OHR 2018 One-Room Contest

Make games! Discuss those games here.

Moderators: Bob the Hamster, marionline, SDHawk

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kylekrack
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OHR 2018 One-Room Contest

Post by kylekrack »

Hello everyone, and welcome to the

OHR ONE ROOM CONTEST 2018

I know, you're excited. So am I. Now what is this slime exactly? Let me tell you.

Objective:
  • Make a small-scale game that takes place beginning-to-end in a continuous finite space
Rules of Submission:
  • Game must be played from beginning to end on one map 50 tiles wide and 50 tiles tall
    Gameplay does not have to use the entirety of the map, but in order to qualify, the map must have these exact dimensions.
    The use of doors is not permitted
    Exceptions considered for situations like ending the game or puzzles. Post below if you wish to use doors, and we’ll work out a solution.
    Map may have multiple rooms/sections or be one large, continuous space. As long as no doors are used to get from point A to point B.
Dates You Need To Know:
  • Contest begins officially February 2, 2018
    Games must be submitted by February 17, 2018
    Post in this forum Today to let me know you want to participate.
Judging and Rewards:

Your submission must fulfill 2 criteria to be valid:
  1. It is a game (let's not ruminate on what exactly that means)
    It has one map of size 50x50 tiles
All games that fulfill these requirements will get a review from me (and hopefully other volunteers).

Additionally, the community will vote on a game to receive Big Kid Club Champion Award and be forever immortalized in this thread.

I don’t have much else to offer by way of rewards. If someone wants to volunteer something, or if you have any ideas for what I could do, post below.

Notes:

Feel free to start thinking of ideas before the contest officially begins. The aim of this contest is to come out with finished games. Do whatever planning and designing you feel will help you create a game you’re happy with.

These should be SMALL games. The intention of the one room constraint is to force a small scope in a community that has such infamous scope-creep problems. (The constraint is meant to help you, not hurt you!)

If you have any further questions, or if there’s anything I’ve failed to mention, ask away! If all goes well, I’ll take the results of this contest and use them to develop an even better iteration of the contest in the future.


Let's get excited, my dudes. Get some practice before HotOHR gets into full swing. [s]What else can I say to convince you to join this contest[/s]
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Bob the Hamster
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

That is a cool idea! I like it!
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Foxley
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Post by Foxley »

I am definitely going for this, and might do a quick mockup of what my idea is and what I'll be looking to accomplish sometime this weekend. If anything, this will be a good opportunity to kick maladaptive perfectionism in the teeth.
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Post by kylekrack »

I encourage everyone to start talking about ideas here, even if you don't plan on participating. Discussion is always good, and if you didn't gather from the OP, the competition is not very high here. I will find some inspiration, examples, etc. and post it here to get that going. That being said, if you want to participate but don't have ideas/don't want to make a whole game by yourself, I will do my best to get you the resources that you need so you can contribute what you feel comfortable with.
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Post by MorpheusKitami »

Would it be all right if the game in question is something similar to the individual parts of my Complicated Gallery games? You know, not like the entirety of Adama, but just like the Starfire part, and conforming to the map rules. Something that'd be part of another game later on.
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Post by kylekrack »

I think that's fine. The only real constraint I'm trying to push here is map size. Beyond that, you pretty much have complete creative freedom. The doors rule is just to emphasize that these games should be finite.
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Post by Master K »

I'm interested!

I start a new job Feb 1st, but I want to at least try to bang out a small game.
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Post by guo »

No doors... but can we simulate doors using scripting? :devil:
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Post by kylekrack »

guo wrote:No doors... but can we simulate doors using scripting? :devil:
I'd apply the same rule there: if you can justify it to me (in the specific context of your game) I'll allow it, but as a rule of thumb, no.
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Post by kylekrack »

If anyone's looking for inspiration, Foxley mentioned the game Ikachan, which all takes place on one map (from what I understand).
Image
It really seems to maximize what one can do in one finite space. I'm not suggesting anyone necessarily get this crazy with it, but if you were unhappy with the constraint, here's some evidence that it's not all that bad.

I'll be back with more ideas and such later. Friday is when the contest officially begins, so it may be nice to start brainstorming now.

EDIT: Just found a page of games tagged with "one room' on itch.io. 30 Seconds to Midnight looks like a good example of something to come of this contest.
Last edited by kylekrack on Tue Jan 30, 2018 10:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by guo »

I won't have time to enter I'm afraid, but I'm excited! I'll even contribute a prize - I'll sprite a character of the winner's choice and include it as an NPC in Bale.
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Post by marionline »

Sounds like fun! :D

Question: Can we reuse sprites, tiles and so on from other games?
What about scripts?
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Post by SwordPlay »

Sounds like a great concept for a contest.

I have a few ideas for it (but I'm unsure if I will enter)

- I'd love to see an RPG squashed to fit the constraints :p Like a mini-RPG
- I have ideas for a maze/dungeon with random components
- It could be quite a large location. Maybe like a town or village, castle etc., with some questing.

Is it okay to use doors to depict different Z-levels (stories) of a building/area?

What about fitting rooms together like a jigsaw (to conserve space) and using doors to link each room?

Is it okay to have other scenes/locations/gameplay represented through slices?
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Post by kylekrack »

@Marionline: Reuse anything you want. I don't mind what assets or scripts that you use, as long as the game you make isn't plagiarism. Give credit where necessary, like always.

@VapourSword: Using doors to navigate z-levels generally goes against the theme of this contest as it's been established. I would say no tentatively. If you did end up using doors to go to different floors of a building, I'd probably cut you some slack, but the idea is to make a game in a finite space. Really get as small as you can with the scope of these games.

That being said, I'm torn on that. The "no doors" rule is meant to prevent the player from being teleported places. These games are meant to exist in one place. A screen fade out/fade in that reveals the player to be somewhere else conflicts with this idea. However, going to different floors in the same building isn't very immersion breaking in that regard. I think if you could get a transition between floors without using a fade out, that'd be great.

Fitting rooms together is fine, just make the player able to walk between them without teleporting. Depicting literal doors in your game is fine. The usage of the OHR's "doors" in the map editor is what the rule refers to.

Having other locations represented through slices makes the game not take place in one room or space. Part of my intention with this constraint is to get people to think about what can be done in a single space. The answer is: a lot. Think about meaningful moments in your life and where you were when they happened. Maybe you were in the car, or at the top of the Eifel Tower, or sitting on the toilet.
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Post by kylekrack »

Hey everyone! Official start date is tomorrow. Don't mean to stress anybody out with that, but to anyone on the fence about participating: Go for it! We're gonna make stuff! It's gonna be exciting and fulfilling! If you're concerned about it taking time from your other projects, think about this as a morale boost to make your other projects even more productive. Again, I'm not asking anyone to spend more than 2 hours on making a game for this contest.

That being said, I've been thinking of some things I can do to make this contest better for everyone, and I'd like some feedback on stuff.

Idea #1:
Each weekend, I could do a Twitch stream where I work on a game for this contest, and anyone who wants to can join me (in the twitch chat), work on their own game or project (doesn't even have to be for this contest!), and we can chat and help each other be productive.

Idea #2:
Similarly, we could host a discord event where everyone can hop onto a voice chat and we can work together, send screen caps, help each other with bugs, etc. This one may make some people uncomfortable, so let me know if that's the case.

On that note, let me know if any of you are interested in doing either of those things, or if you have a better idea! I'm happy to do anything I can to make this a good experience for y'all.
Last edited by kylekrack on Thu Feb 01, 2018 8:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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