HamsterSpeak #34 Online - Monday February 1st 2010 at 9:28 PM

http://superwalrusland.com/ohr/issue34/cover.html I'm sure there are errors. The House Heroes review came really last minute, so I had to rush things in order to get this online tonight. Lots of reviews. Lots of beef. Enjoy. Surlaw Replies (1)

Ooh, Dem Cliffhangers - Sunday January 31st 2010 at 2:26 PM

Cliffhanger Contest When: Feb 1, 2010 – May 1, 2010 (6am EST) Objective: Acquire the highest anticipation for the future of your game. Requirements: Must release previously unsubmitted content during the contest window. Compatibility: Will work in conjunction with other future contests (such as Game-a-thon and the Terrible Game Contest). Prize: Subjective for now. Rules: 1. Establish an ending to your game that’s gonna create the most anticipation among players for a future release (or sequel in the case of finished games). 2. Successfully tease the player along the way with strong characters, plot twists, and whatever causes them to ask, “what will happen next?” 3. Make it appeal to the senses. Use animation, sound effects, puzzles, or anything that keeps it from becoming stale. 4. Purposely leave threads untied to entice the player back in the future, but don’t leave everything untied. A game that leaves everything open is frustrating and forgettable. 5. Add content to an existing release or start a new game. The choice is yours. Limitations: 1. A cliffhanger ending is still an ending. It’s an ending that leaves a question lingering in the player’s head that he wants answered. It isn’t an empty town and a hero with nowhere else to go. Your game must have an ending. Period. 2. Retro-releases won’t apply. If you released your game prior to 6am, Feb. 1, 2010, then you must make new content, with a new ending, to be eligible for this contest. 3. Each release should be a minimum 10 minutes long. Anything over 30 minutes is ideal. Scoring: Scoring will be based primarily on a judging system, but certain categories will be taken into account. The winner will have the highest cumulative score, and will not necessarily be the favorite game. This is meant to encourage quality as much as the ability to tell a good story. Specific categories will be voted on based on chosen genre. This list will be available for suggestions and modifications. Categories: Action Sequence / Tense Characterization— The game with the most exciting action sequence or exchange of dialogue will win this category. Voters will vote on instances, not titles, and can therefore nominate the same game more than once. While it’s possible for a single game to win both action and dialogue intensity categories, action sequences should be saved for suspense-driven stories, while dialogue intensity should be saved for character-driven stories. First Place: 20 points Second Place: 10 points Third Place: 5 points Setting / Atmosphere— The game with the most interesting or curious locations can win “setting,” while the one with the greatest depth or appropriate mood can win “atmosphere.” Again, one game can win both, but it won’t be automatically assumed. First Place: 20 points Second Place: 10 points Third Place: 5 points Showing / Telling— The game that does the best job showing the action, whether through backdrops, animation, sound effects, music, etc., will win the “showing” category. The game that develops the best background story (and does so convincingly) will win the “telling” category. First Place: 30 points Second Place: 20 points Third Place: 10 points Intro / Ending— The game with the best introduction will successfully draw the player into the game. The one with the best ending will make him want to watch the credits. Note: The “ending” is separate from the “cliffhanger.” First Place: 30 points Second Place: 20 points Third Place: 10 points Soundtrack— While intricately tied with the setting and atmosphere category, I think it would be fair to add a separate category for best soundtrack. Original music generally does better than ripped music. First Place: 20 points Second Place: 10 points Third Place: 5 points Special Effects— Can also be tied in with setting and atmosphere, as well as action and showing, but also deserves its own category provided anyone uses it. This can include weather effects, collision effects, plotscripting wonders, and so on. I may expand this category if there’s a high enough demand for it. First Place: 20 points Second Place: 10 points Third Place: 5 points Cliffhanger— The meat of the contest. The games that cause the player to get down on his knees and beg for more when the end credits roll. Create a great story, and winning this category is possible. Ideally, the player should feel teased when it’s over. Up to six games can place for this category (three finished and three unfinished). Finished games will earn 10 points higher than unfinished games, since finished games are so rare and we need all the incentive we can get to finish our projects. For Unfinished Games: First Place: 50 points Second Place: 40 points Third Place: 30 points For Finished Games: First Place: 60 points Second Place: 50 points Third Place: 40 points Now, let me iterate that cliffhangers can still have happy endings. I don’t necessarily need to play a wave of angst here. The goal is to see who can offer the best presentation, and ultimately, to tell the best story. Maybe you finish your story with a happy ending. Will I want to see your character come back in a sequel? Maybe you end a chapter with your character hanging off the side of a cliff. Do I want to come back to see if he’ll make it? Build anticipation between Feb. 1 and May 1. But no pressure. This contest will welcome anything you’re working on presently or plan to start soon. Tip: As a player, start considering the above categories for any game that’s released during the contest window. This is essentially a gimme contest, so chances are the author will want to make his release eligible for it, and forming your opinions early will make judging in May and June a whole lot easier on everyone. Remember, kids, slackers never win. Feel free to suggest additional scoring categories or changes to existing categories here. Pepsi Ranger Replies (0)

