Terrible Game Contests

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A word beforehand[edit]

OHRRPGCE user Iblis wrote a series of articles for the Hamsterspeak Magazine concerning the Terrible Games Contests held over the past few years. This wiki entry is largely based off of his extensive research on the subject.

What is it?[edit]

The Terrible Game Contest is a competition held periodically amoung OHRRPGCE game developers to design the "worst" game they can. Entries to the Terrible Game Contest have included some of the strangest, funniest, and, predictably, worst games ever produced for the OHR. No standard definition of a terrible game exists, but it's generally agreed that it's something beyond just a very bad game. A terrible game can offend or disgust the player, harm the player's eyes or ears, confuse the player, and all of these things are encouraged. However, a terrible game is never meant to bore the player. During the first Terrible Game Contest that Fenrir hosted he said, "The basis of this 'contest' is to attempt to construct a game that is awful, insulting, terrible, disgusting ... but still be playable to the point where it actually keeps the player's interest long enough to get to the end." Most successful entries follow this idea in some way.

Horrible Game Contest / First Iteration[edit]

This contest actually began as the "Horrible Game Contest" and was hosted by Gilbert (known on Castle Paradox as Rolling Stone). The contest was announced on April 20, 2004, but it had no single starting date because each entrant could specify the day they wanted to receive their contest file. The entrants would have to complete and submit their game within 48 hours of the time they received the file. Aside from the time limit, the required use of an RPG file provided by Gilbert, and the general idea of making a "horrible game," the contest had no rules. The prize for the winner was fanart by Gilbert of their horrible game. Most entrants to this contest took a more literal approach to the idea of a horrible game than the latter contests, with no real attempts at interesting gameplay. Many of them were intended as comedy or parody. Ugly or incomprehensible graphics, incomprehensible or misspelled dialogue, and irritating or misplaced music were common features of the entries and have continued to be a part of the Terrible Games Contest to this day.

The winner of the first TGC was SDHawk's entry: Final Fantasi XXX. Other notable entries were OMFG TIZ ROXORZ TOO!! by JSH357, Habla no Ingles by Gizmog1, and Hentai Quest by Chaos Nyte.

Terrible Game Contest v1.WTF[edit]

On July 7, 2004, Fenrir announced "Terrible Game Contest v1.WTF". The winner of this contest could choose between two prizes: a drawing by Fenrir of anything they want, or an item worth no more than $25 from the Castle Paradox Store. This time the contest received many more entries, most of them similar to the previous contest in that they took a literal approach and were just very bad games. However, many more games were attempting and succeeding at humor this time, and a few games tried to keep enjoyable gameplay while being terrible in other ways.

Notable entrants to this contest's iteration were Fenrir's BLB, Shadowiii's OHRDate 1.5, Burgertory by Junahu, OMFG TIZ ROXORZ TREE!! and OHR House by JSH357, and Gato Sucio The Quest for Color and Scottie Goes to Hell by Surlaw.

Terrible Game Contest V1.PWNED[edit]

Fenrir announced Terrible Game Contest v1.pwned on Dec. 2, 2004, though the contest wasn't officially beginning until April of 2005. This was because entrants were allowed to start their games early if they chose to, but early releases would have points would be deducted from their score. This rule was also created in part to consolidate and supercede the then existing April Fools Contest

The vast majority of the entries were original, with one remake and one expansion on a previously existing game. The remake was RedMaverickZero's Mr. Triangle's Adventure which featured Mr. Triangle in a somewhat more serious game, and the expansion was Fenrir Lunaris' BLB. As those games were the only entries in their respective categories, they won automatically. The winner in the original category was Moogle1's Super Concentration Headache Master Pro. Other notable entries in the competition included Gizmog1's joke game Dr. Rape, The Mad Cacti's OHR IRC Simulator, Shadowiii's Shadowiii vs Santa Barbara Airport DX and JSH357's OHR House 2. This contest continued the trend of terrible games becoming less "terrible" and more unconventional or experimental. Super Concentration Headache Master Pro is a good example of this.

Terrible Game Contest version J[edit]

The next contest was hosted by JSH357, Terrible Game Contest version J, and was announced on Jul. 20 2006. The contest ran from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15. No prize was offered.

Only four games were entered: Final Fantasy VII XP by Chenzi, OHR House 3 Auditions by Valigarmander, Attack of the Anime Freaks by Onlyoneinall, and DireOHRea by TwinHamster. The winner was Final Fantasi XXX, SDHawk's winning entry to Gilbert's Horrible Game Contest, despite the fact that JSH357 had disqualified it for not being a new game. The games in this contest were more traditional terrible games, parodies with poor graphics and without the experimental gameplay that's come to be associated with these contests.

Terrible Game Contest 2007[edit]

The Terrible Game Contest for 2007 was once again hosted by Fenrir-Lunaris, with two stipulations: namely that each game had to have an "edutainment" theme, and that the winner would receive a check for $50. Fenrir's second goal in the contest was to provide a number of testcases for the OHRRPGCE Ubersetzung release, to test out errors and bugs. Notable entries included Dance Dance Armageddon by TwinHamster, Eyes by Onlyoneinall, Mazes of Persistence by Uncommon, Mending Wall by JSH357, OHR SACHEN Multipack by Fenrir-Lunaris, Super Concentration Headache Battle Warrior by Moogle1, Striptease Typing Tutor by No_Shot, and Super Trivia by Ysoft_Entertainment.

The winner, Super Concentration Headache Battle Warrior was similar to Moogle1's previous entry in that it made use of palette changes and animating backgrounds to disorient and confuse the player, all set to the tune of Mahna Mahna.

2008[edit]

The theme (main rule) of the 2008 contest was to "produce a video game that stylistically and functionally emulates the feel of another OHRRPGCE game designer". The contest ran from April 1st - May 3rd (thanks to an extension).

Entries were:

2009[edit]

The Terrible Games Contest 2009, titled "What is Love?", ran from the 1st-30th of April, and games had to made with at least one of the two themes: "Love" and "SCIENCE!!".

The entries:

Later years[edit]

Thereafter, the contest has been known as the Ridiculous Games Contest.


Links[edit]

See Also[edit]