Adventure Cow > Contests

Proposal for Adventure Cow Compo

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Villain Mastermind:
After participating in the Mini-Ludum Dare 42, I was wondering if Adventure Cow should start a small game-jam/compo.

I would be a great way to drive up awareness of the site and Twine. I'd love to see these forums bustling with activity in areas besides Technical Support.

For those of you not familiar with game-jams, check out http://compohub.net/, http://www.ludumdare.com/, or see the Wikipedia article:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Jam.

Any thoughts?

dacharya64:
I concur. I think that there might have been the idea for an Adventure Cow competition before (Chris would know better) but it never really got off the ground. Now with the site rebuilt and the forums in place, it'd be great to give it another go.

Things to consider: Word limit? Passage limit? Theme? Prizes?

Villain Mastermind:
I suppose the final call would be up to Chris, but some brainstorming wouldn't hurt.

Major Elements

* Theme: Theme-based Compos are popular and help focus the devs or at least provide a little inspiration.
* Prizes: Monetary prizes might be out of the question because of resources and the problems they can bring, but sometimes community/creative recognition is more than enough. As much as I could use a few bucks, I'd be happier with a collective pat on the back. But that is just my opinion.
* Restrictions: Primarily team-size and time...As for additional restrictions: They should likely just be viewed as suggestions to add an additional challenge, not a rule set in stone. My suggestion is to treat them like extra credit for judging purposes.
Here are my judging criteria very loosely inspired by those of Ludum Dare:
* Innovation: Creative interpretation of theme, unexpected and novel use of tools, etc...
* Impact: Does the game/story have an impact (intellectually, emotionally, ideologically, etc)? Good examples of this are games/stories that stir up emotions in the player/reader, ones that stick in the their mind (for whatever reason), or ones that provide substantial surprises/shocks (not cheap twists, but genuine instances of Fridge Brilliance or Ascended Fridge Horror).
* Presentation: The value of visual (and audio, if applicable) elements only in terms of how well they enhance the game/story. Doesn't matter how much or how little, just how complementary or integral it is to the work as a whole.
* Extra Credit: Adherence to "extra" limitations or criteria, such as... Word and/or passage limits (minimum or maximum), no or limited macros, required use of a particular repeated word or phrase, etc.These criteria are looser and somewhat more abstract than Ludum Dare's and other compos, so that way they don't compel devs to cater to expectations like catchy soundtracks or pretty graphics. My goal with this is to encourage a more holistic appraisal of the entries rather than separating them into disparate elements. Devs should endeavor towards creative synergy of a work's elements rather than concentrating on parts and pieces.

dacharya64:
Hmm, didn't even think about the possibility of teams. Not sure if the collab function is up and running on the Adventure Cow site, but collaboration is still possible anyhow.The judging criteria seem pretty good, but do you think that also judging on literary technique might be important as well? This might fall under one of the other categories, but I think that because most games will be heavily text-based the strength of the prose and artfulness, etc., should be one point from which to judge the piece.

-Would entries be restricted to Adventure Cow games? Twine games in general? Any work of interactive fiction?
-Would works be restricted to unpublished games (ie developed for the compo) or would pre-written/published games be allowed? (the first is more like Ludum, the second more like other if comps)
-Would something other than games be allowed? Twine is an excellent tool for multimedia, and anything from a book of poetry to crazy-modern-hyperlinking-art could be expected.

Villain Mastermind:

--- Quote ---The judging criteria seem pretty good, but do you think that also judging on literary technique might be important as well?
--- End quote ---

"Literary Technique" would be under the heading of "Impact", more or less.


--- Quote ---Would entries be restricted to Adventure Cow games? Twine games in general? Any work of interactive fiction?
--- End quote ---

That is up to debate and whatever Chris decides. I'd venture to guess that it would be aimed at a select number of genres/tools, but not necessarily exclusive. I hope it isn't too restrictive because I'm actually thinking about creating my own I-Fiction library/tool that is inspired by my positive experiences with Twee/Twine.


--- Quote ---Would works be restricted to unpublished games or would pre-written/published games be allowed?
--- End quote ---

I honestly hadn't thought of the possibility of using already existing games. But since you brought it up, I'd prefer them to be created just for the compo. This is just speculation for a possible compo in the near future, so everything is up for discussion.


--- Quote ---Would something other than games be allowed?
--- End quote ---

The definition of "game" is pretty flexible. By many people's definition of "game", I-fiction doesn't count. I, myself, wouldn't count anyone out. For example, let's say that an entrant create in Twine a little app that carries out a short conversation with you. That wouldn't qualify as a "game", it would be something closer to a "digital-toy". And I would gladly accept it into the compo if it was my decision.

Let me mention that my vision of the AdventureCow game-jam/compo wouldn't be about "games", but "digital art". And by "digital art" I am referring to creative expression through a digital media primarily in the form of I-Fiction, Video-Games, and anything else that people can create and experience through their computer screens.

Hopefully this idea will inspire some to push various boundaries and create some things we've collectively never seen before or never considered possible.


--- Quote ---Hmm, didn't even think about the possibility of teams.
--- End quote ---

I'm partial to single-man teams, but that is just the way I've always worked because I'm a creative-control freak. Again, this is up for discussion, but I'm biased towards smaller, more intimate, efforts.

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