Feel the theme: REJECTION
February 1st, 2010
Another month, another theme. With everyone focused on love this month (especially Hollywood with the abysmal looking “Valentine’s Day”), what better theme than Rejection?
So what about it you lot, any horrible ideas you’ve been itching to try from previous themes?
*Update*
Some of you have already started doing this, but it would be great to get an explanation on how your game fits the theme. It’s not a requirement, obviously, but I imagine it’s always interesting to see how everyone thinks.
We're a group of indie game developers, running a friendly competition every month. The rules: Make a game based on the month's theme, and don't spend more than 7 days. New games posted at the end of every month.
63 Comments, Comment or Ping
Woah! Intresting theme… More details, please? :3
I get the point though… could come up with some nice stuff here.
February 1st, 2010
Whatever inspires you sir. I imagine some people will take it literally, and make a game about getting rid of stuff…or people. Others might make a flawed or “rejected” concept. Really, it’s about how your brain works, isn’t it?
February 1st, 2010
Haha, this one sounds like fun. Can’t wait to get started ;)
February 1st, 2010
i think this is the first time an idea just pop up to me from reading the headline! :) nice.. :D
February 1st, 2010
Nice theme!
I’ve always wondered how do you decide these things? Just randomly picking one on irc or something a bit more structured?
Can’t wait to get my hands dirty..
February 1st, 2010
This will be my first time trying it, and I’m pretty excited for this theme! I have a lot of different ideas on what direction to take it so it’ll be tough to narrow it down. I think that’s a good problem to have, though :)
February 1st, 2010
Sounds pretty cool! With a month ahead I might be able to submit something this time.
February 1st, 2010
@emperorben: Just reject some ideas ;)
Anyway, I think I will make something too, again! If I find some time after my exams, of course. Nice theme, as always! :D
February 1st, 2010
Definitely going to make something for this… once I come up with an idea, anyway >.<
Oh, cool, I just came up with an idea while typing this.
February 1st, 2010
I’m new to this website, so sorry if I’m asking dumb questions, but when’s the deadline? Also, does it matter what the game is made in? Can it be a downloadable game or does it have to be browser-playable?
I’ve got a nice idea, hopefully it’ll work out.
February 2nd, 2010
@Erik Leppen:
The “deadline” is around the last two days of the month, but it isn’t really that “dead” – as you can see in the previous “Best of the net”, even late submissions are considered. This is a friendly contest after all.
It doesn’t matter what the game is in, nor does it matter whether it is downloadable and/or browser-playable.
———–
(I have examns. I should stop thinking about this Theme. Repeat.)
February 2nd, 2010
Just got an idea, which is pretty much based on what we talked about in my “Game Development” class on Monday: Basically it’s gonna be a simplified 2D point’n'click-adventure where you play a guy who is trying to ask a girl out and gets rejected all the time.
Umm…that’s sounds like my real life… ;)
I won’t probably gonna be able to start coding until mid-February.
February 2nd, 2010
I could make a game that has nothing to do with the theme and get rejected? ;)
February 2nd, 2010
I recently attended the 2010 Game Jam (http://www.globalgamejam.org/) where you make a game in 48 hours. The theme was quite similar to this one in concept. It was about ‘deception’, and it was a lot harder to think of something than one might think. Good luck people.
February 3rd, 2010
@Johannes Stein:
Your live is a 2D point’n'click-adventure? :P
@Andrew J.:
Yeah, it really was! “Rejection” feels like it is easier to be made…
No website given – what was your game?
February 3rd, 2010
I dunno Andrew… I thought of a workable concept for “deception” in about 10 seconds flat after reading it (I found out about the Jam about 10 minutes before it started, not exactly enough time to register). Essentially I thought of how I would add deception to a game I had previously written then took that mechanic out on its own…
Essentially it would be a puzzle game with physics where the controls don’t do what you think they do – instead of moving you around, the controls move the world (similar but not identical to and yet it moves, etc.), the good old “looks solid but isn’t” trick… and well… that’s it so far.
Damn, I think I might make that game sometime. In fact I thought of another point but it’s a secret because I might make the game.
February 3rd, 2010
@Tobias Wehrum:
My game is on this page (http://www.globalgamejam.org/2010/flimflam-fernandez) but we are working on getting a copy of the game to download. This link will tell you more about the game (http://breakfall.ca/content/game-jam-2010-flimflam-fernandez)
@Matthew Elvey Price:
Maybe it was easy for you but I know it was a little more difficult for us because we didn’t want to use your typical “it’s not what it seems” type of deception. At first we were looking at more abstract renditions of deception but we were running out of time and created something fun. Hope you get a game going :)
February 3rd, 2010
@Andrew J.:
Marked the project page, will look back later hoping to see the binaries. The plasticine look is awesome.
