Puzzle Design Competition - Judging & Awards

Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition

Judging and Awards

Judging

Photos and a one-page summary of each entry will appear on this web site at the end of July. The puzzles, goal statement, and a one-page solution will be on display during the Puzzle Party, and will be available for hands-on examination. (The designers' names will not be formally revealed until the announcement of the results.) If the total number of entries is greater than 60, then the jury may perform a first round of judging prior to publishing the entry list, reducing the number of entries to no less than 60. As a courtesy, entries eliminated in this round will not be publicized.
Puzzlers' Award: each registered Puzzle Party attendee may select his or her top five puzzles, based on personal preference or the suggested voting criteria. Ballots must be returned by the end of the designated review period, as announced at the Puzzle Party.
Jury Prize voting: the judging panel is selected in advance by the organizing committee. Typically this will include eligible members of the committee and one or two people from the host country. Each judge will select 5-7 puzzles from the pool of entries that they feel distinguish themselves from the other puzzles in the competition. Then the judges decide as a group what awards to give and which puzzles shall receive them. Any member of the organizing committee that submits a puzzle to the competition will not participate in selecting the judges or take part in the actual judging.

The following are the tentative 2012 Design Competition jury members:

Nick Baxter (chair), Oskar van Deventer, Gary Foshee, Marcel Gillen, Naoaki Takashima, and Jerry Slocum.

Judging Criteria

All judges are asked to consider the following criteria, balanced by their personal preferences:

Innovation
	How innovative is a new puzzle design; or how inventive is the new application of known principles? Emphasis should be given to designs that are completely new.
Physical Design
	How well does the physical design work together with the puzzle mechanism? How beautiful is the physical design, considering the workmanship, artistry, and use of appropriate materials?
Positive Solving Experience
	How "fun" and rewarding is the puzzle to solve?

For the Puzzlers' Award, each Puzzle Party attendee will simply rank their top five favorite designs. It will be up to the individuals to decide how important they feel each of the above criteria are for their selections.

Awards

The Puzzlers' Award will be given to the puzzle that gets the highest overall score from the Puzzle Party attendee voting.
One or more juried prizes will be awarded, as determined by the judging committee.
The winners will be announced during Puzzle Party.
Prizes will include suitable trophies, pins, plaques or certificates.
The results of the competition will be reported in the Puzzle Party Souvenir Booklet and on the Design Competition web site.