Ridiculous Games Contest 2020 - The 1998 one

Make games! Discuss those games here.

Moderators: Bob the Hamster, marionline, SDHawk

User avatar
Feenicks
Metal Slime
Posts: 696
Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2010 9:23 pm
Location: ON THE AIR IN THE AIR
Contact:

Results.

Post by Feenicks »

And it's time for the results!

1998-ness
This one was a really close race for 1st, but in the end it went to Nathan Karr's A Quest.

Overall Quality
This one goes to Fenrir-Lunaris' Puppy Adventure by a reasonable margin.


While the above two games won the main awards, I feel it's only right to give all the games some sort of title. Therefore:

The Per-Game Awards

Reversal: The Faux Plotscripting of 1998
Out of all the games here, Reversal is the one that uses the various remote door usage and tag setting functions present in even old versions of the OHR to great effect. Some elements aren't kosher to pre-millenial OHR games, but the lack of plotscripting stays true.

Puppy Adventure: The Community of 1998
I'm told that the OHR's early community was even more furry-leaning than it is now - and what better way to show that than a furry RPG? I'd hesitate to say it's even more nsfw-leaning than it is now [see: Hati's Bizarre Adventure being the top game]... but if it was, what better way to show that than a furry RPG?

Crazy Computer Competition: The Actual Usage of Hero Hiring of 1998
Despite it being an option from almost the beginning of the OHR's history, I don't think I've seen the hero hire function of shops being used ever [outside of Fenrir's The War on Christmas, and even that was a start-of-game hero selection]. Here, though? It's a central aspect of the game, and functions as a storytelling component, too!

E-D: The Reality of 1998
To be blunt, most OHR games made in this era weren't great, even discounting the ones that weren't uploaded to long-gone webpages. This game bravely follows in their footsteps, having battles that are an exercise in patience, an avoidance of the usage of tags, and a final boss that's probably impossible to beat.

Hakei: The Brevity of 1998
There's 4 screens and at best 2 dozen textboxes here. They're written in code, so deciphering them will take some time, but if there's an aspect this shares with the OHR games of the 20th century it's that both tended to be short affairs.

Bok's Expedition: The Stories of 1998
I'm very happy someone pulled out the concepts they had from back from the turn of the millennium and made a game out of it, loosely-derived or otherwise. It's one of the things I wanted to have happen in this contest, and I'm glad it did, in fact, happen.

Union Tour: The Aspiration of 1998
I think a basic assumption with the average person who picks up any game-making program for the first time is that they'll be able to pull off the game they had in mind. The 1998 OHR's restrictions makes that tricky for various reasons, so I feel happy that I was able to get a ~2 hour game out of 4 maps and probably overly fast battles.
...I also think I was the only person who submitted a game best played in DOSBox, so that's worth mentioning?

A Quest: The Experience of 1998
Nathan Karr's output feels very constant: take that as you will, but I'll take the output of someone who shirked plotscripting for years as very true-to-form for what the early OHR output.

Ultimate Fantasy I: The Secret Orb of the Power (DEMO): The Image of 1998
This game ticks off all the boxes of early OHR games [and of amateur RPGs in general], and to iterate them would be beyond the scope of this text space. It does it in a way that isn't quite Arfenhousey, too, which is appreciated.




And that's the voting concluded! For those of you who entered, thank you for submitting: there was a larger turnout than I was honestly expecting.
Until next year!

[s]You're free to release DX versions of your games with sound effects now.[/s]
Attachments
votes.png
votes.png (24.19 KiB) Viewed 3157 times
User avatar
Idontknow
Slime Knight
Posts: 219
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:51 pm
Location: The Jerkstore
Contact:

Post by Idontknow »

Wow, I'm so glad my game lost just because one person gave it a 9.
Last edited by Idontknow on Thu Apr 16, 2020 10:39 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Working as intended!
User avatar
Bird
Slime Knight
Posts: 227
Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2012 2:19 pm
Location: Germany

Post by Bird »

Protest! Arti didn't vote on the "Spirit of 1998". He has the same rights as we all have to distribute points in that category, too. The current results should be hidden and he should vote first.
User avatar
kylekrack
Liquid Metal Slime
Posts: 1240
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 8:58 am
Location: USA
Contact:

Post by kylekrack »

Riot in the streets!
My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife
User avatar
Arti
Red Slime
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun Mar 08, 2020 8:13 pm
Location: The Earth

Post by Arti »

I suppose that I vote in Spirit of ORH in the contest
Puppy Adventure is the best game in the contest in spirit in my opinion

Sorry for not voting in Spirit
Edit: Oops
Last edited by Arti on Sat Apr 18, 2020 10:19 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Arti
User avatar
Idontknow
Slime Knight
Posts: 219
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:51 pm
Location: The Jerkstore
Contact:

Post by Idontknow »

You didn't vote for spirit you just rated the games on quality twice
Working as intended!
User avatar
Nathan Karr
Liquid Metal Slime
Posts: 1215
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:51 am
Contact:

Post by Nathan Karr »

Oh wow, I actually won half of a contest?

https://youtu.be/t5XhQ8f7mZY

Sorry I've been inactive so long. Apparently burger flipper is an "essential worker" and I haven't had much time to do more than work, sleep, and get treated like trash by my co-workers.

