O.H.R.RPG.C.E. Terrible Games Contest

By: Paul Eres

On: May 28th, 2009

The goal of this contest for the Ohrrpgce engine was to make a terrible game. The games are terrible, intentionally, but interesting. The creator of the Ohrrpgce, James `SPAM Man’ Paige, posted great video reviews of all the entries. I thought these videos were very entertaining to watch, even if you don’t play any of the “terrible” games.

Among others the games include a game where the fate of various people are determined by a random button push, an RTS where babies face off against robots, a randomly generated bacon dungeon, the Village People: The Videogame (which is exactly what it sounds like), and a game which was so terrible it wasn’t even released, even though it too is an entry in this contest (see video above).

You can find the rest of the video reviews of each game after the “jump”.

Posted in Competitions, Freeware, Unique / Bizarre | Tags: Ohrrpgce

Patrick

Shot in the dark insÂ´t a game lol.
Scott

wow thats some hardcore stupid
Lyx

“Too Terrible” was amazing – two thumbs up, way up! :)
J. Prevost

I’m betting that A Shot in the Dark wasn’t actually arbitrary, but a set outcome no matter what you choose. :)
Dave

This article and the contest is boring as shit. I know it probably didn’t take long to shit out these abominations but even half an hour with rpgmaker is time that could be better spent. I don’t know who I feel the most sorry for the idiots who made the games or the dullard reviewing them.

Here’s a WHACKY game I conceievd, it’s too terrible to actually make so use your imagination. Without further ado I present “Stalin Yes! Not So Ninja Chimp!”
ChevyRay

Think of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction contest, which pits writers against each other to write the most terrible sentence they can. In order to actually outdo the other contestants, one is required to apply the artistic and technical connotations of “terrible” in new, and sometimes, fascinating ways as a result. It’s like taking ugly colors and making them into something beautiful.

It’s not a waste of time at all, and just as an important effort in creativity and innovation as any rapid-prototyping or Ludum Dare contest. Perhaps just a bit more on the humourous side, though.

I remember the B-Games Competition here actually bringing hundreds of new visitors to the site, because some of the games produced out of the goal to create such a terrible game were actually really interesting and creative.

So the person reviewing these is no dullard, and the people who created these games are not idiots :) they’re all creative geniuses in their own respect, and they deserve ours. Some of these are great, and I enjoy just even watching these videos.
Lyx

You mean…. its not actually as funny as people say it is?
ChevyRay

Which “its” from my rather large comment are you referring to? Haha, I’m not quite sure, but I don’t recall communicating that something wasn’t funny. I think I used mostly positive description.
Lyx

We both posted at nearly the same moment, so i didnt know about your post, when i pushed the submit button :)
ChevyRay

Ahhh okay! Nevermind then :) I thought it seemed like a strange response.
Paul Eres

I agree with Chevy — occasionally allowing yourself to make an intentionally terrible game can be a good exercise for a game developer, and can produce humorous results. I particularly liked what James was talking about at the end of the first video — it’s true that the vast majority of indie games are probably only seen by the game’s own developer and nobody else. It’s like the “dark matter” of indie games — the majority of it we never see.
Dave

@ChevyRay “creative geniuses” you’re trolling me yeah, these games humor is basic commentry on common flaws of shitty games such as broken difficulty, bad translation etc If thats creative genius then so is Angry Videogame Nerd. None of these games are funny and the dullard’s narration is totally unecessary, wow thanks for describing the baby sprite moving down the screen, it’s not like I’m not watching it as you describe it.

I’ll upload a vid of myself playing and describing Pacman, you’ll find it a real rib-tickler.
Leonard

Why the hell would anyone use that pink Youtube skin, it looks downright awful. For fuck’s sake people, get some damn visual taste. Damn.
Paul Eres

This is a side note, but I actually do think the AVGN is pretty creative and entertaining; I’ve seen most of his episodes. I think it’s a good idea for a game developer to watch them, so that they can learn what mistakes to avoid in their own games. And a lot of people do think he’s entertaining, he wouldn’t have so many fans otherwise.

