Terrible Games Contest 2009: What is Love
An Announcement by Fenrir-Lunaris
The time has come again for the Official
Terrible Games contest. This year, there are a few additions and
alterations to the rules, which should streamline the process of entry
and also voting. I'm looking forwards to the entries this year, and
have some interesting prizes to hand out as an incentive. This year's
theme is perhaps its most controversial ever. Your goal is to create a
game with one of two themes - "Love" and/or "SCIENCE!!"
CONTEST RULES
Previous TGC entries had rather elaborate rules
regarding their eligibility, which some people felt detracted from the
spirit of the contest, which was to make a terrible game. The
definition of a Terrible game is intentionally vague of course. Some of
us like Arfenhouse. Others have nothing but disdain for it. To each
their own.
*0* The most important rule, and the theme of the contest, the
"Zero Rule". Your goal is to produce a video game/s that stylistically
and functionally responds and adequately adheres to either a theme of
"Love" or "SCIENCE!!". I leave it to you on how to go about doing this.
Dating simulation, jrpg, sidescroller, first person shooter, any game
form is acceptible so long as it attempts to make an effort to stay
within the theme.
*1* You MUST construct your game/s using the OHRRPGCE engine.
Ypsiliform, Werewaffle, Hasta-la-QB, Voxhumana, a nightly version, or
even a custom build are acceptable. If you use a version of the OHR
that is in testing, or one which is no longer widely available
(Yggdrasil, Zeitgeist, or the 4 map version perhaps), you MUST package
a version of the game.exe so we can play it! In fact, I recommend using
a nightly version so you can find and report bugs directly to James, or
the other programmers!
*2* The actual opening date for the contest shall be April 1st, and
will last an entire month until April 30th. If you begin work on your
game within this timeframe and submit it before the deadline, you will
not be penalized (obviously). For each day past the deadline your game
submission is late, a single point will be deducted from that game's
score, to be determined in the voting.
*3* You are only allowed to release your completed game/s to the
public on April 30th. This is primarily to allow everyone an equal shot
at the prizes, and also to not intimidate potential contestants into
dropping out. You may however post spoilers, and screenshots, etc., so
long as you do not leak your game early. If you pass it to a few
friends/rivals/whatever ahead of time, then I'll be officially taking a
"Don't ask, don't tell" policy, but your game must be released on the
30th of April. If you release your game before April 30th, I will
deduct 5 points from your final score.
*4* You MAY rip and use ANY and ALL graphics from the game Vikings
of Midgard should you feel four weeks of prepwork to make sprites is
not sufficient for your project, or if you feel your entry will be
penalized by other contestants' voting because of a lack of graphical
abilities. The game is available in the Castle Paradox download list
for you to use for this reason. You may also modify these graphics for
your own purposes, but do not claim either the original content nor the
modified graphics as your own original work. The same goes for any
other games you wish, HOWEVER, you must obtain permission from the
game's maker before doing so. That just wouldn't be cool.
WHAT IS A TERRIBLE GAME?
I will not be judging what constitutes a "terrible game". For example, I like Final Fantasy 8,
which other people abhor it like a Wisdom Tree game. Therefore, I am
continuing last year's practice of allowing people to vote for which
games were the "best/worst/whatever". Beauty, or in this case Ugliness,
is entirely in the eye of the beholder. It is your obligation to
construct your game according to your own notions on what makes a game
good or bad, so long as it stays within the very nebulous constraints
of the contest's theme.
A final point concerning the entries. All the previous winner/s of the
contest/s actually put effort into their games - they were fun to play
(more or less). This is your opportunity to make the game that you'd
have to be criminally insane to produce otherwise, or for which no
other contest exists to release one.
VOTING AND SCORING
Voting this time is a bit less complex, and more streamlined than in
previous contests. When the contest ends, voting will begin from May
1st to May 14th, effectively giving two weeks to play each game and
vote whose games were the best. This is also to collect data for
Hamsterspeak Magazine, whose subsequent June issue will reveal the
contest winner.
Anyone may vote on the games, and may rate each
one on a scale of 1 (awful) to 5 (best). You may have games that have
identical scores, if you so choose. What constitutes a bad or good
"terrible" game is your decision, as is the nature of the contest.
Based on the theme of this contest, you must take into account whether
the game's creator successfully met the contest's theme, "Love" and/or
"SCIENCE!!". I will not be checking to see whether your score is an
accurate reflection of that, or upon what other criteria you have for
voting the way you've chosen. As always, comments on each submission
are welcome and ultimately helpful to the contestants. Your score sheet
should look something like this:
Scorecard:
Put on Socks - 2
Put on Pants - 3
Surlaw and Order - 4
Cross the Street - 5
Barely Legal Seals - 1
Wandering Turnip - 2
If you fail to vote on any one game, I will assume you DID NOT play it,
and accordingly give it an automatic score of 3. If enough people fail
to play one particular game, it may quickly rise to the top of the
voting and be a declared the winner. Consequently, it is in your own
interests to play each game,
even if only for a little bit, so you can judge it yourself. Moreover,
if you release your game early (before the 30th of April), you lose 5
total points. Remember,
you CAN gather your materials first, just don't put anything together before the 1st!
People who are NOT regular OHRRPGCE game creators are free to join AND
vote. This means that PEOPLE FROM OUTSIDE THE INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY ARE
FREE TO JOIN IN THE FUN. I fully expect outsiders to rock this contest
to its foundation. The only requirement for an "outsider" to vote is
that they MUST register an account on any of the previously listed
websites (Castle Paradox, Slime Salad, Surlaw Forums).
You may only vote ONCE. Yes, you can vote for your own game. I will
officially be taking your votes on a thread to be created at some point
in the future in Castle Paradox, on the Surlaw home of Squids and
Walruses, and also on Slime Salad, since some of the entrants may be
exclusive to one or the other.
Voting shall begin May 1st and will end on the 14th, to allow people enough time to play the games and vote on them.
After the votes have been tallied and the points added up, any
deductions incurred on your behalf will be subtracted from your score.
At this point, a maximum number of deducted points can be 5, so if you
feel you can beat out your competition by a wide enough margin then
more power to you. The game with the MOST points on the 14th of May
wins, and its creator gets a -PRIZE-!!
PRIZES!!
The 1st Place Winner will receive $25 USD (by check) sent by mail to
your home address, OR a not-insignificant amount of $limebucks on Slime
Salad's web forums. I will be coordinating with Moogle1 personally
regarding this. Should Castle Paradox impliment some purchasing system
like Slime Salad, then
I will negotiate with Inferior Minion in this regard as well. I will be
entering too, so if I win, then I keep the prize money/and or
$limebucks. If you wish for some other prize instead, I will coordinate
with you to get you that prize - be it artwork, or whatever. Consider
it a reward for hard work.
The second and third place winners will not receive cash, but
diminishing amounts of Slimebucks or Castle Paradox dollars (or their
equivalent). These amounts are not to be insignificant.
All contest entries will immediately receive Slimebucks as a gratuity
for entering the contest, assuming they are registered on Slime Salad.
Castle Paradox is likely going to be set up the same way, but I'm
jumping to conclusions.
$25!!!!
Good luck, and godspeed.