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.
simple. give each theme an ID. use an RNG to select numbers for each participant
There's still the matter of telling the participants which themes they get, which I suppose could be automated in some way.
When do the participants have to announce their… participation… ship- by?
Preferably sometime before the start (which is September 20th). There's a form you fill out that may or may not be closed once the competition starts, though I guess there's no harm in allowing people to sign-up after the start as long as they don't work on their entry before then… though they'll need their themes, which they won't get until they sign up.
Well, I'm signed up now. Can't wait till I get my horribly hard to work with themes. :3
You know what? I think maybe we should do a Halloween competition.
i can't possibly work on a game with a full college schedule and working 30+ hours a week
then i don't love what i do.
i mean, game development is great, i love having it as a hobby because it keeps my mind busy and focused on a goal. i love being able to put in work into a game and seeing the results real-time on my screen, then showing it to others too is rewarding.but to say i love it to the point where i'll lose sleep over it? no, not for a hobby. if i didn't have school i'd definitely join. i was game developing all summer, but now it would require a sacrifice on an area that can't be sacrified, like sleep, eating, resting, working, school, socializing, playing smash. i'll pass for now.I didn't say that to try to make people feel bad or try to guilt trip them, Reidd, so don't think that! I was just saying that if something is important to you, you will make time no matter what. If games aren't that important to you right now, do the other junk.
But making games is really fucking important to me. I may not always have the proper conditions to finish my projects, but it's literally the only thing I enjoy besides my son.