Five weeks ago at the Game Developers Competition, Linden Lab announced the 2005 Second Life Game Developers’ Competition. In the weeks that followed, the astonishing response signalled that much has changed in Second Life since last year. Not only has our population more than quintupled (!), but the level of skill and ambition amongst our game development community has increased dramatically. We received over 90 submissions from around the world for games ranging from RPG’s to Puzzle Games to Action to Mystery. Additionally, many brave souls rose to the challenge of the competition, which asked for “Grid-Wide Games” that allowed residents to play across the grid.
We were so impressed with the quality of submissions, that we decided to expand the size from the originally planned 8 to include 16 entries! Even then, choosing was very difficult. Here they are, the contestants for the 2005 Game Developers’ Contest, in alphabetical order. Team leaders are listed in parentheses:
1. The Board (Tiger Crossing) A hodgepodge of boardgames turned RPG -- An evil boardgame takes over a town, trapping the townsfolk within
2. Centralia (Beelphazoar Horpipe) Intriguing programming game
3. CyberLife (Winter Hatfield) RPG/FPS mix with scavenger hunt
4. EVA (Gary Bukowski) -- The world’s first cross-reality game
5. Full Gravity (Dan Medici) FPS with flag-capture set on a platform in the sky
6. Game Matcher (Jonathan Shaftoe) Lots of board games -- more important is a method of finding opponents.
7. The Gathering (Trimda Hedges) Grid-wide magical combat and Alternate Reality Game
8. Ghosts in the Machine (Oneironaut Escher) Murder Mystery Puzzle
9. Legion (Adam Zaius) Futuristic squad RTS with some RPG-style elements
10. Krytterz (Kermitt Quirk) Grid-wide pet fighting system, ala Pokemon
11. Podlets (Lumpy Tapioca) Chinese checkers meets capture the flag
12. Primmies (Jeffrey Gomez) Shoot 'em up meets Lemmings
13. Riddle City Ransom (Satchmo Prototype) Riddle-based word game throughout SL
14. Rift ( Crystalshard Foo ) Cyberpunk logic/adventure game with limited RPG elements.
15. Sailboat Racing (Rhaegys Nyak) Boat races across the grid
16. Sim Havoc; A Day of War (Royal Stryker) Grid-Wide Combat based on the story "The Great Erase" from the forums
In the next two days, land parcels will be given to the contestants and the development will begin! Development ends on July 19th, at which time a committee from Linden Lab (with the help of a celebrity judge) will make decisions regarding winners. Prizes will be given out at an in-world red-carpet ceremony shortly thereafter.
Again, many thanks to all who took the time and effort to submit entries. Keep up the inspired work!
Reuben Linden