In a UK Games Expo first, 2018 will see the event play host to Tinkerbot Games’ inaugural game design Hackathon!

While traditionally Hackathons have been focused on software development, what are boardgamers good at if not taking fantastic ideas and making them more fun?

But for those not already aware of a Hackathons unique cocktail of panicked creativity, triumph and rueful vindication - allow us to explain: each participating team or individual is given a design goal to be achieved by a set time. Other than that, they are given free reign to go wild with their own inspirations coupled with the resources and brief they’ve been provided.

When & Where?

The event will launch on Saturday, 2nd of June and event kits will be available to collect from the Tinketbot stand at Hall 2-T8 at 12 noon.

The entry fee is £10 per team and for this you secure one of the above-mentioned kits and your place in the event. A maximum of 10 kits, and therefore slots, will be available for interested teams. To register your interest in getting a kit/entry then sign up using the link below.

The Event

Each kit will contain your ‘brief’: a theme or idea that is to be the guiding principle behind your finished project. Don’t worry that this’ll make things too restrictive - it’s there to be an inspiration, not an ultimatum!

Along with the brief will be a varied (though identical between kits) assortment of game design components for you to work with. It’ll be up to you to decide what exactly gets used and what stays in the box or - if you’re feeling particularly avant garde - how the box itself gets used as part of the design.

With the contents of the kit in hand, each team will have 24 hours to design their game. Any time left over can be spent playtesting and/or smugly daydreaming about pitching your ‘revolutionary’ new take on the genre to eager publishers after the judges hail you as the new Vlaada Chvatil.

Once the 24 hours are up, the teams will each have three minutes to pitch their designs to a panel of judges. These judges will rate the games based on overall quality of design, adherence to the given brief and how well they made use of the kit.

Once a design has emerged victorious, it will be awarded the title of UK Games Expo Design Hackathon Winner 2018. To go with the title the triumphant designers will also receive £100 in vouchers for use with the event sponsor: Rules of Play. These can either be redeemed during the event at their booth or used on their online store at a later date.

We’ll be announcing more information closer to the event, but, if you want to be among the first to hear, then sign up with us here: http://eepurl.com/dnhASP to receive instant notifications directly from Tinkerbot Games.

Every team/designer will have sole ownership of the design they produce over the course of the Hackathon along with the entire content of the kits. We very much promise this whole thing is not a thinly veiled attempt to not have to come up with our own ideas.

Judges

● Martin Wallace - Game Designer and Publisher, founder of Warfrog/Treefrog Games

● Mike Barnes - Reviewer and host of the Who Dares Rolls podcast

● Bevan Clatworthy - Game Designer and Publisher, Designer of Ghostel

● Katrina - Host of I Play Red, Boardgame Blogger, Reviewer, Playtester

Timeline

● Now

Sign up to the newsletter using the link above to register your interest in getting one of the 10 available competition slots.

● Saturday 2nd June - 12 noon @ Hall 1 K26

The 10 successful entrants will be announced and can collect their entry boxes.

● Sunday 3rd June - 1.30pm @ Piazza-Large

Judging takes place and the winner announced!

Find out more...

The UKGE Team