The Dink Network

Are you interested in making your own DMOD but never found the courage to start? Have you made dozens of half-finished DMODs but never found the motivation to finish one? Do you only make DMODs because there is some sort of contest? Well, then here's something for you!

Yes, we are holding another contest. This time the contest will be about Dink's death. Now in most DMODs the death of Dink is a sign of the player's failure to finish the DMOD, but what about a DMOD where this is not the case, what about a DMOD that revolves around Dink dying? If you've wondered about this question too, perhaps this is the contest for you!

See the comments for details.

The Rules:

1. The theme for this contest is Dink's death. This means that your DMOD entry must be dealing with Dink's death in some way, how you do this is entirely up to you.

2. The DMOD can be any size. This includes how long it takes to complete the game, and how large the map is.

3. The DMOD may not have been uploaded on the Dinknetwork before in any form. So for example Sharp couldn't take Milder 3, changing it so that Milder's goal is to kill Dink, and submit it for the contest.

4. The DMOD must be uploaded via the upload form no later than February 28th 2014. (Choose whatever timezone you want for the deadline.) Deadline extended to March 13th!

5. Anyone is allowed to submit an entry, this includes team efforts, though only one 'prize' will be awarded to it. There is a minimum of 3 DMODs before prizes will be awarded.

6. Judging will be done by eligible staff members, staff members are allowed to join in the contest but will not be eligible to judge if they do so.

7. The DMODs 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!

examples:

Here are some story ideas to inspire you:

- Dink dies, however the afterlife proves not nearly as comfortable as hoped.
- A collection of stories in which Dink dies.
- You play the evil antagonist plotting to kill Dink.
- Help Dink find a proper body after he was raised from the death by a couple of amateurs.
- Some pillbugs have vivid imaginations, this DMOD is one of those.

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

NOTE: The deadline has been extended to March 13th
NOTE: The contest has been cancelled because of a lack of entries

Didn't we already have this kind of contest in the past?

Didn't we already have this kind of contest in the past?

Who cares, it sounds quite fun.

No promises, but I'll try to whip up something tiny for the contest!
Now I just need two more people to make dmods so that I can have a chance at the award of eternal fame!

Depending on how quickly I can whip off the map to Malachi, I might take a swing at this.

Yay, contest.

Malachi the Jerk actually has a place where you can die and instead of ending right there, it sends you down a special path, but I don't really think that makes it qualify. Heh.

Cool, contest time!

Well, this is motivation to finish Shadows of Death. But I doubt I could finish it before February

I said nothing. No spoilers

Hmm... this theme seems oddly familiar.

Not sure why. The closest thing we've run was the failure contest, which meant that the protagonist would have to fail something, he wouldn't necessarily need to die. This contest doesn't require the protagonist to fail at all, it simply has to involve Dink's death somehow. If you were to make a DMOD where you play bishop Nelson returning from the dead to kill Dink you would actually succeed when you kill Dink.

Though it could of course remind you of BftG, which would fit the requirements perfectly...

"Hmm... this theme seems oddly familiar."

Motivation to finish Back From the Grave!

... one can only hope.

Although I wonder if that would technically break rule #3, even though it's your dmod.. and it's a demo..

In that case - Finish the Back From the Grave Let's Play!

I'd love to enter, I really hope I have time!

Hmm...

Cool.

...murderers... , however there might be some real killer dmods after this.

however there might be some real killer dmods after this.

Hahaha, I get it!

Here's an idea I came up with in case anybody's looking for one.

"Flames of Resurrection"
A dungeon where Dink has to die to progress. I mean real, ordinary death by running out of HP - you can make dinfo.c do anything you want, trust me. Upon death, Dink becomes a ghost (RabidWolf9's colors pack). Now he has to find a specific object (some kind of fire?) in order to return to life.

Have objects Dink can only pass while a ghost and objects he can only pass while alive. Have enemies that can only hurt/fight/be hurt by Dink when he's alive, and one type of enemy that fights with him when he's a ghost (dying as a ghost should be a real death). Construct simple to moderate puzzles around this concept.

This was my idea, but I can't see myself really making it. Feel free to use it, change bits of it around, whatever. If I change my mind about making something I'll just use a simpler concept.

Here's mine: Dink Dies. He's dead. A bonca takes a crap on his corpse, a duck tries to snatch his bones for nest fillings, etc. You can hilariously insult them all, but of course no one hears you. Not sure where to go from there, but I thought it would be fun. (I won't be entering the contest, though, since I was one of the guys pitching the themes around - it'd feel weird)

I think you could thrive with relatively little effort in this one, with just a neat take on things, so HOPEFULLY that means plenty of dmods for the beginning of the year.

