Contest Concept: Time Management

I was considering hosting a game-making contest sometime soon and I wondered why the turnout for most contests is usually so low.

After looking at a few previous contests, I've figured that a potential problem might be some time management problems.

I then tried to come up with a method in which this problem could be fixed, and I stopped thinking when I determined something that might just work.

Essentially, the host would be the director of all of the contestants.
Each contestant would have a deadline for individual aspects of the game.
This series of deadlines would eventually result in enough components to make a game.

However, I'm sure that such a contest would probably take a few months.

The layout would essentially be something like:

Day 1 of Week 1) Challenge: Brainstorm a storyline.
Does not need to be detailed. As long as a general story is set up, things will be fine.

Week 1) Challenge: Make THREE hero Walkabouts/Battle sprite sets.
These do not have to be detailed. General colored in outlines will be sufficient.

Days 1-3 of Week 2) Challenge: Make 16 Map tiles
Again, these don't need to be too detailed.

Days 4-7 of Week 2) ]Challenge: Construct a (Fixed size) Map
This will be the introductory area for hero number one.

Etc...

There would also probably be bonuses for completing extra stuff with the time given.

I'm trying to find a balance between sufficient time for challenge deadlines and leaving enough customizable stuff for competitors to come out with unique games.

Would anybody be interested?

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I... I may actually participate!

A Limitation has appeared!

All contestants would need to use THIS PALETTE.



There are still a few Brightness/Hue issues with this and I'll be tweaking it around for a bit longer, but the general idea has been set!

There's also the issue with the OHRRPGCE's Sprite Editor which allows 15 colors and one transparent color, so it looks like one color will have to kick it.

Customizability: Entrants will be able to alter this palette by changing one color to any color of their choice.
(Note that one color means the entire column of that color. Not a single pixel on the 256 pixel block :D)

Again, this palette still needs some work, but it's not looking too bad right now;

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♪♪♪ Du du duuuu ♪♪♪

Huh? Why? What is the purpose of imposing a palette limitation on this contest? It isn't a bad palette... I just don't get what it has to do with any of the goals of the contest from your original post.

The Restricted Palette was one of my initial themes for the contest, but the Time Management came up later as a means to get people to participate and finish entries.

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This is Pixelation's 16-color palette, isn't it? If so, then there should be no problem since this is a really good palette from what I've seen.

Does this contest need to have a start date, or were we supposed to have already started on brainstorming a storyline?

The palette is my own, but the idea behind it was inspired by Pixelation's perfect 16



Not yet, you aren't!

The contest is still being designed. And posted terms are subject to change at any moment.

I'm just checking to see if this current stuff will really be okay for a contest.

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So basically we're allowed to choose any color to be black while making a sprite?

How will the time line be enforced? Do we vote on every deadline? Do we need to meet every deadline for the final game to be considered? Can these limits be exceeded? (ie, can we make 17 map tiles, rather than 16?)

I want the entries to surprise the community, like all contest games usually do, so each deadline's piece of work probably won't be shown to the public.

I also don't want to be too strict with the deadlines, as the goal of the contest would be to have people finish games.
Following the deadlines would be one option while following your own management would be another.

I'm hoping for these deadlines to act as guides, rather than rules.



Voting (I guess I'll use the community judgment system) will happen when final versions are submitted.
As long as a game is finished with the minimum chunks of game pointed out in the time challenges, it will be accepted.



Yes! The games would be awfully bland if every one of them came out with the same exact model.
I'd like the community to have new games, but I don't want a wave of identical games suddenly appearing.

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I'm a little interested. I might give this one a go; especially since I love strict color limitations(I once tried making a game with only four colors: black, white, grey, and gray).

Also, I'll most likely make four heroes at the start instead of the required three; and those would be the full party for the entire game.

I do have a question, though:
Where does the contest stand on using existing graphics? I mean, taking graphics from other games I've made(maptiles, especially)?

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Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!

Even though this contest never wound up going through, I've been using this palette for about five years now with very good results. Nice work on that.

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Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!

Sounds like a cool contest!
I would totally try.

Could you post a copy of the palette?

I rearranged where they are on the palette to match up with their equivalents on imported 16-color MSPaint drawings to make importing sprites go smoother. I don't know what order they were in before anymore.

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Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!