February 4th, 2010
Looks like an interesting game, Andrew. Sounds closer to the Solium Infernum type of deception I’ve been reading about on RPS.
I can see why you wouldn’t want to go for the typical type because it’s been used in a lot of games – with rejection on the other hand abstract ideas about it seem to leap to mind first. On the other hand I don’t think most games really tend to take it very far so an interesting game is still a possibility. At the moment I’m trying to avoid making the design an incoherent piece of junk stripped from every game ever, we’ll see how it goes.
February 4th, 2010
I was at the Global Game Jam too, participating in Berlin. “Deception” is definitely harder as a theme than “rejection”… I will see if I find time to make a game, but… the iPad is calling ;)
btw here is our entry from the GGJ:http://www.globalgamejam.org/2010/monkey-code-0
February 4th, 2010
@Tobias Wehrum:
Damn, now I have to deliver… and thank you.
@Matthew Elvey Price:
I’m unfamiliar with the game. With rejection is it a bit harder to create an abstract concept (at least for me) and I’m glad you’re trying to break some design walls down.
@Marc-André Weibezahn:
So I’m not the only one that thinks it was a hard theme. I too will see if I have time as I am already working on 2 larger projects (1 for the iPad :D) and a couple of small personal ones on the side. Played your game, found it simple (which is a good thing) and fun for a pong type game. The deceptive banana is hard to tell which makes for an interesting game. Weird backgrounds….
February 4th, 2010
@Andrew J.:
Thanks, nice to hear that! Yeah, the backgrounds are a bit special… ;) I think I spend two or three hours surfing the web only in search for weird pictures! We had even more but I thought some of them could be a bit offensive…
And you really need to upload your game because the look from the title screen is rrreally promising!
@Tobias Wehrum:
lol, really didn’t realize at first that you are writing here! Hope you had a nice party on tuesday night, playing all that music games at the exhibition :)
btw I am probably moving to berlin in march so I guess I will meet some of the GGJ participants again…
February 4th, 2010
@Marc-André Weibezahn:
Welcome, and ya it’s up to the coders to do so and we’re having a meeting tonight for one of the other games, maybe we’ll get the game up and running but no promises.
I do hope I find a good idea for this contest. I’m not even going to bother if I can only come up with a shit idea.
February 4th, 2010
Well, hello! I´m interested to join but there is way too little information about the compo. Like, where do I upload my submission?
February 5th, 2010
@Marc-André Weibezahn:
Hey, hello Mr. Weibezahn, nice to meet you here again in this small world! Actually I couldn’t be there on thursday (examns), but now I look forward to some meeting in the future – and it seems that would be with you! Great choice to move to Berlin :-D
@Maki:
Welcome! You just upload it anywhere you care to think of – that part you could’ve actually figured out by clicking some of the links above. Submitting is just as easy: Post a comment here with the URL before the month ends. If you have more questions, feel free to ask!
February 6th, 2010
I just found out about this site, can anybody participate?
February 6th, 2010
Yep. Welcome!
February 6th, 2010
Well, after a weekend of coding here it is my game, TapesTry:
http://lojueguito.weebly.com/#tapestry
I made it fast because the idea is simple; perhaps new ideas will appear in my mind during the rest of the month, but I doubt it ;)
Enjoy and critic please!
February 7th, 2010
So I’ve wanted to participate before (but I’ve always failed to) but this time it looks promising. Got an idea instantly and I’ve developed it for two days so far and I’ve gotten really far! Probably won’t be able to finish it for a while though since it’s a busy week in school.
February 7th, 2010
I’ve decided to challenge myself. In order to get better at game design, I will only make games for your sites challenges. I’ll expand after the competition. My game represents rejection as a rejection of what the ingame instrctions, and what normal game playing logic says. I plan to finish my game this week. It should be nice. Name:
Operation/Reject
(Pronouced “Operation over ree-ject”)
February 7th, 2010
here’s my entry for this month http://awkwardgames.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/3114/
I’m testing a rejected way of controlling a platformer – via mouse. Also, there’s another reason why it fits the theme, but that’s for you to figure out
February 9th, 2010
http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/arcade/operation-reject/1582/
It’s a rejection of common logic. unlike many vertical looking shooters, its an arena shooter. The main rejection is how in most arena shooters, you stay in the bounderies, and your bullets get destroyed when outside the room. However in O/R, they loop around to the other side of the room, which can be used to your advantage or, to hurt yourself. You get to loop around, as well as your enemies.
