[Competition] B: Concentrate (100% Pure Gameplay)
Comp B: Concentrate (100% Pure Gameplay)
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Games are so complicated. It's easy to get lost in the heady awesomeness of an idea, adding more and more to it, until it represents the perfect game. The problem is that it's then impossible to make. There is elegance in simplicity and emergence in elegance. Let's see if we can't train ourselves to find it...
Build a game around a pared-down, single mechanic that you've concentrated to perfection. Practice minimalist gameplay design and distill mechanics, if you will. Be the opposite of a homeopath - stop diluting your games into oblivion. Boil a genre down to its bare essentials and then take away all but one of them. Hone your game design skills until you can see the progression, in things removed, from platformers to Canabalt, from Street Fighter to Dive Kick.
LOOK AT THAT PURITY! LOOK! ... So. What are you going to do? Take apart the fluff surrounding a genre you totally hate, exposing the juicy gameplay core in a way nobody's ever seen before? Emphasise that key thing that you're seriously damn good at in a game type you love, stripping everything else away? Parody? Satire? EMOTION?
Contentrate your game: Take a complex game and make it simple. But no simpler. See what happens.
Rules:
To enter the competition, start a thread titled "B: NameOfYourGame" and post your design ideas and game releases there. As you release files, edit your first post to point to the most recent versions available.
Other people WILL reply to your post with their feedback and ideas. Any offensive comments will be removed, that said please do your best to take any and all feedback as positively as you can and use it to make your game better. Consider releasing your source code, it helps us pinpoint problems that you might be having and benefits the community as a whole.
Advice:
This will be a prototype-heavy competition, that's kinda the point. Try out ideas and see what sticks. Don't spend time on graphics, sounds or storylines if you can possibly avoid it.
If you're having a hard time coming up with a minimalist gameplay concept, try picking a genre and seeing what you consider it's core element. What would a game built around that be like? What would a boiled-down JRPG be like? Would it focus on leveling and skill aquisition, only have that classic turn-based combat and nothing else, or be the world's most amazing hairspray simulation engine? What dark secrets lie at the very bottom of RTS gameplay? What if you made a shooter game where the only thing the player could actually do was choose when the character reloaded? What would a stealth game be like if you only controlled a spotlight that illuminated AI guards and the AI protagonist equally? How do you concentrate Tetris?
If you have multiple control systems, you're doing it wrong... Find the complex emergent gameplay that's hiding in the simplest systems. Also, seriously consider Fuck This Jam if you haven't already.
...
Good luck and enjoy the competition!
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Games are so complicated. It's easy to get lost in the heady awesomeness of an idea, adding more and more to it, until it represents the perfect game. The problem is that it's then impossible to make. There is elegance in simplicity and emergence in elegance. Let's see if we can't train ourselves to find it...
Build a game around a pared-down, single mechanic that you've concentrated to perfection. Practice minimalist gameplay design and distill mechanics, if you will. Be the opposite of a homeopath - stop diluting your games into oblivion. Boil a genre down to its bare essentials and then take away all but one of them. Hone your game design skills until you can see the progression, in things removed, from platformers to Canabalt, from Street Fighter to Dive Kick.
LOOK AT THAT PURITY! LOOK! ... So. What are you going to do? Take apart the fluff surrounding a genre you totally hate, exposing the juicy gameplay core in a way nobody's ever seen before? Emphasise that key thing that you're seriously damn good at in a game type you love, stripping everything else away? Parody? Satire? EMOTION?
Contentrate your game: Take a complex game and make it simple. But no simpler. See what happens.
Rules:
- Competition starts on November 1st, 01-11-2012.
- Deadline for entries is November 30th, 30-11-2012.
- The use of copyrighted material will not be tolerated. Do not steal!
- Use whichever language, tool or development system you are comfortable in. Downloading and using Game Maker is recommended for beginners or if you've never prototyped a game before.
- Ask for help when you get stuck.
- Strive to cut away everything in your game that is not the core mechanic. Every time you run into a problem, see if you can't take something AWAY to solve it.
- Your game must contain all files needed for it to run and should not require other bulky systems to be downloaded or installed, exceptions are browser plugins like Flash and self-contained dlls distributed with the game).
- Your final entry must include a readme.txt that EXPLAINS THE CONTROLS, RULES and any other information you want to get across to your users. Although, if your controls are super-complex, exactly how well did you find your game's core?
