The Dawg Pile Board Game Jam

What is the Dawg Pile Board Game Jam?

A game jam, or a design jam, is an event where designers get together to produce a viable game in a very limited timeframe. These are very common with video games, but in early 2022, I started conceptualizing a board game design jam with my friends in Columbus, Ohio.

I administered the board game jam along with my good friend Matt Mohr, and the other 11 participants were split into two teams and tasked to design and fabricate a playable board game prototype within just under 48 hours. Each team included an illustrator, so there was a large focus on game aesthetics, as well as gameplay and mechanics.

The jam was split into separate stages:

1. The Prompt
2. Pitches
3. Team Formation
4. Design
5. Playtest
6. Judging & Scoring

The Prompt

The prompt was revealed on the first day of the event, Friday evening. By the end of Sunday afternoon, we would have two, fully playable board game prototypes.

This Year’s Prompt:

Before We Leave

This prompt was designed to be creatively constraining, but not restricting. This could be taken thematically, mechanically, or literally. Once revealed, participants split up to develop their pitches.

The Pitch

Unlike most design jams, participants did not enter this jam with pre-formed teams. Instead, each participant pitched an idea for a game, and then all participants voted on which game they would prefer to work on.

Here is a brief description of each game pitched:

• Voyage Plan - Plan a civilization’s voyage to a new world
• Camp Sumnerother - Do all the best summer camp activities before you go home!
• Alien Business Trip - See all that planet Earth has to offer… but don’t neglect your alien work duties!
• Diner Dice - Order up! Satisfy your customers in a fast-paced dice roller
• Midwest Goodbye - Time to leave… but first you have to give a proper goodbye to your entire extended family.
• Gem Get - a high-stakes heist, steal the gem and leave your calling card
• Pack Your Carry-On - A spacial luggage-optimizing game. Bring the right gear for your trip!
• Vacation Scramble - Your flight takes off in an hour, get ready and go in a limited time.
• Into the Dragon’s Lair - a push-your-luck game of loot-grabbing fun!

Team Formation

Once pitches were complete, participants did ranked voting to select the top 2 games and get organized into teams. The games selected to undergo development were:

1. Gem Get
2. Diner Dice

Design

Teams then began the design process. Not only did teams have to make a playable game, but also consider aspects such as aesthetic design and rulebook composition.

In the end, teams would be scored on 4 weighted metrics:

1. Gameplay (45%)
2. Aesthetics (25%)
3. Mechanics (20%)
4. Rulebook (10%)

During the design phase the Gem Get team decided to rename their game to Get Fleeced, an asymmetrical game where a party of high society sheep is infultrated by a team of thieves.

Diner Dice stayed much closer to their original, relatively simple vision, and was able to focus more on fine-tuning the aesthetic and gameplay components.

Playtest

Teams then went through iterations of playtesting and adjusting, all the while communicating with their illustrators to develop visual assets for the games as they are finalized.

Judging

Once time was up and components were finally put together, teams submitted their games for final judging.

Matt and I judged each game based on the rubric I developed.

Overall, both games wildly exceeded our expectations in terms of quality of production and gameplay. Due to its overall polish and completeness, our winning game ended up being Diner Dice, and that team won a custom dice tower!

The Aftermath

We had a great time and we accomplished so much in a single weekend. If you want to try playing Gem Get, you can get ahold of a digital version on Tabletop Simulator on Steam. We plan on a second iteration of this design jam in the summer of 2023.