An Epic Marathon Double Feature

[Pepsi Ranger]

Fifth Annual Epic Marathon Contest

Condensed Version

This year, contestants will create television episodes for a network called the OBC Network.

Each contestant will either create a fresh story or build on an existing one to make a series of episodes (preferably OHR movies) to fit into a season of content. To fit the contest, the games must be made in one of three styles: OHR movie (or game with limited interaction), Youtube video, or screenplay. Graphic novels will not be accepted as entries.

New games (anything not related to OHR House) should at least have “For the OBC Network” written in its about line. Youtube videos and screenplays can list the name in their opening scenes.

Each major element of the game must be credited to someone (graphics, music, story, and plotscripting). I will allow ripping, but the source of the rip must be recognized. Anything original found in another OHR game must receive permission.

Installments can be released as they’re finished.

Only one contestant may take official ownership of the game. Everybody else will be counted as “collaborators.”

All the games must be presented as a season’s worth of short episodes based around some story the author chooses.

Entries must not leave the player or viewer hanging on an empty moment (as in the game should be over, but the player can still wander around a desert of nothing).

Epic Marathon, though preferably made with the OHR, doesn’t have to be exclusive to it.

New episodes must be selectable from a main menu like those found in the OHR House games or Sam and Max for those familiar with the series.

For a game, Youtube video, or screenplay to be eligible, it must have a minimum of two episodes and at least one of those episodes has to be released during the contest period.

Scores will be based on a combination of elements including tiered popularity, monthly favorites, penalties for breaking rules, completing Design Mission Objectives, and contributor points.

November 1 - June 1 (monthly) — Episodic judging.

May 31 — Contest officially ends. All shows must be submitted by the end of the day (in your own time zones). No episode will be accepted after 6am June 1st EST.

First place winner will receive free mainstream publicity for the game of his choice. Only the owner of the winning entry can take the prize.

Official Game Title:
The OBC Network

Special Notes:
Since this is about anything, you can make anything. But since there are already enough reality style shows in OHR land, a sitcom or thriller or anything else would be nice.

Design Mission Objectives:

In the interest of keeping this short, I am removing the Design Mission Objectives from this list. If you want to find out how to add extra points to your overall score, PM me for the objectives or read the original post on Castle Paradox.

Okay, go make a season’s worth of cool stuff!

[Only One In All]

Question on music ripping/credits.

What if you don't know all the exact sources for some of the music? Can we just say "Ripped from various/unknown sources"?

And what say we rip a song from an OHR game, but that song is ripped also? Would that be considered disqualification?

[Pepsi Ranger]

Question on music ripping/credits.

What if you don't know all the exact sources for some of the music? Can we just say "Ripped from various/unknown sources"?

Yes. I will also accept "I would tell you what this is, but I don't know."

And what say we rip a song from an OHR game, but that song is ripped also? Would that be considered disqualification?

No, a disqualification for ripped music would only happen if you took a track that was specifically designed for someone else's OHR game and you didn't ask for it. If you asked for it and they said "sure, take my song," then you're okay. You still need to credit the composer in your text file, though.

Music originating from an outside source carries a different parameter than those from inside, regardless of how it was used in an OHR game in the past. If you heard "Billie Jean" in OHR House and decided you wanted to use it, then I don't have a problem with that. Just be sure MJ gets his name immortalized in your text file.

[Mogri]

To: Pepsi Ranger
From: Everyone who's thinking this but is too shy to ask
Re: The length of your post

Could you maybe possibly sum up the EMC in 200 words or less? It would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Calehay]

I have an idea that I would like to do, but I'm not going to say I'm in it until I can produce something.

[Bob the Hamster]

To: Pepsi Ranger
From: Everyone who's thinking this but is too shy to ask
Re: The length of your post

Could you maybe possibly sum up the EMC in 200 words or less? It would be GREATLY appreciated.

Massively Paraphrased Executive Summary for <b>tldr;</b>

Epic marathon 5 is starting!

This year, contestants will create television episodes for a network called the OBC Network. Although it doesn't have to be a reality show like OHR House, think of television shows broken into episodes as inspiration.

To fit the contest, the games must be made in one of three styles: OHR movie, Youtube video, or screenplay. Graphic novels will not be accepted as entries.

Rules

1. Please mention “For the OBC Network” in your about line.

2. Credit everything! Ask permission before ripping!

3. You can release your game as episodes, rather than all at once.

4. Anybody can work on any game. Make sure you pick one leader.

5. Consistency only matters between episodes of your own entry. You don't need to synchronize with other teams.

6. Entries must have an ending.

7. Doesn't have to be made with the OHR. You can use the gnine of your choice.

8. You can choose to start with a game you made previously, and add episodes to it.

9. Minimum of two episodes. At least one has to be released durring the contest.

Scoring:

Scoring will be based on a complicated voting system that James is not willing to attempt to summarize here. Read above if you dare!

