Description


The old clock on the wall turned to 3:33am. Punctual as ever, the noises started once more.

Every night of the last week had been the same. As soon as the time came, strange sounds could be heard somewhere in the depths of the cellar below your house. Every night you would gather your courage and burst through the cellar's entrance armed with whatever you could find only to discover nothing amiss or any signs of disarray in the insides of the chamber.

Tonight things were different. This time, the noises could be heard even closer and louder than ever. In a surge of exhausted agression you took the rifle by your nightstand and rushed to the basement entrance, kicking the door down while roaring madly hoping to frighten whatever had decided to nest inside.

As your eyes adjusted to the darkness in the pitch black room and darted around trying to look for any proof that your senses were still those of a sane person, you find nothing. The fine layer of dust on every surface told of the state of neglect the objects had been in before your intrusion.

But then, you heard the sound of flipping pages and a soft 'thud', you spun around with your weapon at the ready, and then you saw it, all of your hairs standing on end; A book, completely out of place given it's clean appearance, placed neatly in the middle of a small table at the back. The sound you heard had been that of the book opening. There were no footsteps on the dust below the table however, and there were no marks or fingerprints anywhere near the book.

Despite your instincts screaming and begging you to turn back, you could not help but to approach the book. You begin reading the words on the page, and you feel an unseen force pulling you inside! Before you can do anything, you get sucked inside the book!


This year's halloween event is to make a game using an entry from H.P. Lovecraft's "Commonplace Book"!

"This book consists of ideas, images, & quotations hastily jotted down for possible future use in weird fiction. Very few are actually developed plots—for the most part they are merely suggestions or random impressions designed to set the memory or imagination working. Their sources are various—dreams, things read, casual incidents, idle conceptions, & so on."H. P. Lovecraft

Basically, it's Lovecraft's notepad of ideas, most of which he never got to use in one of his horror books. Each participant will receive a random entry from the book, and you have to make a game inspired by it, either literally or metaphorically. Given that it's a halloween event making a horror game is encouraged but not an obligation. You can very well use the prompt to make a dark love story perhaps? Or a comedy horror kind of thing, it's up to you.

Example: Entry #23 reads:

"#23 - The man who would not sleep--dares not sleep--takes drugs to keep himself awake. Finally falls asleep--& something happens."

If you get this, then maybe you can make a game about insomnia and the person going insane to the point where the dream world and the real world have fused together, or maybe the story is about how a person is already in their desired world that they found while sleeping, and if they "fall asleep" in the dream, the dream residents will die a horrible fate, so the protagonist needs to find methods to keep themselves "awake" in the dream world.

I have personally taken out entries in the book that are too vague, cryptic or hard to understand, so that most of the prompts people get will be easy to think something for, but if for any reason you feel yours is too hard, you can reroll your theme, but only once.

◄ How To Participate ►

- Join the event.
- When event starts you'll receive a random entry via PM.
- You have a month to make a game based or inspired by your entry.

DATE EVENT STARTS: October 1st, 2021 00:01am (GMT)
DATE EVENT ENDS: October 31st, 2021 00:01am (GMT)
(Don't forget to change your timezone in your RMN settings so the site reflects your time correctly! Go to 'Edit Profile' under your name in the top bar, then click on 'Settings' under 'Profile Sections'!)


• This is a Single Player event.
• Any engine allowed as long as the game can be played in a Windows computer!
• Minimum of 10 minutes of gameplay to qualify for a Cool Badge.
• Make a gamepage! Upload your game there, then in the event page click on the 'Submit' button in the top right corner and choose that gamepage download.
• Using RTP is allowed, but game must be able to run without it installed (Guide for 2k3 click here).
• A single re-roll is allowed per participant in case you're unhappy with your entry.


You can earn one of these badges!

• "Do Not Stare Into The Abyss"
10Ms Badge - Participated in event.

• "Witness Of The Veil"
15Ms Badge - Posted something during the midpoint checkup.

• "The Abyss Stares Back"
50Ms Badge - Finished a game for the event.

• "From Beyond The Stars"
70Ms Badge - Finished a game for the event without asking/using a reroll.

Details

  • 10/01/2021 12:00 AM
  • 11/01/2021 01:00 AM

Achievements

Registration

You must be logged in to sign up for Commonplace Book.

Posts

OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4676
I hate that I got inspired during the last week. Making a game in a week is always a pain and I always end up doing this orz.

