Start of The Official Charas Game Making Contest

[Glitch]

Well here it is! This is the start of the not quite first annual...

Official Charas Game Making Contest!!!

This is it Charas, this is your chance to show people that we can in fact finish a game! In this contest you must create a small RPG Maker 2003 game, that should be Under 1 hour, and no less than 10 minutes.

This contest is beginning, right now, and the deadline is...
*The Deadline is now March 25th until further notice*.  Entries will have to be in by Midnight of that day.


Judges :

Originality/Creativity/Story : Glitch
Mapping/Visuals : Meiscool
Music/Sound : Coasterkrazy
Programming/Systems : Dragonblaze
Fun Factor/Interactivity : Ace of Spades

Rules :

TIme Limit -- The game must be under 1 hour long. These are not full length games, but they should include a beginning, a story, and an ending.

Your Game -- Obviously this game has to be one you made yourself, no taking other people's games.

RM2K3 -- Games should be made on RPG Maker 2003 or 2000. Unless you have extenuating circumstances (i.e. you do not have, and cannot obtain, RM2k3) than you can contact me and the judges will discuss it.

Demo -- This should not be a Demo for a game. This game should have a legitimate ending. This does not mean this game has to be a brand new original game, you can make a small prequel or sequel to a currently existing game. Or you can make a small story that takes place during your game.

All contest entries must be started after the contest starts. Using/modifying your exsisting projects would be an unfair advantage, so please don't use them (i.e. Meiscool couldn't enter Metal Tears, and Saikar couldn't enter CoD2). You can use characters, ideas, and pretty much anything else from an exsisting project, as long as you start it as a brand new project.

Games should be uploaded on a file sharing web site.

Please Beta Test your games before uploading them. You will be graded poorly if your game is full of flaws.

!Bonus Points!
There are a handful of bonus points that will be awarded by different judges for doing certain things in your game. These are not too big, their worth will be decided by the judges that award them. Don't worry about them to much, they're mostly things you should be doing anyway.


!Judging!
Ok, each judge will post how they will judge their section later on in this thread. But the basics will be like so...

Each judge will give their score for their category, then all five sections will be added up and averaged out with each other. In the event of a tie between games, each judge will give their overall score for the games, and those will be averaged and factored into the original score.

Originality/Creativity/Story :
0 - You flat out ripped off another game, your story was horribly uncreative, your dialogue and writing was bad. You used bad grammar and spelling.  Essentially your game was just an abominable uncreative waste.

1-3 - You used a not so original story, but kinda managed to throw in some originality. This would also include a fan game that doesn't manage to distinguish itself from the original. All in all your game is the standard "Find the four elemental crystals" or just other horribly cliche games.

4-6 - You either had an original idea but failed to execute it well, or tried to do a not so cliche idea and didn't get it right. This means you were on the right track, but just kinda missed the mark.

7-8 - You had a very original story or concept, or managed to take a cliche concept and put a great new twist on it. You managed to make a very creative game that feels like playing something brand new. Your story and writing were excellent, few grammar and spelling mistakes, and the story is engaging. All in all an original game.

9-10 - You had an amazing original concept. It's either never been done, or never been done as well. Your game is just all around outstanding, and leaves me wanting to play more or for the story to keep going. You stayed away from cliches and had a very original story. Keep in mind, this is hard to get, you gotta make one heckuva game.


For some help, try taking a look here.
These are some good tutorials that will give you some sound advice for how to make your game not suck.

I would like to advise people against making a topic for your contest game. If you would like advice on screen shots from your game, just go   here.

If you would like advice on other aspects of your game, feel free to ask questions or ask for help here in this thread. However, please do not become dependant on either this thread or the Screen Shot Central. These are your games, it's ok to get a little help and some advice, but remember, this is YOUR GAME.

Well, that's about it. If it seems a bit weird it's probably cause I'm tired and need to sleep, I'll go over to make sure its clear later.

Got any questions than go ahead and ask.


Also, I would like for anyone planning on entering to declare their intentions in this thread at some point or another so that we can keep you on track. Alright, that's about it, good luck everyone!

