Accepting nominations for Linden Lab's Arcadia Game Expo

Calling all SL game developers and SL game fans!

We've set aside two sims, Arcadia 1 and Arcadia 2, to showcase the best SL game developers and their projects, as chosen and created by you, the Residents. Nominate any SL game, including games already being played in-world and those in early development.

The main details

1 - Each of the eight developers with the most nominations (see below) will be given 1/4 Region (16,384m²) in the Arcadia sims to showcase their game.
2 - Arcadia will be opened and promoted to the public by Linden Lab in late March, during the week of the famed Game Developer Convention in San Jose (which Philip Linden is speaking at).
3 - The four winners will be selected and announced in early May, during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
4 - These winners will get to keep their land and run their winning game on it free of charge for the next year.
5 - All nominees get to keep any L$ they make operating their game during the course of the Expo.

What SL games can be nominated:

Any SL-based game-- already existing or in development-- can be nominated, as long as they can be fit into 1/4th of a region, and are fully ready to play on March 20.

How to nominate a game
1 - Post name of the game in this topic, and if known, a short description of the game, and the name of its lead developer.
2 - Every subseqent nomination of a game already nominated will be counted as an additional vote for that game.
3 - Developers may nominate their own games. Screenshots or short demo videos or links to websites providing more details are permitted within the description.
4 - Each Resident may nominate up to THREE games.
5 - Gridwide games are permissible, as long as the game starts and finishes at Arcadia.

How Arcadia game competitors will be selected

1 - At the end of Feb. 7, Linden Lab will count up the nominees posted in this topic. The top eight nominees will be chosen for the Expo.
2 - Linden Lab will give 16,384m² to each of the eight lead developers.
Production of the games on Arcadia can then begin immediately.
3 - Ben Linden is creating a vote machine that requires payment of L$, with price for gameplay set by developers. Vote machines will be placed in each of the 8 regions.
4 - Developers must open their games for public play on March 20.
5 - On May 10th, Linden Lab will count the L$ accumulated by each vote machine. Each team will get to keep these earnings. The four games with the most L$ will be designated the winners, and keep their 16,384m² land allotment in Arcadia cost-free for the next year.

The fine print

1 - Based on Linden Lab determination, developers who present games with lag-inducing elements (excessive scripts, prims, textures, etc.) will be asked to reduce these elements or risk disqualification.
2 - Nominees whose games are below 75% completion on March 10 (as judged by Linden Lab) risk losing their land allotment to runner-up nominees.
3 - Nominees with games not <b>fully</b> ready for play by March 20 will lose their land allotment to the runner-up nominees (as judged by Linden Lab).
4 - Games must be PG and adhere to TOS, Community Standards, and DMCA provisions.
5 - Winners of Arcadia Game Expo land must maintain and run their winning game on their parcel throughout the year, or risk forfeiting the land.

Hints and advice for developers

1 - Since winners will be selected according to the amount of L$ accumulated in their voting machine, developers should consider how to make their games maximally re-playable. Consider prizes, or a ranking system, a tournament, regular Events listings, or other elements that encourage replayability.
2 - How much you want to charge Residents to play your game is up to you.
The challenge is to make a game that's compelling enough, for example, to pay a small amount over and over again (the arcade model) or deep and involved enough to pay a lot up front.
3 - If you're a developer with an already existing game you'd like to submit, consider how it can be refurbished to succeed in Arcadia.
4 - Keep It Simple, SLer! Design a game that's easy to learn and enjoy within minutes, and does not require complicated instructions or commands to play.
5 - With such a short timespan, marketing and promotion and fostering a community of players is just as important as gameplay quality.

Have questions? Don't post them here, but instead, send them to [email=games@secondlife.com]games@secondlife.com[/email].

Cool idea Wilder, allways great to put some new games in the spotlight.
And some social engineering aswell, getting people used to paying for the games instead of being paid.

Looking forward to it.

