A History of the Terrible Game Contest, Part II
A feature by Iblis

Fenrir announced Terrible Game Contest v1.pwned on Dec. 2, 2004, though the contest wasn't officially beginning until April of 2005. This was because entrants were allowed to start their games early if they chose to, but for every month before April that the entrant worked on their game, one point would be deducted from their score. Another new rule required that all entries be released on April 30, not before, and if released early would be penalized one point for each month before then. This rule was created because of an incident the previous year when some entrants pulled their games from the contest due to the strength of their competition. Fenrir wanted to encourage people to participate and not get discouraged. A number of games were released early anyway.

This contest also featured three entry categories: original, remake, and expansion. Entrants could enter only one game in each category. The winner in each category would receive a prize of $25. The vast majority of the entries were original, with one remake and one expansion. The remake was RedMaverickZero's Mr. Triangle's Adventure, which featured Mr. Triangle in a somewhat more serious game (no longer "shitty") than he had been in previously, and the expansion was Fenrir Lunaris' Barely Legal Bitches, which expanded his previous game by creating a city around the prostitution house and significantly altering the gameplay. As those games were the only entries in their respective categories, they won automatically.

This year the voting was simplified, and voters would pick the top three games by whatever criteria they chose. The winner in the original category was Moogle1's Super Concentration Headache Master Pro, which asked the player multiple choice questions while the visuals and music became increasingly erratic and distracting. Two games tied for second place, Gizmog1's Dr. Rape and The Mad Cacti's OHR IRC Simulator. In Dr. Rape the player rapes and kills various women, and in OHR IRC Simulator the player chats with simple AI's simulating other members of the community.

Other notable entries were Shadowiii's Shadowiii vs Santa Barbara Airport DX and JSH357's OHR House 2.

This contest continued the trend of terrible games becoming less "terrible" and more unconventional or experimental. Super Concentration Headache Master Pro is a good example of this. Moogle1 has said that he intended it to be a game that would hurt the player, but one that the player would still want to play again.

The next contest was hosted by JSH357, Terrible Game Contest version J, and was announced on Jul. 20 2006. The contest ran from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15. No prize was offered. Voting was done through private messages rather than public posts, and voters would choose the best in four categories: most horrific, most interesting, best use of new OHR features, and best use of sexy men/women.

Only four games were entered: Final Fantasy VII XP by Chenzi, OHR House 3 Auditions by Valigarmander, Attack of the Anime Freaks by Onlyoneinall, and DireOHRea by TwinHamster.

The winner in every category was Final Fantasi XXX, SDHawk's winning entry to Gilbert's Horrible Game Contest, despite the fact that JSH357 had disqualified it for not being a new game. DireOHRea tied with FFXXX in the best use of sexy men/women category. The games in this contest were more traditional terrible games, parodies with poor graphics and without the experimental gameplay that's come to be associated with these contests.

Terrible Game Contest 2007 is just beginning. Although enthusiasm is high and many have announced their entry, nothing is certain yet. Next month, the series on the Terrible Game Contest will continue with a story on the entries for this years contest. Don't miss it!