The Dink Network

Are you interested in making your own D-Mod? Have you made a few half-finished D-Mods, but never found the motivation to finish one? Do you only make D-Mods when a contest gives you a structure and a deadline? Well, then here's something for you!

Yes, we are holding another contest. This time the contest will be about a Silent Protagonist. This is a fairly common trope in video games, from Zelda to Half-Life and Portal. It isn't very common in D-Mods, which makes it a bit of an interesting challenge.

See the comments for details.


The Rules:

1. The theme for this contest is Silent Protagonist. This means that, outside of the introduction and/or finale, the player character can not talk. The spirit of the contest would be to create a standard Dink-style D-Mod, but one in which the character does not (or cannot) talk. The player can be Dink, another character from the original game or another D-Mod, or a unique character.

This means that the player might be able to Nod, or shrug their shoulders, but they wouldn't be able to say("Hi", 1); They could still examine things, and prompt NPCs to talk to the player. Choice statements for a shop would be fine, but for choosing a conversation topic probably not (unless you say the player is pointing at a list of things).

Also, you cannot use say/say_stop commands to show the player the thoughts of the protagonist. And, Smashing-Barrels-Voice (or any other voice in the protagonist's head) would also be disallowed (sorry).

D-Mods like Triangle Mover would not fit the spirit of the contest (as it has no protagonist).

2. The D-Mod should be fairly short. The map must be 60 screens or less. Ideally, it would be a Romp (or small Quest).

3. The D-Mod may not have been uploaded to the Dink Network before in any form. So, for example, Sharp couldn't take Milder 3, comment out all of Milder's speech lines, and submit it for the contest.

4. The D-Mod must be uploaded via the upload form no later than Sunday, January 4th, 2015 (UTC-11, the best UTC).

5. Anyone is allowed to submit an entry, this includes team efforts.

6. Judging will be done by the contest entrants themselves (where you cannot vote for your own D-Mod). In case of a team effort, that team gets one vote. If someone participates in a team and in an individual effort, they only get a vote as part of a team. In case of participating in multiple teams, you don't get a vote? In case of a tie for first place, a popular vote will be solicited from registered Dink Network accounts.

7. The D-Mods will be judged both on overall quality and how well they follow the theme.

8. The prize for this competition will be eternal fame as the winner of the contest.

9. If anything is unclear or you have any questions about the contest, just post in this thread to ask!

Here are some story ideas to inspire you:

- A wizard steals Dink's voice, and he fights to get it back.
- Dink goes off to fight the Zolan war, and nobody can hear you scream in space...
- Mayhem

Though of course many of you will have much better ideas. Good luck to everyone!