- Yes, you can totally enter the same game into other competitions. PLEASE ENTER YOUR GAMES INTO OTHER COMPETITIONS!
- Competition is open to entry for South African citizens, current residents of South Africa and South African passport holders.
- The judges' decision is final and no negotiation will be entered into. All risk or liability in case of copyright infringement or other legal issue resides with the entrant, MGSA takes no responsibility for entered games. (Other legalese included, implied and not intended to hurt)
To enter the competition, start a thread titled "B: NameOfYourGame" and post your design ideas and game releases there. As you release files, edit your first post to point to the most recent versions available.
Other people WILL reply to your post with their feedback and ideas. Any offensive comments will be removed, that said please do your best to take any and all feedback as positively as you can and use it to make your game better. Consider releasing your source code, it helps us pinpoint problems that you might be having and benefits the community as a whole.
Advice:
This will be a prototype-heavy competition, that's kinda the point. Try out ideas and see what sticks. Don't spend time on graphics, sounds or storylines if you can possibly avoid it.
If you're having a hard time coming up with a minimalist gameplay concept, try picking a genre and seeing what you consider it's core element. What would a game built around that be like? What would a boiled-down JRPG be like? Would it focus on leveling and skill aquisition, only have that classic turn-based combat and nothing else, or be the world's most amazing hairspray simulation engine? What dark secrets lie at the very bottom of RTS gameplay? What if you made a shooter game where the only thing the player could actually do was choose when the character reloaded? What would a stealth game be like if you only controlled a spotlight that illuminated AI guards and the AI protagonist equally? How do you concentrate Tetris?
If you have multiple control systems, you're doing it wrong... Find the complex emergent gameplay that's hiding in the simplest systems. Also, seriously consider Fuck This Jam if you haven't already.
...
Good luck and enjoy the competition!
Comments
In other news arge fuck exams D:
Part of me thinks... TOO SOON (since the last comp), part of me thinks FUCK YES.
I guess time will tell :P (for me)
Miktar was all "Hey, make a Zerg Rush game, where that's all you friggin do!"
I mean, the amount you can learn from this is well worth one weekend's worth of time, and you probably don't need that long (so I hope everyone gets to participate).
I sound like a fan boy of this comp.
And: What's with @Dislekcia reading everyone's mind. I was already thinking of building a totally paired down JRPG and now that he's pre-empted me I may have to do something else (frustated but amused face).
"DIIIIIIIIVEKICK"
:'D GENIUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I feel I'm done prototyping my game and either I build a full castle to explore or I move onto another prototype. What should I be doing in keeping with the spirit of the constraints of the comp?
There has never been a problem with multiple entries.
So I imagine permutations are a good thing if they allow you to iterate on your core mechanic better or allow you to demonstrate more emergence.
But you won't be judged on the quality of that content, and, if it makes your gameplay less elegant then it may affect your game negatively in the judging.
What @Edg3 said actually.
It's all about learning for yourself where that boundary of reduction/compression vs expansion/complexity sits. Often it's not where people expect it to be, which is how neat stuff like Canabalt happens.
Use Kickstarter.
Goal: $50 to afford a humble amount of pizza and coke for the next meetup
Stretch goal: $100 to afford a respectable amount of pizza, coke and other beverages for the next meetup
- One-dollar donators get a copy of all the finished games and an honorary mention on a powerpoint slide somewhere during the meetup
- Five-dollar donators get a personal invitation to the meetup and a chance to play Butt Pugs From Mars with @bevis, @Aequitas and myself
- Fifty-dollar donators get all of the rewards from the above tiers, as well as the chance to work as an unpaid intern at one of the local game development studios FOR AN ENTIRE WEEK. High-fives will be given
- Five hundred dollars: a helicopter ride around Table Mountain with one of the devs, followed by a luxury dining experience in Constantia and a wine-tasting session in the afternoon. (Max 4 backers)
Yes? Yes.
- Five thousand dollars: None of the previous tiers and no other rewards because you're obviously too stupid with money to care what you get
- Ten thousand dollars: @aodendaal will dance around on a table of your choice while singing your name; or not, it's up to you
We should totally do this though!
@aodendaal $5000 = win
I'm downloading all the games now :) Feel free to keep working on them, but these are the versions I'm going to be judging against each other for fairness-sake.