

The Thousand Year Game Design Challenge - DanielStraight
http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/thousand-year-game-design-challenge.html

======
DanielSolis
Thanks for linking! Here are the entry round-ups so far for the past four
months.

January: [http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/thousand-year-
ga...](http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/thousand-year-game-design-
challenge.html)

February: [http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/thousand-year-
ga...](http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/thousand-year-game-design-
challenge.html)

March: No Entries

April: [http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/thousand-year-
ga...](http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/thousand-year-game-design-
challenge.html)

~~~
DanielStraight
I'm glad you found us here. I should've posted a comment on your blog.

Anyway, I wonder if you might be able to give us some insight as a game
designer as to what goes into creating a game. Do you start with a theme?
Mechanics? A particular goal (like the one you've set out here to create a
thousand year game)?

~~~
DanielSolis
It was hard to ignore the 800% spike in traffic. ;)

Before I even get an idea for a theme or a mechanic (or a constraint), I look
for inspiration outside of my head. I watch movies, read comics, and play
games in other media. Oh! I actually documented this process on my blog for a
recent game.

I got hooked on this web game: <http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/jorinapeka.html>

Then tried adapting it to tabletop with this prototype:
[http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-lab-
jorinapek...](http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-lab-jorinapeka-
board-game-adaptation.html)

After several iterations, it became a very different game in its own right:
<http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/utara.html>

Which had many enthusiastic players at a recent convention:
[http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/playing-utara-
di...](http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/playing-utara-dice-game-at-
dreamation.html)

It was so well-received, I had dice professionally produced and documented the
costs of the process: [http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/etched-
utara-dic...](http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/etched-utara-dice-
costs-of-custom-dice.html)

Anyhoo, hope all that helps if you decide to go into board game design. :)

------
DanielStraight
If you go to the update posts (there's one for each month), he lists the
submissions he's received so far.

~~~
xnerdr
Do you have a link to even one of these? I tried looking for these and
couldn't find one...

~~~
DanielStraight
[http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/thousand-year-
ga...](http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/thousand-year-game-design-
challenge.html)

I found a tag too:

[http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/search/label/1000%20Year...](http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/search/label/1000%20Year%20Game%20Design)

------
biot
I assume it would be cheating to create a game that takes a thousand years to
_play_? :)

~~~
nrkn
I initially thought that it would be a game that took a thousand years to make
:)

~~~
microtherion
Wolfenstein covers the Thousand Year Reich, that's gotta count for
something...

