Topic: Game pitch competition, ending on June 3rd

[Cassiebsg]

My other guesses don't seem to fare so well.

I wouldn't say that.

[Danvzare]

Then I think yours is the high school monster hunter one.

Nope.

[Cassiebsg]

Also, thanks for the detailed comment Snarky. I was starting to think it was just such a crappy idea. Maybe it'll see the light of day eventually, though I'll need to adjust my graphics to fit, as I see that to be more cartoonish than what I normally do.
Also, "the doom the world" is/was intended to be from Santa's side putting a bit of pressure into Pefty (as failure is not an option!). They'll be "doomed" to unemployment if he fails the mission... and the world to be "Santa free". But I also kind of run out of the 80 words and didn't want to expand on it.

[Snarky]

Also, thanks for the detailed comment Snarky. I was starting to think it was just such a crappy idea.

Hey, you got two votes, which is better than I did!

And on that note:

Then I think yours is the high school monster hunter one.

Nope.

Then yours must be the Maniac Mansion randomly generated one. I'm glad you didn't mind the feedback, as I was quite critical of that one! (And mine, by process of exclusion, was #1: Haunts.)

Man, getting 0 votes sucks. It's one thing for something like a Background Blitz where you can always see flaws and areas to improve your technique, but a pitch is an idea almost in its purest form, before you've had a chance to screw it up in practice. I feel a bit like Mitch Hedberg when one of his jokes bombed: "I hate it when a joke doesn’t kill, you know? I thought it would get big laughs. All these jokes have been pre-approved as funny by me!"

Unlike in the last round, where the concept was plainly too ambitious to be a realistic project, my entry this round is an idea I might actually attempt. It's been pre-approved as awesome by me!

[Cassiebsg]

Well, getting zero doesn't mean nothing much really, just that others thought some other pitch better.
For me the "Make your way from tomb to tomb" made me think of a very linear game play, and not an open world kind of thing, where you can explore and solve puzzles at your own will. For me that little sentence was what put me off. But maybe you didn't meant it in a linear meaning?

[Snarky]

No, I didn't mean it would be an entirely linear "one tomb at a time" experience, although you would gradually work your way deeper into the necropolis (and further back in time), generally speaking.

In my mind, the whole point of the ghost roads (which are a real thing: I was inspired by the Seonjeongneung tombs in Seoul, where a "spirit path" connects the king's tomb to his wife's, and a sign warns tourists "This is a sacred path. Keep off the royal tomb's spirit walkway.") is that they allow the ghosts to move around and interact with each other; and this would be an element of the gameplay. Andail actually edited out a link I had embedded in the phrase "crumbling network of ghost roads", which was meant to hint at a puzzle I have in mind where you would need to divert some of the connections between tombs in order to arrange confrontations between certain ghosts (a little bit like the mix-and-match AI personality puzzles in Technobabylon), among other things.

[Cassiebsg]

What you wait for? Go make it!

[Jojo_the_monkey]

Congrats to the winners!!! This time unfortunately I did not participate. My guess goes #2 for Blondbraid, and #7 for Mouth for War...
Snarky I liked yours ideas on both competitions, before the results revealed. There is some chemistry here, maybe we should cooperate!!

[Stupot]

So, these are the ones I think we know for sure. Have I missed any?

1) Snarky
4) Stupot (me)
8) Cassiebsg
9) Durq

Here are some guesses:

2) Baron
3) TheFrighther
5) CaptainD
6) Danvzare
7) Blondbraid
10) Mandle

[CaptainD]

I'm going to slightly spoil your fun now and reveal which was my entry...

...

...

Number zero!

That's right, I didn't get round to entering this time.

[Babar]

And I'm going to spoil it and reveal that I did enter!

Also, I think Danvzare can be confirmed for 6, because he said he didn't do 5, and Snarky said he did 1.

An interesting thing about the lesser voted entries, judging from the comments here, a number of them were second choice for voters, but obviously that doesn't show up in the results in the end.

[Danvzare]

Also, I think Danvzare can be confirmed for 6, because he said he didn't do 5, and Snarky said he did 1.

Yep, that's right.

I've got quite a few things to say about what people have said about my pitch as well. Most notably about how it would be filled with dead-ends and random solutions. But I'm going to refrain from doing that. As far as I'm concerned, people are right that it wouldn't work, but for the wrong reasons. So it doesn't matter.

[Snarky]

Snarky I liked yours ideas on both competitions, before the results revealed. There is some chemistry here, maybe we should cooperate!!

