I used to write minigames professionally. For a while I held the company record for quickest production of an alpha version of a game at 2.5 hours. After a while one of my colleagues knocked it down to 2. But most games (and remember, these are minigames) took at least 8 hours to alpha, and that was starting with a solid framework.
Agree!
I will not take part in a 1h contest, because I will not be able to create anything useful in that time. Not saying that it is a bad competition, but doesn't work for me. I have been talking to some people about what kind of competition that could filling the void after 4K. I have created a fair share of 4k games, but feel now that I now rather would use the time spend on compressing the code, on polishing and tuning the game. Time restricted compos has a tendency to not fit with my schedule as well.
What I would like instead would be a 12h (or so) compo that you are allowed to spend as you like during a weeks period (two weekends, honor system). Split up at 8h coding, 2h GFX and SFX, and 2h bugfix, tuning and feedback adjustment. Unlimited thinking about the game during the time-period

On-line blog for progress would be really cool. I think a theme would be good, but more for feeding ideas, than restricting. Something like destructible - composeable. I think that should be enough to allow people to create games that actually could be fun to play (and make) and it wouldn't be too much work to do it either, probably less than a 4K game.
Any framework should be allowed, as long as it is available before start of competition, and a simple reference game with source-code is available, so that anybody should be able to use it.
I'd be willing to set up such a competition if enough people are interested. I'd say at least 10 games submitted would be a min target. It is the kind of compo I'd like to take part in, but situation is different for each of us, so let me know.
- website to submit
I'd be willing to create a competition section at games4j.com. Voting, feedback, wiki, applet submission and more is already there. That is what I was planning for the 12h compo. Just make sure it is not during the same time
