Playtest UK @ Museum of Childhood 17th November 2016

Playtest UK will be at the V&A Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, London to run an evening gaming event on Thursday 17th November between 6.30pm and 9pm .

The bar opens at 6.30pm and the event costs £7.

Here is a link to the Playtest UK meetup page: https://www.meetup.com/Playtest/events/235311233/
 
Here is the webpage to buy tickets: http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/events/games-design-night-playtest-uk/

(The event is to tie in with their 'Game Plan - Board Games Rediscovered' exhibition which is running from 8th October 2016 - 23rd April 2017.)

The evening will have two strands:

1st strand: Publishers prototype showcase

Publishers will be showcasing a published game and it's original prototype, as inspired by Matt Leacock's original Pandemic prototype, which is featured in the exhibition.

The featured games and publishers are:
Tatsu by John Yianni, Ominoes by Andrew Harman, In a Bind by Behrooz Shahriari, Glimpse by Dr Mike Pambos and Safebreaker by Dave Cousins
2nd strand: Game Design Jam

Teams of games designers will try to design a game inspired by the Museum of Childhood and their new exhibition.

All game design materials will be provided, just bring your ideas and amazing creativity. There will be cool prizes.

Playtest UK Raises £855 on Just Giving website

Playtest UK raised £855 from our friends and members after fundraising during October on JustGiving.com: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/playtest-uk

A big thank you to everyone who backed us with donations and sharing on social media. The response was amazing and the messages of support were really encouraging and inspiring.

We have recently set up a management committee to manage Playtest UK, along with a bank account. We are looking to create a new website and logo shortly so we will be able to better support our members and the larger gaming community.

Update 02.11.16: After JustGiving's fees, £800 has now been transferred into the Playtest UK coffers.

New meetups in Dundee & Bristol.

Playtest UK now has meetups in 16 different cities around the UK and over 1,700 members on Meetup.com.

We have regular meetups in London, Cambridge, Newcastle, Cardiff, Brighton, Enfield, Norwich, Reading, Edinburgh, Redruth (South-West), Leeds, Birmingham, Oxford, Sheffield, with new meetups in Dundee and Bristol.

New Sponsor

Playtest UK are pleased to announce that we have a new sponsor: Rachael Mortimer Proofreading Services.

They are offering a 25% discount for professionally proofreading member's prototype rules (contact Rob Harris for discount code).

They specialise in proofreading for the board game industry, helping designers and publishers produce written text that is accurate and consistent. They have clients based in the UK, Europe and the USA.

Members can contact them via the website for a free, no-obligation quote:

www.rachaelmortimerproofreading.co.uk

Three new playtesting groups in Birmingham, Cornwall and Oxford

We have added three new playtesting groups to Meetup.com:

The Birmingham Playtest meetup group is run by David Wake and Richard Buxton and their next meetup is on Thursday 14th July at The Wellington Pub, Birmingham B2 5SN.

The South West Playtest meetup group is run by Adam Steppens and they meet on the 1st Wednesday of every month at the Red River Cafe, Heartlands, Pool, Cornwall TR15 3QY.

The Oxford Playtest meetup group is run by Paul Murcutt and they meet monthly at Thirsty Meeples, Oxford OX1 2DF

Also, the Brighton Playtest meetup group has got a new organiser in Andrea Romeo and a new schedule. They meet at the Dice Saloon, Brighton, BN1 4GW

We now have regular meetups at 14 locations around the country: London, Cambridge, Newcastle, Brighton, Cardiff, Leeds, Enfield, Bath, Norwich, Edinburgh, Reading, Birmigham, Cornwall and Oxford where designers and playtesters can meet up to play games and give each other feedback.

You can find details of the meetups here: www.meetup.com/Playtest

We are hoping to add some more groups soon.

Playtest Zone @ UKGE2016

Thank you to all the playtesters and designers that came to the Playtest Zone during Expo and helped to make it such a great event.

We had 96 different designers showing their prototypes over the three days and we managed to raise £428.86 + £61.25 in Gift Aid for the Dreams Come True charity.

Special thanks to the Playtest Zone team of Brett Gilbert, Matt Dunstan, Dave Mortimer, Jen Freeman, Jen Wells, David Dawkins, Dave Wetherall, Andy Yiangou, Rob Harper, Andrew Bond, Mike Ibeji, Joost Dantuma, Chris Marling, Epistolary Richard and many others for volunteering their time to make this such a great event.

UK Games Expo 2016 Attendance

Congratulations to the UK Games Expo organisers, who have announced that the attendance for this year's show was 25,000, nearly twice last year's figure of 13,500.

A big thank you to the organisers and the Expo volunteers for all of their hard work. Already looking forward to next year.

Playtest UK @ UK Games Expo 2016

Calling all budding games designers and playtesters!

Playtest UK will be running a playtesting event 

at the UK Games Expo 2016 3rd - 5th June.

This year's event will be the first at the NEC. The Playtest zone will be situated in NEC 1 Stand B16.

Details here: http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/playtest.php

The aim of the event is to bring designers and playtesters together to play games, encourage feedback and to help create better games.

You know that boardgame idea you've had knocking about for years that could be brilliant or just might not work? Create a prototype, bring it along and have fun figuring it out. Who knows, your idea might end up in a box on a games shop's shelf! 

Do you like to play games? Do you know what makes a good game fun? Your opinions could help to develop the prototypes and perhaps lead to a playtesting credit in a published game. 

We will provide feedback forms for designers and playtesters.

There will be a prize draw for each attendee that playtests a game and for designers who bring a game prototype with prizes from www.boardgameguru.co.uk 

Feel free to contact me for more details via the contact tab at the top of the page, if you have any questions or are interested in getting involved with the playtesting.

Hippodice 2016 winner

Congratulations to Playtest UK member, Fabio Lopiano on winning the Hippodice Board Game Design Competition 2016 with his game, Calimala.

The game was playtested through the group and Fabio has now received a number of offers from publishers.

The Hippodice competition is one of the prestigious in the world of game design. Playtest UK member, Brett Gilbert also won in 2012 with his design, Brethren of the Coast.

New Playtest Meetups in Edinburgh & Reading

We have added two new playtesting groups to Meetup.com:

The Edinburgh Playtest meetup group is run by Iain McAllister and they meet monthly. The next meetup is on Saturday 20th February at Tabletop Cafe, Edinburgh EH8 8AB

The Reading Playtest meetup group is run by Roland Wynn and they meet monthly at Ecletic Games, Reading RG1 1EU

We now have regular meetups at 11 locations around the country: London, Cambridge, Newcastle, Brighton, Cardiff, Leeds, Enfield, Bath, Norwich, Edinburgh and Reading where designers and playtesters can meet up to play games and give each other feedback.

We are hoping to add some more groups soon.