2017 HABA USA Game Design Contest Results

2017 HABA USA Game Design Contest Results

First, we would like to thank everyone for participating in our first game design contest. The response to this contest was far greater than we could have ever expected, so THANK YOU!

A few points of note: We ended up sending out around 300 design kits (assembled using random pieces from our vast library of games past and present), and got back nearly 100 prototypes. Almost every state had a game entry, and the furthest away from us (we're based in Upstate New York) came from Hawaii. The youngest designer was 6 years old, and the age range in total spanned from 6-65!

We played all 100 prototypes at least once. In most cases we played every game twice, to really get a feel for the game. They were played by staff here at HABA USA, local gamers, and local FLGS managers. We were looking for games that were fun to play, easy to learn, and that would fit into HABA’s line of games. Selecting the top 10 was not easy, as most of the games sent in fit this criteria.

So without further build up, the top 10 games are:

#1 Color Spiel - Marcus Ross

#2 Gnome Home Delivery - Brian Venne


#3 Canopy Climb - Ryan Wilson and Nathalie Wilson


#4 Animal Upon Animal: Dice Challenge - Matt Wolfe


#5 Pocketful of Posies - Adrienne Ezell

#6 Sock It To Me - Daniel Newman


#7 Pollen-Pazooza: To Bee or Not to Bee - Steve Bissett AKA "Ref Tom Green"

#8 Overfished Forest - John duBois


#9 Dice Age - John Shulters, Sarah Graybill, Jonathan "JonnyPac" Cantin


#10 Boats and Gems - Andrew Liles


The top 2 games, Color Spiel and Gnome Home Delivery, will be sent over to our Games Department in Germany to move through the play-testing process. All of the top 10 will be receiving their prizes in the next few weeks.

If you included a return label with your prototype, those will also be sent back in the next few days/weeks. If you did not include a return label, and would like to, please get in contact with us to let us know.

Again congratulations to the winners, and thank you all very much for participating. We will certainly be doing something like this again next year!


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