Design Competitions: Overview
A design competition is a contest where designers enter a playable game, the community plays and rates the entries, and a panel of judges picks the finalists and the winners. Every entry is a real DDD table, so anyone taking part can open it and play it right in the browser.
Publishers run competitions too. It is a good way for them to find games worth signing, and a good way for you to get your game in front of them.
Finding competitions
Open Community in the main navigation and choose Competitions. Anyone can browse the list, signed in or not.
The page opens on Current and past: competitions that are running or about to start come first, and Past competitions are listed underneath. The filter chips narrow it down:
- Running now
- Accepting entries
- Upcoming
- Community playtesting
- Judging
- Past
- All, including cancelled
Use the search box to match a competition by its name or summary. Under Show only, pick DDD Official or DDD Verified to see just the competitions with that badge. Clear filters resets the search and badge filters.
If you are signed in and are organizing, judging or have entered a competition, a row at the top links straight to those.
Badges
- DDD Official means the competition is run or endorsed by Dustin's Designer Den.
- DDD Verified means DDD has checked the organizer and prizes.
Only DDD admins can award these badges. Organizers cannot give them to themselves.
How a competition runs
Every competition moves through the same phases, shown on its page and on its card:
- Draft. The organizer is still setting it up. Only they can see it.
- Submissions. Designers enter their games. Before the opening time the card says Upcoming, and after the closing time it says Submissions closed.
- Community playtesting. Signed-in members play the entries and leave ratings and feedback.
- Judging: finalist selection. The judges score every entry with the competition's rubric and settle on the finalists.
- Judging: final placements. The judges score the finalists again to decide the placements.
- Completed. The results are published.
A competition can also be Cancelled by its organizer, with a reason shown on its page.
The move into community playtesting and then into judging happens automatically at the times on the schedule. Judging is different: it ends when the judges finish, never just because a date passed. Every competition page shows its schedule in your own time zone.
Who decides the winners
The judges do. Each judge scores entries against a rubric, the scores suggest a shortlist, and the judges can adjust it before anything is published. The organizer then publishes exactly what the judges decided.
Community ratings are feedback for the designers and a guide for players. Judges can read every rating and comment, but ratings are never added to the judges' scores.
Where to go next
- Want to take part? See Entering a Competition.
- Want to play and give feedback? See Playtesting and Feedback.
- Running one? See Hosting a Competition.
- Asked to judge? See Judging a Competition.
- A publisher? See Competitions for Publishers.