The 48-hour-contest

THE CONTEST IS OVER! The the entries in the other thread. This thread is now used for discussion about this contest.

Original post follows...

To take part, register and create a ticker on the ticker site (link below). Post an update there with your basic idea and the theme you chose. You may still change that later, it's just so we have a general idea when you began.

You will have to be finished after 48 hours. Have it uploaded by Monday afternoon! Good luck!

The themes are below.


The 48-hour-contest!

See also: this.

Hello there, fellow gamecreator! Christmas is over, so we all need to go back to work. In order to get back into the swing of things, why don't you take part in this great contest? Your goal is to create a playable game in 48 hours or less - that's basically this weekend.
Voting will start on Monday, and if your game isn't uploaded by then, you won't be able to win.

What can you win? Whats up to grabs?

First Prize
A Copy of Intense X Copper!
NOTE: This will only be offered if there are five or more contestants. If the winner already owns a copy of Intese X Copper, he will get a free upgrade to Silver once it's done. In case that there are less than 5 contestants, we will offer something else as a prize.


Second Prize
Four Little Warriors - Registration code for the full game
NOTE: This will only be offered if there are five or more contestants.


Here are the rules!

• Create a playable game in 48 hours or less
• Your game has to fit the given theme in some sort. It's up to you how you interprete it, but remember that other users will judge you based on how close it matches their interpretation.
• You are required to use a development-ticker. This means that you have to post an update to the current status at least once every three hours. Of course, while you are sleeping or not working, you don't have to post that - but if you post suspiciously few updates, then we'll know.
• The winner of the contest will be decided by a community vote: An open poll posted in a new thread.
• You need to finish your game this weekend - it has t be uploaded by Monday morning. We aren't cruel, heartless, mean people, but we won't tolerate everything. So better don't gamble with that.
• Please use english text for instructions and story, so that everyone can play. You may use any engine or system. Is the acknex-community only going to vote for games made with Acknex? Who knows! But it certainly is going to be interesting to see the different workflow with different tools.
• Please don't use an installer. Just a compressed archive with all the needed files in there. Remember to add a readme!

The ticker
You are required to post development-updates at least once every three hours in which you actually worked. That means that you don't need to post an update if you haven't worked on your game the past three hours, so you don't need to wake up just to post that you've slept
Please also post pictures and screenshots. No need to do it with every update, but every now and then.
You may do that on your own personal blog, but thanks to Quadraxas, you may also use a special website done exclusively for this contest. The link will be posted here shortly.

Uploading the game
If you have your own webspace, it'd be great if you could use that. Otherwise, apart from services like Rapidshare, you can also use this generous offer from LarryLaffer:



NOTE: If you want to use that service by LarryLaffer, please post a note here after uploading, so that Larry knows!

48 hours and teams
You may be tempted to use finished code from old projects or levels you already did years ago. Of course, you may use small finished codepieces or ressources you can download from the web (don't forget to credit them!), but a significant portion (>80%) needs to be done by yourself or your team only for this project.

You may work in a team on this. You have to state how many people worked on this. Your team must not exceed three members in size.

The theme
Your game has to fit our given theme. How you interprete it and how much you let that theme influence you depends on you - but remember that other users will judge your game on it!


The theme
Your game has to fit our given theme. How you interprete it and how much you let that theme influence you depends on you - but remember that other users will judge your game on it!

This contest has TWO THEMES to chose from. It's up to you which you chose! Or you could try to combine them (which might be quite the challenge!)


1) Create a heartwarming game!
Christmas is over, but aren't we still all in the mood? Now that we've been bombarded by dozens of christmas-specials and now that we've spent time with our family, it's time to transfer all that into a game! Will it be a bittersweet kind of heartwarming, or will it be the corniest thing ever? Will it include puppies and kittens, or will it be about saving christmas for a little girl? Be creative and focus on characters!

2) Create a psychological horror game!
And this isn't too far off christmas either - You did christmas shopping too, right?
In seriousness, your task is to create a game that makes the player feel uncomfortable and makes them think. What kind of world will you let the player explore? Will the player be weak and unable to defend themselves? and what kind of evil shall we overcome? Try not to make it cliche: Something that's NOT about zombies or other standard-horror-creatures would be appreciated (See also this). Or how about an artistic statement? Can you turn mobbing, or other "everyday evils" into true psychological horror?