A shame about no prizes. I could always send the victor compromising pictures of my cat.

Have objects Dink can only pass while a ghost and objects he can only pass while alive.

I like this as a primary game mechanic

I have some Steam keys and postcards left over from that competition of mine in case nobody else will pony up for the prize pool.

Gah, you can exceed the maximum 100 sprites per screen via editor by placing more with create_sprite? Up to 299?! I could have used this information sooner!

Finally a time where I can play 1 or 2 new dmods, though in February the month where we will all be here. Also can I have some pics of the cat, I like pets, especially cats and boncas.

Well, my laptop just died on me a few days ago, so even if I had the motivation to work on my D-mod for this contest, I can't at the moment.

How are your DMODs coming along?

Mine got fresh new grafx and altered tiles!

Best of luck to everyone who's planning to take part in this contest! Hopefully it'll bring us some good new D-Mods. Myself will not be taking part in it. I've made the decision that if I'll ever make another D-Mod, which is questionable at this point, it'll have to be Historical Hero 3.

How are your DMODs coming along?

Dead laptop = no D-mod creation possible

cmon guys i want sum reel competition

My plan is making a horrible dmod the last weekend!

Woah, the animated tiles show up strange in the editor if you tinker with them.

My plan is making a horrible dmod the last weekend!

Horrible DMOD is better than no DMOD!

I would've participated in it, but as it stands, I'm already 20 days behind everybody else, so maybe the next one.

I'm sure a lot of us are 20 days behind. I'd rather see a basic or crappy DMOD than no DMOD at all.

My entry will pretty much be an advanced mini-game and not a real adventure. Although I had a DMOD idea in mind that fits perfectly with this theme, it would take me a lot more than 2 months to make and I have an epic DMOD to finish before I even think about making another remotely big one.

I should make something for this contest, although I have no plan in mind and the end result will probably consist of screens of laughably bad jokes, zero plot, and hilariously uneven scripting hijinks.

I should make something for this contest, although I have no plan in mind and the end result will probably consist of screens of laughably bad jokes, zero plot, and hilariously uneven scripting hijinks.

Sounds incredible! I'd play it.

I probably won't make it in time so I will refer to this post if I'm not finished within the deadline:

14 MORE DAYS COME ON!!

Deadline is Feb 28 isn't it?

That it is. Apparently, Quiztis is already making preparations for the nigh-inevitable deadline extension beg.

In spirit of keeping up with TDN's contest traditions, if it's not Quiztis it will be somebody else (probably me)

Excellent, I shall implement this impending delay in my schedule!

Oh man, I don't look at the forum for a month and immediately they start a new contest?!

It's a conspiracy, that's what I say. I'm sure Striker's behind this! So far I only knew him from history, and suddenly he starts posting, too.

Ah well, let's get to work. I'm starting almost a month late, but better late than never...

Oh man, I don't look at the forum for a month and immediately they start a new contest?!

Action and consequence my friend! You'll know better than to ignore us for this long again!
Looking forward to what you come up with

Action and consequence my friend! You'll know better than to ignore us for this long again!

Muahahaha!

I'm thinking about entering this contest after all, if I can find enough time and willpower. Question though; will an alternate-hero be allowed, as long as the storyline has something to do with Dink's death?

The rules only state that the dmod has to have something to do with dink's death. I think anything else is fair game.

That would be fine.

The rules only state that the dmod has to have something to do with dink's death.

And one of the examples is:

You play the evil antagonist plotting to kill Dink.

So it's pretty clear that that's allowed.

Yeah, I just wanted to be 100% certain. Playing the villain who kills Dink and playing an alternate-hero is quite a different thing, after all.

I'm already prepared to beg for more time, since I have a feeling I won't be able to finish my D-Mod in a month.

Join the beggar's alliance, we have cake.

Deal.

I am shocked 12 people voted they didn't know we have a contest going on.

Consider this a big thread BUMP up their..............

Holy duck vomit, I just added and detailed a grand total of 13 new screens today! Biggest single progress dump in the last 2 weeks for me

For those stumbling to this thread who didn't yet know about this contest going on... a month is still plenty of time to start and finish a good dmod! (right...?)

Nyeh nyeh nyeh! I got 1 screen!

I'm shocked at how bad I am at updating the poll...

Also, for those people who need more time to finish their DMOD: I'm fine with extending the deadline it necessary, but past experience tells us that many people don't finish their DMODs in time for the deadline. If I extend the deadline right now I will be absolutely sure that it will need to be extended again if the new deadline gets near.

