OFFICIAL GameMaker Press Play - Share Your Idea For A Game And Win Prizes!

Is it possible to remove/submit a second idea?

I didn’t fully understand the rules until it was too late. I jumped at the opportunity, but the idea I gave can’t really be made in 20 hours. I was debating between two ideas, and I think the unused one is more easily made and has more unique game mechanics. Is there a way I could take back my current idea and put the second in its place?
 

zargy

Member
Oh boy, something I can actually speak on with some authority. And it's one of those rare times I'm actually incensed enough to say something!
Overall the basic concept of a competition for helping newer developers break into the market with funding and resources isn't itself bad. But the execution here is simply baffling.

Twenty work hours is literally no time at all for more than the most simple of projects. One freelance project I was involved in the past was able to allocate somewhere around 20-30 hours to paying programmers a reasonable enough rate each week, and that was with legit funding. That was barely enough time to get even a few major game features implemented and do bugfixes. I'm struggling to think of what you could actually get for that amount of time from a consultant/worker who you have no prior relationship with. MAYBE a very simple prototype for your idea if you find somebody that's fast enough, though considering that twenty hours is less than half the time that Ludum Dare allows for its solo competition (you know, the event where the whole idea is to spit out a game as fast as you can), I doubt it'd be sufficient to actually create even the most basic of working prototypes to build off of.

It's even worse because this is being specifically targeted (and limited to) complete novices (as young as 16 years old!), most of who would have no realistic idea of what game development actually entails, and won't have any skills to actually build that rudimentary prototype any further without a massive learning curve.

I think the absolute best scenario anybody could hope for is:
  1. The paid consultant/worker is a jack of all trades and well versed in at least a few of those trades, fast at working, and has experience with dealing with novices.
  2. The winner of the contest has at least a basic understanding of the different aspects of game development, is ready to work alongside the consultant, is easy to work with, and focused on getting things done.
  3. The team is able to quickly work to implement a solid, fun prototype that showcases the unique idea well.
  4. Said consultant/worker is willing to lend their time after the 20 hours are burnt through, either for free, or promise of revenue share from the finished product.
  5. Or the winner has enough money to be able to actually pay somebody, (in which case, why would they enter this competition in the first place).
  6. Or, the idea is attractive enough to catch the eye of a publisher or investor (which, just to be clear, almost never happens for people entering into the industry) to actually fund the project.
Maybe we're not talking about actual work on the game, but design consultation instead. That's still a very short amount of time to get anything done at all. Talking over the idea, drafting a basic design document, having the winner implement the game themselves, and then a consultation session about the prototype at the end. That's slightly more rational, but still a drop in the bucket for any reasonably sized commercial project.

But the main page doesn't state "Paid time with a professional consultant about your game at key stages of development." It says " Opportunity to work with a professional game creator, who’ll make your dream game a reality!". Which that you're hiring somebody to work on the game with you. So there's already a discrepancy between what the competition markets itself as, and what the actual T&Cs state. I also personally take issue with the "dream game a reality" line. Almost nobody's first game, no, their first serious commercial project, will end up being their dream game, because nearly everybody's dream game (even the smaller ones) would take an entire studio to create. This is just blatant marketing speak.

This is not even touching all the other obvious issues with it (which some here have already stated):
  • Apparently nobody either knew or remembered that the T&Cs should include something about ownership of IP. Out of all the legal issues I think you could run into when running a competition like this, this is the most basic item any legal team would tell you to include. (I'm not kidding, I'm not trying to be insulting to anybody here: How did this get released in this state???)
  • The T&Cs never define what laptop is being offered as a prize, or indeed any details about it whatsoever. The main page says "A high end gaming laptop to help you continue your game making journey." What happens if the laptop arrives to the winner in an unusable state (faulty/damaged during shipping)? If the laptop arrives damaged through no fault of the winner, will Yoyo offer to replace the laptop at least once, or try to find an alternative? What happens if they can't? Does the winner's project just die?
  • Which "professional game creator" are you fronting the bill for? What is their rate? Can we see examples of their prior work? Has said creator even been picked out yet?
  • Why are submissions limited to 500 words, when the whole point of the competition is to submit interesting and unique game ideas? You have 500 words to explain: Plot, Mechanics, Style, Genre, Inspirations. That's a lot of information to fit into 500 words. All you're doing is cutting off complex ideas. Is it to lessen the workload of having to sort through thousands of submissions? Okay, but the entire competition is based around these submissions. That's the main job of the people running it. A (potentially) better system would be to have an "elevator pitch" field where the idea of the game was explained as succinctly as possible, and the ability to attach design documents, reference sheets, plot notes, ect as files (within a certain upload limit obviously) as the actual meat of the submission. That would give a lot more leeway for contestants to actually submit real ideas that might have some potential.
 

ZellyZell

Member
I am wondering about some of the requirements as well. I have a few ideas I could submit. both do include violence but I wouldn't personally classify them as brutal violence. when I hear brutal violence I think of Saw movies or even the Shank games. I would like some clarification on that part. or I can I submit more than one entry? there was no rule that said it wasn't allowed when I read the T&Cs. but at what point does the violence become brutal? one of my ideas is Pokémon adjacent but certainly not a clone. there is some violence there. and the other is SoulsBorne inspired which has more violence. some examples of what is or isn't allowed would be nice. I don't want to disqualify myself for something that can be, in a manner of speaking, easily avoided. but my DREAM game does have a level of violence in it.
 