I hope these themes give you plenty of ideas! A little brainstorming goes a long way. Note that both themes do not limit the genre in any way. If you do it right, you can also make heartwarming puzzlers or psychological racing games. Both are an exercise in setting up an athmosphere, and it will be difficult to achieve both without a small story.

By the way, if this contest becomes a success, then we might do it again soon. The winner of this contest may then choose the theme of the next contest



Good luck! Can't wait to see what you guys create.

Nice, with %80 certainty, ill take part in the contest.

The tickers, should be ready by now but because of some real-life problems it got delayed. Hopefully it will be ready by Thursday noon.

I would try but i live in the US its still Christmas eve and im busy the next few days. Hope to see some of the games that get finished though.

The contest will take part this weekend, that'd mean right after christmas. Are you still busy then? We'd love to see your entry, GamerX!

i ll also take part

I won't have time for taking part (most likely), but what I can offer as a 2nd prize is a free registration code for my game "Four Little Warriors" in order to upgrade it to the full version. Worth ~ 10 Euro

Makes only sense if there are at least 5 participants, though.

I'll take part .

I wish i could take part, but i will be really busy this weekend...and i still got to finish last week-ends game

your friendly neighborhood,
Doof

Count me in!

One question though: would it be possible for me to write an 'offline ticker'? This would be necessary because I cannot guarantee to be able to access the internet on a regular basis.

Thanks for the interest so far! With Quadraxas, that'd mean that we currently have four contestants - we need one more in order to reach the magical five-people-barrier. So if you are interested even the tiniest bit, then join! It will be educational, entertaining, and a great way to see how you could become more effective!



I think that given your circumstances, that's okay. Just remember to update your "offline ticker", and try to update the onlineticker as often as you can.

Are you able to upload the game in time?




Thanks, Firoball! That's a great and generous offer!
I've added your price to the first post, thanks again!

I am nearly done with the tickers.

In fact i was done, then suddenly i realised there is no way to add/define contests in site other than using phpMyadmin.

I ll make a simple admin-page now.


edit:
this is the current state of the ticker script so far:
http://www.acknexturk.com/ticker/index.php

you can:

register
login
logout
start your ticker in contests
see past contests and tickers
update your ticker
comment on tickers

admins can add a new contest.

There is not much time left to contest and so if you can register and test the ticker site and report bugs&requests, i can take care of them before the contest.

(i am aware that you cant edit your comments and ticks/cant change ticker pic(that white box)).

So here is your fifth person. I will take part in it...

Oh well I'll have a try too if its still posible

count on me too - if you're still accepting...

btw: it asks me for the password. i never wrote and password not it gave me a password in activation email

what's the password?

the one you want for your account^^

yepp
i registered, it asked me:
username
email
confirm email

no password. then i received an activation email, again no password there either.
am i missing something or...?

you click the link in the activation mail and the you enter the password you want into the form.

thnx - i missed that password section

Thanks Quadraxas - that's a great little website you have there - seems to work really well!

Martek, aztec and cerberi_croman, of course you can still join! Nice to see you on board, can't wait to see your games!


Remember: I will post the theme later today (say... in nine hours or so)!

Sounds like a fun weekend, I hope I have some time to spare. If it's still possible to participate count me in !

I got some maybe okay idea, with which I am going to join the contest if nothing completely unexpected happends the next two days

Well, this may be fun a bit. Count me in.

Is there a theme? I thought it was free to develop what you want. Very well, I assume you'll announce when we can start. Waiting for it .

I tried to log in but it did not work maybe one of the admins could send me my password again?
that would be nice because I cant login with the one I wanted.

and to start the contest at about 0.00 am thats a biit too late for me but well anyways^^

Maybe I will give two themes and you may chose one of them.

Aztec; did you get the confirmationemail? After following the link in tehre, you can set your password.


Since its a bit difficult with the timezones and that 48-hour-part, I think it's okay if someone hands their game in a bit later than monday morning. Of course, we won't tolerate if someone works on it for three days, but due to the fact that one has to update the ticker, we notice when someone works too long on it!

Again, I will give you guys the theme(s?) later today.

Can't log in either... I have not received any confirmation mail, nor in my spam filter, nor in the garbage can.

write a pm to quadrax. He answered quite fast to my bug reports

i am adding a didnt recive a mail page and deleting all current test stuff. If i can get the curren contest title/desc/short des i can add it.

Okay, added the resend mail thingy. Either try loging with a random password or see the link at the bottom of the registration page.

