Theme voting has started!

richard on 2008/08/30 23:59

Go vote for the theme of the 7th challenge! The choices are:

  1. Morning Fog and Frosts
  2. Flat-packed
  3. The length of a piece of string
  4. Punk
  5. Dust Bunnies

Voting will be open until the challenge starts.

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Comments

Tigga on 2008/08/31 00:01:

Exciting stuff. Looks like a good set of themes.

pymike on 2008/08/31 00:31:

Haha random themes :-D I'd predict which will win but I'm afraid I'd prejudice people against/for it...

bjorn on 2008/08/31 04:21:

meh, as long as you prejudice the same number of people for and against it won't matter.

powl on 2008/08/31 10:18:

how could dust bunnies not win?

Codexus on 2008/08/31 12:12:

I can't say I like them:

1) Great, I can comply to the theme with a simple glFog() call
2) Weird and too specific, will lead to endless Ikea packing puzzle games
3) Could be OK, I guess, but still very specific
4) Very open, can be interpreted in several ways
5) I expect a literal interpretation of the word "bunnies" in most entries

nilsf on 2008/08/31 12:44:

Meh, I'm not inspired by any of them. At least the list is short enough that I can probably have a few ideas for each theme ready by the end of the week.

RB[0] on 2008/08/31 15:58:

Actually, much as I may protest them, this group of themes is quite good, probably the best yet. The main thing I like, and dislike :P, about them is that it is really hard to come up with anything except an arcade like game for most of them, but not all.

Honestly though, this is the first group that has really made me think about an idea and making it fit more than just melding it into another idea :)

And just MHO, but glFog would not make you comply with the theme itself, needs frost and morning too.

nihilocrat on 2008/08/31 23:22:

Okay, I am going to throw out some ideas in the interest of helping people out, and perhaps getting other people to follow suit.
  1. Hmm... what about a vampire trying to escape before morning becomes day?
  2. Please, no Tetris offshoots. What about something dealing with transformer-like machines that /start off/ packed and need to be unpacked or perhaps prevented from unpacking themselves?
  3. Fleas using ninja rope! Garrote wire (err.. string)! Labyrinths (remember the string)! String theory (puns ahoy)!
  4. Since it's just a game, how about we actually /literally/ tear down the government? Swarms of punks destroy Capitol Hill (or Parliament or whatever you wish), but first have to break through opposing swarms of faceless riot police.
  5. Avoid the obvious 'bunny' part. This game is about cleaning up ever-increasing piles of dust before you suffocate to death.

ArmchairArmada on 2008/09/01 00:13:

I hate to sound negative, but I will anyway. These are not too inspiring, but maybe some of them could be workable.

  1. Morning Fog and Frosts - This one actually seems the most promising to me. It has a lot of potential for artistic expression.
  2. Flat-packed - Seems rather specific and a bit too physical. It's easy to imagine games with either space management or stuff being crushed flat.
  3. The length of a piece of string - This one threw me a little. I didn't know what to think at first, since it doesn't have to be taken literally. Ultimately, however, I thought that the most obvious route would be with rope physics simulations, which might be hard to make into a fun game.
  4. Punk - The problem I have with this theme is that there seem to be many different forms of punk -- none of which I know enough about to really comment on. I imagine a lot of people will have a character with a mohawk, though I'm under the impression that only a small percentage of "punks" actually have them. A stereotyped art style would be the inevitable result.
  5. Dust Bunnies - At first glance this seems like it could be a fun theme (it's definitely the most whimsical of the choices.) The main character or enemies be cute little dust-bunnies, which would be the easiest and weakest use of the theme, or it could be used in a more abstract way involving various cleaning style games (Vac-Man?)

Tough themes ... but with a little thought I'm sure I could come up with something.

pymike on 2008/09/01 00:25:

I've got to say that my hopefulls are "Morning Fog and Frosts" and "Dust Bunnies." The other ones suck IMHO.

eugman on 2008/09/01 02:49:

The only one I dislike is dust bunnies just because I think everyone will just have dust bunnies as characters instead of something less literal. Still, A great list.

Tigga on 2008/09/01 17:49:

My creative difficulty with "The length of a piece of string" is the length part. I can think of many ideas with string/rope but few where the length is somehow critical.

Akake on 2008/09/01 21:50:

I like these themes, myself. Dust Bunnies is one I can't think of a great idea for, but it's pretty much the only one.

I kinda like "Morning Fog and Frosts", though. It does, however, strike me as kind of a "Look and Feel"-type theme, IE:At its best inspiring a visual theme rather than actual play mechanics.

Flat-packed is nice, though, from a challenge standpoint. But if a game was going to really shine under that theme, there would need to be some lateral thinking, I think! XD

Punk is kind of a shallow theme, and I think it would lead to alot of games about "Rebels" and the like.

"The Length of a Piece of String" lends itself to alot of whimsical thoughts for me, but only if it isn't taken literally. If thought of in more of a loose sense, it brings me to alot of wierd ideas :P

I'm really pulling for "Morning Fog and Frosts", though. It'll be interesting to see what people make from it. ^_^

sjbrown on 2008/09/02 04:13:

Great set of themes. The only one I dislike is "Morning Fog and Frost". "Punk" would be difficult might have to spend an entire day on just the interpretation. But that doesn't mean I don't like it.

Alfred Rossi on 2008/09/03 01:03:

I'm surprised to see everyone so down on punk. Maybe there is a misconception here that punk is limited to punk music. It is so much broader and includes the futuristic cyberpunk and retro-futuristic steampunk genres. These center on (what's left of) life in dystopian societies and include widely regarded games like bioshock, fallout, and deus ex. The breadth of the creative possibilities here are astounding.

I'm really pulling for punk, but from the sounds of things here it'll be voted out fairly easily.

...to be honest the one that I'm much more scared of is "flat-packed"....

richard on 2008/09/03 01:39:

@AlfredR indeed:

Punk — An attitude of rebellion against tradition.

or...

Punk — A slow burning wick for lighting the fireworks.

:)

RB[0] on 2008/09/03 03:27:

For punk I think we're doing a steam-punk themes game ;)

Codexus on 2008/09/03 09:50:

Punk is already too wide even without adding cyberpunk and all its derivative which quite frankly I see as a bit of a stretch on the theme but if people are having fun making a steampunk game, that's all that really matters to me.

I think the reason why "dust bunny" is the best theme in the selection is its strong memorable identity. People will remember the compo with all the dust bunnies in a few years, but can we say the same for the one about the length of a piece of string?

Woodwolf on 2008/09/03 13:46:

Well, "The length of a piece of string" could create some nice physics-based games. But I guess it's "Dust bunnies" and "Morning Fog and Frosts" the two most appealing candidates.

RB[0] on 2008/09/03 15:30:

I think it is a bad idea to use a theme which specifically caters to one kind of game - ie, string is very strongly leaning to physics.
First, there are plenty of teams, both new and veteran, that will have a hard time with that, and will have to settle for a less innovative idea simply because they can't do it.
Second, even if they know how, some (most?) people probably won't want to make a physics game anyways - and a theme should define the game-play, not the game-type.

Just my 2cw, I like string and punk least, the other are all good IMO - but will have an interesting week with any I think :D

zhen on 2008/09/03 17:01:

This afternoon I found a great idea for Punk theme. A classic game with cyberpunk elements.

Also I have pretty good ideas on Flat-packed(pi-kea :D), The length of a piece of string and Dust Bunnies. but the last two ideas are difficult to implement. The problem of string-too-much-physic oriented.

I have no idea for "Morning Fog and Frosts". I can only think in scenarios maybe a fairy themed arcade, or something like that.