Castle Paradox

[Pepsi Ranger]

Hey, Everybody--

About this time last year (give or take a month or three) I launched the Second Annual Epic Marathon Contest, to which most of you know yielded zero results. After months of planning and writing to prepare for it, the zero entries that came from it were a bit disappointing...so much in fact that I decided to abandon future installments of the series.

I'm sending out the feelers right now to see if I should continue to shun the contest, or if I should give it another go. I figure, this is about the time that the Third Annual Epic Marathon should start if I were to give it another shot.

I can say that the theme behind this year's (if we have it) would be far simpler than last year's. The planning for it would only take a couple hours, as opposed to the months-long planning session that the last contest required, so it wouldn't have the physical toll on me that last year's had.

If any of you think you'd want to do this (with sincerity this time, and not a glazed interest), I'll go ahead and post the rules and such.

For those who are concerned about prizes...it won't be like last year's "choose whatever you want and I'll send it to you" prize. It'll probably be either one or both of my books, or something simple like that.

But we can figure all of that later. Just let me know if you guys will make it worth it to give this contest another try.

The poll will be available until Sept. 26 if you choose to use it.

Thanks.
_________________
Progress Report:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.

Tightfloss Maiden

Currently Updating: Chapter 2

[Moogle1]

Hooray it is Pepsi Ranger

With that said, I would enjoy an Epic Marathon Contest that wasn't so... epic. Maybe more of an Episodic Marathon Contest, where the same characters are preserved over the period of several episodes instead of taking place over the period of many hundreds of years. I am voting "yes" on this contest with that caveat.
_________________

Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

[LeRoy_Leo]

I blame my father's unbridled grasp on my fate for last years ZERO entry flop. I had OVER half of my game done when the dead-line came near and I decided that I wouldn't be able to finish it on time and moved on to other things. I could have finished too, if it weren't for those medling adults and their little tattle tale spy!

Since I am in college and away from my father's evil grip, I should have more time this time 'round. I just need to figure out a few things (Moving into a new place and accquiring enough money that I can ask a week off of work, or something) and I should be good. But it is cruel to make promises like I did last time. I'll just say I would be more than glad to give it a try.

PS: I am sure there is no one here (who was around a year ago) that did not appreciate all of your hard work on the contest (as well as the friends who helped you out). For that you have my undieing respect, Sir Pepsi Ranger, sir.
_________________
Planning Project Blood Summons, an MMORPG which will incinerate all of the others with it's sheer brilliance...

---msw188 ---
"Seriously James, you keep rolling out the awesome like gingerbread men on a horror-movie assembly line. "

[Ysoft_Entertainment]

Depending on the rules and theme, I might give this one a try. Just one question, are we allowed to use our premade graphics?
_________________
Try my OHR exporter/importer.
OHRGFX
Striving to become better pixel artist then Fenrir Lunaris. Unfortunately the laziness gets in the way of my goals.

[Sparoku]

[Fernurion]

The first year was a joy to watch. Pity about last year. I'd like to see you take another shot at it. I'll enter if I can (and lose), but due to university work I won't know if I can enter until the day before it starts.

[Pepsi Ranger]

For those who are marking either of the last two choices in the poll, the Epic Marathon is essentially a game set up in the form of a contest where each designer has to develop a "chapter" in an otherwise lengthy series. The first contest held three years ago was meant to "extend" the world of one of our beloved OHR games (with deserving criticism from some circles) by adding sequels to create an epic spanning many years beyond the initial journey. The result actually yielded a series of games that were completely independent of the base game and of each other, and really only had the game's title in common. For the most part it was a successful run, though the biggest thorn in my side came from the extensively long window of time that it remained open, which for the curious or forgetful, was eight months.

Two years later (despite the word "Annual") I decided to try the contest again, but this time with an original story line. The story called "The Volcanic Kings" involved a kingly exodus to an island of untold riches, where each monarch chose to partake in the plunder...all willing to share but one. The greedy leader saw the potential for power emanating from that island and slaughtered all the others to build his own personal throne, which he in turn used to stage bloody attacks all over the world, thus attempting to rule it. For five years his power grew, but the nations of the world caught onto his schemes and vowed to knock him off his pedestal. The contest required the contestant to pick a month from the five year timeline and a region from one of the three continents to use as a backdrop for his game (which could have been about anything). The purpose of the contest was to watch heroes rise from obscurity and set their mark amidst the impending war taking place all around the world. That contest was less successful than the first...

The elements that tie each contest together are that the game worlds are shared through locations and characters, and that each contest allows designers special incentives through design challenges dubbed "design missions." In the first contest everyone went in blind, and part of the trick was to somehow get their installment to transition from the game preceeding and the game following theirs without really knowing the contents of the surrounding games. In the second, I let everyone share their ideas about characters and locations to keep the consistency (if they wanted it), and set up forums to post all their ideas. The only thing I told them to stay hush hush about was the plot of their story.

So, that's the brief history of the Epic Marathon. If we go ahead and have the third one, the rules will be as lenient as the previous two, which basically means you can use whatever premade stuff you have if you really want to. The biggest change that will come with this one is that there will be no official start date. Essentially, I'll give you a deadline, and it's up to you to finish by the deadline. You can start as soon as you know what to do, or you can wait a month to get your fill from other contests. I don't particularly care when you start. The only thing I'll be sticking to is the deadline. The way I do deadlines in these contests is that you have an initial submission deadline, which means you need to have an identifiable game presented to the community by the set deadline, and then there's a bugfix deadline, which typically comes a week later, and is meant to allow you time to fix your bugs and to add those last minute details you intended to have for the final release. Games are eligible for judging after the bugfix deadline.

If the response is good enough, I'll post the rules and conditions as soon as possible, and you can work on it whenever you're ready. Like the last contest, the only stipulation I'll be setting on contestants is that no one should share their story line with another community member until the game is released. Everything else is fair game.

So, that's the nutshell for those who have no idea what this is about, or who need some info about the new one to gauge whether or not they want to do this. As for the general scope of the new contest, think Zelda, but different.

I'll elaborate more on that in the coming days.
_________________
Progress Report:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition

Currently Updating: General sweep of the game world and dialogue boxes. Adding extended maps.

Tightfloss Maiden

Currently Updating: Chapter 2

[Blue Pixel]

interesting... if what i think is right then ill enter. im probably doing the frist month where all the action happens.
_________________

[Mr B]

I for one would be interested. I'll have to wait until I'm done with my current slew of contests, though.