1 week is a LOT. Remember, Ludum Dare is 48 hours and they produce some high quality stuff. Even with school 1 week should be enough.
I think a theme really needs to be mandatory to help the idea-impaired, and we would need judges (over 18) to judge the results. Also, I’m worried that some professional 30 year old will enter the competition and troll everyone…
If such a person would waste their time doing that, then they would have the mind of a <= 18 year old and therefore be eligible for the competition. 
The point about judges being > 18 is a good idea, except that there won’t be too many people interested in a competition which they could not enter. I think if the voting is open to everyone it should be fine.
My biggest worry is that people will be too ambitious and hardly anyone will actually get anything done. That would be awkward. :-\
Voting to everyone except the developers sounds fine. Solo only or groups allowed? (personal preference would be solo, allowing groups would be too complicated with the rules)
Good point.
Solo only.
Took the liberty of making a google site so we can record opinions (gimme your gmail if you want edit privileges)
https://sites.google.com/site/javagaming18/
Don’t worry, this is just for the stats, if the game competition needs a real website we’ll use something other than google.
Post it if anything is off/doesn’t work…
Current name suggestions:
1WU18 Comp (I think a bit too complicated but a decent start)
I think this is going to be great. @Jimmt my email is wreed58@gmail.com and i would love to be able to contribute to this since i started the post about this topic lol
Hah, added, apologies for me and heroesgrave hijacking the thread.
How can this contest ever be a success, if you limit the number of entrants to (realistically) 3-4 people.
As opposed to work and having a family, right? Let me burst that bubble: you have more free time now than you’re going to have, until retirement.
@Riven most nights ill be lucky to get a half hour of free time (after track practice and homework and school). viewing most adults and my parents they seem to have much more then that
@Jimmt i agree with riven about the entrants. we shouldnt limit this contest to jgo users and java developers
Well the only other way to get more people is to open it up to all ages on JGO.
I am not against this, I would think a JGO competition would be cool, but it feels weird when this idea started off as a compo for <= 18 year olds.
Maybe we should remove the limit, or just have a private competition between the ‘3-4’ people who are interested.
Not really, are you going to want to start coding after 8-10 hours at work?
Non-jgo sounds ok, but I say stick with Java, there are enough java gamedev people.
Something like this, but covering a less complex topic and open for everyone would be cool imo. I think setting an age limit is a stupid idea. Being older may mean that you are able to produce higher-quality games, but it doesn’t have to. And even if somebody who’s older than 18 should win the contest than that’s perfectly fine in my eyes. Contests of this kind are mainly not about winning but about gaining experience and stuff I guess.
That what categories are for. In every normal sport competition there is gender category and age category. In physical contest its clear that a 12 year old will not beat a 21 year old (if both are trained) and also 50/60+ will have their own category. If there is any doubt if age matters then this can be a solution. So there will be the best overall and the best in his own category.
Cheers
I def would. I still code after 14 hours of school/homework/practice every day
sometimes its less if i dont have that much hw
after only 8-10 hours i would most definitely be coding
That is only true for two player sports and board games. It’s no fun to lose by sixty points, but such a situation occurs because the skill diference makes it easier to score 60 points. Contrast that with golf. The only theoretical limitation to contest entry is a minimum skill level. Another golfer’s score does not change your own. I can think of a few titles of TV shows involving geeky contests with contestants age 10 to 80. They welcome anyone because the niche community is so small that they can’t turn people away based on experience and they can’t differentiate between ages because a 15 year old may just as likely have as much experience in medieval weaponry as a 40 year old.
“Large Dangerous Rockets” Exactly what it sounds like. (Separated by rocket fuel grade.)
“Chunkin Pumpkins” Launching pumpkins from trebuchets and cannons. (Separate by launching mechanism.)
“Kill Robots” Remote control robot contest involving flame throws, spikes, and saws. (Only one class; multiple contests. Many other robot related contests involve people of all ages.)
“Anvil Launching” People pack enough gun powder between two anvils to launch one of them a mile into the air and compete to see who can get the highest launch. (Separated into anvil weight classes.)
Private competition?
What about a 18+ competition ? only 18+ rated games allowed.
Now its getting interesting.
I like it when threads end up like this.
Sadly, I don’t see this competition happening.
If someone does organise it, I will join, but I can’t be bothered doing the work for nothing.