Welcome to another "Just for Fun" Giveaway! You are cordially invited to a Garden Party to let your imagination bloom and creatively build Doc a Garden Shed. This Giveaway will end 8PM UTC, May 11, 2025 on UK Garden Day. (Also Mother's Day in the USA, CAN, AUS, NZ so don't forget the flowers!)

Background Landscape: I am a longtime fan of builder type games and wanted to find a reason to celebrate some of these with a giveaway. Doc0075 graciously gave permission to use his Clown School thread as a catalyst for a Garden Shed building party. (Thanks Doc!) :)

In the Autumn of 2023, Doc0075 (a.k.a. the Shadowy Figure) ran a Clown School in which one of the activities would be the building of a garden shed for said Shadowy Figure. Unfortunately, classes had to be discontinued and the school put on hiatus. (Some say it is because an elderly dwarf matron, Grog'tial's grandmother Orig'lat, took a shine to the Shadowy Figure and he had to leave the tent quickly.) Whatever the cause, the Shadowy Figure said he would return for the building of his wicked, cool garden shed. For a while the Shadowy Figure was barely heard of, but now there are rumors of preparations for a new Fight Club event. With this, one never knows when he might reappear and demand his garden shed built. So to be safe, this GA is to encourage learning creative building practices in readiness for when he may reappear. ;)

.
THE BLUEPRINTS (Rules):
1) Say you are IN or NOT IN ... or 'IN for the Community GA' (see post 4).
2) Have a GOG account before March 2025.
3) Don't be on the scammer list or banned from the Community GA. As architect of this Builder's Garden Party, I reserve the right to revoke any prospective builder's license (remove you from this giveaway) for the use of the substandard materials of rudeness, scamming, trolling or the 'fishing' of friendly garden Goggers.
4) Use materials from the Creative Construction Supply List per the Build Guidelines below.
5) Choose up to 12 Builder Award game prizes in order of preference but only 1 game per builder will be awarded.
6) Your construction must be complete and tidy by 8PM UTC, May 11, 2025. The winning builders will be chosen by random.org and will receive their Builder's Award (game key) via PM. All awards should be redeemed by the account entering by midnight UTC May 25, 2025 or risk your award going to the Community GA. (Unless you are 'IN for the Community GA' in which case your award will be donated directly to the Community GA on your behalf.)
7) Be creative and Have Fun! :)

BUILD GUIDELINES:
Use your imagination and describe how you would build Doc a garden shed featuring some of the crazy building supplies provided below. To be clear, you don't need to use only the things listed, but to qualify each prospective shed builder MUST use at least 5 items from the approved Creative Construction Supply List in their builds and include at least 1 item from each list of Accessories, Building Supplies and Furnishings in any wacky combination you like. Get wicked cool creative!

CREATIVE CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY LIST:
Use a minimum of 5 items (more is fine) listed below in your entry. You must select at least 1 from each list below.

1) Accessories:
Amiga Game Floppy Disks (specify games used)
"Big Top" Top Hat
Clown Flower Bouquet
Clown Garden Gnome
Clown Nose - Red, Pink or Blue
Clown Shoes (pair)
Clown Squirting Bow Tie
Clown Wig
Cracked Teacups
Old Iron Teapot

2) Building Supplies:
Bubblegum (Sour Grape or Sour Lemon)
Clown Paint - Red, White, Blue, Yellow, Black (may be mixed for new colors)
Circus Tenting
Tea Bricks
Cotton Candy
Licorice Logs
Life Size Legos
Popcorn Bricks

3) Furnishings:
Balloon Animals/Monsters
Clown Car Boot (Trunk)
Clown Car Seat
Clown Car Tires
Clown Tea Cart
Tightrope
Trapese Rig
Unicycle

/ = / = / = / = / = /

BUILDER AWARDS: (Game Prizes)
- Afterlife
- Aven Colony
- Banished
- Chambers of Devious Design
* Core Keeper
- Craft The World + Craft the World - Abandoned Mines
- Dungeon Keeper Gold™ + Dungeon Keeper™ 2
- Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom
- Everdream Valley
- First Feudal
- ISLANDERS
- Loop Hero
- Majesty Gold HD
- Pharoah + Cleopatra
- RollerCoaster Tycoon 2: Triple Thrill Pack
- Sid Meier's Civilization® III Complete
- SimCity™ 3000 Unlimited
* Synergy
- Terraria
- The Last Spell
- The Settlers® 2: 10th Anniversary
- The Settlers® 2: Gold Edition
- Theme Hospital
- Townscaper
- War for the Overworld: Underlord Edition
* War Hospital
- World of Goo
- Zeus + Poseidon (Acropolis)

* Constructively supplied by Doc0075. Thank you! :)

Special thanks also to gogtrial34987 for his new GameSieve.com site which greatly helped in the awards planning for this and future GAs. :) Introduction thread here.

Edit: New game added.

NOT IN, but great choices of city builders, 4X and managerial games there!

Also, bump!

It's ok to participate and don't want a prize?
Perhaps a community direct donation instead?

