From March 1, 2016, to August 15, 2016, the OHR community was once again given the opportunity to relive the days when world exploration, random battle engagement, and chitchatting with townies could become anticipated moments in gaming. Once again, game design was about top-down travel through middling towns, sprawling dungeons, and the fields in-between. Once again, designers were rewarded for implementing all types of throwback design into their games while innovating new mechanics that emulate a classic texture. The contest, called Heart of the OHR, had a simple rule: make, add to, or finish a traditional OHRRPG. We’ve done it before. We’ve done it again. We’ve even done it a third time. But could we squeeze enough juice out of the community to get a successful fourth outing?

With the new contest window in play (starting three months ahead of the last two windows), this year hit fast and hit early, with our first two entries, Dragon Chaser and The Successor’s Legacy, going live before the month of April. Feedback was also quick, and the designers of both games had plenty to think about and fix before the original July 31, 2016 deadline. Did they make changes in time? One did. But this was a step up from the usual contest pattern of submitting unfinished games on the last day of the window to make a deadline, which was more closely representative of the remaining entries, which may have benefitted from spending extra time behind the curtain. But with rankings coming so close to each other this year, it’s hard to tell whether earlier feedback would’ve helped them do better among their competitors. Fortunately, feedback was particularly in-depth this year, and each competitor was given a clear view of how audiences received his game. Even if it was too late to make changes for the contest, reviewers were generally helpful toward contestants who might want to improve and rerelease their games down the road. In spite of the average contest score being the lowest in the Heart of the OHR’s history, overall impressions of this year’s crop were largely positive.

One of the staples of the Heart of the OHR’s evolving life is the changes it undergoes from contest to contest, and this year was no exception. From the usual fluctuating deadlines to the contest window itself, Heart of the OHR 2016 was, in essence, a successful experiment in timing. Traditionally, the contest would begin at the start of summer and run until November 30th of that year, allow for a one-to-two-week bugfix period, and close for good in mid-December. Voting would usually last until the end of January. This year, to avoid the last-minute problems that holidays seem to have on game development, the contest window was moved back by three months and ended just before school resumed for students. As a result, we’ve gotten ten official entries this year, and all of them were originals. Yep, no rereleases or Legends entries in 2016. This alone made the contest unique among its predecessors. The way the bugfix window works was also updated for Heart of the OHR 2016. To encourage strong first impressions, the original deadline of July 31, 2016 was rolled up with the bugfix deadline of August 15, 2016, but with the condition that any game released on or before July 31st was entitled to an unrated first impression, and anything released after July 31st was officially ready for vote. This eased some pressure off of a few contestants, and many took advantage of the new deadline rule. As usual, voting got a little crazy at the end, with some late votes getting cast for one to three games only, and Hurricane Matthew prolonging the voting deadline as the contest’s host anticipated losing power during the compilation period. But in traditional Heart of the OHR fashion, everything came to a conclusion at a time when most people stopped publicly caring, hence the time to put it all together and post it was nigh. And here we are.

Heart of the OHR 2016 also marked the first year that the long-standing entry prize, the bugfix bounty by James Paige, was rendered null and void, due to personal constraints, and was replaced instead by the host giving away the novelization of his epic superhero story (adapted loosely from his own OHR RPG) for free. Hardly anyone took advantage of it, so, as was expected, the gift of reading was clearly an unpopular entry prize for this year’s contest.

In all, Heart of the OHR 2016 was a successful year, with most everything coming together smoothly. Ten games were released during the window, all original, with an eleventh game popping up on the Castle Paradox gamelist in June, to become this contest’s only unofficial entry. Though, due to its abysmal reception and questionable age, and ultimately due to its extremely low voter turnout, the unofficial title this year has been omitted from the overall ranking, and received a mention only for its release timing and ultra-throwback design. Out of the official ten, however, there was one clear winner, as the winning game not only earned the highest votes, but it also earned the most votes, with every voter but one casting a vote for it. Because the two-thirds rule of averages introduced in 2014 persisted this year, the voter skew of the top-rated game versus the rest created an unusually high number of games to take the mandatory 5-score for at least one or two voter slots (each game had to receive at least 9 votes to beat the two-thirds rule this year, and the lowest-voted-on games had as few as seven votes—half the number of the most voted-on game). Fortunately, the voter skew did not affect the rankings the way it had in previous years, so the two-thirds rule was largely unnecessary this time around. This, too, helped this year’s Heart of the OHR become one of the most successful of its contest ilk. If there’s a negative to be shared, however, it’s that this year’s overall ranking was the lowest it’s ever been, at a dismal 3.5 (3.55 with the 2/3 rule in effect), though this was not due to low voter scores, but to poor voter consistency. Very few of this year’s 15 voters voted on all of the games, and this singlehandedly brought the contest’s total score down significantly. But Heart of the OHR was never the perfect contest, and we can’t expect perfection to start now. It can only reflect the culture of the community, and the community’s culture of involvement and feedback has decreased steadily with each passing year since this contest began in 2010. As the community shrinks, it seems inevitable that the contest score will shrink with it. To get the scores back up, we would need more people to vote on more games. Extending deadlines hasn’t helped this cause, unfortunately.

