CUDO Plays

CUDO Plays CUDO Plays is a board game design competition hosted by the Champaign-Urbana Design Organization. We guide teams over six months as they create games!

CUDO Plays is a local board game design competition hosted by the Champaign-Urbana Design Organization. We bring together gamers, makers, and designers to bring their game ideas to reality! For two years, we’ve guided teams over the course of six months to bring their board games from inception to production. We have followed each team’s progress, assisting and supporting them as needed. The teams

have attended workshops led by industry experts, used community resources, and over two seasons have created 25 games! We believe in helping people build functional, beautiful, and, most importantly, fun games! We want to introduce new people into the board gaming world and establish a community that inspires people to create through games.

Missed our Season 12 Grand Exhibition? Fear not! The winners and runners up for all 8 of our award categories have now b...
04/01/2026

Missed our Season 12 Grand Exhibition? Fear not! The winners and runners up for all 8 of our award categories have now been posted on the blog!

Marketability Award (presented by the The Scratching Post)

Grand Exhibition is in full swing! Drop by the IMC and play some locally designed games!
03/28/2026

Grand Exhibition is in full swing! Drop by the IMC and play some locally designed games!

Whether they win an award or not, each of the teams that submitted a game to Season 12 of CUDO Plays will get one of our...
03/28/2026

Whether they win an award or not, each of the teams that submitted a game to Season 12 of CUDO Plays will get one of our fabulous swag bags full of cool gaming gear donated by companies from across the tabletop industry.

Pictured is just a few of the games and accessories in this year's swag bags. Big thanks to Stonemaier Games, Fireside Games, and Brotherwise Games for contributing some swag this year!

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.S...
03/27/2026

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.

Spiritball is a two-player wizard volleyball-like card game. The goal of the game is to be the first to score 2 points by making your opponent fail to catch the ball.

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.S...
03/26/2026

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.

Serpent Tina is a one-vs-many game. The fishing boats must try to deliver all of Serpent Tina's babies to research tanks while keeping her fed to stay afloat. Serpent Tina, not understanding their intentions, tries to rescue her babies. The narrative emphasizes the persistent, caring effort of conservation in a fun and strategically challenging way.

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.P...
03/26/2026

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.

Potion Game is a game for 3 players about drinking potions until you are Dead... or Immortal! With each Potion you'll get Potion Effects that change the way you play the game, and open up strategies and synergies that might be the secret to everlasting life.

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.M...
03/25/2026

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.

Master of the Ages is a 2-3 player game where players gather skills and experience through the ages to become the master of their class before their peers. Players are encouraged to build their own persona stories about who they are, where they’re from, and what they do in the historical setting.

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.I...
03/25/2026

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.

In Haunted House Havoc, players work together to position monsters, manage scare locations, and manipulate customer movement in order to push each customer past their fear limit before they escape the house!

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.Y...
03/24/2026

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.

You are Ground Bound, the fastest playground equipment delivery crew in the tri-state area known for airdropping yourselves alongside your deliveries for speedy installation. But on today’s drop a rookie accidentally packed your parachutes with the playground shipment! Work together to collect parachutes in a free fall to avoid going splat in this tense, but goofy cooperative game.

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.T...
03/24/2026

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.

The Essence Trading Card Game is a strategy card game where each player uses their own deck to try and defeat their opponents by either reducing their opponent’s life from 30 to 0 or collecting ALL their own Loot Cards.

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.W...
03/23/2026

We're showing off the games from this season of CUDO Plays that will be featured at the Grand Exhibition on March 28th.

Welcome to the competitive world of Blind Box Battlers. As a streamer in this space, you’re exploiting the latest toy collecting trend to cash-in big! Be careful as the scene has recently been flooded by bootleg toys! Open too many and your fans will log out. Thankfully, their support lets you buy even more toys to open on future streams. Get the most Liked stream to win.

Address

202 S Broadway Ave Ste 1
Urbana, IL
61801

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