Heart of the OHR Contest 2014

Thanks. I've updated the original post to reflect this new prize (I lumped it in with some of the other swag prizes).

Don't forget that you effectively have until the 14th (or 15th?)

It might be a good idea to loosen the rules and allow initial entries between the 1st and 15th of December rather than just bugfixes? If there are a lot of people who could almost make the deadline then that's a more compelling case for leniency, otherwise it's just a waste of time to extend deadlines. So it would be good to hear updates from people.

Yeah, my last few posts have been subtly implying this. For those who need me to shout it: You can turn your games in as late as December 14 and still be eligible for the contest (you just won't get your bug bounty from James if you release after November 30). So far, this year's contest has been grossly underwhelming compared to the last two (by this time in 2012, the contest thread was twice as long with activity as it is now, and this year's thread is marred by at least one page of nonsense thanks to my first post messing up initially). I'm trying to encourage everyone to get a bit more fired up about their games and the contest to keep the spark lit. Otherwise we're gonna encounter the very same reason why I was reluctant to commit this to a biannual event in the first place.

Needless to say, Heart of the OHR will continue in the years to come if and only if people continue to participate. We'll definitely have it in 2016, but this year's turnout combined with 2016's turnout will directly influence whether we have it in 2018. With as broad of an open window as I give this thing each year, and given the fact that everyone is armed with the knowledge that they can bring any RPG project into the competition regardless of how long they've been working on it, I'd find it extremely discouraging if we ended up with just three games, especially when the last two had 12 and 15 entries respectively.

I don't like talking because that's what kills me, but I'll start spouting off some stuff. It may be really late in the game, but it's something.

My project that might get demo released is called "Elanor", after the main character. I have a lot on paper planned for this game, including a world map. I've been able to make some maps, draw up several enemy and boss sprites, and write some dialogue. A lot of the sprites I put up, including the ones in the artbook, are featured in this game. I have a rough, loose idea for a plot, but I do have an idea of area progression.

The game features two spellcasting main heroes at the moment. I feel content with both my heroes being magic users, and I plan to have a sort of system where your main hero, Elanor, follows a god, and all the spells she learns revolves around the chosen god, whereas the witch can learn spells based off the bosses you defeat, making her a little more versatile perhaps. You can create items based off the bosses you defeat, be it an equipment piece, a staff or wand, or a spell.

Other than that, there isn't much beyond that. I'm sure if I got off my lazy butt I could have a demo out by the deadline. Life has been busy, and I've also had many distractions. I have not given up on this game, but I have been working at a sporadic pace.

The layout reminds me of the mountain areas in Final Fantasy 6, what with the "cave leading out to small grassy cliff-type area with another cave" sort of thing. I can't get a good feel for the actual graphics from such a zoomed-out view, but the layout being FF6-like is pretty neat.

FYS:AHS -- Swapping out some step-on NPCs for zones + each step script
Puckamon -- Not until the reserve party is expanded.[/size]

But does that mean that backtracking will be encouraged, even strongly? There was a recent thread here about how allowing people (such as me) with obsessive completionist tendencies to indulge their bad habit of backtracking to see everything can be seen as a bad idea. On the other hand, if backtracking to see this extra content isn't a boring sludge, then, great! Just the game for me :P

Indeed. There will be five gods to chose from, all plot relevant. Although, there will be minor deities to pop up in the story occasionally, they'll be the main five.

The thing with t4r4d1ddl3 is that it's an awesome journey game with great dialogue and the perfect design for the Heart of the OHR, but it isn't an RPG, that I could tell. It's more of a straight up quest, which is a bit to the side of what we're going for here. That's how I saw it at any rate.

However, like I'm open to all interpretive things, I can be open to the idea of making the "journey" story eligible. But does it have character progress? Can it be classified as anything other than a top-view platformer with dialogue?

If I add t4r4d1ddl3 now, I think it would be a desperation move, and I'm trying to avoid those.