Dunno if they'll want to retool it for this kind of environment, but I'll nominate Holoball (all of Squidsoft contributed, but Kali Dougall and Lex Neva are the primary scripters) for this.

Yes, it's self-promotion, since I'm a Squid m'self, but I wouldn't promote it if I didn't find it fun.

I've got a couple more in mind, but I misremember names and developers. I'll edit them in if I can find them.

EDIT: YES. BLINGMAN.

EDIT 2 ELECTRIC BUGALOO: ALSO YES. COMBAT CARDS.

I'll add a nomination for Holoball.

Adding a nomination for Les White's RC Indy racing game!

Sounds like fun to me!

I also nominate Les White's RC Indy game vroom!

It's not complete, though more then half way there. It features upto 5 players racing remote control indy cars around a series of tracks with an overhead view. Much like the older race video games where you see the whole track on the screen. There are pit stops for each car to refuel and change tires.

Anyone wanting to play with the build in progress can find it in Yora in the sky at about 100m or so, just above Les's Beach House.

It's too bad that the enteries will be decided on by who has the most friends instead of how good the game is, but, meh. Drivers start your engines!

I'd like to put my Billiards game up for nomination. It's in world and has been playable since '03 (although it has gone through a number of edits), so swing by and have a looksee if you want. Do a Find Places and search for "billiards", "pool table", or "boso".

Thanks,
--Bos

I'd like to nominate Neo-Realms fishing game. It is a fishing game obviously. Not much of one for being able to describe things well, head to Alston to see it in action. It's been around for over a year now. Lead developer would be Sweegy Manilow.

Check out fish.neorealms.com for more details or swing by Alston to see it in action.

I've spent Gods know how many hours playing this. And I know a lot of other people that spend insane amounts of time here as well. Might not be the game for everyone, but those who like it, love it.

I don't understand this Vote Machine With Money part, or the part about charging to play the game? People vote with money more than once, or each time they play the game? But each game maker charges whatever they want?

I know I don't understand it at all, but it sure does sound like "those with the most friends who can donate the most money" win. Disabuse me of that notion, if possible.

coco

I nominate Slingo by Dominus Designs (Dominus Skye, Developer)

Slingo has been around for quiete some time now and has quickly grew into one of SL's most played games. It is a cross between Bingo and slots for those who have no played it but within a few short rounds, you can be on your way to riches just by the luck of the Slingo Cards

**As quoted from Slingo Instruction Card**_________________________

Gameplay:
-----------
A SLINGO game consists of several rounds. The exact number of rounds is set by the host, but is often around 20. When the SLINGO game commences, your card will clear (if it is not cleared already), then you will see the large white area towards the top of the card firstly display a range of numbers in a 5x5 grid, and secondly some of the numbers will turn a light blue shade. Numbers in light blue are the 'pattern' for that particular game, and marking off all the numbers that form the pattern shall provide you with a bonus.

Each round commences with the reels on your card spinning, and then they will stop and display either a number or a symbol. The number displayed on any given reel will always correspond to one possible number in the column immediately above that reel. i.e. if reel 1 contains a number, that number would only appear in column 1 of the main 5x5 grid, never in columns 2, 3, 4 or 5.

Scoring of all special symbols (explained below) that appear takes place firstly, and then you 'mark off' any numbers on the main 5x5 grid that correspond with the numbers displayed on the reel below it. You 'mark off' a number by clicking it, and you will see it become dim (grey for a regular number, darker blue for a number that is part of the pattern).

You only have a set amount of time (set by the host) to mark off your card - when the time expires the reels will clear and you may not mark any other numbers off until the next round. At the conclusion of the round, the main SLINGO scoreboard will update so you can see your standings relative to all other players. (limited to the top 10 scores)

At the conclusion of the game, the winner is announced. In the event of a tie, SLINGO will conduct a random draw between the top place getters, and will award a bonus 1,000 points to one of them and update the scoreboard appropriately.

Then it's time to play ANOTHER game of SLINGO
__________________________________________________________


I do hope this game wins as the developer has put alot of time and consideration into it and always offer customer support when needed Good Luck Dom!