A Quest was a blast to make. I plan to make one or two small edits for quality of life improvements now that the contest is over, rather than try ambitiously to tack a second quest into the game file as well. The game is short, sweet, simple, and I dare say one of the most fun OHR games to be made in the past decade. I can say that with full confidence, I think I made a really solid game - especially considering the game mechanics limitations I had to work with.
Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!
User avatar
FnrrfYgmSchnish
Metal Slime
Posts: 741
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 4:37 am
Location: Middle of Nowhere

Post by FnrrfYgmSchnish »

I'm also continuing work on my contest game beyond the contest's deadline.

So far I've given the "bad ending" scene some of its own unique backdrops rather than just reusing the Ihctogo-from-space backdrop from the intro, fixed a few bugs, added a new room to the ship's map (in place of one of those locked doors), and started putting extra details into the tilesets so every floor of the caves don't look quite so samey. So far one of the floors has gotten its own separate battle backdrop.
Sorry I've been inactive so long. Apparently burger flipper is an "essential worker" and I haven't had much time to do more than work, sleep, and get treated like trash by my co-workers.
I'd recommend finding someplace else, especially if management is included among the people who treat you like trash -- maybe not right away (it's kinda hard to find a job at any time, but I'm sure the whole coronavirus situation makes it even harder than usual) but it's definitely something that should happen at some point.

I've had more than my share of crappy fast food jobs, and believe me, they're so much more tolerable when the coworkers (and especially the management) are actually decent. A slimy customer sucks and all but they'll be gone in 10 minutes... but one slimy manager or super-slimy coworker being around all the time can ruin an otherwise decent job.

EDIT: ...whoa, did the slime filter get turned off or something? Was expecting those to be magically transformed to "slimy" or something...
Attachments
Ihctogan caves 3F's new backdrop
Ihctogan caves 3F's new backdrop
19980037.png (10.84 KiB) Viewed 2636 times
Ummiboro 5 library
Ummiboro 5 library
19980036.png (8.22 KiB) Viewed 2636 times
Ummiboro 5 library
Ummiboro 5 library
19980035.png (9.24 KiB) Viewed 2636 times
Last edited by FnrrfYgmSchnish on Tue Jun 16, 2020 3:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
FYS:AHS -- Working on Yagziknian NPC walkabout sprites
TMC
Metal King Slime
Posts: 4308
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:19 am

Post by TMC »

Congratulations to the victorious (you're all winners)!

Wow I totally forgot about this contest and my desire to continue working on my game, which I very barely started on. Hmmm...

Sucks to hear that, Nathan. I had wondered where you went.

Are the two of you sticking to the original limitations for your edits?
User avatar
FnrrfYgmSchnish
Metal Slime
Posts: 741
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 4:37 am
Location: Middle of Nowhere

Post by FnrrfYgmSchnish »

TMC wrote:Are the two of you sticking to the original limitations for your edits?
For now, I'm focusing on finishing the game with the same limitations -- it's so close to done already that I'd rather go ahead and have another truly finished game first, rather than getting hung up on going back through and adding all kinds of later-OHR features and delaying actually making it "beatable."

I'll probably go back and release an expanded not-1998-anymore version at some point, though. Most likely additions being spell descriptions, attack captions in battle, poison/stun/mute/regen, instead-chains, and transmogrification. And maybe a 5th map, I do have an idea for an optional superboss...
FYS:AHS -- Working on Yagziknian NPC walkabout sprites
User avatar
kylekrack
Liquid Metal Slime
Posts: 1240
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 8:58 am
Location: USA
Contact:

Post by kylekrack »

That's an interesting process. I can see the value in creating a game using the '98 limitations initially. After it's mostly done, you can evaluate which things are charmingly retro, and what just makes the game less playable. Like not having spell descriptions.
My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife
User avatar
Nathan Karr
Liquid Metal Slime
Posts: 1215
Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2008 3:51 am
Contact:

Post by Nathan Karr »

TMC wrote:Are the two of you sticking to the original limitations for your edits?
I'm not going to worry about breaking them after this. Main things I plan on adding are a couple unlockable shortcuts to make navigating the world easier past certain milestones and the option to rest at a (rather expensive) inn within the dungeon. I might even add some flavorful spell descriptions and battle captions.
Remeber: God made you special and he loves you very much. Bye!
Post Reply