Quadraxas, I've sent you a PM with more infos. I'll post the theme in about fifteen minutes here!

Can you delete the test-contests and test-tickers before?

ok ill delete now.

fixed faulty activation link bug at resend part.

Sorry for double posting, you can now start your real tickers for the contest.

(i am adding a preview image feature which you can change with a 128x128 pic, and shown in ticker listings.)

you can pm me about any problems of the tickers.

You are btw doing a great job on the tickers Quadraxas. Thanks a lot
However, I have to start working... :P

I've posted the theme of the contest. For your conveniance, they are also below in this post.


To take part, register and create a ticker on the ticker site (link below). Post an update there with your basic idea and the theme you chose. You may still change that later, it's just so we have a general idea when you began.

You will have to be finished after 48 hours. Have it uploaded by Monday afternoon! Good luck!




The theme
Your game has to fit our given theme. How you interprete it and how much you let that theme influence you depends on you - but remember that other users will judge your game on it!
This contest has TWO THEMES to chose from. It's up to you which you chose! Or you could try to combine them (which might be quite the challenge!)


1) Create a heartwarming game!
Christmas is over, but aren't we still all in the mood? Now that we've been bombarded by dozens of christmas-specials and now that we've spent time with our family, it's time to transfer all that into a game! Will it be a bittersweet kind of heartwarming, or will it be the corniest thing ever? Will it include puppies and kittens, or will it be about saving christmas for a little girl? Be creative and focus on characters!

2) Create a psychological horror game!
And this isn't too far off christmas either - You did christmas shopping too, right?
In seriousness, your task is to create a game that makes the player feel uncomfortable and makes them think. What kind of world will you let the player explore? Will the player be weak and unable to defend themselves? and what kind of evil shall we overcome? Try not to make it cliche: Something that's NOT about zombies or other standard-horror-creatures would be appreciated (See also this). Or how about an artistic statement? Can you turn mobbing, or other "everyday evils" into true psychological horror?

I hope these themes give you plenty of ideas! A little brainstorming goes a long way. Note that both themes do not limit the genre in any way. If you do it right, you can also make heartwarming puzzlers or psychological racing games. Both are an exercise in setting up an athmosphere, and it will be difficult to achieve both without a small story.

By the way, if this contest becomes a success, then we might do it again soon. The winner of this contest may then choose the theme of the next contest

Hmm, nice themes. I'll start my ticker when i find a good idea that fit's one of the themes.

they are good themes . i'll start my ticker IF i think of a game , lol , my imagination is my worst enemy.

Same here. For one side, I can't think of a good christmass-themed game; and for other side, I won't be able to do good resource base for a horror game.

solved - sorry

AAah, it's cool to see your tickers! Really interesting to see how different you guys work.

Although we seem to be missing a few people.

Too bad that you had to stop, aztec. Thanks anyway!

yeah I feel teribly sorry too but I still can contribute.
How about that the 3rd place get a individual non-organic model by me.

regards

Aztec

ps:(others keep up the good work)

i got stuck at mass tarffic acident(i just waited to mess to be claned up i didnt crashed.) today and lost alot of hours, but i still have the sunday and i guess i'll start with a mini puzzle game tonight.

Nothing on tv tonight so I will jump in.
Just registered to the ticker - starting after registration confirmation...

It's a nice contest, but it has some major downsides. Most sad downside is that I will be doing this in void when I don't finish it on time :P. And I wont finish it on time. Less so, if this contest is over, I wont finish it at all . And I have nothing learned about my project, nor can anyone else. I think this is for more participants the case, so we're stuck with a heap of unfinished projects nobody wants to finish without a contest... ^^. Second thing is that I need to let go of alot of "good" code and ideas, and end up with alot of bad samples and a poorly executed idea.

I remember you writing that we could start that project we always wanted to do right now, but this contest is far from that philosophy :P.

just something that suddenly struck me mind.
Good job on this contest nonetheless ^^.

Joozey, I just read about your problem in the ticker:
What about a 'fake' solution: measure the distance between the gears, compare the distance to the sum of their radius, if they match, set a flag, if another gear's distance matchs too, stop the gears from turning.
So, every time when a gear with the flag already set touches another gear the connected gears stop.

I don't know what sort of game you are going to make, but it is too bad to cancel it.

Add a flag for each gear which tells in which direction it is turning.
Then do a distance check like proposed by Pappenheimer.