Contest Dates and Deadlines:

contest will last throughout the entire 2008-2009 television season.

Begins September 25 to coincide with The Office’s season premier.

November 1 - June 1 (monthly) — Episodic judging. Each round probably lasts a few days.

May 31 — Contest officially ends exactly 6am June 1st EST. No extensions!

June 7 — Judging for the overall series begins.

June 25 — Judging ends.

Prizes:

Better explained by Pepsi than me. See above.

Story Elements

Official Game Title:
The OBC Network

There is more!

There was a lot more info in Pepsi's post above, but tlds (too long, didn't summarize) Now that all you lazy plips have read my short version, I hope you are sufficiently interested to scroll all the way bakc up and read Pepsi's original post

[Mogri]

To fit the contest, the games must be made in one of three styles: OHR movie, Youtube video, or screenplay. Graphic novels will not be accepted as entries.

So, no episodic games, like SpyJim? (Yes I realize this line was in the original as well but I didn't catch it the first time around)

[Twinconclusive]

Wait, so this is a movie contest, as in no player-interaction allowed?

[Pepsi Ranger]

To: Pepsi Ranger
From: Everyone who's thinking this but is too shy to ask
Re: The length of your post

Could you maybe possibly sum up the EMC in 200 words or less? It would be GREATLY appreciated.

I've been trying to think of a sound way to give you all a summary without destroying the "officialness" of the project for the last couple years, but haven't reached that point yet. From now on, I may try to do what James did and post two versions of the rules. Though in fairness, even the summary is kinda long. And it didn't include the design mission objectives. And it left important details out.

I guess the short answer to that question is that I did leave in a table of contents for quick reference. You could always just skip to the section you're most interested in to see what's changed. There have been enough of these now that the basics of the rules should be familiar to those who've been around for a few years. The other stuff like the "Mission Statement" I leave in for the newbies who don't know what this contest is.

I'll probably do a short version for EM6, though, since the two will be released so closely together that the second one won't need to coddle newbies with information as much.

And it'll also be a basic storyline like the "Mynorety Whispers" series, so it'll be a faster read.

Thanks for the summary, James.

To fit the contest, the games must be made in one of three styles: OHR movie, Youtube video, or screenplay. Graphic novels will not be accepted as entries.

So, no episodic games, like SpyJim? (Yes I realize this line was in the original as well but I didn't catch it the first time around)

Wait, so this is a movie contest, as in no player-interaction allowed?

I think it's best to answer this question by reiterating Rule #8.

8. Specific to this year’s contest only, a contestant may submit the continuation of a game he’s already released to the public if it means turning the game into a series. This means OHR House, OHR House: Heroes, OHR House Kitty, I Made Dis, or anything that’s minimal or absent of gameplay can be submitted as a game entry if new episodes are included. The condition is that the new episodes must be selectable from a main menu like those found in the OHR House games.

I'd prefer the contest be limited to movies, but I won't hold to that limit. When I conceptualized this contest, I was thinking of games like OHR House to fit the television theme, but I was also thinking of games like Sam & Max Season 1 (which is a six-episode point and click adventure game for those who don't know--and awesome for those who still don't know and a must buy for those who haven't done so already) to fit the episodic theme.

When in doubt, think episodes over movies. Though, as I stated before, I'd rather see a few non-OHR House type shows around here at some point and thought this would be a good springboard for that.

If you do make an episodic game like SpyJim, all I ask is that you keep the episode lengths reasonable (not that you'd have the time to make them long, but still, I don't know what kind of time you have).

[Uncommon]

Well, I've been thinking about making the original Soliloquy stories as interactive movies (more movie than tv show, i'm thinking OBC's LATE LATE MOVIE), but I want to put enough interactivity in it that it doesn't suffer Kojima Syndrome. Does this fly?

ALSO WHO WANTS TO BE MY TILIST PLEASE SOMEBODY SAY YES

[Pepsi Ranger]

Well, I've been thinking about making the original Soliloquy stories as interactive movies (more movie than tv show, i'm thinking OBC's LATE LATE MOVIE), but I want to put enough interactivity in it that it doesn't suffer Kojima Syndrome. Does this fly?

Wow, an OBC late, late movie--I was not even thinking about that. That's a brillaint idea.

If anyone did a talk show and/or a newscast, that would make the OBC feel like a real network. Any takers for either of those?

[Pepsi Ranger]

Just a reminder that Epic Marathon 5: The OBC Network officially begins today. Any episodic game released between now and May 31 will be considered for this contest.

Also, I wanted to say a couple things in regard to Epic Marathon 6 and the future of the contest as a whole.

When I envisioned the Magnus Sequel Marathon (the first Epic Marathon) six years ago, my intention was to create something that was unlike any other contest to hit the community so far. I wanted something that everyone would have fun doing. I wanted something that was different, something that separated itself from every other carbon-copied contest that gets thrown our way. The first incarnation of Epic Marathon was praised for doing just that (even if the subject was controversial).

