BIG Games Contest

The Belonging Initiative, in collaboration with Aitken Leadership Group, is supporting the development of games that are fun and accessible for everyone, games that take play beyond computers and into the spaces around us, games that require people working together. BIG stands for Belonging In Games. We are hosting a competition to see who can invent the best BIG game.

We are inviting everybody we know. The kids rolling down the sidewalks, moms and daughters, directors of non-profits, disaffected Emily Carr grads, and you. This is grass-roots game design, a competition for non-gaming-professionals, whose game
experience may be limited to bouts of Tag or Snakes-and-Ladders.

We want you to enter this competition. You can win a little money and considerable acclaim, and help us fight isolation at the same time.

BIG games are fun, accessible games that include play in the ‘real world’ and interaction with other people. BIG games are definitely not solo, computer-only adventures. They are playable across urban landscapes, in real time, with real people, who may or may not have super-abilities.

Your challenge is to design such a game and pitch it to our panel of judges in October, 2007. You will win or lose on the strength of your pitch. The game need not be playtested to win — though a playtest might make your pitch meatier — it just needs to win over the panel.

The competition starts now. You need to submit your team’s name and the names of its members ASAP. The competition will be restricted to 20 teams. The competition will end on Friday October 5th, when your team must pitch its game to a panel of expert judges. The judges will judge and there will be one winner. They will leave with a $5000.00, an honorarium for their genius, and a truly enviable notoriety.

The judges will judge your game on the following BIG games criteria:
1) the game must be fun
2) the game must be playable by pretty much anyone: young, old, straight, gay, transgendered, street-engaged, married, people living with disabilities, people living in yaletown, people who play World of Warcraft, etc.
3) the gameplay requires real-world interaction between people (such as online interaction, personal ads, phone-tag, postcards, flashmobs, etc.)
4) Players’ social networks are expanded to include people who are “different” from themselves

How to enter the competition:
Email Brian Smith [ bsmith@plan.ca ] with your intention to play. He will forward you some fine print.

Enter the BIG games competition now. Save the world with play, get famous, win 5k.