Slime Salad

I know there are a couple of contests going on right now, but how would everyone feel about doing an 8-bit game contest in the future? After playing Moogle's Curse of Vampire, I have really had an itch to do something like this. The rules would be simple:

- Contestants would download an RPG file with a custom, original NES master palette on the day of the contest.
- Ripped graphics are not allowed and anyone who does will be disqualified.
- You may work with partner(s) or alone
- Make any type of game that you would like as long as the graphics are made with the contest master palette.

- At the end of the contest, a panel of judges will determine first, second, and third place winners by the average scores of the following categories:
- Graphics
- Storyline
- Gameplay
- Music
- Originality

Maybe there could also be other winners of particular categories, such as:
- Best use of the palette
- Best use of music
- Most original



Of course, the rules and regulations are all subject to change, but would anyone be interested in something like this?

I will do it!

Sure, I could do this.

Are there any restrictions on the graphics other than the palette? The NES had a max of 4 colors per tile and 3 per sprite.

I personally think it would be more of a challenge to implement those restrictions into the game. I think we should add them.

Yup, seems interesting enough.
Will there be a general theme to the contest, or are you basically giving us the supplies and letting us do whatever?

It's also cool to see that Newbie and Iblis instantly signed up.

I likely won't have time to participate, but I just want to say that I support the idea, it sounds like a lot of fun.

I think the contestants should be able to do whatever they want to, given they follow the graphic guidelines and use the contest file.

If we continue to get more interest, I'll work on ironing out the rest of the details. Any suggestions are welcome, and it would be nice to get some ideas as to how long a contest like this should span.

I will most likely want to enter it as well, which creates a problem. I will have to find someone else to make the palette and game file because some might accuse me of cheating.

Meatballsub wrote:I will most likely want to enter it as well, which creates a problem. I will have to find someone else to make the palette and game file because some might accuse me of cheating.

Highly doubt it.
As long as the palette doesn't directly benefit you, I don't see how anyone could accuse you of cheating.

I mean, Fenrir enters all of his contests and he even wins at least half the time.

I suspect that he means that people might think that, since he had the RPG file, he might've started working early.

But yeah, I don't think it would really be a problem. With any contest there's the possibility that someone might start early and there's never really a fuss about it. People just assume that others start on time.

If you're that worried about the palette, you could just use the Curse of Vampire palette. The only problem is that it's only fourteen colors since I couldn't ever decide on a fifteenth or sixteenth. The game's unpassworded and there's a sample palette tile on each tileset.

Well if that's the case, then I won't worry about it too much. I was just worried about someone thinking I was cheating.

I appreciate the offer, and it is nice to know I have something to fall back on. However, I think I have this NES palette just about right (48-53ish colors) so I plan to use that first.

53 colors? NES games were limited to 16 colors onscreen at a time. I think some games switched which 16 were displayed sometimes, but you should clarify in the rules whether contestants will be expected to restrict themselves to NES graphical capabilities.

53 colors? NES games were limited to 16 colors onscreen at a time. I think some games switched which 16 were displayed sometimes, but you should clarify in the rules whether contestants will be expected to restrict themselves to NES graphical capabilities.

The NES itself had a palette of 53-64 colors (depends on how many you count, at the end of the palette are many slots filled with just black for some reason). 16 of these colors could be loaded into memory for use at any given time, and they could be changed during the game.

I may actually try doing this with my entry (just for fun). I'll just use the top row of colors for everything and copy colors from the rest of the palette into it when I need to change.

But yeah whether the screen can display more than 16 colors at any time is something the rules should address. I would advise against making it mandatory to follow this limit, coordinating the sprites and tiles and menus and everything can get pretty crazy (I know, I've tried it).

I'll probably just make all of the menus a single color just to avoid trouble with them.

Hmm...I was not aware of the 16 color limitation...

I'm trying to decide now whether we should just use a 16 color palette and enforce the 16 color limit (to make it easier than governing a 16 color limit with a 53 color palette), or if we should use the 53 color palette and have no color limitations...

I would personally lean towards the 16 color limit, after all, it would feel more right in this contest. However, I am open to any comments or suggestions, which might steer me in a different direction.