I know that this is a bit of a necro-post but i think that if the idea of a competition is brought up and a trail-version of Playmaker is used... I think a watermark would be helpful (maybe in one of the bottom corners have the Hutong logo and a "not for resale" thing in there... kinda like how NGui does it.)
as for limitations, well, that might be a bit of a thing to put off people from using the system as a trial... if they're too small.
as someone that's ended up with scenes that have multiple FSMs all running at once, I would think that a way to give a "trial-period limitation" would be to limit the number of FSMs on a game object (two at most) and the number of objects with FSMs on them (i'd think 25 would be fair... not counting spawned objects... i'm talking 25 actual objects with FSMs on them.) I think the best way of doing this is not to have it go "you cannot add another FSM to this object" but more of a "you have X too many FSMs, please disable in the inspector the FSMs so that you have 2 before running" that way the user can play around with multiple systems, not be limited in testing but have the limitation for when they want to preview... this way i think if they import an asset such as a spiderling or other Playmaker object that has more, it's not going to throw errors per-se, it's just going to say "hey, now... you've got too many running right now. please disable the object that is being greedy."
as for the prize (Since a prize is always worth tossing in) I don't have the cash for a full-out copy of unity itself but maybe if we all chip in something like $5-10 if the person wins we can give them an option of either getting a full license of playmaker or the cash equivalent credited to their asset-store account if they already have purchased playmaker. (no idea if that's do-able but i think it could be... and if not, maybe wiring it to their paypal account if they have one?)
AND, and i think this is the kicker... have the Hutong games youtube channel involved and the main website involved to announce the winner and the runners up... when you win or get a runner up prize, you get your game's web-build hosted on the site. That way the person gets the attention of both crowds here and on youtube as a "Playmaker builder to take notice of" as well as for them to generate the buzz... and something that might be worth considering if this is do-able for the forum system... give them a little icon of a trophy that sits next to their name and when clicked, brings you to the page where their web-builder sits so you can play it.
I think this does rely on there being a trial version because if that's possible, it gives the prize a good incentive... and I think i can see about putting aside some cash to help with the award... and a tax-thing i was brought to the attention of... the costs of the prizes that Hutong (or any other people that have a licensed company) can apply the monetary costs as a deductable for next tax time as it is a business expense when you really think about it... this would require receipts though so we can track them for tax purposes.
so, to condense... If a trial version of Playmaker is in the works, watermarking and a bit of a limitation would be ideal methinks... so as to give users a chance to play around with it as well as helping give Playmaker some more market saturation and awareness... and a prize for a playmaker contest.
Even better, Maybe if a bunch of us are able (and are using either open-source/free software or have legit licenses of the content creation software to make them) collect a collection of assets such as monsters, players, etc... and the licensing could be that these assets are granted for the use in the contest only (if it's explicitly stated in an agreement, then that does give us creators a legal framework to ensure that someone isn't just ripping our stuff and selling.)
... So, is this something worth considering? I think i can find a couple bucks laying around to chip in for this... basically, i'm all for it and am willing to pony up some cash if this becomes a thing.
.... EDIT:
And one more thing i think might help... While the contest is up and running (and maybe for a week or so afterwards) have playmaker on sale as well? the bigger barrier to entry is usually the cost and though it IS money well spent even at the current full price, if the price was lowered as well as the buzz generated with the contest (and you can bet i'll spam it on my facebook accounts as well as twitter and other sites i frequent) could lead to a significant uptick in sales for the duration of the contest sale... albeit it'd be at a lesser price point but assuming that the average sales per month is something like 50 and the percentage of sales during a sale blitz is increased by about 300% then that means you're getting, overall, more money to Hutong games because of the extra traffic and sales generated during this kind of event.
Yeah, i know... that's very "business-like" in a sense but to be completely honest, if you're a game dev, you kinda have to think like a business-person for at least a little bit (unless you're only making games to give away for free... but, a lot of us do have aspirations of making games into our career and as much as it is a pain to have to think of, if you want to do that, you kinda have to wear the "business-person" hat a little bit.)
