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 Back in the 1980s, a still "not insane" Tom Cruise starred in a film called Top Gun. It was apparently successful enough to convince people to enlist in the Navy as fighter pilots (with the Navy claiming that enlistment went up by 500% as a result of the film's release). Enter the Top Gun Effect. Several films and TV shows have come out since them with similar effects, but no one's tried to make a piece of media in a similar vein for a particular demographic of our world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk6Rs2MgGMI So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make a traditional game that glorifies the menial, lovely jobs that no one wants. I don't care if you throw in fantasy or magic, or if you go for gritty realism, but entries must make the lovely jobs no one wants look cool and interesting. In addition, the text of your game's rules need to legibly fit onto a single piece of Letter sized paper. You are required to submit proof of meeting this, and the proof must be in 12 Point "Times New Roman" font, single spaced. Aside from that, you can flesh out your rulebook with pictures and drawings, make it into a pocketmod, or brand it to a cow - I'm only limiting you on the amount of text you can use. There will be some check-ins along the way:
In order for a participant to successfully check in, they must either post the text in question, or a file sharing service (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc) link, here in the thread by the cut-off time. Based on how good I find that week's submission, I'll give you anywhere from 1-5 points. Since there is only one prize to be given and I feel cutting the prize into multiple shares is too much work, each check-in also offers Bonus Points. They don't add to your overall point total, but if two people are tied for first, I'll be giving the prize to whoever has the most bonus points. If they somehow still end up tied, I'll cry in the shower and figure out a way to work it out. But what are the chances? Due to this being the last month of Summer Vacation for those of us still in school, I'm letting every participant have one Late Week, no penalties* taken. If work or preparations for REAL LIFE CONSEQUENCES come up, you can submit your check-in for that week up to the Wednesday before the next check-in, by 11:59p CST. Even if you are late, you can still attempt that week's Bonus Point challenge. Feel free to discuss and ask questions here in the thread, as the livelier it is in here, the better the entries I eventually will judge end up! The prize, for the winning entry, will be a $30 Gift Certificate to DriveThruRPG. Feel free to discuss job and game ideas in the meantime, and ask any further questions you have about the contest. Good Luck! _____________________________________________________________________________________________ *In order to claim a Late Week, you must post video or audio link of you thanking someone who works a menial, lovely job. EDIT 1: Clarified the rule on Rulebook length limitations. Only the text of the rules must fit into two Letter sized pages (a single piece of Letter sized paper, with both sides covered). EDIT 2 - EDIT 1er: Forgot to add in how scoring works, and how I plan to break a tie (in the case that one comes up). I've also added in what the bonus point requirement is for Check-in #1. EDIT With A Vengeance: Added in the Bonus Point mission for Check-in 2 Live Free and EDIT 4: Added the Bonus Point mission for Check-in 3. Also, fixed the EDIT labels to taste. A Good Day to EDIT 5: Added in the Bonus Point missions for Check-ins 4 & 5, that way I can end the EDIT labels on a fun note. TheSoundNinja fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Aug 19, 2014 |
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Jul 23, 2014 23:30
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The Applicants: Black Wombat's Operation: Big Clean Casnorf's The Trashmen of the Sierra Madre Antivehicular's Managing Armageddon AlphaDog's Plastic Cops: Defenders of the Earth CodfishCartographer's The Jungle: A Lovecraft Story Edit: All current competitors are now listed, and point totals are present. Edit 2 = Electric Boogaloo: Now all competitors are listed, with point totals updated! Edit 3: Edit 4: Up to date for Stage 4! What are Stage 4's point values?  Edit 5: Added in who bowed out, and Casnorf's Late Check-in for Stage 4 TheSoundNinja fucked around with this message at 05:56 on Aug 31, 2014 |
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Jul 23, 2014 23:30
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How closely do these depictions of lovely jobs have to fit the actual day-to-day of said lovely jobs? Could you make a game about super librarians or something?
