Hi! I've been toying with this contest idea for a while, and I've finally decided to pitch it on the forum. Back when I was struggling to find a good title for Promised Lands, I at one point turned to this Random Video Game Name Generator for help. It did not help at all, but it produced a whole bunch of funny/silly/unlikely video game names. Try it for yourself and you'll see what I mean.
The point of this contest I'm proposing is for contestants to make a quest based on one of these randomly generated titles.
Due to the usually silly results one will get, I think it is best suited for very short quests. There won't be any size restrictions however, but I'm thinking of having a very short deadline (something like the two weeks quest contest) to stress the point that it's about having fun and not to be taken too seriously. While I also think the idea is best suited for joke/comedy quests, the author would of course be free to make a serious quest if he feels like it.
Here is how I see it happening, but feel free to suggest changes and new rules if you think it would benefit the contest:
1) Because the temptation to hit the "generate" button until you find something you like would be too great, I would be generating the titles for everybody and then would randomly assign them. This is precisely what I think would make the contest interesting and would encourage you to be creative: you don't get to choose, you have to work with the unlikely cards you've been dealt and make the most of it. This should make you go out of your way to be creative, which is great!
2) However, even if you are indeed creative and good-natured, some results can be really difficult to work with. For example, you could be assigned a title like "Heinous Tennis - The Card Game" and understandly have trouble figuring out what to do with it. Therefore, I suggest that each contestant will be given three of these randomly generated titles, and will get to choose the one he prefers.
3) Once the applications are closed, the titles will be generated and given out, and people will have a couple of weeks to think about the quest they'll be making. The restrictions would be the same as the two weeks contest: pretty much everything is ok (planning, scripting, importing graphics...) except actual screen design.
4) After that, you are given two weeks to actually design your quest and submit it.
5) Polls will be created to pick winners in different categories, but because of the inherently random nature of the contest, once again I'll stress that it's about fun and not about winning.
So please post here if you're interested in participating so I can tell if there's enough interest, and again feel free to suggest rules changes if you can think of a better way of handling things.
Edit #1: You may have noticed that the results are occasionally NSFW, but because PureZC is a family friendly place, results containing words such as "Porn" or "Nazi" will be ignored (I'm sure nobody wants to make a quest with these themes, and it's probably against the forum rules as well). If such a result is generated, you will be given another one instead. Apart from these NSFW exceptions, you'll get the results as they appeared.
Edit #2: Applications will be closed at the end of next sunday (February 9). I will open the contest sometime on monday - late enough to make sure it's no longer sunday anywhere, so don't worry about timezones. If you did not volunteer to participate, but you change your mind after the deadline, that's fine too, you can still join, but you'll just have less time to work on your project than the others.
Edited by Jamian, 03 February 2014 - 11:30 AM.
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