It's your chance to show a new side of the legal world of Ace Attorney! Sure the court is where all the action's at, but that hasn't stopped crazier things from happening outside the court.
Focus on areas of law that don't take place in a courtroom. Could be a tribunal, mediation, interrogation, inquisition, deposition, basically any formal hearing that isn't a court trial. Even non-trial ideas can be run like legal work done in an office, or in-house counsel for a company, it can even be a TV show about the law if you want! As long as it's something that Ace Attorney wouldn't usually go near. The court can exist as a place to conduct these sorts of hearings as I understand assets are limited. The set up is what counts here.
To make this very clear. Pick an area of law that isn't going to end up in court.
Some examples of non-court settings:
- A tribunal - these are used for low-level issues that may not be important enough to go to court, or may be private bodies that regulate stuff like sport.
- A mediation - a time when people get together to try and settle their differences with an impartial third party there trying to help the others reach a resolution
- A law school or legal institution - sometimes the law is merely theoretical... Until it isn't.
Some other legal examples:
- Office work - document drafting, office drama, dealing with clients over the phone. A great example of this concept is the game "The Low Road" which starts you off answering telephone calls and evolves into something much greater.
- Legal work for a company. Maybe you're a private lawyer doing work for some big business?
- A private eye or a detective questioning witnesses. This is a little cliche but counts.
Judging:
Standard rules apply for the judging of this comp. I'll be reviewing based on the following criteria
- Story: An engaging story is the key to a successful entry. This ties into theme relevance as I'd like to see how you integrate the theme into your storytelling.
- Characters: How well do your characters interact both with the story and with eachother? Quite a lot of legal processes have a lot of back and forth between parties, so there's lots of room here for some interesting dynamics.
- Presentation: Art, music, backgrounds! This is where your visual and audible creativity can thrive! This can really add to setting your scene to fit the theme. Don't forget polish, frame timing and textbox animations!
- Gameplay: I'm pretty lax with this. If your game is engaging and fun I'll enjoy it even if it's got no gameplay mechanics. Pick a play style that best allows you to convey your story effectively.
- Theme Relevance: How well does your case reflect the "Task" outlined above. The idea is to use the task to prompt your own creativity, so if you bend things a little I won't mind. As long as the experience is engaging and I can see you've used the theme you will be fine.
- Entries must have been created between 18 April 2023 and 19 July 2023. This time is in AEDT (GMT +11).
- Please submit your Entry and a walkthrough to me, SuperAj3 before the deadline via Private Message.
- Entries must not be showcased until it is both after the deadline and it has been reviewed and my review is published, but can be shown following review and before the ceremony.
- Entries must not be edited after submission until the competition is over (except for fixing any game-breaking bugs).
- Entries can spoil mainline and spin-off Ace Attorney games. Just be considerate if those spoilers are major and err on the side of putting a spoiler warning at
the beginning of the case if you're unsure. - Entries may be an Investigation, Trial, Comedy, or Miscellaneous so long as it follows the comp rules.
- Entries may be incomplete.
- Entries may be a collaboration between as many people as you want, but all collaborators must make it known that they are collaborating and entering together.
Please send your entry and walkthrough to me, SuperAj3, by 11:59PM, Wednesday, 19 July 2023 AEDT (GMT +11) via private message. I'll set a 24 hour grace period as usual for any last-minute submissions.
Entrants:
- XavierWright - took the express train Outside the Court.
- Spongesonic Went too fast to the court.
- eerew, applekitty and Parcark Simon Scooped up by the court.
- Madoc Valente sent him to the court.
- Jofe - found Jehft Outside the Court.
- Super legenda Sent to the court.
- Sonnie Celanna - (I'm all out of Rumper puns ) Outside the Court
- icannothinkofaname - could think of an entry that falls Outside the Court.
- Bench fell in the mud on the way to court.
- CallMeBlue - all twists O'Fait happen Outside the Court.
- pinkcocoapowder - what the scallop'd right Outside the Court
- risefromtheashes - gaslit, gatekeeped and girlbossed Outside the Court.
- Ryusa - and with that, the final entrant is Outside the Court.
- Trybien Colton's honour is restored... in court.
- that1stickman - stuck it to 'em Outside the Court.
- Samallama - had no probllamas Outside the Court.
- DeathByAutoscroll - Maid her way Outside the Court
- Dylan Dog, Skyem, Trybien - f*ck, I'm scared
The ceremony: https://aaonline.fr/player.php?trial_id=145390