So, we have "what if", "cgdc#7", "as if", and now "escape". There go the IF theories, unless it's an IF escape game?

YESSSSSSS!!!!!! This was my suggestion and hope for CGDC#6!!

@JIGuest, remember the first text adventure games were escape games. i.e. Colossal Cave.

Anyhow, if it isn't an IF game, then I have a couple ideas of my own :)

Here's my free tip to all you programmers waiting to participate:

Make a game that takes the Escape sequence from any Metroid game and turns it into a full-fledged stand alone game. You will automatically sweep this contest.

No need to include any exploration bits. Just the get-out-fast sequence with a timer and lots of explosions and/or collapsing things is all you need. It could be one epic escape for the whole game, or a bunch of mini-escapes as levels. Either will work. Multiple escape routes will add replay value.

And when you do win the contest with this, remember Niko gave you that tip.

-SirNiko

I have decoded this.

"What if CDGC#7 escape? As if!"

I think the next teaser will be 'omghax'

Okay, I realize now that many of you may not know what the 'as if' meant in my previous comment.

As if is an Indian (east) colloquialism meaning something to the effect of 'yeah, right'. I can't recall if I've seen it being used elsewhere. Maybe, maybe not.

Also, I forgot a period in my last sentence, so double period here..

I love the idea of the theme being "Escape," but the iron-clad rule being: "No literal, physical escapes. No escaping the room, escaping the office, escaping the cafe. Interpret the theme in any other way than typical-escape-game."

Mudeth, "as if" has been a Valley Girl version of "yeah right" for like, a million years, or at least since like the 80s, which was like so long ago, omigawd, like, gag me with a spoon!

Walkthrough!

@JIGuest, that was actually my first thought when I saw the banner. And that would make for a pretty cool CGDC!

Escape? CGDC#7?
As long as it's not all room-escape games, this will be something to look forward to!

I have to admit, I'm not an interactive fiction fan, and I would be a bit annoyed if the theme of "escape" got used for an IF competition and then we couldn't have a more interesting escape competition, like scottique suggested.

On the other hand, I think the idea of an escape-themed cgdc is scary enough, what with the thousands of the buggers floating around online. "What if" is certainly a thought for consideration. It would be an epic competition. I would love to see what some of the really awesome designers who normally do action, shooter, defense, or puzzle games do with the oft-abused escape genre.

OOH, idea: what if the theme of the competition was escape, and everyone had to do one room, and instead of just presenting all the escape games one after the other in normal cgdc style, each room led to another room to create a massive MOTAS style adventure? THAT would be awesome.

If this ends up being an escape IF I swear I WILL enter, even if that means I'll have to learn how.

Logical Ghost, your MOTAS idea rocks! Going through all the different flavors would be an amazing experience.

The walkthrough really helped out, thank you!

Wait, so if the IF in AS IF means Interactive Fiction, what does the AS mean?

So excited right now!

If escape or IF is in any way part of the theme, I'm going to pester Jay to let me judge, even if I am "retired."

I wholeheartedly agree with scottique. While this is certainly a broad theme to approach from a variety of angles, it'd sadden me to see more than one escape-the-room game. It's a saturated genre, and few examples bring much in the way of innovation to the gaming table.

Then again, we had no Grow-like games for the theme Grow. The creativity of competition entrants is not something to be underestimated.

Look forward to the announcement.

I feel the satisfying tingle!

The fact that this competition follows so closely from CGDC#6 means that this cannot simply be an open-to-interpretation theme word as with 'Explore'. It has to be a specialist competition, which is why an IF competition makes most sense.

If the theme for CGDC#7 really was "escape", then they would be giving a head start for everyone who read this post. Which doesn't make sense, because, like Jay himself previously stated, "CGDC7 doesn't begin until November 16th, the day we will announce all the details about our next competition, including the theme." So this must be about something completely different... But if it's not the theme, then what is it? o.O

...

Either that, or Jay just changed his mind and... Nah, that's too obvious.

Hope it's IF with the theme of Escape, rather than Escape room with the theme "As if!"

I got out, but I had to use the walkthrough. I swear these are getting harder!

I'm thinking Exoriare?

I don't get jayisgames obsession with escape games. I'M TIRED OF ESCAPE GAMES!! PLAY ONE AND YOU'VE PLAYED THEM ALL!

I shall animadvise your ideas!!!!! WAAAAAAH!

Where is Jay with his little nugget of info followed by a winkeyface?

I like the MOTAS idea but the only problem is that if someone creates a verrrrryyyy difficult room, you might not get to see the next. And if a skip button is added, you wouldn't be forced to solve all of the puzzles. And that idea wouldn't work for IF.

I love escape IFs though. Best escape games ever. There was one not too recently released that i really liked but it took me forever to figure out. It included pictures at the top but you still had to type commands, and you were in a library of some sort. I'm not sure...

Animadversion
in case anyone was wondering,
anyway,
I think its a new blog devoted to only escape games, or a new feature, like mobile Mondays, or room escape Wednesday , that does the same thing.

Wow. CGDC7 must be a really really big deal.

gigantic question mark

Alabaster, I think you skipped a step. You should have

If you already feel a tingle, then you need to

Boo. I had hoped for it to be "fail".

