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Announcing The Winners Of The Public Domain Game Jam!

from the like-it's-1923 dept

The votes are in, and it’s time to announce the winners of the Gaming Like It’s 1923 game jam!

At the beginning of January, we decided to celebrate the long-awaited entry of new works into the public domain with a game jam, inviting designers to submit games of all kinds based on newly-copyright-free works from 1923. We got way more entries than we expected, and handed them off to our huge judging panel of game designers and copyright experts, who left comments and nominated them in our six prize categories. Now we’ve tallied up the votes and reviews, so without further delay, here are the winners of Gaming Like It’s 1923:

Best Analog Game — Permanence by Jackson Tegu

This award goes to the best overall non-computer game, with a clear consensus emerging from the judge’s review scores. Permanence is perplexing at first glance, and requires some serious prep work, but sometimes that’s the cost of a game this unique and creative. Using the format of a book that can be read in two directions, it weaves the painting Metempsychosis by Yokoyama Taikan and poetry from the book The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran into an artistic gaming experience that isn’t quite like anything you’ve seen before.

Best Digital Game — Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening to Steal Treasure by Alex Blechman

The award for best digital game goes to this short, sweet, simple, and above all entertaining take on Robert Frost’s famous poem. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening to Steal Treasure tasks you with jazzing up the verse by subbing in some new material to entertain a modern gaming audience. Give it a try, or two or three…

Best Adaptation — God of Vengeance by jrgoldb

This award goes to the game that most faithfully and meaningfully adapted its source material, carrying its original intent forth into a new medium. God of Vengeance, based on the 1923 Yiddish language play of the same name, is an analog storytelling game that puts players in the main roles from the play and provides an interesting mechanical framework for improvising scenes and exploring the themes of a work they might otherwise have never encountered.

Best Remix — Will You Do The Fandango? by Lari Assmuth

This award goes to the game that made the best combined use of multiple public domain works. Will You Do The Fandango? starts with the 1923 film Scaramouche, but then draws on the whole world of Commedia dell’Arte and the mechanics from games like Apocalypse World and Lady Blackbird. The result is a high-energy tabletop roleplaying game, complete with dice and stats, in which a troupe of traveling players tour revolutionary France engaging in bombastic drama and romance — with printable masquerade masks to boot!

Best Deep Cut — Not a Fish by J. Walton

This award is for the best use of an obscure or unexpected source that doesn’t appear on the typical roundup lists of works entering the public domain, and the cuts don’t get much deeper than Not a Fish: a game based on a pair of 1923 science journal articles about Amphioxus fisheries in China. Like the jigsaw puzzles that inspired the mechanics, the game starts out seeming jumbled, but it quickly starts to resolve into an exploration of social and political themes you might not be expecting from the subject matter.

Best Visuals (Tie!) — Chimneys and Tulips by litrouke, and The Garden of God by DreadRoach

There wasn’t a single stand-out winner for the best visuals category, and understandably so — one month is scarcely enough time to create or assemble a game’s worth of stunning graphics. Instead, the award for best visuals goes to two browser-based submissions which, while they have their limitations, certainly caught our eye.

Chimneys and Tulips is a creative arrangement of four poems by E. E. Cummings, with a focus on beautiful minimalist design. Though the gameplay is somewhat lacking, a lot of work and vision went into the colorful style in which the works are presented, and while the interactive elements may be simple, they aren’t arbitrary. Fans of poetry, and of typography, will find plenty to explore.

The Garden of God is a short narrative experience based on the novel of the same name by H. De Vere Stacpoole. It’s built in RPG Maker MV, and most of the visuals are stock sprites and graphics from that tool — but a lot of thought and effort went into how they were used. The game has multiple unique settings and maps, and well-choreographed scripted scenes with attention to background detail.

All the winners in all categories will receive their choice of a copy of our public domain card game CIA: Collect It All, or one of our copyright-themed t-shirts from Teespring. We’ll be reaching out to all the winners on their games’ Itch pages, so if you see your game listed here, keep an eye on your incoming comments!

Thanks again to everyone who submitted a game — there are lots of entries worth checking out in addition to the winners. And thanks again to our panel of judges:

We’ll likely be back with another game next year when, if all goes according to plan, the public domain will continue to grow!

Filed Under: 1923, board games, copyright, game jam, games, public domain, public domain game jam, rpg, video games

This Week In Game Jam History…

from the PD-mining dept

Gaming Like It’s 1923: The Newly Public Domain Game Jam

On New Year’s Day, we launched a special celebration of this milestone year in which new works are finally exiting copyright and entering the US public domain: a public domain game jam.

From now until the end of the month, we’re accepting submissions of all sorts of games (video games, board games, tabletop RPGs, LARPs, and just about anything else you can dream up…) based on works from 1923 that have finally become free for all to use without fear of copyright issues. There’s a bunch of high-profile material to consider, and of course a whole world of lesser-known works that we hope people will dig into for inspiration.

