GameCareerGuide.com, which runs a weekly game design challenge for aspiring game developers, has announced a new challenge for this week about scripting a mini-quest for a fantasy role-playing game. In the new competition, the lead design of a fictional RPG "...wants you to write a quest, from the perspective of the quest-giver, that tells the player to go to the Tramalforian Forest and collect 20 dwarf beards. She notes that these types of quests are filler quests, meant to make the game feel longer, but that the writing is what sells these quests to players and makes them feel like less of a grind." The site also recently announced the best entries submitted to a previous challenge, in which readers had to design a new weapon for a first-person shooter game. In this challenge, for example, "Andy Morris' entry caught out attention because of the many and varied uses he designed into his weapon. The Harpy is part harpoon launcher, part grapple-hook, part rope ladder, and much more. He addresses both what the player will do with the weapon how it will affect enemies, and offers a wide range of options in both courts." The design challenges allow game development students and other industry hopefuls to experiment creatively with game design problem-solving in a supportive environment. Professional game developers may learn from reading the entries what kinds of strengths and weaknesses are common among the next generation of game developers, as well as what kinds of preferences they have as players. Developers are also invited to participate in the challenges, either by submitting responses or by offering advice on GameCareerGuide.com’s community forum (registration is free). The challenges are organized and run by the GameCareerGuide.com staff, including contributor Manveer Heir, who is also a game designer at Raven Software. (Artwork on this page by Peter Kan.)