THE PROJECT

In your adventures through the Town of ZZT, you have been captured by the evil Dungeon Guards. Not recognizing you as the great escape artist you are, the guards have thrown you in the Dungeons of ZZT.

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skullie
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THE PROJECT

Post by skullie »

Okay, let me sum up the goal of the project.

To have a loose competition where everyone who's ever been involved in ZZT can submit a fabulous game, with very little pressure.

My original idea was thus: The competition would last until the end of this year. People would enter the contest anonymously by emailing us, and would be given an entry number. On the project's site we can have a link from each entry number giving the contestant a space to talk about their project, submitting screenshots of their new game or thoughts of their time in the community. This would keep people guessing as to who they are, and hopefully build some kind of excitement. Lemmer also thinks that from the main page of the site we can highlight classic ZZT games and such. Anything to keep interest throughout such a long period of time. At the end of the competition, the games are all released along with who created them. After the fact, we have an awards ceremony for various categories decided by us, the committee. There would be no topic.

I was originally going to title this "the big bang" and advertise it as an end-all to all ZZT competitions, to build excitement and get people from all over to actually come and do something one final time. I think that'd be pretty convincing. Darkmage doesn't agree with me though, and it doesn't sit right with me either.

Lemmer also thinks it would be hard to keep interest throughout an entire year so I thought that until the end of summer (the end of august) would do fine.

I think if we advertise this project correctly we can get all kinds of extremely old school people to join. Bongo, tseng, masamune, cait, breakout, clysm, and others are some ideas we've had.

Up for debate - The title of the project, the length, the fact that contestants are anonymous, if we need a topic.

I think that without a topic people could technically submit unfinished games. Should this be allowed? If we are truly going for a final blast of games I think people can submit whatever the hell they want. I'm still trying to figure out if we should bill this as a competition or event.
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Post by vjd »

I was originally going to title this "the big bang" and advertise it as an end-all to all ZZT competitions, to build excitement and get people from all over to actually come and do something one final time. I think that'd be pretty convincing. Darkmage doesn't agree with me though, and it doesn't sit right with me either.
Here is my suggestion: keep the name "big bang," but change the definition. Instead of saying ZZT is going to go out with a bang, we can use the name in the sense that this is the rebirth of ZZT, a new GENESIS if you will.

:drussrox: :drussrox: :drussrox: :drussrox: :drussrox: [/quote]
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Re: THE PROJECT

Post by vjd »

Up for debate - The title of the project, the length, the fact that contestants are anonymous, if we need a topic.
Okay, my suggestions:

TITLE: Either something like the Big Bang or I kinda like "ZZT Genesis." It'd be a neat idea to make a new website for it, too. Like zztg.com or something like that.

LENGTH: I have no real opinion on this, except end of summer seems good. I don't remember how to do anything in ZZT so I probably can't make a game in that time anyway.

ANONYMIITYIITRYTY: Sure, why not.

TOPIC: Definitely should not have a topic, because that will make the huge batch of games really boring and repetitive. Instead of a topic, there should probably just be guidelines instead. I can't really think of what they should be, but it should probably be something like:

1 - Game must be certain number of boards long
2 - Must be an actual game, not a "magazine" or "cinema" or whatever
3 - etc.

Obviously, those guidelines are up for discussion, and I'm not actually suggesting those two things, they're just examples. They shouldn't be too restricting, either, though one thing I would like to see as a guideline is to keep inside jokes and obscure humor out of this set of games.

Why? I think that this project could be used as a way to attract new people to the ZZT community, since it's being heralded as a major event (by us). It might be a good idea to keep the games as accessible as possible to get 'newbies' interested.

:icannotcontrol:

That's it for now, more later if I think up something good.
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skullie
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Re: THE PROJECT

Post by skullie »

vjd wrote: TOPIC: Definitely should not have a topic, because that will make the huge batch of games really boring and repetitive. Instead of a topic, there should probably just be guidelines instead. I can't really think of what they should be, but it should probably be something like:

1 - Game must be certain number of boards long
2 - Must be an actual game, not a "magazine" or "cinema" or whatever
3 - etc.

Obviously, those guidelines are up for discussion, and I'm not actually suggesting those two things, they're just examples. They shouldn't be too restricting, either, though one thing I would like to see as a guideline is to keep inside jokes and obscure humor out of this set of games.
I do like the number of boards idea and stuff - although that still wouldn't stop people from releasing previously unfinished games. But I do think that some people would want to create a community-based game or include a lot of inside jokes from the old days, since bringing in the old school is a major draw to this event.
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Post by vjd »

Yeah, well, if it's a funny joke from the old days, fine. But I don't think someone new to the community would understand the (alleged) comedy behind "agh. more dobermans."

I think if there are inside jokes involved, it should be presented in a manner that at least makes it accessible. Like say your main villain in your game is GChucky or something. Instead of just saying "Ok, I think GChucky sucks so he's the villain," present him as a character based off of GChucky. Like uh, evil space emperor G'Chuck, or Dark Lord G. Chuckadorius, master necromancer.
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Post by http://yahoo.com/ »

or you could make it so that gchucky is not allowed in any game, period
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Post by dave2 »

the whole posting screenshots/community thoughts stuff would probably kill anonymity really quickly. if you guys care about that. also if like 20 people take part there should be a bunch of different awards, best graphics, best music, story, etc
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Post by MadTom »

anonymity would go downhill quickly for anyone with a distinctive graphic style, yeah

also this rules.
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Post by Zenith Nadir »

i'm up for it if you can arouse enough participation! i'm not really old school though, just old

also agreeing w/ dave2 and madtom re: screenshots
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Post by Dr. Dos »

attn revvy and dave2

I suck at making forums super secret.
MadTom wrote:anonymity would go downhill quickly for anyone with a distinctive graphic style, yeah

also this rules.
I remember remaking old zzt screenshots for a zztv channel and being able to tell a board was nadir's because of the oven design in the kitchen. \m/
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skullie
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Post by skullie »

I was thinking about the screenshots thing. I really want to keep things anonymous, to keep people guessing.. so I never want to outright say who people are. But if people figure out who's who by screenshots in the middle of the contest, I think that might be pretty cool. It would be like creating its own hype, basically. So I think it'd be ok.

Anyone that wanted to actually stay anonymous would submit vague comments or screenshots anyhow.
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Post by Quantum P. »

Just let the contestants decide whether they want to be anonymous or not, but try to sell them on the idea that anonymity will create hype.
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Post by dave2 »

yeah, thinking about it... people who want to let people know who they are, will anyway. And people who want to be anon will do it themselves. It might be kind of cool for the contestants to send their stuff to the heads of the competition who then write little descriptions and post images; that way it can be selectively tantalizing!
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Post by MadTom »

agreeing with quantum
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