At GDC 09, I attended for the first time a session I have been meaning to attend for years, The Game Design Challenge. This year’s session, entitled, “Game Design Challenge: My First Time,” tied in the panel contestants’ biography and sex. The challenge is to come up with a game design using these two elements and to tie them into a presentation, which is then judged by the crowd by the unscientific mechanic of applause–whoever gets the most applause wins.
This year’s winners were the female tag-team duo of Heather Kelley and Erin Robinson (Wadget Eye Games). What is especially cool about their design is that they created it in less than 36 hours due to Valve’s Kim Swift’s withdrawal at the last minute (because of some vague Value restriction). They stepped up the plate, and in a run-off with Steve Mereetsky, VP of game design at Playdom, they eeked out a win.
The moderator was Eric Zimmerman (Chief Design Officer, Gamelab), and the contestants were Steve Meretzky (VP of Game Design, Playdom), Sulka Haro (Lead Designer, Sulake), Heather Kelley, Erin Robinson (Wadget Eye Games).
Here are some key shots from that session…
