Suggestions for competitions and activities

[cat]

What about a board-wide competition? All of the regularly occuring competitions work together and base their topic on each other?

Example:
Writing Competition starts off with a topic or setting (either general like "pirates", "wild west" or more concrete like "Back alley", "Restaurant") and people have to write a short scene/puzzle that happens in an adventure game.
Next is Background Blitz: Every participant picks one entry from the writing competition and makes a background for it.
For Sprite Jam and Tune Contest everyone chooses an entry from Background Blitz as a base for their work.
Maybe we could even fit Coloring Ball in this scheme

Pro: Could be fun
Con: All hosts of the competitions have to agree; it might not work if there are not enough entries for Writing Competition or BGBlitz.

[selmiak]

Don't forget about sprite jams for the fitting characters. And then we have a coding competition about who can make the best game out of the single parts. The idea is brilliant. The execution is hopefully hilarious.

It probably works out best when all participating competitions run one after the other and not all at once. In that case a con could be that it could lose momentum over time. If all mentioned competitions 'join in' at once it will be just like normal competitions somehow except maybe somehow they all start on the same date. I'm all for let's try this

[Gurok]

The AGS forum olympics? Sounds good to me!

[MiteWiseacreLives!]

  How exciting!
So would the first competitions take place in a week per comp. then followed up by a month long MAGS?
ie:
week #1 writing
week #2 background blitz
week #3 sprite jam
week #4 colouring ball & tune contest
week #5-8 MAGS utilizing the above

[cat]

I'd give Writing and Background Blitz two weeks each, the same as any regular competition. Sprite Jam, Colouring Ball and Tune Contest could then happen at the same time to reduce losing the momentum. Or as suggested, only do CB and TC at the same time, with SJ before them.

[Creamy]

Super idea!

How would the scripts and backrounds be allocated? First-come-first-served or random draw?
Would you allow multiple games with the same background/script?

Animating someone else's work can be tricky. It may be easier if the games are made from a first-person perspective, like visual novels.

[cat]

I don't think the goal should really be to make a full game. Just some kind of coordinated competitions. If this leads to games being made - even better!

So I'd allow everyone to choose any script/background for their entry, no matter if already used by another person. I think it is all about getting inspiration, practicing and maybe trying something new.

Animating someone else's work can be tricky.

That's why we do all this competitions and activities - to practice and improve our skills

[Gurok]

Is it time we retired the tune contest? The forum thread for last November's competition is still open.

[Gurok]

Hi,

I'd like to run a new competition called "24 hours of AGS". I'm posting here to solicit feedback before I post the thread. Here's a tentative outline of the competition:

---

Depending on how you look at it, 24 hours of AGS is an extended hour-game or a short MAGS. Like MAGS and hour-game, a theme will be announced in the thread when the competition begins. You'll have 24 hours to build a game from scratch, with only the default templates allowed. All other graphics, sounds, text and code must be NEW.

The competition will start at:
12 PM on Saturday the 25th of February (London time)

And finish at:
12 PM on Sunday the 26th of February (London time)

You can check the start time in your local time zone by clicking on the links above.

These times won't work for everybody, and that's part of the challenge. You have *up to* 24 hours. If the competition starts while you're at work, you have the time following that. If the competition finishes at 5 AM for you, you have as long as you're willing to hold out for.

I know there will be some people who decide to stay up for the entire 24 hours. This is not expected, and people who do so will be fighting sleep deprivation.

What IS expected of a 24-hour game? Nothing more than an hour game in quality. In fact, if you can spare an hour during the competition period, you can enter.

To help equalise the playing field, there will be two voting categories (and hopefully trophies):
- Best art
- Best gameplay ("fun factor")

There will also be a special award for the earliest submission.

Teams are not allowed. This is about what YOU can do in 24 hours, 12 hours, an hour, or however much time you can spare.

Submitting a theme:

The theme will be chosen at random from submissions received via PM. Submissions will be open from the time of the thread posting until the competition begins. To submit your theme, PM me with the subject "24 hours of AGS Theme".

If you submit a theme, you agree that you will return to vote when the competition has concluded. Voting will last for one week.

Theme submitters CAN enter the competition, but do so under the honour system. If your theme is selected, it is expected that you have not put any prior effort into a game with that theme.

