RPGDX > Forums > General Discussion > October Competition: Make a Game, Sell At Least One Copy

RampantCoyote

Okay, now this is an interesting little challenge from PoV over at the Ludlum Dare Blog. It's an unofficial (AFAICT) competition for the Ludlum Dare community, but maybe folks here might be interested?

Make a Game, and Sell It

Can you make a game, make it ready for distribution, and do what it takes to sell it, all in one month? An iPhone or Android game maybe?

I've made an RPG from scratch with all freeware / OS tools before in just a week, but it wasn't exactly ready for commercial release. But - a lot of folks here have engines and pieces of content laying around from past projects. Could you re-purpose them for a cheap game in only 39 days?
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Mattias Gustavsson · Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 6:36 pm Post subject:

I think I might actually go for this - anyone else doing it?
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RampantCoyote · Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:59 pm Post subject:

I would really like to, but until I get FK out the door, I really can't risk any more distractions.

But I have this cool idea for a game I half-finished in 1994 that helped get me my first game job... I'll have to revisit it someday and see if I can't do this very thing - whip out a commercial-quality game in just a few short weeks. I really DO need to work on my development efficiency. Big time.
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Mattias Gustavsson · Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2010 8:53 am Post subject:

I admire your focus and dedication to your main project - Me, I'm just jumping from project to project all the time :P

I'm sure your development efficiency will improve over time, if you just stick with it :-)
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www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

tcaudilllg · Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2010 11:17 pm Post subject:

Coyote I think you're dealing with something akin to Miyamoto's philosophy: "a delayed game can still be good, but a bad game is bad forever."

Of course, Miyamoto has essentially unlimited development resources. It's up to you whether you think the resource expenditures involved are worth the costs for the extra development time.

RampantCoyote · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2010 7:58 pm Post subject:

A little note on this competition - they aren't mandating that the projects be new. In fact, they are encouraging dusting off existing projects and getting them into shape to sell.

This could be a great opportunity to take some unfinished game and give it the effort and polish needed to make it sellable.
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tcaudilllg · Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:21 pm Post subject:

A number of games on here I'd like to see expanded on, debugged, whatever. WhiteDoor had a decent RPG, Ashes, that was plagued by bugs.

Mattias Gustavsson · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2010 6:28 am Post subject:

I'm definitely doing this challenge :-) I've teamed up with another guy, and I'll be making the art for it and he'll do the code - this will be interesting :-)
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www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

RampantCoyote · Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2010 11:27 pm Post subject:

Looks like Brian "Psychochild" Green is using this competition to launch his newest company...

Announcing Psychoavatar Games

It's fascinating to me how this challenge has taken hold and fired people up. It's also... what's the word? ... oh, yeah - AWESOME.
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leeyn · Lowly Slime Joined: 22 Feb 2011 Posts: 1

I'll have to revisit it someday and see if I can't do this very thing - whip out a commercial-quality game in just a few short weeks. I really DO need to work on my development efficiency. Big time........
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Mattias Gustavsson · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:41 pm Post subject:

As I mentioned, I teamed up with another guy for this - we ended up taking more than just the one month though, and are only now put the final touches to our game: Dungeon Brawl - Proving Grounds. It's made in flash so you can play it in your browser

http://www.rustyaxe.com/bgames/DungeonBrawl/index.php

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www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

RampantCoyote · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 6:26 pm Post subject:

"Barbarian needs potion. Badly."

Gee, I wonder what game might have influenced your design... ;)
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Nodtveidt · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 6:35 pm Post subject:

Is this compo still on? and do preorders count? Because if so, I could win it today. :D I've got about a dozen people waiting to preorder MSR.
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RampantCoyote · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:14 pm Post subject:

It was a pretty informal compo, a lot of people came in late. The point was really just to focus people on what it would take to ship a commercial game. So in that aspect, you are never too late. :)

I was hoping to ship my game in May, but I'm getting doubtful now.
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Mattias Gustavsson · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 7:33 am Post subject: