This year we were covered by The Toronto Star and by Torontoist. We can’t forget our social media coverage either. Nifty!

The official results from this year are as follows:

Best Overall: We are Legion, a game about hackers vs the corporate lobby.

Crowd Favourite: Black Hat Tycoons, a game about seizing control in the wild west.

Best Use of Theme: Frankenfood, a cooperative game where the players act as a GMO company trying to take over the world’s food supply.

Feel free to list your game in the comments and we’ll see you next year at Board Game Jam 2013!

Here are some more photos from the jam:

Both days we’ll be at George Brown College 333 King St. E.

Saturday:

9:30 am – Registration opens
10am – Opening remarks
10:15-11am – Intro to game design and game design sessions (optional)
*Note this year we’ll have two game design sessions. One for people new to design and one for more experienced people.
12:30 – Lunch! We’ll be providing everybody with delicious food- before you ask, yes we have veggie, vegan, and even meat friendly food.

The best thing about lunch is that we’ll be running an IMPROV GAME DESIGN SESSION. We have some awesome people who’ll be doing the improv! I don’t want to give too much away so you’ll just have to wait.

Afternoon is all building, baby!
Evening – Game play time. We have a handful of board games to relax and play at the end of a busy day of building.

Sunday:

9:30am – Doors open
Morning – Play-testing and building
12:30 – Lunch. We’ll also have a lunch session on getting over design hurdles and play-testing tips. Yup, we got food covered
Afternoon – Play-testing and building
6pm – Leave George Brown
7pm – We start playing games at The Central and hand out prizes form our sponsors!

Supplies

All the supplies we had last year remain the same. You can see that list here.

This year we have more!

• Paper cutter
• Card holders
• A printer
• MORE computers (loaded with Adobe software)
• Plus a ton of specialized game tokens!

We’re excited that so many people are keen to make games and we’ll see you this weekend!

The Game Crafter

The top three games from the Jam will be awarded something very special from The Game Crafter, an on-demand board game manufacturing website that lets anyone make their very own, professionally manufactured board game. These guys are absolutely tops, and their service is really amazing.

Snakes and Lattes

Have you ever been to Toronto? Did you go to the only board game cafe in town? Of course you did! So you know all about Snakes and Lattes and how amazing they are!

These wonderful people will be providing us with delicious coffee for the jam! If that’s not enough, they’ll also be giving us some prizes to hand out to some lucky participants!

Pssst, they’ve also opened a new online store where you can buy games.

Popchips
Popchips will be providing us with the perfect snacking food for the weekend!

Also, we’d like to thank George Brown and GamingINC for the space (see our previous announcement.)

Last year we had the theme of ancient civilizations and we got some really neat games as a result. Plus people liked having an optional theme.

You’re not obligated to follow the theme, but if you’re looking for an idea, this is a starting point. You can use the theme in all sorts of ways, ranging from making it a key part of your game, or more subtly (like a single card). It’s entirely up to you how far you take the theme.

Now, here is this year’s theme:

Science!

Science can mean a lot of things. Are you performing a science experiment? What kind of science are you up to? You see, science has a long history and some people can spend their lives looking into that history.

We’re open to creative takes on science from alchemy to a game centred around cats in boxes.

TL;DR
The theme for Board Game Jam is science!; you can use the theme if you want to, or do your own thing.

Here’s a litte more on the GamingINC space:

The incubator space offers nine individual private office spaces to small and emerging companies and nineteen hot desks available for freelancers and sole proprietors. Tenants enjoy the benefits of updated technology, shared meeting and kitchen space, business and professional services such as human resources support, management coaching and administrative assistance. This will allow companies to focus on creation and professionalize their operations. For more information about the Incubator’s services, click here.

Buy them now before all the tickets disappear:

Because we have more people we need more space!

For the Sunday evening event we’re going to head on over to The Central. They’re super-excited to be hosting us and are looking forward to the assortment of games that we’ll all be bringing to play!

The Central is located near Bloor and Bathurst:

View Larger Map

To those of you wondering if you need a team, the answer is no. You can come as a group and all work on a game, or come as an individual and build your own. Heck, you can even meet people at Board Game Jam and build a game with strangers. Be warned though! Those strangers could turn out to be great friends after you build a game.

Another bit of exciting news to share is that we have got a pretty cool location for the Sunday evening play session. Clinton’s will host us in their back room where tables and beer (and other booze) await.

They have a full menu at Clinton’s, and it could be a good place to go for dinner on the Sunday.

Clinton’s is located at Bloor and Clinton and the nearest subway stop is Christie. Here’s a map:

EDIT: The Central is hosting the Sunday night fun – here’s more info.

If you love playing games of any sort then this Jam is for you. We welcome people of all levels from professionals to people who just love rolling dice.

It’s a two day event starting on Saturday morning and concluding on Sunday evening. On Saturday and Sunday you make your game and then on Sunday evening we’ll play the games everybody has made!

At Board Game Jam you can:

• Get a chance to explore the fundamentals of good game design.
• Try out some crazy game idea you’ve been been exploring.
• Meet other people who love games.
• And most importantly make a game!

If you’re still wondering what Board Game Jam is check out the FAQ and about section.

Like last year, you can sign up as an individual or get some friends and show up as a team – it’s entirely up to you!

Look at this guy, he built a board game that takes place on a mountain!!

Early Bird tickets are $15 and there’s a limited number, so get them sooner rather than later. They’ll be on sale until next Friday or until they sell out.

Regular tickets are $20 and will be up for sale when we’re out of Early Bird tickets.

You can order your tickets below or check out Board Game Jam 2012 on Eventbrite:

Stay tuned for more announcments and exciting news!

Here’s all the games that were created / worked on:

• Battle of Jericho
• Civilization Express
• The Curators (winner of the Spiel des Jam)
• Discovery: Atlantis (winner of the Meeple Medal of Recognition for Effective and Imaginative Use of the Theme)
• Flip City (winner of Outstanding Achievement in Making Things Pretty)
• The Great Ones
• The Greatest Hero
• Historical Film Society 4011
• Mana
• Poundlings
• Robots
• Timeburglars, the game formerly known as Clockblockers (winner of the First Annual Crowd Favourite)
• Transit City (winner of the Game Mechanic Cup)
• The U of T Game
• Vaporware (winner of the Klaus Teuber Memorial Award for Sportsmanship and Enthusiasm)
• White Shadow War
• Worst Day Ever (runner-up for the Spiel des Jam)

Thank You Times

We owe a big thanks to some very fine volunteers: Jon Bradshaw and Astrid Rosemarin!

A double heaping of thanks to our prize sponsors: 401 Games, Hairy Tarantula, Snakes & Lattes, and Wiggles 3D.

Two hundred and thirty pounds of thanks to our panelists and judges: Tim Carter, Rick Gerrits, Tim Maly, Tom Quinn, Laura Robinson, Steve Tassie, and Tony Walsh.

Photos!

Hit up Flickr for the full set of photos.

Photography by Trevor Haldenby www.longexposure.ca / @trevver