Gaming Like It's 1923: Winners Coming Soon!

from the best-of-the-past dept

Judging is almost complete! If you entered our public domain game jam Gaming Like It's 1923, or if you've been following along, get ready for the upcoming announcement of the winners in our six categories:

• Best Analog Games
• Best Digital Game
• Best adaptation of a 1923 work
• Best remixing of multiple sources
• Best “Deep Cut” (use of a work not listed on any of the round up articles)
• Best Visuals

If you haven't had a chance to try out any of the games, go check out the submission page where you'll find all 35 entries, with a mix of analog and digital games in a wide variety of genres and styles, all based on works that entered the public domain in 1923.

Our panel of judges has finished trying out the entries, and now we're tallying up their scores and going through their reviews to determine the final winners, who'll be receiving prizes including Techdirt swag and copies our our game, CIA: Collect It All. We'll be announcing the results in the next week or two, so stay tuned for an announcement!

Thanks to everyone who entered the jam, everyone who's tried out the entries, and of course our panel of judges!

Filed Under: copyright, game jam, public domain

Gaming Like It's 1923: The Entries Are In

from the game-jam dept

At the beginning of the year, we launched our public domain game jam, Gaming Like It's 1923, with a one-month time limit — and now the entries are in! We figured we'd get a dozen entries, maybe two, but we're with a bunch of last minute entries slipping in under the deadline, we're thrilled to say we've got 35 games based on works that entered the public domain this year.

We've begun the judging process, with our huge panel of great judges. They need a little time with the games, but until we announce the winners in you can try out all the entries for yourself. There's a mix of card games, narrative roleplaying games, browser-based video games and all sorts of creative takes on classic (and not so classic) works. We haven't finished exploring all the entries ourselves yet, and we hope you enjoy discovering them with us!

Stay tuned for an announcement of the winners later this month. We're awarding prizes in six categories:

• Best Analog Games
• Best Digital Game
• Best adaptation of a 1923 work
• Best remixing of multiple sources
• Best “Deep Cut” (use of a work not listed on any of the round up articles)
• Best Visuals

A huge thanks to everyone who entered, and to all the folks helping us out as judges. Given the positive response to this game jam, and the fact that the public domain is set to continue growing (finally), we're definitely going to consider running another one in the future.

Filed Under: copyright, game jam, games, public domain

One Final Reminder: Public Domain Game Jam Ends In Two Days

from the come-join-in dept

Gaming Like It's 1923: The Newly Public Domain Game Jam

Okay, we've got one last reminder that our Gaming Like It's 1923 public domain game jam ends in just two days. It's another chance to celebrate the fact that the US finally (years too late) has allowed works from 1923 to return to the public domain where they belong. We've already got over a dozen amazing entries in the contest with a nice mix of different types of games, all utilizing some newly public domain works, and building off of them to create something fun and new. You can check out the existing entries or come up with your own. And for those of you who have already been working on your games, don't forget to submit them by the end of the month (Pacific Time) where they'll be reviewed by our all-star panel of game developers and copyright experts...

Filed Under: 1923, game jam, public domain

One More Week To Enter Our 1923 Public Domain Game Jam

from the gaming-like-it's-1923 dept

Gaming Like It's 1923: The Newly Public Domain Game Jam

We're down to crunch time. As announced on January 1st, we're co-hosting a fun public domain game jam to celebrate the fact that works from 1923 are finally in the public domain, after years and years of lobbying efforts by the legacy copyright industries kept pushing out and blocking the release of cultural works into the public. When the works from 1923 were first published, they all expected to be in the public domain by 1979 at the latest. But intense anti-public lobbying by Hollywood and other copyright holders have held that off for decades, doing significant harm to culture and our access to culture. I still believe that these copyright term extensions were unconstitutional, but tragically the Supreme Court disagreed.

Either way, we finally got a public domain, and while it's way late, we should absolutely be not just celebrating it, but making use of it (as a side note, we'll also be celebrating it at the "Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain" event being put on by Creative Commons and the Internet Archive). Our game jam is a chance to explore and experiment with ideas to make use of newly public domain works to create games -- video games, tabletop games, role playing games, etc. We're encouraged that we've already received a bunch of entries (I expected most people would wait until the last minute to submit, but it hasn't worked out that way).

Either way, there's one week left to enter the contest -- and even if you don't think of yourself as a game designer, you can jump right in and give it a try (while the video games need to work in a browser, analog games just need to include the instructions, and there are all sorts of ways to create interactive fiction as well). These games don't need to be polished. The whole point of a game jam is for people to just create something new and get it out there. We have an all-star panel of judges listed on the site, who will be reviewing the games in February, and we'll be giving out prizes for the best ones in a few different categories -- so don't miss out.

Filed Under: 1923, copyright, game jam, games, public domain

Reminder: You Still Have The Rest Of January To Enter Our Public Domain Game Jam

from the gaming-like-it's-1923 dept

Gaming Like It's 1923: The Newly Public Domain Game Jam

As we mentioned earlier this month, in celebration of the fact that the US finally has allowed older works to enter the public domain again, after a very long hiatus, we're hosing a public domain game jam, encouraging people to create games (video games, tabletop games, LARPs, storytelling games, whatever) using newly public domain material. What good is a public domain if people aren't using it and building amazing new works with it? We've already seen some copyright maximalists -- who worked hard for years to prevent such works from entering the public domain -- mocking the excitement many of us have for finally seeing works entering the public domain (one of whom wondered why anyone would still care about works from 1923, which is infuriating, given their role in keeping those works away from the public domain). So, let's prove them wrong and build some amazing new works.

