Proposal for Adventure Cow Compo

[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]

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

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

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

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.

Would works be restricted to unpublished games or would pre-written/published games be allowed?

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.

Would something other than games be allowed?

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.

Hmm, didn't even think about the possibility of teams.

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.

[Chris]

There are so many possibilities here that I think the challenging bit is not coming up with ideas but reducing it to just one plan!

Vhillain: What was your experience like in Mini-Ludum Dare 42? Can you say a little bit about what was fun about it?

[Villain Mastermind]

What I liked the most was the feeling of focus from having a theme and a time restriction. The idea of having a built-in audience that might offer constructive feedback was nice, but I have no idea how many views I got.

While we're on the subject, here is the announcement post. My entry is titled "Revelations" and is hosted here at AdventureCow.

I hope this idea comes to fruition, but there are pitfalls to be aware of, like greed (if prizes are offered) or competitive ill-will.

Competition is good and all, but it should come second to building a creative-community that drives its members to improve their craft and have fun while doing it.

[dacharya64]

Competition is good and all, but it should come second to building a creative-community that drives its members to improve their craft and have fun while doing it.

I agree. The thing I'm more concerned about is getting enough of an audience and participants to really constitute a community. It's fun with more people, but finding people willing to spend time trying to write, build, and publish a game, and willing to stick with it for however long the competition runs, seems more challenging to me.

[Chris]

Competition is good and all, but it should come second to building a creative-community that drives its members to improve their craft and have fun while doing it.

Interesting. I think we need to have a specific focused event where people have to be communicating. Game jams work well for this because they're on one site. A day-long weekend workshop via chat, perhaps?

Also, Revelations was cool. I enjoyed the twist of being on the other side of the couch from the usual perspective.

[dacharya64]

I like the idea, Chris. I think this could work very well.

[Chris]

Awesome. Perhaps we could do a mini-workshop in a few weeks...probably a weekend would be best right?

[dacharya64]

Would love to participate, but I will be unavailable on the weekends of the 29th, the 6th, and the 13th. You don't have to work around my schedule, though; I'm sure there'll be plenty more opportunities to come.

[Villain Mastermind]

Now that I'm employed again, my free-time is virtually nil, but I will attempt to participate if possible.

Until the end of the month, I'll be off on Sundays and Mondays. After that, I have no idea what is going to happen.

[Chris]

I figure it may be at least a few weeks before I can get around to meaningfully planning something like this. August may be a good month, or perhaps even July. When we actually do it, I'd like it to be easy to get into so lots of people feel welcome to participate.

[dacharya64]

I think August would work nicely as well--still the summer for students, and it's before any big holiday rush through the rest of the winter.