February 9th, 2010
Here my game for this month :
http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/strategy-sim/deforest/1579/
The game was suppose to be made for last month theme, but I did have enough time to make it. So I decided to build this game anyway when I figured out that it still fits with this month theme.
You play the role of an architect that should build a city over a big forest. You have to fill up the whole map with man’s constructions in less years as possible. Its pretty simple you left click to choose a construction, right click to cancel. Read carefully what do what.
Rejection : The architect has to reject the environment in order to build the mega city. He has to kill animals, he is not ready to share the land with anyone else than human.
Check my blog for more information about the game itself.
February 11th, 2010
@Tobias Wehrum:
@Marc-André Weibezahn:
Sorry it took so long to deliver but we ran into a million problems with the submission and then the site wouldn’t let us update the old page so I created a new one here: http://www.globalgamejam.org/2010/flimflam-fernandez-0
@Ed Scheindlin:
That was one seriously confusingly hard to tell if you’re going to die or not game. Lots of bullets for sure. I would probably of had your bullets and the enemies’ bullets a different color to give you at least a fighting chance. Good for 2 days work though.
@J Tremblay:
I had no idea what I was doing… I made two houses and then started to lose money. Some sort of instructions would have been nice.
February 12th, 2010
@Andrew
They were. I think. Yours were Yellow, theirs were Purple. But so much is going on that it would be confusing anyway. Thanks though.
February 12th, 2010
This is a second entry, made in 2 hours. It’s actually better than the other one. It’s a rejection of the mind. It was created as an experiment later, but I added in a theme of rejection. You’ll understand why later.
http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/platformer/it-s-been-to-long/1606/
February 14th, 2010
@ Ed I liked your game, died a few times. The ending was like a punch to the gut.
February 14th, 2010
Must… resist… urge… to… look… at… Ed’s… game…
Because I don’t want other games of the contest to influence my game. But it’s so tempting!
@Andrew J.:
Something doesn’t work with your game. See these screenshots for reference:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1977054/temp/ff1.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1977054/temp/ff2.png
Do you maybe have mail or a blog? I don’t want to further talk about the game here, it doesn’t have to do anything with the contest :)
February 15th, 2010
@ ANDREW
I downloaded your game, but i could not play it, I got an error. I do have the XNA framework 3.0 and 3.1.
I added a how to play in my game, you can check it out : http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/strategy-sim/deforest/1579/
Thank you for the comment.
@ED
I tried your game, It’s hard. It is really frustrating that you have to start the whole game every time you die.
February 15th, 2010
Thanks for playing the game guys. I really enjoyed your J Tremblay. I was thinking about making my game a bit larger, but not exactly for the EGP. It should turn out well.
February 15th, 2010
Just finished mine. :)
http://vazor222.livejournal.com/20963.html
My thinking and how I got the idea is described on that page. Thanks!
February 15th, 2010
GT Multitude is finished. Or, at least, as finished as it’ll get.
http://www.mandible.net/2010/02/18/gt-multitude/
The explanation is on the page :)
February 18th, 2010
Ok, I’m in. First of all, hello! I’ve been reading EGP for some years, sporadically, and I will finally enter a competition.
I’ll present a game about the process of writing and publishing scientific papers in journals and conferences. That’s of course, because most of them get REJECTED due to different reasons… which are not always understandable (yes, it could be ME) It’s not love, but it gets close: at least where I live we ‘do science’ because we like it (not because we get paid)
However, I’ve a question: rule 2 says “Each game must be made by exactly one person”. What about music? If I use a creative commons theme, is that ‘more than one person’? ; )
February 19th, 2010
Honestly, that rule gets broken all the time, more than any other. People go over time, or split that time up over the week as well. The point is – make a game, don’t waste too much time on it, but explore something interesting or different. I doubt you’d get rejected here if you took the entire month :P
And um… I finally decided to start making a game. It will probably turn up rather late in the month :)
February 21st, 2010
Wow this theme sounds cool. Probably going to join.
February 22nd, 2010
I worked on a game for about 5 days (split up over a couple of weeks due to work constraints!), but decided it wasn’t really going anywhere so decided to put it to rest.
