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The Great ScoreHero Game Design Challenge!
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ImaCarrot  





Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 2687

PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 6:40 pm    Post subject: The Great ScoreHero Game Design Challenge! Reply with quote

The Great ScoreHero Game Design Challenge!

“New ideas are nothing more than combinations of existing ideas.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall Standings


1. rkcr - 88.5 pts - WINNER!
2. mamlfj - 86 pts
3. Riyunoa - 69.5 pts
4. ShinobiAC - 67.5 pts
4. GetThere1Time - 67.5 pts
6. Creppy - 57.0 pts
7. WaffleCake - 56.0 pts
8. Smoses - 37.5 pts
9. Smeddy24 - 29.5
10. burningtoad - 29.0 pts
11. Armageddon - 28.5 pts


Week 1

Twist: Game designs must somehow integrate music into the main gameplay without using a beatmatch system.

Results:

1. mamlfj - Troli
2. rkcr - Fly Music
3. GetThere1Time - Thrasher's Revenge
4. burningtoad - Chordata
5. Riyunoa - Shadows of Music
5. Armageddon - Cacophony
7. ShinobiAC - Puzzle Penguin
8. Smoses - Rocker's Brawl
9. WaffleCake - Battle of the Bands
10. Creppy - Crystal Cave

Week 2

Twist: Using any genre; the game design must be a cooperative-single player game.

Results:

1. rkcr - The Departed
2. Riyunoa - Construant
3. ShinobiAC - Nexus of Time
4. mamlfj - 2-1
5. GetThere1Time - Doppleganger
6. Creppy - Haunt
7. WaffleCake - Three Blind Mice

Week 3

Twist: Create a game combining two or more established game genres.

Results:

1. Smeddy24 - Der Erlkönig
2. rkcr - Churchill's Ark
2. WaffleCake - Frigid
4. GetThere1Time - Fanged Gladiators
5. Riyunoa - Horror Stories of the Business World
6. mamlfj - Risen
7. ShinobiAC - Skill Master

Week 4

Twist: No twist, create whatever game you want.

Results:

1. Creppy - Breakers
1. rkcr - DIY Defense
3. mamlfj - Hydro
3. Smeddy24 - Fighting for Freedom
5. Smoses - Sabotage

Final

Twist: Take one of the previous four entries and extend it into a 10-15 page Design Overview.

Results:

1. rkcr - Workshop Defense

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Introduction
Future game designers, think you have what it takes to be a visionary? A revolutionary? An evolutionary?

Test your mettle in this little challenge of creativity, mental stamina, forward thinking and carbonated drinks.

At stake? Well, nothing really, everyone who participates in this challenge is a winner.

You will be challenged to think in ways that you may not be accustomed to, you will come up with ideas you never thought possible and you will (hopefully) come out of this with a great start on the next great video game. I may also throw a nice little prize at the winner, the better the winning design, the more I’ll feel inclined to reward well.

The Challenge

Each week, participants will create a 1-2 page (2 pages MAX) design treatment for an original game of their own creation. This design treatment should only contain the high level information needed to get the idea across, very minimal details required. The most important aspect of the treatment is the High Concept, which is...

Jason Weesner wrote:
...essentially a summation of the game design (or a single game element) in as few a sentences as possible. It's meant to be quickly read and comprehended. This means that if somebody can't understand your game idea from the high concept, then you've got a failure to communicate.


The tricky part is that each week will have some sort of game design restriction or goal that the treatment must abide by. For example; we may stipulate that the game in the first week must be of a specific genre, like an RPG or an action-adventure game. This is done to encourage participants to design and dream in areas that they may not be familiar or comfortable with.

Don’t worry; there will be a week where there are no restrictions.

Each submission will be scored by the panel of judges and all submissions will be ranked against each other.

It will not be required at all to do anything additional to writing the game design overview (things like artwork, prototypes, music, etc…), in fact, this is actually discouraged. Including additional content will not affect the scores at all, so you might as well not waste time on it and focus on the written document instead. If an illustration will help get an idea across better than words can, feel free to include one.

