[Competition] Sedgwick's Ultimate Game
Hi all,
I work for with digital marketing for Sedgwick's Old Brown, and we'd like to approach this community to help us design a social/board game. In a nutshell, we'd like to reward a game that does the following:
Rules
- Must be a real-world (board) game, not a digital game
- Is playable by 3+ players (upper limit should be around 10)
- Gameplay duration is 10-45 minutes
- Must make use of standard game hardware, i.e. dice, playing cards, dominoes, etc.
- Must in some way connect with Captain James Sedgwick's story (read more about it here: bit.ly/1fgzwy4)
- Deadline is 21 August
- Gaming night is 22 August
Goal & Judging Criteria
We'd like to end up with a game that can live on in our festival tent, travelling with us through South Africa. We'd love a social game that turns strangers into friends. To get a better idea of what the vibes is like inside our tent, please check out on.fb.me/1tpTiRp. There are also some ideas about our visual identity which come across well on our Facebook page.
We'd like to start the competition as soon as possible, and run it until 21 August. On 22 August, we'd like to host a game night somewhere in Cape Town, on you recommendation, where we'd like judges from this community to have a gaming evening and then pick the winning submission.
In return, we are offering R 4000 to the winning game design, as well as hosting a gaming night at a venue you recommend.
As I'm new to this (besides being a casual board gamer), we're totally open to advice on how to make this better.
Thanks very much!
I work for with digital marketing for Sedgwick's Old Brown, and we'd like to approach this community to help us design a social/board game. In a nutshell, we'd like to reward a game that does the following:
Rules
- Must be a real-world (board) game, not a digital game
- Is playable by 3+ players (upper limit should be around 10)
- Gameplay duration is 10-45 minutes
- Must make use of standard game hardware, i.e. dice, playing cards, dominoes, etc.
- Must in some way connect with Captain James Sedgwick's story (read more about it here: bit.ly/1fgzwy4)
- Deadline is 21 August
- Gaming night is 22 August
Goal & Judging Criteria
We'd like to end up with a game that can live on in our festival tent, travelling with us through South Africa. We'd love a social game that turns strangers into friends. To get a better idea of what the vibes is like inside our tent, please check out on.fb.me/1tpTiRp. There are also some ideas about our visual identity which come across well on our Facebook page.
We'd like to start the competition as soon as possible, and run it until 21 August. On 22 August, we'd like to host a game night somewhere in Cape Town, on you recommendation, where we'd like judges from this community to have a gaming evening and then pick the winning submission.
In return, we are offering R 4000 to the winning game design, as well as hosting a gaming night at a venue you recommend.
As I'm new to this (besides being a casual board gamer), we're totally open to advice on how to make this better.
Thanks very much!
Comments
Although, my biggest concern is: do you expect entrants to relinquish their design to you? I would be very hesitant in entering such a competition. This might not be what you're aiming for, so perhaps explaining a little more about how you expect that sort of thing would work might help.
EDIT: From a logistics point of view it will probably help to have a larger gap between the deadline and gaming night.
The constraints are quite interesting:
- 3 to 10 players (3 players are often very different from 2 and 10, so yeah)
- Using readily available bits and bobs (Poker cards, dice, dominoes, I'd throw in poker chips, bits of paper, pencil, things that can be thrown at other things)
So basically it's a set of rules rather than a "boardgame".
Though my concerns are the same - for R4k, do you guys expect the rights to the game? For that amount I expect the copyright to stay with the designer and OB can make use of the game for their promotions. We'll get that sorted out with @nickhallsa :)
Whatever happens, I like boardgames, so it's a good step in the right direction :)
As someone who does professional contract work, I'm not sure how I feel about this.
On the one hand you're encouraging board game development, which is underserved and could use a leg up. Also I imagine you don't have extensive budget for this, so you're taking a creative approach to the problem which is admirable.
HOWEVER, there is a very clear commercial interest here, together with a fairly narrow commercial brief. Rather than being a "Jam" like competition where participants are in it for the sheer joy of creation and personal development, it's clear this is spec work in which remuneration for your time is unlikely and lower than other work. Crowd designs sites (like 99designs) employ this model, and there's nothing wrong with it, but I prefer to stay away as I think they are exploitive.
