Hey guys, I was interested in making a small and fun week long unity contest, with the prize being 100$ to the winner. I haven’t picked a theme yet, and I was brainstorming it last night, thinking of ideas. I posted this idea on reddit, and to my surprise, some were saying it was insulting, one said "A week’s work for the chance of winning 100 sounds more offensive than just plainly not having a prize." This shocked me. I was not paying people for a job! I was talking to a group of people who already love using unity, and offering them 100 from my pocket to do something they already enjoy doing. I’m sorry I’ve really lost a bit of faith in humanity. I am not sure if it is just that the subsection of people on reddit are cold or if it is something else. Anyway, to my main point. I know there are alot of game jams out there, but I don’t think one more can hurt. Bascially you would have one week to make a game after a theme is chosen and a few rules are set out. Not looking for anything big obviously, since one week is not much time. One example could be make a simple FPS level, with animals as the characters, and it must include special effects when getting hit by bullet and when firing the gun. Just a quick example obviously. What do you guys think? If you think this is stupid and not worth your time then I will just drop it. I just want to know how people think in this area. Thanks for reading.
Prize money changes the nature of a contest. It’s no longer a friendly game, but a competition. There’s actual stakes involved, no matter how small. That changes attitudes about everything.
I’ve heard people suggest cash prizes for gamedev contests before, and developers always so “no” unless the prize is really substantial. I’m not going to bother digging up the old threads. They’re out there.
What’s in it for you? I don’t really believe this wouldn’t be of any benefit to you to pay 100 bucks from your own pocket just for the lolz. And yes, 100 bucks is peanuts.
I’d recommend possibly dropping the time below one week. Like 3-4 days, or something like that. Then people would be encouraged more to make really simple things like Flappy Bird, and the effort>reward ratio is a lot more reasonable.
Rather than being just a small-scale contest, it becomes more of a race to make the simplest and fastest game possible, while maintaining a measure of quality.
Kinda like the 3D speed-sculpt contests, where people take just a few hours to hack out a character.
Hell, you could give everyone just one day to make a game, as long as you have enough notice in advance to collect people. I’m just not sure how you’d ensure that people actually waited until that particular day to start on it.
This.
Whats in it for me? Just the pleasure of playing the contest games. If you don’t believe me, I once did a reddit meme f7u12 contest where I gave out 100 dollars. I had great joy just reading all the comics and that was worth it for me.
Well the reason I wanted to choose a week is because I figured the longer the time, the better the quality the games. Also, I figure people would need the time if they had technical questions they needed to get answered on the unity forums, and as you know some answers may need 24 hours.
I really just don’t understand that mindset. So it would really be hard just to make a fun contest for young developers because I am offering a prize? Why can’t it be fun, and the prize just be a bonus? What has happened to people. Can people really no longer have fun and collaborate without money/prize ruining it. Man, I must admit, I have lost a bit of faith in humanity.
You seem to have the misconception that people would do this for free.
They would not.
You’re asking people to devote a very large quantity of their own time for little if any return.
Just give $100 to whoever wins Ludum Dare.
Or give me $100. That’s cool too.
I wouldn’t be interested at all - a week is too long and to spend that amount of time on something I would expect a decent prize package. Why? My time is valuable, it’s how I feeds my family, pay rent etc.
You’re right though - It’s not always about the prize:
I’d definitely consider doing a 48 hour challenge: concept to completion within 48 hours on a weekend. That style of competition sounds like fun to me - 48 hours is just a weekend, something I can do in my free time - but a week worth of work sounds/feels more like “work” than fun which is probably why the people you’ve been talking to have that kind of attitude.
Nobody said you would have to work on your project for a week. It would simply be giving a person a week to finish they’re submission. If you work 40 hours a week and have a family, you may only be able to devote an hour or 2 a day to your project. So thats why its a week. Not to give a huge workload, but to give elbow room to those who are busy. Is this unreasonable?
I understand that, but I was just describing my initial reaction and general feeling toward a week long competition. It only takes a couple of seconds of thinking about it to realise you’re not expected to work 40 hours, but that first impression will stick around in the back of my mind and keep trying to twist my opinion of the competition - I’ll always feel disadvantaged because I can only commit a few hours a day.
Note: I think a competition is a great idea (definitely shorter though), so don’t give up if you still want to do it… I’m just trying to explain why people might react that way based on my own thinking/first impressions.
Perhaps you could approach certain people/sites/asset owners to see if they’d like to sponsor the competition?
You seem to have the misconception that everyone is doing this for money.
@OP
A few (actually not soo few) years ago I did a contest pretty much like you’re planning. However, it was a much smaller community of a different game programming tool. I still got some nice entries so I didn’t regret that I had hosted the contest and spent that money.
Of course you can’t expect any highly polished AAA games but if this is not what you’re after you should be fine. I’m pretty sure in this community there are enough hobbiests and students who would participate in such a contest as well.
So go for it!
However I would like to make a few suggestions:
-1 week seems a bit short for such a contest. Of course you can make a game in a few days, however a project like this has to run beside the day job, main project or school and other stuff. I would recommend about 3 weeks.
-The theme shouldn’t be too specific so the contestants can explore some of their own ideas. Back then my theme was just “Racing Game”
-You have to specifiy exactly what is allowed for your contest. Like if a contestant has to make all by himself or if he can team up. Or if it is allowed to use stuff from the asset store, only Unity Free features and so on…
-Of course you can’t claim exclusive rights or make money on these games (you don’t sound like this was your plan), but you have to specify some form of licencing (e.g. Freeware without ads / IAP) and what has to be delivered for a complete entry (like WebPlayer or Windows executable).
-Specify from the beginning how the winner will be chosen (e.g. public vote in forums or jury) and maybe what the main criteria will be (like creative gameplay, polished graphics / technical achievement or overall experience)
Good Luck!
EDIT:
Don’t let you demotivate by those naysayers. It’s like with the naming of a child. If the parents tell the name before the child is born, discussions will arise. If they do it afterwards nobody will complain because then it’s just fact - not a theory.
What is spec work?
I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say those comics didn’t take longer to make than thirty minutes. Compare that to ludum dares and game jams where the winners probably didn’t get any sleep that weekend. It takes just a tad bit more work to make a decent game I’m afraid.
I understand that sir, but I am not a wealthy person, and giving out 100$ out of my own pocket is not easy for me. I’m sorry that I can’t make the reward greater. I guess the spirit of my donation is not appreciated much then. Oh well…
Thanks for the info BIG BUG