Yeah, if I can make time I would be interested. I've been here 15 years and don't have a completed game to show for it, not counting the Awards Ceremonies. A MAGS might be worth a shot.

[Andail]

Andail actually edited out a link I had embedded in the phrase "crumbling network of ghost roads", which was meant to hint at a puzzle I have in mind where you would need to divert some of the connections between tombs in order to arrange confrontations between certain ghosts (a little bit like the mix-and-match AI personality puzzles in Technobabylon), among other things.

Yeah, sorry about, but I guess I wanted it be just an elevator pitch, with no other media attached. How would you count a (rough) 80 word limit if you could link to external texts - that's a bit hard to judge fairly.

That said, I'm a bit surprised you didn't get any votes (again), because I liked your pitch, although I felt uneligible to vote, knowing who wrote what.

[Snarky]

Hey, I got one vote last time!

No worries, there were a lot of strong entries.

I've got quite a few things to say about what people have said about my pitch as well. Most notably about how it would be filled with dead-ends and random solutions. But I'm going to refrain from doing that. As far as I'm concerned, people are right that it wouldn't work, but for the wrong reasons. So it doesn't matter.

You could of course filter out dead ends, but you did write that the randomizing would be "making some puzzles impossible and others possible." The pitch reminded me a bit of Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures, which I always thought was incredibly boring and repetitive (like most randomly generated games), so that didn't really win me over.

But it sounds like a lot of these ideas are going into your Private Detective game, so I guess we'll see. Good luck!

[Blondbraid]

My entry got two votes. I do suppose my pitch sounded too much like a horror game and not enough like an adventure game.

[TheFrighter]

Well, I think it's time to coming out...

My entry was #7! Thanks to all!
#3, let's shakes our hands!

#7
Fun! Biblical stories seem like they make a great basis for adventure games, and I wonder why there haven't been more of them. Getting down the tower is also a really nice, self-contained adventure game goal. The tone of the pitch suggests a sense of humor I would enjoy.

A couple of nitpicks: I think I would have preferred if the languages were actually real ones. Also, I have to question where the phrase book came from in the first place. (My suggestion: it was dropped by an angel, annoyed at having to deal with all the hassle of now having to bring messages in all kinds of languages.)

Thanks Snarky! The idea was focus the game in how ask to a foreigner what it really needs to comunicate with the least effort, sometimes not is only a matter of langage. When I travel in other countries I have this kind of problems...

#9 The Frighther

I never realized my writing sounds like someone who speaks English as a second language.

Heh, this means I'm making progress, Durq?
Thanks to who nominated me even missing (Blondbraid?!?  I'm not so deep in history like him! )!

_

[Danvzare]

You could of course filter out dead ends, but you did write that the randomizing would be "making some puzzles impossible and others possible." The pitch reminded me a bit of Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures, which I always thought was incredibly boring and repetitive (like most randomly generated games), so that didn't really win me over.

But it sounds like a lot of these ideas are going into your Private Detective game, so I guess we'll see. Good luck!

Note to self, be more aware of wording.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more about boring and repetitive when it comes down to randomly generated games. Which is one of the main things that was wrong with my pitch, that and could you imagine the story, or the lack of one? Adventure games live and die by their stories. A randomly generated one isn't going to have a good one, if it manages to have one at all.

As for my Private Detective game, here's hoping it comes out better than I could ever see my pitch going.
It's a learning process though.

My entry got two votes. I do suppose my pitch sounded too much like a horror game and not enough like an adventure game.

Assuming yours was number 10, no wonder since it said it was a horror game in the pitch.
By the way, I voted for number 10 because it sounded more like a horror game than an adventure game (which made it sound interesting to me). Survival horror games, are basically just badly designed adventure games anyway.

[Creamy]

Well, I think it's time to come out...

My entry was #7! Thanks to all!
#3, let's shakes our hands!

High five then, TheFrighter

Well, getting zero doesn't mean nothing much really, just that others thought some other pitch better. For me the "Make your way from tomb to tomb" made me think of a very linear game play, and not an open world kind of thing, where you can explore and solve puzzles at your own will. For me that little sentence was what put me off

Me too.
The first paragraph describing the world of the dead was great.

My entry got two votes. I do suppose my pitch sounded too much like a horror game and not enough like an adventure game.

IMO the pitch is insufficiently developed. It could be anything from Deliverance to a Date in the Park.

[TheFrighter]

High five then, TheFrighter

_