The rules:

1. Contestants may use any pre-existing public vc library in the construction of their entries.

2. The originality of art will not be judged at all. Any aesthetic judging will be blind to originality, and instead will focus on presentation and use.

3. It is recommended, but not neccesary, that you make an easy-to-use interface for initializing your party, starting a battle, and handling a level-up scheme. Battle Systems designed to be used by others will gain more points in the scoring. Likewise, a small modicum of documentation, if only comments above each 'public' function in the docs, is highly recommended.

4. There is no demands placed on creating common subsystems (magic/items/skills) if you do not feel them neccesary. If you do create them, it is not neccesary to create any sort of non-battle menu that accesses them.

5. The judging method shall be the same as the previous official competition. The judges for this competition will be announced at a later time from this proclaimation.

6. The prize for this contest is not yet determined (I need to think of something more appropriate than a Heart Handshake and a Snickers bar). A prize will only be given if there are 2+ valid entries, and 2/3rd place prizes will only be granted if there are 4+ valid entries.

7. The contest will conclude at 11:59 PM EST on Thursday, June 3rd.

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This compo is highly experimental, as I'm not sure anything like this has ever been attempted. No matter what, the next competition will be of a more standard type.

I half expect this to be an embarassing failure, but it'd be very keen if several teams turned out to create some systems in a show of community spirit. That'd rock.

As a word of suggestion, I would keep the systems attempted simple, but extensible. An Earthbound/Dragon Warrior type system could be laid down in a matter of hours. A Lufia or Phantasy Star system shouldn't take more than a few days for the basics. The more graphically intensive you go, the less time you'll be focusing on interface and actual gameplay experience, whichh is the gist of this contest. I would highly recommend making realistic goals and trying to get your frameworks banged out ASAP so you have time for spit and polish.

Good luck.

Ok, just a clarification. I was working on a battle system for the last HoV that was mostly completed, except I ran into a few problems with VCC that frustrated me and took my time at the last contest but have since been fixed by Vecna.....so is re-using that code acceptable? I was trying to make a very versatile system with that one, and at the moment it has an enemy system and an attacking system worked it and I have just kind of ground to a half with the item system due to lack of effort. Just curious as to how original the code needs to be for this contest. :D

Ok, count me in for this: the battle system AND the following HOV. I have Uni work to be rounding up this week but I should find time to get *something* done.

Quote:Originally posted by Macadamia

Ok, just a clarification. I was working on a battle system for the last HoV that was mostly completed, except I ran into a few problems with VCC that frustrated me and took my time at the last contest but have since been fixed by Vecna.....so is re-using that code acceptable? I was trying to make a very versatile system with that one, and at the moment it has an enemy system and an attacking system worked it and I have just kind of ground to a half with the item system due to lack of effort. Just curious as to how original the code needs to be for this contest. :D

Er, was the source released prior to the contest's announcement?

Quote:Originally posted by Troupe

Er, are we allowed to be a part of multiple teams?

Intresting question.

I suppose. I see no harm in it.

Technically, a single battle system could have 2 or even 3 songs. normal, low on health and "victoly!!1", assuming it's a standard console-rpg battle system.

If you were to start playing around with non-standard battle systems, who knows what you could do.

Readers:
(Lame half-way-impossible and mainly unuseful suggestion to try . . . . ) The Seventh Saga's circling zoom from flat 3/4 overhead world map view to near-first-person large character(s) view demonstrates good transitional continuity. I walk along a beach and a battle begins. The world map rotates counter clockwise 90 degrees, rotates near end up far end down 90 degrees, and moves toward me so that it displays full screen a 100-times smaller area of said map in which the simple bottom to middle battle is fought. I see the ebb and flow of the tide that I see from afar on the world map during the battle.
Shall I help make this transition and battle system . . . ? No, no. I have confined this post merely to brainstorming.
Respectfully:
C. M. Dratz

I'm not making a game, here, this is a battle system. The battle system of Final Fantasy 5 doesnt include a boss system, a boss is just a hard enemy. Boss music is something you do for the next compo. But I am making battle music and intro music, so that's two songs! And I'm not doing a traditional battle system either, becuase random battles are heinous.

'only'?

No. 320x240 is the favorite resolution of Hahn and myself!

..we're twisted men.

However, higher resolutions will not be frowned upon either.

Allright, count me in.