Game Design Competition
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by Kerry Handscomb
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In AG7, in Autumn 2001, we announced the winner of our first game design competition. The theme was games playable on a regular 8x8 chessboard, and the competition was organized between us and the Strategy Gaming Society. The winner was Dan Troyka's brilliantly simple Breakthrough, which has become quite widely played online. Interestingly, a recent retrospective of the competition by one of the judges, Stephen Tavener, places Larry Back's game Three Crowns at the top of the BoardGameGeek ranking of entries to the competition. We repeated these competitions every year, with a different theme each year.
The Unequal Forces Game Design Competition of 2002 highlighted games where the players have different pieces, or at least different circumstances, so that the games are asymmetrical. This second contest was won by Unlur by Jorge Gomez Arraussi, announced in AG11. Unlur is a radical revisioning of Hex, in which the players have different objectives. The mechanism to equalize the chances of the two players adds a layer of strategy completely unknown to Hex.
The Simultaneous Movement Game Design Competition of 2003 focused on games in which both players' moves occur simultaneously, for example, in Diplomacy, and other wargames. Assembly Line by Stephen Glenn won, which was announced in AG15. Assembly Line is unusual in that it incorporates a rock-paper-scissors mechanism, providing opportunities for bluff.
The next contest we ran was the Shared Pieces Game Design Competition. As of early 2004, entries for this fourth contest were in, some of the best games would have been highlighted in AG17, and then the winner would have been announced in AG18. The Strategy Gaming Society, in the absence of Abstract Games, chose Golem as the winner. Notwithstanding the quality of Golem, I really liked another game, SanQi. Of course, mine was only one vote, and I do not know whether it would have made a difference.
The following article on SanQi is based on the original file submitted to me by L. Lynn Smith. I lightly edited his work so that it agrees with our regular typography, and I added colour. Readers may refer to the original article for comparison. The BoardGameGeek entry for SanQi contains an archived article taken from L. Lynn Smith's website, although this website is no longer available. The BoardGameGeek file seems to be the same as my original article, although it lacks the graphics for the pieces. The SuperDuperGames rules for SanQi also seem to be identical to the original article, this time including the graphics.
L. Lynn Smith contributed enormously to Abstract Games. He had played much Jetan, and he masterminded the series of Jetan articles we published in AG6, AG7, AG8, and AG14. Then, he wrote six articles on 3D Chess, published in AG10 to AG15. A seventh instalment, on Quadlevel Chess, may be included in AG18. In addition, Larry wrote articles on Gle'x in AG11 and Arimaa in AG16. He contributed puzzles for various games in several issues.
In his game SanQi, there are pieces of three types. All pieces belong to both players and can be played by both players equally. Like Unlur, the game is made to work because the two players have different objectives. In the article, the designer outlines some fascinating tactics that arise, and hints of deeper strategies.
SanQi is playable on SuperDuperGames, along with Ithaka and Photonic Attack, two other creations by the author. No dedicated SanQi sets have been manufactured, although Nestor Games' Omega has the right board size and pieces.
In any case, please enjoy the author's article on his wonderful game, SanQi. We may yet revive the game design competitions, and the proposed fifth is the Unequal Board Spaces Game Design Competition—see comments following the Katarenga article.◾️
The Unequal Forces Game Design Competition of 2002 highlighted games where the players have different pieces, or at least different circumstances, so that the games are asymmetrical. This second contest was won by Unlur by Jorge Gomez Arraussi, announced in AG11. Unlur is a radical revisioning of Hex, in which the players have different objectives. The mechanism to equalize the chances of the two players adds a layer of strategy completely unknown to Hex.
The Simultaneous Movement Game Design Competition of 2003 focused on games in which both players' moves occur simultaneously, for example, in Diplomacy, and other wargames. Assembly Line by Stephen Glenn won, which was announced in AG15. Assembly Line is unusual in that it incorporates a rock-paper-scissors mechanism, providing opportunities for bluff.
The next contest we ran was the Shared Pieces Game Design Competition. As of early 2004, entries for this fourth contest were in, some of the best games would have been highlighted in AG17, and then the winner would have been announced in AG18. The Strategy Gaming Society, in the absence of Abstract Games, chose Golem as the winner. Notwithstanding the quality of Golem, I really liked another game, SanQi. Of course, mine was only one vote, and I do not know whether it would have made a difference.
The following article on SanQi is based on the original file submitted to me by L. Lynn Smith. I lightly edited his work so that it agrees with our regular typography, and I added colour. Readers may refer to the original article for comparison. The BoardGameGeek entry for SanQi contains an archived article taken from L. Lynn Smith's website, although this website is no longer available. The BoardGameGeek file seems to be the same as my original article, although it lacks the graphics for the pieces. The SuperDuperGames rules for SanQi also seem to be identical to the original article, this time including the graphics.
L. Lynn Smith contributed enormously to Abstract Games. He had played much Jetan, and he masterminded the series of Jetan articles we published in AG6, AG7, AG8, and AG14. Then, he wrote six articles on 3D Chess, published in AG10 to AG15. A seventh instalment, on Quadlevel Chess, may be included in AG18. In addition, Larry wrote articles on Gle'x in AG11 and Arimaa in AG16. He contributed puzzles for various games in several issues.
In his game SanQi, there are pieces of three types. All pieces belong to both players and can be played by both players equally. Like Unlur, the game is made to work because the two players have different objectives. In the article, the designer outlines some fascinating tactics that arise, and hints of deeper strategies.
SanQi is playable on SuperDuperGames, along with Ithaka and Photonic Attack, two other creations by the author. No dedicated SanQi sets have been manufactured, although Nestor Games' Omega has the right board size and pieces.
In any case, please enjoy the author's article on his wonderful game, SanQi. We may yet revive the game design competitions, and the proposed fifth is the Unequal Board Spaces Game Design Competition—see comments following the Katarenga article.◾️