ID:28707
 
Disclaimer: Due to the relatively small number of entries some leniency in the rules has been extended, simply because disqualifying every entry that fell short of the rules on a technicality would mean there wouldn't be enough participants to actually have a contest.

Runner-Up: Angry Animals by SSJ Crono and Darkdemonrad

Our runner-up entry is a simple arcade-style minigame. In a plotline straight from a Fox special, bald-headed joggers are beset by an endless stream of flying fish and vicious hammerhead donkeys and must attempt to duck and jump their way through the hordes.

It's not a bad little game, but it's somewhat lacking in polish. Timing and hit detection seem a little bit "off", which can throw you when you're starting out, but once you get the game's rhythm you can pretty much play it all day. The animals do eventually speed up but not soon enough to really make the game interesting.
Presentation: 3/5 Creativity: 2/5 Depth: 1/5 Overall Fun: 2/5


Third Place (BYOND Membership): Fallout by ATP Development

Third place goes to ATP Development, which came up with not one but THREE different entries. The best of the bunch is Fallout, a simple "dodge the obstacles" game at breakneck speed. A handful of powerups help spice the game up a bit, and let's face it: watching those poor suckers plummeting head-first at terminal velocity is just plain fun.
Presentation: 3/5 Creativity: 3/5 Depth: 2/5 Overall Fun: 3/5

What about those other ATP entries? Well, next we have Killcarts, a novel little shooter game. Players' carts ride around on rails with a cannon mounted on one side; the carts can fire off to the side or change their speed to dodge enemies' shots. It seems like a great idea and I was pretty excited when I started up, but unfortunately the game is disappointing in its implementation.

To start with, the joining mechanism is a bit clunky; rather than having a declared "ready" mechanism or a start button, once you join you're stuck waiting for a 30-second timer to run down before the game starts. The gameplay is uninspiring as well; chances are that upon starting your carts will simply collide head-first and stick together unmoving. Due to questionable hit detection you can still ocassionally get a bullet to hit the cart you're tangled with (in spite of the fact that your cannon supposedly shoots sideways), until one of you eventually destroys the other and the game is over. Whoopee.
Presentation: 3/5 Creativity: 4/5 Depth: 1/5 Overall Fun: 1/5

Lastly, we have Nok Hockey. This one plays a bit better than Killcarts but still doesn't quite live up to its full potential.

The game plays as more of a competitive miniature golf game than the table hockey game it's implied to be, which is fine by me since I like miniature golf type games. Players take turns "putting" the puck around the table, trying to get it into the opponent's goal. Shots are made with a "stop the meter" system, which is well suited to the contest's input restraints but unfortunately not very well suited to BYOND's framerate constraints. The game's physics leave a lot to be desired as well; the puck's movement is rather jerky and hit detection is very mediocre.
Presentation: 3/5 Creativity: 3/5 Depth: 2/5 Overall Fun: 2/5


Note that although the official third place prize is only a BYOND Membership, I am hereby awarding ATP an extra $5 prize since they managed to produce three entries which met the contest rules in every particular, whereas everyone elses' entries required a bit of rule-bending to squeak in.

Second Place (BYOND Membership + $5): Vault by DarkCampainger

Another obstacle-course game not unlike Fallout, but more involved. The little veggie-headed guys running around with their capes billowing out reminded me vaguely of Mighty Bomb Jack, although the resemblance is largely superficial (Vault is much faster-paced and not nearly as nonsensical).

The music here is a great touch and the graphics have a nice style to them. Controls are a bit touchy, but high responsiveness is better than low here. The pacing isn't quite as fast as Fallout but the obstacles are considerably more complex.

Overall Vault is a fast, fun game, although it still has some room for improvement. Visually the playing courses work pretty well but it can be unclear at times which direction you're running when, and where switches in direction occur. Some more variety in obstacles would have been interesting too.
Presentation: 4/5 Creativity: 2/5 Depth: 3/5 Overall Fun: 3/5


First Place (BYOND Membership + $10): The Fungus Among Us by Gughunter

From the maker of SpaceTug comes The Fungus Among Us, yet another horror movie turned multiplayer suspense game. Honestly I don't know what Gughunter is doing slumming with those DDT bums; the man has a God-given gift for doing quirky horror movie homages. Squandering such talent on anything else is frankly criminal.

