DONE Do a Minigame Competition with a tight time limit

[VinnyVideo]

A lot of recent Minigame Competitions haven't been very active. Other competitions have been doing better, but Minigame Comps have often been sleepy. The most recent Minigame Comp had a good theme but didn't get a single entry.

Early on in the post-Split era (circa 2011), we often had Minigame Competitions with a very strict time limit. Participants would have either one or two days to make a playable minigame. We'd set up a timer that would reveal the theme at a certain time, and then participants would have to start and release their game within either 24 or 48 hours. (Of course, they could always polish up their games after the deadline, but voters vote on whatever was complete when the deadline hit.)

These strictly timeboxed competitions were consistently well-received and usually got a good turnout, and I'm not sure why we stopped doing these. Would you be interested in the next Minigame Comp having a very tight time limit?

If you're interested, we'd probably do it on a weekend. We'd choose a theme that's reasonably flexible (something that allows for both Mario fangames and non-Mario stuff). Since the last competition didn't have a winner, I thought of using a different method for choosing the theme: Members would suggest theme ideas that they think are interesting, and the admins would choose one. What do y'all think of this?

[Vitiman]

I'd absolutely be down for that. Time crunching can be highly stressful but is also the natural enemy of procrastination; alongside "a healthy work ethic", of course!

[Fun With Despair]

Weekend long is better. There's a reason stuff like Ludum Dare succeeds, and it's because the 72 hours they give are just enough time to make something legitimately decent, but constraining enough to keep you focused and dedicated.

[Cruise Elroy]

If this is gonna be a thing then I'd advise not doing it this week -- the second Game Maker's Toolkit game jam is gonna be going on starting the 31st and I don't think it would be wise to overlap with big-name game dev contests wherever possible.

That said, I think having shorter time constraints could potentially help with getting people more sharp and focused for the duration of the contest.

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[VinnyVideo]

All the above posters make good points. In particular, I'm glad @Cruise Elroy mentioned the GM event, since we obviously don't want to compete with/cannibalize that.

We can talk about a good time to do this event. I think Minigame Comps work best when we don't do them too frequently, so I think we should wait at least 2-3 weeks.

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[Kritter]

Take timezones into consideration too.

[VinnyVideo]

@Kritter Yeah, time zones always need to be considered with time-limited events. I was planning on reusing our old timer system that reveals the theme at a set time. Everyone would have exactly 48 hours to make their games.

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[Xander]

As an outsider, my opinion may be way off base, but perhaps a reduction in the scope of the "minigame" contest to something that can be accomplished quicker, might incentivize more participation.

Rather than being a whole minigame, maybe it could just a small programming contest. Maybe it could just be an Enemy design, or a boss fight. Or perhaps a power-up implementation. So really, the focus is on small chunks of code that people may already be making or needing for their various fangames. Back when I was entering sprite competitions, it was always with the intent of using those sprites in a game. So maybe the same could be accomplished for these sorts of contests: program a class or two that could be used in a Mario game.

I'd love a contest like, "Implement FLUDD as a 2D Mario Power-up."

Me.

[СМБХфан]

The reason why I voted for a weekend is because it prevents procrastination and it wouldn't conflict with schedules in the rest of the week.

That is just my reason.

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[VinnyVideo]

@Xander A less ambitious Minigame Comp could be fun.

It could also be fun to do a "Programming Competition" where participants code something from a set of requirements. Maybe the winner would be whoever used the least code or had the clearest documentation.

Course clear! You got a card.

[Xander]

@Xander A less ambitious Minigame Comp could be fun.

It could also be fun to do a "Programming Competition" where participants code something from a set of requirements. Maybe the winner would be whoever used the least code or had the clearest documentation.

Has their ever been a Boss Fight competition, or a simple enemy competition?

Me.

[VinnyVideo]

@Xander We've done a few boss themes over the years, including a couple of boss rush themes. (Boss rushes are fun but are really difficult to make - even single bosses tend to be time-consuming to design and program.)

Course clear! You got a card.

[Syaxamaphone]

Remember that a lot of these events have a MUCH larger community, and thus more turnout. If its down to a single weekend, you'll start to lose the precious few developers you still have in the community who have something on a Saturday or w/e who are losing 1/3 of their allotted time.

Having the event take place over a few weeks gives people more time to work the development into their schedules.

I don't think emulating ludem dare is going to fix comp participation. You need to bolster your community and empower your young developers to get those numbers.

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[Xander]

@Xander We've done a few boss themes over the years, including a couple of boss rush themes. (Boss rushes are fun but are really difficult to make - even single bosses tend to be time-consuming to design and program.)

Cool, but how about a simple enemy competition?

Me.

[VinnyVideo]

@Syaxamaphone I totally see where you're coming from. However, when we did weekend Minigame Comps a few years ago, the community wasn't massive, and the short competitions usually got a better response than the longer ones.

@Xander I don't think we've ever done anything like that. What if we did a Minigame Comp where players were challenged to design one interesting enemy and make a level using just that enemy?

Course clear! You got a card.

[Xander]

@Xander I don't think we've ever done anything like that. What if we did a Minigame Comp where players were challenged to design one interesting enemy and make a level using just that enemy?

Possibly! But part of what I was trying to propose was to really scale back the scope of the contest. Maybe you don't need to design a level. Maybe just designing the Enemy's behavior is enough.

An example could be for everyone to implement their take on Petey Piranha, or maybe Birdo.

In this fashion, the contest would be far more similar to a Sprite Contest or a Drawing Contest. Everyone is working on the same concept, with a lot more focus. It also gives the opportunity for people to swap notes and code afterwards about how they implemented the enemy.

Me.

[Hyper]

perhaps we should also considering a competition of designing enemie, item, boss, or other modifications to an existing engine.

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[Pedigree]

The issue that I have with an event like this is how does it solve our problem with too few entrants? It seems to me it would make it harder for people with limited schedules to participate. Not to mention designing a game from scratch in such a short amount of time is probably a tall order for our casual fangame developers.

Yeah we used to do this, but we also used to have a more active community.

I am fine with us trying this as a one-off, but I am not fine with making it the new minigame competition standard.

 

[Evil Yoshi Toes]

I guess the idea is that people will get pumped joining in and then will have less time for their interest in the project to dwindle. I think having a short timeframe could definitely help with that issue but it could also keep some people from joining who are not available in that short timeframe, so it's definitely not a perfect solution but I'm not sure a perfect solution does exists. It sounds like a fun fast paced event and I think it would be cool to have one or two of these each month if there's enough participation.