But I thought I’d stick up a video to show how far it got. Take a look if you’re interested. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVVG3NwoJOc
The idea was that you’ve woken up in front of the TV with your brain rejected by your body. In order you get a new one you need to call the hospital, or get one from the fridge. But these tasks require basic brain functions! Putting different objects in your head allows you to perform these tasks (a dictionary to read, a calculator to count, a radio to speak…), but you can only carry one at a time.
It didn’t really work out, but I learnt a lot from working on it :)
February 23rd, 2010
So! I’ve never submitted a game here before, but here goes –
http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/other/the-plant/1694/
Any comments’re appreciated.
Quick readme & brief walkthrough/explanation follows -
“The Plant” is a simple exploration sort of game, with miscellaneous tasks along the way, based loosely on Kafka’s The Castle. (Which is about as thorough an examination of rejection as I’ve yet found.) Use arrow keys to move and space key to interact with people/things. In general your character can only engage in one task at a time.
Explanation as to the logic behind certain decisions can be found in the spoilery section following. I don’t know that reading the spoilers would actually hamper any pleasure gained from the game, but it’s possible. This is assuming there /is/ pleasure to be gained from the game. Like its inspiration, it might be a bit of an acquired taste.
Really – the “point” of the game, if can be said to have one, will probably be found in the scraps of text scattered around.
SPOILERS
The theme the game is meant to embody is “rejection.” Since I’d just gotten done reading Kafka’s The Castle the week before, and my brain was otherwise empty, that seemed as good a foundation for a game as any. It’s a very loose interpretation, however, inspired as much by Kafka’s own life and my own peculiar peccadilloes as anything.
That being said. The biggest gag in the game is the same one Kafka plays on K. in The Castle. Just as K. never gets close to getting into the Castle, so the player can never ever get inside the Plant. It doesn’t matter how many points you accumulate, whether you sell your soul to Old Scratch or run a hundred errands for Klamm. The Point Tabulator will kindly and efficiently keep track of how many points you rack up, but those guards will never move.
The second gag is: the game is “won” whenever the player leaves the map. S/He can do this more or less from the beginning. (Meta-reject the game.) Endings vary based on choices made: whether you wrote a bunch of short stories or worked hard at getting into the Plant (or just sold your soul) OR…
Activated the third gag: nihilism: in-game rejection of the game. This is the hardest trigger to trip – you have to find and then talk to some weird cultists, agree to help them, then find (in the woods on the other side of the map) a robot and a naked woman named Diane. Then you have to go back to the cultists, who will summon the Seven UFOs of the Apocalypse. These are flying saucers that will zip around the map, killing civilians, setting trees ablaze, and destroying buildings. They cannot be stopped. The end of the world, once started, essentially turns off all other options in the game. There’s nothing left to do.
And you still can’t get into the Plant.
February 23rd, 2010
being rejected is normal stuff for me, i live this theme every day.
February 24th, 2010
Here’s my entry:
http://eliteware.co.cc/products/oddoneout.htm
It’s my first entry to Experimental Gaming, and actually my first complete game in C++. I made it in only 2 days.
The relation to rejection should be pretty clear upon playing the game- you have to ‘reject’ the items that don’t match the level’s theme.
February 24th, 2010
^^^ Edit:
I added sound, you can still use the above link to download it.
If it doesn’t run, try:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9b2da534-3e03-4391-8a4d-074b9f2bc1bf&displaylang=en
February 24th, 2010
This is my first EGP entry. The rejection theme is used similarly to the tapestry game above (rejecting something off an assembly line) but mine involves rejecting bad sausages.
Sausage Inspector: http://likethismovie.com/sausages.zip
Controls: 2 button mouse with scroll wheel or equivalent required.
It’s built in Construct so the system requirements should just be WinXP or something relatively modern.
Some caveats:
I have 0 art and game sound/music skills so its all images from google images and lacks sound and music, sorry :-p
I liked the prototype I made on day 1 too much and my ambition for the game exceeded what I could do in 7 days but to be fair to the competition I’m uploading what I was able to get done in 7 days. You’ll see what’s not there when you play (mostly some levels, modes and more powerups).
I do plan on continuing to update the game to that same url and will hopefully get some feedback. I do think it could make a fun iPhone game so I’m probably gonna make an iPhone port with actual art/sound/music/polish/etc so if anyone likes this game and wants to help on a cheapo .99c iPhone game for part of the profit (assuming there is any) just lemme know :)
February 25th, 2010
I had a go at Sausages and Odd One Out so far, going to have a go at the others later. I really liked the way you could throw objects around in Odd One Out, and that made it fun. It would be nice to see the game made a bit more complex, as the click-and-throw mechanic is good fun.
