The First Annual Festive Amiga Game Making Competition

[Cammy]

Seasons Greetings! In the spirit of Christmas, and due to popular demand we are hosting the First Annual Festive Amiga Game Making Competition!

Here's the deal: You have two weeks to make your own Christmas-themed Amiga game. All entries must be uploaded by Christmas Eve, December 24th, when we can all download and play them on our Amigas (or emulated Amigas). We will set up a poll for people to vote for their favourite games, and the winners will receive prizes donated by the Amiga community. As a bonus incentive, all runners up (all entrants) will receive a printed and packaged CD containing all the entries, bootable on any Amiga with a CD drive (although there's no guarantee ALL the games will run on all systems, they will be provided on the CD nevertheless).

The rules of the competition are simple:

1. You have two weeks to finish your game. If your game isn't finished by December 24th, you should still upload your incomplete entry anyway, but at least try to make it playable.
2. Your game must run on a classic OCS or AGA Amiga. This way, anyone should be able to play all the games, either on their old hardware or through UAE. Unfortunately OS4, Aros and MorphOS specific entries at this stage wouldn't reach enough people and couldn't compete for votes.
3. You can create your game with any software you like. This includes programming it yourself too. If you have no coding knowledge, feel free to use any of the available game making software such as Backbone, SEUCK, GRAC, GRAAL, Reality, Game Engine, or anything else you can find.
4. Your game must be themed around Christmas and the festive season. It doesn't necessarily have to contain religious references, but it must be identifiable.

That's it! The rules are pretty lenient, we just want to give as many people the opportunity to join in as possible. Further details on where to post finished games, as well as a list of prizes will be posted over the next week or so.

So, what are you waiting for? If you're up for a challenge, have some free time, and really dig the chance to win some fantastic Amiga prize packs, have a crack at it! We'll make this the best Amiga Christmas in years!

[demusse]

looking forward to this !
although i'm not a programmer myself, i find this a great competition and it reminds me of the old "Readers Games-section" that AmigaFormat had back in the day...
i 've always admired those people who worked for many hours/days/weeks/months to come up with the most surprising games.

[Rebel-CD32]

You don't need to have any programming knowledge to make decent games on an Amiga. Here are some useful links to help people get started:


Backbone - Easily build your own platform games and overhead multi-directional shooters.

The full Backbone game making package - http://aminet.net/package/dev/misc/Backbone_Full
Final update for Backbone - http://aminet.net/package/dev/misc/Backbone_Upd
Free keyfile to unlock all Backbone's features - http://aminet.net/package/dev/misc/Backbone_Key


GRaphic Adventure Creator and GRaphic Adventure Authoring Language - Create your own Point & Click Adventure games.

Full GRAC 2 package - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/GRAC2
Extras for GRAC 2 - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/GRACUser1
Intro creator for GRAC 2 - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/IntroCreate
GRAAL 2.3 A - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/graal2a
GRAAL 2.3 B - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/graal2b
GRAAL 2.3 C - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/graal2c
GRAAL 2.3 D - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/graal2d


3D Game Creator - Create your own three dimensional game worlds.

3D Game Creator - http://aminet.net/game/shoot/DBIB.lha


Some nice Christmas sprites to rip and use in your platform or horizontal shooter - http://www.nes-snes-sprites.com/Daze...Christmas.html
Some Christmas mod music to use in your game - http://www.westnet.com/Holiday/mod.html

[Graham Humphrey]

Those last two links appear to be mangled...

[Rebel-CD32]

Thanks Graham, fixed them now

[Cammy]

Here's an essential application that all Amiga users should have installed, it's perfect for importing GIFs and PNGs of sprites and graphics found on the web, editing them, and saving out as Amiga IFF/ILBM format to use in your games:

Personal Paint - http://aminet.net/package/biz/cloan/PPaint

Something else I think I should mention is that people don't necessarily have to make a FULL GAME, just a demo of a game with at least one playable level or challenge would be good enough to enter before the contest is finished. You can always continue to develop the game after Christmas, because we would love to collect ALL the full games people make together some time next year once everyone is happy with their finished product, and compile them together onto a bootable Amiga/CDTV/CD32 CD, packed with other Christmas and holiday themed extras, and make the full CD available both for free as a downloadable ISO, and to purchase for a small fee on a fully printed and packaged CD. Any proceeds can go towards charity and helping Amiga developers. Anyone who enters a game in the competition will receive a packaged CD free of charge.

If you like the idea of an annual Amiga festive games making contest, but you don't have the time to make a game yourself, perhaps you'd like to donate something towards the prize pool? For any of you in the Amiga business, it could be a good way to promote your company by giving away one of your products to the best Amiga talents, and it would certainly provide more incentive for people to have a go at the competition.