We're halfway through the month of January, and we already have five amazing entries, all building on newly public domain material. We were expecting people to most likely wait towards the end of the month to submit, so already having so many entries is a great sign. But, it also means that there's plenty of time for you to come up with a game as well. On the game jam page we have some pointers/guidelines and links to many of the newly public domain materials.

We also have an all-star panel of judges, from both the gaming and the copyright law worlds, and we're offering copies of our (public domain) CIA: Collect It All card game (or some of our copyright-themed t-shirts) as prizes for the best games in a variety of different categories. Even if you've never designed a game, now's your chance. Part of the idea behind a short-term "game jam" like this is that it encourages people to make something quick and get it out there for testing and improvement. We're excited about the submissions that have already come in, but just as excited to find out what else you guys can come up with over the rest of the month.

Filed Under: 1923, copyright, game jam, games, public domain

This Week In Game Jam History...

from the PD-mining dept

Gaming Like It's 1923: The Newly Public Domain Game Jam

On New Year's Day, we launched a special celebration of this milestone year in which new works are finally exiting copyright and entering the US public domain: a public domain game jam.

From now until the end of the month, we're accepting submissions of all sorts of games (video games, board games, tabletop RPGs, LARPs, and just about anything else you can dream up...) based on works from 1923 that have finally become free for all to use without fear of copyright issues. There's a bunch of high-profile material to consider, and of course a whole world of lesser-known works that we hope people will dig into for inspiration.

At the end of the month, our growing panel of expert judges (including Cory Doctorow, Whitney "Strix" Beltran, Dan Bull, Rebecca Tushnet, Nicky Case, Mark Lemley, Daphne Keller, Jason Scott, Jason Morningstar, J Li, Eric Goldman, Carolyn Homer, Albert Kong) will select winners in six different categories, to receive prizes including Techdirt copyright swag and copies of our recently-Kickstarted card game, CIA: Collect It All:

• Best Analog Games
• Best Digital Game
• Best adaptation of a 1923 work
• Best remixing of multiple sources (at least one has to be from 1923)
• Best “Deep Cut” (use of a work not listed on any of the round up articles)
• Best Visuals

Even though we are less than a week into 2019, we've already had three submissions which you can go try out right now! But we're expecting a lot more competition — so whether you're an experienced game designer, an amateur looking to try their hand, or just someone who is really inspired by a work that has finally entered the public domain, head over and join the jam on Itch... then get to work!

Filed Under: board games, copyright, game jam, gaming, public domain, video games

Announcing The Public Domain Game Jam: Gaming Like It's 1923

from the make-sonny-bono-proud dept

Gaming Like It's 1923: The Newly Public Domain Game Jam

Happy new year, everyone. Every year, soon after the new year, we post a somewhat disappointing post describing how, once again, no new works have gone into the public domain in the US, because various lobbying interests have continued to extend copyright over and over again, with the last such extension coming in 1998 (the last time old works automatically entered the public domain in the US), better known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. It's been 21 years of nothing, and that's been quite sad. But this year is different. Thanks to public interest in copyright and people getting increasingly angry about our locked up culture, Hollywood didn't even make a serious attempt to extend copyrights again (to be fair, they put out some feelers, and when they realized it would be a total disaster, they let it go).

So this year, we've been seeing tons of celebratory articles, highlighting how works from 1923 are finally entering the public domain (WAY later than they should have, but not much we can do about that now). So, it's time to celebrate. And what good is a public domain if you don't do anything with it? So, today, now that these works are in the public domain, we're announcing the Gaming Like It's 1923 Newly Public Domain Game Jam. We've teamed up, once again, with Randy Lubin from Diegetic Games, who was our partner on the (public domain) CIA: Collect It All card game, to run this game jam.

If the idea of a game jam is new to you, it's pretty simple: it's just a month-long contest for you to create games: these can be video games, board games, card games, RPGs, interactive fiction, etc. The one key requirement: it must use something from 1923 that has just entered the public domain. Those works are free for anyone to use, and we should celebrate that by actually making use of them to do something fun. So go create a game and submit it. There are some more details on the rules/restrictions and some pointers on the game jam page. Go make Sonny Bono proud (despite the fact that he believed that, contrary to the Constitution, copyright should last forever). We're offering up copies of our CIA game and some of our copyright-related t-shirts as prizes.

If you need some source material for inspiration, Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain already has a nice page of highlights of newly public domain material, as well as a nice spreadsheet with even more works. Also, there have been a ton of news articles in the lead up to this first US public domain day in twenty-one years, that might also get you thinking. Here's ones from the Smithsonian, the NY Times, BoingBoing, NPR, Quartz, Motherboard, The Stranger and Slate, so start hunting around for great cultural works to build on...

We've already put together an all-star cast of judges, mixing folks from both the worlds of gaming and copyright/public domain, including folks like Cory Doctorow, Whitney "Strix" Beltran, Dan Bull, Rebecca Tushnet, Nicky Case, Mark Lemley, Daphne Keller, Jason Scott, Jason Morningstar, J Li, Eric Goldman, Carolyn Homer, Albert Kong and we'll likely be naming a few more judges over the course of the month. Stay tuned.

Filed Under: 1923, board games, copyright, game jam, public domain, video games