5-Year Anniversary Contest: RESULTS!!

[dadevvtsvre]

 


On October 4th, 2009, in the humble corner of the internet we call HBGAMES, history was made. A groundbreaking new contest, unlike any other. Prizes offering countless riches and glory. The winner... immortalized forever.

Entrants from every corner of the world imaginable - ranging from the harsh wilderness of American suburbia to the dizzying and confusing world of "towns" - flocked together to unite for this great cause. Foes, yet at the same time, friends.

One by one, the entrants fell, vanquished by time, procrastination, and education. The remaining entrants struggled to hold on for dear survival, but even the toughest of the tough reached a point where they could fight no longer.

In the end, only five entrants emerged from the dust. Battered, but not broken, they came to me. In their hands, a game.

There were two prizes. In 2nd place, a respectable $50 was to be offered. But the real prize was the rare and elusive first place position. More money in this sole place would be offered than all the contests in HBGAMES.ORG's entire history combined. $150.

Only one could claim this magnificent prize. The fates of these five entrants were to be in turn, judged by five jurors. Experienced in the world of game design, they picked apart each and every game, looking in every corner, dissecting every piece of code, to determine the one and only winner. Dadevster, Sophist, afrodesiac, Sailerius, bacon - together, the decision was made.

But who won? After a week of judging, we had to decide.



ENTRIES
Let's take a look at the entries first. In no particular order...

METEOR SLUGS
Creator: westingtyler06
Program: RPG Maker XP
Genre: Adventure
Download: http://www.murrayfilms.net/MSLUGS.zip

Meteor Slugs tells the story of a boy or a girl (your choice) who has to rescue his or her corresponding girlfriend or boyfriend. The basic plot is that one Halloween night, aliens land in your town and wreak havoc. It's a point and click style adventure game, where you manipulate your environment with items you find along the way. The tilesets are completely custom, too. It's a definite deviation from the norm.

ALICE IN UNDERGROUND
Creator: hima
Program: Game Maker
Genre: Beat 'em up
Download: http://hima.gptouch.com/testbed/AliceIn ... d-demo.rar

It's another stellar game from practically legendary developer hima, and this one doesn't fail to deliver. Rendered in gorgeous graphics, it takes the classic Alice in Wonderland story and gives it a twist. Characters you know and love like the Cheshire Cat are back, and Alice is given some spunk, with the ability to grow and shrink at will. It's too bad hima didn't get the chance to finish in time, but it's still very fun as it is!

HARMONICS TD
Creator: Zekallinos
Program: XNA
Genre: Tower Defence
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?mgzilgzwmwh
If you’ve ever played a Tower Defence game before, then Harmonics TD will seem very familiar to you. However, it’s far from an ordinary game. It uses the concept of music to take the traditional Tower Defence formula and turns it into a fun and addicting musical game. There’s not much else to say about this game, except that it’s incredibly fun!

THE SEQUOIA’S VILLAGE
Creator: cordynasty
Program: Game Maker
Genre: Simulation
Download: http://www.filefront.com/15260897/TheSe ... tryV3.exe/
Although technically not 100% complete, The Sequoia’s Village still has a lot to offer. It’s a simulation game, and the basic premise is that you’re a tree in charge of a small village. You have complete control over your villager’s actions. You can tell them to gather wood, water, food and wool to support them and raise their levels. The game even includes different seasons that affect how your villagers have to live.

NEWT
Creator: Regi
Program: Flash
Genre: Text-based adventure
Download: viewtopic.php?f=192&t=69151
Explore a morbid, alien world as a small, innocent NEWT. In the empty labs of the FACILITY, escaping is not as simple as finding the key to the lock. With lasers, keypads, and fingerprint scanners, to say the least, there will be countless challenges facing your freedom-seeking lizard. Can you creatively solve your way through five difficult trials, realize your role in the sinister plot of a few evil-genius human scientists, and escape?



WINNERS
Alright. It's time. Before I announce the winners, I'd first like to say a big thank-you to everyone that participated in the contest. The whole point was to drum up activity here, and I think we were successful in that regard. Thanks for making the contest a success, guys - we couldn't have done it without you!

I'd also like to thank the organizers and judges of this contest. Numerous people helped out with the contest, and it wouldn't have been possible without them.
-Thanks to Sophist, bacon, Sailerius and afrodesiac for judging the entries
-Thanks to Venetia and Guardian for helping to make the images and write the original thread
-And an especially big thanks to hima, westingtyler06, cordynasty, Zekallinos and Regi for working hard and entering the contest!

You want me to shut up and just get on with it? Fine!

The second place winner, who will receive a respectable $50, is...

Spoiler

REGI!
NEWT was a great game. It was particularly lauded for the atmosphere that was created by the music, the perfect difficulty level, and the whole premise overall. We've played many text games before, but to say this is one of the best we've played would be an understatement! Everything about it was smooth and had a nice flow to it. Judges felt satisfied with the ending as well. Congratulations, Regi! Enjoy the $50! (I'll see you at that super fancy restaurant tonight! Thanks for dinner! ;D )

Here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for. The winner of HBGames.org's biggest contest ever, who will receive a whopping $150, is...