That said, Heart of the OHR 2016 is now over, and with its ending comes the final march for its competitive entries.

Here again is the story of that battle for the Heart of the OHR:

Please note that rankings are listed from worst to best, and based on average votes, not rosters or quantities of total players. For this reason, abstained votes did not count against games, but in many ways helped their averages. The two-thirds rule requires that all games receive at least two-thirds the maximum votes, as set by the top-voted game, in order to receive a ranking based on its pure votes (those values given entirely by voters). Any game receiving fewer than two-thirds the maximum vote receives a score of 5 for every missing vote below the two-thirds range, thus keeping voters accountable and the ranges from suffering from too many spikes caused by too few opinions. This year, the top-voted game received 14 votes, so the two-thirds rule required all games receive a minimum of 9 votes to be ranked according to its pure average. Games utilizing the two-thirds rule (in 2016, six games were forced to succumb to this rule for having fewer than 9 votes representing their final scores) were ranked according to their 2/3 rule score.

Honorable Mention:

Official Rankings:

And there you have it, your lineup for the 2016 Heart of the OHR Contest.

Thanks again to everyone who participated this year, and special thanks to RedMaverickZero for turning in a stellar game in Surfasaurus. Even though we did not escape the usual challenges to the rules this year, overall we got through it relatively unscathed, and with the turnout of ten games and fifteen voters, I think we did all right this time around. Every year I think the community is bleeding in participation, as the number of annual game uploads seems to decrease. But then Heart of the OHR comes around again, and I’m reminded that the heart of the OHR still beats, even after 18 years since James Paige had first uploaded the engine to the public. It’s generally exciting to see a new release hit the Slime Salad gamelist, and this year has given us a wealth of quality titles. So, thanks again to everyone who came out of hiding to produce a night’s worth of free entertainment, and thanks to those who still have something coming up the line. Good job. Even the lowest-rated game was worth checking out this year. I hope all of you continue to work on your projects and bring this crop of games to completion. And to those who didn’t upload anything during the Heart of the OHR window, I hope you’ll still upload something soon. The year needs more hits.

Thanks also to James Paige, RedMaverickZero, Spoonweaver, Willy Elektrix, Foxley, and Matokage for helping with the prizes. I hope you all remembered what you offered.

Heart of the OHR 5 begins on May 1^st, 2018, and runs until December 31^st, 2018, so get your entries started now if you want to make it even better than this year’s crop.

—Pepsi Ranger

P.S. For anyone who cares, here is the explanation for select achievements:

From Fruity Quest:

Time Capsule

-Refers to the obvious delay in release, as this game was most likely made before 2005.

Ultra Throwback

-The earliest OHR games were a hodgepodge of chaotic characters, map design, and textboxes that crammed multiple speakers into a single enclosure, which this game does all three.

2001 Is Calling

-Similar to the previous achievement, but with the added cellphone reference, which the game talks about.

From Dark Planet:

Short and Nearly Sweet

-This game clocks in well under the required 30 minutes of gameplay, leaving much to be desired on all fronts. But what’s there is promising.

Menu Madness

-It seems most of the game’s design time went to developing the perfect menu system.

Unfinished Business

-The hero’s first quest doesn’t actually exist yet.

Below the Knees Champion

-No vote for Dark Planet reached the middle third barrier (any score greater than 3). This is worse than James Doppler’s (2014) “Below the Belt Champion.”

From Grapnes 2: Kepnalcide:

Play that Funky Music

-In spite of the game having ugly graphics and design choices, the soundtrack is perhaps the catchiest of the 2016 Heart of the OHR lineup.

In Defiance of Logic

-Blueberries aren’t multicolored. Why are they here?