But I digress. When I loaded TFAU I was horrified to realize that the startup functions did not technically go through the A and B inputs and thus would not actually qualify. Then I realized that I would have to basically throw out most of Rule the Second anyhow in order to get enough qualifying entries, so I decided I could cut TFAU some slack too.

Once that hurdle has been cleared, the game does just fine. The controls do take a bit of getting used to but are a pretty clever way of meeting the contest constraints. The squishy little thumbnail at left really can't do the game justice; not only does it actually look a lot better (click for the full-sized view to see for yourself), but ultimately the feeling of suspense which makes the game so fun doesn't have a lot to do with the view.
Presentation: 4/5 Creativity: 5/5 Depth: 4/5 Overall Fun: 4/5


And that's a wrap! Those who won prizes, please drop me a line at [email protected] for what key you want the gift membership to go to and what address I should PayPal the cash prizes to.
Woohoo! Great contest, and congrats to Gughunter!

Thanks for hosting such a fun event, it's been awhile since I've actually "finished" something :)

Also, great job to all the other entrants! I'll be spending some time trying all the games out :) (If I can)


P.S. If anyone wants to try out Vault, it's uploaded here.
Oh yeah, that reminds me: let me know if you guys have anywhere where your games are available so I can link 'em. Or if not, let me know if I can put them up for download myself (with or without source).
Thanks for hosting such a great contest, Leftley. The whole team had a bunch of fun making games for this contest, and it was a tough, but fun, restriction.

The faults of our latter two games (Kill Carts and Nok Hockey) are purely mine, and it seems we fared worse than I expect due to a couple small mistakes. The problem you encountered with Kill Carts was my bad; basically, there's 4 different turfs: when you enter one, it changes your direction and you start moving that way. In theory, you're all supposed to go the same direction and it's much more enjoyable. Pmac was doing the overall mapping and I told him that I'd worry about the directional turfs, and it seems I completely forgot to do so before submitting it. Sorry!

As for Nok Hockey, I'm glad to say the game has much improved since we submitted it. Again, this game's problems were my fault, as I kept putting it off and did the majority of the work the day of the deadline. But, as I said, it works much better now. With better collision detection, smaller goal blockers, and the ability to set the angle in variants of 5 degrees rather than 15, it's much more functional, with a definite "fun" in functional! There's two small graphical kinks I have to work out for it, but we hope to release it soon.

Again, thanks for hosting this contest. It really was a good, fun, and challenging experience.

Huzzah! I'm pleased to have fared so well against such worthy adversaries. I plan to make a Hub entry and post the info to my blog this weekend so folks can download the source code.


When I loaded TFAU I was horrified to realize that the startup functions did not technically go through the A and B inputs and thus would not actually qualify.

I think I was relying on the bit about allowing non-two-button admin functions, and may have missed a more relevant rule elsewhere. My biggest worry rule-wise was that the chat function would be considered indispensible to gameplay -- though in testing it was pretty much just a killfest. :)

Thanks for the great contest idea, Leftley! I was quite surprised to find out just what two little buttons could do.
Awww damn. Great contest Leftley, making games are fun when there is a twist to it. It just sucks though, Darkdemonrad screwed me out of money on an icon, and now I dont even get the membership from the contest. I guess I will just have to enter more!
Gughunter wrote:
I think I was relying on the bit about allowing non-two-button admin functions, and may have missed a more relevant rule elsewhere.

Oh dear. I would hate to think I came so close to disqualifying a contest entry because of a communications disconnect over the rules. That would be disastrous!

Fortunately I did stipulate that administrative commands were allowed "so long as they... are not required to play the game as intended," so my ass is covered. Nyah!

Thanks for the great contest idea, Leftley! I was quite surprised to find out just what two little buttons could do.

So was I! I found TFAU's control scheme to be a pleasant surprise, as it was completely unforeseen (and I spent a lot of time* thinking up various ways to create a game of suitable depth using only 2 buttons.)

*5 minutes
Okay, the game is available to everyone now!

http://games.byond.com/hub/Gughunter/TheFungusAmongUs
Did you get my e-mail? Also, I was wondering if you could clarify something for me:

"they managed to produce three entries which met the contest rules in every particular, whereas everyone elses' entries required a bit of rule-bending to squeak in."

What rules didn't Vault meet? I'm pretty sure I followed your guidelines to the 'T'* :(



*Never understood what the 'T' was...
Yeah, just to be safe, did you get my email as well?
lawl I guess I forgot to e-mail you about my game :[ at any rate, it probably wouldn't have done very well!