Winners #winning

Welcome, folks, to the announcement of the winners of the Quest for Fun Contest!

First off, I want to thank the judges for their hard work. Each of them brought something different to the table. Nelderson, a programmer and IT expert by trade, brought a keen eye to the design of the puzzles and minigames. IceDragon, also a programmer, as well as pixel artist and musician, brought a holistic approach with a Jamaican accent to the judgment results. Crimson, our guest judge, lover of anime and devoted disciple of Teloch (PBUH), brought him… self to the contest. Let’s give them a hand! For their efforts, the judges will each get +20 rep (likes).

Now, I’m not one to give out prizes just for participating, so I won’t. However, I will give +10 rep to each person who successfully got an entry in. The scores listed below are the average of the 3 final scores of the judges for each game. Remember, these are out of 60 points. The scores for each individual area may be posted by the judges in your contest entry threads (I know at least two judges plan to do this). If you don’t get your own individual scores, you can PM the judges for them. Without further ado…

Score: 51.5

Score: 48.8

Score: 42.7

4th place: Metal Gear Mountain Dew, by Syndicate
Score: 40.5

5th place: Last Dream, by Acetonide
Score: 39.7

6th place: Conundrum, by Zortik
Score: 39.2

7th place: Kitty Hunt, by Tsukihime
Score: 33.7

8th place: Quest for the Royal Jelly, by ashes999
Score: (33.7 - 5 point penalty = 28.7)

Credits to Loki for the award trophies and banners, Holder for the award trophy icons.

The winning game will be featured on the right side of the main site.

Once again, thanks for participating, and I hope you all had fun!

The one thing that draws any gamer to play videogames (unless you're particularly pretentious) is fun! As such, I thought it fitting that the first content for this RMVX Ace Community would involve making a game based around the concept of being as fun as possible. No slew of random battles, no 15 minute-long dialogue scenes of text after text. The purpose of this content is to create a short, engaging game that a casual RPG player would enjoy.

Requirements for Your Game to Qualify

1. Your game must include a minimum of three puzzles or minigames. "Minigame" will have a very loose definition for the purpose of this contest. It can even be a very simple type of fighting game, but has to be custom made. Generally speaking, a "minigame" here will be a type of task that involves a creative mode of gameplay. Puzzles are simply the standard types of puzzles you'd find in 16-bit JRPG's. It doesn't matter if the minigames or puzzles are scripted or evented. All that matters is if they function correctly.

Some examples: 1 minigame and 2 puzzles, 2 minigames and 1 puzzle, 3 puzzles, or 3 minigames. You can use either type of play element so long as you have 3 total.

2. Your game must involve a quest for a MacGuffin. A MacGuffin is simply some kind of object or person the player must seek out as the end goal of the game. It doesn't matter what it is, or why the player wants it. It's up to you.

3. The gameplay length must be between 15 and 40 minutes for an average playthrough. There is, of course, leeway in this.

4. Do not use battles in this game (unless, as stated above, it's a very simple custom battle system that doesn't take up much game time).

5. The game is limited to a maximum of 4 party members, but you can have just one if you want. It depends what suits the game.

6. You may have between one and two team members. If a team with two people in it wins, the prize will be split between the members.

7. Any dialogue must be written in English.

8. You must credit all materials you use that don't come with the RMVX Ace RTP.

9. The game must be made with RPG Maker VX Ace.

Judging

The entries will be judged by a panel of three (subject to change) judges.

The criteria used will be as follows:

Minigame/puzzle design (25 points): The most important part of the contest. How well the minigames/puzzles work and how fun they are are the major factors here.

Graphic Use (including mapping) (10 points): How well graphics are used together. This includes consistency of style and good mapping.

Audio Use (5 points): How well the audio is used, including the music and sound effects matching up to their actions.

Original Resources (5 points): This involves creating custom resources for the project submission. It can be custom graphics, music, or scripts. These don't have to be major or anything. A single custom sprite, or a single small script, or some short music composition would suffice.

Suitable storyline for the MacGuffin (5 points): The storyline does not (and should not) be complex here, but something to get the ball rolling.

Reasonably readable English (5 points): The dialogue should be written in a professional manner. I'm well aware that many users here do not natively speak English, and will struggle with this, so we will be lenient. However, chat speak, leet speak, lazy shorthand ("u" for the word "you") is unacceptable. Try to write as if you're writing a story.

Miscellaneous effects (5 points): Polishing off the game can go that extra mile. These are effects such as emotion bubbles, sprites jumping around in surprise, or other special visual effects.

The Judges

Nelderson
Niclas IceDragon
Crimson

Submissions

You cannot submit an entry if you are a judge. As the contest coordinator, I will not submit a game either. A forum will be opened near the due date where you can post a thread for your game submission.

Due Date

Don't be late! Entries are due by June 13, at 11:59 PM, Eastern Daylight Time (GMT-4).

The Prizes

What better incentive for an adventure than a reward for your hard work? Here are the prizes offered for this contest:

3rd Place: Premium Membership

2nd Place: $20 USD + Premium Membership

1st Place: $40 USD + Premium Membership + Spotlight on the main page of rpgmakervxace.com.

Good luck on your adventure, and make sure to have fun! And remember, quality is more important than quantity. It's better to have a shorter game with a better quality product than a longer one with a more poorly made product.