If two gears with different rotation direction are in distance of a gear, then you have a lock.

Two connected gears always require to have different rotation direction.

no registration confirmation after 12h - too bad.
(u should check such problems before u start such a short time contest!)

Netherless I will finish my project.

you can resend activation link, on reg page.

Thanks for the feedback!




Too bad that it doesn't work, did you check your spamfilter? If you had post that earlier, maybe we could have worked something out. Oh well.

I realize that we should have tested that beforehand - and we did! The problem is, this contest had to be organized in a very short amount of time, since we wanted to do it around now - shortly after christmas - since most people then have a bit of free time. If you take into account how quickly the whole contest was organized, I think we managed pretty good.



I disagree: I'm very positive that you've learnt something from thsi project! Maybe you've improved when it comes to working under pressure, maybe you've learnt a few neat tricks when it comes to time-improvement, maybe you've seen that you are able to create a prototype in a few hours. Maybe you've learnt something very different, and maybe you are not totally aware of it, but I'm certain that due to this contest, you actually did improve and learnt something new.

As far as the time is concerned - Thats an interesting dilemma we're in, huh? If the time we give is too long, then you can't really take part when you have a bigger project. If its too short, then these kind of problems arise. What would be a better time? A week?


We've toyed with the idea of doing this kind of contest semi-regulary (say, four times a year), so we are naturally very interested in hearing your opinion on it: How often, what amount of time, with or without themes, give more or less "inspiration", etc. If you could take a moment and answer these questions, that'd be great!

I've learned a lot since now. I never made an animal before, but I must have one for my game and I think my reindeer isn't so bad. I really like this contest because until yet I haven't finished one project, but this is the first one which could realy be finished. I hope I can manage it, but now I must go back to work^^

I don't know how you feel, you who are participating, and you who are watching this contest with interest.

Me, myself, I feel sad when someone quits and I feel happy when someone succeeds , whoever it is.

What about collaboration as a collective challenge to finish the projects?

Finishing a project is an award in itself whether you do it on your own or when gain it by additional help from others.

Maybe, using the beginning week as the challenge of finishing?

I'm sorry that I can't help, so this is just an idea from a backseat in the audience room.

dear audience (and combatants)

I've finished my tiny little entry and post it here.
I listed the process of developement in the included readme.txt fyi.

I call it X-MAN

have fun with it - I had a lot...
(and if you like make your personal level and post it here...)

x-man (download, zip, 3.6MB)

Reliable fast as always! Uuh!

How much hours did it actually take to do that all?

It has a fitting over all look and feel!
The 'movement without movement' - I hope you know what I mean - is a bit irritating, but it is playable and challenging, although I think there is no chance that I can win the third level, at all!

Aheh, no, that's what I got working, exactly as you described . The problem was the collision detection itself. I couldn't make a gear collide in TWO gears at the same time, and thus affect rotation to it (e.g. gears should be jammed when you connect 3 to eachother). It's always one, the closest one to the mouse. They turned eachother, but the third one remains unaffected. I need this to work in order to be able to make interesting puzzles.

I quit mainly because I didn't want to spend a whole day breaking my head over mathematical issues. I need more time for such problems. Instead I spent my time on a nice book, Mainspring .


That, of course, depends on the task. And if we need to lay a task ourselves, as in this contest, then the time required is also relative per project.

I can't tell you how often. I wouldn't mind if it took place every two weeks, but not that I would participate every two weeks. I'd like to just look to participants as well. Whether or not this is realisable depends on participant animo.

As said, the amount of time depends on the task. An adventure game deserves a longer timespan for development than snake, as it's logics are more complex.

I'll be honest, I was kind of disappointed that we got limited by a theme. Not that I cared a whole lot afterward, but it's what I experienced as somewhat negative nonetheless.

Also, artists have, once again, an advancement over programmers to win due to the fact that the public chooses the game. They will, in almost all cases, choose the best looking. Peek at the official contest for prove. Why did the fishy "game" won again?


Well alot of yadeeya and no positive stuff, but you asked for opinions . Nothing here is ment offensive, use it as you please. You did a fine job already!

Regards,
Joozey

Hey there. I'm really sorry but I had to stop working on the 48h contest because I had to meet a bunch of different obligations I could not foresee when I initially signed in.

Anyway, all the best to the remaining contestants!

How many people are still in?

