Rules

To be eligible for the award, designs must not be publicly available through any retail, secondary or print-on-demand market, including Kickstarter, before June 2020. Designs may not be licensed to a publisher during the period of the award. Designs must be original works that do not infringe on any intellectual property. Board, card and dice games are eligible. Sorry, no RPGs or videogames.

Submissions must include a brief description of the game, a video overview, and a rules document. See the submissions page for full guidelines and submission fee information.

Submissions will be judged based on engagement, originality of theme, and originality of mechanics. Finalists will be judged based on engagement, smoothness of play, and fit for target audience.

Submissions will go through two rounds of judging. Finalists chosen for the second round of judging will need to mail us a physical prototype for final judging. Finalists will receive full feedback from the judges.

One design will be chosen as the winner, at the judges' discretion. Judges are not eligible to enter.

Designs should be complete and playtested before being submitted. Prototypes do not need to have final artwork or graphics, but they should be clear and usable.

All designs remain the intellectual property of the designers.