68
We put the second tranche of GameCamp 4 tickets on sale and those went, so we put the third tranche up and those are going fast. As I write this, with six weeks to go till the day, we have just 68 tickets left.
If you’ve not bought yours yet then don’t wait in the hope we might have a fire-sale later on, is what I’m saying.
METAL!
The first tranche of tickets for GameCamp 4 went on sale at noon today. Within six hours we had to make a call on whether to put the second tranche on sale as well. By 8PM you lot had bought more tickets for GC4 than all the tickets we sold for GC2 put together… and GC2 sold out. We’re a bit stunned and breathless. Thank you!
Still plenty of tickets left, though. Tell your friends.
There’s now a list of everyone who’s attending at the Eventbrite site, but we also recommend that you sign up for the splendid Lanyrd.com which tracks conferences and who’s attending them, so you can find out what’s happening and which of your mates will be there. It’s one of those sites that simply works, and we’d really like it if you added your name to the GameCamp 4 page. Cheers.
GameCamp Returns!
GameCamp 4 is GO! Like Thunderbirds! The date for your diary is Saturday 14 May 2011.
New Digs, New Party
And like Thunderbird 4, the underwater one, we’ve moved down the Thames to a new location,1 the Keyworth Centre at the heart of London South Bank University. Not only is it in Zone 1 and walking distance from Waterloo and London Bridge, but it’s twice the size of our last location. Gamecamp 4 will be as big as GameCamps 2 and 3 put together. Tell your friends… mostly tell them they might be able to get a ticket this time.
F A B!
Same Awesome Format
Games continue to grow in importance and effect on our society. Every year a new record in sales or reach is broken. Today’s young adults have never known a time when games weren’t as mass-media as TV or books. For good or for ill, we are a world of gamers. It’s time we thought about what this means.
GameCamp 4 brings us back to the dynamic and stimulating unconference format, like GameCamps 1 and 2. No prearranged talks, no guests, no keynote speakers, just a massive crowd of movers, shakers, thinkers and creators from all areas of the world of games and ready to discuss them.
Once again we’ll have break-out spaces, a library of modern and classic board-games for people to play, food and drink, and loads of other stuff going on.
The first tranche of tickets is now on sale via Eventbrite. If you don’t get one this time, don’t despair: there are two more tranches still be be released. We’re also holding some heavily discounted tickets for staff and students at LSBU, so if you qualify then drop us a line.
And we’re looking for sponsors, so if you have a promo budget that you need to spend before the end of the tax year (hint hint) then get in touch.
Twitter hashtag: #GC4
We are looking forward to welcoming you to the UK’s biggest gaming unconference ever.
(1 Like that bit in the Thunderbirds live-action movie where they… oh, you didn’t…? nor did anyone else.)
Board Game Camp Stats
As part of the library system at Board Game Camp, we entered every game into a spreadsheet as well as cataloguing them on index cards. That gave us a lot of stats we otherwise wouldn’t have had, and here they are mixed with a few others.
133 people came to Board Game Camp, and among them were 13 teams competing in the GameHack, who submitted 12 games for the final judging.
Games and Lending:
Games lent to library: 96
Distributor Esdevium lent just over a quarter of the total games in the library, but the lions share came from visitors who were willing to entrust their games to our system of precision scales and index boxes.
Total times games were borrowed: 59
You kind of want every game to be borrowed at least once when you’re running a library, but I think if it were any smaller, it really wouldn’t have had such a good selection. Not everything will always be taken out, and some will be very popular, but such a selection means that probably anyone can find something they’ll like or want to try.
Weights:
- Heaviest game: War on Terror, 2.2Kg
- 2nd heaviest: Agricola, 2.148Kg
- 3rd heaviest: Last Night on Earth, 1.975Kg
- Lightest game: Game Seeds, by Wormella, at 86.2 grams
- Lightest published game: Fluxx, 136.6 grams
- Total weight of board game library: 63.6207kg
That’s the weight of a small person!
Most popular games:
Dixit was the most popular game of the day, with the two library copies being borrowed a total of seven times, as well as being played in the pub later.
Tied for second place are Dominion and Zombie Fluxx at 4 uses each, and also tied for third are Last Night On Earth and Weinhandler, each being borrowed 3 times.
Some other things:
People tweeted with the hashtags #boardgamecamp and #bgcamp 297 times, and consumed 150 pizzas, 100 danishes, and an indeterminate number of cans of Dr. Pepper.