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Jul 24, 2014 02:11
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Captain Walker posted:How closely do these depictions of lovely jobs have to fit the actual day-to-day of said lovely jobs? Could you make a game about super librarians or something? Well, that sounds acceptable, as long as the game makes said job look appealing. In the last July Chat thread (before the time travel incident), there was discussion of a steampunk game where the players took on the role of the people fueling and caring for the grand machines of the upperclass. That's what I'm looking for: a game that makes jobs no one should want look cool.
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Jul 24, 2014 02:36
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TheSoundNinja posted:In addition, your game's rules need to legibly fit onto a single piece of Letter sized paper. Feel free to use both sides, or to make the rules into a pocketmod, as long as they fit the size requirement and can be read by the naked eye. Why is this A Thing?
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Jul 24, 2014 18:49
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I'm not entering, but this seems relevant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=137Ei0C3Vdg
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Jul 24, 2014 21:24
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P.d0t posted:Why is this A Thing? Because nobody wants to read
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Jul 24, 2014 22:18
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Dagon posted:Because nobody wants to read Which is fair enough, but a literal page makes the contest about cramming your game onto a page, not whatever the contest is about. The 250 word ad copy is an entire page itself! A page is not a lot of space. I don't think anybody is going to submit their FATAL heartbreaker if you just tell them to keep it short. At least restrict it to like ten pages or something instead.
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Jul 24, 2014 23:01
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Tulul posted:FATAL A game about being a freelancer forced to write FATAL adventures to feed his family and trying to stay sane.
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Jul 25, 2014 00:06
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P.d0t posted:Why is this A Thing? I'm not requiring your rules to fit on a single page: the text of your rules cannot exceed two pages of text. For most games, this is enough space. Dagon posted:Because nobody wants to read Also, it keeps this from happening. Just keep your rules from rambling, and you'll be fine. Edit: Lichtenstein posted:A game about being a freelancer forced to write FATAL adventures to feed his family and trying to stay sane. Roll for level of depression over "anal circumference" table. TheSoundNinja fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Jul 25, 2014 |
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Jul 25, 2014 02:00
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Game about driving a school bus coming up.
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Jul 25, 2014 02:28
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TheSoundNinja posted:Roll for level of depression over "anal circumference" table. Now I'm seriously considering a game about coffee-powered late-night freelance writing. Don't rest your head meets Barton Fink, basically.
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Jul 25, 2014 11:02
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Something tells me I'm gonna need more than two pages, but what the hell. I'll still try to cram everything in.
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Jul 25, 2014 23:34
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Snorb posted:Something tells me I'm gonna need more than two pages, but what the hell. I'll still try to cram everything in. You can still use images, and the rule book itself can be more than two pages: the text is the only limited factor. Still, can't wait to see what you have cooking. What job are you thinking about Top Gunning? Edit: I went ahead and clarified the rules on the text limitation. Let me know if there is still any confusion, and I'll be happy to refine my explanation. Error 404 posted:Someone should make a game about making the movie "Top Gun". Let's get some Meta-recursion up in here. Well, as I learned this semester in Film Production I, working film crew for a director who doesn't know what the hell they want to do is one hell of a lovely job. GO FOR IT, GOOSE! TheSoundNinja fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Jul 26, 2014 |
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Jul 26, 2014 06:13
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Someone should make a game about making the movie "Top Gun". Let's get some Meta-recursion up in here.
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Jul 26, 2014 06:15
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Actually does "PR guy" count as a lovely job no one wants? Tossing up between that and the school bus.
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Jul 26, 2014 13:45
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TheSoundNinja posted:You can still use images, and the rule book itself can be more than two pages: the text is the only limited factor. Still, can't wait to see what you have cooking. What job are you thinking about Top Gunning? I'm gonna Top Gun the "wonderful" world of Retail! Totally not based on my own experience with it or anything. No, not at all.  quote:Edit: I went ahead and clarified the rules on the text limitation. Let me know if there is still any confusion, and I'll be happy to refine my explanation. Well, worst comes to worst, I can just make the full version in one Google Doc, and just pare it down to two pages in another (and call it something like the Minimum Wage Edition.)