Spoiler

ZEKALLINOS!!
Wow. Harmonics TD is an incredible game, and the judges were unanimous in their decision that it should win 1st place. Everything about it was fantastic - the graphics, the gameplay, and the music especially. It surpassed all our expectations. A big congratulations to Zekallinos is in order! You worked hard for this, and you deserve the $150.

Well, that's the end of that. We hope you enjoyed the contest, and with any luck future contests will go as well or even better than this one! :D

[Embedded content has been removed]

 

[mawk]

yeah, all you guys who thought hima was a foregone victory and dropped out accordingly shoulda stuck around anyway. I'm kind of surprised by the upset myself, really! just goes to show, I guess.

congrats to all you guys; winners, participants, whatever! for a second it looked like this was gonna be a major flop, but I guess we came through it alright. these are all some really impressive games, and win or lose, I hope the experience serves you well with future stuff.

 

[moog]

uh excuse me you didnt review my game

screw you and your fucking forums.

 

[So fist]

Trolling is your game

 

[So fist]

Congrats to all the participants. There were no bad games released in this contest. Every one of them was fun and immersive and it was nice to see such diversity: A beat em up made in Game Maker, an adventure game styled after Maniac Mansion in RMXP, a text based adventure made in flash, a tower defense made with xna, and a resource gathering sim in C#. I hope this is indicative of the next five years for this community.

Winners please contact me via pm with the necessary information to send your paypal prizes by.

 

[Zekallinos]

I like how every game that has been submitted is of a different genre. It's a nice wind of change, it's not one RM game after an other. Then again, I have to wonder, where those all went (except for westingtyler, of course). I looked forward to some myself. Even if it's not quite complete, it would have been fun to see some demo released, like hima did. It's not even too late for that, actually.

Anyway...wow...at first I was just toying around with some concept. I didn't expect to win, knowing the competition there would be. As we got nearer the end though, things started to change a little, and I got more confident. That may be the result of actually finishing a project (well, there are some stuff to fix) , for once. Without some motivation such as this contest (or last year's), I never tend to finish stuff. So yeah, that was quite fun.

Good job all!

/lousyspeech

 

[regi]

Congrats, Zekallinos! While I haven't had the time to try your game yet (getting to that soon!) I have to say the concept is pretty creative-- I'd have never thought about combining strategic tower defense with music!

I suppose I should say a few words too, huh? NEWT was something entirely new for me. It's the first time I've attempted a serious flash game, and it required a lot of tutorials and help in regards to scripting the entire thing. But I felt it was a good decision. Text-based was also a nice choice, being something both new and easy to execute (solves the graphical problems, heh). While it was rather rushed toward the end (most of the time was spent on the engine rather than the story itself :x) it worked out and I'm glad everyone enjoyed it.

And finally, a last acknowledgement to the others who participated-- congrats on finishing a game, as it's no easy feat. It seems like your projects were quite enjoyable too, so I'll be giving those a play sometime soon.

 

[Venetia]

Congrats Zell and Regi!!!! You guys rock!!!

I wish we'd done more on our entry, but just....no....time @_@

Kudos to you fellas who managed to pull your shit together and get shit done!!!!! Your games all rocked IMO :D

 

[hima]

Congratulations to Regi and Zekallinos!

I love how all the entries are solid games and different in both genres and tools used to develop. I hope the staffs are not discouraged by the number of entries. I'm looking forward to more contests in the future!

@Regi
I don't feel that NEWT is rushed at all! I love almost every part of it. You should add in a MochiAds or something, or find a sponsor through Flash Game License and get yourself more money.

 

[cordynasty]

I was maybe too confident for this contest. lol To be honest, I was oblivious there was a forum for this contest, basically due to me not paying enough attention, so I never knew who were the potential participants. When I found out during the last week that someone was actually using XNA for their project, I was like "Holy hell, there are people on this site who know how to use that?" I would use it myself, but I got to build my computer up first.

Well, aside from that, I'll finish my demo of a game and make it into a full version. No reason to leave it undone when I can place it on my game portfolio.

 

[Perihelion]

Congrats to the winners and all the other entrants for making great games! I'll have to give these a play later. I wish I'd entered!

 

[moxie]

Congrats, people!

Some really impressive and creative concepts were posted, too - it's a shame so many dropped out, because it looked like it inspired quite a few really unique ideas.

 

[silver wind]

Congrads, zekallinos and Regi !
I didn't play any of the games yet, but I'll get to it ! ^^
I wish I'd entered.. when I first saw the topic there were 8 days left. I planned on entering anyway(with my little brother), but it took us too long.

 

[Nachos]

Congrats to Regi and Zell! and thanks to the ones who made a game and sent it!