On this list we have discussed presenting awards for the best fan-designed game(s) using Icehouse/pyramid pieces, with the awards to be presented at Origins. There are several aspects of this effort that need to be finalized, but the part we need to get started on right away is the nomination process. Scott and Ryan put up a list of the games added to the Icehouse wiki in 2009: http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=New_in_2009 . There are 48 games listed there (though one of them -- The Great Guessing Game -- does not have an actual page). So there are a lot of entries to go though. My questions are: 1. Who would like to help go through these games? I will, for one. I'd like to try to play all the games, but that probably won't be necessary for everyone -- they can be divied up, making sure each game has more than one reviewer. If necessary, we could have just a couple of people cull the list down to a subset that a larger group of people will rate. 2. How shall we rate them? This is probably inseparable from the question of what the final awards will be. For example, based on one person's proposed list of awards, we could rate each game on: aesthetic beauty; strategic depth; accessibility to new players; innovation in mechanics; and overall quality. We could perhaps rate each game on a 1-10 scale in each area, and use an appropriate means of combining the ratings to determine the finalists. 3. How many finalists shall we have? I propose 5 for the overall award, with perhaps 3 each in the special awards (beauty, depth etc.) 4. When should the finalists be determined? We probably want to announce that at most a week or two before Origins, to give the broader Icehouse membership a chance to play and vote on the finalists, which process could also happen at Origins before the awards are computed and announced. Suggestions and offers to help are very welcome! Bryan