---

So, what do you think? I plan to open the thread tomorrow. That gives us around a day to collect theme submissions and a day to run the competition.

[Danvzare]

I remember Cassiebsg suggesting something similar. But instead by having a website that randomly chose a theme every hour for twenty four hours.
Thus giving an entire day for an hourgame contest.

You would just need to compare the submission time of someone's entry with the theme that entry was for and when that theme was chosen on the website.

[cat]

I like the idea, Gurok. Sadly, I don't have time this weekend, but I'd join another weekend.

I'd prefer only one topic for everyone. Otherwise, you could just wait for a topic that suits you. The fun is, to make the best out of a given topic and compare what different people come up with for that.

[Gurok]

I remember Cassiebsg suggesting something similar. But instead by having a website that randomly chose a theme every hour for twenty four hours.
Thus giving an entire day for an hourgame contest.

You would just need to compare the submission time of someone's entry with the theme that entry was for and when that theme was chosen on the website.

Cool idea. It'd take some time to set up the site and I think validating the entries could be a bit of an administrative headache, but it might be interesting to try.

Also, as you noted, a different kind of competition. An hour game 24 times rather than "make a game in 24 hours or less".

I like the idea, Gurok. Sadly, I don't have time this weekend, but I'd join another weekend.

I'd prefer only one topic for everyone. Otherwise, you could just wait for a topic that suits you. The fun is, to make the best out of a given topic and compare what different people come up with for that.

You won't have time to enter, but will you have time to submit a theme? I'm hoping that topic submission will be a way for everyone to have some involvement.

Yes, there will be one topic for the 24 hour period. As you noted, part of the fun is in comparing people's interpretation of the topic. Having 24 topics also feels a bit like design by committee to me -- attempting to please everyone, but muddying the original concept. This competition is intended to be distinct from the hour game competitions.

I'll post the actual thread in an hour or so.

[DBoyWheeler]

That idea sounds like a cool AGS idea.

We should call it "The AGS Tournament", with the list MiteWiseacreLives provided above.

[Dualnames]

It's that time of the year again, and I've been looking to that post from Gurok, about the tune competition and I think we should bring it back. Make it monthly deadlines. So 12 runs of it. Inspiration is very weird and themes are a bit hard to follow if they are strict. So I'm suggesting we go very abstract and open-ended. We can pick 8 feelings (since those are the months left) and make these as the themes. That way anyone that can compose isn't restricted by genres or minutes or anything like that.

My suggestion is to start with "LOVE" as first theme. Love has many expressions and that doesn't tie anyone to any genre in any way. Thoughts? Is anyone really interested in something like this?

[selmiak]

why not. I was thinking about using some freeware music program like renoise and make some tunes. Why not post them here then. Though these would be really crappy as these are my first trys in this proggy

[Cassiebsg]

I'm not a musician, but would sure try to participate as a listener and a voter.

[Mandle]

Yeah... I think it was the narrow themes that killed the music contest...

I remember one about writing a musical piece based on a golf swing. Yeah...erm...probably not that appealing to many...

But open-ended themes like "Love" etc. might provoke more interest.

Like Cassie, I am only a listener/voter as I have no musical talent whatsoever except for really bad Karaoke...

[[delete}]

Nice that the Music Competition is back â€" since it's so good! 
Animation Jam though was also amazing.

[dactylopus]

I'm happy to see the Music Contest back, and the fact that it's based on votes is an improvement.  I missed it.  I just don't have the chops to compete against these professionals.  Also, having the same host every time who is also a participant kind of makes it a bit too different from the other competitions here.  Just my opinions.  If everyone likes it the way it is, then I'll just enjoy whatever music comes out of it.



I would like to suggest a Workshop.  I had a lot of fun with the Monster Workshop, and I'd love to participate in another.  Working on something collective like that gives me motivation, which is often in short supply.  And as much as I enjoyed creating monsters, I'd be open to a good variety of Workshop ideas.

Lastly, I'd love to see OROW come back.  Maybe some time this summer would be good?

[cat]

Lastly, I'd love to see OROW come back.  Maybe some time this summer would be good?

I second that, July would be perfect for me