In case you missed the announcements all over the place, the Iron Game Chef 2008 game design event ("Artists First!") starts tomorrow. I didn't see a very obvious announcement here, so I thought I'd remind people.

This year, the ingredients will be a set of five awesome, linked images from one of the dozens of artists who contributed to the first part of the challenge. The challenge starts tomorrow (Friday, April 18, 2008) some time, and will run till Monday, April 28.

Even if you consider yourself only a dabbler or have doubts about your design skills, you should enter. You don't have to be good at layout or anything like that. You just have to write up your game idea for us to see and you have two whole weekends and a week in between to get it done. You can do this.

To enter, you need to sign up for the forums there and post in the "Tap In" thread so we know you're in. You can do this.

And it´s officially started: Judge Lehman just couldn´t wait, so we´re seeing the art right now.

In case there was any doubt, it's all entirely awesome.

You need to go enter right now.

Otherwise you'll make Vincent Baker's dinosaurs cry.

You don't want crying dinosaurs, do you?



Cheers,
Roger

Leo's a bunch of pussies.

Go Libra!

p.

Hahaha, I just got the "Leo's a bunch of pussies".

I must admit the Serpentarius and Telescopium sorta lucked out in the name department.

Really, Northerain?

I considered entering using your art(in conjunction with one false move's), and there was to be no prostitute-focus. It was going to be about badass chicks who became immortal when they stopped fearing death.

Then again, maybe there were coincidentally also prostitutes. Damn it!

George, I have ideas for your art that don't (necessarily) involve prostitutes.

It's super interesting to observe how people are using the limited art resources.

I'm playing it really straight myself, but watching other people choose and apply art is fascinating.

I took my set and said "each illo represents a scene" and used the content of the picture to define that scene. So it's a five scene game that revolves around the pictures.

I'm a little thrown by the rules that were added that each picture has to be used as:

* as inspiration
* as a restriction
* as an illustration

Is that how everyone is reading it?

I'm also surprised that there weren't any space opera pictures...

Oh, ya, the tiki guys. I just looked and they could be space opera-ish.

Yeah, Jack, I totally agree. Given that this was Art Year, it was an odd year to do Txt Files as well. I'd have preferred to go in the other direction entirely: let people go mad on layout, as the best way to show off the art.

Graham

Posted By: Graham WYeah, Jack, I totally agree. Given that this was Art Year, it was an odd year to do Txt Files as well. I'd have preferred to go in the other direction entirely: let people go mad on layout, as the best way to show off the art.

I like both the art limitation, and the .txt ruling. It's the wording of the art rules that is odd. If it'd just been "choose an art set, or two, and write a game inspired by that set of art"; then it'd have made sense to me.

I've "remedied" the art/layout disconnect with a follow-up contest.

Posted By: Graham WJustin, awesome.

Bret, to clarify, I'm not saying it should have been layout year. Just that, with bringing in the art, it was an odd year to stop doing the layout. I'm not losing sleep over it, you understand.

Graham

I'm tickled pink. "Awesome" from a Brit is, like, 3.7 "awesomes" from an American.

Posted By: Justin D. Jacobson
I'm tickled pink. "Awesome" from a Brit is, like, 3.7 "awesomes" from an American.

The exchange rate between American and British awesomes is very unfavourable to the US. It's got something to do with mortgages.

Graham