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Why you should join the dream games competition
Why you should join the dream games competition
| Name: | Jonathan Blair | |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Apr 08, 2007 | |
| Rating: |  4.0 out of 5 | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
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| Profile Page: | View profile page for Jonathan Blair |
Blog post
Ok so I cheated a little in the title. This is really my reasons for joining the Dream Games competition. Hopefully, when I am done you will also have some reasons of your own.
As most of you know Dream Games is hosting a $10,000 1 year game competition. If you don't know here is the link: www.mydreamrpg.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=101 and get off the drugs they are affecting your short term memory!
Part of the competition is writing blogs about our journey. Most have started with descriptions and discussions of their games (which will be in my next blog) but I wanted to do something different. I wanted to discuss why I joined and why I think you should too. Now I would lose all credibility if I said that I wasn't interested in the prize but I am honest enough to admit that as a one man show and with heavy hitters like the folks from CN:MI involved I have about as much chance of winning as Paris Hilton has of winning a spelling bee.
So why did I enter if I don't think I have a realistic shot of winning? Simple, just like everyone else here I want to make a game. Its the reason I bought TGE/TGEA. Its the reason I've spent a couple of thousand dollars on content packs and other software. Its the reason I've spent countless hours in front of my computer looking at tutorials and code instead of sitting at a bar trying to take that ugly waitress home.
And you know what, I still don't have a publishable game finished. Sure my time hasn't been a waste but my dream when I started was to make a game. This is where I think the folks at Dream Games got it just right. You don't win by having the best game (though I am sure that will be a major factor) you win by completing the tasks necessary to write your game. How many of us have stopped working because we didn't know where to go next or weren't aware of everything involved when we started and forgot something crucial along the way? How many of us have stopped simply because its freakin hard work to make a game and we got discouraged.
So here comes this contest where I get points for completing the steps towards making my game. And motivation? That's where the $10,000 comes in to play. But in reality anyone who completes the contest is a winner. Why? Because they not only can say they have done what they set out to do (complete a game) but they have a road map for completing more. Think about it. A game a year. Will it make you Electronic Arts? Nope. But it will make you a game developer and if your ideas are as good as you think they are you will make that $10,000 even if you don't win the contest.
Imagine what would happen if dozens of us showed up next march at GDC or some other conference with prototypes of our games. All because we took part in a contest. In fact I think it would be cool if this was part of the contest itself.
So why exactly are you still reading this? Don't you have a contest to go and enter?
As most of you know Dream Games is hosting a $10,000 1 year game competition. If you don't know here is the link: www.mydreamrpg.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=101 and get off the drugs they are affecting your short term memory!
Part of the competition is writing blogs about our journey. Most have started with descriptions and discussions of their games (which will be in my next blog) but I wanted to do something different. I wanted to discuss why I joined and why I think you should too. Now I would lose all credibility if I said that I wasn't interested in the prize but I am honest enough to admit that as a one man show and with heavy hitters like the folks from CN:MI involved I have about as much chance of winning as Paris Hilton has of winning a spelling bee.
So why did I enter if I don't think I have a realistic shot of winning? Simple, just like everyone else here I want to make a game. Its the reason I bought TGE/TGEA. Its the reason I've spent a couple of thousand dollars on content packs and other software. Its the reason I've spent countless hours in front of my computer looking at tutorials and code instead of sitting at a bar trying to take that ugly waitress home.
And you know what, I still don't have a publishable game finished. Sure my time hasn't been a waste but my dream when I started was to make a game. This is where I think the folks at Dream Games got it just right. You don't win by having the best game (though I am sure that will be a major factor) you win by completing the tasks necessary to write your game. How many of us have stopped working because we didn't know where to go next or weren't aware of everything involved when we started and forgot something crucial along the way? How many of us have stopped simply because its freakin hard work to make a game and we got discouraged.
So here comes this contest where I get points for completing the steps towards making my game. And motivation? That's where the $10,000 comes in to play. But in reality anyone who completes the contest is a winner. Why? Because they not only can say they have done what they set out to do (complete a game) but they have a road map for completing more. Think about it. A game a year. Will it make you Electronic Arts? Nope. But it will make you a game developer and if your ideas are as good as you think they are you will make that $10,000 even if you don't win the contest.
Imagine what would happen if dozens of us showed up next march at GDC or some other conference with prototypes of our games. All because we took part in a contest. In fact I think it would be cool if this was part of the contest itself.