The Forgettable Unforgettable Title Award

-The most unusual title of the contest, yet it’s so unusual that it’s hard to remember it.

Shiny Quarter

-The introduction suggests one main quest, but the game itself takes us on another unrelated quest.

The Unhelpful Grind

-Random battles are too few and far between to properly level-up for the upcoming boss battles.

The Real Fruity Quest

-Again, blueberries.

Below the Belt Champion

-No vote for Grapnes 2: Kepnalcide reached the midpoint barrier (any score greater than 4). Note: There is usually a game that receives “Waist Level Champion,” which caps at 5, but not this year.

Winner of the Prestigious WTF Award

-With the exception of 2010, every Heart of the OHR somebody wins this award. It’s given to whichever entry is the oddest of the bunch. Previous winners include AR-PUH-GUH (2012) and T4R4D1DDL3 (2014).

From Dragon Chaser:

Dragon Quest Award

-Dragon Chaser basically emulates Dragon Quest.

The Big Empty

-There are so many areas of the game that have nothing to see or do.

Slow to Fight

-Even though battles steadily grow in speed, they don’t at first, and they can run quite slowly in the beginning.

Super Sandbox

-Pretty much everything is open at the start of the game and you can go just about wherever you want in the world. And there are lots of places to explore, even if there isn’t much to do in any of them.

The Great MIDI Crash

-Dragon Chaser will occasionally crash due to the OHR’s infamous MIDI bug.

From Quodia:

Earthbound Award

-Even though the game doesn’t play entirely like Earthbound, it does carry much of its aesthetic.

Battle Friendly

-One of the unique elements of the game is the ability to end a battle peacefully through diplomatic conversation and turn an enemy into an ally.

Clean Mudslinger

-It’s a kid-friendly game with lots of mud slowing down our heroes.

Saturday Morning Special

-Like Froginator’s earlier game, The Pumpkin Warriors (2014), which also received this award, Quodia maintains his cartoonish art style that’s reminiscent of an old 80’s cartoon.

From Sour City:

Adult Swimmer

-The art style is similar to the kinds of animated shows one might find on MTV or Adult Swim.

Cheesy and Sleazy

-Playing the game will basically make you feel like you need a bath afterward.

Minigame Champion

-Sour City’s main appeal is in its bicycle and skateboard mini-games.

Bugamon Quest 2016

-Sour City has a handful of game-breaking bugs, including one that forces you to replay the entire opening of Chapter 2 if you hit the wrong trigger. Bugamon Quest was a notoriously panned OHR game that hit Operation: OHR back in 2000.

A Sight Can’t Unseen

-There are moments in Sour City that the average player would like to forget, and then there are moments that the player can never forget, though he’d like to.

Poisoned Heart

-Sour City is full of offensive material, and including it in this contest kind of taints the Heart of the OHR’s legacy. But because the contest doesn’t censor, the game is accepted anyway. James Doppler’s…Adventure for the Mind (2014) has also received this award.

From You Need a Hero:

Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing

-The heroes of the game aren’t people. They’re wolves.

Team Builder

-One of the more interesting mechanics of You Need a Hero is the ability to talk to your teammates whenever you enter specially designated rooms.

Diametric Opposition

-Even though the villain is pretty lame, she is exactly opposite of the hero, where he is a very hairy manbeast with no skills, and she is a very bald human girl with superpowers.

You Need a Furry

-It’s a game about furries. I probably don’t need to explain this one.

From Bale:

Reading is Fundamental

-The library section offers so much reading that it could probably form a separate book.

Inventive Grind

-The magic and health system is fairly innovative, but the battle system is still pretty bland and grindy.

Redacted Quest

-It’s possible to defeat the giant worm creature that blocks the passage into the safe zone, but you have to travel through unfinished lands to get there.

Oh, You’re Not the Enemy?

-The support hero, Lint, looks like a baddie you have to fight when you first encounter him.

Can’t Find the Map!

-The dungeon is so large and winding that by the time you find the map (in a small corner near the west, if I recall), you no longer know where you are or how to get back to where you want to go.

Prettiest Sadness

-Bale is a graphically stellar game, but kinda depressing, too.

From The Successor’s Legacy:

The Little Gem

-The Successor’s Legacy is a game that basically came out of nowhere, didn’t look like anything, and somehow proved that it had lots of charm anyway.

Random Weapon

-The first job in the game is to choose a random box to select your weapon, though there’s no indication what weapon you’ll choose (even though most people pick the dagger).