Mightyjor

Member
I decided to submit my dream game. I’ve been in a handful of game jams, but I’ve never made a cent or semi professionally done anything in the games industry. I’ll understand if Yo-yo games would prefer to give the prize to some young whippersnappers, but some of us didn’t start making games until we hit our mid life crisis ;)
 
But more serious than that is the legal minefield that is ideas sent in through mail. Ask anyone with professional experience in a major game or content publisher, and they will tell you that their company has a policy of not accepting fanmail containing game or business ideas. The reason behind it is that every piece of fanmail like that is a handicap to future development and an IP dispute waiting to go off. So why is Opera and YoYo inviting 2 weeks worth of them onto their doorsteps?
I am not a lawyer (obviously) but I am fairly certain that 'ideas' don't count as intellectual property otherwise none of those clash of clan clones would be allowed to exist, given how much money Supercell (the owner) has for firepower in legal battles.
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
I am not a lawyer (obviously) but I am fairly certain that 'ideas' don't count as intellectual property otherwise none of those clash of clan clones would be allowed to exist, given how much money Supercell (the owner) has for firepower in legal battles.
The gist of trademark law (which is more important than copyright for money battle reasons) is that you can't try to mislead customers that your knockoff is the real product, so similar things are OK if they don't look similar at a glance - having a distinct name is a pretty important step because anyone mistyping the real deal's name is gonna end up with the knockoff (see Iron Maiden vs Ion Maiden, or Elder Scrolls vs Scrolls - both of those battles were exclusively because of name similarities)
 

peardox

Member
I entered ... All the Worlds a Dungeon - guess what its about :)

Reading the comments here I actually think that the rules were OK. The 500 word limit was a push, I had to edit the entry many times and count all the words (ended up at exactly 500 with some redundancy - whew, hard). The thing about the 500 word imit is that its like submitting a CV for a job, you've gotta make yourself stand out in one side of A4 - I gave up attempting to write CVs many years ago. A game pitch in 500 words sounds stupid until you actually try writing one. Essentially you've gotta take the thousands of words that a full pitch would involve and, essentially, turn it into almost an advert - this bit was a nightmare.

Personally I ended up focusing on the main concept with all the other main headings being a snappy sentance or two.

The 'Beginner' part - yeah, very dubvious and somewhat misleading. I've not personally released a game so I'm technically a beginner on that sense.

The 20 hours seemed a little pointless until reading the comments. Yep, that 20 hours could actually be properly used by creating, essentially, a pre-alpha that the winner could expand on (assuming they could code) making such a project a solid entry as an 'Early Access' title fast-tracked by exposure from Opera / Yoyo.

I actually had a concept I've been thinking through for a long time so used that as my entry - it's my dream game after all...

The kiddie-friendly clause is OK as well although clarity here would have been helpful - You can have a blood-free RPG but you could also have parental filters to make the end product more marketable.

The last point is the laptop. The definition of 'high-end gaming laptop' varies according to whos selling it to you. Googling the phrase you can find PCs with 8Gb RAM, 256Gb SSD and a 1060 being sold under that banner - pretty useless for development tasks. My own laptop was once high-end - but that was six years ago...

So, in the highly unlikely event I get picked out of the virtual hat, I actually find the prize rather useful (can the winner tell us what the laptop is like?)
 
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ghandpivot

Member
I think it's a cool idea ! As for the prices it seems clear to me that being featured on Opera is an opportunity for visibility rather than some sort of contract that you have to finish the project. The professional coder is nice and if they focus on making something that is very simple to comprehend and easy to expand upon rather than producing as much content as possible, it could be a decent foundation to build from. As for the laptop, that seems to be the main price.
When working with complete beginners i think yoyo realizes that there is a high risk of life getting in the way of dedicating all your waking hours to a project, and it could very well be scrapped along the way. I see this as yet another competition to drive interest to GMS2 and we'll all benefit from a lager community with more shared knowledge. I don't mind if the winner throws in the towel somewhere along the line, that's bound to happen to at least one of the three winners. I'd love to see how far I can actually push a project idea of mine though, and seeing as I'm very much not a professional I think I'm eligible to enter!
 
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Ericbomb

Member
Oh darn it, that kickstarter that technically succeeded back in... 2013? Probably means I'm out.

Still, sick contest. Opera be spoiling us.
 

matharoo

manualman
GameMaker Dev.
The submissions for GameMaker Press Play are now closed!

Thank you to everyone who sent us their brilliant ideas, we will reveal the winners next week on October 7th! Keep an eye out for the announcement.
 

Evanski

Raccoon Lord
Forum Staff
Moderator
If people start seeing tutorials that seem to be close to the same idea as others here have shared, theirs going to be more fire then the subscription thread
 

rmanthorp

GameMaker Staff
Admin
GameMaker Dev.
Hah. EvanSki. We got plenty of feedback for tutorials from the survey already. I've heard that the results should be going out now (there was a slight error with the system). We'll have a blog up with the winners and results hopefully tomorrow. I've not really been involved in this one but I've seen some pretty awesome stuff!
 

gnysek

Member
Interesting, I thought that those games will be just ideas of remake of popular games, and we got totally serious, fresh ideas. Congratulations!
 
They all look interesting, but I'm very much looking forward to Sam & Us. I hope there are some Dev blogs created to go alongside these projects, as would like to see some of the thoughts that go into crafting these games. ♥
 

Elodman

Member
Talented writers, designers with vivid, boundless imagination, when being an old-timer (gamer) could only mean hindrance. Gaming industry can evolve to quite unexpected heights. Hope, some of them will be realized, too.

Seems, this time the rightful submissions were awarded.
 
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