Game Making Competition - CONTEST OPEN

[somebody probably]

Now open!

Theme voting is now closed, the winner of the poll was:

Video Game Name Generator
Contestants must create a game based on a name created by the Video Game Name Generator. For extra awesome you might want to name any characters in your game using a character name generator.

I'll just add an extra note that you don't have to use the first name generated, but try not to just look for something that suits a game you've already mostly made or anything like that.

That means the contest is now officially open!

So yeah, best of luck to everyone entering. Make a thread as described below and show us how you're getting on.

Rules:

• The contest will end on the 25th of August 2011 (unless 'Suggest A Theme' wins the poll, in which case the 27th). All games should be submitted as described below on or before this date.
  
• Collaboration is allowed, so you needn't work alone if you want to partner up with somebody.
  
• The games can be created using any tools (so gamemaker, C++, flash, photoshop to create a board game, HTML5/JavaScript etc.)
  
• The games must be runnable/accessible from a Windows desktop computer - programmed games should be standalone or run in a web browser
  
• Art assets do not have to be original, but the use of them should be reasonable and legal
  
• The main body of the game should be produced for the competition. This means that while you do not have to program an entire game engine for this competition, the game you produce should stand under its own merits.
  
• The end product should be free for the end user
  
• Everybody is welcome and encouraged to join, whether an established member of the forum or somebody who's just rocked up
  

Stuff you should do:
Vote on a theme!

When the contest opens and you've decided you want to enter the competition, create a thread in Look What You've Done with a title in the format:
[SVGMC]Title of your thread
(unless Matt thinks this mode of operation is a profoundly bad idea)

When you want to submit the game for the competition, make a post in this thread in this format, with code tags:


[center][size=4]Game Title[/size]
Developer(s) names[/center]
A brief description of your game here. Try to keep it to 3 sentences or less.
[img]url of a 320x240 png screenshot of your game[/img]
[img]optional second screenshot[/img]
Download/Website (delete as applicable): [url=download link]Game Title[/url]




Old post:

SPOILER: Click to show

Okay guys, voting is now open. The poll will close on the 25th of July at which point the contest will officially be open, and the theme with the most votes will be the one the competition is based on (if there's a tie I'll use a random generator to decide or something). So vote on your favourite theme as outlined below and then whoever is interested can make games on it. The themes are as such:

• Sonic Vegemite
  Under this theme, entrants to the competition will create a game based somehow on Sonic Vegemite. For example, this may include making a game based on the history of the site, the community, or even a fangame of the fangame When Tails Gets Bored.
  
  
• Suggest A Theme
  Anybody who feels so inclined may suggest a theme for this contest. Those who wish to make a game may choose any one of those theme ideas so long as it is not one that they suggested themselves. In the case of this theme, the length of the contest will be expanded by two days to account for the time it might take to suggest ideas. Themes will be suggested in this thread and added to the first post.
  
  
• 
  
• Hard game
  Make a game that is ridiculously difficult, but ideally still playable.
  
  
• Music name game
  Make a game inspired by the lyrics/title of a song/musical piece.
  
  
• Extra-Gaming Media
  it's extra, geddit?
  Games for this theme should be based on something from a medium other than gaming - so it could be based on a book, a television series, a piece of poetry, a film, anything you like. The main guideline is that the text chosen as inspiration for your game shouldn't already have a game based on it, or if it does, yours should be significantly different.
  

---------------------
Also you don't have to take the themes at face value, if you can bend them a bit in a way that still goes with that theme then do it. Try not to feel as though you're constrained to any given genre - remember that this is a free-form competition so in that regard anything goes!



Back in February (when admittedly we had a bit more activity, albeit confined to a single thread that was about exactly how little activity we had...) I posted this:

Also I guess we could try and run a small game making competition similar to what they do on tigsource since nobody seems to be able to decide what to work on as a group, perhaps we'd be better off working against each other?

Perhaps that way we could also figure out which tools seem to be 'best for the job' if we wanted to do a collaborative project since so many of us seem to have completely different ideas as to how to approach such a thing.

And anyway, now that I seem to have a fair bit of free time on my hands (yay summer!), I want to act on this. Essentially what I'm thinking is we have a contest similar to what they do on TIGSource where whoever is interested have a month to produce a game based on some kind of theme, and then everybody votes to see which game is the winner. You might think 'well if I wanted to take part in something like that, I'd just wait until a bigger competition opens,' but I think in this case a smaller competition is nice, because when you feel like you're competing against another 60-70 or so entries it can feel a little overwhelming. Also it'd be nice to see exactly what kind of talent we have occasionally visiting these boards.

As an overview of the kinds of rules we'd be looking at (feel free to suggest changes!), I'd say:

• Deadline of a month (extensions may be allowed if deemed suitable)
  
• Collaboration is allowed
  
• The games can be created using any tools (so gamemaker, C++, flash, photoshop to create a board game, HTML5/JavaScript etc.)
  