Good luck to all and wish me luck, for I have yet to submit a gamepage! :D
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Remember, to submit to the event, click "Submit", then choose the appropriate download from the list of available downloads! While it might not be relevant for some of the newer users, the list is sorted in alphabetical order, not in the order they were submitted in!
OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4676
The final hours approach.

And thanks for the heads-up Marrend!
AtiyaTheSeeker
In all fairness, bird shrapnel isn't as deadly as wood shrapnel
5424
Been neurotic as hell about uploads, but I wanted to make 102% this stupid experimental game works fresh out the box. Hoping it will this time.
I won't be able to make it on time, covid vaccine kicked my ass and other things. But at least I got an image to show that I might release this at some point after deadline o)-<
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
nessy that character's armor is so neat :o

edit: and i submitted lol. RIP to an event game i def coulda finished if i wasn't going off my rocker due to work and brain shit this month
Submitted, just made it 11 minutes spare.

I'm sorry in advance to anyone who plays my game. I loved the ideas I had but just didn't do them justice.
OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4676
Aaaaand, that's my game submitted. Ended up only being a demo, but I'll make sure to finish it!

EDIT: My WIFI died like, 10 minutes before uploading period was over and I had to use my phone's wifi hotspot to complete the upload xD
pianotm
The TM is for Totally Magical.
32347
Congratulations, everyone!
Mirak
Stand back. Artist at work. I paint with enthusiasm if not with talent.
9300


EVENT IS OFFICIALLY FINISHED


I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to everybody who participated! We got 14 entries, which makes this event AN ASTOUNDING SUCCESS! Congratulations to those who made it, you guys are MVP's!

What comes next?

- In the coming days you'll receive your achievement badges!
- I will be making a big video review of all the submitted entries, so don't unsubscribe from the event page just yet!
- Liberty, RMN's admin, will also do a let's play of the entries sometime in the future, we'll notify everyone via this event page about the specifics when it happens! Be sure to hang around RMN, or join this site's discord server where we also notify people of site-wide events!

Once again, Thank you all for participating!

See you in the next RMN event!
Mirak
Stand back. Artist at work. I paint with enthusiasm if not with talent.
9300
OzzyTheOne
Future Ruler of Gam Mak
4676
Yay! Congrats to everyone that managed to finish something! :D
Ooops. Seems it's possible to update one's entry after the event is finished?

I didn't mean to cheat, sorry.

I just noticed that I never credited the fonts I used ... (that's the whole difference between 1.0 and 1.0.1, promise)
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
Mirak/Libby, don't think I can just send a data folder to patch an encrypted game? I know you already downloaded it Mirak but for Libby I'll add a new d/l to the game page tonight that fixes the tiny random fatal bug (it's only like a 3% chance) lol. Only other change from this version is a fix where the failsafe portrait was shown for a certain character sprite instead of the correct one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
author=Craze
Mirak/Libby, don't think I can just send a data folder to patch an encrypted game? I know you already downloaded it Mirak but for Libby I'll add a new d/l to the game page tonight that fixes the tiny random fatal bug (it's only like a 3% chance) lol. Only other change from this version is a fix where the failsafe portrait was shown for a certain character sprite instead of the correct one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Speaking from personal experience: the titles published on this event page are just links to your game page's download anyway. ...

So if you'd update there, it should be changed here too.
KrimsonKatt
Gamedev by sunlight, magical girl by moonlight
3326
Warning! Due to MV being weird again, the v1.0 release of Lost Colossus has a fatal bug where multiple animations don't appear in the files, causing problems. Please download the 1.0.1 update instead in order to fix this issue. Thanks.
Mirak
Stand back. Artist at work. I paint with enthusiasm if not with talent.
9300
If you guys delete the download you submitted here from your gamepagea, the links found here will lead to a 404 error (it already happened with Miremira's).

I am going to download any updated versions via your gamepages, so plese keep doing what you're doing and report any fixed versions/uploads here please.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, cutoff date (cuz ill start doing the video review) is tonight at 10pm (my time gmt-6)
I myself added a download in my gamepage where I fixed some bugs (version 1.0.4), but I left version 1.0.3 in the event download in case I wasn't allowed to update it anymore.
Whoopsies, yeah i was notified of some pretty serious errors in my game and had to fix it. Does that disqualify me? :( Am I able to resubmit the new download here or is it too late?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
In my humble opinion, the best course of action in regards to fixing bugs post-event is to create a separate download, and direct potential players (and the event host) to that download. While I'm not the event-host, I am of the belief that users could have had up to the the end of the event to START an update to their entry, if they already had an entry submitted.