Competition 2010 - progress

[JGadrow]

Wow, that's a mighty small list! Judges (you know who you are), it's time to start playing these games! The judging round will last for 1 week, afterwards I will compile the scores and list the standings.

@Chris, perhaps we should consider a longer deadline for the next contest as this appears to have been much too aggressive even for you! lol I believe the first contest had a 3 month deadline...

[jannesiera]

@Chris, perhaps we should consider a longer deadline for the next contest as this appears to have been much too aggressive even for you! lol I believe the first contest had a 3 month deadline...

I know my name is not Chris but ... http://community.bbgamezone.net/index.php/topic,1319.0.html

[JGadrow]

Thanks for that janne. I had completely forgotten that we had this discussion! Odd because I even posted in that one! lol My suggestions are still the same even! lol

After this contest has wrapped up, I'll probably start a thread about the next contest. I'd like to commit to a series of competitions with defined calendars and rules. I think these competitions draw more community members and having them on a regular basis would help to retain those developers in the community rather than having them disperse when all is said and done. But, more on that later.

[jannesiera]

Thanks for that janne. I had completely forgotten that we had this discussion! Odd because I even posted in that one! lol My suggestions are still the same even! lol

After this contest has wrapped up, I'll probably start a thread about the next contest. I'd like to commit to a series of competitions with defined calendars and rules. I think these competitions draw more community members and having them on a regular basis would help to retain those developers in the community rather than having them disperse when all is said and done. But, more on that later.

Yeah, totally agree with that . bbgames and I have been thinking about creating a small website for it too -- so there's definitely some people who are willing to commit to this project. It has been really awesome on the #competition irc chat too so it would be lovely to have more of this excitement ^^.

[Marek]

1 month is an excellent time frame. I can give several reason for keeping the 1-month recipe for future contests.

1. More completions. It's true that several games (including mine) didn't make the deadline because of lack of time. But extending the deadline would not help: the farther away the deadline, the harder it is to make time estimates. With a multiple-month time frame, it's too easy to be overambitious and take on too much, and then you don't have anything to show in the end. Short and simple: having an achievable goal is the key to having a high ratio of completed games.

2. Repeatability. A 3-month contest is a marathon, not a sprint, and I would expect that after doing it once, people won't be as keen to repeat it. I think I'd feel drained afterwards. It would feel more like a work deadline than a fun contest.

3. More contestants. 1 month is already a significant time commitment, and I think that making it longer would only intimidate potential contestants. The contest should be fun and exciting instead of this huge time-consuming project.

4. A short feedback loop benefits the developers. Contests are great learning experiences. They're a great way to break away from what you're doing and try something new. Many people here already have their own long-term projects. A contest should be a short get-away, to jump into something different, but for that purpose I think 1 month is already on the long side.

[Chris]

Please, please, please. Make a separate topic about planned competition and then you can spend next year figuring out details

This topic is for the current competition.

[Murzim]

wow, chris, nice domain name. You sell it ?

[Chris]

wow, chris, nice domain name. You sell it ?

Unlikely. But I bought it 2 days ago (when I noticed they bought "my" ogrewar.com), even today there are unlimited great domains, if you know how to look. The most radiculous was samuraiRPG.com which I got like 2-3 years ago, I mean there could not be more generic name but still no one bought it...

[Hypemaster]

Wicked Dead

Damn, because of all the work i had for school, making a project in php (unfortinute not a game). I just forgot adding the latest dev version to the public one. (lvl10 and 11) Well it was online before the deadline but on another link. But yea, its playable what i have now. Only thing missing is the pvp part of the game. At lvl10 you need to fight against an other real person who is also at that level fighting for who can go to next and who will fall down. So no big deal but i geuss i'm not allowed to put it in the game before the judging ends. Like 3 days playtime i have here its well enough to show where i'm going to i hope so no big deal, only less content.

And well it was all fun and would like that judges send their feedback after the judging is over offcourse. This was an little small experiment. And i had fun with it when i had time.

About being to short. Well i only worked first 2 weeks on the game. First i have well alot of time, 2nd less. 3th and 4th no time. Just felt in a bad period for me, exams and after that project.

But in those 2 weeks i was able to make a basic and simple game with not much content (10 levels of the 100 i wanted to make). And i think you only need to show what you want to do. it doesent need to be complete in content or functionality. Just basic idea. And making a complete game is never possible in 1 month. That isent the goal, wasent for me atleast. The goal is to show your idea.

[Chris]

FOR BBGameDesign & Building Browsergames

This competition was very interesting to me and I learned a lot. I approached it very confident and have not made proper preparations. This was a disaster. Since I had no fully clear concept what kind of game I'm making I was struggling the whole competition. I started 4 different game designs and ended scrapping 95% of the code I wrote. The first shock was when I realized that I might not be able to finish this time. The second shock was when I actually made it at the very last moment. After I gave up, but just before the deadline, I recalled a simple game I wanted to make a long time ago. So I did it, barely making it on time. It even got 3-rd place, so definitely not bad considering how my design & coding process looked like during this competition. The third shock was when I got players response. I have several games and stable player base, so I have pretty accurate expectations how should they react to a game on that stage. They reacted as if this was at least beta, not pre alpha or development version. They simply started playing it right away without making any complains and started to draw their friends to it. This was really puzzling to me.

So, what the game is about? Well, very simple, www.duelarena.com is about challenging other players to get experience and gold, there are also plenty of options that let you affect your combat power and... logout button. That's it, it's as simple as you could imagine. A fantasy like PvP with tons of options to modify your combat power and absolutely nothing that would make you sidetracked (like quests, story, NPC, etc).

The competition has not taught me anything new, I knew all this before, but I never know these things were *that* important. A clear vision what the game is about. Sticking to core gameplay first before making additional features. And the most important one, the time you spend on project is almost insignificant part of the final outcome.
I do look up to the next competition, you are also welcome to join us at www.community.bbgamezone.net we have such competitions on regular basis. It is a lot of fun and you will hone your skills without investing lot of time. Definitely worth it!