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Jul 26, 2014 14:48
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I'll be watching this with interest, maybe making my own game on the side. I won't be able to keep to the schedule since I'll be all over the country this August, so best of luck to all contestants!
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Jul 26, 2014 21:06
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The sad thing is, back when I worked at a gas station and wrote the schedules, I had the idea of making a game that would fit this definition. It would employ a sort of EA Sports NHL-type "line chemistry" mechanic of some kind. It would actually be like more of an HR exercise than a game, but  That said I never made up any mechanics for it, so I dunno if I could hit all the deadlines of this contest.
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Jul 27, 2014 01:21
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P.d0t posted:The sad thing is, back when I worked at a gas station and wrote the schedules, I had the idea of making a game that would fit this definition. It would employ a sort of EA Sports NHL-type "line chemistry" mechanic of some kind. It would actually be like more of an HR exercise than a game, but Give it a shot. Worst case scenario, you have to drop out of the contest and have some work done on your idea that you can wrap up later. Anyway, now that we're a week away from the first check-in, let me offer something fun: Bonus Points! Each check-in will net you points (from 1-5). In addition, if you complete one of the bonus point opportunities for that week, it'll go into a separate pile. In the case of a tie for first place, I'll be using bonus points as a tiebreaker. This week, I'll give you a bonus point if you make an audio or visual advertisement for your entry. Bonus points aren't based on artistic skill, so as long as your ad is just you reading your ad-blurb in an announcer's voice, I'll give you the bonus point. Best of luck! I can't wait to see what y'all cook up. In case that seems inspired other contests, it is. I took this one from one I participated in a couple of years ago. Full credit goes to whichever Goon ran the November 2012 TGD Contest.
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Jul 28, 2014 00:45
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I'm in. Prepare to be blown away by Order Up!, my horrible game about horrible people in the horrible fast food industry.
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Jul 28, 2014 04:17
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I wonder if I took the premise of glorifying a poo poo job a little too literally.
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Jul 28, 2014 05:04
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Casnorf posted:I wonder if I took the premise of glorifying a poo poo job a little too literally. Is it about Muckraking?
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Jul 28, 2014 08:42
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Casnorf posted:I wonder if I took the premise of glorifying a poo poo job a little too literally. Fantasy is fine, if it still resembles the job in question. Look at "Top Gun" - do you think Tom Cruise is actually good at Volleyball?
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Jul 28, 2014 14:41
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Xelkelvos posted:Is it about Muckraking?
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Jul 28, 2014 21:42
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Casnorf posted:As it turns out, "Polish That Turd!" went over really badly with focus groups. Why is it that people say things like this when I can't buy them avatars...
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Jul 29, 2014 22:05
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Yeah, I'm in this. I'm starting work on Operation : Big Clean, about an international organization of janitors who might also be super-sleuths.
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Jul 30, 2014 06:47
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 I threw a little drawing together while banging my head against this one. That means I'm entering with The Trashmen of the Sierra Madre, only loosely inspired by real life.
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Jul 31, 2014 03:41
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Operation : Big Clean posted:Across the world, from the lowliest of offices to the highest reaches of government, a special force of men and women has been growing, preparing to extend the fight against evil to places where no agency has been able to go before. They are nearly omnipresent, and almost equally unnoticed, moving from cube farms to industrial plants to penthouse apartments with equal ease. Every man that empties your bins is a leak. Every woman who cleans your toilets is a spy. The International Order of Custodians has infiltrated the homes and businesses of the rich and powerful on both sides of the law, and, in doing so, has discovered a global conspiracy of such magnitude that no other group in the world has the potential of stopping it. Blurb - submitted.
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Aug 2, 2014 18:26
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Please use the word Garbology constantly in your games, Casnorf and Black Wombat.