OHR Game of the Year 2009 - Tuesday January 12th 2010 at 7:49 PM

WHAT It's that time again; the time in which we gloat about how great the games we released this year were. My count is 76 released games this year, counting updates to games from previous years, but not counting multiple releases of the same games in one year. The goal here is to highlight the absolute best of 2009, in various categories. WHEN Voting begins now and goes until the last week of February, if I get enough responses. I want to be able to publish the results in the March HamsterSpeak. GAMES? "I haven't played any of these games yet!" Well, you've got about a month and a half to play some. How do you know which ones are worth playing? That's up to these threads. Even if you're not ready to officially vote yet, discuss and nominate your favorite games of the year. Let people know what's worth checking out. HOW Votes can be submitted either by PM or by responding to this thread. I think that posting in the thread is good, as it will help remind people of what was fun this year, and maybe inspire people to try a few new games. I will tally votes near the end of February. Vote for your favorite five to ten games in the Game of the Year category. Vote for your favorite two to five in the sub-categories. Your first through third place picks in the main category will receive bonus points, first getting three extra, second getting two, and third getting one extra point in the overall standings. In the sub-category votes, only your to pick will receive bonus points. You CAN vote for your own games, but those games will not receive bonus points. Bonus points will be given to the highest ranked games in your vote that weren't made by you. When voting, specify if you worked on the game in question. Use full titles when voting. Don't have tied votes in your submission. Votes can be changed up until the deadline if you play some new games and change your mind. WHAT ARE THEY These are the games released/updated in 2009: [<3] by Twin Hamster A Shot In The Dark by Kingston C. Rockwell A Very Funkotronic X-mas by Spoon Weaver Adventures of Astroman by Stewie BABIES (vs) ROBOTS!!! by Spoonweaver Blasted Earth by Blasted Earth Bloodlust (Complete) by Only One in All Bob the Hamster in the Crypt of Baconthulhu by James Paige Buelle: The Lance's Tale, (0.5)* Tech Demo by Twin Hamster Dawn by Blue Train Don't Eat Soap by James Paige Do You Want to be a Hero? by Mogri Dragon Ball Z by Awful Waffle Entrepreneur: The Beginning by Pepsi Ranger Fall Be Kind by Blue Train and The Mad Cacti Gato Sucio Special Edition by Paul Harrington Genesis by Rebecca & Taylor Bair Gohrillas by Mogri House Escape by Spoon Weaver Hydration 2: Oasis by Gizmog Indigo by Blue Train Kana Learning by Ysoft KING OF GOURMET: FEAST FOR YOUR LIFE by Hachi-Roku and Gizmog Legend of the Omni-sphere by Pastadevil Legend of Zelda: Reptilian Warlord by Binoal Legends Of Nedaria by NeoSpade Light Fight by Spoonweaver Loser Man by Spoon Weaver Maces Wild by Rurouni Catholic Mama by arpgme Maze of the Red Mage by Mogri Midorime by Buni Pickney Moron Mission by Nathan Karr Mr. Triangle's Maze by Red Maverick Zero Necromancer by Deadmanintheocean OHR House 3 Complete by JSH OHR House Heroes: Complete by Red Maverick Zero Okédoké! by Dark Blubber Phantom Tactics by Mogri Quest for the Bone by ringthehat Qwerky Qwest by AcenMasterX Resident Evil Infinity by Binoal Sailor Moon: Another Dimension Version 6 by Buni Pickney Santa Bang Bang! by rebobinar SHiIDA by Baconlabs Sleepover by Charbile Slimes by Spoonweaver somekindaninja (tech demo) by Spoonweaver Sonic Trash by arpgme Space InvadeOHRs by James Paige Spooky Test by Twin Hamster Spoonweaver by Spoonweaver Stranded by New-Gen Surlaw Armageddon (3/20/09 Update) by Paul Harrington Techno Ship Funkotron by Spoonweaver Test of Normality by Beau Rl Tetris OHR by shakeyair The KER-saders by Spoonweaver The Long Journey Home by Camdog The Pope's War on Science by Mr. 8-Bit The Resurrection by DragonBlood The Ritual (Spring 09 update) by Camdog The Slime Wars by Camdog The Wizard, The Thief, and the Lich by Momoka The Wizard's Bomb by Camdog Tightfloss Maiden (Update) by Pepsi Ranger Tim-Tim "The Might Gnome" by SpoonWeaver Timestream Saga - Arcadia Incident Report by Fenrir-Lunaris Timpoline (Full release) by Adam Perry Too Terrible! by Gizmog Turkey Killer by Spoonweaver Vampires History- War of Annihilation by Umbrella Village People: The Videogame by Paul Harrington Wage Slave by Gizmog Wandering Hamster (Update) by James Paige Wilthawiya by Gizmog These are the categories: Best Game of 2009: The overall best games. Vote for five to ten games. Best Graphics: Best style, best pixelation, etc. Whatever made your eyes weep with joy. Vote for two to five games. Best Design: This can be Plotscripting, map design, battle systems, or any other technical game aspects. Vote for two to five games. Best Writing: Story, dialogue, world creation. Vote for two to five games. Most Ridiculous: What games baffled your mind this year? The reasons don't matter. It could be an astonishingly confusing game, a shockingly funny one, whatever. Some sort of wild card category or something. Most Anticipated 2010: What games would you most like to see updated this year, and which announced games are you most excited about? You'll have to do the digging on your own for this one, because we get dozens of proposed games that never come out and finding/listing them all would take forever. Let's do this. Start discussing some highlights of 2009 and we can get moving. When voting, feel free to comment on the games you chose. Your comments may be used in the results article! Surlaw Replies (7)

