The Contest Results!
March5th00, chocobot, and I got together Thursday, December 08, 2005, and discussed the contestants for the 2005 Make-A-Game contest. Prior to meeting, we had played each and every one of the contestants. We got together in order to determine not what the Best Game was, but how and what other games to recognize. Here’s what we came up with ...
• First Place - $100 Prize + 300 Points
• Second Place - $50 Prize + 200 Points
• Third Place - $25 Prize + 100 Points
• Runner-Up - 50 Points
• Honorable Mention - 25 Points
This was a very difficult competition to judge. With any contest, there can really be only one winner. We don’t feel that anyone is a loser (well, except, umm, certain games); you all did a fantastic job, seriously. On to what you really care about, the results.
Honorable Mentions
Dark Tale #2 - An Interactive Story
Though this is much closer to a short story than a game, we enjoyed it. The writing was very strong, and it achieved exactly what it set out to do: to be a short, interactive story.
May the 28th: A New Beginning
This game has a very impressive length. Like many of its September the 14th predecessors, the game was long, linear, and filled with random choices. Like the other ones, the linear choices weren’t too bad, because a wrong choice allowed you to restart the battle. Not bad, lets you see all the options. But we all felt it got too old, too quick. A bit too much of the same thing throughout the game; for something this long, there needs to be more variety. No less, it still was fun at times and is a neat continuation of the series.
Wolves
Wow! What a neat concept. More of a puzzle, this was really enjoyable for its originality and simplicity. You knew what you were supposed to do, and you knew you just had to do it the right way. Had it been longer, it would have easily made the next level.
Runner-Ups
Is Dave Chappelle crazy?
This game hade a very high entertainment value from the introduction to the last page. It was not only complex (utilizing variables and similar features), but had lots of pictures and plenty of references to this entertaining show.
Ofsted Inside
Though we were a bit confused at what exactly Ofstead was, it became pretty clear, and added an interesting twist to this uniquely-perspective school game. The writing was solid, and this had some humorous situations and options. It felt a bit under construction, which kept it in the lower ranks, but otherwise well done.
The Cave: Survival at Most
We all were *very* impressed with this. This game is by far the “largest” (in terms of where you can go, what you can do, etc) on the site. Its openness is absolutely amazing and really, really stretches what you can do with a game that’s based on a CYOA book.
A whole lot of effort and creativity went in to this, and we really appreciate that. The combination of characters from other fiction (from Dilbert to Transformers), thought not original, really worked out well when combined with the openness of the game.
We were further impressed by some of the scenes in the game. They were new and original – the search for rats was well done (however you should use N/S/E/W, and specify on the 8x11 grid which one is which).
However, we’ve decided to not include this in the top three due to its incompleteness. There were just far too many places “under constructions” – we would have preferred to see the areas not in there, then in there and empty. As players, this really took away from our experience since we didn’t know where to go.
March had a hard time with the randomness of the storyline and the weak battle scenes. He also didn’t like how the character we chose (Tiffany) didn’t have any visible special powers. It did say that we would after all.
Chocobot did want this to be a top contender. HE absolutely loved the amount of creativity and originality in it. Thought he’s not a big fan of the September series, he was able to really enjoy this one, despite their similarities. IT was much more playable and felt a lot more like a “game”. The multi-functioning items were totally awesome, too.
I (Alexp) had to side with march on this one; I loved it, really, I did. I think this has potential to be one of the coolest games on the site. I don’t quite understand what I was supposed to do, but I’m assuming that’s the point. I can go in, do what I want, and leave. It is soooo huge. But, unfortunately, just not complete enough.
Third Place
Die Zombie! Die! / Die zombie! Die! Pt II We were just as surprised are you probably are to see this series make the top three. I mean jeeze, what can you expect from a Zombie game after all?
But our low expectations is not what helped this series win. The writing was incredibly witty; I found myself laughing out loud at many of the pages. The situation the player found himself in was equally absurd, which added to the experience.
The author utilized items and item effects very well, too. This added a lot to the game play. We also liked how each of us had a slightly different experience playing the game due to the paths we chose, I can see that playing this a second and third time would be enjoyable as well. A hard goal to accomplish with a fairly short text-based game.
Second Place
Mattias the One Knight.
We unanimously agree that Mattias is by far the best fantasy game on the site. It is everything we hoped Lodin’s Quest (a game that I made years back) would be. We thought it was really neat how you started out as a child and progressed, growing and getting stronger.
Playing this game was straight out fun. From the exploration of the various cities to the fight scenes to earning wages for work, the variety of activities in the game had one thing in common: fun. Though none of us are really familiar with the Arthurian legends, we appreciate the tie into them; that’s great.
There were quite a lot of interesting details in the game. However, a lack of detail in other parts (describing characters, scenes, storyline, etc) took away from the playing experience. Many of the pages had a rough and rushed feeling to them; some of the pictures were out of place, and there were lots of typos ("teh" instead of "the") that a quick proofread would have caught.
This was a very tough call for us. We sat around and discussed this at lengths for over an hour, weighing many of its fine points against Cryptode’s. But when it came down to it, Cryptode excelled in some of the key areas: storyline (more complete and thought out), use of the features, and player-friendliness. However, if Cryptode still had those two errors, and Mattias didn’t have such a rough writing style, Mattias would have been the victor.
First Place
Cryptode
Though it was a close match, we felt that Crytode was the best game in the competition. Heck, we don’t even consider Cryptode to be a game – it’s a true adventure, reminiscent of many of the classic and modern adventure games (from Zork to Siberia). The puzzles were very clever and – best of all – not necessary to complete the game.
The originality, as far as using the features of the site, was absolutely unparalleled. We were completely blown away at what was done in this game; heck, we couldn’t even figure out how you did some of the things you did (such as the Blackjack minigame). The driving scene w/ map in Everest (don’t even think of taking a cab when you visit there) was just over the top.
Another point we liked is that some of the hidden scenes had “gems” in them. For example, the Burger King. Most players are going to pass it up (I did, but march pointed this out). For him it was a real treat to see that you developed it so that you had to buy the food (as items), sit down, and eat them; leave with out eating and you lose them. Now that’s creative!
Our biggest complaint (and what made the nearly lose the contest) was the bugs. There were two ***very*** painful bugs (a result of poor testing) that totally ruined the end scene. The first was the endless final gun battle; you can’t kill someone unless you do a headshot, despite the fact that it tells you that you killed them with a bodyshot. The other problem was the lack of an END GAME link that both chocobot and I experienced. This was very disappointing and frustrating, especially after all of our “work” in the game.
The one area we feel (bugs aside) that needs improvement is the ending. It’s a bit anti-climatic and not terribly satisfying. An adventure like this needs an adventurous ending. If it was our game, here’s what we would do ...
- treat the first half of the combination (found in Vatican) as an item, not knowledge var
- receive the second half of the combination from the bad guy
- give the player the choice to try to open it, or just leave it
- create a twist/turn sequence that can only be solved with the combinations, or a long time spent guessing
Winners
Congratulations to everyone who won. March will be awarding the points very soon. Those who won cash prizes, you will need to either private message or email me your postal address so that you may receive the award. PayPal may also be used if you have it.