Participant submissions will be posted online along with the judge’s scores and notes for anyone and everyone to see just before the next week’s challenge is set to begin.

This is not a time to hold your ideas tightly to your breast for fear of the giant publishing vulture swooping in to pick at. Ideas thrive out in the open where they can be openly discussed and critiqued (of course negative and de-constructive criticism will be swiftly dealt with), no one is going to steal your idea, (and if they do) you’ve got online proof that you had it first.

At the end of the four (4) weeks, each participant will choose their favorite game design treatment and develop it into a larger and more detailed Game Design Overview. The Game Design Overview will be a 10-15 page document; this is where participants will go into great detail about their game idea.

Please read the Official Rules below. These rules are still in development and won't be considered final until the start of the challenge.

The Encouragement

New, fresh and unique ideas are encouraged, but don’t let that discourage you away from that epic sci-fi FPS you’ve always wanted to make; old ideas can be given new life if they are done well enough.

Remember, this is all for fun, if you can’t enjoy yourself doing a little challenge like this, then game design may not be the career for you.

Examples will be given out for everything so participants can have a good idea of what is asked of them.

So what are you waiting for?


Last edited by ImaCarrot on Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:32 pm; edited 21 times in total
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ImaCarrot  





Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 2687

PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 6:41 pm    Post subject: Official Rules Reply with quote

Samples:
Game Design Treatment Sample
Game Design Template - Microsoft Word Doc

Official Rules

1. Challenge officially begins at 9:00 PM Pacific Standard Time (“PST”), Saturday, March 15, 2008 and ends 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time ("PST"), Saturday, May 3, 2008.

Schedule:
March 15, 2008 - Challenge begins, rules for the first Round are given.
March 22, 2008 - Second Round rules are given.
March 23, 2008 - First Round Game Design Treatments are due.
March 29, 2008 - Results of First Round posted. Third Round rules are given.
March 30, 2008 - Second Round Game Design Treatments are due.
April 5, 2008 - Results of Second Round posted. Fourth Round rules are given.
April 6, 2008 - Third Round Game Design Treatments are due.
April 12, 2008 - Results of Third Round posted.
April 13, 2008 - Fourth Round Game Design Treatments are due.
April 19, 2008 - Results of Fourth Round posted. Rules for Final Round are given.
May 19, 2008 - Final Round Game Design Treatments are due.
June 2, 2008 - Final results are posted and a winner is declared.

2. Participants must be registered members of www.ScoreHero.com and in good standing with the community (ie. not banned).

3. If the winner wants a prize, they had better be able to give a mailing address to the organizing body of this contest (ImaCarrot). Minors should obtain permission from their legal guardians. Mailing address will be kept confidential and will only be used to send the winner their prize (whatever it may be).

4. There is no guarantee that said prize will hold any real value, after all, the real prize is the work created during the challenge.

5. Participants acknowledge that all content submitted is their own and that they own the rights to publish said content; participants found to have knowingly submitted content that they do not own will be subject to disqualification from the challenge at the discretion of the judges and the event organizer (ImaCarrot).

6. Game Design Treatments must be emailed to ImaCarrot@scorehero.com AND Alakaiser@scorehero.com and must be time-stamped by 11:59PM Pacific Standard Time (PST) on the due date. The can, of course, be submitted earlier than the due date and time.

7. Rules are subject to change at the discretion of the event organizer (ImaCarrot). The challenge is also subject to an abrupt end without a winner being decided, every precaution possible to prevent that from happening will of course be taken.

8. Derogatory, inflammatory (and just in general) content that is in bad taste is not allowed. What is considered offensive is completely up to the event organizer (ImaCarrot), entries deemed offensive will not be accepted and a score of null will be entered for the week that the offensive material was submitted. Use common sense. If you have a question about what would be considered offensive, email ImaCarrot@scorehero.com.

9. Game Design Treatments must be 1 - 2 pages in length, 12 pt font (larger fonts for headings ok), either Times New Roman or Arial (different font for headings ok), standard margins and formatting apply. Basically, write this like you would write an important paper for school. This includes any images, title pages and table of contents pages.

