TIGSource: Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results

Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results

Derek Yu — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 17:11:00 +0000

Jay is Games has released the results of its third Casual Gameplay Competition, where the theme was “replay.” Specifically, Jay was looking for games which have a lot of replay value. The winner, Gimme Friction Baby, has a genuinely interesting concept behind it, but its replay value would benefit a lot from a little more speed, in my opinion.

And there were some games in there that I felt had even better ideas, like Timebot, but perhaps less replay value. Seriously, try Timebot out, it’s a hoot. (I also reminds me, when is Braid coming out?)

The Casual Gameplay Competitions are great because it’s obvious there’s a lot of enthusiasm behind it and the games are always interesting and fun. Great job! But if we’re picking a game for having the most replay value, I’m going to have to posthumously nominate and vote for Benzido’s Too Many Ninjas (WIP), which has basically turned our Feedback forum into a crackhouse…

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Adam Atomic

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 20:52:47 +0000

Timebot is friggin GENIUS. Bouncy countdown game may be a tad more stylish, but timebot’s gimmick is fabulous, and an awesome take on the “replay” theme.

Just my 2 cents!

Thank you for having the contest jay :)

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by fish

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 07:06:11 +0000

boo fucking hoo.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by FireSword

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 04:22:05 +0000

There was a time i liked flashgames, i visit jay site very often.. Some consideration:

1-U have no proof it’s jay speaking, gee it could be Peni with a diffrent nick. 2-I agree with some comment, i tested myself people are a bit too nervous around here and unfunny. 3-Who the hell cares about flashgames? Are u serious? ahahaha

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by haowan

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:24:20 +0000

My opinion is that Jay should think hard about what the internet is about and learn to accept that one cannot have a perfect wonderland even if one were to work hard to make one’s web site as innocent as possible.

From what I can tell JIG is supposed to be accessible to anyone, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have discussion. The comments weren’t particularly antagonistic - if you thought they were then you’ve obviously been living in your casual gameplay bubble too long and haven’t been visiting other sites to see what the internet is really like. This is further backed up by your assertion that TIGS members are out of control or even posting comments on your site - I don’t know which TIGS you’ve been visiting but dessgeega rarely if ever posts here nowadays and none of the other comments on your article come from regulars here, as Derek pointed out. To have you come over here in a blind rage and make these baseless accusations is quite frankly an insult. Grow up, people disagree with you sometimes.

If you obfuscate the meaning of a core competition term, you’re going to get debate on its meaning. So you deserve all the discussion and debate and criticism you have received.

I think JIG is a great site. It’s full of awesome content and always has interesting games posted to it. Keep up the good work but for goodness sake, grow a pair.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by limousinedriver

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:17:03 +0000

Man, you guys are crazy. I come to all these sites just to find games that are fun and share them with my friends.

Getting so… involved. Lotta passion flyin’ around here. Not a bad thing, but unexpected.

And for my money, even if Gimme won audience favour, Rerun did the best implementation of the “replay” theme. Please don’t hurt me! :P

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Prio

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:42:37 +0000

Thanks Jay. (The real Jay.)

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Derek

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:37:00 +0000

“We didn’t want to constrain the theme too much by saying “replay value” because we were hoping to see some creative interpretations of the theme as we had seen before. And we did!”

That’s fine, but the designers were in the competition not just so you could see their creative interpretations but also to win. :)

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by loller

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:29:43 +0000

seriously, i’m gay?

just askin’.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Jay

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:24:24 +0000

Thanks Moose.

The theme will be announced on Monday, I’m just waiting on the art work for it.

Every competition so far has been a learning experience, as we have tweaked each one based on what worked (or didn’t) with the one before it.

We didn’t want to constrain the theme too much by saying “replay value” because we were hoping to see some creative interpretations of the theme as we had seen before. And we did!

But the issue is that some feel that a creative interpretation of “replay” trumps “replay value”, which is a subjective argument. We will try to avoid these issues with future competition themes.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Jay Replay

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:12:28 +0000

“speaking out about the results certainly doesn’t add anything to the celebration for the winners”

“How about something like “not my results, but thanks JIG and game designers!” and leave it at that?”

“keep your disagreements over here, mkay?”

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Moose

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:22:07 +0000

Ouch! I saw the comments on the JIG board and they did seem a little harsh to me - but I liked most of the games in the competition, including GFB, and am now hoping to be able to learn enough Flash to enter one someday :)

The only complaint I can see is that the announcement of the theme is also the start of the contest time limit, so it tends to be assumed that the thing stopping people from starting work on their game for Comp #4 right now is that they don’t know the theme. Taking something general like replay value to meet the theme of “replay” effectively could make it much easier for someone to enter a game they had been working on for months because it happened to be replayable. I’m not saying that Wolter or anyone else in the contest did it but I can see a bit of a risk there.

