Save the Planet Competition
These days our planet seems to be in a constant state of peril, together we ride the unicycle of fate atop the high-wire of self-destruction. Our busy little lives seem to be warming up the planet, and no one really knows where that will lead us. Worse, global warming isn't the only green problem: pollution, acid rain, over-crowding, starvation and drought, and extinction threats are all waiting in the wings.
We’re often told that the only solution to these collective problems is mass action - the message must be spread to as many as people as possible if our own environmental compromises are to count for anything. Computer games are a great way to reach people and get them interacting with these important debates. What we’re looking for in the next competition are games with a message, games which encourage the player to get involved.
Politics: Most of us at YYG believe there's something to this global warming idea, but we're not out to indoctrinate our gamers, or game makers. Whatever you believe, it cannot be denied that the debates themselves are important, decisions made here will affect all our lives. If you firmly disagree with the green message then feel free to make a game where the world must be saved from a bunch of crack-pot environmentalists.
Finally, we’re still on the hunt for the perfect casual game. The most important thing is that the games are fun. Don’t get too carried away with the theme at the expense of gameplay.
As with previous competitions judging will be conducted by YoYo Games and Prof. Overmars, with community response taken into account.
P.s. Yes, we are aware of the irony of using energy-hungry computers to communicate a green message. Better this than 300 games about saving princesses.
The contest will end on January 4th, 2009.
The Winners!
If anything the Ancient Civilisation competition has been even harder to judge than the previous one. We had a tough time whittling are rather lengthy shortlist down to the three finest entries, so much wheat, so little chaff. Finally though, here they are, the winners of YoYo Games Ancient Civilisation competition:
MrChubigan has been around for a very long time. He was one of the early users of Game Maker. Greentech is a game with a very distinct (green) style that looks as if it is being played on a very old TV. The goal of the game is to control the wind to bring the clouds of pollution towards the cleaning facilities. An easy game play concept but much harder than it may sound. The game is polished and includes a tutorial to teach you how to play. Original and fun to play.
EcoRush is a game in which one species tries to invade the region of another, by capturing all the other species. This is turned into a relatively simple but intriguing turn-based board game that required considerable thinking. The game is beautifully polished with wonderful graphics and descriptions of the different areas on earth where the game can be played. You can play both against the computer and against other human players. (You can even let the computer play against itself, which is good to learn the tactics.)
This is the first contribution of hcs89 to YoYo Games, and immediately a winner. Incoming: Battle for the Planet Earth is a space shooting game in which you must save the planet from enemies from outer space. It has some elements from Tower Defense as you must carefully place the weapon systems to hit the approaching enemies. But you must also decide where to shoot to and which weapons to use. The graphics is nice and the game play is fast and interesting (although at some stage it suddenly becomes much more difficult).
Competition Submissions
Top community rated games today:
See all the competition entries