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Aug 2, 2014 19:54
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Mr. Maltose posted:Please use the word Garbology constantly in your games, Casnorf and Black Wombat. OH, you good [sir/mam/porpoise/robot] have just given me an idea. The bonus point mission for Check-in 2 has just been revised! Just a heads-up to those thinking of entering in time for Check-in 1: You have just  have one day and 4 hours left!!!You can still enter late after that by using your Late Week, suffering no other penalty than the tears I'll cry from wishing I had your beautiful ad-copy to keep me company during the hot Texas Summer nights. 
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Aug 3, 2014 01:46
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 The full blurb posted:Before the quarantine came down, you were mentally drafting your "take this job and shove it" speech. Being an office manager in this crappy little office meant playing secretary, payroll, HR, chief cook and bottle-washer -- all for half of what your "specialist" coworkers made. Your boss only contacted you with e-mailed orders. In all caps. Comic Sans. Yeah, you were done.
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Aug 3, 2014 23:18
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Heads up: only a hour and a half left to enter an Ad-blurb for Check-In 1!
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Aug 4, 2014 04:21
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Blurb posted:You see us every day without registering our presence. But we're watching you. We're watching everyone.
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Aug 4, 2014 05:27
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And with that, we are past Check-in 1! Remember, you can still enter if you submit your blurb by Wednesday, August 6th at 11:59p CST. I'll write up points at some point later today (as I desire sleep). The Bonus Point for Check-in 2 is... lovely jobs usually have some sort of made-up lingo (like synergy or Garbology). For this week's bonus point, come up with some dumb term that applies to the job in some way and use it in your game.
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Aug 4, 2014 06:55
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Alright, let's get down to the judging. This stage is the easiest to get points on, as you just have to present an interesting idea. In a not-indicative-of-quality order...
Now, let's see you present some game ideas that work with the blurbs you've presented! Post for critique and questions here, as everyone can and should work with each other to make the best games possible!
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Aug 4, 2014 22:22
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TheSoundNinja posted:Fun fact: my dad was actually in Office Space. This sounds like a cool story.
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Aug 4, 2014 22:53
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Error 404 posted:This sounds like a cool story. Well, if you've seen the movie, you've seen my dad at least 35 times during it's running time. He had just retired from being a Russian Linguist in the Air Force, and was looking for a job in North Austin back then. He found an ad for office workers in the Statesman, and figured he'd apply. Once he showed up, the hiring people took a polaroid of him, took his resume, and asked him to wait in the lobby. Now, he was super suspicious of this - he had read recently of some sting operation that worked like that, and didn't want a job prospect lead him to waste his time with an interview with police. If the previous sentence sounds like the thinking of someone crazy, my dad was paranoid like that. Anyway, everyone got called in one by one until my dad and a handful of others were left. My dad was called, walked back into the room... and met Mike Judge. Apparently, Judge was filming a new film and had the perfect role for my father. As I said, he's in the film over 30 times. Just in the background, or walking by, leading up to the entire reason my dad was cast for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IbgTPftvWc He's the one who takes the cake away from Milton, and causes the climax of the film.
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Aug 4, 2014 23:07
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TheSoundNinja posted:Casnorf - The Ad reminds me of the Cheapass Games releases, which is good because that's the kind of "garbage" pun intended it seems like your going for. I'm getting the feel of a short party game, am I off? 5/5 + Bonus Point Achieved
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Aug 5, 2014 01:25
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Casnorf posted:It's gratifying that my natural minimalism gets the point across. I couldn't think of how else to describe the game and I'd hoped the reference in the title would be evocative enough. Well, it should be assuming anyone else remembers that movie. Now to wrangle another person in so I can tinker with it. Three-player games are hard to mess with when you've only got two people handy. Make a prototype out of flash cards and sharpies, and head to a FLGS - typically, you'll find a couple of people interested in helping you out.
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Aug 5, 2014 01:55
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