10. Spelling and grammar are VERY important, the easier it is to read your submission, the happier we will be, which will reflect in your score. Be as professional in your presentation as you can.

Scoring:

- Each entry will be graded by itself initially and not compared to the others.
- Entries will be graded based on 3 categories; Fun, Presentation and Originality. The most weight will be given to fun, with presentation close behind, and originality pulling up the rear.
- Entries will be graded based on how well they incorporate the given twists into the design.
- This means that a completely unoriginal idea that was written well and seemed fairly fun overall could rate better than the most original idea ever seen that suffered from poor presentation.
- We will be incorporating a letter grade system; as seen in such institutions as 'School'.
- Good feedback will be written for each entry; there's no such thing as a bad idea, there are just better ideas.
- Once a decision has been made about all entries; we will look at all entries against one another and rank them.

Fun:
When reading the doc, we will attempt to discern if the concept sounds like it would (or could) be fun. This is of course highly subjective. Even if the presented game idea doesn't sound like something one of us may like to play (I, for example, don't like playing simulation racing games) we will still do our best to discern if it could be fun, not just to us, but to all gamers.

Presentation:
For the Presentation; we will be looking for these attribute.

- Proper spelling and grammar. This will be the highest scored aspect of the Presentation, the document being easy to read is very important.
- Nice formatting. Document is broken up into sections and section titles properly reflect the content contained.
- Rules are followed. Make sure you stay within the page count and you don't completely abuse the margin settings. Typing your doc in an 8pt font will also be frowned on.

Originality:
There truly are no original ideas left in the world; or so the saying goes. That doesn't quite hold true for video games (yet); there are still tons of themes and mechanics that have gone unexplored in the realm of interactive media. We will be looking at originality as more of a bonus for this challenge, while it is highly suggested that participants search their ideas for ways to explore new and interesting methods, it won't be required.

The twists we enforce on each week's challenge will hopefully go a long way towards helping contestants discover new ideas.
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Rhythm Authors LLC
www.rhythmauthors.com
------------------------------------------------
Level Designer at Ubisoft Studio SF


Last edited by ImaCarrot on Sat Apr 12, 2008 3:45 am; edited 11 times in total
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skinnywhitecomic  





Joined: 30 Aug 2006
Posts: 2008
Location: Atlanta, GA

PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 6:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like afun idea! I do have three questions:

1) Is this being sponsored by a game developer, or is this a "just for fun" thing for Scorehero?

2) Who will be judging this?

3) After we submit idea for the first week, will we have to alter it to reflect the new challenge, or is it a completely new deisgn?
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rkcr  





Joined: 05 Feb 2007
Posts: 2518
Location: Minneapolis

PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am, of course, all for it.

IMO, the prize is the critique. So I will win by just participating.
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ImaCarrot  





Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 2687

PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

skinnywhitecomic wrote:
Sounds like afun idea! I do have three questions:

1) Is this being sponsored by a game developer, or is this a "just for fun" thing for Scorehero?

2) Who will be judging this?

3) After we submit idea for the first week, will we have to alter it to reflect the new challenge, or is it a completely new deisgn?


1. Just for fun ScoreHero thing.

2. Right now, myself and Alakaiser are the judges. There may be more.

3. Completely new design each week. Participants will have 4 completely different game design treatments total. For the finals, you will take one of those and expand on the concept and turn it into a 10 - 15 page design overview. So you don't have to do anything additional with the other 3 unless you want to.

rkcr wrote:
I am, of course, all for it.

IMO, the prize is the critique. So I will win by just participating.


That is the main goal.
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Rhythm Authors LLC
www.rhythmauthors.com
------------------------------------------------
Level Designer at Ubisoft Studio SF
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warlock7735  





Joined: 07 Mar 2007
Posts: 854
Location: Here. Come find me.

PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Although I never really considered game design, there's no reason for me not to try it out. Good idea imacarrot.
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0wnd1zzl3d  





Joined: 11 Sep 2007
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Location: San Clemente, CA (Right between LA and San Diego)

PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Im def. Gonna do some stuff. I'm thinking right now...
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footballtom3685  





Joined: 16 Sep 2007
Posts: 2478
Location: Bay Area, CA

PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'll try and come up with something original

Quick question, by 1-2 pages do you mean pages in MS Word or something else?
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lazor  





Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Posts: 1079

PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

2 pages of triple spaced size 30 font, right?

This looks interesting, I gonna definitely at least make some sort of an attempt.
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mamlfj  





Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Posts: 77
Location: São Paulo, Brasil

PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 1:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm actually considering being a programmer, so getting some experience in game design might be a good ideia. And having fun is always good, just hope I have enough time for this.
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toymachine  





Joined: 30 Oct 2006
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

awesome I have 2 ideas!
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Alakaiser  





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PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

1-2 pages in word/notepad/iWork or whatever else you like to use, 12 pt font, standard font (times new roman, arial, whatever), margins, whatever.

Basically just standard formatting rules for any paper you'd write for school and what.
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ShinobiAC  





Joined: 04 Dec 2007
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Location: Raleigh, NC

PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Awesome. I didn't post in the original thread to gauge interest (though I was going to get around to it, honestly). So I'm glad it's made it to this stage. I'd feel personally responsible if it didn't. <.<

I'm looking forward to this. It should be as much of a challenge to the community as it is to the judges! Who would have thought that a cooking simulation would have been a good idea years back, yet here we have Cooking Mama, and don't get me started on the genius that is Katamari!


Anyways, a couple of questions:
1. Will there be a limit on participants? Obviously you can't accept all of scorehero, though I doubt all of scorehero will be trying their hand. However, even 20 participants involves a lot of reading, consideration, and judgement.

2. Are you both reading every entry and grading them then averaging the score or will you be splitting the work and assuming that your judgements can be compared relative to each other fairly? This doesn't matter too much to us, however I think it ties into the first question as something to consider with workload if you are going to limit entries.
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ImaCarrot  





Joined: 06 Mar 2006
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ShinobiAC wrote:
Anyways, a couple of questions:
1. Will there be a limit on participants? Obviously you can't accept all of scorehero, though I doubt all of scorehero will be trying their hand. However, even 20 participants involves a lot of reading, consideration, and judgement.

2. Are you both reading every entry and grading them then averaging the score or will you be splitting the work and assuming that your judgements can be compared relative to each other fairly? This doesn't matter too much to us, however I think it ties into the first question as something to consider with workload if you are going to limit entries.


1. We will take all of the participants we can, we'll rope other people into the judges chair if need be.

2. Current plan is that all entries will be read by all judges. We haven't decided on how we are going to rate them yet, but you can be certain there will be a lot of discussion while we read them.

I'm glad to see such interest, now to see how many people can actually stick it out for the entire challenge
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Rhythm Authors LLC
www.rhythmauthors.com
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Alakaiser  





Joined: 01 Aug 2006
Posts: 4154
Location: Cambridge, MA

PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 5:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've only talked to carrot a brief amount about your two questions, but here's my understanding, Shinobi.


Quote:
Anyways, a couple of questions:
1. Will there be a limit on participants? Obviously you can't accept all of scorehero, though I doubt all of scorehero will be trying their hand. However, even 20 participants involves a lot of reading, consideration, and judgement.


As of now, there's no hard limit on the number of participants. We're not expecting a huge number of entrants or anything, so it should be manageable. If necessary we can add more judges, as well.

Quote:
2. Are you both reading every entry and grading them then averaging the score or will you be splitting the work and assuming that your judgements can be compared relative to each other fairly? This doesn't matter too much to us, however I think it ties into the first question as something to consider with workload if you are going to limit entries.


There's still some question marks with how grading is going to work...and I'm actually not sure what Carrot's opinions are with everyone reading everything, or whatever. We'll definitely be communicating a hell of a lot during this whole thing, no matter what the plans.

EDIT: Holy fucking ninja.
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