Heart of the OHR Contest

Make games! Discuss those games here.

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Fenrir-Lunaris
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Post by Fenrir-Lunaris »

VoM has the following updates, as of 11/30. Unfortunately, I haven't really kept track, so feel free to NOT vote for it.

Enemies, Spells, and Rewards rebalanced.
Ground terrain slightly improved around corners (most areas)
Delvire shows up in a few more scenes, and has his "final" fight at the arena.
Dr Mu's spaceship, and fight vs the musclemen
Olaf's final questchain complete, Managarm fight fixed.
Night's reacuisition quest fixed, more battle prologue added.
Fight against Midgardsorm now has an actual cinematic before it.
Party has to perform a number of tasks to leave Thule before continuing.
Start of the in-game encyclopedia (only three sections so far,updates as you go).
Most of the overworld changes halfway through the game.
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Post by Spoonweaver »

Legendary Heroes by Spoonweaver

New Content: ??? (Spoonweaver, what's new?)
I'm not sure what you're asking. The whole game is new. And didn't exist before the contest. When I talk about it being a remake of my first game I mean a complete remake. That game was deleted about 10 years ago and I had forgotten most of the plot so I changed a lot. The graphics are all orinigal and new too. ( Aside from Guy's walkabout character which can be seen in a few of my games. )
Please take me off the old games list, since that's not really the case here.

Also, should we vote in this thread? or will there be another one made?
Last edited by Spoonweaver on Thu Dec 16, 2010 11:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Pepsi Ranger
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Spoonweaver wrote:I'm not sure what you're asking. The whole game is new. And didn't exist before the contest. When I talk about it being a remake of my first game I mean a complete remake. That game was deleted about 10 years ago and I had forgotten most of the plot so I changed a lot. The graphics are all orinigal and new too. ( Aside from Guy's walkabout character which can be seen in a few of my games. )
Please take me off the old games list, since that's not really the case here.
My mistake. I was confusing it with the KER-Saders and simultaneously thinking of Lightning Heroes (another author's game) for some reason. I'll fix the post now.
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Post by JSH357 »

Audio #2 - Okedoke PART ONE
Audio #2 - Okedoke PART TWO

I will be recording Okedoke in several parts (probably the other longer games too). Here is the first one. Again I want to stress that this audio is intended largely for the developers and not other listeners. You would have to be really bored to want to hear these otherwise. :p

BUG: I mention it in part 2, but after the donkey ride, sometimes the game locks up.
Last edited by JSH357 on Fri Dec 17, 2010 1:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Pepsi Ranger
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Also, should we vote in this thread? or will there be another one made?
You can vote in this thread since I think it's better to keep all contest-related stuff together. You may also post a score in any Slime Salad review for specific games (preferred method for authors, marked as Heart of the OHR Score) and I'll find them.
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msw188
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Post by msw188 »

Hey, I don't want to be a jerk, but I kind of disagree with using this thread to vote. It's already being used for talking about the games and it's already kind of a pain to find anything in it.

I think there should be a new thread to announce voting, and the voting deadline, and then people can reply to that and edit their post as they fill in their votes. This way there should only be one post per person in that thread, and it'll never be an issue finding where you voted for that one game that you want to change your vote for, now that you've played some others.
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Mystic
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Post by Mystic »

Sigh... Maybe I won't be uploading today after all. Just vote on my older version, I suppose.

I found two serious errors that I can't seem to fix, and they don't seem to be happening every time. I messed something up big time!

(Loading a save somehow erases all NPCs... which prevents getting any further in the game.)

[edit]

OKAY NEVERMIND. It's not happening anymore. And I didn't do anything.

If it does happen to someone, please tell me? I'm uploading my fix now.
Last edited by Mystic on Fri Dec 17, 2010 2:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Baconlabs »

JSH357 wrote:I plan to record audio commentary, but I won't edit any of it. I'll just post the raw footage for the creators. I doubt anyone else will be interested in hearing it.
This is really neat, I'm glad you decided to do this. Criticism and reviews seem so much more tangible when they've become more than just text.