The problem I have with this is illustrated with the previous contest (which I joined). Personally I planned my contest entry to be finished about two weeks before the contest's deadline. Which, to my surprise, I managed to make. So I had some time to send it out for beta-testing and final polishing. By the time the first deadline came the DMOD was simply finished and putting in additional content wouldn't have made the DMOD better at all. However if I would have had additional time from the start I would perhaps have made the DMOD a little bit bigger. For this particular contest this wouldn't have changed anything because I went on vacation for pretty much the entire duration of the deadline extension but in a different situation it could have made a difference.

So, extending the deadline multiple times really feels like punishing the well-planned entries for me. However seeing that multiple people feel like extending the deadline already I can understand the desire for an extension. However I don't feel like extending the deadline multiple times. So, as a question: What kind of deadline extension would you like? An extension to get additional time to make the DMOD or additional time to finish up the DMOD? We can simply wait until the deadline comes near and people can tell how long they need to do the last little things on their DMODs or we can extend the deadline now and allow people to plan their DMOD a bit further into the future.

If we extend the deadline now, how much extra time would you need to finish your DMOD? And would you finish it in that period or is that just a best-case scenario?

We can simply wait until the deadline comes near and people can tell how long they need to do the last little things on their DMODs...

This is my favorite solution. I wouldn't be against extending the deadline right now to say March or something if the contest wasn't already over halfway through to the deadline. I agree that extending the deadline multiple times probably isn't a great idea, best to just wait and see how much time people need.

Having the deadline at the end of the month does actually stimulate me to work on it. I always leave things until the last moment, so...

Having the deadline at the end of the month does actually stimulate me to work on it.

Same here. Also, I'm not really in a state where I can say anything about how much extension I will need, if any. I think I probably will need some, but maybe not... I think planning to finish two weeks before the deadline is a good idea, but in this case that was not possible for me (if only because I missed the start of the contest by a month).

I think it's a good idea to extend the deadline once, and decide shortly before it with how much. Or if there are enough D-Mods ready before the deadline, just don't extend it. The others can of course still finish their D-Mod, but they missed the deadline, so aren't competing. That would be only fair.

Having the deadline at the end of the month does actually stimulate me to work on it.

That's why we have a two month deadline in the first place. If it would have been six months nobody would finish anything.

But I'm glad that people understand where I'm coming from with the deadline extensions. So, from my point of view the only reason there would be an extension is if an extension would mean that the minimum of 3 entries would be made or if multiple additional DMODs can be expected with an extension. Otherwise the deadline is simply the deadline.

Deadlines give me motivation for a while. But it's also what kills my motivation once I realize I'm probably not gonna have my D-Mod done in time.

someday i am going to make a dmod, just waiting for the right time .
All the best for the people participating it.

I expect to have my entry done within the next week. Hopefully that'll motivate you other folk into working harder.

I'm about halfway done. Might actually make it without extensions, we'll see.

I'm also somewhere around the halfway mark. I keep procrastinating on working on the main stuff and instead find myself adding pointless side-areas and detours everywhere (not finishing any of them of course), to delay having to figure out some tough scripting stuff I need to do for puzzles and such. Deadline looms ominously on the horizon, but I'll probably have most of the dmod figured out by then I hope.

I think mine/ours (It's a collaboration Dmod between me and someone else on TDN) is around the almost halfway point.

It might get finished without an extension. Then again, it might not get finished, even with an extension. It depends on real life really.

Okay everybody, less than two weeks to go! If you aren't finished yet, get to work!

Sadly I won't enter the contest after all. I'm just not currently feeling interested in my contest D-Mod, and would rather spend my time on something I can put my heart into. So yep. Maybe I'll finish it some other time, since I do like the D-Mod's idea.

Excited to see what you all have come up with!

I'm about 3/4 ways done. Scripting scenes and busywork like boss abilities and puzzles is pulling me back from finishing the dang thing as I have all mapping done already. Look forward to something quest-sized like River. But if push comes to shove it won't end as big as that hmmm....

I haven't progressed since last update, haven't had the time. You know what's funny? I used to use the "didn't have time" excuse so many times in the past, it feels strange to actually use it when it's true... And saddening

I've moved onto the attitude of, "Eh, it's almost done, I can finish it whenever."

This collaboration Dmod is coming along slowly and will not be done by the 28th.

I doooon't think I'lll mmaaakkkee iitttt, too much school things that needs to be done. asdasfdas

I guess this is the time where I say I also need some more time

That's too bad Q

*Sigh*

Okay, can everybody working on something give me a status update? I want to know these things:
- Will you finish your entry before February 28th?
- If not, will you finish it with an extension of the deadline?
- If so, how much more time do you need?

If everybody just gives this information I can see what's the best way forward. I would really like it if we can just keep our deadline but I would also really like it if as many people as possible enter the competition. Just post here in this thread or send me a PM if you rather want to keep your work a secret.

