Cardboard Edison, which does a fantastic job of collecting game design and publishing advice, has in this case collected 35 judges (publishers, reviewers, and designers) to evaluate “engagement and originality” and bestow The Cardboard Edison Award on one unpublished board game. Though prototypes will only be required of those designs that make it to the second stage of evaluations, anyone wishing to participate must pay a $5 fee. There is no prize for winning. Submissions are due January 31st and remain the property of their designers.

Sponsored by The Pericles Group and hosted by The Game Crafter, the Learning Game Challenge seeks games “where a playful environment creates an opportunity for understanding real world problems and issues.” The audience doesn’t matter but the learning objectives must be clear. Entries must also be games newly uploaded to The Game Crafter specifically for the contest, and they have to be complete, publish-ready, with all components and packaging priced under $30. The winner retains all rights and will receive a $100 cash prize, $50 of shop credit, 100k crafter points, and showcase status. Entries are due February 29th.

Administered by Games for Change and sponsored by Transformance, the Pocket Change Game Design Challenge seeks submissions that “introduce the basic concepts of savings and outline what players need to start overcoming debt and building their wealth.” There’s a $10,000 prize. And while the Challenge is technically open, there is a stated preference for web-based games targeting young adults. The deadline for entries is January 22nd.

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Cardboard Edison, a terrific service that pulls together tips and links for game designers, recently surveyed its published readers regarding their experiences with license contracts. The result is some fantastic data on what game designers can expect when selling their work to publishers.

Two infographics based on that data—one for pre-publication terms and one for post-publication—have been posted by Cardboard Edison so far. Among the issues addressed are royalty rates and advances, payment schedules, the reversion of rights, and creative control.

With this information from Cardboard Edison we can estimate the riches earned by designers from their games. Let’s take a game that sells at retail for $30. The wholesale price at which that game was sold by the publisher is probably around 50% of retail, or $15. Most designers earn royalties as a fixed percentage of wholesale price, typically 5-8 percent. So from the sale of one copy of that $30 game, the designer probably gets $0.75-1.20. If a game has a print run, and sells out, of 10,000 copies, that’s between $7,500 and $12,000 in total.

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