Ectocomp

[rotter]

My entry is in. Ran out of time, forgot that 3 hours is not actually that long.

[P/o Prune]

I'm just curious...
Why the three hour rule?

1: There's no way we can check if the rule has actually been obeyed.
2: Authors are allowed to plan their game beforehand. So it's only a matter of how fast things can be transferred (pasted) from the word document to the developer.
3: The chance of unfinished games is much bigger (and we all keep complaining that we need more good Adrift games out there)

[Campbell]

Well, I would say the main reason is that it would encourage more entries. If you know everyone else has spent a maximum of 3 hours, it means your own game isn't going to be pitted against a masterpiece.

I'm considering entering if I can find a spare 3 hours. However, if that time restriction was removed then I don't think I would.

[Lumin]

I like the limit. It's been a long month for me, I've had a lot of very unfun stuff going on in RL, and there's no way I'd consider entering a comp that required a commitment to write a full-length game right now. But I know I can set aside three hours today and I'm going to.

As for questions 1 and 2, I have enough confidence in this community to assume no one is so dead set on winning ten dollars and an action figure they're going to blatantly cheat, though if someone does blur the lines a little...so what? The Ectocomp is one of my favorite ADRIFT traditions and it's always been more about the fun than the prizes.

[P/o Prune]

I like the limit. It's been a long month for me, I've had a lot of very unfun stuff going on in RL, and there's no way I'd consider entering a comp that required a commitment to write a full-length game right now. But I know I can set aside three hours today and I'm going to.

As for questions 1 and 2, I have enough confidence in this community to assume no one is so dead set on winning ten dollars and an action figure they're going to blatantly cheat, though if someone does blur the lines a little...so what? The Ectocomp is one of my favorite ADRIFT traditions and it's always been more about the fun than the prizes.

Hi Lumin.. good to see you back (once again )
I didn't mean to imply that anyone would cheat. Like you say for 10 bucks? Heck.. If people needed 10 bucks that bad, write me, and I'll lend them to them
As for the other reasons regarding the time limit I understand. I was just curious as to why there was a 3 hour rule. I guess that has been explained now...

Oh, and I hope that you and Campbell will be able to squeeze in three hours from somewhere.

[Campbell]

Oh, and I hope that you and Campbell will be able to squeeze in three hours from somewhere.

I know - tell Lumin to stop hogging all the awards...

[ralphmerridew]

When it comes time for voting, get in touch with Mike Snyder.

[rotter]

I'm just curious...
Why the three hour rule?

1: There's no way we can check if the rule has actually been obeyed.
2: Authors are allowed to plan their game beforehand. So it's only a matter of how fast things can be transferred (pasted) from the word document to the developer.
3: The chance of unfinished games is much bigger (and we all keep complaining that we need more good Adrift games out there)

It is true that you can't check if the 3 hour rule has been obeyed but it is usually easy to spot. If anyone breaks the rule the game will be too large, too polished, have too many tasks etc. With these type of speed comps the games will be raw and it is all about the planning. Normally I open the generator and get stuck it with my usual stuff. With these though I try and get as much on paper as possible. I think it should help the number of new games in the long run as it hopefully gets people writing, entering and may be even playing (although that is a long shot). And you can always be fleshed out these into proper games later.

[Duncan_B]

The reason for the 3 hour limit seems to stem from Ectocomp's rules originally being taken from Woodfish's Speed-IF competitions (the Hourglass Competitions), which were originally 1 hour, but branched out to 3 hours in July 2004. You can see in the original Ectocomp post here that the rules for Ectocomp were "craftily cut-and-pasted from Woodfish's last Hourglass competition," which would have been the ADRIFT Hourglass Competition 2006 (a.k.a. the Third 3 Hour Games Competition).

Starting in 2002, Woodfish's Hourglass Comps produced a number of works in the community, including The Evil Chicken of Doom, Doom Cat!!, and a few Clueless Bob Newbie games. At their height in 2004, a One Hour Comp produced 16 games. This was the same year that the 3 hour version was introduced, two of which were held that year and produced a total of 13 games combined.

Probably the history could go even deeper than this. One hour was generally traditional in non-ADRIFT Speed-IF which was around at the time and produced works like You Are a Chef! (2000) and A Day for Fresh Sushi (2001). Maybe we could scope out an interview with Woodfish for more details?

[Campbell]

For info, the next version of ADRIFT will record how long has been spent working on a game.

[David Whyld]

That's a nice feature but I'm not sure how well it would work for determining actual time spent on a game. The majority of what I've written was first typed into a Word document and only copied and pasted into ADRIFT once I'd read through it.

[Campbell]

Well, Word does the same. Add the two together, and Bingo...

[Duncan_B]

I still like using the honor system with authors. I don't feel like there's any reason yet to think authors haven't been totally honest in saying they spent three hours on their work.

Speaking of which, another author has committed his 3 hours to Ectocomp 2011! Say hello to Hungry, a new work by our own Richard Otter. That brings us to 2 entries. Remember, authors are allowed a maximum of three entries each... so anybody could write more than one if they so wish...

[Lumin]

So so far I've started two games and then not come remotely close to finishing them in time. Progress!

..eh, I'll try again tomorrow after work. Third time's the charm and all.

[P/o Prune]

So so far I've started two games and then not come remotely close to finishing them in time. Progress!

..eh, I'll try again tomorrow after work. Third time's the charm and all.

It's good to see that I'm not the only one

What if, say I spend 4 hours on a game. I've exeeded the time limit and the game can't be submitted.
Is the idea that I start a whole new (different) game, or am I allowed to use part of the "old" game?