I think Dave’s comments so far seem to fall into the “I don’t personally like this, so you all shouldn’t like it either” category. It’s hard to just “see the light” when someone tells us that something we find entertaining or funny isn’t actually entertaining or funny. I’m not sure why one would even want to make the attempt, to try to see something that one likes as not worth liking.
Lyx

I think that compo may be infectious:

First they made gamerules which are so terrible that they’re funny, then they made games that are so terrible that they’re funny, then there are commentaries which are so terrible that they’re funny, and now we have a really terrible troll which just achieved enlightment that this is a terrible compo with terrible games and terrible commentary… now if this isnt an alarming trend ;)
Strange

Man, something from the ‘Johnny’ series should’ve been submitted… Not to discredit the Johnny games at all (love ’em to death), but these were all designed with the purpose of being bad. Johnny games could’ve brought something a little different.
mirosurabu

Frontpage comments are starting to scare me.
Rad

God that narrator’s voice just droooones. I might’ve been interested if he didn’t bore me to death
sidpiz

That first vid is worthless, and A Shot in the Dark is also worthless.

as for “Babies vs. Robots” :
Some relief–I actually lol’d at the line, “Hmm… need more babies.”

Comedy gold right there.
Biggerfish

The aim was to make terrible games, not terribly funny games.
Hdjdjdjd

Could have done without that god/aethist lecture in the pope video
Ezuku

Many of these are so bad you get an overflow error, making them AWESOME.
Pita

Wow… Just to echo mirosurabu above… the comments on tigsource have really turned to trash…
Ezuku

Agreed. Too many trolls.
Paul Eres

Yeah… I think what’s especially noticeable is that even in an entry like this, where the games are intentionally / admittedly terrible, they still find something to hate on — whether it’s the reviewer’s voice or whatever: it’s like, normally they can get away with the ‘we’re just criticizing parts of the game we don’t like, if you don’t like my comments you’re against criticism itself!’ argument, but that doesn’t really apply here.
Dave

willsmith.jpg

Oh yeah, YEAH?! BRING IT FOOL, BRING IT!
http://www.youtube.com/user/ortoslon ortoslon

[kind, considerate and reasonably ironic comment]

I liked first two videos and James’ voice. But the last roguelike-ish game isn’t terrible enough. It seems better than Nethack.
wollsmoth

B-games compo ripoff.
I’m sick and tired of people stealing compo ideas from the “new ideas” thread.
YOU KNOW WHO I’M TALKING ABOUT.
v1510n

What’s the song in Funkotron?
Paul Eres

i imagine the roguelike-ish bacon-themed game was “terrible” in the sense that it illustrates what happens when programmers make games which seem cool to programmers (throwing in cool tricks and procedural content and the like) but don’t appeal to a general audience and are too hard for most people (i.e. the ‘save scab’ thing — or was it ‘save scrub’? i forget)
dicks

WHERE IS THE GAME

I MUST PLAY
Paul Jeffries

I just love in the pope video how they guy doing the commentary pauses for a ridiculously long time before reading out a roman numeral incorrectly. Four times. Other than that, everything about this was terrible. Which I guess is good…?
http://www.slimesalad.com Mogri

You’re misunderstanding the contest. It’s not a “terrible games” contest, it’s a terrible “games contest.”

The games are downloadable from Slime Salad, where you can also find more (text-only, usually) reviews of these games. I didn’t participate in the contest personally, but I’ve played most of the entries (unlike everyone else in this comments section, apparently). Some of them were legitimately awful, but Baconthulhu and Village People were excellent. Baconthulhu won the contest.
Spoonweaver

I’m glad people seemed to like Techno Ship Funkotron and Babies vs Robots.

You can find all these games and more @
http://www.slimesalad.com/

Hope to see you there.
Gilbert Smith

Wollsmoth: I don’t know how long the Tigsource B-Games contest has been around, but I held the first OHR Horrible Games Contest about five or six years ago.

I’d never even heard of the B-Games contest until you mentioned it (I’m kind of out of the indie games loop). Maybe I should be sick and tired of people ripping MY ideas off.
Gilbert Smith

Okay, I just did the research, apparently the first B-Games Contest was in 2007. The first Terrible Games Contest was in 2004.
TEXAS

I AM ARGUING SOMETHING THAT IS NOT WORTH CARING ABOUT!
King

*Iâ€™m betting that A Shot in the Dark wasnâ€™t actually arbitrary, but a set outcome no matter what you choose. :)*

Why would someone even think this? Stop it, that’s just stupid.