Why? Think of it as an unofficial mini-comp. My way of giving a little support to the community, I guess. Hopefully, we all get some good games to play as a result.
$40 is not a lot of money. It’s not as awesome as winning MMF2 or whatever. But, it’s a lot better than working your ass off for some worthless DC points.
So, here’s the deal: you have all summer to work on a game. I need a theme to dissuade people from entering games they have worked for years on, so your game has to be about anthropomorphic animals. You know, like Porky Pig, rather than, say, Babe, the pig in the city. Please try to keep the “furry” fetish to a minimum. It’s really not my thing. Also, try to throw in some zombies, aliens, necromancers, and/or robots. Cowboys, ninjas, and pirates are good, too. You know, awesome stuff. Ass kickers and such. Just be sure to make them all animals, except perhaps the aliens. Maybe not the zombies. Your call.
It’s not the best of themes, or the most contained, but I’d like to keep the guidelines flexible to allow for a lot of variety. I don’t want to have to sort through 27 sports-themed puzzle games set in Victorian England, you know?
First prize wins $25. Hey, it’s enough for a Greatest Hits game. Second prize wins $10. It’s enough for half a Greatest Hits game. Third prize wins $5. It’s enough for a… Happy Meal, or something. Hey, it’s $5 you wouldn’t have otherwise, right? Anyway, all others receive my thanks and condolences, as well as the satisfaction of having completed a decent game. All prizes will be paid in the form of a gift certificate to an online retailer like Amazon or BestBuy.com. Winners may request a specific retailer, but I don’t want to sign up for a lifetime of spam from bigandoilylove.com just to get you what you want. I’ll try to work with you, but I can’t promise anything. Please note that those are dollar signs, not pound signs. I pay in American and however that translates to your local economy is your issue.
Anyone may enter, except me.
Teams are fine. Prizes will either divided equally amongst the members or according to the submitter’s directions. Please don’t bother explaining how you want this done unless I tell you you’ve won something. Keep in mind that no share can be less than $5. So, if you have three people on your team, and you win 3rd prize, the submitter gets $5. You can fight over it amongst yourselves.
All judging will be done by me. I’m not going to pretend there’s a complicated formula for judgment. If I like it and want to keep playing, it rates well. If I think it’s boring or stupid, it’s probably not going to do very well.
Some tips:
Originality is important. I may prefer one type of game to another, but if I get 12 games of one type, and 1 that is completely different, it will stand out more. Try for new types of games. Think hybridization. A horror-themed dating sim will probably get more consideration than a conventional shooter. That said, if the shooter is more fun, it will do better.
Storylines are good, too. This is to differentiate from objectives. “Your goal in this game is to stop the evil Zobons from invading Earth” is not a storyline. It’s an objective. I’d like to see some plot development, some good characters, some dialogue. That kind of stuff. I’m not looking for Shakespeare, but you’ve got a couple months. Do something with it. Also, steer clear of clichéd BS and melodrama. That stuff pisses me off.
To give hope to our less talented friends, ripped anything is allowed, but do something original with what you rip. Also, try to rip stuff I haven’t already seen a million times. Sonic clones will not do well, but if you use Sonic sprites to make a completely different, high-quality game, you might surprise me. If you use seek out obscure stuff from lesser-known games, you’ll probably do better. If you recolor stuff, I’ll probably appreciate the effort. I’m not going to launch an investigation into whether what you submit is 100% original. Just make sure your style is consistent and cohesive. Don’t mix Maniac Mansion sprites with Fallout sprites because the difference in resolution, style, and color depth will more than likely make it all look terrible. The effort of creating original graphics, sound effects, and sprites will be appreciated, but creating something that looks and sounds great and has a cohesive style is more important than how you put it together.
No real limit on size, but as always, it’s how you use it that matters. A 25 meg pong clone is not going to do well. If you can pack as much fun into 300kb as someone else puts into 3 megs, you’re probably going to do better.
Please note that I will not be rewarding pure crap. If I get 3 entries and they are all ugly, unplayable, steaming turd piles, then I reserve the right to reward entrants how I see fit, or not at all. Hopefully, I won’t have to use this clause. $40 is not a huge amount of money, and I don’t mind spending it to encourage people to complete good games. But you probably wouldn’t want to give somebody $25 for making Tic Tac Toe Xtreme Mario Edition with Ace Ventura Wav Samples, and neither would I.
The deadline is currently August 6 at midnight Central time (CDT UTC/GMT -6 hours). You can figure out for yourselves what time that is where you live. The point is to give people that last Sunday to finish up. This may be adjusted based on what I have going on at the time, but I’ll post any changes to the deadline or anything else well in advance of this date. By my count, it’s about 11 weeks. Enough time to do something good, but maybe not enough to create an 80-hour epic. Use your time wisely.
I’ll make a post at the deadline and anyone submitting after that is out of luck. That’s when I download all the entries. Then I play them and decide on the winners. Then I notify people and e-mail their prizes. I have no idea how long that will take, but I’ll have some time to do it then. Figure on a month or so, but don’t bug me. It will piss me off and I will start to hate you.
Questions, comments, suggestions, requests, etc. below. Any whining should be kept to yourselves, thanks. Good luck.
Deadline: August 6 @ midnight (CDT UTC/GMT -6 hours)
Theme: Anthropomorphic (cartoon-style) animals. Please include one or more of the following charatcer types: zombies, aliens, necromancers, robots, cowboys, ninjas, pirates, or something similar. All but the aliens and zombies should be animals (i.e., cowboy animals, robot animals, etc.) Why animals? Who cares?
Prizes:
1st Prize: $25 gift certificate
2nd prize: $10 gift certificate
3rd prize: $ 5 gift certificate
finally, a decent competition. (although circy's crimbo one owas good, i just hated the forced xmas theme)
animal pirates and ninjas, sounds good to me.
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