STARSCREAM'S PROFILE

author=Dyhalto

author=benos

author=DE
This community doesn't play games so it doesn't count. I was thinking about the big picture, the sites and communities not focused on game design.

What.

There aren't more than 100 regularly active users with something to say here. Meanwhile, Hero's Realm has over 11,000 downloads. You and I and everyone else on this forum are statistically insignificant. If Kentona releases a game "From the Maker of Hero's Realm", players will line up for it.

This is true. The amount of activity generated from the vocal rpgmaker.net members is... not really that much when compared to the overall activity at the site from unregistered or non-posting users. Which is why sometimes I listen more to what the numbers say than whatever the current dramafest is on the forums.

So we're like three weeks late and for that I apologize. I played many (but not all) the games during the initial weekend period but didn't communicate very well. I also have some very different ideas on how to handle similar events in the future, and some suggestions on some more serious events we will try. However, there were a decent number of responses and some of the games were actually playable!

So without further ado, the winner is...

*drumroll*

Fire Emblem 6 - TILoRtQatQfP

That makes Dyhalto the winner of a $25 prize. Contact me via PM to arrange payment and/or to select a charity of your choice to receive the funds.

I'll be honest, the game had a couple of things going for it from the start, like the fact that it was crafted with the Sim RPG Maker 95 engine, of which I love. I was the author of the original English translation patches and spent a lot of time testing the engine back in golden days of the internet. It was a unappreciated maker, but one that had a lot of good ideas that would be picked up in later incarnations of the RPG Maker series. It's definitely aged better than its RPG Maker 95 counterpart.

I am also a big fan of strategy/tactical RPGs though I have never played a Fire Emblem game before. The game was an unbalanced mess but was still pretty fun to play. Some of the units were dramatically overpowered and some were practically worthless. The dialogue was intentionally nonsensical. However, it was pretty cool how new units kept appearing during battle – more than once I found myself redirecting units to prevent surprise flanks.

Fire Emblem 6 - TILoRtQatQfP was ranked the top birthday game by two of the three judges, and was ranked number two by the other.

Runner-up was the RPG Maker 2003 game Sinfonia by Max McGee. It was pretty cool to have an actual attempt at a proper game in a contest obviously designed for blatant use of comedy and tropes.

I'll let the other judges chime in with their thoughts on the games if they are interested.

This makes me even angrier that I had to back out of the wedding like a chump. Good luck, Brickroad -- there is still time to run!

I'll be the first person to admit I botched the contest judging. We had some people back out and/or not follow through with commitments which led to myself and/or kentona being listed as judges. Unfortunately, I've been super busy for the last two weeks and haven't had much contact with the other judges. Not a great excuse but it's honest.

Don't worry, the results will still be forthcoming and the prize will still be awarded. Sorry it won't be as timely as I had hoped.