Finalist!

I promoted Soccer 54 to a premier league, and it became a finalist in the 2025 Spring Deck Hand Games design contest.

After January’s Protospiel Online playtesting conference, I worked to add a version of Soccer 54 that included actions. The goal was to reduce luck, remove some snowballing effects, and add player agency.

I initially thought to incorporate actions onto each of the 52 cards and create my own boutique deck.

Then designer Mike Berg suggested I enter into the design contest, which was associated with a Kickstarter launch. Their requirement was to develop 18 cards for a game that could be played along with a standard deck of playing cards.

Three-Way Tie

There were 17 entries to the design contest, and we were split up into four groups. The backers of the Kickstarter then voted for each of the entries group by group. I tied in Group 1 with the eventual winner, Magnifiers by Tim W. K. Brown.

In the finals, I ended up in a three-way tie for first place in the popular vote with Mike Berg’s “Queen’s Regiment” and Daniel Olivier’s “Red Wire Black Wire.”

Deck Hand Games is looking to publish two new games every six months, so there’s a chance they might publish my game.

But as it stands, I will work towards self-publication for the upcoming Game Market West in nearby San Jose CA in September.

Published May 22, 2025