3H-GDC m.VII, April 10th, 2100 UTC ($128 of prizes) - Theme: Spring

Sean T. McBeth · 2010-04-14T15:49:53

3H-GDC m.VII TL;DR Summary: Make a puzzle game in 3 hours. Win GDNet+ Membership. April 10th, 2100 UTC. Prizes: #3: a PayPal transfer worth 3 months of GDNet+ membership ($12.95). #2: a full year of GDNet+ ($39.95). #1: a $75 gift card for Amazon.com (email gift card). Description: For the seventh competition ever (it seems weird to me that we've done 6 of these things already, and yet the last one was over 3 years ago.), we are going to mix things up this time. I've just open sourced some code for creating grid-and-tile puzzles, ala Tetris or Dr. Mario or whatever. It provides a very basic framework for defining pieces and figuring out different ways to place them on a board. Included in the distribution is an example of the Tetris game. On top of that, there are two examples of UI implementations for the game, using either the system console or Windows Forms, demonstrating a sort of MVC setup for game development. Also, I've included the NUnit tests in the source code; if you want to run them, you will need to install the framework (the solution file is current configured to not build the test project when building the solution, to avoid errors for anyone who doesn't have NUnit installed). It's pretty simple, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask. So, the contest will be based in some way on puzzle games: you can use my library if you want or not, you can spend the next few weeks porting my library to your favorite language if you want (I've released under the MIT license), you can develop your own puzzle game library if you want, it doesn't really matter, as long as you meet the secret theme. If you would use my library, I would greatly appreciate it, to give it a sort of "real world" test, see what people make of it, and see where it should be taken from here. But, it's not required. We usually have prizes for this contest, typically a certain amount of cash via PayPal intended to be used to purchase a GDNet+ membership. Prizes are donated by the community as a whole. I've donated games before as well. At the very least, I'll end up covering 1 year, 3 months, and 1 month of GDNet+ membership fees as the top 3 prizes. I might dig through my hardware pile and find something interesting. Anyone else is free to offer something. Date/Time: Saturday, April 10th. Theme: "Spring" The past six contests were "Black and White," "Fire," "Crackers," "CARTS," "The Stars", and "The Pits". The emphasis is originality in interpretation. With the Crackers theme there were entries that featured fire crackers, saltines, people "cracking" windows open to prevent leathal doses of methane gas, and southern honkeys. I'm getting rid of the ASCII art requirement this time. If you want to do that, that's up to you, I like ASCII art games. I personally think the contest is easier if you do ASCII art, but that's just me. You might find it easier to do it in HTML5 or Flash, which is perfectly acceptable. Rules: Submissions must meet a predetermined theme (which will be revealed 15 minutes before the beginning of the contest) Any Language (C, Java, C#, Python, &#106avascript, Brainf***, I don't care) or API (SDL, Allegro, PyGame, JOGL, even SVG in HTML5 is cool) are acceptable, as long as you handle all distribution yourself (Ideally include all assemblies. You may link to download page, but please, don't just link to the project's homepage). This is especially true if you use a "game maker", I don't want to have to hunt anything down to play your game. Writing the code in the time limit is "on your honor". That's why I keep the theme a secret: you might be able to make a generic game between now and then, but you won't be able to make anything specific to the theme. But seriously, why would you cheat for such a simple contest? Judges will judge on a full binary version of the software. They will not compile the software. Source code is not required, though you may request source code to be posted with your submission. Judging is conducted by a panel of non-competitors Judging is based mostly on overall gameplay and originallity of game design. We understand that content will be light, that graphics will be underdeveloped, that input MIGHT be a bit akward. Gameplay and concepts are key. prizes (when available) are listed above, runners up receive nothing. Three hours is plenty of time to make a classic arcade game, or something new with simple gameplay. The threads for the previous contests are available below. Unfortunately, all of the links are broken. I still have an archive of all of the games, I just need to find a place to put them (maybe CodePlex?) The first 3H-GDC 3H-GDC m.II 3H-GDC m.III 3H-GDC m.IV 3H-GDC m.V 3H-GDC m.VI If anyone wants to volunteer as a Judge, please post here and list your machine specs as well as your pertinent software running on your computer. For example, I'm: Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 Memory: 8GB RAM GFX: NVidia GeForce 8800 GTS OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit Browsers: Google Chrome (default), IE8, FireFox 3.6 Other Software: Whatever the lastest, non-beta versions of Java, .NET, Python, Ruby, DirectX, and XNA are available. I don't remember, but I'll make sure everything is up to date before the contest. Not that it's terribly important, given the low level graphics this contest will require. [Edited by - capn_midnight on April 10, 2010 3:41:54 PM]

