Download and play and:http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=40409.msg533626#msg533626
What's an hourgame competition?The purpose of Hourgame Saturday is to encourage amateur game-making, or to put it bluntly, to make you plant your ass in your chair and finally make something.
In this activity your task is to make an AGS game within a strict and very short deadline (i.e. one hour).
When will it take place?This hourgame session will take place on Saturday (duh) Mar 20, 2010. It will start at 19:00GMT and participants will have an hour to make their games + 15 minutes to beta test / upload (i.e. the deadline is 20:15GMT).
The time has been tested by several competitions already, so I think it is generally suitable. If not, see below.
How do I participate?A theme is set by the previous week's winner and by the contest's host in event of his/her absence. It will be announced on IRC (3 simple steps to IRC (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=39361.msg518585#msg518585)) and here.
Additional info:- While it is not forbidden for the theme-setters to participate in the activity, their games cannot be voted for (to prevent accusations of cheating and to discourage regular participation).
- Instead, theme-setters are encouraged to draw trophies for the contest's winners.
- Making your game from scratch is strongly encouraged, though it is not forbidden to use music or artwork from public sources if you are allowed to (e.g. using public domain music tracks in your game is OK, but not really necessary). It is also possible to use a pre-existing AGS template for your game (e.g. the Verb-Coin GUI template).
- You cannot use stuff you've made earlier, because this competition is about making something new.
Camwhoring:If you have Camtasia or Camtasia-esque software, it would be great to see your "Making of"! Or blog about it, or just open Notepad, do something! No twittering.
Uploading:Suggested hosts to upload your entry to are:
Recommended:
:) TerranRich's ShutUpload (http://shutupload.com/)
Not recommended:
:'( http://www.mediafire.com/
:-X http://www.sendspace.com/
>:( http://www.rapidshare.com/
:) Or your own place.
Voting:Just tell us your favourite game, and I'll do the counting. You don't have to enter to vote!
(If you want to tell us what you liked and disliked about all the entries, that would be super nice of you!)
The voting will end when all the entrants have voted, or on Wednesday, whichever comes sooner.
Download and play:http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=40409.msg533626#msg533626
Tell me what the topic is and I might try again... ;P
- You cannot use stuff you've made earlier, because this competition is about making something new.
I've always found that to be odd when coupled with:
- Making your game from scratch is strongly encouraged, though it is not forbidden to use music or artwork from public sources if you are allowed to
Ergo, it's okay to take artwork from other people off of google but not for you to use perfectly good artwork you made yourself but never had a use for before? Utterly, utterly bizarre. I vote either to:
1. Make it so all content is required to be fresh and your own
or
2. Allow you to re-use or borrow as you like.
I have no preference for either, I'd just prefer a little consistency.
I would say that music should be an exception, but I agree that existing artwork shouldn't be allowed.
Why should music be an exception? It's part of the game like everything else. I'm not sure I understand the argument that some things are fine to reuse from some sources and others are not just because. It's just not very logical to me. Perhaps if ags had built-in tunes/sfx like it does art (if you use templates) this kind of argument would make sense to me provided you used those assets, but if we're going to say original artwork then why should music be an exception? Interestingly enough, even though you are allowed to use other music sources I've found people rarely have done so, often using little tunes they've whipped up themselves or had none at all. Same with sounds.
Because even the most basic PCs have paint programs, but not all of them have Garage Band. Because Visuals+Coding = Game but Coding+Music = a pleasant sounding blank screen...
Music is not integral it is complimentary and more difficult for people with small resources to digitally render than visuals. The music would have be limited to audio expressly distributed with a free-use license, in order to avoid stepping on toes.
I understand your argument that it should be "all home brew" or "truly open" but making a decent midi is infinitely more difficult than drawing a stick figure in paint. From my observations many AGS user tend to be on the lower end of the hardware/technical spectrum (although this is probably not the case for people enters Hourgame) which exacerbates the level of difficulty in creating audio.
I could fall asleep at night either way but I whole heatedly believe that the ability to create music (not artistically, but technically) is more limiting than the ability to create even rudimentary visuals.
Quote from: Questionable on Fri 19/03/2010 02:53:46
Tell me what the topic is and I might try again... ;P
Ok, the topic is
Spoiler
announced at 19:00 GMT.
Shhhh!
Quote from: ProgZmax on Fri 19/03/2010 04:06:58
Ergo, it's okay to take artwork from other people off of google but not for you to use perfectly good artwork you made yourself but never had a use for before? Utterly, utterly bizarre.
Madness? This is HOURGAME!
I think the rationale is that
(a) everyone starts from the same baseline, with access to the same resources.
(b) usually, if you get something from google, it's not going to be in a decent state to include in an AGS game and will need massaging, so it's still a challenge to make the game in an hour.
I'm just attempting to explain the rationale, not defending it. I'd be happy to say that the web browser should be closed for the hour.
Quote from: ProgZmax on Fri 19/03/2010 04:57:15
Why should music be an exception?
Again, this is not a defence, merely a possible rationale.
(a) music is not generally an essential part of the game, so it must come third to the artwork and scripting. Since there is a tight time limit, there's not likely to be 15 minutes to spare to compose and score a track.
(b) people that can actually write music and produce an mp3/midi file are rare here.
(c) everyone has AGS installed. everyone has MS Paint. not everyone has music composition software installed.
(d) err...
(e) what Q said.
I'm down for this, naturally. Want to try the video thingie too, what program did you use Steve, that got webcam as well as screencast at once?
The free trial of Camtasia studio. It only lasts 30 days though so I won't be making another :'(
I had a thought to add a little variety to this hourgame. What if I announce the theme today so that everyone has 24 hours to mull it over? I'm having a lot of fun thinking of ideas that fit the theme. I think we can trust people not to start their game early.
Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Fri 19/03/2010 14:19:57
I had a thought to add a little variety to this hourgame. What if I announce the theme today so that everyone has 24 hours to mull it over? I'm having a lot of fun thinking of ideas that fit the theme. I think we can trust people not to start their game early.
I'm gonna say no, just because hourgames are supposed to be a jumbled, caffein-rushed mess :P That's what I like about them ;D
DEFINITELY NOT!
Spoiler
PM Me... =P
Ok, forget that idea then.
See you all here tomorrow.
The game starts in 50 minutes!
Stay tuned for the theme...
Today's theme is:
SAFE
Safe. Adjective. Not in danger.
Safe. Noun. A strongbox.
GO!
HEROIN QUEST (http://www.mediafire.com/?vmn0tncmmqw)
Cap'n Nemo told me to make a weird dopey game, so here you are.
Also, it's that kind of japanese adventures, genre-wise. Oh well.
BAM:
Safe And Sound (http://www.xiigames.com/files/other/SafeAndSound.zip)
I had planned some beep beep beep sounds in the background and an arcade flying sequence at the end but pfff like that was realistically going to happen in an hour. Phew.
EDIT:
OK, so I took an extra 15 minutes and added TWO SOUND EFFECTS! Updated the original download. SUE ME! Or just turn off the sound to hear what it was like after only 1 hours work.
EDIT2:
Safe And Sound source code in case anyone is interested in this crap! (http://www.xiigames.com/files/other/SafeAndSoundSource.zip) Warning! It sucks!
By the way, all art was made with my track pad as I have no working mice in my home currently. :P
If I could figure out which way was up in under an hour you guys would've had to deal with
THIS
(http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/4665/billy.gif)
That's right boys... Ohhhhh Yeah.
DLing now...
Sorry I couldn't join this week, but my laptop isn't working :'(
I'll play the games as soon as I get it to work again :)
Here's my little bit of nonsense. (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1410300/AdvInTimeAndSafes.zip)
Later than I wouldve wanted, but in my defense I and m'lady are sick as no fewer than 7.3 dogs at the moment. Looking forward to seeing everyone elses work.
Magma's was brilliant! Three! Count 'em! THREE puzzles! Ish. Well done.
I made one too, but it took 3-ish hours :P
(http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/games/SafeScreenshot.png)
http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/games/Safe.zip
COMPETITION CLOSED!
Looks like we only have three entries this time :'(
FSi's HEROIN QUEST
VinceXII's SAFE AND SOUND
Magma42's ADVENTURES IN TIME AND SAFES
Combined download: http://www.kweepa.com/step/ags/games/HourGameSafe.zip
VOTING BEGINS
Download, play, and sit in judgment!
Quote from: SteveMcCrea on Sat 20/03/2010 21:43:53
Magma42's ADVENTURES IN SPACE TIME AND SAFES
ftfy.
Well then, I like Steve's best but he's disqualified. FSi's Heroin Quest is clever enough, but has only the one choice and no graphics to speak of. Vince Twelve's Safe and Sound is... Did I win by doing nothing? Is that even a game then? Ah well, I vote Vince.
I tried to stay up this week, I tried.
But I was defeated by my bloody timezone once more. (maybe next week we can bring it forward 3-4 hours?)
Anyways, good entries this week, my vote goes to Magma42
Peace
Scarab
Quote from: Scarab on Sun 21/03/2010 05:03:45
I tried to stay up this week, I tried.
But I was defeated by my bloody timezone once more. (maybe next week we can bring it forward 3-4 hours?)
Anyways, good entries this week, my vote goes to Magma42
Peace
Scarab
How would 1600 GMT work for you? That means it would be 12am where you're at/12pm EST
But that means that it would be 9AM for anyone PST... and God knows what time it would be where Babar is...
Quote from: Questionable on Sun 21/03/2010 13:19:40
Quote from: Scarab on Sun 21/03/2010 05:03:45
I tried to stay up this week, I tried.
But I was defeated by my bloody timezone once more. (maybe next week we can bring it forward 3-4 hours?)
Anyways, good entries this week, my vote goes to Magma42
Peace
Scarab
How would 1600 GMT work for you? That means it would be 12am where you're at/12pm EST
But that means that it would be 9AM for anyone PST... and God knows what time it would be where Babar is...
This would work excellently for me :D I know you weren't asking me, but just so you know.
That time works for me. It'd be 10am. :P
All right you goat fanciers, enough chatter about the next one. Let's wrap this one up with some voting!
I was going to wait until everyone else had voted but...
FSi: very entertaining as usual. A couple of choices earlier and it might have been a game!
Vince: you are a brave man, entering without so much as a mouse to hand. It was fun to hammer on the keyboard. I didn't understand the metaphysics of it all ???
Magma: a large game, with some tricky puzzles (and keeping the overall theme of your games going). You gets my vote!
so... is anyone else voting then? cause its been about five days now.
Quote from: magma42 on Thu 25/03/2010 18:39:03
so... is anyone else voting then? cause its been about five days now.
Haven't played them yet. If I get a chance I'll play!
sorry for the delay
Magma42 was the best in my humble opinion ;)
so there goes my vote
I liked Vince's little button mash test, though I have to say magma's was closer to being a 'game' and therefore gets my vote.
Sure, I vote for Magma too ._.
/me bribes
FSi gets my vote, very nice story there.
The other two were pretty good too, but hey, FSi has a beatbox!
Ok, I'm going to wrap up the voting.
The clear winner is magma42. Congrats sir!
You get to choose the next topic.
*victory lap*
Awesome. So, next saturday then, what time are we agreed on will be best? Last I'm seeing is 16:00 GMT, which is 12:00 EST and 09:00 PDT. This good for everyone?