January Blues Contest (coming in the new year)

[Ellie]

January Blues Contest

Just to let you guys know of our plans for the near future:

We intend to run a contest starting around January 1st. It will be an RPG Maker oriented contest and games must be made in a title from the series. We can use this thread to discuss the contest and what we want from it until then, but this will be a large contest with substantial rewards, sponsored by RPG Maker (http://www.rpgmakerweb.com). The prizes will include product keys for RPG Maker VX Ace, and the contest should receive good publicity around the Internet.

This is going to take some planning, but current thoughts:

• You will need to be a member of HBGames.org to join the contest (whether you join specifically for the contest or not).
• There will be rewards for critique and comments as well as for actual game making.
• There will be emphasis on design and development, with points awarded for maintaining project threads and talking to fans.
• Games will need to be made in a legal copy of RPG Maker. This can include the free "lite" edition of RPG Maker VX Ace.
• There will be no cash alternative to prizes.
• This does not affect our coverage of other engines. We still allow discussion and games from any engine (or hand-made) and this is not changing. Suggestions for contests using other engines are more than welcome.
• There will be a special bumper RM edition of the eZine released alongside, although there will be a general eZine released before it, and a special "other engines" edition afterwards to make up.

I hope you find this news exciting as I do, and hope you'll stick around to watch, if not enter, the contest. 2014 should be a good year!

The "nominate a sponsor" mini-contest is still ongoing.

 

[Fusty]

Sounds awesome! As long as this is advertised properly around the web it should draw in quite a lot of new members I think. I also really like the idea of getting rewards for commenting on other people's games.
Good to see something happen again!

... Now if only I had a legal copy of RPG Maker... ;d

 

[Ellie]

There's still time to plan, if it becomes an issue we can try and gear things towards the free lite edition, although I don't know how limited it is.

Although there is no way of telling if a game is made with a legal edition or not.

 

[Fusty]

Haha, well, my game would suck anyway. Might join in for the fun of it though, haven't touched RMXP in years and kind of miss playing around in it.

 

[Spoo]

We usually have a lot of success running contests. We get a lot of new peeps around for a while, so I'm all for it.

 

[Injury]

I'm down if college isn't to much to deal with. Are there any other guidelines?

There should be a best of show for the platform someone submits it on. RM2K best in show, RMXP, RMVX, RMVXAce...

Maybe?

Yayyy fun!

 

[aphadeon]

w00t! (thats all i got. but srs. awesome.)

 

[coyotecraft]

There should be a best of show for the platform someone submits it on. RM2K best in show, RMXP, RMVX, RMVXAce...

I don't think there are any legal versions for rm2k outside Japan. Plus, in order to play those games people will need rm2k or rm2k3 installed.

 

[Injury]

Fair enough, I was throwing it out there!

 

[Byron]

Wait, so is there anything specific we have to add to the game? I'm definitely down for this. I need to get back into gaem makin.
How long does the game have to be?
Also, would it be possible for staff to provide links to useful scripts and stuff?

 

[Ellie]

The actual contest needs to be decided on yet. There will be some requirements, themal elements etc, but for the most part it should be fairly open.

 

[Injury]

Open to fairies you say? I don't think this is for me...Themal the Fairy God is my new antagonist. It will be epic. :fap:

 

[Ellie]

Just to let you know: I am waiting for something in the post before I can order my new computer, and so am not altogether sure it is going to arrive before Christmas (which means it's then unlikely arrive over the Christmas period due to holidays etc). This contest may be delayed, but should start in January. The plan is however still around January 1st. Sorry for any inconvenience.

We're also yet to decide how long the contest should run for. A month? Two months? Any input?

There will be small requirements, such as "you must include this rabbit in your game" (but not that), but nothing that should get too much in the way of most games.

 

[coyotecraft]

Just spit balling here. What if, you can only use resources from hbgame's resource section? So people have to upload new content to the site if they want to use it.

 

[Byron]

Just spit balling here. What if, you can only use resources from hbgame's resource section? So people have to upload new content to the site if they want to use it.

That's a pretty cool idea. I'm with this. Although you should be able to use the RTP resources.

 

[coyotecraft]

Well yeah and maybe rtp edits too; I personally don't want to see a hundred variations of the same sprite. That's basically what the RM groups on deviantart do. Probably leave some room for title graphics and pictures that are essentially wordart. So if someone wanted to do a scrolling text thing:
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
basic stuff.

And maybe free reign on audio resources since you'll have to go off site to download anything anyways.

eh, I'm just poking a lot of holes in my idea now. I don't think it'll float.

 

[Injury]

Keep it short, put the pressure on! I think it will be a good test of using what you have and making sure people are pushing themselves to complete something meaningful and contest worthy.

IMHO...

 

[MarioSuperStar]

I'm really interested in this contest. As for the engines, since I haven't understood clearly, are they limited to RPG Maker? Because if we're talking about legal copies of the engines, I have a legal license for Game Maker and would love to develop something akin to what can be done in the RPG Maker engines and to be able to participate in this contest.

 

[Ellie]

As the contest is being sponsored by RPG Maker itself, games will have to be made in RPG Maker. However I am doing sort of OK financially so am happy to fund a similar contest myself some time afterwards to accomodate all those who couldn't enter this one.

 

[Byron]

Well yeah and maybe rtp edits too; I personally don't want to see a hundred variations of the same sprite. That's basically what the RM groups on deviantart do. Probably leave some room for title graphics and pictures that are essentially wordart. So if someone wanted to do a scrolling text thing:
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
basic stuff.

And maybe free reign on audio resources since you'll have to go off site to download anything anyways.

eh, I'm just poking a lot of holes in my idea now. I don't think it'll float.

I dunno. I think it should be strictly HBG resource.
Music and graphics must be obtained via the HBG site. If someone links music on the HBG site, then you should be able to use it. (Provided they say you can use it.)
(To be honest, this whole idea is down to weather the admins approve it. But I think this should be a rule.)