I had been thinking about writing a blog entry about BGG's 2026 Solitaire Design Contest since it's wrapping up. Then I saw that PnP Arcade, which is now a newsletter, beat me to the punch and had a feature on it. Well, I'll write about it anyway.
The contest started in January and the voting is only wrapping up now. They give a lot of time for folks to develop and playtest their games. Which makes sense because the ultimate goal so many designers is to get a game to the publishing stage. So giving them the time get some love and care into the games just makes sense.
I honestly just checked in occasionally until I could download all the contest-ready entries. If I were a good member of the community, I'd have play tested some of the entries and given feedback but it's become harder and harder to find the time to do that. Finding the time to just play test more official play tests is hard enough.
There were over seventy entries in this year's contest. If I'm lucky, I'll have finished trying out the ones I'm interested in time for the 2027 contest to be over. With that said, I still think combing over the entries is worth it. Sometimes, you get an early glimpse of something that will end up being published. Other times, you find a hidden gem that will never see the light of day in any other way. Plus, you get a look at some interesting ideas, mechanical and thematical that you wouldn't see otherwise.
When I first started really looking at print and play, design contests were a much bigger deal to me. They were a major source of PnP games for me. And after I got more interested in Roll and Writes, the many R&W design contests after 2020 were a rich source of them. For many reasons, the lockdown created a demand for PnP R&Ws and the contests reflected that.
As I've written about before, I think both I and the PnP environment changed. The late and dearly missed PnP Arcade as a store front became a reliable source for hopefully more polished and finished PnP games. I certainly saw some games there that started out as contest entries. PnP Arcade had a big effect on my PnP hobby and I strongly believe it had a strong effect on other gamers, as well as designers. While it is now gone, I think the effect it had on designers and gamers remains. It made PnP more accessible and more visible. I still focus my PnP activity on more 'finished' games.
(And, yes, some game files I have paid for could have definitely use more play testing. Being officially published does not guarantee quality)
But I haven't forgotten about design contests. I think they play an important part of the gaming ecosystem. They create an environment where designers can find an audience and get feedback. They provide a place where game designers can develop. Game design contests are source of new designs but, more importantly, new designers.
And while the R&W contests are some of the easiest for me to print off and try (The 52-card traditional deck of cards design contest is even easier), I think the annual solitaire contest is one of the more important ones. The scope is broader, which is reflected by the longer timeline. There's more room for interesting ideas. it is one of the rivers flowing into the great sea of gaming.
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3716853/2026-solitaire-print-and-play-contest
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