Protospiel North

HAMMERCON III - Hamilton, Ontario - November 4 & 5, 2011

Calling all game designers - near and far!

The next Protospiel event to take place in Canada is going to happen at Hammercon III this fall. Dubbed 'Protospiel North', it will be a gathering of game designers coming together to play each other's prototypes, and in the process, giving each other invaluable feedback.

In addition, there will be a round-table discussion on Saturday covering all aspects of the hobby game industry. Will Niebling (CEO of Elfinwerks Publishing), Ross Fleming (CEO of Lion Rampant Distributors & Tartan Grizzly Publishing, Josh Cappel (artist and designer of Wasabi) and Francois Valentyne (designer of Ticket to Ride: Legendary Asia) will be leading a discussion about designing games, creating prototypes, play-testing, the role of the artist, dealing with publishers, self-publishing, manufacturing, distribution and retail sales.

Those who are unfamiliar with the original Protospiel event held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, every year, should visit the Protospiel website for more information.

Pre-registration is currently underway at the Hammercon III site. Interested designers will need to register for the convention and also register any games that they want to bring to the table.

On Friday night, Protospiel North will kick off with an open-table session that is only for pre-registered designers. On Saturday, the open-table session continues with the addition of non-designer attendees who are interested in being play-testers. Also on Saturday, designers can run their games as scheduled events. This will help attendees coordinate playing prototypes with other scheduled games they are interested in.

For more information, please consult the Protospiel North FAQ. To find out who's attending, read the Protospiel North News and for a list of prototypes designers are bringing, see Protospiel North Prototypes.

Protospiel North is being organized and run by Francois Valentyne. For a short bio, see his profile on BoardGameGeek. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact him at fvalentyne@gmail.com.

You can never do too much play-testing!

...see you in November.