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cairnswm
25-09-2007, 08:26 PM
This years GameDev.Net Four Elements (4E6) will be starting in 2 days time (27th).

http://www.gamedev.net/community/contest/4e6/

6 months to make a game. We should be able to get some decent entries out in time.

Thaumaturge
26-09-2007, 04:14 PM
I'm still uncertain as to whether I will be entering in this contest.

I had been very much planning on entering, but I want to start in on another project soon, and am not sure that I want to work on two games simultaneously.

However, if the elements grab me, and a reasonably small but interesting idea comes to me, then I may still enter.

On the other hand... would anyone be interested in a group project entry for the Four Elements contest? that might make it easier for those of us taking part to work on more than one project at once, although it does introduce the potential complication of splitting any prizes that we might win...

UntouchableOne
26-09-2007, 04:46 PM
@Thau. It's not about the reward you recieve but rather the satisfaction of creating the game and love for making games. Passion! Well I'm thinking of entering as a group, I already have someone in mind. If he agrees, I'm sure others may join us. I'm really not sure yet-we need to wait and see i guess.

Thaumaturge
26-09-2007, 05:02 PM
It's not about the reward you recieve but rather the satisfaction of creating the game and love for making games.

Of course - I'm merely thinking of a practicality of the situation in which we do win something, and then have the potential problem of finding a way to split whatever prize we win. ;P

SilentBob
26-09-2007, 06:41 PM
mmm... for some reason I can't post a new thread :(
so here -

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2280-Zero-Punctuation-Peggle

If you haven't seen any zero-punctuation, then go and find 'em all and enjoy

Gazza_N
26-09-2007, 11:05 PM
I'd enter, if it weren't for:

(a) I'm already working on DB and fleshing out another project
(b) I'd be hopelessly outclassed. ^^;

I'm very keen to see what the theme is though. I hope that some of our guys do enter - it'll be cool to see what people come up with!

UntouchableOne
26-09-2007, 11:52 PM
@ Gazza. I also feel "hopelessly outclassed" but I say what the hell, might as well give it a bash. I don't think I'm going to have much time to work on this even though we have 6 months.

dislekcia
27-09-2007, 12:32 AM
mmm... for some reason I can't post a new thread :(
so here -

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2280-Zero-Punctuation-Peggle

If you haven't seen any zero-punctuation, then go and find 'em all and enjoy

Just watched that with Nandrew, he'd never seen ZP before! ;)

I'll get Miktar to move you to the posting allowed group thing blah... Might take a while due to rAge.

-D

Thaumaturge
28-09-2007, 12:21 AM
Gazza, I second UntouchableOne's response: outclassed or not, 'tis fun to enter!

Anyway, bear in mind that even a great-looking game can be beaten by one with superior levels of fun.

Of course, your first objection is a reasonable one - it's probably not worth over-doing it with too many projects! ^^;

[edit] Of course, as I said earlier, making it a group entry might lighten the load to some degree, and furthermore, might help us in creating more a competitive entry. ;)

[edit 2] Ooh... the elements are up, and they look interesting!

The elements: (http://www.gamedev.net/community/contest/4e6/default.asp?mode=elements)
- Ponies
- Accountants
- Crystals
- Explosions

Note that entrants are only required to include three, although I think that it might be fun to include all four...

More or less off of the top of my head: The Four Accountant Pony Riders (edit: accountants that ride ponies, that is... although pony accountants do sound interesting...) of the Tax Season ride forth, and it is up to you to deploy your deadly giant crystaline sorcerous construct (think: "Big, crystal-based 'mech") in the quest to defeat them through the use of your deadly (and, of course, often explosive) arsenal of magical weapons?