Yes, that's great. This is to have some creative fun, and if you'd like to participate and have me donate any prize you win to the Community GA on your behalf, just post "IN for the Community GA" and I'll do that! :)

I am - of course - IN! Thanks for the amazing theme, and boundless generosity!

I love builders, and if the quality of the many games on the list which I know are any indication, the games I don't know yet will all be utterly amazing!

I must admit that for all my experience with builders, I have never yet built a garden shed, but it doesn't look to be all that difficult given the wide variety of materials I have at hand. It makes sense that if I use Life Size Legos, it'll be done swiftly, and super sturdy. Since I want to express my creative spirit, I will lean these legos diagonally against each other, to make a pleasing pattern. As that appears at first glance to be slightly less sturdy than I was led to believe, I will chew some Licorice Logs (I am, after all, Dutch, and we love our black licorice), and once they're all nice and chewy and sticky, I will grab handfuls of Cotton Candy, which I will stuff into the hollow spaces of the lego bricks, to then connect it all with the licorice logs (which due to my chewing, will stick to everything, which should really cause the whole to be very sturdy!
Since no shed is complete without a roof, I will place a "Big Top" Top Hat on top, securing it in place by winding the Tightrope around the hat and the lego construction.

Tired from all the hard work, I will place the Clown Tea Cart inside the construction, together with the Old Iron Teapot and the Cracked Teacups. I don't know what most people use their garden sheds for, but mine now looks to be the perfect place to kick back and sip some tea.

For a possible prize, I'm interested in:
1) Chambers of Devious Design
2) Synergy
3) Craft The World + Craft the World - Abandoned Mines
4) Aven Colony
5) First Feudal
6) Everdream Valley

There's some really great games here! However I am NOT IN


I may return to build a garden shed anyway, but I don't want any of the prizes.

NOT IN, though I actually built a garden shed last year. It's more work than it looks. Also there were no clown accessories involved.

Just a nitpick, but Amigas didn't have game cartridges. Amiga games came on 3.5" floppies (mostly) or CDs. I wouldn't recommend using either as construction materials.

Not in but thanks for a great game and generous GA !

Thank you.
Terraria tempted me quite seriously but at the moment have a bit of backlog, so no entry for a prize this time.


I'm writing my entry at the moment. Well, not entirely true, I'm just throwing ideas at the computer screen :)

As much as I love cats, I don't see cats wanting to build a garden shed. They might show up afterwards for the garden party itself but definitely not the manual labor part.

I'm IN.

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says: "Tastes funny". ;)

So the need for a garden shed is obvious as protective measure.

First, we'll need three pillars (rectangles are totally boring and therefore un-funny, so it'll be a triangular shed). These will be constructed from stacked old iron teapots (the lids will be removed and used later) For stability, they will be stuck together using the trusty bubble gum (sour lemon, needs to be chewed properly before use) and reinforced using the sticks of the cotton candy (the candy itself will have to be eaten in the process). At each of the three pillars, there will be a single cracked teacup underneath the lowest teapot muzzle.
The walls will be made from tea bricks, with a concavely bent sheet of Circus Tenting, held in shape by vertically aligned Tightrope (yeah, walking on that will be tricky). However, when it rains, the water will become tea, be collected by the tenting and then flow into the open teapots, then pur out the muzzles for great effect. The inside will be painted using stripes of red and blue Clown Paint to keep water out.
A roof will be made from Clown Wigs, interconnected and held in place by Trapese Rigs (preferrably several dozen). The center will be supported by a pillar made from the teapot lids mentioned earlier. The floor will be paved using Amiga Game Floppies, alternating "In 80 Days around the World" (these will be rigged to squirt water when stepped upon) and "Sim City" (can't "go" wrong with that one, literally in this case), with a single disk of "X-Out" in the center, which will trigger a confetti cannon. Well, not in the exact center, because that's where the Lid-Pillar is, but close enough. ;)
For the door, a Clown Car Boot seems fitting, add a second one for good measure, both adorned with a classic red Clown Nose. As ultimately any shed requires a bicycle as permanent decoration, we'll have two unicycles, both ridden by a balloon snail (because snails are cute). In front of the shed, we'll place a Clown Tea Cart because it's more inviting to be placed there. From dice of dried-up Clown Paint will be made a Rubiks-Cube-lookalike that'll sit on the table.

Last, in order of descending preference, my award-winning award list:

War for the Overworld: Underlord Edition
The Settlers® 2: 10th Anniversary
Banished
Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom
Pharoah + Cleopatra
War Hospital

Thanks for the oipportunity! :)

I'm in, thanks for the giveaway! :) I've been enjoying various city builders recently so this is quite timely :D

For the shed I am seeing Licorice Logs being bundled together to form 5 or so structural columns which bow inwards to a point to replicate a circus tent of sorts. Life Size Legos blocks will be used to form lower walls with Clown Car Tires being set into the walls as windows. Circus Tenting will cover the domed roof section of the structure that is unsuitable for the lego blocks in addition to being used as entrance curtains. Inside will see a mix of Clown Car Boots (Trunk) to give ample storage, Clown Car Seats to relax a little when needed and Tightrope for some entertainment and exercise. Finally, the shed will be installed with a state of the art Clown Squirting Bow Tie defense system incorporated within each of the walls and windows which will deter any would be thieves or other scoundrels by dowsing them with water...