[WarxePB]

Coolage. I'm definitely entering this thing, although I'm not totally sure how well it will do in the originality section... I might be considered a THIEF for trying it.

[Rayonius]

Dibs on Shrek! (not the movie plot, of course)

[Meiscool-2]

I judge on mapping and graphics. This includes battle animations, charasets, and the custom factor. I'll give numbers in 3 catagories, then average them out into my final grade. You could have horrible graphics but great maps, which is why I do things this way.

Graphic Choice :
0 - Standard RTP, no imported resources.

1-3 - Standard RTP and popular RTP edits. Few imported resources.

4-6 - Mostly common imported resources. This includes things like FSM, Mac and Blue, ect.

7-8 - Mostly edited resources, but still common. Things like recolored Mac and Blue or recolored popular charasets would go here. Custom resources that I know you didn't make will also go in here.

9-10 - Mostly custom resources and/or highly edited. This would mean large combination chipsets, custom charasets, ect.

Mapping:

This is duh. If I like your maps, you get a good rating. I'll try to be as non-chipset bias as possible here. Read up on my mapping tutorial to find out how I map. Odds are, the closer you are to the way I currently map, the larger your grade here will be. Lastly, if I find your maps hard to walk about or confusing, you will lose points here.

Graphic presentation:

This is where you get points for great poses, cool battle animations, ect. I'll also gauge how well the colors of your game match up (such as charaset objects with the hero characters and the chipsets) as well as style matching. If you use chipsets of more than one set style, I can tell you already that you will rank low in this. Using more than one chipset style is one of my urks.

Hence, this means that if you don't go through the effort of picking up any new resources for your game, you'll automatically rank low in one department, but could still get a 7 if you rank high in the other departments.

EDIT: Eh, I guess I'll do something like CK is doing below with bonus points. I'll be giving out Bonus Points for maps/games that use good/custom overlays on many of their maps (at least 25%). If these overlays please me visually and look natural, you will gain points to your averaged total. I do this because A: If you have the detication to make overlays, you deserve it, and B: overlays might not exactly make the game look better, but they do add atmosphere and difference between other games.

Oh, and don't mind Osmose. He's just jealous that I'm better than him at everything except sucking:D

[Dominicy]

Originally posted by Meiscool
I judge on mapping and graphics. This includes battle animations, charasets, and the custom factor. I'll give numbers in 3 catagories, then average them out into my final grade. You could have horrible graphics but great maps, which is why I do things this way.

Graphic Choice :
0 - Standard RTP, no imported resources.

1-3 - Standard RTP and popular RTP edits. Few imported resources.

4-6 - Mostly common imported resources. This includes things like FSM, Mac and Blue, ect.

7-8 - Mostly edited resources, but still common. Things like recolored Mac and Blue or recolored popular charasets would go here. Custom resources that I know you didn't make will also go in here.

9-10 - Mostly custom resources and/or highly edited. This would mean large combination chipsets, custom charasets, ect.

Mapping:

This is duh. If I like your maps, you get a good rating. I'll try to be as non-chipset bias as possible here. Read up on my mapping tutorial to find out how I map. Odds are, the closer you are to the way I currently map, the larger your grade here will be. Lastly, if I find your maps hard to walk about or confusing, you will lose points here.

Graphic presentation:

This is where you get points for great poses, cool battle animations, ect. I'll also gauge how well the colors of your game match up (such as charaset objects with the hero characters and the chipsets) as well as style matching. If you use chipsets of more than one set style, I can tell you already that you will rank low in this. Using more than one chipset style is one of my urks.

Hence, this means that if you don't go through the effort of picking up any new resources for your game, you'll automatically rank low in one department, but could still get a 7 if you rank high in the other departments.

glad I'm too busy for this.  xD  you as the judge for maps will be scary.  your like the greatest mapper here so you'll have high standards, and my maps, are, well, they've got the essentials.

EDIT: actually, once I finished the first chapter of *points to signature* It would be pretty fun to make a charas game.  I probably wouldn't put it in a contest, but I was just thinking about it and I think I have a good storyline already forming. xD

[Dragonium]

I'm going to try hard to get my entry finished, but don't hold your breath. I'm going through an especially lazy patch recently.