I tried to keep that uniqueness going for each incarnation to come along since.

Sometimes that meant varying the content a little. I think the Magnus and Who Shot Bob the Hamster? contests did that the best. Often times that meant altering the structure of things to keep contestants from getting bored year after year. That was the whole point behind the layered scoring system. Every time that meant trying something a little different—a little something that might’ve required explanation.

And yet, when I post these explanations, people start to cringe. Why? Because they have to spend five minutes of their lives reading it—five minutes they could’ve spent writing “lelelele,” “lol,” or “narf” in someone else’s post.

And now I’m reaching the painful reality that some people are actually refusing to participate because they think there’s too much to read here.

What?

Here’s the thing:

Several contests have tried to be unique in the last six years. And they each had their own set of rules to keep things moving smoothly. Some great contests were simple enough to keep the rules short (8-Bit Contest). Other great contests were a bit more complicated and needed further explanation (Evil Spock). They all posted what they needed to, to get their objectives across.

Epic Marathon does the same. It doesn’t try to skimp on details to coddle its readers. It only outlines the things that matter to the structure of the contest including story points, story-specific rules, penalties for breaking the rules, and scoring incentives like the Design Mission Objectives. And that requires a few pages of explanation. Instruction manuals for video games are often guilty of the same thing.

But now people are begging me to shorten the rules because they can’t be bothered to read more than a page’s worth of information.

And that disheartens me.

The one thing I always believed about Epic Marathon was that the moment it became just another contest with the same boring design system of “introduce poorly thought-out theme, impose tight time limit, make game, vote for favorite a week later, keep it OHR-related” that many contests seem to have around here—which usually comes down to basic wash, repeat instructions that you can tack onto any contest—was the moment I’d have to kill it off. And shortening the rules makes the risk for watering down the contest into such a bland experience very high.

But, guess what?

I’m gonna give in to reader demands because I’m tired of hearing the complaints.

But here’s how it’s going to work:

First off, I’m postponing the release of Epic Marathon 6 until January 2009. This is partly in response to all the negative criticism going into the current contest. It’s also partly due to the fact that it won’t need the same kind of timeframe that Epic Marathon 5 has. So that’s that.

Secondly, when I do post the rules for it, I’m gonna trim it down to a single page to appease those who think the rules are too long.

And if for any reason that means taking out just enough details to turn this into a carbon copy of every other contest to hit the OHR, then I will not only cancel the current Epic Marathons, but all future ones as well.

And that’ll be a shame because I have some really cool stuff planned out for the future (especially for 7).

Now, I don’t want it to come to this. But if I get any more complaints about the length of the rules, then it will come to this. And if I shorten it, and then have to answer a bunch of questions related to things I had to omit, then it will come to this.

The rules are what they are for a reason. I’ve said it time and again that if you’re a veteran you can just read the parts that are different from the last contest. If you’re new to this, then the rules outline everything you’d need to know so you don’t have to pester me with questions that could’ve been addressed ahead of time.

But if shortened rules are what you want—if that’s what it’s gonna take to get you to participate (or at least consider participating)—then I will shorten them come EM6. Just be ready for the results if this blows up.

So now I ask you, do you want the one-page version for the next one? Or can I make the contest the way I intended it?

[JSH357]

It's fine if you want a lengthy introduction or explanation to the contest, but the rules need to be clearly defined and indicated in a compact place. Otherwise, it looks like the contest has way too many rules to follow and is restrictive as a result.

Another possible issue is that the contest appears too high-brow for some users because of the length of the post. Contests with clear, shortly-explained rules will almost always get more entrants.

I mean, I don't think this particular contest is really that complicated, but I still didn't feel like poring over the post and having to jot down the rules myself.

(As for if I'm entering: If I finish a week during the timeframe, consider it entered. My school schedule has been hectic beyond belief, so it might or might not happen.)

[Bob the Hamster]

It's fine if you want a lengthy introduction or explanation to the contest, but the rules need to be clearly defined and indicated in a compact place. Otherwise, it looks like the contest has way too many rules to follow and is restrictive as a result.

This is a really good point. The first time I skimmed over the original post I thought "So many rules! Why?" and it was only when I read everything carefully in writing the summary above did I realize that most of the "rules" were not restrictions, they were actually explicitly-stated-freedoms.

This year's contest looks like fun, and I look forward to the results. I kinda want to make <i>OBC Network Presidential Campaign Coverage</i>, but then I would feel guilty about spending my game making time on a non-wandering-hamster game :)

[Uncommon]

James, while we'd love to have more Wandering Hamster, any James-made game in the meantime would appease us, or at least me.
I know I'm excited about this contest, Pepsi. Don't be all mad.