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[Melly]

I'd like to see a competition that encourages and rewards either: gameplay or story-telling.

Obviously it would need a catchy name to get people on board, but it seems so far that the competitions are almost more about comedy than either of the above.  Not that that's a bad thing, I guess I'd just like to see a different angle.

Well, B-Games and VGNG were certainly wacky. Text-the-Halls was very much story driven, although perhaps not as approachable as the other two. They all stimulated a fresh look on games/gameplay IMHO. Perhaps you (as some others have mentioned it before in the thread) desire a more serious competition this time?

To reply on previous suggestions: I really like the idea of a demake competition, as it personally feels 'in-line' with the spirit of the previous ones. The only issue I have with it, is possible copyright infringement and such, as you potentially are toying with someone elses IP (I recall the FF7 demake to be a literal demake story-wise). Thoughts on this issue?

There's a reason it'd be called Chinese Bootleg Demakes. Basically, every single recognizeable name in the game would be changed to something different, but similar (God of War -> Deity of Conflict). You could extend this to gameplay and concepts, as long as the main idea and feeling is retained.

Besides, if some company wants to sue us based on 3-week-made tiny freeware games that may or may not have a relation to their IP's based on the fact it doesn't have their name on them to begin with and that they're probably too busy to play and look into stuff like this, they'd have to be enourmous douches with too much time to kill to do that.

Though, to be on the safe side, don't demake Squeenix games. o.o

[Chris Whitman]

I guess I look at it this way: almost everyone here already has their own personal projects, most of which are relatively serious and time-consuming, so it's nice to get together and hammer something out for a laugh once in a while.

Not that I'm married to the idea of always doing silly competitions, but I don't really object either. It's also a lot easier to be funny and quirky than genuinely compelling given two or three weeks.

[ProgZmax]

superflat:  did you play my entry?  There's plenty of story in it 

[William Broom]

I guess I look at it this way: almost everyone here already has their own personal projects, most of which are relatively serious and time-consuming, so it's nice to get together and hammer something out for a laugh once in a while.

This is a good point. The competitions focus more on having fun and making unusual games than winning prizes. So a serious competition would probably be just like what you guys do all the time anyway.

[shinygerbil]

Life is the serious competition. No news on a winner yet.

[Hideous]

Hey, gerbil. I know your avatar changes every second, but is it supposed to change to a flat one sometimes?

[shinygerbil]

Nope, but I think I've seen that before. I have no idea why it does that.

[Melly]

I think any competition immediately becomes more fun when you state that there won't be any material prizes, only a boost in your metaphorical awesomeness. Makes people make games because it's fun to make games, not because you want the crazy prize on offer. It encourages being rewarded by your work alone, which in turn tends to destroy inhibitions.

In fact, I'd like to suggest that even voting be excluded. All playable entries are winners from now on! :D

[Daniel Benmergui]

TIGSource competitions inspired a compo here at the argentine developer community (ADVA)...being TIGSource-style, it's free of prizes and strict rules.

The rule is to make a "Banner Game": a game that runs at 600x90 at most (platform-agnostic).

It's an open contest (not restricted to argentineans) but we're running it on spanish to encourage the english-challenged. I'll be sure to show the results around here when it's over.

If you want to drop by to see the contesters so far (we've just started...it ends on may 4th):

http://www.adva.com.ar/foro/index.php?board=27.0

So far devs seems enthusiastic about the challenge...for sure, the resolution keeps the games small .

I'm sure the TIGSource community, being the most hardcore thing ever, could tackle a much smaller screen area in a competition

[moi]

That's a great idea about thebanner games
Someone suggested there should be a website where all game dev compos should be listed and I really think it might become necessary one day  .

[Farbs]

Someone suggested there should be a website where all game dev compos should be listed and I really think it might become necessary one day  .

Perhaps this information could be collated in a database.

[Chris Whitman]

If only there existed some kind of database which could be used for such a purpose!

[shinygerbil]

I've no idea what all this talk of databases is about, for sure.

[Hideous]

I'm actually setting up a wordpress blog for that. Yay for me! If it becomes popular enough I'll get a domain and shiz.

[Melly]

I'd also like to suggest that competitions from now on give you a number of votes that is dependent on the number of entries. 3 votes were too few for the many awesome games of the VGNG compo. I'd like something like the number of votes being around from 5 for competitions with so many entries. Maybe 7.

[Baltirow]

I'd also like to suggest that competitions from now on give you a number of votes that is dependent on the number of entries. 3 votes were too few for the many awesome games of the VGNG compo. I'd like something like the number of votes being around from 5 for competitions with so many entries. Maybe 7.

Seconded, especially considering the amount of entries in Text the Halls was ~25% of VGNG.

So anyone up for a revote?  :D 

[Derek]

I'll think about it a bit, Melly, but that sounds fine.  I don't know that the compo winner would actually be different, but I would like to see more games get votes.

Also, what's a database?

If someone starts up a thread here that they want to update on the compos, I'd be happy to sticky it!

[mjau]

I'm actually setting up a wordpress blog for that. Yay for me! If it becomes popular enough I'll get a domain and shiz.

There already exists one, actually: gamecompo.com.  There's a mailing-list, too.  So far there's mostly Ludum Dare news on there, but I don't think it's supposed to be restricted to that.

LD#11 is next week, btw.

[Wilson Saunders]

I'll think about it a bit, Melly, but that sounds fine.  I don't know that the compo winner would actually be different, but I would like to see more games get votes.

It is not that it would change the winners. It would allow people to give more anonymous props to games they think did well. It feels good to get voted for even if only by one person.

[Chris Whitman]

Also, what's a database?

I think it's like a dog, but it has this... you know, this little hat that it wears? You've probably seen it around town. You can put things in it... in the hat.

I sort of wonder if there is much point to the voting. I mean, it is nice for someone to get a big 'YOU ARE WINNER' congratulations, but kind of crappy for the people who put a lot of time in and don't really get a lot of votes. Is everyone really attached to the voting thing? I mean, I can go either way, really, it just seems like there was a lot of tremendously good work generated and a few people kind of got the shaft on this one.