The Hippodice competition is looking for the best game ideas year after year. All game designers of unpublished board, card, dice or other non-digital games can participate.
The competition is internationally oriented and has been held annually since 1989. It has evolved over the last few decades into a well-known event in the international gaming scene. Countless titles have been published after a successful competition, and have gained not only national, but also international attention.
The organizer, the Hippodice Spieleclub e. V., wants to establish contact between game designers and publishers.
The phases of the competition at a glance
All game designers whose prototypes take part in the main round receive constructive feedback. Finalists often get direct contact with publishers and thus have a good chance of being published.
The competition consists of 4 phases:
Application:
Digital submission of game description and rules by the authors
Period: annually, approx. until September
Preliminary Round:
Evaluation of digital submissions by Hippodice editors
Announcement of the top-rated games
Request for prototypes of these games
Period: annually, approx. until October/November
Main Round:
Submission of prototypes by the authors
Extensive playtesting by members of the Hippodice board game club
Period: annually, approx. until February/March
Final Round:
Selection of the winners by a panel of publishing editors
Takes place annually around March
The exact dates of the next competition will be published at Dates and Short Info.
Application phase
In the application phase, the game designers apply with their game ideas. They send in digital applications.
The application phase starts every year in the third quarter of the respective calendar year.
The application includes completing the application form on the website, a game description and the rules of the game. During the application phase, only digital documents will be submitted. Prototypes may only be sent in during the main round and at the request of the organizer.
Preliminary round
The preliminary round is a structured selection based on the documents submitted in order to determine the most interesting applications.
Year after year, we receive over 200 or 300 applications for the preliminary round. The board of the Hippodice appoints lecturers, who form the jury for the preliminary round. They read and evaluate all applications on the basis of the submitted documents.
The reviews of the editors form the basis for the selection of the approximately 25-30 participants of the main round. The prototypes of these games are then requested by the authors and must be submitted by the game designer to the Hippodice Spieleclub e. V. to Bochum. All other game designers will receive a cancellation.
Participation in the preliminary round is free for authors.
Main round
The main round starts with the arrival of the prototypes at the organizer. In this phase, the prototypes are thoroughly tested by the members of the Hippodice Spieleclub. The start of the main round is in the 4th. quarter of the year and ends in 1st quarter of the following year.
The results of all test rounds are recorded on evaluation sheets and evaluated and summarized by the organizer.
To take part in the main round, a small fee is payable, which can be selected from the current conditions of participation.
This evaluation of all test rounds results in the candidates for the final round. The number of main round participants varies from year to year, but is usually at 15-30 prototypes.
Finals
The jury of the finals is made up of representatives of various renowned game publishers. In the past competitions, the jury was formed from representatives of about 10-15 publishers.
On a weekend in March, the jury members from all over Germany will come to the Ruhr area to test the best games of the competition. The Hippodice Spieleclub organizes the framework for this event.
After extensive testing, all jury members independently assign points for all prototypes. This results in the first three places of the competition. Special rates can also be awarded for specific categories: 2-person game, longplayer or child’s play. The other matches of the finals listed in the results as “participants of the finals”.
If publishers are interested in publishing a concept, they can get the prototype as well as the contact data of the game designer directly after the final round. If several publishers are interested in the same prototype, the organiser will contact the game designer by telephone to let him decide which Publisher will receive his prototype.
Subsequently, the game designer and publisher contact each other to clarify the conditions of a possible publication.
Other
Publication of results
The results will be published directly after the final round (March), among others on our website of the organizer. In addition, the organizer publishes a results folder with descriptions of all participants in the final round and the results of the competition.
After the final round, all prototypes that were not handed over to publishers will be returned to the game designers.
In the course of the 2nd quarter, the organizer summarises the evaluation sheets from all rounds of the main round. This feedback will then be displayed until the end of the 2nd quarter to the game designers by email.
Hippodice Spieleclub e. V. provides information about the competition and the results of the previous contest at the Spieleautorentagung in Göttingen.
Although the Hippodice no longer has its own booth at SPIEL in Essen, we are in contact with partners and continue to share information about the competition.