If you can't beat them with ideas...

..beat them with packaging!!

While I have no idea about how many other games, or what type, or really anything about my competition in the GCOM design competition, I know one thing, my game is going to win the non-existent "Best Packaged Game" award.

Just click on the image off to the side to note the fine, American homemade craftmasmanship! Each element of the game sits in it's own compartment. The box is designed to make each category of component easily grabbed, yet, nothing shifts during "closed box carry mode." A wonder of engineering I tell you! And while I've given up the foamcore for component development, foamcore, due to it's rigidness, still works wonders for gamebox compartments.

I would also like to make a note that Keen Footwear shoe boxes make excellent choices for prototype game boxes (or storage boxes in general). They are very sturdy and are all one-piece construction with a nice little fliptop, as opposed to two seperate pieces. Plus their shoes are pretty good. However, their website pretty much is a fairly unusable piece of Flash-tastic garbage, as it always loses sync with your mouse location when selecting shoes. Strangely enough, this behavior continues every time they update their site, so it's not just a one-time thing.

Anyway, why all the fuss? Well, I think it adds a little professionalism to the package. A lot of people seem to huff and puff over Cheapass Games production values. A little "ooooh and ahhhh" over production values never hurts; especially in a contest. If I can get a few people excited about playing a game just based on the packaging, that's a few pluses in my book right there. And they haven't even played the game yet. If I can score a few points over the guy who wrote his rules on a napkin, all the better. Also, since my game is being assigned a person to demo the game (who, rightfully so, has no emotional baggage assigned to the game), I want my demo guy to be proud of what he is demo-ing, selling to the other poor demo schleps who just got a pile of poorly cut cardboard.

Well, that all sounds kind of mean. Hopefully, the other prototypes are a little better than that.

Additionally, since I'm going to get the game back, and if it tests well at the contest, this will be my production submission prototype. It's like dressing up a little nicer when going on a job interview; first impressions make more differences than people care to state. And while a guy with a suit who knows nothing won't get the job, if it comes down between a guy with a suit and a slob who both have equal knowledge, the suit will most likely get the job. Or at least the one who seems to bathe regularily.