About the Mini-ld #3

eugman on 2008/09/02 01:27

Hey, Richard, might there be any sort of exception to be able to use a tool we make as an entry in the mini-ludumdare coming up? It's starts the day before pyweek. I think if the tool is available, useful and well documented it might be reasonable.

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Comments

richard on 2008/09/02 02:38:

Define "tool".

Codexus on 2008/09/02 10:03:

Why wouldn't we be able to use it? There is nothing in the pyweek rules that prevents us from using all sorts of tools to create graphics, sounds, musics, models, textures, camera paths, maps or whatever. As long as the "tool" isn't a code library or part of the entry or in violation of some other rule there is no reason why it should be a problem.

richard on 2008/09/02 10:59:

Well, except that it'll be produced a day before pyweek starts, pretty much ruling out anyone else being able to use it :)

RB[0] on 2008/09/02 15:47:

Yeah, I would vote a DQ on that myself...
Because, if it is code then no one else can use it as well.
And if it is art/sound/assets then it would be outside the competition you were developing - and personally I think that is outside the spirit of the competition itself.

Just my 2cw though...

Tigga on 2008/09/02 18:13:

I too would say this is outside of the spirit of the competition. Knowing the five themes it would be very easy to write a tool helping you to make a game you have in mind for the specific theme(s)... which really isn't on.

ServalKatze on 2008/09/02 20:01:

What kind of "tool" is it? If it's really simple to use & useful (like sfxr) it should be fine IMO.

pymike on 2008/09/02 21:55:

But then richard would have to go over each entry a day or two into the pyweek competition, instead of working on his own project.

Codexus on 2008/09/03 09:43:

Richard, why would anyone else need to be able to use it? Maybe we're not talking about the same thing here. I'm talking about asset creation tools here.

There is nothing in the rules about those. Most of the tools I plan to use are commercial applications Photoshop, Cinema 4D, Reason which are only available to the people who paid for them. The very rudimentary custom plug-in I made to export my data from Cinema 4D is also what I'd call a tool in this context. I don't share it as I doubt of its usefulness to anyone else and releasing something is always extra-work. Even before the theme of the mini-LD was announced, I planned to improve it a little before the compo if I have the time for it. If I do something else as my Mini-LD entry, it will also be a generic tool.

It's not a way to cheat by doing early work on my PyWeek entry, quite frankly I don't care that much about the results of the compo, I'm in it to motivate myself to spend the week creating a game. I'm doing nothing that's against the rules (unless you want to change them just before the competition?) so if people think they should disqualify me for breaking "the spirit of the competition", so be it.

richard on 2008/09/03 09:44:

Define "tool" :)

Codexus on 2008/09/03 10:01:

In this context, a tool would be anything that helps you create your game but isn't part of it in any way. We're mostly concerned about software tools (though I guess if you made a real-life spirograph and use that for your graphics that would be a nice custom tool too ;).

RB[0] on 2008/09/03 15:23:

Well, you could create a game maker and call it a tool in some ways... I think as long as it is "asset-only" tools, then you probably won't be getting any advantages over other competitors...That I think is the problem most people have had, "tool" is such a generic term.