I think this is where I’m supposed to post that it will be back, bigger and better next year, but actually, it was a very good size this year. All the rooms felt busy, and we learned a fair bit from how the day ran. It might only be a little bigger, but we want to do it again and it’s sure to be even better. Thanks again for coming, and for trusting us with your games.
Thanks to:
I failed to thank some important people in my final speech, so here’s another stab at a complete list of everyone who made Saturday happen so smoothly.
Our awesome sponsors: eBay/Paypal/Gumtree for the loan of the venue and the free drinks; Cadbury who sponsored the GameHack competition, providing not only a fantastic brief but a jaw-dropping prize; Esdevium Games who loaned us the core of the games library and who wanted us to mention http://www.findyourgamestore.co.uk/; and the London Games Festival for letting us say that BoardGameCamp was part of the London Games Festival.
Our terrific GameHack competition judges: Simon Crowther from Cadbury, Chris Price from PHD, Graham Linehan of Delightful Industries and Andrew Sheerin of Terrorbull Games. (And me, James, but I was more of an organiser.)
The amazing GameHack entrants: too many to name. And the equally amazing GameHack playtesters: equally too many to name. Really impressive work from everyone.
The game-library organisers Ross Fowkes and Jo Summers, who got through the day without a single card or dobber going missing.
People we paid but who still did a fantastic job: Dice & Games for the dice; Eventbrite who didn’t screw up this time; Pizza Al Rollo who provided lunch. The breakfast pastries came from a little patisserie called Tesco; the GameHack supplies from Viking Direct.
The BGC committee in alphabetical order: Desigan Chinniah; Steve Green; David Hayward; Jeff Sheen; Philip Trippenbach; and James Wallis.
Really, an exceptional day. Thank you all for coming.
Games Library
We’re going to be running a games library next week at Board Game Camp, and have already got quite a large collection of board games pledged for you all to play. You can feel free to both come along and take games out for a while, and if you like also contribute games for the day, confident that they’ll be safe. There are just a few things you’ll need to know first.
Taking a game out
Lending your games to complete strangers is a little scary, and because we want to look after everyone’s games and make sure nothing goes missing, we will ask that you trade in a form of photo ID for the time you take the game out.
That’ll be kept safely in an index, clipped to a card showing which game was taken out. We promise that noone will do anything naughty with your data: no copies made, no passing it on, no access for anyone else, and you’ll get it straight back on returning the game.
Donating a game for the day
Not only will we be asking borrowers to deposit ID for game, but we’ll also be recording their weights with a set of absurdly accurate scales. Any games you’d like to put in will have a low tack label stuck on them designating you as the owner, and we’ll take down any details so we can contact you as well. Again, your contact details won’t be kept or passed on to anyone.
We promise to do our absolute best in looking after your games, and all we ask is that you take them back at the end of the day; we’re going to be carrying loads as it is!
Programme of the Day
The day is almost upon us! Here’s a quick description of everything that’ll be happening at BoardGameCamp.
Talks
Talks are organised on the usual BarCamp system. There’s a big wall with a grid marked on it: the names of the different rooms down the side and the time-slots along the top. If you want to give a talk or have a discussion, write a brief description of it on one of the handy Post-It notes and stick it in a free slot. If you want to attend a talk, just pitch up at the allotted time. If you’re not enjoying a talk or you want to see what else is happening, then go ahead and leave—BarCamps are informal and nobody will mind.
Games
Next to the Talks grid will be a second grid for games that people want to play. If you’re looking for players for a game (one you’ve brought along, perhaps, or one from the games library) then stick a Post-It in that time-slot saying what the game is, how many players it’s for, how long it’ll take, and where people should meet. If you see a Post-It for a game you’d like to play, write your name on the note, then turn up at that time and place.
We have to be out of the building by 18.30 so please don’t start an epic game of Diplomacy or Civilization at 17.45.
We’ve got a games-library for everyone to use, though we’ll need some proof of ID as a ‘library card’ while you’re borrowing an item. Drivers’ licenses or passports, please.
GameHack
Anyone can register a team for the GameHack game-design competition, and you can even sign up for it on the day. But physical space is limited so we recommend you register your team in advance by emailing James .