[aboutasoandthis]

I had a day off of school today and I just now read the contest section...

All that wasted time...

I'm entering! I'm gonna shoot for the win!

[coasterkrazy]

I suppose I'll do this like Meiscool.

I judge on music and sound. I'll judge on the categories below, and also get an overall from the average. The difference is, I'm assuming most people entering can't do original music, so I'll give bonus points for original music. You will not score any bonus points if the music is bad (I mean obviously really bad, like one instrument, bad chords, etc), but the better the song, the more bonus points (max amount still to be decided). Bonus points for original music can only help you because I won't count that category in dividing by the total number of categories. But be warned, if you try to use all original music and it isn't good, points WILL be deducted from other categories. So make your own music ONLY if you are confident in your ability to do so. Now, on to the categories.

Situation:
This is simply how well the music fits the situation. This will probably simple enough to do barring places where there's no obvious emotion. Those are the places where this category will be most scrutinized, but you will score points for good music choice for the obvious situations too.

Choice/Originality:
This is pretty self-explanatory. If you choose music that's extremely overused (like the popular FF7 themes and such), then you will lose points in this area. However, if you write your own themes, you will most likely gain points in this field unless, once again, they are absolutely terrible. BE HONEST ABOUT CREATING YOUR OWN THEMES! I haven't heard every song out there, so I won't know what is original and what isn't. Therefore, you must specify, and be honest for the sake of the competition! If you have someone else (like a friend) write it for you, it should NOT count as yours! But since I have no way of truly knowing in that case, it's based on the honor system. If you choose not to honor it, then live with the guilt of knowing YOU CHEATED.

Sounds:
Now I'm not as big in the sound department as I am in the music department, but I can still pick out good use of sounds from bad ones. This category is like the two music categories combined in that it's based on proper use and choice. However, I feel it would be getting to detailed to give out bonus points for original sounds. However, if you make them, and you tell me so, it could score you points in this department. Use of RTP will be less strictly graded in this category than in music because I know sounds are harder to find and such.

So overall, I can really only judge on situation and choice. Obviously, choice of music will shoot way down if you use RTP since there's so much out there to use. However, you can still do decently in the situation category since it doesn't really relate. That's about all I have to say. Any questions, PM me, or if you feel that it is something everyone needs to know, ask here.

Good luck.

[Daetyrnis]

I'd like to join, my only problem is the March 17th deadline.  15 days seems kind of small to make a nice game.  Especially when we have prior commitments.

Oh well, I'll give it a shot. ^_^

[Osmose]

If anyone is entering, here's a tip: Stuff as many random objects (leaves, stumps, bushes, animals) as possible into your map, and you'll get a 10. If there's a single space without something on top of it, you get bumped down to an 8 automatically.

[neb87]

Originally posted by Rayonius
Dibs on Shrek! (not the movie plot, of course)

GOD DAMINT  

[Shady Ultima]

anyway we can get a bit of a later date for that deadline? I have a full time job that leaves me pretty tired, and I work almost every day.

I do want to enter though, just not sure how much work I can put into it in 15 days, with maybe a half hour to an hour tops per night.

[Archem]

I seem to have time on my hands, so let's see if I can piece something together.

[Meiscool-2]

Wow dude, March 17th? Expand it a little. RPG Maker isn't our life ya know. Giving people a around a month would probally increase the turnout rate.

[Glitch]

True, but it also increases the amount of people that will just kinda forget about it after two weeks. With a short deadline people are forced to work fast on it, and it keeps you from making something too freakishly long, or getting involved in something you can't finish.

You guys should be glad I didn't follow the suggestion of one of the first people I talked to, they suggested it be about a week.

But seriously, if people show they are legitimately working hard on these games, and are making real progress despite the time limitations, I may be more than happy to increase the deadline to allow for some polishing, or extra time to finish.

Just start working on the games, don't think about the deadline, if it's getting close to the deadline and it looks like people are doing good, and they need more time, than that's cool. But until then, that's the current deadline.