So why exactly are you still reading this? Don't you have a contest to go and enter?
Recent Blog Posts
| List: | 04/08/07 - Why you should join the dream games competition 11/08/06 - Choosing a Path |
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Submit your own resources!| Stefan Beffy Moises (Apr 08, 2007 at 17:31 GMT) |
| Willbkool (Apr 08, 2007 at 17:39 GMT) |
| Jonathan Blair (Apr 08, 2007 at 17:47 GMT) |
This is directly from their rules post:
1st Prize: $10000 (this might be increased if we can find other sponsors)
There is also a post somewhere from Dave that mentions a sponsor when talking about the first prize (I'm just to lazy to find it atm)
@Will
Deadline to enter is July 31st. Though deadlines for the games are April 31st no matter when you enter.
Complete details so far can be found here:
www.mydreamrpg.com/community/showthread.php?t=1495
Though more scoring info should be available on the 14th.
IMO its a pretty easy decision to make if you've been working on things and never finished anything. Will it give you all the incentive you need? Nope but it certainly is a good start.
Edited on Apr 08, 2007 17:52 GMT
| J Sears (Apr 08, 2007 at 21:09 GMT) |
At least Paris looks good failing the spelling bee so I guess your saying your game will at least look good ;-)
Also who wants to be EA? they make pretty games that have huge bugs and little content. EA is the company I blame for the end of quality video games, they push the limits on graphics every time and that's it, C&C generals was so bugged/easy to cheat that it makes me too scared to even look at C&C3. Same thing with BF2, which is keeping me from buying the new BF
CN:MI has had some pretty sweet looking screen shots.
By saying making a blog is part of the contest is that the part where they say you get extra points for promoting the contest. I have mixed feelings about that, I think it is in anyone involved's interest to promote it for the chance of getting it big enough to have even more sponsors, but I think it may be wrong to give extra points for that (now if I read it wrong the last time I read it then disregard this whole paragraph)
Good luck with your project, I agree as someone who has started a few things with TGE/TGB and not finished them that finishing a project would be a feat, let alone winning the contest
| Jonathan Blair (Apr 08, 2007 at 22:28 GMT) |
I haven't seen anywhere where they say you have to promote the contest in your blogs. They may have but I haven't seen it. To me, the point of the blogs is to simulate the actual game creation framework and promote your game and get people aware of it. In reality even this blog wasn't as much to promote the contest itself but to get people to see how just being in the contest will help them complete their own game. That is what I see as important because that is why we are here.
If you haven't signed up yet I hope you do
| Tony Richards (Apr 09, 2007 at 02:58 GMT) |
@Stefan Beffy Moises - They guarantee the $10k for now and are looking for more sponsors to make the pot bigger.
I've not signed up, but that's mainly because I can't enter Fractured Universe since it won the last contest and I'm going to finish that and get it published before I start another game.
Edited on Apr 09, 2007 02:59 GMT
| Travis Wood (Apr 09, 2007 at 05:18 GMT) |
Edited on Apr 09, 2007 05:19 GMT
| Kevin McLaughlin (Apr 10, 2007 at 02:41 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
First, it serves the same purpose as say, the peices of an extended classroom assignment in college. First you turn in your thesis and have it approved... Then an outline, then a draft, etc. Now, a prof could just say "I want a completed work at the end of term," and have that be the end of it. But then you'd have a chunk of the class rushing to complete things in the last week or two, instead of working steadily at a measured pace for the entire duration of the assignment.
Working steadily at a measured pace is crucial to success at almost anything. It sets of habits of work that are invaluable. The blog requirement creates a sense of accountability to continue working on your game throughout the course of the contest.
Second, it's a learning experience - for the writer, and the other contestants and anyone else reading the blogs. For the writer, because one of the best ways to review your progress and your efforts for good and bad points is to write them down. You can learn a lot about what you're doing right, and wrong, simply by working through it in the process of putting it into text.
And for others... David Dougher was one of the entrants for the last contest, with his game Chime. As he went along, he wrote some wonderful updates on his progress, his mental path, his methods, and such. Afterwards, he wrote a great "afteraction review" of his entry. It was GREAT stuff - almost anyone could learn a lot about the development process by reading it. And likewise with these blogs. Other entrants, and anyone else interested, will have dozens of blogs reporting on the development process of those teams to peruse, study, learn from... It'll be a GREAT resource.
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