(Also, this doesn't have anything to do with anything, but your chair reminds me of those flappy sounds old computers would make while trying to read a floppy disk.)
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Post by Spoonweaver »

I've decided to vote on games based on a number of categories that I then add up to form the score for each game. Each category is worth a total of 2 points and are as follows:

Graphics
Gameplay
Scripting
Challenge
Music

Along with a numbered score for each category I've also included an explanation for any score under 2. Hopefully, the explanations will explain what I took into consideration for category and help the developers in the future.



Apophenia Demo by guo | Score = 7
Graphics-2
Gameplay-1 (At first the game flowed along smoothly, then The girl joins your party and you're in a large city to explore. Exploring the city is cool, but it's all just sort of empty. I'm sure if more were added in that it would be more interesting to play this game.)
Scripting-2 (There were a few bugs, but I still gave 2 points.)
Challenge-1 (Although the in battle mechanics were neat, they seemed unnecessary and not performed the best way they could have been. It was more complicated then it was hard.)
Music-1 (No music? Well it did add to dark nature of the game.)

Chronoboy Adventures by Chronoboy | Score = 7
Graphics-0 ( Ripped. Poorly. I would have enjoyed it more if it stuck with the original graphics from the beginning of the game throughout the whole thing.)
Gameplay-1 ( This game confused me a lot at first. It took me a while to realize that the first part is basically you waiting for the scripts to kick in and let you proceed. The score of one comes from the very slow start the game had. I just wasn't that into having to milk cows until I had enough money to buy weapons and armor.)
Scripting-2
Challenge-2
Music-2

Eternity Fragment by NayusDante | Score = 7
Graphics-1 (I understand that this is an 8bit style game. No points off for that. I just think some of the color choices were bad. This was really close to getting the full 2 for graphics.)
Gameplay-1 (The go forth and grind concept couple with the low battle speed really made this feel more grueling than fun. did still have some fun playing though)
Scripting-1 (There didn't seem to be much, but the small amount that was there worked great.)
Challenge-2
Music-2

Hero by ncw64 | Score = 5
Graphics-1 (A good effort here. The graphics seemed rushed though. They weren't of the best quality either.)
Gameplay-1 ( A little more direction at first would be nice. Enemy variety was slim too.)
Scripting-0 (None?)
Challenge-1 (There were some balancing issues. The developer seemed aware of them.)
Music-2

Motrya by JSH357 | Score = 10
Graphics-2
Gameplay-2
Scripting-2
Challenge-2
Music-2

Skyfall by Mystic | Score = 8
Graphics-1( There were a lot of little places were the graphics were either of very poor quality. I'm guessing they were place holders. I'm sure they'll be improved upon in the future and I'm looking forward to it.)
Gameplay-1 (It was a bit short, and some parts seemed a little too open ended for how linear they really were. A good example is when you're heading to the cave as the knight. You Can't enter town even though it's right there. Hmm.. Hope that wasn't a spoiler.)
Scripting-2
Challenge-2
Music-2

Viridia Chapter 2 by Baconlabs | Score = 8
Graphics-2
Gameplay-1( The battle mechanics seemed a little ahead of their time. Trying to hit an enemy that get's killed before the attack resolves should never result in attacking my comrades.)
Scripting-2
Challenge-1( Some battles seemed too hard considering there was very little I could do to prepare for them. Seemed like one mistake, even if that mistake was in a previous battle, and it was all over. )
Music-2

Do You Want To Be a Hero? by Mogri | Score = 9
Graphics-1 (Simple yet functional graphics. It's hard to give a 2 based on quality though.)
Gameplay-2
Scripting-2
Challenge-2
Music-2

Tales of the New World 2 by msw188 | Score = 5
Graphics-1 (There seemed to be work put into these, but the quality is poor.)
Gameplay-1 ( A bit too much lack of direction and a strong need to grind. It could use some balancing )
Scripting-1 ( These seemed clunky but were overall functional. This was very close to 2 points.
Challenge-2
Music-0 (None besides the title music.)