At the end of the month, our growing panel of expert judges (including Cory Doctorow, Whitney “Strix” Beltran, Dan Bull, Rebecca Tushnet, Nicky Case, Mark Lemley, Daphne Keller, Jason Scott, Jason Morningstar, J Li, Eric Goldman, Carolyn Homer, Albert Kong) will select winners in six different categories, to receive prizes including Techdirt copyright swag and copies of our recently-Kickstarted card game, CIA: Collect It All:

Even though we are less than a week into 2019, we’ve already had three submissions which you can go try out right now! But we’re expecting a lot more competition — so whether you’re an experienced game designer, an amateur looking to try their hand, or just someone who is really inspired by a work that has finally entered the public domain, head over and join the jam on Itch… then get to work!

Filed Under: board games, copyright, game jam, gaming, public domain, video games

Announcing The Public Domain Game Jam: Gaming Like It's 1923

from the make-sonny-bono-proud dept

Gaming Like It’s 1923: The Newly Public Domain Game Jam

Happy new year, everyone. Every year, soon after the new year, we post a somewhat disappointing post describing how, once again, no new works have gone into the public domain in the US, because various lobbying interests have continued to extend copyright over and over again, with the last such extension coming in 1998 (the last time old works automatically entered the public domain in the US), better known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. It’s been 21 years of nothing, and that’s been quite sad. But this year is different. Thanks to public interest in copyright and people getting increasingly angry about our locked up culture, Hollywood didn’t even make a serious attempt to extend copyrights again (to be fair, they put out some feelers, and when they realized it would be a total disaster, they let it go).

So this year, we’ve been seeing tons of celebratory articles, highlighting how works from 1923 are finally entering the public domain (WAY later than they should have, but not much we can do about that now). So, it’s time to celebrate. And what good is a public domain if you don’t do anything with it? So, today, now that these works are in the public domain, we’re announcing the Gaming Like It’s 1923 Newly Public Domain Game Jam. We’ve teamed up, once again, with Randy Lubin from Diegetic Games, who was our partner on the (public domain) CIA: Collect It All card game, to run this game jam.

If the idea of a game jam is new to you, it’s pretty simple: it’s just a month-long contest for you to create games: these can be video games, board games, card games, RPGs, interactive fiction, etc. The one key requirement: it must use something from 1923 that has just entered the public domain. Those works are free for anyone to use, and we should celebrate that by actually making use of them to do something fun. So go create a game and submit it. There are some more details on the rules/restrictions and some pointers on the game jam page. Go make Sonny Bono proud (despite the fact that he believed that, contrary to the Constitution, copyright should last forever). We’re offering up copies of our CIA game and some of our copyright-related t-shirts as prizes.

If you need some source material for inspiration, Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain already has a nice page of highlights of newly public domain material, as well as a nice spreadsheet with even more works. Also, there have been a ton of news articles in the lead up to this first US public domain day in twenty-one years, that might also get you thinking. Here’s ones from the Smithsonian, the NY Times, BoingBoing, NPR, Quartz, Motherboard, The Stranger and Slate, so start hunting around for great cultural works to build on…

We’ve already put together an all-star cast of judges, mixing folks from both the worlds of gaming and copyright/public domain, including folks like Cory Doctorow, Whitney “Strix” Beltran, Dan Bull, Rebecca Tushnet, Nicky Case, Mark Lemley, Daphne Keller, Jason Scott, Jason Morningstar, J Li, Eric Goldman, Carolyn Homer, Albert Kong and we’ll likely be naming a few more judges over the course of the month. Stay tuned.

Filed Under: 1923, board games, copyright, game jam, public domain, video games

Techdirt Podcast Episode 147: Games That Tell Stories

from the the-play's-the-thing dept

Gaming is changing the nature of storytelling. Video games of course — but also the modern rise of board games, tabletop RPGs and other forms of analog gaming. A good game does more than just arbitrarily pair play with a veneer of narrative, it marries the mechanics and the theme to enable interesting new ways of conveying and exploring complex ideas. This week, we’re joined by game designer Randy Lubin to discuss how games can tell stories in a way nothing else can.

Follow the Techdirt Podcast on Soundcloud, subscribe via iTunes or Google Play, or grab the RSS feed. You can also keep up with all the latest episodes right here on Techdirt.