I have a week long school vacation coming up starting the 27th. If I can utilize that week, I think I can make it. So let's say, for me, the most ideal deadline would be around the 10th of march. As always I put in too much polish, which set me back. But it's been worth it Can't believe I'll actually finish something

After realizing that most of what I have left to do is grunt work and balance testing, I kind of stopped working. I'll get back to it soon and finish up. I'll try to finish it up before the 28th, but if I don't I'll just utilize the deadline Kyle requested. I also got distracted by getting a job and then using the money from job to buy tomb raider and then playing tomb raider. But I'm going %100 it today so tomorrow and the next I'll get busy on my entry, and probably/hopefully finish it.

I've been busy with other things, and hope to work in it in the weekends. Then again, I hoped that before, and it didn't really work.

So I don't know if I'll finish it before the 28th; I might if I work on it a lot this weekend, which should be possible. After the weekend, I'll know if I need more time, and if so, how much.

If I don't make it with an extended deadline, I will most likely also not make it if it gets extended more.

I noticed lately my daily progress on the mod goes something like this -> copy 1 script from original dink, edit three lines to make it suit my game. Doesn't work -> "meh, let's try this tomorrow then"

All joking aside I will be ready by the 28th (will be a tough schedule but manageable and fine by me). The time this contest has been running has been quite long already. Might get hairy what with Wildstar beta this weekend which (if there are no login problems) I will be nerding out completely at any other stuff's expense

Hm, if I get 14-x extra days, I may make it and mark my dmod as a demo. I've got math and programming in assembler atm to take care of at the University. Some free time is spent on the DMOD.

And I may have taken a larger bite that I could handle.

EDIT: I'm out, who wants eternal fame anyway? Better a great, complete DMOD than a rushed one.

I might if I work on it a lot this weekend, which should be possible. After the weekend, I'll know if I need more time, and if so, how much.

I had many other things to do, and still do. And they're all more important than the D-Mod. So it doesn't look like I'll finish it in time, and I don't think I will, even if the deadline is extended.

In short: don't wait for me.

So, meta, about that deadline extension ..

the only reason there would be an extension is if an extension would mean that the minimum of 3 entries would be made or if multiple additional DMODs can be expected with an extension

Ugh...

Two more weekends for everybody to work on it. New deadline: March 13th

That'll be enough, thanks

That should be enough time for me to release something. I'll be entering more for fun since I haven't really been able to spend enough time on my entry to make it into anything that spectacular.

My d-mod will be released at a later time. My dad was diagnosed with lung cancer last weekend and I honestly haven't had much spirit to work at this. Just wanted to give you all a heads up, since Meta was kind enough to postpone the deadline partially due to my request.

Good luck to all the other contestants!

Sorry to hear that. Of course real life things can be more important, thanks for mentioning it.

To all the other contestants: The deadline is thursday!

WONDERBALLSTASTICAL! I will so play 'em when they're released if I got time.

Deadline day today! Let's make sure this contest gets some participants!

Y-yeah, I was kinda hoping someone would get something done. The progress was sounding so promising a while ago, too.

C'mon Leprochaun, Synbi, Thenewguy. Make babies!

All I have left is the boring stuff. That's kinda why I stopped working on it. I'll finish it up to a working point and submit it regardless of condition it's in at the end of the night. My progress was really good at one point, but then once I realized all I had left to do were the things I didn't want to do, I just stopped. I got nothing else to do today, so I might as well make a baby.

Unfortunately I never made the progress I was hoping to... I did want to finish something for the contest but I just never made myself get around to it. The project I was working on would have been a novelty at best. I might still finish it eventually (probably not, I prefer my two other Dink projects to it) but there's no way I could have it out for this contest.

I do hope somebody has made something though. Anyone?

Is there going to be enough entries then? I don't really want to submit a terribly broken and unfinished DMOD if I don't have to.

For sake of productivity extend the deadline another month.... you know you want to... just look into my eyes!!

Oh boy, THE PRODUCTIVITY!

Hmmm... Looks like only Leprochaun submitted anything. So, unfortunately there won't be any contest then, especially if Leprochaun still wants to improve on it.

I'm really sorry, but without entries no contest. 't is a shame.

No no no no!

Contests with Dinkers ain't working out well! Experince speaking.

Extending that deadline sure made a difference, huh?

Oooone moooooonth, the Cassandran ghost echoed.

So sad.

I decided to not release a buggy-ass unfinished excuse for a DMOD to the contest. I was too ambitious about it and made it too big to handle.

But it's in the making and I'll send the mods a message about adding it to the upcoming DMOD list.

Watch 90% of these D-Mods never be released now. Oh yeah, this year is gonna be so much better than the last one.

Pfff, it already is.