Pictures of the game are attached below

> People vote with money more than once, or each time they play the game?

Either, it's up to the developer.

> But each game maker charges whatever they want?

Yes.

Les White is Teh Man, teh games man, that is. In addition to RC Indy Racing there is Arena Ball, Hockey, and 8 Ball on his pool table. He even gave me Dice so I can gamble my stipend away on payday. Do we only get one vote? Where do I pay?

I nominate Bling-Man for consideration to be included in the Arcadia Game Expo.



I built the basic functionality for Bling-Man as my Burning Life 2005 exhibit. At that time I mentioned to Hamlet that I would like to continue development of the Bling-Man board into a full event-style game. I believe the Arcadia Game Expo is a perfect opportunity for this.

In order to achieve this I will be adding the following types of elements:

1. Event Mode
   
2. Arena Seating
   
3. Controllable Ghosts
   
4. AI Ghosts
   
5. Power Ups
   
6. Bonus Prizes
   
7. Levels
   
8. High Scores List
   

If you would like to see this too please submit your nomination for Bling-Man by Ushuaia Tokugawa

Bling-Man rocked! Ushu has my nomination

> Do we only get one vote? Where do I pay?

You nominate up to three games here in this topic. You pay L$ when the games debut in Arcadia. So which three do you nominate?

What Ms Aimee said
i rode Bling man around for hours
yay

what's to prevent a contestant from voting for himself with 1 million dollars - knowing that he'll get his money back at the end of the contest?


K.

The Collective is a project that Grim Hathor and myself have been collaborating on and planning since literally July of 2005. It is just what its name would imply - a collection of mini-games that can be experience in every day SecondLife (with the exception of just a couple). For example, players may gain "experience" from even menial tasks such as being in a crowded area, or exploring new and different simulators.

Perhaps one of the most exhaustive (and most addictive) mini-games is the idea of battling small creatures that we have called "Minions" against other players. Up to four players can battle multiple minions against each other at the same time, creating an "engaging" turn-based RPG experience within SecondLife. This first base set includes 33 minions to collect and learn the secrets of. In addition, 17 spell cards will be available for players to collect and use in battle. Expansions will be released in the future with many new features and many more minions, as well as new spells.

Feel free to check out our website (which will replace the "coming soon" placeholder within a few days) at http://www.collective-online.net, and please do register on our forums at http://www.collective-online.net/forums/. Here's a few teasure pictures of different elements of the game to (hopefully) whet your appetite.


All 23 card textures that were made at the point this promo was created


The Shade of Death card front and typical Collective cardback


The 33 minions that will be appearing in this first set of cards


The Collective Belt Pack that is your life in the game


A sample battle containing 10 minions (the equivalent of 4 players)

In addition, an extensive backstory has already been created and posted on our forums, that will be expanded on in the very new future. To compliment this, I'm using Poser to create character art to try to enhance the storyline and make it more real and tangible. The first piece of such art represents the character known as The Shifter. Due to the SL forum image posting limits, you'll have to head over to The Collective forums to see this one.

We'd really appreciate your nomination so that we can hopefully get you addicted to The Collective and all it entails (which is, we expect, something for everyone). Have a great day, and don't heasitate to post any questions you have on our forums!

I also nominate The Collective. We've been doing a lot of hard work to make this something cool and something that will add to the SL experience as a whole.

I'd like to second the nomination for "The Collective"
Looks very interesting and innovative!

I also would like to place one of my nominations for "The Collective". Not only have I had the honor of helping test the social aspect of this game, I have seen first hand this project come to life in the past couple months because my RL and SL BF Grim Hathor has been working his scripting magic.

MJ <3

Castle Wars Oh how about this its a cool game I made. Up to 8 players use catapults to devastate their opponents . Stuff Explodes, Flaming Boulders, What's not to love?

I agree with the nomination of The Collective

Add me to the list of nominations for "The Collective" =))

I nominate The Collective.. It's looks like an interesting experience