Organization Storyboard/Treatment Competition

The Organization Storyboard/Treatment Competition involves creating and submitting an original game design document and storyboard that identifies a particular problem a health oriented organization deals internally (e.g. training new staff to counsel family members), or externally (e.g. raise awareness on bone marrow donation) and produces a game design document that would outline a game and how it would be used to specifically aid that organization in handling that problem.

This competition is open to any organization or individual but we encourage teams to be comprised specifically of a representative from the organization that game would specifically be used by. We also encourage health organizations to submit. To aide them with game development help we've supplied a list of resources where they can find potential game-development talent to help them develop a submission.

The document should be 3-5 pages in length and include 3-4 relevant visuals. Documents will then be judged by our panel with finalists being announced in early April and the first prize winner being announced in May of 2007. The winning design will receive a $5,000 prize payable to the designated recipient of the submitting team.

Critical to the all submission in this category are the following criteria:

• Work must be original and focus on a qualified health organization entity. We strongly recommend that submissions come in from partnerships including the organization for whom the game would support but that is not a requirement.
  
  
• Work must define a problem the game is intended to solve. This includes a strong presentation about a unique need, problem, or mission of the subject organization with specific insight into the challenges the game seeks to address for that organization. For example, if an organization has an exceedingly hard time recruiting new volunteers explain why that is so, what insights can the organization share about strategies they've implemented or not implemented, etc.
  
  
• Work must then detail a game or game-based application that attempts to answer some aspect of the problem as defined in your design document. A critical judging factor is the ability for the document to properly define the goal for the game and then sync a creative game-based solution to the goal/outcomes as defined. Poorly defined goals, problems/challenges not well described, or games which speak to the generality of what is first or which seem dubious toward producing the outcome as desired will score lower.
  
  
• Submission must include at least three visual design aides. These need not be master works of art. They must however provide some strong capability for judges to understand how the game will work and how the user will interact with the software. Wireframe diagrams, mock ups that cut and paste elements together from other games, basic screen diagrams are all more then sufficient. The quality is in how well they communicate how the game will work and demonstrate strong design ideas, not the overall quality of the artwork itself. Documents may provide more then three diagrams - the more that add to the document and play a meaningful role, the better.
  
  
• Documents must include a technical and budget feasibility section. You must define some basic level of how the game will be constructed (what critical technologies will it use, what platform(s) will it run on, how much will it cost to develop? These need not be extreme technical dissertations. They will be evaluated for how well they demonstrate you have a realistic cost and technology assessment as part of your submission. Cost is NOT a large factor in the competition. Accuracy of costs is. A game which is $5 million to produced and is accurately described will be judged as well as a game that costs $250,000 and is accurately described.
  
  
• VERY IMPORTANT to this competition is the need to explain HOW the organization partner for the game will implement it once complete. Your submission must include a use and distribution plan that details how the game will reach its target user, what support will be needed, and how that plan furthers the overall goals of the game and the organization. Again - while not a requirement that the subject organization be directly involved, it is hard to imagine submissions scoring high here without inside cooperation for the submission.
  
  
• We encourage all submissions to include a section that details game-play influences and ideas from other games that have informed your design. A strong document will consider how it fits in with the many genres, and styles of play commercial games have achieved over the past 30 years.
  
  
• We encourage all treatments to include a single page mock up of an advertisement, flyer, or the box art that might be used for your idea were it to be built. This is a great way to demonstrate how the game would work - see our examples here:
  
  
• Documents should be no more then 10-12 pages including basic diagrams.