When was the last time we had a Christmas Competition? Let's get into the spirit of the holidays and into the spirit of game-making with a grande-sized challenge for the ages! 'Tis the TDC Extravagameza, a year full of creation and a year full of fun! Can you take on a dare as big as this? That's right folks, this competition will be one full year long! That isn't to say you have to work on your game all year. You can work as much or as little as you want, unless of course you want to win!
What's the theme, you ask? If it's a year-long competition, then it ought to be a theme that emphasizes that, no? Well, then how about this? Games in this competition will have a full-year real-time clock! What? Too much? Not so fast! It doesn't have to be based entirely around the clock, simply containing a significant amount of real-time fun! In reality, the only sure rule here is that you'll have to incorporate the four seasons into the gameplay or story. Anything else is up to you. Maybe you set your game up to include major holidays, or play out days and nights, but whatever you do, make it count!
Now, let's get down to the nitty-gritty of things. What exactly do you have to do? What are the rules? Well, the nice thing about this competition is that I'll tell you the rules! So nice, I know.
1. The game can be made by any means (Click, Construct, Game Maker, Javascript, whatever. Paper and pencil games probably won't score well ).
2. Groups are eligible to compete, but the prize will go to whoever submits the game.
3. It has a limit of 20 mb (exceptions can be requested).
4. It must incorporate the four seasons significantly into the gameplay/story (simple graphical changes do not suffice).
5. You have one year to complete the game. The game must not have been started before December 21st, 2009, but you may use engines, sounds, etc. that were made before that day.
6. Any genre is eligible.
7. You cannot use copyrighted properties unless they are your own or you have express presentable proof of permission to use.
8. Games must include a splash screen of at least 2 seconds with the TDC Extravagameza logo, and the creator(s) name(s) during the game's startup sequence.
9. There must be based some element of the game based around the computer clock (realtime.)
10. While the game must revolve around the seasons, it must be possible to beat the game without having to play during all seasons.
11. Games will be accepted at any time, and can be resubmitted until December 21st, 2010. Games will not be judged or played by the judges until that date.
12. Games will be due for submission on December 21st, 2010, one year after the competition's start. To submit a game, you must DC mail it to Jon Lambert or another admin.
The judging criteria will be as follows:
Gameplay (how fun it is to play the game) 35/100
Graphics 10/100
Sound 10/100
Programming (lack of glitches, bugs, freezing) 15/100
Real-Time Clock Usage 20/100
Originality 10/100
And now for prizes! Clickteam has decided that, provided there is a good number of entries, and out of their exceeding generousity, the number one Click-made game in the competition will garner $250 for its' creator! Second place, or if a non-Click game is to win, will receive $100 or a free copy of MMF2!
So, you've got a year left. Let's get moving folks! I want to see some spectacular games come out of this competition!
On with the boring confusion of rules discussions!
The one thing I'm not so sure about it the "real time clock." Do you mean the calendar? Like, the seasons have to match up with the calendar, so when you're playing the game in the fall, it will be fall in the game? Or real-time clock meaning what time of day it is according to the Windows clock, and just create a schedule for the seasons based on what time of day it is?
Either way, a year long competition is kind of odd I think. I think a couple months is long enough. I'll consider entering if I ever finish my main project, by simply altering the game I'm already making to fit a seasons theme.
Seasons should follow the calendar, Spring starting somewhere around March 20th, Summer on June 21st, Fall on September 22nd, and Winter on December 21st.
A year gives anyone the time to make a completely-perfect impossible-to-beat-in-competition game, as well as allowing anyone to start almost any time and still win.
I am definitely entering. But I have a problem. Currently, only non-Click game making products are available to me but non-Click prizes are not as good. This would naturally incline a competitor towards MMF2 and Click products. I personally don't care about prizes, but I think that because you give extra prizes for using a good tool and you posted it on a Click community site then more people will use Click products for this competition.
Awesomeness is Watermelon.
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This is Koji. Copy and paste Koji to your sig so he can acheive world domination.
The reason clickteam products get better prizes and non-click products get a free copy of MMF2 is because as you can see the prizes are FROM clickteam. : /
Originally Posted by AndyUK I'm fed up with competitions. Damnit why do people insist on continuously creating new competitions when everyone ignores the ones currently running?
Originally Posted by Watermelon876 I am a bit fed up too. Nobody at all cared about my compo and both Console Wars 1 and 2 lay forgotten.
Responses like these are part of the reason that the competition is one year long, so that other competitions can continue to exist with less interruption. If this one is one year long and another competition is a month or two you could easily pause work for a bit and go into that one instead.
I front paged the Console wars. Compo burnout? Slow bit in the forums? I don't know. This compo is long-term, so perhaps one more relaunch of the console wars complete with fanfare and a non-hospitalized organizer is in order? It's also a pretty specific compo. I didn't want to enter because of the format. Maybe it played a role.
It is strange how compos catch on or not. The summer compo we had not too long ago was so epic! And people just don't want to participate in too many compos at once, maybe there should just be a break from them...?
But I figured it would not be done until the beginning to middle of 2011...
I think I can finish either the first town now and fill it full of even more activities than normally planned, or get the first two towns done and enter it with them.