"Mech A RPG Design Contest" (Free Art)

[Andy Kitkowski]

Hey all, this was a thread going over on RPGNet that I got behind.

Basically, Fellow A was going to write a Mecha-Themed RPG. He had $300 worth of art commissioned. He then gave up, and was wondering what to do with the art. So we encouraged him to hold a "Make an RPG with This Art" contest. I threw down $100 for the winner. He agreed, and the contest was born.

Here's the background and some details:
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=3698076

"Project Name: Mech A RPG Design Contest

Submission Guidelines: Submit a PDF to this thread on or before June 30th 2005. Use mostly the art provided. Target a booklet laid out in 8.5x11-landscape-folded-in-half, about 32-64 pages. The content should be a mecha rpg inspired by the art with a setting of post-alien-invasion Earth. These are guidelines though, not hard and fast requirements. Really the only hard and fast rule is that you cannot reference or include anything even remotely belonging to somebody else as a copyright or trademark.

The Art: Was done by an artist here on RPGnet named Defcombeta. There's 28 pieces which will be made freely available to the world when the contest begins. The cover art and logo goes to the winner.

Your Submission: It belongs to you and nobody else. The only thing you're doing by submitting your work is angling for the prize. You keep the rights to your work.

Judging Criteria: My personal preference, heavily influenced by what folks on the thread have to say. People donating to the pot will get extra influence. At the end of the day I'll pick a winner. I will probably wait about 2 weeks after the deadline to give folks a chance to playtest the games and post commentary.

Winner Gets: Currently the pot includes rights to the cover artwork, the logo art "Guerilla Earth" if you want it, and $100 donated by AndyK. Anyone else who wants to contribute to the pot may do so by posting to the forum and letting us know in advance of the deadline (June 30th). Contributors get extra sway over me in picking the winner and a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Contributors Winning: The best man wins. I'll be a little skeptical of a contributor's comments about who should win if they themselves made a submission. But at the end of the day I'll pick a winner and they'll get the pot. What they do with their winnings is up to them.

Changes: Any of the contributors can pull out any time up to but not after the declaration of the winner. Everything else could change too. This is not a formal legal agreement. This is just a bunch of people on the net having fun and encouraging each other. Nobody has any rights, except the winner, should I pick one, to the contents of the pot, should there be any. If one of the contributors to the pot doesn't pony up, then your beef is with them, not me, or any of the other contributors, or any of the other submittors."

Want to try your hand at this event? Stay tuned to the above thread for announcements and a release of the art! It hasn't begun yet, but will soon.  I think this would be a great challenge for anyone out there. It's also a chance to publish a game where all the art's been done for you in advance!

Personally, I think this idea fucking rocks, and I'm glad the the art-licenser decided to toss his purchased art to the public domain.

-Andy

[daMoose_Neo]

Intrigued I am. Prepared as well!
*digs out old M.E.C.H. notes. blows off pile of dust*

I KNEW I keep all of my old materials for a reason :D Now to check this out, wrench some monkeys, and start angling :D

[contracycle]

Do we get to see the art first?

[timfire]

Do we get to see the art first?

Yeah, a low res version can be found [here].

[Tobias]

And 2 more images (more high-res)

http://home.insightbb.com/~johndehope3/AlienGunner.jpg
http://home.insightbb.com/~johndehope3/JeepInWoods.jpg

Yeah, I'm looking into this as well.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Hmm... sounds interesting. Andy: keep us apprised of the developments, will you? I don't follow RPGnet actively enough to catch this when it becomes current. I do like design competitions, though, so I might well participate...

The links to pictures in this thread don't seem to work, by the by. No idea why.

[Tobias]

The source thread is in flux as the contest becomes formalized.

Edit: and the linked images too.

[xenopulse]

I'm in, if I find the time. I've had this certain idea for mission-based mecha gaming in my head for a while now, we'll see how it turns out.

Thanks for pointing this out!

[Andy Kitkowski]

The Master Rules List and art is now posted. Here you go:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=181181

Good luck!

[Eero Tuovinen]

Hmm, the stakes have gone up. Makes participating all the more attractive, although the long preparation time seems somewhat daunting.

The art is certainly challenging. It has the same cheesy quality we get 90% of the time in Finnish rpgs. It's almost like I've seen the artist's work somewhere before. This would seem to call for some kind of anime game, except that the art doesn't really emphasize the endearing qualities of anime...

I can totally understand Phil Reed's suggestion of coloring the pictures. I'll consider doing just that to reduce the cheesiness to manageable levels.

Well, we'll see.

[xenopulse]

Hmm. The art doesn't quite square with the concept I had in mind.  Now I need to figure out whether to change the concept or fit it in anyway :)

[philreed]

I can totally understand Phil Reed's suggestion of coloring the pictures. I'll consider doing just that to reduce the cheesiness to manageable levels.

Actually, I was thinking the coloring should emphasize the cheesy qualities of the art.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Actually, I was thinking the coloring should emphasize the cheesy qualities of the art.

Ahhah, then you'll go to the zone of saturday morning cartoons... which is not a bad idea, now that I think about it. Transformers is certainly just as valid as Battletech. Hmm... indeed, that art hits the spot if the game is more about the colorful big robots battling than the socioeconomic horror of warmachines, which was what I was thinking of... good thinking!

[Tobias]

I've also incorporated the 'cheesyness' of the drawings - but in a wholly different way. ;)

I'm not going to formally enter until I have some more written up and am sure this has really caught my interest. I'm of a 1000 started and much fewer finished projects...

[Jasper Polane]

Me too. I have a feeling we'll see a lot of mission based mech games entering the contest, and that was my first idea as well. I'm not entering until I can think of something a bit more different to write.