3: Expand!

The winner of each episode moves on to the Season Finale Showdown, where games from different backgrounds will be judged to determine the Iron Piecepack Champion. The winner receives Everlasting Glory throughout the piecepack community and the world, and the right to wear a piecepack-emblazoned chef’s hat anywhere they go.

Also, for those who want to be truly TV-famous, scroll down and check out the Piecepack Demonstration Video Side Contest and show the world how to play your favorite piecepack game!

How the Contest Works

• Choose one or more of the three “episodes” to design a game for (see below for details on each episode’s challenges and criteria).
• Designers may enter as many games and episodes as they wish. A game that meets the requirements for multiple episodes may be entered in multiple episodes (for example, an Iron Chef-themed game could also use piecepack matchsticks or relate to the abstract theme of expansion, and thus could be entered in both episodes).
• The winning game from each episode will move on to the Season Finale Showdown, where an overall champion will be determined.

A Few More Rules

• Rules must be free for others to use and share (for example, under a Creative Commons license)- they will be added to the Piecepack Wiki and may be shared other places as well.
• If you use any new expansion or special equipment that requires more complicated assembly than printing, cutting, and gluing: These should be mailed to judges for review. (Contact a judge for mailing information.)
• If you want to incorporate additional materials the judges already own: Dan Burkey’s collection includes a homemade piecepack, piecepack matchsticks, piecepack pyramids, Pyramid Arcade plus 2 extra Rainbow Stashes of Icehouse pieces and Pink Hijinks, Blue Panther birch ply Set 1 piecepack, standard playing cards, Decktet, double 6 and double 9 dominoes Chris Goodwin’s collection includes the Infinite Board Game piecepack, standard playing cards, piecepack pyramids, Icehouse pieces, Pyramid Arcade, cloth chessboard, double 6 dominoes, glass beads/stones, and a rather medium-sized collection of board games.
• If your game requires reference tables or player aids (totally optional): Reference tables should fit on a single sheet of paper (8.5” x 11” or A4) without requiring a magnifying glass. Individual player aids (if used) should fit on a half or quarter sheet of paper to keep the Kitchen Table Stadium uncluttered.
• Please playtest your game with other people before submitting. It is good fun and camaraderie to work together with other contestants on this (but certainly not required). JessicaEccles did a great job of facilitating a playtesting group leading up to the Where No One Has Gamed Before contest. It’s a great way to work out the bugs in your rules with other active piecepack designers. Even though we strive for everlasting glory, the ultimate goal is to generate new ideas and experiences for the piecepack community.

How To Enter

Submit a PDF of your rules to the judge(s) of your chosen episode:

• Chris Goodwin (episodes 1 & 3): cgoodwin97124@gmail.com
• Dan Burkey (episodes 2 & 3): dpburkey@gmail.com

Deadline for submissions: July 15th, 2020 by 11:59 PM in any time zone on Earth

Due to worldwide circumstances that make it hard for designers and judges to test games, the deadline for the contest is extended until a time when people could reasonably expect to have access to the people and materials they need to make and test piecepack games. When there is a general consensus on when that will be, we will announce it here and elsewhere. Till then, stay safe and keep developing cool ideas!

Meanwhile, for some ingenious ways to playtest your game, see Playing and playtesting during pandemics, and don't forget to add a link on the Iron Piecepack Designer Playtest Page, where piecepackers will playtest your game for free!

Submissions were closed in May, 2021.

Make sure to include the following at the beginning of your PDF:

• Game title
• Designer’s name(s)
• Number of players
• Estimated playing time
• Required equipment
• License information (Creative commons version, GNU, Public domain, etc.)

Episode 1: The Iron Chef

Celebrity judge: Chris Goodwin, award-winning designer of Tingle for the Where No One has Gamed Before contest

Challenge: Interpret "Iron Chef" in some way. Yes, the term "Iron Chef" is itself a possible ingredient! This could relate to the theme of the game (which could play out as an Iron Chef type competition), the mechanics (a game in which players choose "ingredients" from a pool in order to create combinations), or even the components. Or the designer could bring in terms from cooking: "courses" (as in parts of a meal, or as in a playing area (e.g. a golf course), or as in a path to be taken (a race course)); "plating" (as in placing pieces on a tile); "mixing" (components face down, in a bag, or otherwise); "recipes" (lists of pieces and a method for combining them).

What We're Looking for in Episode 1:

• Lightly-themed abstract games
• Gameplay from minutes to maybe two hours, with great replay value
• Sound game design (see Design Hints)

Episode 2: Piecepack Matchsticks

Celebrity Judge: Dan Burkey, award-winning inventor of the piecepack matchsticks expansion for the Where No One has Gamed Before contest

Challenge: Design a game that incorporates the piecepack matchsticks in a way that shows off their unique possibilities and makes players want to build their own set.