Filed Under: board games, gaming, podcast, randy lubin, storytelling, video games

The Wil Wheaton Effect Is Why Video Game Makers Should Embrace Let's Play Videos

from the game-theory dept

We haven’t made a secret of our appreciation for Wil Wheaton here at Techdirt, in particular for his forward-thinking approach to digital content and intellectual property. More specifically, I’ve mentioned in the past that I am hopelessly addicted to Wheaton’s YouTube show, Table Top, on which he features a series of table top board games being played by himself and a rotating panel of guests. As I was poking around trying to figure out when the series would resume for its fourth season, after amassing tons of crowdfunded money for the previous season, I came across an interesting thread discussing what had been dubbed “The Wheaton Effect.”

This thing is big. This could do a lot for our hobby. It’s easy to think that these are existing gamers being introduced to new games, but I had at least two people who were not really gamers start conversations like “So hey, aren’t you into board games? Well I just saw this thing on the internet…” after the first episode. All of this being said, I’m getting Tsuro.

Now, we happen to know a thing or two around here about terms that get dubbed an “effect”, especially when the revolve around exposure through internet channels. The Wheaton Effect is essentially a noticeable jump in sales for games that are featured on Table Top. As the original Reddit poster implies, the exposure generated by the game being featured on the show is a boon for sales. I would think this is an intuitive idea, in which an otherwise unaware public becomes aware of the fun to be had through these games and then goes out and buys them.

So, if this is a thing, as it appears to be, why in the world do some video game makers take a different approach with “Let’s Play” videos, whether it’s attempting to claim the monetization of them, control the content within them, or outright take them down via DMCA notice or by using YouTube’s ContentID? It doesn’t make sense if these types of videos result in exposure that leads to sales.

And, to be fair, much of the gaming industry has come around to this idea. You can see the evolution not only in the stance of the publishers, who often times go so far as to work with sites to unblock Let’s Play videos that were automatically nabbed by ContentID, but also in video game hardware itself. The latest generation of consoles, specifically the Playstation 4 and Xbox One, are both designed specifically with ways for gamers to record gameplay and share those recordings. But Nintendo and some other lagging studios are more restrictive and I can’t imagine why. Sales are what’s important and exposure brings with it sales. The Wheaton Effect is an example of this, but this concept isn’t in any way limited to the realm of table top games. Give up just a little bit of control, it seems, and you spur on sales.

Filed Under: attention, board games, buyers, let's play, promotion, video games, wil wheaton, wil wheaton effect

Board Game Maker Sues Google, Claiming Trademark Infringement

from the publicity-stunt dept

Yehuda Berlinger points out that a board game company in South Africa that has a Cricket-themed board game called “Googly” is suing Google over trademark, claiming that Google’s registration of the google.co.za domain name violates its trademark. Of course, as the site writing about the story notes, no moron in a hurry would ever confuse the two (though, I’m unaware of whether or not South Africa accepts the moron in a hurry test for trademarks). My guess is that this is really just a publicity stunt by the board game maker, (correctly) realizing that this little lawsuit would get them some press.

Filed Under: board games, googly, moron in a hurry, south africa, trademark
Companies: google

from the please-explain dept

Back in January, we explored the news that both Hasbro and Mattel (who own the rights to the board game Scrabble in different regions) were upset and threatening to sue about the incredibly popular knockoff version Scrabulous on Facebook. As we pointed out at the time, shutting down the game would quickly piss off 2.3 million Scrabble fans — many of whom were interested in the game for the first time, most likely leading to real sales of the board game. While the situation still has not been resolved (and Scrabulous remains online), the New York Times has the latest details that suggest that Real Networks is negotiating with Scrabulous’ creators. Since Real has a deal to produce an online version of Scrabble (the article first says the deal is with Hasbro, and later says it’s with Mattel, so it’s not clear who the deal is with), perhaps this will all be worked out for the best. However, the article does mention that executives from Mattel are against the idea of settling with the creators of Scrabulous, fearing that it “would set a bad precedent.”

That’s lawyers speaking, not marketers. How could a fun online game that has rejuvenated interest in what was seen as a rather dull board game among many folks today, be considered a “bad precedent?” How could having millions of new fans of your game and treating them right, rather than depriving them of what they want be considered a “bad precedent?” Some may answer that the “bad precedent” would be that it would encourage others to create similar knockoffs of other Mattel games, but, again, if they drove as much interest in the originals as Scrabulous did, isn’t that a good thing? Some may claim that it would deprive Mattel the opportunity to license the games for lots of money, but again looking at Scrabble as an example, the bigger fear for Mattel should have been the fact that many people didn’t care about the game at all. By letting random people create the games for it, it can quickly determine which games work well online and then work with the creators of those games to put an official stamp on it. The Agarwalla brothers created this game at no cost to Mattel, who otherwise would have spent a ton of money to create it after which it might not have caught on in the same way Scrabulous did. This way the game has been created, tested and even built up an audience at no cost to Mattel. Shouldn’t they consider that to be a good thing?

Filed Under: board games, promotions, scrabble, scrabulous
Companies: hasbro, mattel, real networks