Thousand Year Game Design Challenge - Last-Minute Entries

The Thousand-Year Game Design ChallengeWell, we're settled into our new home, so I can finally round up the few entries to the Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge that came in on the very last day.


Kodrek by Joshua A.C. Newman
Indie game designer Joshua says: "Kodrek came out of a game of Human Contact, a science fiction roleplaying game about anthropology. When we needed a game that space pirates were playing in a bar, we started to describe this. After the game, we fleshed it out a little more. A dozen or so playtests later, I'm entering it in the contest and sending out prototypes to my Kickstarter backers who are getting a board."

Close Doesn't Count by Andrew Juell
Andrew offers this interesting abstract puzzler with several thoughts on its longevity. "I would be deeply hesitant to speculate as to how humanity and its circumstances will evolve over the next 100 years, much less the next 1000.  Nonetheless. I am far enough below my word limit that I should probably at least explore a scenario or two." Read his entry for more.

Shooting Stars by Magnus Esko
Magnus sends in this lovely little abstract. He says: "Shooting Stars is an abstract strategy game for two players. It takes about 10 minutes to play. The board is the night sky and the players create new stars, shooting them around to spread stardust. The player who can spread the most stardust is the winner." He spends most of the entry discussing strategy, making components, and even suggesting tournament rules.

Liars' Club by Matthew Moore
Matthew provides one of the few entries to the challenge that are almost entirely conversational in nature. This is a social deduction game where you're tasked with divining who's a liar and who is not. A classic puzzle, to be sure. Oh! And Matthew also provided the game in flowchart form.

Bakkhus by Clay Gardner
Clay sends in this lovely game of symbol-matching, stone-placement and tile-flipping.

Spread by Fernando Rivas
Fernando sends in the most technically specific game of all the entries so far. Using a set of polygonal pieces, you form contiguous groups across a field, trying to reach the other side. The twist? The height of the group has an influence in play. Play the Flash demo here.

Drop-Shy by Jonathan Walton
Jonathan sends in this entry in the final hours of the entry deadline. It combines some elements of dominoes with enough open-endedness to cause friendly arguments among players. Oh! And it uses an open-ended number of dice, tossed all at the same time. You know I love that mechanic. :D

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