What We're Looking For in Episode 2:

• Incorporates mechanics where players use piecepack matchsticks to make interesting choices. Give players a motivation to make or obtain this expansion set.
• Connects those mechanics to a unifying theme that gives them meaning.
• Sound game design (see Design Hints)

Episode 3: Expand!

Celebrity Judges: Chris Goodwin and Dan Burkey- Each judge will select the champion that he feels best meets the criteria of the challenge. Yes, there could be two finalists from this episode!

Challenge: Find a way to connect with the open-ended theme of “expansion.” Expansion could represent a game themed around expansion (such as the expansion of territory, the universe, populations, or waistlines), or it could represent an expansion set (either an existing expansion, or one created for the contest), or it could represent mechanics involving expansion (where expanding the playing surface is a move in the game, or a result of a move, or an object of the game). Or even expanding the playing area so the judges can play together from two different cities across the country from each other.

What We're Looking For in Episode 3:

• Clear and innovative connection to the theme of expansion.
• Sound game design (see Design Hints)

Season Finale Showdown!

The three games that win each episode will be judged against each other based on additional criteria. And the Iron Chef Toque will be awarded to the overall winner.

Criteria:

• Engaging mechanics that are easy to learn and bring new ideas to piecepack play.
• Balance of player interaction, interesting player choices, skill, and luck
• Smooth gameplay with engaging opening, midgame, and endgame
• Elegance: simple to explain, but leading to complex strategy. Often, this involves balancing a few operative actions (what the players can physically do to the pieces) and varied resultant actions (strategies and tactics that players end up using to achieve the objective),
• Overall “piecepackiness”- the feeling that this game is optimized for playing with the piecepack components

Design Hints

In all the episodes, we will be looking for the hallmarks of good general game design, including:

• Easy setup and tear down
• Emergent behavior from a simple setup
• Clearly written rule set that lets players begin playing without confusion. Be careful to balance simplicity and clarity. Sometimes in an effort to say exactly what they mean, rule writers devolve into a legalese that gets wordy and difficult to read. On the other hand, if they go too simple, they might miss common situations where the rules become ambiguous. A good tool to gauge the readability of your writing can be found at http://www.hemingwayapp.com/.
• Fun to play! (totally subjective on the part of the judges, but see taste notes)
• Replay value: would someone want to play again, regardless of whether they won or lost the first time, or is there a way the game changes that would make another play interesting?

Judge Chris's profile and taste notes: I like games that are easy to set up and tear down. I like games that are easy to learn but difficult to master. I see inherently themeless game systems such as the Piecepack and Looney Pyramids lending themselves to lightly-themed or themeless abstract games. Alien City is a good example of lightly-themed, to me. I like simple setups that result in really neat emergent behavior (such as with cellular automatons). I also like modular board/terrain placement type games (such as Catan, Zarcana/Gnostica/Zark City, etc.), unique player or color powers (but recognize that those are hard to do without a reference sheet), and good balance between strategy and randomness, or leaning toward strategy.

Judge Dan's profile and taste notes: I created the piecepack matchsticks to inspire new spatial and geometric possibilities for the piecepack. They also have great potential as resource tokens or other markers. See the description of the PiecepackMatchsticks for some ideas that inspired the design of the expansion. I enjoy games with a strong spatial component (Labyrinth, Ticket to Ride, Betrayal at House on the Hill). I have also been interested in cooperative games lately (Betrayal, Pandemic, Forbidden Island/Desert), and I've noticed there don’t seem to be many for the piecepack. That said, I also enjoy surprises and lateral thinking. I like rulesets with illustrations, and I think other people do too.

Scoring

Each game will be ranked according to each of the criteria of its episode. The rank will be converted into a numerical score for each criterion: 1= Best, 2=second best, etc. Each game will get 5 scores- one for each criterion. Scores will be added for each game, and the lowest total score will be declared champion for that episode. Champions will move on to the Season Finale Showdown.

The Season Finale Showdown will be judged based on the separate Season Finale criteria. Both judges’ scores on these criteria will be added for each game to generate the final total score.

Note: Episode 3 may expand the contest by creating 2 finalists- one selected independently by each judge. It is also possible that both judges will select the same game to pass on to the final showdown, but they will make their selections independently.

In the event of a tie, the game that received a better score for the criterion at the top of the list will be declared the winner.

