The 1 Week Roaring 20's Monochrome Strategy Competition!

Contests
#1

Hi all,

as discussed on the #lwjgl irc chat room, I present you the next java game making competition:

On the 9 days (Friday to Sunday the proceeding week) range that would get the most votes, you have to choose 7 consecutive days to make a new Java game.

The game has to fulfill the following restrictions:

  • Take place in the 1920’s.
  • Be presented entirely in black&white or grayscale.
  • Be a strategy game (e.g. like starcraft or civilization) - doesn’t matter if it’s real time, turn based, whatever you feel like.

[s]
Please vote until Thursday, August 6th, 23:59 GMT in your reply on one or more of the following time ranges to have the competition week on (in case of a draw the earlier week wins):

  • 1. 7 of August-16 of August
  • 2. 14 of August-23 of August
    1. 21 of August-30 of August
  • 4. 28 of August-6 of September

The most votes were received by: 21 of August-30 of August.

Remember that you have to choose a span of 1 week/7 days/168 hours inside those 9 days. The reason for the flexibility is that people could choose which weekend to work on. You still have only 7 days even if you start on Monday!

Votes thus far (winning option in bold):

    1. (Markus_Persson)

    1. (Markus_Persson, Demonpants)

  • 3. #### (kevglass, ido, Markus_Persson, Demonpants)

    1. (Demonpants)

-Ido.

#2

Love the theme, so many ideas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920 and with an art style already picked out and week to produce some graphics, it might even be possible.

Can’t do 29th-7th, that runs over LD.

I think the later the better to give us a gap between the last one :wink:

Note: GameJolt also running a contest this month.

Kev

#3

Damn, I think I’ve had an off by 1 error… All dates are Fri to Sun.

#4

I vote for option 3 as well, will probably choose the 1st weekend and do 21-28.

#5

Anything except the 1st weekend works best for me, I think.

#6

Oh wow, this sounds like fun. I’ve always wanted to make a strategy game, and monochrome is neat.

Would sepia be ok?

[edit:]
Everything except the last week is ok with me. =)

#7

Sure, as long as it’s monochromatic it’s fine :slight_smile:

#8

Why bother specifying a start time if we already know the theme, are you not just selecting a final submission date?

#9

It works on the honor system, you are expected not to start working on it before that time.

If someone wants to cheat they can anyway start working on their game beforehand and shoehorn it into almost any given theme.

#10

This might be a bad idea, but why not let people work ANY seven days in a row before September 6? Just post when you start work on a game, then publish something seven days later.

#11

Because having everyone working at the same time gives it a certain sense of comradeship, at least that has been my experience with other competitions like ludum dare and 7drl challenges.

People post their progress or log on to irc to whine about some nasty & mysterious exception being thrown at them :slight_smile:

PS: I’m going to keep the first post up to date with the weeks people voted for.

#12

True =)

#13

I love the 20’s - Art Deco is one of my favourite styles. I have loads of source material. Monochrome is no problem.
I’m thinking of movies such as ‘the sting’, although that was set in the mid 1930’s. Bugsy Malone was set during prohibition, which was 1919 to 1933. Main problem is a major work deadline end of August, so this may stay a dream.

#14

OK, time’s up!

The competition will take place during any consecutive 7 days to your choice between 21st and 30th of August.

Good luck and have fun!

-Ido(aka tametick)

#15

Cool, I like that. It should make things easier.

#16

Just to be clear- i mean that all 7 days are within that range, not just the start date.

Regarding usage of exiting assets (like sounds, music or graphics) - I don’t mind either way, but maybe we should vote on that as well?

#17

Nah, just decide yourself, I think. Makes little difference for most people, although I would prefer being able to use old code and/or libraries.

#18

Ok, so let’s say usage of existing assets&code is allowed but each participant should say which parts were pre-made.

Just don’t start producing things specifically for the game beforehand, since that’s not really different than starting to work on the game early.

E.g. reusing code from old games, using any kind of general framework or engine and using graphics & sounds off of the web is ok but working on a “strategy game engine” today and using that for your game in 2 weeks in not.

#19

I’ve had some ideas for this one, so hope to enter. The strategy engine shouldn’t be too hard (I’m thinking resource allocation to get best economic growth type). Graft this on to some existing isometric code and the bare bones are there. Some sort of cut-scene capability would be nice, triggered by events, but I can’t think of a neat (i.e. quick) solution.

#20

Well, I think I’m in as well!