After a fair delay it looks like the Four Elements contest will be underway very shortly - dates listed and everything. I always like GameDev.net during the first few months of a Four Elements contest; everyone in the journals bounces around ideas and gets cracking on development. Usually things start losing steam about half-way, but there’s usually a project or two that lasts the distance.

I’ve always kicked myself for not entering something in each Four Elements contest, so I’m somewhat keen to try something for this year. The gargantuan problem is the timing with regard to my Ph.D. candidature. I’m in the tail-end of my research right now; wrapping up the theory, getting ready for some core experiments, and writing up my dissertation. My planned finishing date for my Ph.D. is roughly the same time as the finishing date for 4E6, so things will only get more hectic as time goes on.

Because of this, I can’t say for sure whether I’d enter or not. If the elements are favourable, then I’m strongly hoping I can put together a small Flash game in a week or two. Whatever I decide to do there’s very little chance I can get much done in the last month or so of the contest time line.

Even if I don’t manage to get an entry done this year, I’ll be very keen to see what everyone else gets done. I’ll probably have the time to try them out in April after I submit.