UnderwareDESIGN

Absolutely! Now, how to get people participating is another matter. It might also be an idea to have a competition for noobs where the winning entry is a free PB license. I.e. anyone with a license cannot enter. Just a thought.

      In the past two  years, we've given licenses to basically everybody that entered. So that's unlikely to change.   However,  limiting entries to LE users doesn't guarantee newbie's though.

      There's not really enough demand to warrant the investment of time of running a Public compo.
     

i would love to enter but am really pushed for time at the moment....one day!

Hi all

Yep im up for it , ile give it a bash , even if the theme is hard for me , its worth a go
at the moment im just experimenting with all kinds of stuff , so going ok , some not so good



mick :)

Quote from: kevin on April 13, 2009, 11:11:36 AM
There's not really enough demand to warrant the investment of time of running a Public compo.

Take it down a notch. Last year's competition seemed very fancy with lots of graphics prepared, external judges and whatnot. It was almost intimidating ;) Maybe find a format which requires less effort to arrange.

Or just skip it and let the community arrange something (if they want), maybe sponsored by playbasic.

     Yeah, we've discussed a  number of models already, including this.   It's not that having a 'low key' compo wouldn't be fun for active users, but if there's no real incentive, there's no participation.   

QuoteOr just skip it and let the community arrange something (if they want), maybe sponsored by playbasic.

      Nobody has to date:  See-> User Made Competitions (http://www.underwaredesign.com/forums/index.php?topic=1362.0) 

2009 Game Programming Competition Model

     The model of this years public community competition will take, is likely to be a much shorter term.  Meaning a month or less.    Theme wise,  there will be either be a single or multiple themes (user choice), but as to what they are, I haven't decided yet.   
           

Aahh ,,  good news , ile oil my fingers and get the coffee flask ready....

just a silly idea , how about a little trophy for winner instead of cash , PlayBasic comp winner of the year , or something like that
would look great on anyones mantle piece..

mick ;D

 Hmm, the concept I have in mind will probably suit you. 

Quotejust a silly idea , how about a little trophy for winner instead of cash , PlayBasic comp winner of the year , or something like that
would look great on anyones mantle piece..

  I could send you a ribbon for your hair if you like ? :) -  But a trophy is ipossible.

 

Haha

QuoteI could send you a ribbon for your hair if you like ?

send some sticky tape as well as ribbon will just slide of my head otherwise ,

QuoteHmm, the concept I have in mind will probably suit you.

looking forward to that !!

mick ;D

I said maybe... Only because I am such a slooooooooooow learner. A contest would provide a 'goal' to be accomplished and I think that would be a good thing. If I can get out of neutral and start getting up to speed...  :P

If the prize is a ribbon for one's hair, I'll have to staple it on...  ;D

I have been looking around, and it seems that the prices is what draws people to competitions (there might be something i am missing though.) But the purpose of the competition should probably dictate its format. Is it to get more newbies to playbasic, get more hard core programmers, strengthen the community yadayada. I think these purposes require radically different approaches.

P.s. A physical trophy would be nice ;)

Kevin when do you plan on announcing the details, Im very intrested.

Not until there's something to announce.  It won't be this month however.     

This would be great. I'm definitely up for entering!
It would give me a great reason to push myself.
And if the duration of the compo is atleast a few weeks that's plenty of time for me!

       Yeah  duration wise, we're most  likely talking around the month mark.   Ideally, it'd be a bit different than previous compo's, focusing more upon of pressure environment.     

        I've got a theme in mind :) -  But as for when, that's undecided.   

*Excitement*

Question. What kind of entry expectancy are we looking at? and also media wise...
Guess I'll have to wait to find out.

QuoteQuestion. What kind of entry expectancy are we looking at? and also media wise...

   If history is anything to go by, we're probably talking around the 10% mark.   So out of 10 people who were absolutely, possitiviely, definitely entering (and flooding my inbox), only about one actually makes into the compo. 

alright.
Well you mentioned in the other post above that were dealing with alot of newer programmers and what not..
so, what I'm trying to do is get as much practice in as I can before the compo.
It's hard to prepare for something you don't know anything about. xp.

