Eka's Portal

Although this isn't a complaint, most will probably agree there aren't quite as many good and finished vore games as there could be. I had a little idea on how we could encourage that to change! I occasionally hear about game making contests... where anyone is given X days / weeks / months to make a game then shares it with the public, who then votes and the best game wins. Maybe we should create an official yearly contest for the development of vore games? It wouldn't as big and fancy as Google Code contests or anything, but I think it would still be fun!

What would be the prize though? Getting real money involved might be a little tricky... although people interested in seeing a good vore game could donate to a common fund, which then gets gradually distributed to the first X winners after voting ends. Artists accepting to do free art for the winner is an even easier option! If not, we could just have the contest without a special prize... being the winner is a gain in and of itself, and the game / developer still gets promoted

So should we hold an yearly vore game development contest? Would this encourage better vore games to be created? What do you believe the prize for winning should be?

If you could get a few people to do a contest for free once, you could probably start a patreon to build money for the next one - each person could offer alpha builds of their game as the patreon rewards :3

The only problem I see with doing this, is that most builders are solo hobbyists who have college, a job, or both.

I'm one of the ones with a job, and I'm also having to relearn a lot due to having to change the software I'm using. I learned on the cutting edge programs, but I can only really afford to work on the free software. Old tricks an shortcuts are no longer valid, and I'm having to relearn through trial and error.

Aside from this, these are great ways to get ideas flowing. Global Game Jam occurs in January, and gives 48 hours for the game to be completed. The trick is that there is a secret theme that isn't revealed until the start of the GGJ, and the start time is lock to 5pm the Friday it starts. (and No leaking the theme until the last time zone has started)

Basically, it's a good idea, but getting it going is going to be tricky.

Thagrahn wrote:The only problem I see with doing this, is that most builders are solo hobbyists who have college, a job, or both.

I'm one of the ones with a job, and I'm also having to relearn a lot due to having to change the software I'm using. I learned on the cutting edge programs, but I can only really afford to work on the free software. Old tricks an shortcuts are no longer valid, and I'm having to relearn through trial and error.

Aside from this, these are great ways to get ideas flowing. Global Game Jam occurs in January, and gives 48 hours for the game to be completed. The trick is that there is a secret theme that isn't revealed until the start of the GGJ, and the start time is lock to 5pm the Friday it starts. (and No leaking the theme until the last time zone has started)

Basically, it's a good idea, but getting it going is going to be tricky.

I'm aware that in a comparatively smaller community like ours, things would happen a lot slower. A 48 hour contest would be way too short... we'd want to give developers at least a week, or maybe even a month. That being said, I've seen some games created by single developers during the course of 48 hours... and in some cases I was quite mind blown at what they could achieve!

In our case I'm thinking of an own contest exclusively... either held by Eka's Portal officially, or by another vore website or enthusiast. Attempting to make a vore game for a general game development competition would be... quite something. Though if someone was just crazy enough to try it AND their game managed to win the contest...

I think our advantage compared to a few years ago is that there are several free game engines available, which make the process easier. Unreal Engine 4 is still under a restrictive license, but anyone can make free games with it. There's also Godot now, which is the first open-source engine with an interface (close UE / Cryengine). Let's not forget those like Cube2 Sauerbraten (Tesseract) or Quake (idTech 1 to 4), although most require writing your gamecode in C++ which is why I'm less fond of them compared to engines where you write your game in a scripting language at worst.

A good idea. Programmers need an incentive. If put a certain time frame, the chances to make the game grow.

This does sound like a good idea, Granted I don't really have the time or resources to make a game myself, let alone the know-how

This is not an awful idea. I've definitely had lots of small game ideas that haven't seen the light of day. The focus should definitely be "small scope"

I took part in the global game jam earlier this year. Game Jam doesn't have any prizes for winning, or even any formal judging, it's mainly a social event that people participate in for fun. I don't see any reason why you couldn't do something similar with vore.

With a little knowledge and a moderate amount of time and motivation it's surprisingly easy to make pretty decent games, and I don't really think cash prizes are necessary. That said, it would probably encourage more people to enter and might also increase the amount of effort people put in.

So late to this topic, but I'd love to get involved in a game jam sometime.

TastyTales wrote:So late to this topic, but I'd love to get involved in a game jam sometime.

Still wish I had the money to support such a contest. If my situation ever gets better someday, I might try to put together at least 100$ for this sort of thing... granted someone else can organize it since I suck at that.

There is a HUGE problem with the money Idea.

Who would be in charge of the money?

It would be so easy to steal and take off with it, it would be almost comical.

I don't know if there is anyone in this whole community trusted to the point that people would be willing to hand them money in trust for another person to be determined at a later date.

It would be better to have Reputable artists pledge to donate giftarts, or assets for the game to the winners.

Though that would be difficult in and of itself.

Pluss you'd need really long development times. I mean look at the existing Pros here using assets that offer the greatest ease of use pound for pound, and spend more time then they probably should making games like, MystaIt takes them months if not years to make a fully realized game.

I just don't see this competiton as fesible, and I think it actually may cause some harm.

You'll probably only attract inexperianced devs, and people with little desire or tallent for making games who are hungry for what ever the prize ends up being, and who will blow a ton of their time on this to acomplish almost nothing, when they should probably be foccusing on school, or work.