Vikings of Midgard by FenrirLunaris | Score = 8
Graphics-2
Gameplay-1 (There didn't seem to be a lot of new content)
Scripting-2
Challenge-2
Music-1 (There didn't seem to be a lot of new music)


Okédoké! by FnrrfYgmSchnish | Score = 7
Graphics-2
Gameplay-1 ( There didn't seem to be a whole lot of new content to me. Also, Some of the dialog is a bit crude and it really hurts the game as a whole in my eyes.)
Scripting-2
Challenge-1 (I found the game pretty straight forward and easy.)
Music-1 (There didn't seem to be a lot of new music)




Legendary Heroes by Spoonweaver | Score = 10
meh... why not


All votes subject to change between now and the end of the voting period.
Last edited by Spoonweaver on Fri Dec 31, 2010 10:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Baconlabs
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Post by Baconlabs »

Spoonweaver wrote:Trying to hit an enemy that get's killed before the attack resolves should never result in attacking my comrades.
I can't believe I let myself ignore this. It's such a simple thing to fix, but I let it pass anyway. I'll change this (along with other significant problems) in a new version soon.

I'm conflicted whether to upload it now or after the voting period is over. But the deadline has passed, and even if the change is minor, it might skew other peoples' votes. So, no edits until later.
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Spoonweaver, I like your scoring system. It does seem a little punishing toward games that don't include music or scripting, but if that's your criteria for liking a game, then so be it. Clever.
msw188 wrote:Hey, I don't want to be a jerk, but I kind of disagree with using this thread to vote. It's already being used for talking about the games and it's already kind of a pain to find anything in it.

I think there should be a new thread to announce voting, and the voting deadline, and then people can reply to that and edit their post as they fill in their votes. This way there should only be one post per person in that thread, and it'll never be an issue finding where you voted for that one game that you want to change your vote for, now that you've played some others.
I did consider this initially, as it certainly makes the most sense in theory; not to mention, it's traditional to devote voting to new threads separate from contest threads.

However, I decided against it for two reasons:

1. Unless people want to post a dedicated review for a game in the reviews section and write in a HOTOHR score there, I don't really want to split the contest information, news, etc. into multiple threads. Too many threads (including dedicated voting threads) run a greater risk at getting swallowed up in the forums, thus breaking up information into forgotten segments. When the contest is over and history takes its place, future readers are more likely to forget what happened here than if I had kept everything in one central location. Yes, one can argue that too many pieces can get swallowed up in a single thread, too, but at least readers don't have to guess how many topics were devoted to it when all they have to do is to scan this one thread for whatever they're looking for and find it. As far as votes go, I don't think this will become an issue, since voting naturally happens at the end of every contest, hence it will happen at the end of this thread.

2. Among other things, this contest is supposed to encourage participation by challenging the methods we're used to doing. The prize cache, for example, was designed to shake things up a little by awarding entrants bonus gifts (T-shirts and dedicated bugfixes). The voting process, likewise, is designed to attract more voters by allowing people to play and vote on whichever games they want without necessarily having to play everything. While this doesn't explain my decision to leave voting here, it should at least give you a picture of my thought process. Contests habitually do two things when it comes to voting: they force players to rank games in a roster, which can be time consuming (and a nightmare for anyone like me who experiences indecision), and they split threads so that voters have to keep track of two discussions (or more, if each game has its own thread). More often than not, voters forget about the extra threads, and then, eventually, voting stalls. Granted, I don't know that keeping the votes in the main thread will prevent stalling, but I'm certain that splitting it into a new thread won't. I want people to vote for the games, and as long as we keep talking about them here, they can't forget about voting (they can only choose not to vote).

So, in short, unless someone wants to write dedicated reviews for the games, voting stays here.
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Post by FnrrfYgmSchnish »

BUG: I mention it in part 2, but after the donkey ride, sometimes the game locks up.
Huh, that's really weird. No idea how that could be happening... I've never had any problems with the donkey ride crashing the game before. I think this is the first I've heard of anything like that happening.

