4 HOUR GAME

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Hahaha. I suddenly remembered something about what to do with competitions like these. People group themselves and work on the game together for 4 straight hrs and talk like crazy over a room or internet as they work on their stuff. Fun times~
Thiamor
I assure you I'm no where NEAR as STUPID as one might think.
63
I'll so join this, then. A Puzzler Game is the best fit for something like this.
How is making custom graphics in advance cheating and using rips (or custom graphics you made for other games) is not? :P
author=calunio
How is making custom graphics in advance cheating and using rips (or custom graphics you made for other games) is not? :P


It is very questionable... But I suppose it means you spent extra time on an aspect of the game that raises it's overall quality (assuming your custom would be better or at least more consistent than using a bunch of stuff cobbled together) which means you did work on the project other than the 4 hour timeslot. I suppose. Gathering resources in preparation is also "work" of a sort though.
Well... the very nature of this topic means working on the project in advance, means preparing. Like I said, 4h is not good enough even to think about a game idea. If we're supposed to leave everything to this 4h block, I guess all that will come out of this contest is joke games.
author=calunio
How is making custom graphics in advance cheating and using rips (or custom graphics you made for other games) is not? :P

I think rcholbert when he said that it was cheating actually just mispoke and meant "yes, it's allowed".
author=calunio
Well... the very nature of this topic means working on the project in advance, means preparing. Like I said, 4h is not good enough even to think about a game idea. If we're supposed to leave everything to this 4h block, I guess all that will come out of this contest is joke games.


Well, I hope not. I think 4 hours is a great time-frame to build systems or gameplay-concept games without having to worry about bulky storylines, narrative progression, difficulty curves etc. I hope to make a "system game" where the whole focus is on an inventive little system I can manage to event. I already have a couple ideas, I hope I can manage to pull it off!
author=dezz123
Hmm, why not just a generic game, i.e. the likes of a cliché game?
For example, save a village from a dragon, etc.
The rules would be to select a cliché and make it as fun as possible, within the space of 4 hours. I find those contests fun, and a way to show off creativity. ^.^

Yeah, I'm going with a very generic game world, using only the rtp graphics. No, where I'm focusing is the music and making this one of the hardest grinds you have ever dealt with in a rmvx game. However, you will be assigned a personality off of a random number and that is about it. Joy. If anyone ever seen the old movie The Digital Devil, then maybe you might recognize the songs.
4 hrs isn't feasible, 10, 12, 24, or even 48 hrs would make more sense.
It is feasible, with some sacrifices to the actual depth of the game.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
I don't think I could code any decent amount of customization for a battle system in less than 12 hours, though an experienced RM scripter could probably do the same thing in 6. And I also don't think I would be willing to release a game with a totally default battle system. I guess I could set up Atoa or Melody scripts to the right settings in about an hour, if I knew exactly what I wanted ahead of time... leaving me the other three hours to make the game?

Hell, even in a game with the default battle system, 4 hours is barely enough time to set up all the skills, items, characters, monsters, etc. in the database. You wouldn't have enough time left to make any maps.

Alternatively, if you spent 4 hours making maps, you'd end up with one town and one dungeon... and no game to put in them.

Hell, what about testing? Testing takes a fair amount of time. For a game with an hour of gameplay, I'd expect at least 4 hours of testing before I could be confident everything worked the way I wanted.

Frankly I prefer training people to make their games as good as possible, not training them to take shortcuts. This contest is a little silly. But at least you're not wasting much time on it. I guess the only way I can think of to do this contest is to not make a traditional RPG. You'd have to make something wildly outside the norm, rather than just "however much game you can get done in four hours."
Four hours is actually a fair amount of time. Provided you work all those four hours. Few are the times I've worked on a game four hours straight, and in those times I've done good progress in whatever it is I've worked on.

The problem comes with procrastinating where you instead of making your game surf around the web maybe doing some "research" or chance-reading some forum post that is tangentially related to whatever issue you have in making something right now.

With a hard concentrated effort you can get a lot done. And working against a timer is a great motivator too! Basically it's something you should do all the time. Crunch for four hours then release and spend the next couple of weeks with light bugfixing and then another crunch for four hours!
So unfeasible that 3-hour competitions have been done multiple times in the past here.
You know what I've got the next two days off and a plan that might actually be workable so I'm going to take back what I said and actually try this.

Still I warn you in advance be prepared for some EPIC suck.
I just finished my four hour nightmare. Minimal testing, but I did check all of the variables and exits, so my grind fest just needs to be submitted.
EDIT: It seems I made it too early so...
I'll change the game's messages from it being an entry to just a normal game then. Man, I was really hyped up for this too.
author=King of Games
4 hrs isn't feasible, 10, 12, 24, or even 48 hrs would make more sense.


24 Hours you say?
Rule of thumb: You can't prepare anything specifically for the 4h game in advance. Like making custom graphics, sounds, scripts, or content. General resources like rips, script libraries, or the kingdom hearts OST are allowed because they weren't made just for your game. There's nothing wrong with gathering resources but you aren't allowed to actually make anything or else (you'll feel bad for cheating).

Here's something made in three hours! Here's another!
What if I decide to make all custom resources during my 4 hours?

Assuming I choose a super-minimalist style, of course.

Also, not knowing the theme makes it incredibly unlikely any specific pre-prepared graphics/sounds will be suitable.
I did not realize when the contest started, till I finished my project. I'm just submitting it as a regular game now, and I might make a different project once it starts.
author=facesforce
I did not realize when the contest started, till I finished my project. I'm just submitting it as a regular game now, and I might make a different project once it starts.

Well at least you'll be part of Completed Game Club*

*Not actually a club.
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