Prizes

• Everlasting Glory
• The privilege of hosting the next contest
• The Iron Piecepack Chef’s Toque, a piece of headwear so glorious it has not yet been designed
• A build-it-yourself piecepack kit featuring tile face labels hand printed using a carved linoleum block process by Dan Burkey
• Maybe additional prizes will emerge as well...

Side Contest: Best Piecepack Demonstration Video

When I’m learning to play a new game, or deciding whether I want to put in the time and money to buy and learn a new game, I usually search for videos of how it’s played. Did you know that if you search for “piecepack game demo” on Youtube, you only get 4 videos that are actually piecepack-related, and none of them focuses on teaching people to play piecepack games? The piecepack is a 21st-century game system, and videos are the fastest way to show a lot of people how to play a game. If we want to expand the possibilities of the piecepack, we need to reach people in the medium that gets their attention the best. With this side contest, let's show the world how to use the piecepack!

Some examples of needs in the piecepack community:

• What does it actually look like to score HangingGardens and AlienCity?
• What do those nifty movement mechanics for ShamanIsland look like in action?
• Can you teach someone the complexities of Colonists of Natick in 7 minutes or less?

To Enter the Video Side Contest

Upload a video to Youtube that teaches viewers to play a piecepack game. Title your video “Piecepack Game Demo: [title of game]” for easy identification, and include the phrase “Iron Piecepack Designer Contest” somewhere in the video description. Email the link to your video to Dan Burkey at dpburkey@gmail.com by July 15th, 2020 at 11:59 PM in any time zone on Earth.

Video Contest Specifications

• Create a video 7 minutes or less demonstrating gameplay of any piecepack game. It could be one made for this contest, or another existing game (designed by you or someone else).
• If the video is not in English, please include English subtitles.
• Language should be appropriate for a random stranger’s child to hear.
• Credit the author of the game and state which edition of the piecepack you are using (Blue Panther JCD, Infinite Board Game, handmade yourself, etc.)- Both verbally and in the video description. That way people know who to congratulate on a great game idea, or where to get a cool piecepack like yours.

Include the following in the video description, for the benefit of viewers:

• The name and designer of the game
• A mention of the “Iron Piecepack Designer Contest”, for easy searching
• A link to the online rules of the game
• A link to https://web.archive.org/web/2016/http://www.piecepack.org
• A link to the piecepack wiki, http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki
• Optionally, any other information you would like to include

Please do not use copyrighted music or sound effects in your video- YouTube could take it down, and all your hard work would disappear! You may use royalty-free sound or music you create yourself if you wish.

This contest will not have a bearing on the judgment of games for the main contest. You are welcome to submit a video of your own game, but the game will be judged separately on its own merits.

If two videos demonstrate the same game, each video will be judged by the criteria- no harm in seeing multiple people play a cool game!

See the Video Production Tips below for some advice on how to make your video stand out!

Video Judging Criteria (from most to least weight)

• Communication: Engaging, clear, concise demonstration- Could someone who stumbled upon the video with limited background knowledge understand how to play after watching?
• Production value: Quality of image, sound, and editing. How good does it look and sound?
• Entertainment value: How fun is it to watch? Will someone stay interested long enough to watch the whole thing? (Note: Videos will be primarily judged on the first two criteria, with this one being used to break a close tie)

Video Production Tips

• Write out a script, or at least some notes, to plan your video before you shoot. This will keep you organized, make sure you include all the information you intended, and help keep you from tripping on your words.
• This might not be the place for a full play-through of a longer game. Focus on the setup, main mechanics, objective, etc. Clear up anything that’s easier to see than read about.
• Use editing to your advantage- one long camera shot can be difficult to watch. Use multiple camera angles if you can, or at least use an editing program to cut out the sections where not much is happening. Many gameplay videos cut back and forth between the demonstrator(s) and an overhead or closeup view of what they are doing, for clarity.
• Make sure there is enough light on you and your game that the camera can get a good-quality image.
• If you can, use an external microphone that isn’t built into your camera. A well-placed microphone will capture more of your voice and less of the hum of the room around you.
• Look at other online gameplay demo videos for reference on style and technique. Looney Labs has some great examples of simple, quick demo videos.
• If you are communicating clearly and using good-quality video, the entertainment value is less important. I would rather see a wide range of videos for piecepack newbies than scare demonstrators off because they don’t feel entertaining enough.

Prizes

• Everlasting Glory
• The privilege of hosting the next piecepack video contest
• The Iron Piecepack Chef’s Toque, a piece of headwear so glorious it has not yet been designed
• A build-it-yourself piecepack kit featuring tile face labels hand printed using a carved linoleum block process by Dan Burkey
• Maybe additional prizes will emerge as well...

The Entries So Far

See Iron Piecepack Designer Playtest Page