Rio Grande Board Game Design Contest
Rio Grande Games held a board game design contest this year. Twelve candidates won preliminary rounds at playtest sessions held in their twelve local areas around the U.S. Their prize was a free attendance badge to the Chicago Game and Toy Fair, and an interview there with Jay Tummelson.
Rio Grande is a titan of the industry, publisher of Carcassonne, Dominion, Race for the Galaxy, Puerto Rico, and Stone Age-- an impressive percentage of "The Hotness" list on Boardgamegeek at any given time. Before the contest, Jay committed Rio Grande to publish one of the contest finalists, so that was the brass ring of the final round.
The description sets a compelling scene: a huge empty function space room. One table. Two chairs. Jay. The contestant. And the game.
Jay was so impressed with the quality that he chose to publish four of them. They decided to do it again in 2010!
Had I known in time, I certainly would have found a way to get my Ingeniators prototype to the nearest semifinals (in Chicago), sleeping in my car if necessary. However, I found out about the contest from the announcement of the finalists, sent on LinkedIn. As you can imagine, I am quite excited, both for the chances of Ingeniators, and for the chances of U-Con to administer Michigan semifinals for 2010. There is an incredible game designer community in Michigan, which deserves representation.
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