Watch Your Step

-The desert dungeon has a few ground puzzles that will warp you to the start if you step on the wrong tile.

Empowered Politics

-After you rescue the brainwashed mayor (spoiler alert!), he’ll join your party and become a powerful ally.

Give a Little, Take a Lot

-The average sharp weapon will not only damage enemies quickly, but they will also refill your health.

The Puzzler

-The puzzles in the game are fairly complex and interesting.

From Labyrinthilium:

Don’t Need Directions

-The game is basically a pen and paper dungeon crawler with the map always in view.

Villainous Heroes

-The main protagonist is a villainous character, even though she’s portrayed as kind of a flake.

Classic Three Dimensions

-It’s in 3D! It is reminiscent of older PC dungeon crawlers from the early 90’s.

You Made That How Fast?

-Labyrinthilium is a seemingly complex game that was made in just a few weeks.

Window into the Soul

-The viewing area is pretty small, giving the player a glimpse into the game world, but not enough to take his eyes off of the 2D map in the lower right corner.

Any Harpies Here?

-Many of Pheonix’s games seems to focus on winged characters, including this one. His last major game, Winged Realm (2014), was about harpies. It was the previous Heart of the OHR winner.

From Surfasaurus:

Surf’s Up, Yukka!

-Surfasaurus is basically a major upgrade from one of RMZ’s earlier titles, Surf’s Up Yuk.

Events Happen in Real Time

-The minute-by-minute television series, 24, used to open each season with a reminder that events in the show happened in real time. Surfasaurus also happens in real time, as it uses the system clock to determine its events.

A Community Affair

-Townies are dynamic, and are just as involved with the island’s comings and goings as the player-controlled hero is.

Extreme Mobility

-Surfasaurus was designed with mobile gaming in mind.

Banana Picker

-The main way to make money in Surfasaurus is to collect and sell things, including bananas.

Don’t Leave Home without It

-Again, the best way to play Surfasaurus is on the phone, wherever you are, for about 15 minutes a pop.

Gotta Collect ‘Em All

-There are so many collectables in Surfasaurus that you may as well be playing Pokemon.

Most Voted On

-14 out of 15 voters cast a vote for Surfasaurus, three votes more than the next most voted on game, Labyrinthilium (at 11 votes).

And now for fun, here is a statistics list of the Heart of the OHR’s various achievements so far:

Highest Participation Turnout: 17 (2012) (13 originals, 3 rereleased, 1 legend)

Lowest Participation Turnout: 11 (2016) (10 official originals, 1 unofficial)

Highest Voter Turnout: 16 (2012)

Lowest Voter Turnout: 12 (2010)

Highest Average Contest Rating: 6.14 (2012)

Lowest Average Contest Rating: 3.55 (2016)

Highest Rated Game: Motrya (2010, 9.5)

Lowest Rated Game: James Doppler's Epic Sci-Fi Fantasy… (2014, 2.25)

Most Voted On Game: DUNGEONMEN: Men of Dungeons (2012, 15 votes)

Least Voted On Game: Vikings of Midgard (2010, 5 votes)*

Most Perfect 10’s Given to a Single Game: 8 (Motrya, 2010)

Most Imperfect 1’s Given to a Single Game: 5 (Hero, 2010)

Most Perfect 10’s Given in a Contest: 12 (2010)

Fewest Perfect 10’s Given in a Contest: 1 (tie, 2014; 2016)

Most Imperfect 1’s Given in a Contest: 13 (2010)

Fewest Imperfect 1’s Given in a Contest: 1 (2012)

Widest Voter Spread for a Game: 1 – 10 (Surfasaurus, 2016)

Narrowest Voter Spread for a Game: 6 – 8 (Final Dragon Legacy, 2012); 3 – 5 (Universal Wars, 2012); 1 – 3 (Dark Planet, 2016); 2 – 4 (Grapnes 2: Kepnalcide, 2016)**

Highest Low Score for a Game: 7 (DUNGEONMEN: Men of Dungeons, 2012)

Lowest High Score for a Game: 3 (Dark Planet, 2016)

Number of Games to Receive Votes from Every Voter: 1 (Eternity Fragment Prelude, 2010)

*Fruity Quest (2016) received only 3 votes total, but because it wasn’t officially released for the contest, and because I didn’t encourage votes for it, voters largely ignored it, and I decided not to cast it in the official running.

**Universal Wars actually received a low vote of 2.5, but decimal votes were not accepted and were thus rounded to the nearest whole number, in this case 3.