I thought Sausages was a nice idea, but I didn’t like the way that you could only pick up bad sausages and that they automatically attached themselves to your mouse, as I didn’t feel I could control the game how I wanted to. I also think the credits system was a little too complicated for a sausage-sorting game, and I’d have preferred if I was free to try out the different challenges from the start. I didn’t work out what the purchasable items did. It’s a nice concept and I reckon it could be great fun if you tweaked it a bit to make it simpler and more intuitive to control.
February 25th, 2010
Awesome feedback Alistair, lots of helpful notes. If you don’t mind I’d like to get some more detail on some of the stuff you said so I can try some tweaks.
Regarding “I didn’t feel I could control the game how I wanted to”, would you have felt more comfortable with a click and drag control? Did you want to have something to do with the good sausages as well?
I originally had it normal drag and drop but all the clicking and dragging got a bit overly frantic on harder levels. Although my experience is probably different from the avg player because I use a trackball lol.
Regarding the credit system, unlocking of levels and purchasable items, did you read through the texts presented by the characters during the tutorial portions? I know they are a bit wall-of-texty at times heh, heh. Just curious if they helped clarify things at all and wondering if perhaps some better presented information and guidance would help the credit system make more sense.
The concept is that you have 60 seconds per round and besides challenge, your motivation for playing more difficult levels or the same levels at higher belt speeds is that you can earn more credits per session (because more good sausages are being produced and reaching their destination faster).
Would it have felt more natural if powerups were simply equip-able from the start and instead of credits you just accumulated points that weren’t intended to be spent on anything? (focusing on intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation)
Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of friends to coerce into playtesting for me so your feedback is most helpful :D
Thanks for playing!
February 25th, 2010
@Alistair
Thanks for the feedback! I’ve mostly been messing with sound the last 2 days now that I discovered irrKlang.
@Mzo
I’m downloading the DirectX update, then I’ll test your game.
February 26th, 2010
@Alistair
BTW, what OS are you running and what version of MS Visual Studio? My game refuses to run on most computers I’ve tried.
February 26th, 2010
@Mzo
I tried your game, it’s a good concept, but could use some improvements.
- The game feels very linear, you might want to add more conveyor belts (with a lower release rate for each one). It would make the game much more interesting.
- You should definitely switch to click and drag, and make it so you can also drag good sausages. As it is now, I can just leave my mouse on the belt until a bad sausage comes by. There’s no thinking involved. It may also help to include a few different bad sausage images to add variety, but you don’t need to.
Of course, it isn’t all bad. The addition of a story to an otherwise simple game is a great feature. Also, the ability to change speed is really nice (choose your own difficulty!). The incinerator graphics are cool, too.
I agree with you that the graphics could be a lot better. I could make you some custom graphics if you want.
February 26th, 2010
I updated my game a lot- it now has background music, 3D sound, and improved graphics.
February 27th, 2010
Everyones games are looking great! I recently got a feature on JayIsGames of my latest game, so my projects here wont be as plentiful, until I get meh sequel out.
February 27th, 2010
@Mzo
Sorry for inaccuracies in my review, I didn’t have time earlier to play up to the point where more conveyors are added. It makes the game a lot more interesting. Maybe you should shorten the “intro” time to keep players interested?
February 28th, 2010
Better late than never… I didn’t quite finish it, but that’s what I get for not working on it until February 28th.
In my entry, you are a donor heart, and the body you have been implanted into is rejecting you. Killer white blood cells are on the attack. Hold down the SPACE key to fill your heart with blood, and let go of the key to pump the blood out in a wave powerful enough to destroy the incoming white cells. Hold the SPACE key down longer to generate a bigger wave, but the more blood you pump the longer you need to rest between beats.
http://www.zachstronaut.com/lab/rejection/
Browser-based game. Requires Firefox 3.5, Safari, or Chrome.
February 28th, 2010
@Nathan thanks a ton for both the original feedback and the followup feedback.
Was wondering how far you had played because someone else had made the same comment about holding the mouse over the conveyor belt but that trick only works for like 1 level ;)
The original prototype was normal drag and drop which got hand cramping after a while so I’ve decided to compromise and make it click to pickup but you don’t have to hold the mouse down. Also going to find some stuff to do with the good sausages as you and others have suggested.
I’ve gotten a lot of good ideas for potential changes or remixes from the feedback on this site, it’s been invaluable and I look forward to sharing updates with you guys!
March 1st, 2010
(1) boondoggles(2) disregarding stated blind tasting policies
May 27th, 2012
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