Protospiel Denver 2020

The country's best game design conference is coming to Denver!

Protospiel Denver matches the format of other Protospiel events around the country. It is a free-form tabletop game design event focused on designers playtesting their games with other designers. There are no specific events to sign up for. Simply show up each day and find a group to play with.

Quality Playtest Feedback For Game Designers

If you are a game designer looking for quality playtesting feedback from other designers, Protospiel is your answer. With plenty of published and aspiring tabletop game designers and industry professionals among the attendees, you'll have ample opportunity to playtest your game and gain new perspective.

Plus, when you follow the Protospiel guidelines for investing as much playtesting time as you receive, the friendships you'll build in the process will be invaluable.

Unique Experience For Gamers

If you are a tabletop gamer who likes to try out new games, Protospiel will make for a great weekend of new gaming experiences for you. You'll get to see many new designs in a single weekend. Even better, you'll get the satisfaction of knowing you've helped shape them before they are released to the general public.

What to Expect

Protospiel is an event where you can bring a board or card game prototype to play with other designers, play testers, and publishers. It's a great way to find the "broken" parts of your game -- and then figure out how to fix them!

It doesn't matter what level of production quality your game has. Many games are made right on the spot at Protospiel using the free prototyping materials provided by The Game Crafter. But Protospiels also often include games that are doing final testing right before they are published or put out on Kickstarter.

Protospiel Bingo

This year, we are partnering with Maxine and Randy Ekl of Clever Playing Cards to host a metagame of Protospiel Bingo. This game will encourage all attendees to seek out new prototypes -- and win fabulous prizes!

Our page covering Bingo Rules and Prize Support has all the details, but we'll give you a hint: Bingo is set up to particularly reward our playtesters, since the only way you can mark a square towards a 5-in-a-row win is by playtesting someone else's game.

Welcome and Send-Off Parties

If your travel schedule allows, we hope you can join us for one or both of our opening and closing parties.

The Welcome Party will run from 9:00pm-11:00pm on Thursday, March 12 at C.B. and Potts, 1257 W 120th Ave, Westminster, CO 80234. RSVP to the Facebook event to stay up to date on any announcements.

The Send-Off Party will start around 5:00pm Sunday, March 15 at Casa Bonita, 6715 W Colfax Ave, Lakewood, CO 80214. You can stay as long as you like before you need to run to a flight or start your drive back home. Sign up under the Facebook event so we’ll know you want to come.

Before the Event

Join the Facebook Group

Protospiel has an active Facebook group with over 1000 members who have attended Protospiels across the U.S. It's a great place to ask questions or to start making contacts in advance of the event. You can join here.

List Your Prototype(s)

You can add your game(s) to the list of titles to be playtested at Protospiel Denver on the Prototypes page. Listing your prototype helps drum up interest for your game before you even arrive.

Who Protospiel is For

• Game designers looking for quality playtest feedback
• Industry professionals looking for a low-pressure way to network with new and established game designers with fresh game ideas
• Anyone who enjoys playing new games and offering honest feedback

Who Protospiel is Not For

• Creators with completed games looking to offer demos of a finished product or sell copies right on the spot

NOTE This does not mean all types of promotion are prohibited at Protospiel. You are welcome -- and even encouraged -- to collect contact info from anyone who's interested in receiving updates about a game as it progresses through development. You can read more about the expectations and best practices for marketing on our Policies page.

Badges & Pricing

Early Bird - Purchase by Thursday Feb 27, 2020 (Ended)

• Designer 3-Day Badge - $55
• Designer Friday-Only Badge - $25
• Designer Saturday-Only Badge - $30
• Designer Sunday-Only Badge - $20
• Playtester 3-Day Badge - $10

Regular Price - After Feb 27, 2020 & at the door Get Your Badge

• Designer 3-Day Badge - $60
• Designer Friday-Only Badge - $30
• Designer Saturday-Only Badge - $35
• Designer Sunday-Only Badge: $25
• Playtester 3-Day Badge - $15

Special

• Press Badge - If you produce online board game content and you'd like to cover this event, request a free badge.
• Publisher Badge - If you have published a game for which you are not the sole designer and are looking to publish new games in the foreseeable future, request a free badge. Once you claim a badge, we’ll list you on the site as an attending publisher.

Venue

Our inaugural Denver Protospiel event will be held at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Northglenn, just east of I-25 off the exit for 120th Ave.

Lodging

We have a room block arranged with our venue, the Ramada Plaza Hotel, for Friday and Saturday nights. The room rate is $119/night which is guaranteed only if you book by 2/15/20. To reserve a room, call the hotel at 303-452-4100 and tell them you want to book a room for Protospiel Denver.

The Ramada has a pool and a hot tub and all rooms include a free hot breakfast.

Other hotels within a short walk from the venue include:

• SureStay Plus by Best Western
• Baymont by Wyndham
• DoubleTree by Hilton
• Holiday Inn Express

Food

The venue will be providing ongoing water service for us throughout the weekend.

For food options, there are several good counter service and dine-in restaurants within a 3-5 minute walk from the convention center.

Counter service options within an easy walk include:

• Panera Bread
• Jamba Juice
• Cafe Rio Mexican Grill
• Jimmy John's

Dine-in options within an easy walk include:

• First Watch (Breakfast / Lunch)
• Longhorn Steakhouse
• Big Daddy's Burger Bar
• Jim and Nick's BBQ
• Parry's Pizzeria and Taphouse

Across the somewhat wide and busy surrounding streets, you'll also find a Starbucks, Applebee's, Burger King, and Outback Steakhouse.

Per the Ramada events staff, unlike many venues, they don't have a strict "no outside food" policy. If you want to pick up food from a local restaurant and come back to the playtesting hall to eat with friends, you are welcome to. Just try not to spill on anyone's prototype. ;)

Schedule

The event will run according to the traditional Protospiel structure, which is open design, collaboration, and play testing:

• Friday 9am-6pm - Registration open
• Friday at midnight - Doors close for the day
• Saturday 9am-3pm - Registration open
• Saturday at midnight - Doors close for the day
• Sunday 9am-11am - Registration open
• Sunday 5pm - Convention ends

Publishers

Several publishers will be joining us for playtesting over Protospiel weekend. There will be no set times for "speed dating" or any other type of event-organized pitch meetings. Instead, publishers will be looking to playtest and provide feedback on the games they find most intriguing.

A publisher's main goal in attending Protospiel may or may not be to find new games to sign, but, if they do happen to find something that perfectly fits their catalog, we see this as a bonus for all involved.

Check out our list of publishers to see who's attending.

Sponsors

These great companies make sure you have the best possible experience at Protospiel Denver.

The Game Crafter is one of the most generous supporters of the Protospiel network as a whole. We are very happy to be yet another recipient of that generosity with the blank cards, blank chits, and smorgasbord of random small bits they are providing for our prototyping parts table.