BGG Solitaire Print and Play Contest Officially Begins Today!

Although it has already been filled with active participants for some time, the Solitaire Print and Play Contest on BoardGameGeek is officially on!

The deadline for entries is July 31st. The deadline for voting is Aug 31st.

There are currently 28 contest entries, and the prize pot is already up to 1,000+ Geek Gold!

From the rules by organizer Chris Hansen:

Game Play
This contest should be purpose-designed solitaire play games. Multi-player options are allowed but the primary focus of the game should be for solo play. A good example is something like B-17, which has a two player option, but was designed to be enjoyed by one.

The games should have a decision tree or a way for players to react to the randomness. Games should not be decided (won or lost) regardless of player action (ala Klondike). Also, games should not be two-player games in which the player must play both sides (ala A Victory Lost).

Components
Other than solitaire play, there are no specific design qualifications for this contest. The game mechanics, theme, and amount of randomness are left to the discretion of the game designers. There is no minimum or maximum limit on the number of components or rule length. Designers should be aware that larger games may be built and played by less people and therefore may not receive as many votes as games with smaller and quicker builds.

All games must be printable on regular A4/American Letter Paper. Large format maps and boards are okay as well so long as they can also be printed on A4/Letter paper. (For example, if a designer made a board that was designed to be printed on A3/11x17 paper, they should also provide an alternative where it can be printed on two sheets of A4/Letter paper.) Here is a useful document for determining the margin size of sheets designed to be printed on either A4 or Letter paper.

Designers are free to design whatever components work for their game. If designers want to make games that are Artscow ready or designed to be printed on perforated business cards, etc they are welcome to do so, provided that the game is also printable on regular A4/American Letter paper.

Circle, hexagonal, and other shaped pieces are allowed. If you are going to create games with difficult to cut pieces, please be aware that not everyone has a good tool to craft these and consider using squares if possible.

Designers can require that players provide a reasonable number of cubes, dice, etc.

Game Design
The games entered in the contest should be new. To be eligible for this contest, a game cannot have been entered in a previous contest and it can't have a WIP thread/game entry on BGG prior to April 1st, 2011.

Team design work is allowed for this contest. You can have multiple people working on a single game as designers, artists, etc.

Designers may submit multiple games to the contest.

Designers may plan on selling their game when the contest is done, so long as it is freely available as PNP during the the contest.

Check out the Work-in-Progress Threads for what the contestants are producing and join in to vote for your favorites!