Dumb Dare 27: Sandbox!

[sonicchaos1993]

In one week, the most anticipated open-world game of the year is coming out.

I'm of course referring to the newest entry in the Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim. In tribute to this game, this month's Dumb Dare has the theme of "Sandbox!" Your goal is to make either an open-world (like Skyrim, Realm of the Mad God, or Minecraft Survival)or sandbox game (like Minecraft Creative or Halo 3/Reach's Forge Mode).

Games will be rated on the following:
Theme (25 pts): Is your game an open-world game/sandbox game? What is the degree of freedom the player has in his/her choices?
Visuals (15pts): How does the game look? Is it visually appealing? Do the graphics fit in with the story behind the game (if it has one)?
Audio (10pts): Is the background music a good fit for the game? Do the music/sounds help draw the player into the game?
Gameplay (35pts): How fun is the game? Would I get bored of it after a couple minutes or is it a game I could come back to over and over again? Does the game run smoothly or are there all sorts of bugs all over the place?
Creativity (15pts): How original is the game? What new concepts and features does it bring to the genre?

A maximum of 100 points can be earned. Each creator will earn Yerfbucks equal to 20% of their score, with decimals rounded. In addition, the highest rated game will earn an extra 5 Yerfbucks (May be changed to the top 3 highest games depending on the number of participants).

All games should be submitted, either by PM or by posting them in this thread, by November 25th (three weeks). Good luck!

[Boneheads1999]

Oh man oh man oh MAN I have gotta enter this. You had me at the word "Minecraft". Minecraft is #1, and I've always wanted to make a 2-D version of Minecraft, but never had a good reason.

I don't know if I'll do creative or survival. Will probably do Survival, as that is much more fun to make. Besides, I've already made a creative one basically, "Elemental". :P

anyway, off to Game maker!!

[Gigacat]

Playing! Minecraft is coming out soon too BTW.

[Gigacat]

Minecraft clone


Because we all love minecraft. Thats what I have so far, Gonna be like MC but foucusing more on a linear structure, so awards, achievments ect. it wont work but Ill try. Just decided its gonna be an RPG.

[.Blue Dwarf.]

Does it count as 'free roam' if the world vanishes behind you and regenerates as something new when you go back?
I'm considering participating and just thinking over some possibilities right now.

Also, if I do participate, got any basic rules that apply to these contests?

[sonicchaos1993]

Originally Posted by .Blue Dwarf.

Does it count as 'free roam' if the world vanishes behind you and regenerates as something new when you go back?
I'm considering participating and just thinking over some possibilities right now.

Also, if I do participate, got any basic rules that apply to these contests?

Yes, that counts.

As far as basic rules go, all that matters is that the game you create follows the theme. It can be any genre you want as long as the free-roam/sandbox aspect of of the theme is present.

[Gigacat]

Implemented blck placing, block destroying, walking, juming, and a bit more AND TREES!. Would post a screenie but I cant be bothered. And if you were wondering, Yes, you can jump -> place block underneath you -> land on block you just placed.

[sonicchaos1993]

Just over a week left! Any late entries won't qualify for YBs. I'll still rate them and let you know what I think, but you won't be able to earn YBs for it.

[sonicchaos1993]

Entries are due TOMORROW! You need to get your game by the time I check the thread on Saturday if you want to get YBs!

[sonicchaos1993]

And... Deadline passes with no entries.

Since it seems like enough people were going to enter this, I'm going to extend the deadline until the end of the month (about another 5 days).

[Gigacat]

oh goodie!

Definitely restarting development!

[.Blue Dwarf.]

My potential submission was really just for testing.
Development was cancelled due to a problem I ran into but was too lazy to fix.

[Gigacat]

Yay game!

Its laggy and i think it might be the engine rather than my computer, but hey, there are 1000-2000 blocks for you to mine. Which brings me to the question; why is minecraft not laggy? Anyhoo, arrows to move, scroll to select different stuffs, right click to mine, left to place/fire arrow. Numbers at tp left tell leveling data, cant remember exactly whats what but its fairly obvious. Yay.

http://www.mediafire.com/?ra50rk0qeq6zdkf

[sonicchaos1993]

MineRPG
Theme: 25/25. Definately a sandbox/open-world game.
Visuals (15pts): 9/15. The terrain is very Minecraft-esqe. The effects that appear when creatures spawn is nice, but the creatures themselves aren't very detailed.
Audio (10pts): 0/10. No audio.
Gameplay (35pts): 20/35. The engine is very laggy, but everything works. I can't say for sure what's causing the lag since I don't have the game code. Other than that, everything works fine. I feel like it takes too long to mine and shoot arrows, but that's probably due to lag making those things take longer. Also, for the cursor, make the origin of the cursor sprites at the center. When the default cursor is selected, the top-left corner of the cursor has to be over a block to mine it. However, the appearance of the cursor would suggest the center should be over the block.
Creativity (15pts): 6/15. Almost everything in the game can already be found in Minecraft and/or Terraria. The RPG leveling system, I feel, could have provided a unique experience if you had more time to work on it. It also had some unique enemies (one of those fire guys spawned literally right in front of me while playing and freaked me out).

Other Comments: It's a start. Look into the lag in the engine. I check with a CPU performance monitor, and my CPU never went past 35% usage while having the game, Chrome with 5 tabs, Word, and Skype open. The lag is being caused by the code itself. I would double check the room/game speed and make sure that's set correctly. Everything seems consistently slow, and from past experience with GM its feels like the game speed may be set too low. If it is just a game speed error, then the engine is very well done.

Total score: 60/100
Yerfbucks won: 12 + 5 for first place/only entry = 17 YBs

Your game was sent in after the deadline, but I made an error when I said I was extending it 5 days, as the end of November was actually 4, so I'll still send YBs. Thanks for entering!

[Gigacat]

Tanks. I didnt touch the FPS at all, apart from testing to try find the lag source, but thanks for the advice!