@OfficiallyHaphazard: I think it might be a bit of a stretch to call Colossal Cave (Advent) an escape game. You start the game outside and completely free, and your goal is to actually find your way into the cave to have lovely adventures.

Or maybe it's just me. I think of escape games as games where... well, where you have to escape from a confined space. They are a sub-genre of the point-and-click game--that is, not all point-and-click games are escape games.

I think it would be more accurate to say that the earlier IF games (and most of the IF produced throughout the years) have heavy exploration elements, and some of these types of games do involve escaping.

Anyway, I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark about the theme for the next CGDC: I wonder if maybe the riddles themselves point to the theme. In other words, the theme is not the answer to the all the riddles, it is "riddles." That's probably not right, but it is still an entertaining thought.

What if the whole point of the game is not escaping yourself from a room, but stopping others from escaping?

Oh, wait, then they would say "Trap".

Escape? Okay! I'm outta here like the Spider! *jumps out the window*

Looking forward to finding out what CGDC#7 will be about.

I think Logical Ghost and La Dama Duende maybe onto something?! what if someone were to produce a room escape game design program? You get a bare room, place your Screwdriver/keys/drawers etc, and create a room escape for others to play. (same room, different escape routes...a giant MOTAS)
It could go the way of QuakeII or Elasto Mania...? PS i have no idea on the cgdc#7

E-5
S-19
C-3
A-1
P-16
E-5

5x1=5
5+5=10
10-3=7
7+16=23
23+19=...42

Each one of the teasers hides the answer, but what is the question?

Err.... has anyone else noticed that the "Grand Reveal" as I shall call it is no more than 3 DAYS AWAY?
Also, I am fairly upset because I now realise that evil cheesemen and mind-controlling ducks are definitely NOT going to happen. Sigh....
I suppose I shall be forced to suggest it as a theme for CGDC8, if this whole little lot will be CGDC7.

JNinjaz, I agree that this could be a problem. There are a couple of conceivable solutions:

1. We trust Jay and the gang to order the rooms in least-to-hardest difficulty.

2. Since escape games can in general be completed if someone posts a good walkthrough, have designers submitting rooms also provide a walkthrough, and post them a bit after posting the games in order to give the people who really want a challenge time to do so - maybe 16 or 24 hours, or as much as a week.

3. The "order" of the rooms is arbitrary, and a skip button is enabled, but the game keeps "score" of how many rooms you've completed and doesn't give you the final "win" screen until you've finished them all.

- Alternately then instead of one-room-after-another, you could put all the rooms on a hallway, or as floors of a building, and then the culmination of each room would be finding some object so that finishing all the rooms provides a means of escaping the whole game.

The Logical Ghost's idea is nice, but I don't think it quite fits a game design competition. The problem would be with the theme itself: "escape" would be no longer open for interpretation, as the game would have to be a room escape. Also, a "room escape" themed competition is bound to get repetitive, because every submitted game would have basically the same settings. Unless the rooms had to be played in an order, and the items could be dragged over to other rooms, like MOTAS, but then the designers would have to keep an eye on each other's project, and from there on it would no longer be a competition.

Whew, that's one step down. Now to look up animadversion in a dictionary...

Donut - I agree it takes away from the originality slightly, but you're also taking a very literal interpretation of "room escape." Really, in order to fit into a "hallway" or "building" motif, all you'd have to do is make sure every game has a door.

Though I do agree, then it's really less of a contest and more of just a really insane group game project thingy.

Would still be cool, though.

Another one? Okay, 'escape' from what? So many questions...

My theory: What if you had to escape? As if!

So we never have to esacape and believing that we do it preposterous?

Also, Donut, you're way off with Logical Ghost's comment. It's not going to be some room escape or anything.

Or wait..

What if...

CGDC#7?

As if!

Escape.

So it's not CGDC#7, but we have to escape. Hm.

I gotta get outta here
I'm stuck inside this rut that I fell into by mistake
I gotta get outta here
And I'm begging You, I'm begging You, I'm begging You to be my escape.

Escape games for the win!

I love how I randomly made a suggestion that I didn't think anyone was going to comment on, and a bunch of you commented on it :)
(That was my 1st comment ever on this site, by the way!)
@ benthere:
You'd have to build a supercomputer the size of a planet to find out.

2 Days...... Why do I have to go to school and wait until 3pm?

@JIGuest:

And wait 10 million years - 11/16/10002009

2 DAYS LEFT.

So close now.....

Gah! its halfway through the 16th here in New Zealand and I'm dying to know what this is about! Mainly because I just finished exams and need something to do until christmas >__>

I plan to announce everything with the white-text-black-background format they keep using on these. It makes my life seem more dramatic.

My Theory:
They are going to release AWESOME games with these titles.
My Animadversions: Who says they have to go in a sentence/series. They could just be random things. Or maybe this is a science test to study th effects of mystery on people's comments.

I agree with Kez. It's the 16th here in New Zealand, so why can't we have it? PLEEEEEEEASE?

Does the site say it's the 16th yet?

OMG! IT DOES! :D

WOW fun game!