GDNet Lounge Community

Started by capn_midnight March 24, 2010 09:21 AM

68 comments, last by ToohrVyk 14 years ago

szecs

2,990

March 25, 2010 03:01 PM

I'm in. Er... in PM/e-mail? I guess I failed the first test: to sign up :P
10th April is fine, the time won't be fine I guess, but I'll try to stay awake.

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Trapper Zoid

1,370

March 25, 2010 05:56 PM

I'm interested, depending on what time window is compatible. It's pretty hard to find a suitable time for both North America and Europe without it being at 3 a.m. over here.

capn_midnight

1,708

Author

March 25, 2010 06:06 PM

Just had a thought. If you guys could post your intended language when you are posting that you're interested in competing, that will help the judges get their machines ready to test your game after the contest.

[Formerly "capn_midnight". See some of my projects. Find me on twitter tumblr G+ Github.]

Trapper Zoid

1,370

March 25, 2010 06:43 PM

Quote:Original post by capn_midnight
Just had a thought. If you guys could post your intended language when you are posting that you're interested in competing, that will help the judges get their machines ready to test your game after the contest.

I'll most likely use Flash, given I develop on a Mac and need instant cross-platform capabilities. Alternatively I might use Python; it's what I'd like to use if I go with ASCII art, but when I checked a while back there weren't any good cross-platform ASCII libraries.

Endurion

5,545

March 26, 2010 01:42 AM

Most probably C++. I'm not that fluent in C# yet for a 3h compo.
But who knows, maybe also SilverLight (with C# then).

Fruny: Ftagn! Ia! Ia! std::time_put_byname! Mglui naflftagn std::codecvt eY'ha-nthlei!,char,mbstate_t>

ToohrVyk

1,596

March 26, 2010 03:01 AM

&#106avascript!

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ChurchSkiz

1,101

March 26, 2010 11:31 AM

I'd love to participate but I suck at puzzle type implementations so I am willing to be a judge.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
Memory: 2GB RAM
GFX: Radeon 1950xt (256mb ddr3)
OS: Windows XP
Browsers: IE8, chrome, FF, opera
Other Software: Pretty much all gaming run-times (silverlight, flash, shockwave, .NET, physix, XNA & c++ redistributable, etc.) Directx 9, latest Java

capn_midnight

1,708

Author

March 28, 2010 09:52 AM

Ok, so looks like interest is spread out across the world. That means any time I pick for the contest is going to not fit for someone. With that in mind, I'm just going to keep it easy for me and set the time for 5pm EST.

Another interesting development: one of Philadelphia's hackerspaces, Hive 76, wants to promote and host an in-person, live-action contingent for a 3H-GDC. Maybe we can setup a web-cam conference between all of us.

[Formerly "capn_midnight". See some of my projects. Find me on twitter tumblr G+ Github.]

szecs

2,990

March 28, 2010 10:41 AM

Er... I hope the webcam is not obligatory (since I'm too poor to have one).
Er... How to sign up? :P

Midnight yeeaah! Perfect timing.

[size=2]Portfolio [size=2]| Youtube channel | Paper modeller development blog | Journal

capn_midnight

1,708

Author

March 28, 2010 11:05 AM

To sign up just sy you're interested in this thread. I'm keeping track of everyone. I'll have a more formal system for the next contest, but this one is too impromptu for that.

[Formerly "capn_midnight". See some of my projects. Find me on twitter tumblr G+ Github.]

3H-GDC m.VII, April 10th, 2100 UTC ($128 of prizes) - Theme: Spring

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3H-GDC m.VII, April 10th, 2100 UTC ($128 of prizes) - Theme: Spring

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