Co-op contest begins, Steampunk contest ends.

So a few important things have happened in the last two weeks. After the announcement of the new Game Crafter contest, I pulled together a few ideas that I was considering. I then made a post on Reddit asking for the opinions of random internet strangers. Although I won’t duplicate the post in its entirety, here are the three options I presented.

#1 On the Wall

Months ago I worked on an archery game that was tested and deemed “not fun.” I made some posts about it, so I’m not going to describe it here. The game was always a cooperative game, so it makes sense that I would pick it back up for this contest. I had devised a new and improved dice-rolling mechanic thanks in part to another Reddit post, so I felt like the game had potential. On top of that, there were parts of the game that really did work, and I had already done a good deal of the design work.

#2. The Founding Fighters (or America’s Founding Fighters)

On July 4th, I attempted to create a game in 24 hours. It didn’t go so well. But the things I did manage to get made were pretty cool, and the overall concept was, in my opinion, pretty solid. Although it didn’t have a title then, I’ve since decided to call it “The Founding Fighters,” although others have expressed an interest in the title “America’s Founding Fighters.” This is another game that I have already done a good bit of footwork on, and it has the most exciting theme of the three ideas.

#3 Untitled 2 on 2 Card Game

I’m not going to describe this idea because there basically isn’t much of an idea there. It was going to be a Bridge-style game where two pairs of players are competing against each other. The reason I was attracted to this idea was that I began to question the integrity of my other ideas, and the nature of cooperative games. I’m hoping to write a bit more of an in-depth exploration of this idea (the co-op thing, not the card game), so I’ll stop there.

Anyway, the response was pretty clear, whether on the internet or from people I asked in person: I should make The Founding Fighters. So I will. More on that later.

Finally, the finalists for the Steampunk Contest were announced. Some great games made it, and my rule-less submission was not among them. I was justly disqualified for, you know, not having rules. The best I got was that the judge said it “looked nice.” That’s about the highest praise I could have rightly expected. When I order the game (which should be pretty soon), I’ll actually be able to find out if the game works.