We’re always looking for new ideas about game design. And we mean it when we say you don’t have to be a professional to know what makes a game engaging. So if you think you’ve got something unique to say about game design, the first thing you need to do is pick a form, out of short feature, long feature, or review. (See below).
We’d love you to submit reviews; we love good criticism. Reviews at the Forum, however, are a little bit different. We're not looking for commercial reviews; we're looking for critical reviews. There is a rubric for how to structure critical reviews. This is not meant to inhibit your creativity. The real purpose behind this review structure is to grow the Game Design Dictionary, which we hope will be a tremendous resource for gamers and game designers for a very long time.
Be warned, if you’re writing about something like Call of Duty, the competition is probably going to be a little fierce. If you’re reviewing a lesser-known game, chances are better that you’ll get published. You can always submit a review proposal to us if you’re worried.
Features are the longer articles on the site, usually talking about game design ideas across more than one game. Features break down into two categories.
We post these more often. By short we mean less than 700 words; if your work is longer than that, you must follow the guidelines for long features. For tips, topics, and general guidelines for the short feature, follow the link.
These are major essays on gaming. We are happy to receive long features from anyone, but you must first submit your topic. Send your topic for the essay, plus a 100-150 word abstract that tells us what your main points are. Tips for submitting a long feature, and all the guidelines for writing.
If you do not submit a topic first, your essay will probably not be read. If you do submit a topic and abstract we will probably give you a lot of feedback on the topic and suggest some resources. This will make your writing a lot easier; so make sure you submit your topic first.
All submissions go to to: submissions@thegamedesignforum.com. Submissions sent anywhere else will not be read.
Authors must submit either in .doc, .docx, or .txt forms. Anything else will be discarded. For works <500 words authors can simply submit the text in an email body; do not submit a large work as an email body.
If you submit plagiarized material, we will probably recognize this immediately, and will mark your submissions as spam from then on. So make sure it's original material.
If you reference someone else's work in your own, you must cite it. If you are citing a textual work, use inline citation style available here. If you are citing an online resource, include the hyperlink.
Note on copyright: TALK TO US if you want to cross-post this. Usually we can work out a way for that to be okay with minimal fuss. Technically, The Game Design Forum holds the copyright from the period of acceptance of your work until it is published on our site, after which time copyright reverts to the author. We also reserve the right to keep archived copies of published material on the site indefinitely, but this is only so that we can keep the terms you invent for the game design dictionary alive and well forever.
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All material copyright by The Game Design Forum 2010