Seeing as you're keen to take on advice, I hope you guys are here in the right spirit. So perhaps there is a way to make this more collaborative. Maybe relax the brief, less emphasis on the edutainment advergame angle (because that's not much fun as a developer) . Or make the money available to fund building of radical props (Giant jenga looks like awesome fun). Also as a contractor I would be asking questions like, do you actually want something in depth like a 45 min board game in live activation scenarios, or do you actually want something more immediate and playful? Actually you've answered this question: That can take many forms!
Also I think for the spirit of what you're going for, you would need to make it clear developers keep ownership of all their intellectual property, and you only have permission to use it for a limited time. If it's a smash hit then re-negotiate. That seems like a fair way to foster the spirit of collaboration! :)
I'm in the process of getting Stephan's contact details so that we can figure out how to help make what Sedgewick's would like to see happen a reality, while still allowing the community to be as awesome as it is.
I'm not keen on taking this discussion down (seeing as people are talking smart stuff), but maybe the thread name should change?
I'm confused as to why you are running both of these competitions and why one is worth more money?
Thanks for the comments & suggestions - I'll do my best to clarify after LexAquillia, Disleckcia and I have had a catchup tomorrow morning.
Just to clarify the last comment - there are 2 competitions running: 1 is as an illustration/design competition more aimed at artists, whereas the one I spoke above is for designing the actual mechanics of a game. The illustration competition has a first, second & third prize (R6500), whereas the game design competition has one winner (R4000).
Thanks again.
This is very cheap spec work, is what this is :P
Anyone taking them up on their offer?
First off, it must be clear to everyone that this is not an MGSA event and we are not promoting it.
Regarding the competition itself, the organisers of the competition say they are happy for the IP to stay with the developer of the game, but the winning game would have a limited exclusive licence with the company running the competition for a year.
We as the committee do have some concerns. They relate primarily to that idea that you should never work for free, and if someone is willing to let you do work for them, then you are good enough to be paid, and thus should be paid for the work. The monetary value attached to winning the competition would be an unreasonably small sum to be paid for a contract where you develop a similar game.
However, it is a great opportunity for the members of our community to engage in a competition that has a form of concrete reward (something we don't get to to do yet). This reward is an effective manner in which to show an entrant that the work they have done is admirable. We understand that if it was a contract, it would be exploitational, but because it is an optional competition that offers a relatively risk free environment to gain experience, we feel it is borderline enough for us to allow on the forums.
So! If you're up for gaining more experience and potentially a small reward, then make sure to participate in the competition!
If you still feel uncomfortable participating, please do make recommendations that you feel would lessen your discomfort. The competition holders have stated that are quite open to any suggestions we might provide to on how make the competition better for the community. This includes changes such as constraints and deadlines to make the competition more effective. If you have suggestions be sure to drop them below - we will collect them all soon and submit a proposal on how to increase the effectiveness of the competition.
So far, our discussions with the competition organiser have involved making it clear that they can expect only expect a prototype, not really a fully polished product. We also like to chat to the organisers about having the winners do separate negotiations about the rights of the game, rather than it being a given once the competition is entered.
Though from what's been said, should probably just treat this as a game jam where we're in it "for the love of it"?
Not ideal, but yeah.
I have a game idea knocking around in my head, I'd like to enter it, didn't realise the deadline was like yesterday (the day before in fact). Could we get an extension?
Nevermind, I got this entry deadline mixed up with the other one on the facebook page which is only for the illustration... apparently.
First off, thanks for letting me so rudely barge in with a gamemaking offer - I should have had a chat with your committee before posting. That being said, we're really stoked to have you guys (potentially) on board.
As Bensonance mentioned - if there's any way that you as a group feel we could make this competition better, please let me know and I'll take it up with our client.
Tuism is right - there are 2 separate competitions. One is for illustration (deadline just came and went but I'm sure we can make exceptions) and the other competition is for the brief above. As soon as we go public with the brief early next week, I'll post the link to the Facebook post.
Shout with any other questions.
Thanks!
Thanks.