Prove me wrong but I don't see this happening. There are too many pitfalls, any where something can fail it will fail.

game jams are an established form of contest, not sure what this guy is talking about. I don't think it would spark new games to be created, but it would be a fun exercise and competition for devs to home their skills and maybe get some ideas they had been stowing away.

problem is, fetish games tend to be really content heavy, and making a Content heavy game in a game Jam is way harder than just making some cool new mechanic and making a short game that shows that mechanic off, which is what usually happens at game jams. I would be interested in participating, but it would have to be a bit of a Time period For it to work properly

also any kind of judging system would be hard because I guarantee people would vote for the type of content that appeals to them, and not necessarily the actually better or more well-written game. Same thing with judges.

Im trying not to think of it as a contest but more of a game jam. There are quite a few around the world where the idea is to make a game in a short amount of time. Sometimes they just have a weekend! (I don't think we've got that kind of resolve though, as non-professionals).

I have to admit, the prize money situation does raise a few issues and I like your idea for an alternative prize. Though yeah, without someone spearheading this and getting it going I do worry we won't be seeing anything like this soon. Maybe we need to get a game development group going like the writing group here?

mZmm wrote:also any kind of judging system would be hard because I guarantee people would vote for the type of content that appeals to them, and not necessarily the actually better or more well-written game. Same thing with judges.

Ah yes, this would definitely be a problem. It'd be hard to ensure there isn't a bias when it comes to judging the entries. I'm not sure how far I'd get if all the judges were put off by furries, for example.

also I don't think anyone half reputable here would ruin their entire reputation to make off with like $100 and get blacklisted by everyone else LOL a hundred bucks is like two weeks of work for any half-decent game developer in this community who knows how to market their content properly

On the stealing the money note; Obviously this would have to be organized by a trusted entity, as every game jam held in the world. This is why I suggested that if enough people were willing to support the idea, we might as well ask Eka / Leshana whether Aryion could host it... this site has been around for years and is definitely a trustworthy group. If not then it could be held on websites specialized for this sort of thing, such as Kickstarter... if something goes wrong and you have proof, the administrators can be contacted and will usually return any money stolen via unkept promises.

mZmm wrote:game jams are an established form of contest, not sure what this guy is talking about. I don't think it would spark new games to be created, but it would be a fun exercise and competition for devs to home their skills and maybe get some ideas they had been stowing away.

problem is, fetish games tend to be really content heavy, and making a Content heavy game in a game Jam is way harder than just making some cool new mechanic and making a short game that shows that mechanic off, which is what usually happens at game jams. I would be interested in participating, but it would have to be a bit of a Time period For it to work properly

also any kind of judging system would be hard because I guarantee people would vote for the type of content that appeals to them, and not necessarily the actually better or more well-written game. Same thing with judges.

Aaaaaand? So what if they are Established?

No mater what someone has to be incharge of the money.

Even if you make a thrid party site the money holder, SOMEONE has to tell the thrid party site who to give the money to.

That is a VERY easily abused position.

All of my concerns are still valid.

Alovion wrote:If you could get a few people to do a contest for free once, you could probably start a patreon to build money for the next one - each person could offer alpha builds of their game as the patreon rewards :3

Maybe we should use this idea? Have the first one be a free get together of game developers showing what they're capable of by making a game in a certain amount of time and then start offering prizes and judging later.

0Anesthetic4u wrote:

mZmm wrote:game jams are an established form of contest, not sure what this guy is talking about. I don't think it would spark new games to be created, but it would be a fun exercise and competition for devs to home their skills and maybe get some ideas they had been stowing away.

problem is, fetish games tend to be really content heavy, and making a Content heavy game in a game Jam is way harder than just making some cool new mechanic and making a short game that shows that mechanic off, which is what usually happens at game jams. I would be interested in participating, but it would have to be a bit of a Time period For it to work properly

also any kind of judging system would be hard because I guarantee people would vote for the type of content that appeals to them, and not necessarily the actually better or more well-written game. Same thing with judges.

Aaaaaand? So what if they are Established?

No mater what someone has to be incharge of the money.

Even if you make a thrid party site the money holder, SOMEONE has to tell the thrid party site who to give the money to.

That is a VERY easily abused position.

All of my concerns are still valid.

fam if you're this paranoid about someone stealing your money I'm never going to convince you

nobody that's been in this community for more than 10 minutes would destroy their entire reputation to run away with a couple hundred bucks they could probably make back in a few weeks

yes, don't give your money to some complete rando, but I thought that was pretty well known knowledge????

TastyTales wrote:

Alovion wrote:If you could get a few people to do a contest for free once, you could probably start a patreon to build money for the next one - each person could offer alpha builds of their game as the patreon rewards :3

Maybe we should use this idea? Have the first one be a free get together of game developers showing what they're capable of by making a game in a certain amount of time and then start offering prizes and judging later.

Agreed that the initial phase should be for free, and just a showcase of skills. The theme should also never be something that forces the creator's choice in vore content.

Themes from past Game Jams, including a couple local only, incluse: The sound of a beating heart, the orocalcos, light justice, and Colors of the Rainbow.