EDIT (June 17th): Contest Rules have been UPDATED
PRIZES HAVE BEEN UPDATED with ONE MORE NEW GRAND PRIZE!
For some of us, the worst part of making games is developing the media. Did you ever feel like your game would be fantastic if you
didn't need to make the models, sound effects, music, and all of that other stuff? Wouldn't it be great if you could just write the story and through your words, captivate an entire audience? Or what about story development? Not many would argue that a game's conceptual design is incredibly important. But some people struggle with coming up with great ideas, and/ or expressing those ideas in a game.
That's where Text Adventures come in. In this competition, you'll be tasked to create the best text adventure your brain can muster, and you'll be pitting it against other aspiring game designers who are vying for the same great prizes. Along the way, we're hoping your project will help you learn new things about writing great stories, and push you to develop your good ideas into fantastic ones.
What could I win?
Our grand-prize winner will get one copy of
Dark AI, supplied by
The Game Creators, and one copy
Play Basic supplied by
Underware Design. Third, the grand prize winner will win (I hope you're sitting down) a suite of Digital Imaging Software, sponsored by
Visionary Designs Incorporated, which will help your more media-intense projects truly shine. This will come in a bundled package of 9 individual DVDs which will cover all aspects, such as image capture, image manipulation, video editing, CD/DVD data burning and presentation software! We're also talking with two other companies about the possibility of them potentially offering prizes for our runners-up, so keep an eye on this post for more great prizes in the future!
What Is a "Text Adventure?"
A
text adventure is a PC game wherein the player navigates through a world by reading segments of a story, and then selecting a path or action from a list of options supplied by the software. Some text adventures use basic variables to offer players items, weapons, etc. to utilize during play. Most text adventures fall into one of two technical categories: The option list adventure, and the parser adventure. "Option list" adventures have a menu of options wherein a player can select an action from a list of choices (such as, "1. go east, 2. go west" and the player presses one or two, or presses the corresponding number and then presses enter). "Parser" adventures allow the player to type in commands, such as "open door," "go north," "eat apple," etc., and the software can detect specific segments of code that is entered into its entry line. These are far more complicated to create and implement, and thus they will score higher.
The contest will be scored entirely on four qualities:
originality, story development, writing ability, and
technical design. Originality depicts your title's general uniqueness, both in story and software design. Story Development rates how well the game projects the story from start to finish... you'll earn more points if your story is fluid and easily understood. Writing Ability depicts how well the game is worded and points will be decided based on grammar, spelling, proper word usage, etc. Last but not least, Software Design rates how well your actual program runs from a technical standpoint. Did you use a list system, or a more complicated parser system? Are each of your subroutines and functions linked together properly? Make sure your final game doesn't have any bugs to score high here.
Scores will be based on a 10.0 point system. You'll earn a maximum of 10.0 points for each of the four categories, and a minimum of 0.0. Each of these is then averaged out and rounded to create your final score. In other words, if you earn 9.1 on originality, 8.5 on story development, 7.3 on writing ability, and 5.2 on software design, your total score would be 7.525... rounded to 7.5. The participant with the highest score wins the contest. In the case of a tie, the judges will convene and decide on who should win the tie. All results and scores are final.
- RULES -
* Any non web-based programming language may be used (no Java, html, perl, etc.), but installation cannot be required by your software. We strongly suggest DarkBASIC Professional, DarkBASIC Classic, and Play Basic. Along with the executable file(s), any and all source code that was written for the project must be submitted to verify you actually coded the game. No text adventure fabrication software may be used. You MAY use languages such as Java or Perl, but only if the file is sent to us and is playable via an executable file; web games may not be submitted.
* There is a STRICT 5MB limit on entry sizes. You may not submit an entry that is larger than 5MB. This is to hopefully limit the length/ size of your entries so that we can judge them faster and more fairly. The next time we hold this contest, this file size will be larger, but for now we are keeping this limit intact, no exceptions.
* All games submitted to this competition must be fully compiled. Submitted source code that is not compiled will not be judged.
* You MAY use WINZIP and ONLY WINZIP to send us your entry, but PLEASE NOTE that the game's fully un-compressed/ un-zipped file size CANNOT exceed the 5MB limit. You may not use any other compression software to send in your project, or to compress your entry so that it meets our requirement.
* There is no length requirement for this contest, although you should try to keep your game relatively short to play so that it can be judged fully and fairly. Try to introduce the judges to your best features early because they may not have time to play through the entire game if we receive a large number of entries.
* Media: only 2D static images in bmp or jpg form are allowed. They can only be used to enhance aesthetics and may not be animated, or act as an integral part of gameplay. Music and sounds can be included but must be wav, mid, midi, or mp3 format. Media will NOT effect your presentation's score whatsoever,
* Copyright Law: Any media used in this contest must be made by you. Otherwise, proof of permission to use said media must be presented (even for freeware games), including the author of the images/ music and some form of contact information, albeit a website address or e-mail address. Any entry that does not meet this standard will be void from participation.
* Input: Input must be from the keyboard only. The game may not utilize a mouse or any other input device, with the exception of main menu navigation, wherein a mouse may be used, but no input device other than the keyboard can be required for gameplay.
* All entries must be submitted and recieved by our judges no later than 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time on August 2nd, 2006. The winner will be announced on August 11th, 2006 at 12:00pm (noon) Eastern Standard Time in a new thread on the Game Design board. Runners-up will also be announced at the same time. The contest officially begins on June 2nd.
* Prizes: one (1) copy of Dark AI, supplied by TGC, one (1) Copy of Play Basic, supplied by Underware Design, and one (1) suite of Digital Imaging Software, supplied by Visionary Designs Incorporated, will be awarded to the declared Grand Prize Winner on August 11th, 2006 when the winners are publically announced. Grand Prize Winner must claim prize via e-mail and supply their full name, age, mailing address (P.O. Boxes are fine)(please include zip code and country, even if in the United Kingdom or United States), and optionally you can include a telephone number. All of this MUST be submitted to us no later than August 15th, 2006, or your prize will be forfeited to the next runner-up!
* Submission: Submit your entry by either posting it to this thread using the upload function, or by e-mailing the final project to me at Maximus_PT1@yahoo.com
What if I want to be a judge?
If you'd like to be a judge for this contest, just send me an e-mail (using the e-mail button below) and let me know. Please note that judges WILL NOT be allowed to enter the contest, so keep that in mind when writing me. Also, judges WILL NOT be compensated with free copies of prizes, money, or by any other means... judging this contest will be done so on your own time and without any sort of compensation. Do it for your love of games if nothing else
"In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe"