Composer Located! (Motrya) - Sunday January 10th 2010 at 6:57 PM

Well, my development on Motrya has run in to a wall. SDHawk has given up his post as music composer to pursue other interests, which leaves me at something of a standstill. I am nearing halfway completion of the first demo of this game, and my graphics man is at about the same percentage. Our plan was to release the demo if it had everything ready- my portion, Newbie Power's graphics, and Hawk's music. We knew the music would be the longest wait, and planned to continue working on the game regardless of whether or not it was done. I have two plans now. 1. If I can find a new composer, We'll pretend Hawk was never on the team (sniff, sniff) and move on as planned. 2. If I can't find a composer, I'll take the classical music route. This is not ideal, but could potentially work out. So... this is my plea. Any OHR music composers, we are open. Motrya is a fantasy RPG, which you can see details about here: http://www.slimesalad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2811 We want to make the game presentable to the general public (not specifically OHR users) and Newbie Power has put forth great effort to make it look nice and do so. As such, we would prefer a composer capable of working beyond the MIDI format. The motivation for working with us will vary depending on what you want. If you just want to test your music-making muscle and don't care about profit, we'll be happy to work with you. If you require payment, name your terms (private message please). The game has no budget, but I have already opened my pockets for the graphics, so you have a good chance of profiting assuming your terms are not too steep. I'm not rich, but but I will do what I can. However, if you do want payment, I need to be certain that you will deliver; this is a serious project that Newbie Power and I have regular meetings about, and we fully intend to complete it. The style of the game is similar to Chrono Cross: it has a morose, sad atmosphere. However, we are open to any ideas about the kind of music that would be acceptable. I can send an alpha copy of the game to any serious applicants (some of Hawk's old work in progress is still in the game) to see if they think they can handle it. I also have a list of the "wanted" tracks, which is flexible. Thanks for hearing me out. I know composers are a rare breed in this community, and I appreciate you guys. JSH357 Replies (2)