art contest pipe dream
polycounter lvl 18
this unearthly challenge that everyone is in is really producing some incredible work... like really, really fantastic. it's pretty awesome to see, but another part of me kinda feels like it's such a shame -- this is SOO much art content, and it just seeeemms like such a waste to not do something with it.
i mean surely -- we can brainstorm some sort of really, really, really primitive gameplay mechanic and tie all this sort of stuff together into a simple game, with no real complex story, just fantastic artwork.
i mean what if anyone who wanted to enter the contest could do so, and you just make what ever bloody environment you wanted, but it has to have some sort of specifics --perhaps there needs to be some sort of puzzle to figgure out by understanding the back-story of the environment.. so you reaaaaaallly have to pay attention..
the gameplay could just be a free-floating camera. no combat, no nothing. just a really really simple excuise to roam about these environments and check out all the gorgeous work up close.
obviously there are issues, but seriously, with the people on polycount? shit. it can't be that hard.
can it?
no. it can't.
i mean surely -- we can brainstorm some sort of really, really, really primitive gameplay mechanic and tie all this sort of stuff together into a simple game, with no real complex story, just fantastic artwork.
i mean what if anyone who wanted to enter the contest could do so, and you just make what ever bloody environment you wanted, but it has to have some sort of specifics --perhaps there needs to be some sort of puzzle to figgure out by understanding the back-story of the environment.. so you reaaaaaallly have to pay attention..
the gameplay could just be a free-floating camera. no combat, no nothing. just a really really simple excuise to roam about these environments and check out all the gorgeous work up close.
obviously there are issues, but seriously, with the people on polycount? shit. it can't be that hard.
can it?
no. it can't.
Replies
I think the problems would come in with the technical stuff. Essentially you'd have to have a free, easy use/learn game engine for everyone to use combined with a fairly restricted set of game design guidelines for everyone. You'd also need someone to compile all of the different entries into one giant hunk of awesome.
That said, this sounds awesome. The main reason I didn't enter the Unearthly challenge is that I've been paying more attention to design work in my spare and the contest would've ended up taking all of that spare time away. This kind of thing with be fantastic for people like me who're into design and art.
(btw - we need beers sometime soon)
If you really want this to happen, you probably either need to be, to find, the guy who is going to be putting it all together and dealing with all the different formats you'll be getting. Probably not too tough to import a bunch of static meshes into UE3, but I really doubt the end result would look good.
This sort of thing would be much easier to get into game - it would just require one person to get all the 3d models in a common format and import them into a game engine. Placement and organisation would be easy since they'd all snap to the grid and fit neatly together.
If it was themed it could be interesting too.
On mapcore we had a cool contest about a year ago that worked very well, create a small hl2 deathmatch level within a space of a 1024 unit cube. This kind of restriction was pretty realistic for most people to get a level done within the time limit
Another kind of contest i can realistically see work is something like create a modular set for unreal3, with textures that can be used on brushes and modular units that can be used in various ways. something like a max of 10 modular meshes and 4 textures.
pea: I'll probably release my entry after wards, so you can run around in it in unreal, only to see that the world ends behind those buildings
Would be really cool though, to see a level designer make something different with the meshes after wards
(whoops, quote is not edit)
I know when I was doing maps for quake1/3 I liked getting other peoples texture sets to make stuff. With new games it's become so much work to create new environment sets, there isn't so much custom stuff lying around, but with Unearthly Challenge, there's quite a bit of it being made, and lots of it is already exported to Unreal formats and such.
I'd love to frag in a full deathmatch level using Peris' stuff for instance.
Now a realistic idea would be do to something like Mop mentioned, another contest along the lines of "polyville" where everyone gets a common unit to work in, and everyone has to use the same engine so its a bit more of copy-and-paste. In the end you still need to have someone willing to compile all of this together. I seem remember from the polyville contest that the turnout wasnt that great.
But I'm sure quite a few people have been building from the start with modular level design in mind (obviously I'm thinking about peole using game engines, like UT3 etc), and wouldn't require so much effort on their part to just release their packages to be used by level designers of the engine that was used.
Then again I'd also understand that not everyone wants to just throw their stuff out for anyone to use.
What will be done with the entries? Some people are walking away with some fantastic portfolio pieces... That's awesome.
as far as the limitations go, who cares if it's not themed or doesn't fit together. get everyone to make their stuff in UE3. as long as you stay within memory limits, i could personally care less what the subject matter is.
i mean if this ever happened, i think the big picture quality would have to suffer... or be just about ignored all together. something should be there to tie it together, but it should be made of duct tape and dental floss.
don't everyone jump down my throat about this all at once -- but with someone financially inclined, and a marketing volunteer, such a project could probably be sold as a casual game and the earnings distributed among the people who entered the contest. just a thought.
really, that would be cool. imagine a super-simple arty-explory game on steam. fuck yes.