How were the four elements previously chosen? By staff members I'm guessing.
I think it would be interesting if someone made a small program to randomly generate the four elements from some sort of list just to make it a little more random.
What happened to the Four Elements contests?
Ha, as if the elements before weren't "random" enough. Ponies? Accountants? Economics? These elements would turn me away from participating. Yeah, they encourage creativity but it's hard to relate to some of them. I enjoyed the fire/water/etc. and pirate/zombie/etc. ones. Maybe it's that they had unity and variety at the same time. Picking 4 random, unrelated topics is a bit harder to work with.
Ha, as if the elements before weren't "random" enough. Ponies? Accountants? Economics? These elements would turn me away from participating. Yeah, they encourage creativity but it's hard to relate to some of them. I enjoyed the fire/water/etc. and pirate/zombie/etc. ones. Maybe it's that they had unity and variety at the same time. Picking 4 random, unrelated topics is a bit harder to work with.
I think more interesting things would come out of the unexpected. I'd love to see a great game that was somehow about ponies and accountants. Plants vs. zombies would just be another game if it was Guns vs zombies. Half of what makes the game good is the ridiculousness of it.
I think more interesting things would come out of the unexpected. I'd love to see a great game that was somehow about ponies and accountants. Plants vs. zombies would just be another game if it was Guns vs zombies. Half of what makes the game good is the ridiculousness of it.
The problem I had was as the elements got more ridiculous it was hard to think of anything that properly incorporated three or more of the elements. All the game ideas felt more like "Here is a game about Ponies (with some accountants etc. in the backstory)" rather than have them all at equal billing. But the random elements could still work if the rules were that only two of the four had to be major components; it was incorporating all of them into something that also felt fun and implementable in a few months that became too overbearing.
Elements that are conceptually easier to implement would be nice too. I think "ponies" was the one that broke me down last time. On the one hand you've got to include ponies, but on the other they're a right devil to draw!
A bit off topic, but since we're talking about contests, it's quite related. In addition to 4 Elements, I'd also like to see the GDNet Arena contest brought back. Only one edition was held but it was fun.
We could always give that one another try. We'll need a better framework for the AI bots though.
How were the four elements previously chosen? By staff members I'm guessing.
I think it would be interesting if someone made a small program to randomly generate the four elements from some sort of list just to make it a little more random.
Yeah, staff. The original 4E with air, water, fire, earth was of course the traditional elements. I think it was changed to the other elements when there were some complaints about people getting a head start every year before the contest would be announced.
I agree with other posts - if we're going to have non-traditional elements then the elements need to at least have some sort of relation to each other. It's okay if it makes the contest "easier" if it means that the games and their story lines actually make sense. You never know - with the right mix of elements some entries could be marketable games.
The problem I had was as the elements got more ridiculous it was hard to think of anything that properly incorporated three or more of the elements. All the game ideas felt more like "Here is a game about Ponies (with some accountants etc. in the backstory)" rather than have them all at equal billing. But the random elements could still work if the rules were that only two of the four had to be major components; it was incorporating all of them into something that also felt fun and implementable in a few months that became too overbearing.
Elements that are conceptually easier to implement would be nice too. I think "ponies" was the one that broke me down last time. On the one hand you've got to include ponies, but on the other they're a right devil to draw!
This is good feedback. We'll keep this in mind for future 4E contests.
I will come out of retirement if another 4 elements competition came out. Those were fun.
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