   The Chalenge
  Note: If the moderators think this is in the wrong area feel free to move it.After reading the thread on seeking inspiration for game design I remembered an other site that I visit occasionally has a game design chalenge. This site is dedicated to board games, not computer games, but I thinkk the idea behind that chalenge could be brought here too.The reason they created this chalenge was to inspire designers and allow then to flex and excersize their creative muscles.So, I propose a monthly chalenge. This chalenge has no prize other than the kudos of winning, it is just for fun and to help with inspirations.First draft rules:1) This chalenge is strictly for fun and inspiration.2) The first Monday of each month the chalenge statrs. It runs for 1 week and then the judgeing lasts for 1 week.3) The winner of the last chalenge determines the restrictions of the next chalenge.4) Each chalenge will consist of a small set of restriction (3 to 4) that the designers must fulfill.5) The design is just an initial design, no programs are to be submitted.6) The design must be 300 words or less.7) You can not vote for your own design, you must vote for someone elses design.8) This is ment to be fun.   
  I think this is a good idea, but I think shorter challenges would be better. If a whole challenge is run in a week or so, and the designs are more in the range of 2-10 pages, more people could find the time to enter the contest. What kind of constraints are we talking about here btw? Forbidden/required gameplay elements (must include cows), control requirements (one button only), target audience (teenage girls), tecnical reqirements (small bandwidth online) etc... I remember we did a small game design project where each group got a number of random restrictions from a list and had to design a game fulfilling those. That list was further divided into categories like the ones above, so each group got a tecnical restriction, a target audience and some other restiction. Since then I've often wished I had that list for my own purposes, so as a parallel effort we might want to gather a list of (generic) restrictions for further reference. I think it's a bit too far off with the first monday of the month. The sooner this is started the better, assuming I'm not the only one who likes the idea.   ;  I'm in it too, if it happens, but if THIS is going to happen as a team project, I'd like to know, because, I'm not ready to learn how to code or manage bandwidth before I apply to the contest...As a side note, I'd like to know the name of that board for boardgames designers...   ;Quote:I'm not ready to learn how to code or manage bandwidth before I apply to the contest...This would not be a contest with codeing involved, it is just coming up with design ideas. SO having technical requierments like bandwith will not be included.Quote:As a side note, I'd like to know the name of that board for boardgames designers...www.bgdf.comI think this is a good idea, but I think shorter challenges would be better. If a whole challenge is run in a week or so, and the designs are more in the range of 2-10 pages, more people could find the time to enter the contest.1 week for the designers to come up with the design should be long enough. 10 pages would be far too long, 2 to 4 pages should be the size range (although 300 words would be less than a page).Quote:What kind of constraints are we talking about here btw? Forbidden/required gameplay elements (must include cows), control requirements (one button only), target audience (teenage girls), tecnical reqirements (small bandwidth online) etc...The constraints would be along those lines, but I would recomend leaving out technical requierments like bandwidth. Controls, target audience, gameplay elements, etc would be the way to go. This is a design chalenge ment to stimulate people for ideas and be fun.Quote:I think it's a bit too far off with the first monday of the month. The sooner this is started the better, assuming I'm not the only one who likes the idea.I'll let this sit for a week here on the forums and I might be able to get time to come up with the basic rules and first chalenge by then. If enough people are interested by then I'll run the first chalenge next week.;Quote:Original post by EdtharanQuote:Original post by WombahI think this is a good idea, but I think shorter challenges would be better. If a whole challenge is run in a week or so, and the designs are more in the range of 2-10 pages, more people could find the time to enter the contest.1 week for the designers to come up with the design should be long enough. 10 pages would be far too long, 2 to 4 pages should be the size range (although 300 words would be less than a page).Hehe... I actually managed to misread your OP and thought you were looking for 30 page submissions, which I think we can all agree is a bit hefty... 300 words seems just right. :)Quote:Original post by EdtharanQuote:Original post by WombahWhat kind of constraints are we talking about here btw? Forbidden/required gameplay elements (must include cows), control requirements (one button only), target audience (teenage girls), tecnical reqirements (small bandwidth online) etc...The constraints would be along those lines, but I would recomend leaving out technical requierments like bandwidth. Controls, target audience, gameplay elements, etc would be the way to go. This is a design chalenge ment to stimulate people for ideas and be fun.I can see why you want to leave out the technical restrictions, even if I'd still vote for having them and keeping them very general. Unpredictable online capabilities in a game would e.g. make it impossible to make a game which requires very regular and speedy updates from a server á la an FPS, and wewouldn't have to get more technical than that. Or requring the game to be playable on a handheld device such as a PDA or phone, thus restricting the amount of storage etc... But I'll certainly concede my pointif people in general feel we shouldn't include those restrictions.   ;Quote:I can see why you want to leave out the technical restrictions, even if I'd still vote for having them and keeping them very general.I agree, but not all people that would be interested in this kind of chalenge might be knowledgeable on technical issues. Maybe the occasional technical restriction (ie: slow internet speeds, on a handheald or mobile phone, etc) might be appropreate as they would also restrict the gameplay functionallity that would be posable.I would like to hear from any others who would be interested inthis on what they think of this category (technical restrictions) being included as part of the chalenge.   ;  I like it. Though, we'd need some kind of poll creation system on these forums (like other message boards have - either create a post or a poll) to be able to vote for who's design is best.If this is to be done her eon these forums (which would be a good thing), then a moderator would need to allow the stickyfication of the thread with all the design submissions on it. And then someone would need to create a poll system so the voting could take place.Really nice idea.   ;  It would be nice if we could create some template for the submissions as well, or at least some clear submission guidelines. The easier it is to get a submission in, the more likely people will give it a shot.[EDIT]Also, I still think one month per challenge is a bit too much. It is very possible that for some restrictions I can't come up with a viable design, and then I'd have to wait a whole month for the next... OTOH that might be desirable to force people to make an effort even when the restrictions are tough. Hmm.[/EDIT][Edited by - Wombah on May 15, 2006 11:31:09 AM];  Ok, a week and more has passed. Is this going somewhere? Not too many positive replies so far... :/ But maybe running a first installment will be a better approach to see if people are interested.   ;  yes, it would. So now, please just show us what you want, and we'll give you!!   