QuickBlend contest (Time frame to be determined) - a PyWeek/Ludum Dare rip-off!

I like the prize idea, but perhaps you could give a small portion to the second and third place winners, as well. Odd items for prizes could be useful, but don’t accept too many of 'em - you never know what people will donate.

Okay, I’ll work on the logo today or tomorrow.

Blitz could be good. Why is the L upper-case - for BLender? I like the name, though.

As to themes, would they be anything random, like ‘Nonviolence’, or ‘We need more puppies in the world’ or something like that? LOL - Or, would they be more logical, like ‘Action’, or ‘Adventure’? To be honest, I kind of like the random themes, as they will produce more inventive games.

@SolarLune: The odd random prize is probably better than having loads of them and it getting out of hand. Prize money for 2nd and 3rd place is possible, but I think would depend on how much money gets raised for each competition. You guessed it, the upper-case L is for BLender!

Haha: ‘We need more puppies in the world’ is a perfect example of a theme (that would probably lead to some interesting games too!), they would be random, single words, short sentences or statement. Themes like ‘action’ or ‘adventure’ would be avoided as they don’t really give a level playing field: most people probably don’t have a game based on needing more puppies so would have to create one, whereas most BGE users probably have some half-finished action game they can brush the dust off and wheel out. Also, the more random the more fun and creative people can be.

Cheers for your help with the logo! :smiley:

No problem. Here’s a draft of the logo - the perspective’s off, and it doesn’t look as good as I can get it, but it’s a start. If you like it, I’ll put up the GIMP .xcf file - otherwise, I’d like to see your version of the logo, since it’s probably better than this one. Was this close to your idea?

Looks awesome! I’ve got a soft-spot for pixel art, always reminds me of my youth playing amiga games. The .xcf would be handy if you would like to share it. I’m at work at the moment, I’ll post up what I got when I get back home (should be around 1am). Very close to what I came up with, including the perspective on the TV!

Okay, here’s the xcf file. The perspective’s still off, but it wouldn’t be too hard to fix. There are also a couple of other icons, instead of the ‘BlendHead’ that I made there. They’re both not as good as ‘BlendHead’, though.

EDIT: Perhaps we should put a game console and controllers in there, too? That would help to give the impression that it’s a gaming contest…

That’s a brilliant idea!

Cheers, I’ll look at the .xcf when I get home.

I can make a simple python program that will create random themes from a list of words, but I guess most themes will end up unusable this way.

What if it chooses 2 random themes, one generic and the other more specific. Example: cold, gravity.

Here’s what I threw together in my hour before work:


Not as stylised or interesting as SolarLune’s concept, a lot of work is need! I was thinking of having various game characters made in the BGE in the background behind the TV and text.

The problem with having a script generate random themes is, as Josip says: that most will probably be unusable. I also think using a script opens it up to accusations of cheating as it can be hard to prove that the themes were randomly generated (even filming it on youtube would be easy to fake). I was thinking of asking people like Ton, Blender developers, the BA moderation team, Blender Nation, Wolfire Games (they use Blender a lot in development), Blender cookie and so on. That way the themes come from someone inside the community but not involved in the contest, which alongside participants voting on themes should help encourage more involvement in the contest. What do others think? Or is random generation the way to go, using Excalaberr’s suggestion of specific and general?

i love SolarLunes logo, the old school cartridge doesnt see enough light these days :wink:
i also like Excalaberr’s theme idea… one / two word themes, open ended but still directed.

Thanks, saeblundr, but it was supposed to be a TV! LOL - I guess I didn’t draw it correctly. Still, I think the Blender logo (or a form thereof) should appear in it.

I think that single / double word themes would be good, or perhaps we could just vote on a set of themes - as long as it’s different themes each competition, it probably wouldn’t matter, right? Josip’s idea of choosing themes randomly would work - just type in a lot of different words, and have the program choose one of them. Then, if you wanted, you could expand on the theme chosen. I.E. the program chooses ‘items’, and you say the theme is ‘Items are people too!’, or ‘Items as weapons’, or whatever.

Hey, battery, I asked this before, but maybe you missed it. Why the BL in BLitz? What does the L stand for?

@SolarLune: The BL was to emphasise the BLender link in the name; just an idea really. Can scrap the upper-case L if you like.

SolarLune’s logo looks simply awesome and the blender head works well. I think the retro style fits the competition well.

Using a random generator to pick the theme would make things easier. How about each participant submits a couple themes when entering, all suggested themes are put in a list and python picks one randomly. What do people think?

I like that idea. People joining will submit two or more themes to the pool, then 2 themes will be selected from the pool.

Ex.

@battery - The uppercase L is okay - you’re organizing the competition, so it can be named whatever you wish. I don’t really like it so much as just ‘Blitz’, or ‘BLITZ’, but it’s the same word, so it doesn’t matter.

About the logo, thanks - I’ll fix it up so that it looks more official (the cartridge doesn’t look right from the perspective I drew it).

@Excalaburr - I like that idea of people submitting themes. Be sure to add a few yourself, battery, to ensure that people won’t submit the same themes over and over again (i.e. ‘cold’, ‘gravity’, ‘platforming’ probably would be put out a lot) for the generator to have a nice pool to choose from.

EDIT: On second thought, just ensure that similar themes aren’t chosen twice (or more) in a row.

@SolarLune: Fair enough, I’ll scrap the upper-case L and just go with Blitz. And you make a good point: repeated or too similar themes will have to be removed. Also, themes that are too wide or vague or restrictive will probably have to be removed as well; themes like: shooter, action or puzzle basically, things that are game genres rather than a theme for a game.

I’m going to start work on the site soon, so I’ll update when I have something to show.

Great. I think that themes should be restricting in terms of unique ideas - like you said, not too vague like ‘platformer’, but not too restrictive, either. You probably have the right idea.