As for my award prizes:

1. Synergy
2. Pharoah + Cleopatra
3. Banished
4. SimCity™ 3000 Unlimited
5. Townscaper

I'm in. Forget about a small garden shed for simple storage; this one is a hobby palace. A place to try to take over the world!

The entire stock of Tea Bricks was immediately ground to a fine powder to feed the thirsty, magnificent garden that hosts the lair, topped with a Circus Tent large enough to hold a three-ring circus; strategically placed, of course.

The first ring is the restroom for all the precious creatures, props, and treasures of the Shadowy Figure: a planet! -XJ-71- trying on an assortment of clown wigs, the beloved clown cars Snookums and Mr. Whuffles, giant bunnies, UFOs... and a long list of handles of every kind and size.

The second ring-the victims’ room, ahem, I mean -the guests’ room- is a cozy space filled with a wild variety of squishable, life-sized Balloon Animals to lounge on and relax while awaiting a cruel destiny, ahem, a marvelous time. A word of caution to visitors: despite their yummy appearance, do not touch or eat the Cotton Candy walls! Their shiny, bold pink color was achieved with the perfect blend of red and white Clown Paint. Better fill up on the plentiful Licorice Logs instead; those are truly edible!

The third ring is almost unknown, a private area reserved for our incredible host. Legend says that at its center stands a refined vault made of Popcorn Bricks-highly polished to enhance their luxurious golden veins-adding a bohemian accent. This perfectly matches a peaceful, intelligent Trapese Rig swinging and juggling-in perpetual motion and defying all laws of gravity-a huge cabinet filled with his Amiga Game Floppy Disks collection: Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, Worms: The Director’s Cut, Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight, Speedball 2, Lemmings!, Another World, Turrican II!, Dune II. You name it, it's probably there! Beyond that, no more details are known. A complete mystery, just as Doc likes and deserves!

I hope Doc and J like my idea. It was fun to build it-in my mind.

My Builder Award game prizes in order of preference:
• Zeus + Poseidon (Acropolis)
• Pharaoh + Cleopatra
• War for the Overworld: Underlord Edition
• The Settlers® 2: 10th Anniversary
• War Hospital

As always, thanks again for another creative and entertaining activity, and for your continuous efforts to bring us together for a good time!

GL y'all!

IN (someone has to build the garden shed)

So, roll up your sleeves and get to work! :)

First, a proper foundation is laid using custom-made "life-size Legos" and secured with "bubblegum (sour lemon)." To replace the nonexistent liquid concrete, I hammer plenty of "licorice logs" between the Lego plug-in heads and then sand the whole thing smooth with one or more "clown garden gnomes". On this now pleasantly smooth surface, I place plenty of "popcorn bricks", which are then secured with "bubblegum (sour grape this time)." Naturally, this construction includes a door made of very large "clown shoes" and a window made of an unfoldable "clown flower bouquet." After all, you have to get into the shed somehow, and some light is also quite useful. I'm creating the ring cladding for the roof with "tea bricks" and "licorice logs", with the latter serving as the tile for the "Amiga game floppy floppy disks" roof (*). To prevent the roof from collapsing, I'm stretching a "trapeze rig" and four pieces of the "tightrope" in all corners and then insulating the roof with "cotton candy." I'm quickly setting up a circus tent in front of the shed for the "clown tea cart", as it takes up too much space in the shed. Maybe we shouldn't buy tea carts from mountain giants! Since I'm colorblind, I mix the "clown paints" in random order and quantity in the "old iron teapot" and paint the garden shed (without the roof!) using the "clown wig."

(*) I generally only use Amiga floppy disks with high-quality games for shed construction. These include Another World, Battle Squadron, Cannon Fodder, Civilization, The Settlers, Defender of the Crown, Dungeon Master, Elite, Flood, Golden Axe, It Came from the Desert, Jeanne d'Arc, Lemmings, NY Warriors, Populous, Rainbow Island, Shadow of the Beast 1+2, Shinobi, Speedball 2, Turrican 1+2, Wings, Wonderboy in Monsterland, X-Out, Z-Out, Zak McKracken, and of course, The Secret of Monkey Island. The latter has an enormous number of disks and is suitable for a small shed on its own.

Now that I'm finally finished and am proudly entering my shed, it's time to take care of the furnishings. The circus tent "cylinder serves" as storage for the numerous "clown noses" and the "clown squirt fly". The "clown trunk", "clown car seat", and "clown car tires" are stacked in alphabetical order in the left corner of the shed, and I hang the "unicycle" with the remaining rope under the roof. Broken teacups (the finger handles) serve as guides for the rope. Finally, I can place the impressive "balloon animal/monster" collection in the center of the shed. After all, the first impression counts when you enter a garden shed!

Finally, take a deep breath and admire the masterpiece. :D

My builder Award game prizes in order of preference:

Core Keeper
Synergy
War Hospital
Pharoah + Cleopatra
Zeus + Poseidon (Acropolis)

Well, that was fun! :D