Halloween competition, anyone?

Posted by RC on Aug. 25, 2014, 12:07 p.m.

Note: This is not an official announcement! Any sign-ups and theme voting will take place once an official announcement has been made. This is for discussing your ideas for the competition.

Please take this poll to voice your opinion on how themes should be handled.

Competition Starts: Saturday, September 27, 2014 00:00 GMT

Competition Ends: Sunday, November 02, 2014 23:59 GMT

This timeline - while essentially a month - gives developers 37 days and 37 nights to make their games, which also means developers get a total of 12 weekend days (or 17 if Fridays are included).

Instability

Abandoned

Illusion

Emptiness

Grotesque

Imperfect

Madness

Deprived Senses

Omniscient

Alone

Macabre

Possession

Forbidden

Ruthless

Taboo

Shadows

Underground

Reanimate

Disaster

Black Magic

Haunting

Detention

Brokenness

Machines

Invasion

Hunted

Decay

Halloween

It's been a couple of months since the last competition here (I think Kilin did something with completition after the spring competition, but I don't think anything became of that), so I'm wondering how you guys feel about having another one?

You know the drill: one month, prizes, lots of entrants, not as many entries, etc…

We all know how competitions go: 100 people can enter, but only 15 or so actually submit entries. I want to try to combat this, but I realize that some people just can't get motivated to make something or just don't have the time.

Anyway, I'm planning on a late September start and an early November finish since Halloween falls on a Friday this year, which gives people two more weekend days to apply any finishing touches to their entries or to do as much work as they possibly can to finish them knowing some of you guys. The current schedule would give entrants a total of 37 days and 37 nights to create something magnificent and spooky.

There would, of course, be a theme to follow. With themes, I'm all for something completely interpretive, but not something that could potentially be restrictive; the spring competition's theme was limited color palette, which was completely interpretive, but I felt it would most likely be interpreted into the restrictive theme it sounded like to me.

I know open themes can sometimes be counterintuitive as developers have a hard time coming up with something to make when there are so many possibilities, and sometimes it's fun to see what everyone can do within a specific set of development rules; if you know Johnny's going to be making a game based on the same idea as yours, it can sometimes trigger that competitive spirit and motivate you to make the best you can.

In the end, though, it all comes down to this question: are you interested in a Halloween competition this year?

Thoughts, opinions, etc… are welcome.

Comments

Moikle 10 years, 3 months ago

you know what I might actually enter this. and if so I may even make something. if both of those conditions are met, I may actually make something worth submitting.

if I beat all those odds I will submit an entry

Rez 10 years, 2 months ago

i like these themes, but i wish this was starting sooner and ending on halloween

i miiiiiiiiiight just make my own game regardless

RC 10 years, 2 months ago

I suppose it could've been started a little earlier, but I wanted to give enough time for promoting it and getting participants. The ending on November 2nd was intended to give people the weekend for last minute deving in case their weekday schedule got in the way.

Games don't have to be submitted exactly on the end date. As long as the developer feels it's ready, entries could be submitted at any time within the competition time frame.

death 10 years, 2 months ago

I think it would be cooler if we finished the games BEFORE Halloween, that way we could play them ON Halloween. Although I am aware of how much shorter that would make the comp but I'm okay with that.

RC 10 years, 2 months ago

We're really cutting down the time until the competition starts, so I want you guys to just vote on a schedule.

http://strawpoll.me/2453174

Obviously, starting a week early is going to leave less time to attract participants, but I guess it doesn't really matter at this point.

MMOnologueguy 10 years, 2 months ago

Why does strawpoll.me have to be first past the post?

Moikle 10 years, 2 months ago

I have an idea that might possibly not be too much for me to handle. (Perhaps if I grab someone else for level design/music)

I'll start concepting once I get back from work

RC 10 years, 2 months ago

Leading the theme handling poll is "Randomly assign a number of themes to each participant".

Leading the scheduling poll is "September 20th until October 30th".

If you haven't placed your votes yet, do it now!

Schedule Poll

Theme Poll

Moikle 10 years, 2 months ago

concepted a character to get me in the mood for planning and stuff

once the theme is announced I guess I need to figure out how/if I am going to use it

RC 10 years, 2 months ago

I'm a bit concerned with random themes option. Once we get a ton of entrants, it's going to be a massive pain in the butt to assign the themes to each one.