Minigame Competition - Official Rule Discussion, Contains official MGC rules.

I do. But those who use the strict meaning of mini don't because it really doesn't favor them.

At any rate, the best way to get people to stop doing something you don't agree with in a comp is to avoid voting for them. Eventually they'll get the hint.

I didn't post that screen I guess. Meda and I thought about that and shot the character selection down to four characters.

I just don't see how we can actually come to an agreement. Right now I like SP's the best. Because just because they're allowed doesn't mean people are going to do them. Less so with them frowned upon.

To be fair I would have to play it.

This is the kind of community that couldn't do something like that.

And why would that be?

I'm opening the discussion on the Minigame Competition Rules again due to an important question that was asked in Minigame Competition #25.

It is about allowing or not allowing multiple entries.
For further information read the first post.

Your opinions are appreciated.



Furthermore, I'd like to ask if it would be possible to put topics in the Vault that clearly state the rules, since I haven't seen such topics there when I searched for them. (This refers to all three competitions, Drawing, Spriting and Minigame).

^This is directed to Admins/Mods.

This post has been edited by Guinea on Apr 15 2007, 05:28 AM

I don't know for sure, I think that if someone makes two different games, they'll be both unpolished (bad entry's) and would'nt even reach the top 5 so:

Only ONE entry per member, please.


About Guinea's suggestions, I agree with everything except

-Duration should start from three weeks to max six weeks, since two weeks is not enough to make a "decent" minigame. And two months would be too long since everybody will have finished his game already by then...

-No limit on the file size since if someone would make for example a "Paper Mario Style" MGC, these sprites are quite large,...

This post has been edited by flipiberke on Apr 15 2007, 06:10 AM

1) Your duration argument makes sense. Probably this will be changed.
2) The file size rule is not a limit, but a suggestion. Hence the rule says "should", and not "must" or "shall". But you're right on that, too.
Especially now that GM7 tends to make .exes that are bigger anyway, it would be pretty limitted to limit the file size to 2MB.

No: File size is only a suggestion, not a rule.


About the argument about the current discussion:
Yes, this makes sense.
More comments, please.


(@ all: Please, focus on the yellow part, not on the 1-year-old discussion!)

But what if they can make good games quickly?

- Only one entry per member or team
- no filesize limit
- competition should last at least three weeks
- no pre-made engines allowed (this also means, that mods and hacks are forbidden)
- maximum of two people can team up
- game must be done in between competitions start and end date
- both top five and final voting should last three days
- don't vote yourself or you'll get a vote penalty

That's all what there is to it

This post has been edited by Ultramario on Apr 15 2007, 01:37 PM

This rule shouldn't be allowed.

Yes it needs a file-size limit, if you don't include too much graphics/sounds the file can be small. Can it be source-code available or not? Can you make a .GBC or .GBA file? DOS file? .NES file? Java file? Remotely connection to game by Telnet or whatever?

No, you don't, because some mini-games get quite large when people have the spare time to "pretty them up" using particle effects (like I did in the Boss Battle comp). Plus, GM7 has even larger file sizes than GM6.1 because of the Vista compatibility.

There should be no file size limit.

Also, typically Mini-Games are made in Game Maker, MMF1/2, and TGF, but if you can create those files from scratch, then I don't see why they wouldn't be allowed, unless they require an emulator.

Also, voting for yourself is a half-assed attempt at winning the competition. I never vote in the Finals because of this: I only vote for other people, and if I'm in the Finals, voting will put me at a one-point disadvantage.

Ultramario, I don't like the "max four team" idea, because then, four people teaming up can get a 1st Place badge, and other badges would be distributed too quickly. Plus, usually not that many people enter the competition anyway. I think there shouldn't be teams, or only teams of 2.

Also, Final Voting should only have to last one day, three days is a little too much, considering how few people pay attention to the comps in the first place.

And yes, the game should be started and finished between the start and end dates.

Also, the Comp Creator should be able to add "extra rules" stretching out from the normal basis, such as voting for yourself, size of teams, etc, except for file size, which should always have no limit.

Yeah that basically sums it up

edit: except the four people in a team rule, I disagree with that.

This post has been edited by Bigbowsa on Apr 15 2007, 12:53 PM

Or, say, you're making a WarioWare game that needs a whole bunch 'o mp3's in it for the the various speeds and microgames, therefore making the file size larger, dispite the game being rather small.

Allow multiple entries, but the maker(s) of said entries have to decide which one will actually make it to voting

1) makes sense
2) makes sense, but this is not a limit, it is a suggestion. Hence "should" and not "must"
3) makes sense too, but I'd like to give a bit of range here, since two weeks of holidays are actually a very long time, while three weeks of school/work are not.
4) Agree, but I think the "Game must be made within the competition period" rule covers that, but I could add that to make it clearer.
5) No. As stated further below, this would be unfair since it would give four people badges at one competition. Two max makes the most sense, since originally it was created for only one person per team anyway.
6) Already a rule
7) Top Five should take three, Final should take one, since at the finals, people already know the entries.
8) Voting for yourself = no. Agree with that. I'd say that voting for yourself just doesn't count (making your vote invalid)

Every game created for the competition should run on an average PC without the need of additional software, i.e. no gm6es, no RM2K games (except they include all files needed) and so on. Hence no rom-formats.

Agree with that. The rules are just a basic. The Creator should have the freedom to add rules, but he should be limitted in changing rules that are general.

Finally an opinion on-topic =)
This is how it should be done IMO.
If a Competitor starts on a game, he should not be forced to finish this game if he gets a better idea. If the Competitor has the time, he could also see which game of his is more popular in the FGD and enter the more popular of them. If a Competitor has the time for it, I don't see a problem in using that advantage.





Uah. That was a lot of stuff to comment on =)

I must say that I think we REALLY should make it so that Minigame Comps are no shorter than 3 weeks. Less than that just feels like not enough to me, especially since I tend to not be able to be on the computer as much in a day as a lot of other people can. Of course, not everyone needs 3 weeks to make a good entry - Hatman made Super Reel World, which is awesome, in only one day - but others do need a considerable amount of time. And about the holidays bit: not everyone is on holiday at the same time, and a lot of the time I, for example, am not on holiday when other people are. So I still think that even during holiday times people should be given a minimum of 3 weeks.