As an example of their dedication, the team at Underground Arcade is kindly donating the following prizes to the winners of first, second and third place. We hope to build the list of prizes over the next couple of weeks.

First Prize
A new, boxed AmigaOS3/Aros/MorphOS-compatible USB Rocket Launcher
An unopened A1200/A600-compatible PCMCIA 5-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/SM/MS/MSP)
Two brand new control pads compatible with all 1-button and 2-button Amiga games
An original Oscar/Diggers game for CD32/AGA-CD/UAE (or HDD-installable with WHDLoad)
A sealed box of 25 floppy disks in assorted colours
A packaged copy of the first Amiga Christmas Contest Compilation for CDTV/CD32/Amiga-CD/UAE

Second Prize
One brand new control pad compatible with all 1-button and 2-button Amiga games
An original Oscar/Diggers game for CD32/AGA-CD/UAE (or HDD-installable with WHDLoad)
A sealed box of 25 floppy disks in assorted colours
A packaged copy of the first Amiga Christmas Contest Compilation for CDTV/CD32/Amiga-CD/UAE

Third Prize
A sealed box of 25 floppy disks in assorted colours
A packaged copy of the first Amiga Christmas Contest Compilation for CDTV/CD32/Amiga-CD/UAE

Does that help convince anyone it's a worthwhile cause? I think just being able to play some new Amiga games during the holidays is going to be the best. And while they may not be too complete this year, imagine downloading or buying the full compilation to play or give as a gift next Christmas, during which time we'll be holding the SECOND festive game making contest!

[Samurai_Crow]

@Rebel-CD32

The correct link for the 3D shooter maker is http://aminet.net/game/shoot/DBIB.lha since the Western University of St. Louis archives (wuarchive.wustl.edu) no longer host the Aminet at that address.

[Rebel-CD32]

Thanks mate, fixed now

[viddi]

Great idea.



I guess I already fulfilled my obligations.

[Cammy]

Hehehe, nice one Viddi! I dare you to edit your ingame graphics to look like that and submit it to the contest, you'd probably win since you've already spent a lot of time on the game design I think a few other people have decided to try out Backbone for the first time to make their own games for the competition, I think it's a great way to get a game made quickly without needing to know how to program.

Once again I'll be making the Amiga Christmas Tree website (I'm going to try and get it finished and uploaded in the next couple of days), and your Ambermoon Arcade game is already wrapped up under the tree addressed to the Amiga gaming community

[spoUP]

uhm... shouldn't everyone compete under the same set of rules..
i mean his game is already released...
i could hack x-mas graphics into a 10 year old game by me and submit?...
lame compo...

[viddi]

Just kidding, spoUP...

[Cammy]

Merry Christmas to you too, spoUP. I hope Santa leaves you a sense of humour under the tree, it'll be useful to bring with you when you visit Amiga forums.

[alkis21]

I'm certainly up to this challenge. I've started working, this is going to be fun! Awesome idea boys.

[Hungry Horace]

2 weeks is just not enough time for me to do something from scratch

I would likely get sacked from my job if i spent the required time on it!

[Dastardly]

I might be up for doing a bit of pixel work if anyone needs a hand.

[alkis21]

I spent all weekend working on this and I'm very pleased by how it's coming along so far! It's a platform game, a Bubble Bobble-meets-Qwak kind of thing but with its own personality.

[Rebel-CD32]

I'm looking forward to playing your game, alkis21. It sounds cool! I wanted to make a game like this originally, as those single screen 2-player platformers are some of my favourites. My idea was that you play as one of Santa's elves (probably a girl and a boy elf to choose from). Some nasty characters have broken into Santa's workshop to steal all the toys, so it's up to you to bash their butts and collect all the toys back. You'd start off in the workshop, and make your way out into the snow, then eventually to the baddy's lair where you stop the boss from ruining Christmas once and for all.

I'm not going to do that one now though, I've decided to work on something a little different, but your mission is still to save Christmas.

[alkis21]

Originally Posted by Rebel-CD32

but your mission is still to save Christmas.

I think this is going to be a very popular theme among the contestants.

I've finished the first world (10 levels) yesterday. I'm planning on making a 30 level game, maybe more if time permits. I would have made more but I spend too much time actually playing it!

I wonder if I'm allowed to post a screenshot? Cammy?

[Cammy]

Sure, you're allowed to post a screenshot. It might help inspire/motivate other people who are working on Christmas games too or even want to enter the contest!