Vignette Contest: Planning Discussion

[Ellie]

Hi guys, this thread is for discussing and planning the upcoming Vignette contest.


What is a vignette?

In game making terms it's probably a term I have just made up. Consider it a single scene. Your scope is to make an artistic game, within a set and solid boundary.

The word "game" is ambiguous. Graphic novels are fine, as are purely animated scenes. As long as you confirm to the boundaries, your game could be a ten second loop of a girl fishing, or a fifteen minute dialogue full of animation and custom sprite work etc.

Your scene should portray a story however.

What are the boundaries?

Current thought is a 9x6 game window, or something around that size. You would need to use a script to limit yourself to this size and there would be no scrolling, no teleports out of the scene, etc. Any battles and events would have to take place on the scene and form a coherent part of the scene.

What are the categories?

If enough participate the intention is to have three: one for Parallax mapping, one for tiled and tileset limited mapping, and perhaps one for RTP-Only.

What engine?

Probably RMMV or another HTML5 exportable; I would like browser compatibility from your game but this may not be important.

How long do we get?

Not sure. Discuss.

Who can enter?

Any member of hbgames - including new members.

Prizes?

Unsure yet. Probably Steam wishlist purchasing. One suggestion was you win a framed print of your vignette to keep.

Judging Criteria

How closely have you met the brief?
How good is your story?
How good is your mapping composition?
How beautiful is your scene generally?

Please discuss.

 

[Ellie]

Just to remind myself, I need to remake this page on the new site: http://www.arpgmaker.com/page.php?p=contests

 

[Byron]

I'm excited for this, but do have a few questions.

Firstly when are you thinking of running this?
Secondly how long will we have?
Lastly is it solo entry or can we enter in teams?

Personally I'm thinking of doing a 3D game in Unity but am not at all artistic nor an animator...

Edit:
I just saw the how long do we get part. Personally I'd say either confine it to 3 days, or a week.

 

[Xhukari]

The word "game" is ambiguous. Graphic novels are fine, as are purely animated scenes.

I think the word you're looking for is "media"!

a 9x6 game window

Is that like, a 9:6 screen ratio? Or is it something else... grid squares in RM (so has a strict pixel width & height)?

Parallax mapping, one for tiled and tileset limited mapping, and perhaps one for RTP-Only.

I don't understand any of these categories by name, except the last one! Will the categories be optional? If not, it may be better to have them at the start, regardless of the number of participants.

How long do we get?

This is an interesting question... A shorter timeframe could be appealing to some, as it would be a smaller time investment. But then the quality could be lower, and more importantly, we could lose potential participants if the timeframe falls at a time they cannot do. I think something like 3 days (Friday-Sunday?) has the best reach. It allows a bit of flexibility on what is usually the most available time for people.

Prizes?

Perhaps in addition to any other prize, is it possible to have a trophy or something on the site as a prize as well? Could be a nice lasting mark for the winner, and if they're new, may been an additional incentive to stay with HBG.

I'd imagine buying a game from their Wishlist would be the most appealing award. Though I do like the framed print suggestion -- feels more personal. But it does have the issue that the winner's entry may not suit being a framed image.

Lastly is it solo entry or can we enter in teams?

Allowing teams could help bring more members, but may result in less entries... Could make the reward difficult though; I doubt giving each member of a team an award would be feasible, so who gets the award becomes awkward. Though if teams are allowed, their submission would need to be judged considering the number of members, otherwise smaller teams / soloes would be disadvantaged.

Overall, I really like the idea of the contest, and excited to participate!