We are going to use a Kickstarter campaign to sell Designer badges and anticipate attendance so we can plan accordingly.
You can preview the Kickstarter campaign here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/commandeur/65581673?token=f89c8e9b
Hit the notify me link on the campaign to have Kickstarter email when it goes live.
We would love to hear your feedback about the Kickstarter preview. You can reach us at boardgamebuilders@gmail.com.
Greetings,
I posted my favorite photos from Unpub 5 on Flickr.
Find them here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127569255@N08/sets/72157650326490378
I shot a 360 degree video of the two room of prototype games that make up Unpub Sunday afternoon when the show had calmed down.
http://www.gopano.com/video/MjIwOTI
My estimate of Unpub 5 is:
70 designers
500-1000 play testers
It was big. Bigger than I expected and very busy.
I was on California time and stayed up late Friday. I didn’t set up my Table on Saturday until after noon. By then the convention center was swimming with players. I ran games back to back almost non-stop for hours. Almost no waiting around for players. At the peak on Saturday, every table was filled with play testers and people were walking around looking for an open table to play games at. It was the most epic prototype event I’ve ever seen.
Over the weekend I had:
71 unique players who played my games
36 plays (my games hit the table 36 times)
My 5 Prototypes were Bandit Brag, Booze Barons, Insider Trading, Pass the Paint and Secret Society
Friday was designer day. I attended two of the three panels and was sorry to miss the third one, but I had to make a trip to the drug store before they closed. My goal for Friday was to play other designer’s games and give away more time than I asked for.
The best three prototypes I played over the weekend were (from lowest to highest):
3. One Card Wonder by Nathaniel Levan
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127569255@N08/16486675121/
Think Seven Wonders as a micro game in 15 minutes. This one will need a lot of tuning to balance, but if Nat pulls it off it will be an fantastic little game.
2. Bug Club by Jason Kingsley
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127569255@N08/16300703018/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127569255@N08/16488419515/
This is a family game with some smart mechanics. It has clever simultaneous movement and solid game theory. The version I played was super early. I expect it will turn out to be a great game for casual players or for a quick game to play on lunch.
1. A La Kart by Daniel Solis
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127569255@N08/16462435756/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127569255@N08/15868299613/
As a former competitive TCG/CCG player and designer, this game hits all the right notes with me. I have seen and played many designer’s attempts to capture the fun andy style of Mario Kart in a table top game. Nothing I’ve played comes even close to what Daniel has achieved in A La Kart. I want to play it again RIGHT NOW. I can not wait to buy this game. I tried to talk Daniel into making me a remote blind play tester for the game with my old TCG/CCG development team. I’m counting the days until this is released. I’ll buy at least four copies.
Unpub Protospiel San Jose 2015 will take place:
Friday, April 24th - 10 AM to 10 PM
Saturday, April 25th - 10 AM to 10 PM
Sunday, April 26th - 10 AM to 10 PM
Our host location will once again be:
Game Kastle
1350 Coleman Ave, Santa Clara, CA 95050
Details on how to buy designer badges will be announced after Unpub 5. For now, save the date.
I attended a panel at BGG from the chair of the Spiel de Jarhes jury. It was fascinating. After sharing my notes with some other game designers I was encouraged to share my notes here.
Spiel des Jahres Panel BGG Con 2014
Speaker: Tom Felber, jury forman of Spiel des Jahres jury.
Tom is a journalist writing for the major Swiss newspaper. Every other week he writes a 1/2 page game column in the newspaper.
The Jury forman serves a 2 year term.
Jury is 1 Swiss (Tom), 1 Austrian, 11 Germans
Tom made it clear that the Spiel des Jahres is NOT for the board game geek. Not for the hobbyist or hard core player. Spiel des Jahres is for the general public. Games that EVERYONE can play.
In the 1980s as Spiel des Jahres was growing, there were 30-40 games published per year in Germany. Now they look at 300-400 games per year.
A game must be published in German in Germany to qualify. That is because the Jury speaks German. It is for the ease of the Jury. All games published in German are automatically eligible.
Every Jury member can not play test games or have any industry involvement or affiliation. No connection to game companies. Must be fully independent. The jury is almost all journalists. Maybe some librarians or teachers. You can’t work at a game store, or even a store that happens to carry some games.
The jury discusses via a private forum online.
Games have a 2 year window to qualify. NOT 1 year. So if your game was published in Germany in 2014, it could still be nominated win in 2015. That is because some games may get overlooked or are late.
Tom prefers to only play games with exactly 4 players or 8 players. He keeps a list of 400 people he schedule game nights with. He values diverse players and wants to run potential nominees through a lot of different players. He plays each game 3 times to form an opinion. If he likes it, he will play 10 times. If a game is recommended for the Spiel list, he will play it 20+ times.
Each jury member recommends 20 games, then narrows to 15 games around April.
When the jury meets after April 50-60 games are left.
A game can make the recommended list with only a few plays if it fits a type/need.
Any jury member can veto a game off the list unless they are convinced otherwise.
3x games in each category nominated for the prize. These form the jury's recommended list.
June kids game winner is announced.
July other two prizes are announced (main award and advanced award).
They take the final vote the day before the announcement to prevent leaks.
60-70% of game sales in Germany are for Christmas. Thus the award is in July to give time for a print run to be ready for Christmas. Lots of shops carry the winner for the Christmas gifts market and this drives prices down. Expect the price of the winner to face lots of downward pressure.
The Jury likes games that play 2-5 players.
There are no length or complexity requirements to be nominated.
Tom plays each nominee (game) 50 times between April and July with different people. The winner is subjective, its based on emotion. What games are memorable. What games produce big emotional moments. Memorable plays. If you game is a flat numbers based euro with little emotion, it will not go far with the jury.
Camel Up changes character with different players and experiences. The emotions are strong, hence why it won.
The rules must be very clear. Great games with poor rules are thrown out. The rules must be clear andy easy for the general public.
They make money from the Spiel des Jahres logo. There is license fee to put the logo on the box for your game. Not for profit organization. Jury members are not paid. Money goes to award ceremony, jury hotel room, taxes and prize awards/scholarships for young game designers.
They get games as review copes as journalists.
Hanabi was a controversial winner because it was just a card game.
Tom has played 10k games during his life.
Winning the award will probably sell 200k to 500k additional copies of that game.
I got to visit the prototype room at Celesticon for a day and play a bunch of prototype games. Thanks to Luke Laurie for organizing the event.
Find the photos here:
Prototype Room (Celestispiel) at Celesticon