So am I to guess though, that the difficulty of the competition will be tailored to the people entering?
Or will it be more like the Heroe's quest competition which I actually read over fairly thoroughly. excuse my poor spelling, I'm up late . =p

QuoteIt's hard to prepare for something you don't know anything about. xp.

  If the theme was announced too early, it'd gives keen users too much of an advantage (Ie. a big fat head start).

QuoteSo am I to guess though, that the difficulty of the competition will be tailored to the people entering?

  Well, It won't be harder than previous compo's, but I wouldn't expect it to be that much easier either.
 

  I should point out also, there will be some changes to the RULES this time around. 

oh ok.
interesting...
this is still all very exciting!

I thought of something today, when i was a kid in cub scouts, we were all given the same bag of goodies and told to make a science project. With all the same stuff we were all on the same playing field. My idea for the contest is that you kevin give us, maybe an animated sprite, sound wav or even a premade background and we turn it in to a game. Have  all the same media are coding will be the only difference.


Just an idea
Deano

Deano's idea sound very good.

      Yeah it's a good idea.    Prior to the first compo, we original idea was to make a puzzle game from the provided media.   It's always been something that i like the idea of,  moves the focus to problem solving / programming aspect, and removes the conceptual/design element.   Which seems to suit people better.

      The concept, I've  have in mind for this year is based upon the same principal.  It  would see participants needing to meet three or four small programming challenges, rather than one large one.    The challenges would be conceptually pre-defined,  with some type of base media (possibly).    You can think of it as building one large project made up of several mini games.   From a creative standpoint, how you link the themes together into one cohesive game is up to you.     

       From programming stand point,  the mini game mechanics are likely to be heavily inspired by some classic retro games :)   
 

If you have enough entrants, I'd recommend having more than one category.  For example:

Action / arcade games (i.e. Galaga)
First person shooters / 3D Games (i.e. Unreal)
Simulations (i.e. Sim City)
Puzzle Games (i.e. Bejeweled)
Beat-em-ups (i.e. Mortal Combat)
Platform Games (i.e. Mario Brothers)
Word Games (i.e. Scramble)
etc.

The point being, it would be very difficult to fairly compare a word game to a 3D first person shooter.  They're so different... you'd have to use different judging criteria (though some would be common). 
For example:

Word games might be judged by:

Size and accuracy of dictionary.
Expandability / correctability of dictionary.
Proper use of prefixes, suffixes, plurals, etc.
Multi-user / Internet capabilities
GUI Design
Animation smoothness / quality

3d Shooters might be judged by:

Number and quality of weapons.
3D Rendering quality
Size and detail of virtual world.
Multi-user / Internet capabilities
GUI Design
Animation smoothness / quality

Of course, there could be some cross-over depending on the type of game.
I suppose you could allow someone to enter the same game into different categories in this case.

The difficult parts would be defining the categories and judging criteria, as well as classifying the entries.

QuoteThe point being, it would be very difficult to fairly compare a word game to a 3D first person shooter.

  This is one of the reasons why the genre / theme are explicitly defined. 

  Another, is that via limiting the scope we reduce the ability of people to cheat.    If it's too open thematically, then people can submit something they've been working on prior to the competition opening.  Which is terribly unfair on those participating within in the spirit of the competition.

It's been a while Kevin, any closer to a contest date?

       Not really,  although it's won't before there's home page, if at all.  Sent out a few feelers for sponsorships & judging some weeks back.   A couple of  interesting tidbits concerning sponsors, but it's not without some long strings attached. 

Argh that stinks...
It's been like... 3 months. XP.. or something...

The good thing is I've had PLENTY of time to brush up on my coding skillz. 1337 LOL
When the contest DOES start I'm going to be all over it!

Very soon ?

   I'd say possibly November.

sounds good , looks like theres a few that cant wait to start as well , could be a nice few entries , hopefully more content to add to site

mick :)