Suggestions for competitions and activities

[NsMn]

I would definitely join an OROW compo.

[ddq]

Just an idea, but what about a chain choose-your-own-adventure competition? It'd be similar to the two other chain story comps, but there would be branches in the narrative and multiple endings, just like a CYOA.

[Wyz]

Hi,

There have been three successful hoursong competitions so far in the General Discussion forum, but the turn ups are not as good as they could be I guess. We think it might help if we post them in C&A. Is that OK?

-Wyz

edit:
Ok, thanks!

[Gilbert]

I'll say it's okay, so just start it here when you're having the next round.

[qptain Nemo]

I was babbling random crap on #ags as usual while people hinted that one particular idea is worth sharing so here you go.

The idea for the competition is about that it lasts relatively long - a month, two months, three months or whatever - but each participant must submit a demo of his/her game every week. Moreso the demo must contain new content every week. For example each new week there must be 2 new rooms in the game. Of course some variety in this rule can be made, i.e. if the maker doesn't want to add 2 more rooms at the moment or at all he must add 15 more interactive hotspots, or 10 more dialogues or some puzzles or some other original content. If he doesn't he either claims his game to be complete or drops out of the competition with much much shame.

As the one last note - as much as i love AGS i'd like such compo to be engine-wide.

Thank you for your attention.

[Andail]

qptain nemo:
I quite like the idea, as it would probably generate lots of inspiration for those who tend to get stuck at certain points in their game-making.
So everyone starts from scratch, then they must regularly show up the required progress or lose? And the one with the most progress after - say - 6 months wins? Or will it go on until only one person updates, and he/she wins?

[qptain Nemo]

Andail, I wouldn't just test the endurance of makers, because it can be fun to watch but the games' quality can suffer if it's just a some sort of race instead of a game-making event.

I'd do it like this. There's a fixed deadline - 1 month or 3 months or 6 months - depending on how complex the contest's topic & concept are. Everybody must show progress at least once each week until this date strikes. Anyone who doesn't show an update in a week drops out and his game doesn't participate in the final voting/choosing of the winner. But anyone can at any moment claim that his game is finished, in which case his game remains eligible in the end, but obviously he can't update it anymore and will have to compete with games which were worked on for a longer time. Games that make it to the end are judged/voted for as they usually are: by the overall quality, how enjoyable and well-executed they are, etc.

[Wonkyth]

Sounds good to me, not too strenuous.

[Dualnames]

I like it. It's shaping up greatly. I say we do this.

[Cuiki]

But if you show your progress each week, then you kinda reveal what your game is about, no?

[qptain Nemo]

But if you show your progress each week, then you kinda reveal what your game is about, no?

Well... yeah. But:
1. Not everybody has to check on your game every week and obviously not everybody will. Only the competition hosts have to check if you're making progress or not. To the majority of public your game will still be completely fresh after the moment of final release.
2. It's very likely you're revealing stuff in your game in chronological order anyway unless you have some exotic non-linear development methods. So even if somebody plays every week's demo, he still gets everything in the kinda appropriate order without really spoiling anything I guess.
3. If you're really concerned about this, you can follow the rule very formally, i.e. submit demo with new rooms available, but make all hotspots not fully interactive or in some other way make demo non-revealing.
4. And finally the quite obvious measure which I came up with only after writing all previous stuff: the demos that are submited to the compo can be made non-public. Or they can be made either public or non-public by the will of the developers. Because it only matters that the competition hosts check on your progress after all.

[Cuiki]

Only the competition hosts have to check if you're making progress or not. To the majority of public your game will still be completely fresh after the moment of final release.

Oh, that makes sense. All in all I think it's a good idea.

[abstauber]

Is there any chance in a  Background Blitz "Workshop Edition"

I know, that's a whole bunch of work for the tutors... but if it ever gonna happen again, I'll join immediately.

[Misj']

Is
there any chance in a  Background Blitz "Workshop Edition"
I know, that's a whole bunch of work for the tutors... but if it ever gonna
happen again, I'll join immediately.

While I lack time at the moment  (which is one of the main reasons why I didn't join any of the recent  competitions), I agree that I would love another BB:WE. Actually, ever since the original workshop edition (wow, has it been  two years already?), an idea (actually two) for a second BB:WE whispered in the back of my mind...although it never fully materialized.

Anyway, if more people are interested, I would love to start one within the next  few weeks...

[loominous]

I'd be up for doing another one, though I ve been pondering how one could develop the idea, perhaps into a "concept workshop", possibly divided into seperate activities.

There are two directions to potentially expand it as I see it: writing and character design.


Writing

One part of game creation that this sub forum never really deals with (apart from MAGS) is coming up with interesting game settings and characters.

So instead of having one of the hosts coming up with the setting, there could be a pre-stage where people, in the same workshop spirit (focusing on the process, providing and receiving feedback), developed game concepts, and a special location (and character) within that world.

Through a voting process, one concept could be picked, which would then become the basis for the background/character part.


Character design

After the background part, or possibly simultaneously, there could be a character stage, where the goal would be to develop characters that embodies the traits specified in the script, and integrates well into the backgrounds.

-

I liked the subdivision into seperate parts that the last one had, which allowed you to focus on a single aspect at a time, also giving the chance for people to write mini tutorials on the topic.

The character design part could have parts such as: Pose/skeleton, Mass/volume, Details/expression/colours.

Not sure what parts the writing stage would have though, perhaps someone with a writing background could come up with some.

-

Expanding it could of course result in a bloated mess, so I'm just tossing out a few ideas to see if there would be any interest in these other aspects.

[mode7]

How about...

Puzzle Design

It's the heart of every adventure game still there isn't a competition about it.
It could feature a problem and you have to come up with a creative and plausible way to solve it.

[abstauber]

Wouldn't Puzzle Design better be taken to Sprite Jam? I remember an item combination competition, which was pretty informative. But just for one background? Maybe if we sketch the other backgrounds as well - but then we could also create some kind of MAGS workshop.

Hmmm... maybe we could do that as well


But for starters I'd be fine with any workshop provided.

[Babar]

I think mode7 means as a general competition, not as a workshop. But there already used to be a puzzle competition...it went on for a while, and eventually ran out of steam- there are only so many situations you can come up with before it starts getting boring and overblown.

[Dualnames]

I'm up with loominous on the writing side.

Writing

I'm not sure whether the exact idea of loominous would work of course, but definitely the forum needs more activities based on it.

[Misj']

maybe the best would then be to have a sequence of workshops starting with someone starting with a plot (containing the setting, and general events), as well as some textual character descriptions, and then have workshops about writing (the introduction scene ?), character design (based on the descriptions) of a single character (main character?), the development of a single environment (with interaction points), a single animation, a musical theme for either the game or a character, etc. Each of the subsequent workshops based on the earlier (though not necessarily limited to the (finished) entries).

As long as the main purpose is to include some critics to the workshops (it's not about competition I think, but about activity) even from those not participating themselves, I would be happy to join (if I have the time...and if my computer doesn't die on me).



Ps. I'd also love to have a workshop about going from concept art to character sprite, creating a Sierra-speech-style face to a (low-res) sprite, finding an original style for a game, etc.

EDIT: Aaand....my computer died (and I can't find my WindowsDVD in my boxes yet (I just moved, and the house isn't ready yet to unpack)).