And congrats to everyone who entered :)

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Jonathan Blow

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:17:23 +0000

Braid is coming out … When It’s Done.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Prio

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:10:50 +0000

Most. Ironic. Post. Ever.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by lol

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:05:56 +0000

Editors and TIGSource visitors are fucking immature people.

Thanks for the confirmation, Capt. Oblivious.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Prio

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:37:54 +0000

It goes with being mature and civilized and respectful of the efforts of others.

Basically, dare to disagree with Jay on his website, and you’re immature, uncivilized, and disrespectful of the efforts of others. Remember that, kids.

lol! Fair enough, but keep your disagreements over here, mkay? ;)

You heard the man, Derek. Stop sending your secret TIGSminions over to Jay’s site to disagree with him. Fess up, mister mastermind, everybody knows you’ve got your hand up our butts.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Twisted Rabbit

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:00:19 +0000

Interesting. although i do agree with Derek. I when i first saw the “theme” of the contest we would be seeing stuff with like instant relays and stuff, not geared toward re-playability, but you did say there were wide interpretation of the theme. I did like the runner up a lot.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Jay

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:00:15 +0000

lol! Fair enough, but keep your disagreements over here, mkay? ;)

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Derek

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:43:59 +0000

I don’t think it’s easy to create a game with good replay value, but you should consider that “replay as a theme” versus “good replay value” are two very different concepts, and you seem to be focusing on the fact that they share the same word over what they both mean.

“Replay” is a general word that has lots of interesting ambiguities behind it and could be interpreted in many different ways.

“Replay value” is a very specific thing that is unique to video games. It relies on a game being compelling and unique with each successive playthrough. And honestly, simple “high score” type games are geared more heavily toward this over any other genre.

So, in my opinion, there are two types of contests that would have been more appropriate to reward “replay value” specifically:

a more general “best overall game” contest or
a contest for games where the goal is to get a high score

I actually didn’t disagree with your results, I just noted that the replay value of GFB would be enhanced by a faster style of play. But now that I know that your original contest description did not specify that “replay” = “replay value” I do disagree with the results. ;)

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by rinkuhero

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:40:45 +0000

Does anyone really believe that the winners would be hurt if they read comments saying that their games shouldn’t have won? I’ve read dozens of comments saying my games are all kinds of horrible, I’m not hurt by them.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by ZombiePixel

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:39:36 +0000

That’s fair enough. The JayIsGames audience leans much, much more towards the casual spectrum than TIGSource so some disagreement was inevitable. The issue of Timebot’s controls being a prime example.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Alec

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:29:52 +0000

Uh, compassion? On the internet?

Expecting everyone to say “thanks” is a bit much.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Jay

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:26:43 +0000

Well that went over like a lead balloon.

Derek, I’m not looking for credit; compassion is an entirely different thing. It goes with being mature and civilized and respectful of the efforts of others.

And I always encourage constructive criticism at my site, those words must appear a million times on the pages of JIG. However, not all negative comments are constructive.

There were 6 judges(!) by the way. Timebot, though it is one of my personal favorites, scored 6th overall. It was also difficult for some people to grasp, and it had some usability issues by forcing the player to switch between the mouse and keyboard frequently.

The theme was “replay”(!) If this wasn’t a competition to reward replay value, then when? You seem to discount replay value when you say: “unfairness to the developers who spent time to think more deeply about the theme, when they could have just worked on a game geared toward being played over and over.” Do you it’s easy to create a game with good replay value?

And I’m sorry you took offense to my comment, none was intended. I wanted to speak my mind here, to the others I had recognized as well, since you seem to disagree with the results, too.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Derek

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:15:19 +0000

And in this case, the disagree-ers were exceptionally polite and willing to explain their views without resorting to flaming of any kind. (More so than a lot of the “positive” commenters, actually.)

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by Zmann

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:05:25 +0000

Derek I love you.

"Casual Gameplay Competition 3: Results" by rinkuhero

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:03:39 +0000

I agree with Derek’s comment, but can’t add much to it.

I’ve run similar theme-based contests in the past (the Human Day contest, a contest for the Ohrrpgce engine). The announcement of the winners always got comments by people who disagree with the choices. It’s a part of the territory.