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BioWare Holds World Design Contest
grayblob writes "BioWare is holding a World Design Contest to find talented level designers to work in Austin on their first MMORPG. To enter you must create a module with a 20-40 minute playtime in the NWN1 toolset. The module should include 'a cut scene, intricate puzzles and interesting NPC behavior.' The contest ends July 20 and like the writing contest doesn't guarantee employment for the winners."
they want to create this artifical environment of competition to make people think it's a priviledge to work for them or something? people, it's a highly competitive employment market - and i mean for employers, not you. they need to be begging you for the chance to explain why you should want to work for them, not the other way around.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
I absolutely love this kind of thing. Contests seem to inspire innovation. My favorite contest in recent years was the x-prize - that result was great!
After all, competition made life: Just so long as it does not become conflict, it is healthy.
Read my Very Short "Stories"
Good way to get new ideas. Wasn't there a band that held a similar contest to find a new guitarist and just copied all the good riffs they heard on the day?
Who retains copyright over submitted works? No mention of it in the agreement.
I like this bit:
VGH Austin is under absolutely no obligation whatsoever to:
(a) acknowledge receipt of the Materials and/or this Agreement;
So you have to sign an agreement which they can deny ever receiving. Nice.
The benefit of going this route instead of the dreary old slog-through-the-demos route is that you might find a one-in-a-million inexperienced young hack out there who can knock together some impressive stuff, is surprised that he has any skills marketable to a game company, and then pay him a crap salary for the "opportunity" to work for them.
So the company gets a cheap, eager, bright eyed new recruit for a few years while the product goes through its life cycle and the guy either moves on once he figures he's got enough experience to get a decent gig somewhere else, or the whole project flounders and the entire development team gets laid off anyway. I'm not sure if this is a profitable business model or not, but I do know that it will probably suck to be on the lower end of things.
Probably because it's a story/puzzle/level design contest, not a texture/physics/lighting contest. The NWN2 is extremely stable, and well known, so lots of folks are already familiar with it. If you can make an interesting level/story/puzzle in it, then it will be all the better when tied in with the latest engine of the day.
Bunch of reasons.
:) )
Some of them
- NWN is a very mature, very stable game development platform.
- Everyone at BioWare has NWN installed on their machines. Makes it easier to review.
- It has more copies out there (3.x M+)
- It has much lower systems requirements.
- It is cheaper (15 USD vs 49 USD for NWN2)
- The people reviewing the modules are much more familiar with the NWN toolset.
- It encourages people to stick to gameplay over eyecandy.
- Faster to create a NWN module. NWN2 levels are much more complex (and better looking
- The NWN toolset is more friendly (less complex) to beginners
- The documentation for NWN is much more complete after 5 years.
hope that helps
Georg, BioWare.
It's just a contest. You're free to decide whether it's worth it or not. You're also free to decide whether the terms are fair or not.
Camping on quad since 1996.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
What if they don't really want a cut sceene, but want builders to demonstrate their ability to create scripted events in the NWN toolset?
www.aleo.no
A year or two ago I participated in Bioware's writing contest, winning the community voting. I actually did it for the swag they were giving away - I use their coffee mug every day and that Bioware wool cap kept me warm all winter. They'd already offered me a job some time ago, mostly after my NWN modules came out. It was extremely flattering, though the move, disruption to my family, and pay cut made the decision pretty easy. I have a great job in healthcare and a somehow find the time to continue to work on my module building even still. Working for a gaming company can be difficult, though Bioware is one of the best in the industry. I think my decision was to stick with a quality, stable job and having game making be a hobby. For the most part, it's lower stress and I can take the story whatever direction I want.
In terms of the winning module from last year, I actually did two versions. The first was way too linear. The second had lots of choice, from evil to crazy to several flavors of good. There was drama and humor, quality scripting, and polished writing. For folks trying for this contest, I'd keep the cutscenes short, give the player as many choices as you can manage, and make your NPCs memorable. Less is more for these sorts of things. Don't plan an epic module spanning dozens of areas. Just make a couple, with a simple storyline. Play to your strengths - writers should write and scripters should script. You'll have to do both, but emphasize what you're best at.