• The games must be runnable/accessible from a Windows desktop computer
  
• Art assets do not have to be original, but the use of them should be reasonable and legal
  
• The main body of the game should be produced for the competition
  
• The end product should be free for the end user
  
• Everybody is welcome and encouraged to join, whether an established member of the forum or somebody who's just rocked up
  

Specifically I'd like to say I think it should be a free-form contest. So the game doesn't have to be programmed but in the case you're going to design for example a forum game, the mechanics of the game should be suitably original (and not just Mafia with slightly different names).

Anyway, I've created this thread to see if anybody's interested in taking part in/following such a thing. Anyone who's interested, post in this thread!

[Interrobang Pie]

Yes. I'll probably resort to being lazy though and using GM.

We will have to do this during the summer break (starts ~25th for me, I forget exactly when).

[Neo // Racing Stripe A/V]

Tempting. Might fire up Doom Builder if that's allowed.

[somebody probably]

Jul 8, 2011 1:41:58 GMT 10 Interrobang Pie said:

Yes. I'll probably resort to being lazy though and using GM.

We will have to do this during the summer break (starts ~25th for me, I forget exactly when).

Sounds good, a bit of organisation needs to be done before the thing actually starts. I might hold a vote on themes during the week before it actually starts. Speaking of which, if anybody has any suggestions for that, they'd be appreciated.

Tempting. Might fire up Doom Builder if that's allowed.

Do it however you want. However my advice is: If you think that tool gives you enough flexibility to create something that could be deemed a game in its own right then go ahead. If all it'll allow you to do is to create a map for a Doom game without allowing you to create any interesting mechanisms of your own or exploit pre-existing ones in an interesting way (I really am not familiar with the tool at all) then while I won't disallow it, you might be limiting your creative ability in the spirit of this kind of competition. If you're not confident with anything else, you might want to take the opportunity to either learn a simple game creation tool or to collaborate with somebody else.

[TimberWolf]

I might if I feel like not being a lazy ass for once.

[Matt_TY]

Intriguing. I dunno whether I'll be able to find the time to compete or not but I definitely endorse the competition.

[Oberstleutnant Insipid]

I have a million ideas for games but I've never tried my hand at making one. I'll be in Sumatra for ten days too, but I'll probably be too lazy to bother.

[Shiver]

I like the idea. It would be interesting to see what the members of our community are capable of. I'm no game maker myself, but I'd be happy to offer my abilities to anyone who needs assistance with custom sprites or similar graphics.

[somebody probably]

It's good to see there's some support for this, even if a lot of it is in the form of 'sounds good but participating is a maybe.' Still, I feel as though at this point getting you guys involved is now my business. For those of you who're apprehensive about taking part because you've never tried making games before, you should at least give it a go! It can be a lot of fun, and some types of games aren't that hard to produce with the right tools (I only use C++ because I'm a masochist computer scientist-wannabe).

You might want to try either Construct or Game Maker, both of which are popular applications for creating games, and have relatively gentle learning curves. I'll even help you if you need it (or I'll give it a go at any rate ). Obviously for those of you without the time to do it, I can't really blame you. You people and your lives. Anyway, I'll probably post some of my theme ideas tomorrow and you guys can tell me how terrible they are.

If you're more in need of some inspiration, perhaps this video from TIGSource's A Game By Its Cover competition might be of assistance:



Also cheers for the endorsement Matt.

[somebody probably]

Reckless double posting/bumping behaviour aho! Anyway, here're some theme ideas I've come up with:

-- Sonic Vegemite
I guess this is kind of an obvious one, not really sure how people would take to it: Make a game that is somehow related to Sonic Vegemite - maybe something based on the history of the site or a When Tails Gets Bored fangame.

-- Suggest a theme
Everybody who wants to suggests a theme for making a game. People entering the contest may enter a game based on any one of those themes, so long as it wasn't a theme they suggested themselves.

-- Video Game Name Generator
Contestants must create a game based on a name created by the Video Game Name Generator

-- Hard game
Make a game that is ridiculously difficult, but ideally still playable.

-- Music name game
Make a game inspired by the lyrics/title of a song/musical piece.

If there aren't any other ideas for themes from anyone between now and whenever it is I deem suitable for creating a poll, then those will be the themes we'll be voting on.

[Matt_TY]

Hmm, I personally like the VGNG idea, although the idea of SV history games is appealing to my ego

As for "Hard game" I'm assuming you mean The Guy-style difficulty, but for merely annoying I submit Clone Valley Act 2 from WTGB, which was designed for that very purpose.

[Interrobang Pie]

Didn't I already do a hard game?

[CoolCorky]

Jul 13, 2011 6:26:27 GMT 10 somebody probably said:

-- Sonic Vegemite
I guess this is kind of an obvious one, not really sure how people would take to it: Make a game that is somehow related to Sonic Vegemite - maybe something based on the history of the site or a When Tails Gets Bored fangame.

Suddenly, memories of SV:TG

[somebody probably]

Jul 14, 2011 21:43:49 GMT 10 Interrobang Pie said:

Didn't I already do a hard game?

You did indeed. And it was fun! I imagine getting multiple people to make difficult games at the same time could yield interesting results. Consider the idea a homage to Hard. Still, there are other options so you don't have to vote for that one.

Speaking of which: first post updated and a poll added.

[Eco]

If the theme is Sonic Vegemite, I'll happily participate.