GameHack starts at 10.00 with a briefing session, and the design phase stops at 16.00. We’ll need volunteers to playtest the new games from 16.00 to 17.00, then the jury will deliberate and the winner will be announced at the closing ceremony. You don’t have to spend all six hours working on your game.
Even if you’re not planning to enter, at least come along to the briefing session. It may change your mind.
Food
Breakfast pastries will be provided for early-comers. Lunch will be arriving at 12:30. Coffee and a selection of drinks will be available all day.
Prize Surprise
A quick update on the GameHack stream, where teams will have six hours to concept, design, build and playtest a complete new game, based on a brief we’ll give them at the start of the day.
We can announce that Cadbury will be sponsoring GameHack, and is also providing the main prize. And as prizes go it’s incredible. I mean on the level of OMG WOW JAW ON FLOOR BRAGGING RIGHTS FOR A YEAR. It’s not your weight in chocolate, that would be cool but this is several orders of magnitude beyond cool.
I can’t tell you what it is because it’s tied closely to the brief we’ll be giving the teams on the day, but really this is an extraordinary thing. And of course it involves chocolate, but not in a way you’d imagine.
If you’re going to be at BoardGameCamp and have any interest at all in designing tabletop games then I urge you to register a team for GameHack by emailing me at the BGC address. If you don’t have a ticket for BGC then you should fight for one. There’s a waiting list for tickets here and your name should be on it.
James
GameHacking
One of the features of BoardGameCamp will be the GameHack stream: a physical game-design challenge for teams of up to four people. Here’s a quick description of what’ll be happening with that and how you can take part.
Teams
You can register a team by sending your team name and the names of the members (who must all have BoardGameCamp tickets) to james@gamecamp.org.uk. If you can’t find a team then show up on the day and we’ll match you with other waifs and strays to make a new group.
On The Day
GameHack kicks off at 10:00. All the teams will be given a brief for the game they have to design. This might be as simple as a one-word theme, or it might be something quite detailed. You will then have six hours to concept, design and build—and playtest, if you have time—a complete tabletop game that fits the brief. It may be a board-game, card-game, tiddlywinks variant, RPG, or some unholy hybrid that will boggle your cranium. We’ll provide paper, cardboard, pens, scissors, glue, dice, dobbers, meeple and anything else you may need.
You don’t have to spend all six hours working on your game. If you quickly come up with something you’re happy with, or feel like you’re flagging and need a break, then by all means head off to listen to a couple of talks and get in a game of Dixit.
Judging
At 16:00 you will be asked to step away from your games and go and do something else for a while. Volunteers will then playtest your design, while a panel of games experts watch and evaluate. Points will be added up, decisions will be made, and winners will be announced at the end of the day, just before everyone heads off to the pub.
Prizes
There will be prizes.
The GameHack stream is organised by James Wallis. Contact him here to ask questions or register a team.
GameCamp 3: BoardGameCamp
Play. Connect. Build.
Think board games are irrellevant in an age of HD console blockbusters? Think again. As part of the London Games Festival 2010, GameCamp invites you to BoardGameCamp, a day of crossover discussions, play and workshops that delve into the very heart of what makes a game good.
Behind the pixel shading, before the polygon count, underneath the cutscenes and the particle effects, good games begin with good game design. The first person to carve two lumps of bone into dice was inspired by the same principles that animate our first-person shooters and keep us coming back to our Facebook games. BoardGameCamp is a day to explore the ancient art of game design in all its forms.
BoardGameCamp welcomes game designers, players, artists, critics and experts from all sides of the gaming public. As before, there will be an unconference stream where you can talk about all aspects of gaming. But BoardGameCamp is about more than talk! On the day, you’ll have a chance to play a wide range of board games, from the tried and tested to the exotic and borderline insane. Come be inspired by forms of gameplay you might never have imagined before. There will be a library of games you can borrow and play on the day, and you’re welcome (indeed, encouraged!) to bring your own to play with new friends just as game-obsessed as you are. The more exotic and unusual the better!
Like the first two GameCamp events, this will also be a day to explore and discuss all aspects of gaming with open unconference-style discussions.
You’ll also have the chance to make your own games in a day-long design competition. We’ll provide the materials, you provide the teams and creativity.
BoardGameCamp will be held at Whittaker House, the headquarters of eBay, PayPal and Gumtree.com in Richmond, London, on Saturday, October 9.
We’ll be releasing details of timing and tickets soon. In the meantime, you could follow GameCamp on Twitter for all the latest info.
