Comp 17: END!

[dislekcia]

Comp 17: END!

Ok. I have officially had it up to here *waves hand around vaguely* with sandbox systems and open-ended bullcrap! Bugger off with your "Endless Replayability" marketing taglines! I want me games that end. Properly.

Build a game that ends in 10 minutes or less. That's it. You can make a beautifully crafted story-driven game, as long as it ends; You can put together a shooter, brawler, strategy game, anything - provided it ends; Go wild, have fun, but remember: It ends in 10 minutes or less.

I want well-crafted plot points. I want decisive game events. I want to give the game to friends and say "How cool is that thing that happens at 2:45 into the game?!". I want to be stunned with ingenuity, creativity and AWESOME in bite-sized, easy to finish (for both you and me) chunks.


Rules:

• Competition starts on February 1st, 01-02-2008.
• Deadline for entries is February 29th, 29-02-2008. Yay for leap years!
• The use of copyrighted material will not be tolerated. Do not steal!
• Use whichever language, tool or development system you are comfortable in. Downloading and using Game Maker is recommended for beginners and for prototyping.
• Ask for help when you get stuck.
• Your game must reach a decisive, conclusive end in 10 minutes or less. Bam, done. No more gameplay.
• Your game must contain all files needed for it to run and should not require other bulky systems to be downloaded or installed, exceptions are browser plugins like Flash and self-contained dlls distributed with the game).
• Your final entry must include a readme.txt that EXPLAINS THE CONTROLS, RULES and any other information you want to get across to your users.
• Competition is open to entry for South African citizens, current residents of South Africa and South African passport holders.
• The judges' decision is final and no negotiation will be entered into. All risk or liability in case of copyright infringement or other legal issue resides with the entrant, Game.Dev and NAG take no responsibility for entered games.

Entering:
To enter the competition, start a thread titled "17: NameOfYourGame" and post your design ideas and game releases there. As you release files, edit your first post to point to the most recent versions available.

Other people WILL reply to your post with their feedback and ideas. Please report any offensive comments to me for moderation. Consider releasing your source code, it helps us pinpoint problems that you might be having and benefits the community as a whole.

You may enter multiple games if you wish and can handle the workload.

Advice:
This is an area that a lot of people are slightly weak on: Finishing a game. Often awesome stuff pops up but people either get bogged down trying to populate a neverending sandbox world, or they just run out of steam during the second hour of gameplay. Hence 10 minutes or less.

You don't have much time, focus on the really important things that you want to get across to the player. Think about their attention and where you want to go with the game. Do not start a game until you are 100% sure of the ending! You've always got to know where you're going...

...

Good luck and enjoy the competition. Apologies for the long break since Comp 16, I blame the weather. Seeing as you all had such awesome entries last time we constrained you a little, I'm expecting kickass stuff this time around too :)

-D

[Azimuth]

Er, what about a game that ends in 10 minutes assuming you figure it out quickly enough?

I am an experienced game creator and was wondering if i could make an actionscript-flash file or do something in javascript. Also can I make a mobile game (game for your mobile...)...I love to challenge of my self. *Sings "Challenge" by Seether"

[|-|1Pp13]

Im curious, would my game Mental Blocks be valid? (it ends in under 5 min so im guessin ya)

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by Azimuth

Er, what about a game that ends in 10 minutes assuming you figure it out quickly enough?

Nope. Game's got to end in 10 minutes or less. That's why puzzle games aren't well suited to this sort of idea, unless you can figure out a way to make the puzzles time-sensitive beyond "Teh wurld endz! Joo wuz too sloaw!".

The idea is to take "figuring out" time into the equation when designing the game. If you don't take 10 minutes on your second playthrough, that's fine. If most people finish the game in 10 minutes or less, that's happy. I don't want to see tons of games that "could theoretically be finished in 10 minutes if you memorise X, Y or Z", that's not designing for a decisive end in 10 minutes.

I love these sorts of constraints, because they force people to think in interesting ways: "How DO you make a puzzle game or adventure game where you're not going to get stuck for ages?" etc.

-D

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by Eliminat0r

I am an experienced game creator and was wondering if i could make an actionscript-flash file or do something in javascript. Also can I make a mobile game (game for your mobile...)...I love to challenge of my self. *Sings "Challenge" by Seether"

Yes.

-D

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by |-|1Pp13

Im curious, would my game Mental Blocks be valid? (it ends in under 5 min so im guessin ya)

Is it a conclusive end? Do you feel that a player would be satisfied that they had "finished" the game or would they simply feel like they had died and would need to start again?

I want a complete experience, start to finish. If you feel that an ending is satisfactory, cool :)

-d

[|-|1Pp13]

Originally Posted by dislekcia

Is it a conclusive end? Do you feel that a player would be satisfied that they had "finished" the game or would they simply feel like they had died and would need to start again? I want a complete experience, start to finish. If you feel that an ending is satisfactory, cool :) -d

kthanx

triple post? you lose one (fake) internets =P
(Moderator mod says three posts about three things ain't triple posting)
i see

ill get my brain juices working on this one

[UntouchableOne]

Sweet, another comp. It's about time :) I'll sleep on it...my mind develops better ideas sub-consciously...nice comp idea D.

[Cyberninja]

Mwahahahaha!!!..........that is all. :D

[ShadowMaster]

Are teams allowed?

[Gazza_N]

0_0

My reaction to this premise can be summed up by "Oooooooooooooh boy....."

This one's gonna be tough.

Would anyone be interested in paying me to make them a game?

[ShadowMaster]

Must the game always end in less that 10 min or can it be that a determined player(i.e. the player doesn't do nothing or walk around in circles) will finish the game in 10 min.

PS. Cool topic, is gonna be fun

[Chippit]

I likes competition idea.

Now, for clarification... Assuming the game will always have a definite ending after 10 minutes, but it may not necessarily be a favourable ending, is that okay? That particular playsession will be done, and it will be clear that it's over, but the game itself may not be. You may feel like you need to try it again and see how your actions affected your ending. Acceptable, or do you want to say that after 10 minutes you've experienced all there is to offer?

[FuzzYspo0N]

awesome, awesome. and yes, awesome.
Im gonna try enter :D

[01DT!m3r]

Why ten i can only count to 9! just joking i an definitly gonna enter . Woo hoo !

[UntouchableOne]

I think someone else also asked this question but does the game have to end in the same way everytime the player plays it? Does the end have to be "successfull" for the player?

[FuzzYspo0N]

read the instructions guys.

less then ten minutes. Thats all i can read. so make 100 million endings, if it ends in less then 10 minutes everytime, you have an entry. != rocketscience :)

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by UntouchableOne

I think someone else also asked this question but does the game have to end in the same way everytime the player plays it? Does the end have to be "successfull" for the player?

The player doesn't really need to "win", but the game needs to come to a satisfactory end. It needs to feel like the ending wasn't tacked on or half-hearted. There has to be finality.

Originally Posted by Chippit

I likes competition idea. Now, for clarification... Assuming the game will always have a definite ending after 10 minutes, but it may not necessarily be a favourable ending, is that okay? That particular playsession will be done, and it will be clear that it's over, but the game itself may not be. You may feel like you need to try it again and see how your actions affected your ending. Acceptable, or do you want to say that after 10 minutes you've experienced all there is to offer?

That's perfectly cool :)

-D