UntouchableOne
28-09-2007, 01:02 AM
Creative idea Thau. This looks like a lot of fun. I'm going to start thinking up some ideas ASAP. I'm sure I could come up with something decent for this..."pauses with the outclassed though again"

Tr00jg
28-09-2007, 08:15 AM
Its much better elements than last year! It could lead to some cheesy indie game that takes a poke at casual games. >.<

Agrajag
28-09-2007, 09:20 AM
My idea still needs to be fleshed out but it is basically just an RPG and the elements come into the story. As is normal in an RPG, the world is in danger and you have to stop it.

Accountants: These are the enemy. Like normal accountants, they are boring, dull, timid and tend to do what they're told. Unfortunately, some sinister force is now leading them and making them steal ponies.

Ponies: Ponies are somehow magical. The accountants are stealing them in large numbers so that they can use the magic to blow stuff up.

Crystals: I'm considering having battles similar to how they work in pokemon, just replace pokeball with crystal.

Explosions: Games and explosions are like cake and icing. Cake is good without icing but better with it. Games are good without explosions but I personally think that a game of chess where the pieces explode as you take them would be awesome. In that vein, things can just spontaneously explode to create a humour effect. Also, the accountants are trying to use the ponies' magic to cause explosions.

What do you guys think?

ShellShok
28-09-2007, 10:45 AM
OMG at Agrajag's idea.

UntouchableOne
28-09-2007, 11:04 AM
My Idea 1
Concept: You control a racing team, but a weird one. You play an accountant that has to spend the teams money wisely on pimping up the pony. The pony can be "suped" up in many ways. Looks, NOS, there should be many many possibilities here. You race in the crystal races. You collect crystals along a the race and at the end, the races with the most crystals wins. The crystals can be sold to get more cash for the accountants to spend on the pony. The crystals can be kept and used as explosives in the race. The explosives can be launched at opponent racers to damage their pony.
Well thats what I've thought up, many ideas still to come. What do you guys think?

Thaumaturge
28-09-2007, 10:51 PM
I very much like your idea, UntouchableOne. A thought occurs to me: why not make some of the upgrades pony behaviour upgrades, and have the actual race be automatic? You then have a variety of purchasable modules that control how the pony behaves - have it launch crystals at enemies in front of it, or enemies nearby behind, or have it stick close to the inside, etc...


Creative idea Thau.

Thank you. ^_^

A gameplay and story element idea occurred to me earlier: I imagine a set of three Voodoo Accountants who the player visits at times. These Voodoo Accountants can usually be found stirring their cauldron, which in this case is seated over a fire and contains ledgers (cooking the books? ;P). They may be consulted on the future or on events unseen, and do so by "throwing the stationary' - a collection of pens, erasers, pencils, etc. that they read.

(Yes, I know that throwing the bones is a craft of the sangoma, not of Voodoo - that makes it a little more amusing to me to use, in fact. :P)

BlackHawk
29-09-2007, 11:21 AM
The elements of this competition reminded me a lot of some of the elements of FFXII. Instead of having Judges, you have accountants that magically accounts for everyone's life. If you do a very bad/evil deed, an accountant may come by to audit your life.
Substitute the chocobos for ponies and you have travel sorted. The upgrade ideas of Thaumaturge could be added here.
As for the crystals and explosions: magic system. Or you could go for a shortage of light saber crystals and your party is sent out to a secret location where crystals are kept. However, these are special crystals, since the accountants use them to track everyone else.

Or something like that ;)

Thaumaturge
03-10-2007, 11:28 PM
All right, I think that I have the beginnings of an idea...

The setting is the future of a fantasy world (after all, surely at least some fantasy worlds escape destruction, or the depletion of magic, or an inexplicable never-ending Middle Ages... ;P). The world has advanced, and a major form of "technology" takes the form of linked crystals.

The sorceries involved in foretelling the future have also advanced. Perhaps amongst those most concerned with the future (once civilisation arose from the level of most of its inhabitants worrying about the next attack, or the summer's crop) were those in finance, forever concerned with the future of their funds and those of their clients.

