Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Sneeze Comp (A Draft)

There's been some discussion about making a separate minicomp for CYOA games. I've whipped up a draft for rules for such a comp. I'm just trying to get a gauge how people feel about this.

SNEEZE COMP Draft



The Name
Sneeze Comp is a play on words: Adult Choose Your Own Adventure

RULES



  •  Small or medium-small games only, minimum 1,000 words, maximum 15,000 words of game text. Code doesn't count as game text.
  •  The game can be written for any interpreter, as long as it has a CYOA interface. That is:  a) All in-game actions should be controlled either by clicking or selecting a provided choice. So, no typing unless it's to select a choice.  b) The limitation does not apply to system commands (i.e. save, load, quit, undo, restart, options).
  •  Game must have sex, obviously. Only restriction is characters involved in sexy situations should be 18+. If a character's age isn't mentioned, they are assumed to be 18+. Do whatever you want otherwise.
  •  A broad theme for the competition will be provided, for example, possible themes might be "on a desert island", "damsel in distress", or "nurses". *It isn't necessary to follow that theme*, so if you don't like that theme you can still submit an entry, but voters are asked to take it into consideration when they rank the game.
  •  Voting will be done by rankings. Each voter will be asked to rank the three best games, or in the case of less than five games, just the best game. Winners will be determined by an [instant run-off vote](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting).
  •  Any game that doesn't win is viable to win an honorable mention -- these are: Sexiest Game, Funniest Game, Best Writing, Best Implementation, Best Use of Theme, Most Original. These are also voted.
  •  Some multimedia is allowed, but games are expected to be mostly text. Remember the 4-3-2-1 principle -- 4 in-game images, 3 pieces of music, 2 sound effects, 1 image for cover art. You are responsible for providing attribution or obtaining licenses if the work is not your own. Absolutely no photographs of RL people! To give writers without access to expensive graphic suites a chance, please no images of sex. Yes, I like them too, but not all of us can sink a chunk of money into a good image program.
  •  2.5 mb limit on the game file (leeway can be if given the file-type is "naturally large" for a blank story file). The game file should run on one of the standard interpreters.
  •  The game should be your own work. You are, of course, encouraged to recruit beta testers.
  •  Whoever runs this competition can't submit their own entries.
  •  By submitting an entry, you are stating you've read and understood all the above.

PRIZE -- The game will be put into a hall of fame, honorable mentions will be listed, and participants will also be listed. I could whip up some kind of image for people.

11 comments:

  1. Why don't you want CYOA games in the minicomp? What happened to Purple Dragon?

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    Replies
    1. Oh no, I'm not the King of the Minicomp. I'm just trying to gather thoughts and feelings.

      Delete
    2. Nice idea A Wan. I would rather have 2 mini-comps of 3 games & 3 cyoas, than 1 comp with 6 entries (half interpreters/half twine, etc).

      Cyoa's just don't immerse me like a game does. Though I do appreciate the stories, it is apples and oranges.

      tmn

      Delete
    3. We forget the past mighty quick around here. The choice is between 2 canceled minicomps of 0 games & 0 cyoa vs. 1 minicomp of 3 games. A minicomp needs at least 3 games to be run. If you split things up, you won't have enough entries and you will get 0 minicomps. If you kick the cyoa out, the AIF community will go back to dying like it was before. Keep in mind too that if GoblinBoy were to write a new game, it has a good chance of being a graphical Twine minicomp game.

      Delete
    4. "If you kick the cyoa out, the AIF community will go back to dying like it was before."

      I think you've gotten two wrong ideas here:

      1) That I could kick out CYOA from the minicomp.

      2) If it happened, the AIF community would die.

      1 is flat out wrong, I don't run the minicomp and there's so far no indication that cyoa and aif will be divided, and 2 strikes me as excessively apocalyptic. The worst that could happen is that there aren't enough games for both and they get merged together.

      My hope, however, is that if a cyoa-only comp does come, it doesn't detract from the minicomp but supplements it, giving the community something to look forward to twice a year rather than just once a year.

      Delete
    5. Well said Another Wannabe. I kinda feel like Lost T missed my point. There were 4 or 5 cyoa stories in last year's Comp, I felt like I cheated those authors because cyoas just don't do it for me like a game does.

      Had they been separated, Lost Trout may have "won" my vote in the cyoa comp.

      tmn

      Delete
    6. Maybe your intentions are good, but it doesn't look good to others. cyoa authors have happily participated in the minicomp in the past. One year, there's an influx of cyoa games. People complain that cyoa games aren't real IF and aren't as good as "real" aif games. Suddenly, someone who isn't a cyoa author and who hasn't participated in the minicomp in the past creates a new minicomp just for cyoa games that will run at the same time as the normal minicomp. cyoa authors never asked for a separate minicomp, so why the sudden need for one right now, just before the normal minicomp is about to start. It just looks fishy to me.

      It's not possible to merge two minicomps if the rules for the two are different.

      Delete
    7. If I do end up doing this, it wouldn't be at the same time as the minicomp. I said as much on the reddit thread:

      "In fact, if we end up doing this, it might be timed to be precisely six months away from the minicomp to give writers plenty of time to contribute to both."

      I agree that running this the same time as the minicomp would be a dick move, which is why I'm not.

      And this idea didn't come from nowhere, it came from this thread:

      http://www.reddit.com/r/AIFCentral/comments/365cov/aif_minicomp_2015/

      Delete
  2. Don't forget CYOAs tend to have a quicker turnaround. I could whip something out in a week if I had to. This wouldn't necessarily subtract from my parser work.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Hey man! Just thought I'd stop by to see how you're doing and how things are going with SNEEZE. Hope you're well!

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