Haven't actually downloaded the OGGs yet (I've still got dial-up, so it will most likely take forever), so I'm not sure if this is mentioned in there or not, but... is this the donkey ride toward the border, or the one going back to Mexico from the border?
Gameplay-1 ( There didn't seem to be a whole lot of new content to me.
The game's not nearly as complete as I was hoping to have it for this contest (I thought I might actually end up finishing Chapter 6, and instead I only got the first small chunk done), and I didn't really add too much to Chapters 1 through 3 at all.
But Chapter 4's secret area is almost big enough to be a whole chapter by itself. I'm not sure how a town the size of Wrongside, with several dungeons off to the side and optional bosses in each of them, isn't a lot of new content.

Of course, the update would seem a lot smaller if you missed the Burger Kingdom somehow. If that's the case, try searching the ball pit in the New Hamster Burger King restaurant.
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Post by JSH357 »

FnrrfYgmSchnish wrote:
BUG: I mention it in part 2, but after the donkey ride, sometimes the game locks up.
Huh, that's really weird. No idea how that could be happening... I've never had any problems with the donkey ride crashing the game before. I think this is the first I've heard of anything like that happening.

Haven't actually downloaded the OGGs yet (I've still got dial-up, so it will most likely take forever), so I'm not sure if this is mentioned in there or not, but... is this the donkey ride toward the border, or the one going back to Mexico from the border?
Gameplay-1 ( There didn't seem to be a whole lot of new content to me.
The game's not nearly as complete as I was hoping to have it for this contest (I thought I might actually end up finishing Chapter 6, and instead I only got the first small chunk done), and I didn't really add too much to Chapters 1 through 3 at all.
But Chapter 4's secret area is almost big enough to be a whole chapter by itself. I'm not sure how a town the size of Wrongside, with several dungeons off to the side and optional bosses in each of them, isn't a lot of new content.

Of course, the update would seem a lot smaller if you missed the Burger Kingdom somehow. If that's the case, try searching the ball pit in the New Hamster Burger King restaurant.
It is the donkey ride to the border when i have all 3 characters.

I forgot that you are on dialup. If it's too much trouble for the effort (it probably is) maybe I'll hold off on doing this for Okedoke for the moment. I am pretty much settled on what I'll probably score it at this point. Just let me know either way.
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Sorry guys, one more thing:

There's a general consensus that voting for new content in older games is a bit of a hassle, since the player, despite having the readme information, may not inherently know where the new content begins, or may know the general area but not be 100% clear on where it starts. In the end, this could affect scores negatively.

Even though this is not a requirement, I would ask for those who submitted old games to include a save file that begins just before the new content starts, just so the voters know exactly what they're voting on. Whether they choose to start from the beginning at that point, or start straight from the save file would be up to them.

This, of course, is a little against my intentions, since I wanted new content judged according to its standings with old content (as in, judging the game as a whole). But there's enough controversy surrounding the voting of old content that I have to address it. And this seems like the best way to get the appropriate vote.

This, however, brings me to question the submission process for Heart of the OHR 2. Negative discussions about judging old games with new content is slowly steering me away from including it in the sequel contest. Initially, I had wanted to reward authors for finishing their games. But seeing as how some have admitted to choosing not to vote on old games at all if there had been a separate vote for new and old, I think the community mindset is to focus entirely on new games.

And that's understandable. Historically, updated games have received less interest in players than new games have, and I can see where including them into a vote can become more of a chore than fun if no one really wants to play through stuff they've already played a few years ago and eventually forgot about.

For now, I'm keeping the voting standard intact, since this was how I had presented it in the beginning, and because there are four authors relying on it to hold. But if the willingness to vote on old games with new content continues to decline, I may leave it out of Heart of the OHR 2 entirely.

Know that I don't want to do this, since this potentially encourages abandonment of the current crop. But if it belabors the voting process, then I probably need to do away with it anyway.

If anyone wants to save the current format, please speak up. (Be aware that limiting the next contest to entirely new games will mean much fewer entries.) My understanding at this moment is that no one wants to worry about old games, though, so correct me if I'm wrong.
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Last edited by JSH357 on Fri Dec 17, 2010 4:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
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