As a result their oracular powers grew prodigiously, albeit constrained to some degree by their focus on money. Before long many well-to-do families had hired accountants, not only in order to keep their books in order (such as ensuring that shipments that did not occur did not show up in said books... ;)), but also to advise on the upcoming events.

Yours is such a family. One day, however, something horrible happens: a figure, dressed in archaic armour, appears in your home and steals your little daughter's beloved toy pony.

There is nothing for it: you go first to your trio of accountants, to be found, as always, in the basement, who discover a large and recently-ensconced hoard of money in a nearby tower that is believed to be abandoned. With a target in mind, and a crystal-and-brass device (which might look suspiciously like a bowler hat...) through which to request advice from your accountants, you venture forth in your thaumatomech, designed to accept the latest in crystal technology, to do battle with the minions of the new evil, and, ultimately, to retrieve your daughter's toy pony!

Now I come to my problem: I am not decided on the matter of gameplay. The most obvious form would be something in the vein of a light action-rpg, involving lots of colourful sorcerous weapons and explosions, but this seems a little trite to me.

Similarly the idea of making this an action-puzzle game, in which weapons and enemies are used to unlock the path ahead.

I do have a vague image in mind of a hex-based casual game, most probably something along the lines of a puzzle/strategy game, but I'm not sure how that might be applied to the story outlined above, or otherwise what might be made of it...

edg3
04-10-2007, 05:35 PM
Im going to be working with my friend (potato) on this one, and we agreed on going for a RPG styled game, which involves fantasy.

Acountants: They control the world of shops and upgrades and without one you wont be able to buy from shops! gasp!
Ponies: Your favourite mode of transport in an RPG, comes in various models
Explosions: Naturally you're an adept magician
Crystals: the source of all evil, all enemies have been infected by these hell crystals and only we can save them (naturally)

Will share more info when its been completely decided on.

Gazza_N
04-10-2007, 05:41 PM
@Thaum:

I think I just died laughing at your game description. In fact, I laughed so hard that I ended up resurrecting myself (still laughing) to type this. I beg you, with every fibre of my newly-undead being, make this game. The Thaumatomech is, of course, essential.

Thaumaturge
05-10-2007, 04:51 AM
*chuckles* I'm glad that you like it, Gazza. ^_^

*wonders what manner of undead Gazza has become...*

I did toy with converting the concept into a serious one, replacing the toy pony with a pony artefact, but if the scenario has as much humour as you suggest then I may well stick with the humorous version.

I do very much like the concept, I'll admit, so I would very much like to work on it. I am a little concerned about how I might keep the humour going in-game. As it stands, I envisage a fairly action-oriented game with fairly simple gameplay (albeit quite possibly with customisable weaponry). My ideas at the moment are:

1) The link to the accountants will of course be present, intended to be capable of providing relevant (albeit cryptic and fiscally-worded) hints.

2) I could have enemies shout things along the lines of "You will never get the pony!".

3) I could include cut-scenes that show interaction with the main villain or his emissaries.

Does anyone have any further suggestions?

And don't worry, Gazza, I'm very attached to the Thaumatomech concept. ;)

In fact, I may very well want to use it (along with other fantasy-mech variants, such as the Necromech) again sometime...

Nandrew
06-10-2007, 01:32 PM
Oh, bugger, I've just had an idea but I don't want to be distracted from something else I'm keen for. >.<

Said idea was triggered by the idea of "accountant pony riders" that Thaumaturge threw out right at the beginning. I've been throwing the idea of a Golden Axe-esque game (Golden Ledger, anyone?) with the emphasis on teamwork and character strengths that I think about when I consider Star Wars Republic Commando.

Six month to do this, you say? One wonders whether or not I'll be able to get off my ass and away from other interesting projects to land on this one.

Tr00jg
06-10-2007, 01:39 PM
Said idea was triggered by the idea of "accountant pony riders" that Thaumaturge threw out.

When I read that I was thinking something in the vain of "Four Accountant-Pony-Riders of the Apocalypse".