I finshed my game and uploaded it at 23:53. First I wanted to make more level, but I couldn't handle it, so it has only one bigger level, but I think it is good and makes fun...

mercuryus and Martek already finished.
Slin is uploading.
I uploaded a un-finished game.
Fear said he finished but didnt uploaded/updated his ticker.

state of the cerber_croman is unknown.

Aztec and Joozey and Me didnt finished our entries.

@Marterk: nice game. i love the way how deer leaves footprints

It will take about 5 more mins from now until it is uploaded. It is only 5mb but my internet is slow-.-

Nice, i hope to see all these projects in the projects section

Here you go for "Santa Hunting": http://files.filefront.com/Santa+Huntingrar/;12798891;/fileinfo.html
Source: http://files.filefront.com/Santa+Hunting+Sourcerar/;12799444;/fileinfo.html

Thanks everyone! Seems like this contest is over.
EDIT: Missed cerber_cromans project. I will wait a few hours for him.


Fear has already provided me with a link to his game (he doesn't have an internetconnection right now) - he already finished his game after one day, but didn't want to post it that early.

you can get Fears entry here:


www.extremegames-online.de/downloads/Fear411's_Santa.rar 



Seems like we managed the five-contestant-thing! I will open a new thread for voting and discussing the entries shortly. Please continue to discuss the contest itself in this thread.

I want to hear your opinions! - Regardless if you took part or not, how did you like this experience? Would you like to see these kind of contests again? If so, with limited themes or without, and how does it affect other paramteres? (I.e.: If we give themes, offer these contests more often). No themes at all, or more to choose from (or less?), shall they restrict genre other than theme, or shall they become even less restrictive ("use a catchphrase"?). How did you like the ticker-idea? One entry~3 hour: Good rate, too often, too difficult to keep up? Or bad idea altogether? Please take a moment and give us feedback!


THanks Joozey for your comments! I see your thoughts about the theme-restriction, but I am still not sure if I am really against it. I'd like to hear more opinions on the subject.
Obviously, a theme restricts - that's what its there for. Maybe a different kind of restritcion would work better, but I'm afraid one would have to experiment with these.
It's surprising, but usually, restriction helps when it comes to imagination - there once was, for example, a project in which someone created games that had to fit three words picked randomly from a newspaper. I tried to emulate that with themes, but I am not sure if I succeeded.
By the way, I first planned to only give the heartwarming-theme. While I'd love to see what kind of games everyone would come up, I added the second one because I was afraid most people wouldn't be too sure what to make of it. Hm.




This is a sentiment I agree on, but one I'm not sure how to avoid. Maybe if we had some volunteers who would create art-assets for the coders (or code-snippets for the artists?). Everyone could ask in this thread that he or she needs something, and someone would help. Of course - thats even harder to organize!
Any other ideas?

At first, I realy like this contest. It mades a lot of fun and I also learned much about modeling. Normaly I am a programmer, but I needed some nice models and I think some of them aren't so bad.This contest helped me to finish my first game, I tried since 3 years, but couldn't handle it, so I'm very happy to present you my "Gifts for all" The time was short but not to short and it was possible to make a game in this time. By reading the themes first time I was shocked and didn't know which I should choose. After reading them again and again I decieded to pick the first one and started working...

Rules are made to break it - hu?

From your initial post:

Given the amount of people who missed their internetconnection, are stuck in trafficjams and what-have-you, I thought it'd only be fair to wait for his entry. Of course, he now has passed the deadline, and won't be included in the voting anymore. But if he were to post it a hour after my post, I might have decided differently. That is what I meant when I said I'm not a cruel, heartless, mean person

I see why you are upset about this. Please understand that no, I won't have tolerated a 72-hour-entry

i couldnt think of a thing that i thought i could realise in 48 hours , but i'll still do my part by playing entries and voting

I'm not upset I just ...

I didn´t care about the themes as they perfectly fitted my idea but I think that in the future some could be given for inspiration but nobody should be made to stick to the themes. They should be themes only as everything else would be too much restriction.
I think the ticker with ca 3h updates is perfect.
I would prefer a shorter time for the contest like 8hours or something like that as one usually doesn´t have two complete days to work on a project. Or one could give about one week but then with a lot less updates of the ticker due to school, jobs, whatever.

But it was a very nice experience and I´ve got another finished project now

i apologize to all of you but i dissapeared from the contest because my Monitor broke down, and i wasnt able to replace it so soon.