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Sid Meier and the 48-Hour Game

Posted by Soulskill on from the crash-course dept.

MMBK writes "Sid Meier is possibly the most influential game designer ever, having developed the Civilization series, among others. This video documentary looks at his past while he travels to the University of Michigan for the 48-hour game design competition, which was hosted by his son."

12 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Deadlines by cosm · · Score: 2, Funny

    These days it feels like all games are being made within 48-hours.

    --
    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
    1. Re:Deadlines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      People don't even really make "the games" anymore. The just fill an existing engine with art.

    2. Re:Deadlines by Hatta · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ohh, 48 hours to make a game. This being Sid Meier I thought it was 48 hours to complete the game.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    3. Re:Deadlines by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I've boycotted cookie-cutter games like that. Same with movies. Do you know how few filmmakers bother designing their own quarks and leptons and stuff? The lazy bastards think they can just fill an existing engine with art.

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
  2. Hi Everyone by bazald · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm one of the three co-coordinators of the contest. You can find out more information about it on our webpage:

    http://wolverinesoft.org/event/contest/48hourcontest7/

    If you have any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

    --
    Insert self-referential sig here.
    1. Re:Hi Everyone by bazald · · Score: 3, Informative

      Anyone is allowed to write their own library before the contest and submit their code for approval.

      1. We need to verify that any such library doesn't contain 99% of a game, just waiting for them to make a few tweaks to fit the theme.
      2. We need to verify that the library's license allows anyone to use it for free, and allows us to distribute the games produced for free.
      3. We need to give others time to learn how to use the custom libraries, or it doesn't matter that the licensing is permissive.
      4. If we know what libraries are capable of, it makes judging effort a lot easier.

      You're right that there would be some issues with allowing mods in such a contest, but no, it hasn't come up yet. Still, we would know that we can redistribute the mod for free. We would also know that a lot of work was done for them, so we would be able to take that into account during the judging. Perhaps we should officially disallow mods, but I don't think that making a non-trivial mod for a commercial game in 48 hours would be easy, so it might be an interesting challenge for some of our members in the future. It is an interesting point that the developers would normally have the game's sound/music/graphics available to them when making a mod. By the current rules, I'm not sure that they would be able to use the graphics, but we'd probably have to allow the use of at least some graphical assets provided with the game. We would ask the developers to make it clear to us what assets they actually created.

      The only languages I've seen used are C++, C#, Java, and Flash. Libraries commonly used include SDL, OpenGL, zenilib, XNA, ClanLib, and SFML.

      --
      Insert self-referential sig here.
  3. Not commercially meaningful? by bughunter · · Score: 2, Interesting

    While it's an intellectual challenge, and appeals to geek curiosity, how many really meaningful, influential games were written in one of these contests?

    I mean, Sid's famous for writing games that required incredible amounts of research, iterative design, playtesting and balance. Those are what most grognards are interested in... not the next casual twitchfest, nor even another NP Hard gem no matter how elegant.

    Sid, if your reading this, give us a modern, multiplayer version of NetHack (and not a click orgy like Diablo, but a "the dev team thinks of everything" masterpiece), or an updated turn-based strategy game like Fantasy General... I'm waiting for another trend of well balanced, challenging games to come along. Desperately.

    --
    I can see the fnords!
    1. Re:Not commercially meaningful? by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      While it's an intellectual challenge, and appeals to geek curiosity, how many really meaningful, influential games were written in one of these contests?

      This is supposed to be news for nerds, please hand in your /. userid. The correct nerd response to a 48 hour game competition is "that would be fun" and not "what is the point". Some people do actually program for their own fun and not just to give you an updated version of NetHack. Anyone playing the games that result from these competitions are not doing so to find the next big classic game, but to see what people can achieve in a short time.

      Sorry to sound confrontational, but I can't understand why anyone could even think that this sort of competition should end up with some meaningful and influential game. This is the epitime of the original, true geek. The goal of the geek is the same as a mountaineer: you climb a mountain or solve a problem because it is there.

    2. Re:Not commercially meaningful? by daeley · · Score: 2, Informative

      now why would a mime do that?

      Despite being trapped in a glass box, a painfully high wind inevitably rises up, and no amount of invisible rope is going to save you from a pummeling. I mean, you're trapped in a box made of glass! Many of them can't take the pressure and mime shooting themselves in the head. A lot of them miss -- with an invisible gun and bullets, this is perhaps inevitable -- but many hit their mark all too well, causing a great red flower to burst from their temples.

      Mimes are a truly misunderstood underclass, deserving of our pity, not our scorn.

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  4. Re:48-Hour Game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    You're also unlikely to win at Chess by making an early pawn rush.

  5. I once thought as you did by manekineko2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I once thought as you did about Starcraft. I thought it was basically real time tactics and click speed contests. Then I watched some pro replays on Youtube, and realized how wrong I was.

    The Starcraft community refers to strategy as macro, and tactics as micro, and it's widely understood that both are essential ingredients to play well. You can see games where someone micro's masterfully, but they don't have a big enough picture view of the game and get absolutely slaughtered.

  6. Re:48-Hour Game by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 3, Funny

    When I read the headline I was certain it was referring to the time required to complete a single game of Civilization. I just concluded a single-player civ4 game on standard speed and spent around that amount of play time. It's certainly a change of pace from games like Starcraft where 2 hours is epically long.

    Ha - Hahaha!

    Man, I know I've spent Well over 48 hours in a single player civ game - and multiplayer has taken over 100 hours of game time to even reach a level nearing climax.

    As for Starcraft, 2 hours isn't epic. I'd say 2 hours is breaching what one might call a long-ish game. A quick game is about 20 minutes. A regular game is about an hour. An Epically long game, which is to say, 3 players on an 8 player Map, goes from 9 pm till 6 am, with all players remaining till the last 20 minutes.

    Yes its happened, and yes I have the replay.