Iron Game Chef - AAR

[Mike Holmes]

If you are intending some never-to-be-changed, set-in-stone list of possible genres and titles, I want postmodernist deconstruction in it. And I wanna be the Iron Game Chef Postmodern, even if I have to fight clehrich and Jonathan for it!

Heh, if I did that, I'd probably give it to Jonathan for Co9C to retroactively replace his Gamist title. :-)

Mike

[talysman]

If you are intending some never-to-be-changed, set-in-stone list of possible genres and titles, I want postmodernist deconstruction in it. And I wanna be the Iron Game Chef Postmodern, even if I have to fight clehrich and Jonathan for it!

Heh, if I did that, I'd probably give it to Jonathan for Co9C to retroactively replace his Gamist title. :-)

o no! stripped of my title AND my game, all in one fell swoop! what did I do to deserve this?

it's kind of funny to suggest that Co9C is a postmodern game, since I kind of don't "get" postmodernism. I'm not saying that it's not postmodernist, but that was definitely not what on my mind when I wrote it.

but back to the questions of the competition. I'm kind of wondering if genres are the best way to go.  first, you have the question of what level you are going to divide up the genres: by mood? by props and settings? by story types? by the major standard groups? if you go just by the last, what are you going to choose for the five genres?

I'm kind of inclined more to moods, because I suspect there are fewer of those, and because I think you get fewer cross-over issues on the mood level than on the props and settings level. you have horror, you have humor, you have ... um, action? rambunctiousness?

of course, you could stick with the broadest categories possible, and that might work. Past, Contemporary, Futuristic, Fantastic. hmm...

[Mike Holmes]

it's kind of funny to suggest that Co9C is a postmodern game, since I kind of don't "get" postmodernism. I'm not saying that it's not postmodernist, but that was definitely not what on my mind when I wrote it.

No question. A metaphysical place that represents the space created by artistic endeavors? There's an implicit question as to whether the court even exists or is simply a deconstruction of the mental states of the artists. I can't imagine anything more postmodern.

but back to the questions of the competition. I'm kind of wondering if genres are the best way to go.

I pondered this for a long time. What I wanted were categories that people could easily recognize and grok. Such that I wouldn't have to explain them to anyone, and they'd be inspirational on their own. Now, to get them recognizable enough I have to make them broad enough that they aren't all that inspirational, but given the number of entries, I think that's not a problem.

I'm thinking something like the following for categories other than Fantasy: Sci-fi (includes post-apocalyptic), Modern (includes Crime, Espionage, and Supers), and Period (includes Pirates, Western, WWII, Gangsters, etc).  

These cover all of John Kim's Genre keywords (and other encyclopedia categories), BTW, except for Horror. I'm thinking that Horror is more of a mood, as you say, than a genre, and people should feel free to tack it onto the other genres. I may have to make that explicit.  

Note how many categories are created if you break things down even one more level to the "included" categories. If we did that, then I'd probably not ever repreat, and just keep coming up with genres. Hmmm.

Mike

[timfire]

After that, two threads started when the competition starts:

[*]"The Iron Game Chef", the main thread with the traditional announcement. The place for all development posts, comments and general business. Belongs to Indie design surely, if something does.
[*]"The Iron Game Chef submissions", the thread to separate actual submissions and their final versions from the chaos of the main thread. Only for short linking posts with title, a couple of lines and a link or more to the posts in the main thread containing the game text. One post per submission, only submissions posted here count, and no other posts than submissions. Doesn't belong anywhere by the letter, but we all know that the spirit is more important as far as rules go. Ron would probably give permission?[/list:u]

I like this idea, but I'm concerned that some people may skip the development thread and go straight to the submissions thread. I'm not sure if this is a realistic concern or not, but maybe you could state that all competitors must submit an "entry" post in the development thread that states the basic concept of the game before they can post in the submissions thread.

[Lxndr]

No worries of that.  The submission thread, in Eero's version, requires link(s) to the main/development thread.  You don't get to post your game in the submission thread, just links and a teensy (few sentences) overview.  Kind of hard to skip the development thread, really - at the very least they have to post their final game there, even if they skip all the other announcement steps and stuff, but that happens now.

[timfire]

Got'cha, I misunderstood. I thought that you would be posting the completed game text in the submissions thread along with links to previous posts.