Looking Back at Protospiel from Mike Petty
I'll start back even a little further in 1998. I met Stephen Glenn online. We were regulars on some newly formed boardgame discussion groups. Like many, we were enamored with the new "German style boardgames" like Settlers of Catan and Tigris & Euphrates. What we really had in common, though, was a passion for seeing our own games in print.
Stephen and I were both teachers at the time, so we spent many hours of our summers sharing game ideas by email. Every day we were writing up new game descriptions or sometimes complete rules. I remember the day he sent me the rules for a pinata game he envisioned while mowing his lawn. (Years later it would become Balloon Cup, his first published game, picked up by Kosmos.)
In those days it was rare to even have a game day, let alone have a group of gamers willing to try a handmade prototype. Stephen got the idea of starting a gathering of game designers specifically aimed at testing their prototypes.
Protospiel Flashback #2
In early 2001 Stephen got the idea to meet up just to test our games. He invited me and two other designers I hadn't met yet--Greg Daigle and Dominic Crapuchettes. To give you an idea of how hard it was to find aspiring game designers nearby, Stephen and Dominic lived in Virginia, I was in Michigan and Greg was in Illinois.
The first Protospiel was July 26-29, 2001 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Stephen had the idea and Dominic did all the work to arrange a location to meet. I didn't do much more than exchange some emails with Stephen, but somehow all three of us were dubbed "founding members" of Protospiel. Certainly Greg is also a founder as far as I'm concerned. My friend Terry Carr also made the 10-hour drive with me that first time, but he never attended again.
It took ten years before all four founding members finally realized their dreams of seeing their games published around the world. Stephen and Dominic were published first and have definitely enjoyed the most success.
If you're interested, here's a write-up about that first event from Stephen. Notice he originally wrote the name as "ProtoSpiele". We changed that by year two.
http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/Protospiele.shtml
Protospiel Flashback #3
The second Protospiel was in East Lansing in 2002. It was a fascinating event and when it ended, I knew we had been part of something special.
We met in the basement of Fortress Comics and Games. I organized it that year, but most of the success was due to the designers who joined our ranks. Dominic, Stephen and Greg returned for year two. James Droscha (who goes by James Kyle as a designer), Jeph Stahl and Beau Beckett joined us and became regulars. Jeph and Beau walked in and announced, "We're from Canada!" So Protospiel immediately became an international event. Several other designers stopped in for one or more days that year and we made many new friends.
We were thrilled to have Will and William Niebling from Mayfair Games (our first publisher support) join us. I learned a ton from them and from James, who gave a presentation about how he self-published his games without investing a fortune. (Kickstarter wasn't an option back then!) I followed his advice and started my own journey toward publication by the end of that summer.
I wrote an article about the 2002 event here:
http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/Protospiel2002.shtml
Protospiel Flashback #4
For this final Protospiel flashback, I'll just post some lists. My failing memory was filled in from the printed programs we used to hand out at the event. If you know of other details or corrections, feel free to add them in the comments in the Facebook group.
From 2003 - 2006 many new designers joined us who formed the backbone of the group for years to come. I can't always recall exactly when they joined us, but I remember meeting Clark Rodeffer, Don Beyer, David Whitcher, Brett Myers, Mark Goadrich, Scott Starkey, Carl Klutzke and Kevin Nunn at those events.
Continuing what James started in 2002, we used to have a Guest of Honor who led at least one formal presentation. Gradually we moved away from any schedule and it became an event with open playtesting. I have many fond memories of the things I learned from these guys in conversations and in the talks they gave.
Guests of Honor were:
2003 - Stephen Glenn (Rattlebones, Spike, First & Goal)
2004 - Kory Heath (Zendo, Uptown)
2005 - Dominic Craphuchettes (Wits & Wagers, Evolution)
2006 - Matt Forebeck (author, several RPGs)
2007 - Kevin Wilson (Arkham Horror, Descent)
Locations
2003 - 2005 - Michigan State University
2006 - 2007 - Ann Arbor
2008 - Okemos
2008 is the last event I can say much about because I had a job change that year. It's when I actually started liking what I did for a living! I didn't stop making games, but I started putting a lot more time into my work in educational technology. I missed several Protospiel gatherings and even when I did come, it was usually for a day at the most. The highlights for me after that were seeing the friends again that I met in those early years.
I know the event moved back to the Ann Arbor area a few years and it has been at the Chelsea location since probably 2013. I can't thank David enough for his continued vision and work. He has taken it far beyond what we had imagined. It has been awesome seeing other Protospiel events starting and huge list of published games coming out from members of the community.
If anyone is interested, I converted the files I had of the 2004 - 2008 programs into this document. Besides some information above, it has some tips about running a good playtest session and a list of games from Protospiel Alumni.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17MQTjjd8zLPRkdVpqP9MPw8KMPlKMt48474vz995HzU/edit?usp=sharing