Amiga Game Development Contest

[LeCaravage]

I put 15 euros in the pot.
If I had to set up a game dev compet I'd probably let everybody enter -ie no minimum config- and no categories. It would attract more competitors and the diversity of games would increase.
If the ogarnisers choose this, of course it needs to judge games on their elements of playfulness mainly, over the technical aspect. But, I'm not organiser, that's only my point of view.

A game competition would be a nice engine for the Amiga.

[Alpha One]

Nice idea, I put 50 EUR into the pot. Long live Amiga!

[Shatterhand]

Ok, so far we have:

E-Penguin 10 Euros
LeCaravage 15 Euros
Alpha One 50 Euros

Would someone set up a page (maybe here at Abime.net ?) and organize rules, schedule, etc?

I noticed MSX Dev actually goes on for 11 months, not just 6 months. But we can choose our own rules

I don't take part in organizing it because I'd rather participate developing a game for it, and I guess people in the organization shouldn't be allowed to enter the contest

[robinsonb5]

I'm happy to put 50 EUR in the pot too.

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by robinsonb5

I'm happy to put 50 EUR in the pot too.

50 quid here too (i guess euros).

[Shatterhand]

E-Penguin 10 Euros
LeCaravage 15 Euros
Alpha One 50 Euros
McGeezer 50 Euros
Robisonb5 50 Euros

[DamienD]

Ok, you can put me down for €200

[E-Penguin]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

E-Penguin 10 Euros

OK now I feel cheap - better up that to €20.

Originally Posted by OmegaMax

You're the first adult I ever heard claim to never have completed a game.

I just never really had the skills or patience to see it through. I only ever got past level 1 by cheating, on most games. I enjoy playing the games, I just suck at it.

[Shatterhand]

Wow DamienD, that's a very nice contribution

E-Penguin 20 Euros
LeCaravage 15 Euros
Alpha One 50 Euros
McGeezer 50 Euros
Robisonb5 50 Euros
DamienD 200 Euros
Total so far: 385 Euros

can someone setup a Paypal account so we can gather all donations somewhere? (I also can do it if no one steps in)

I really don't want to setup the contest since I want to take part of it, but if no one steps up I'll end up doing it

Those are some things I've been thinking about rules:

* for a first edition, while I like the idea of the 3 different categories, I also agree it could be better to have just a single "Anything goes" category, and we expect the Jury to consider if the game asks too much hardware to deliver too little one aspect to judge the games.

* Games should be distributed in .ADF format and should be 100% free in digital format. I dunno what you guys think about the devs releasing the games they use on the contest on physical format (charging for the game obviously), and if the devs could ask for donations or a fee to register, AS LONG AS the game has all features and it's 100% playable from a 100% free version. (Registering could just add the name of the user in the game or soemthing like this).

* We have to consider if games should be all made by a single guy or if teams can be assembled, and if teams should have a size limit.

* If free assets can be used on the game and if this would have an impact on the final grade or not.

* Duration of the contest... when do we start, when do we begin receiving entries and when do we end

* Do we have a jury (and who wants to be part of it - MSX Dev don't let any donors or participants of the contest to be part of it?) or games will be judged by the whole community? (I'd prefer the Jury way). How will the grading be done? - I thought each juror could grade the game in 4 aspects:
Graphics (0 to 5), Sound (0 to 5), Technical Aspects (0 to 5) and Gameplay (0 to 15). This would give a total of 30 possible points for each game (from each juror) , giving more weight for how well the game plays and how fun it its than the other aspects.

Or maybe each member of the jury could just give a 0 to 10 grade for each game, add the grades of each member and you have a final score.

* How will the prizes be given? (I like the MSX dev format.. 1st place get 50% of the donations, 2nd place gets 30% and 3rd place gets 20%). I'd like to add that I see no problem of a donor also being a contestant.


Any considerations / ideas?

[Ian]

When everything is finalised, I suggest a new thread in the eab.competitions section to manage entries and such.

To stop it getting ridiculously messy though, I'd would recommend one post per entrant, and they just edit when they have news/screenshots to add and such.

This thread here could continue for the discussion though.

Example, Shatterhand edits his post in the competition thread, posts in here detailing his update etc.

Don't know what you guys think?

[Shatterhand]

I guess that's a very good idea

Though if this becomes an yearly event, we will need a new thread every year

[E-Penguin]

How about we start with three categories but have a minimum entries (3?), which if not met is merged to the next closest.

I'd like to allow the use of publicly available resources, primarily because I don't think I can make a mod more complex than baa baa black sheep... Such reuse should be noted by the developer and considered in the scoring.

Limit 2 entries per competitor?

[Shatterhand]

Originally Posted by E-Penguin

How about we start with three categories but have a minimum entries (3?), which if not met is merged to the next closest.

I'd like to allow the use of publicly available resources, primarily because I don't think I can make a mod more complex than baa baa black sheep... Such reuse should be noted by the developer and considered in the scoring.

Limit 2 entries per competitor?

I am ok with all this. I can't do a mod properly either too.

That's why I thought we could accept teams instead of just single entries. I don't expect one single person to be able to design games, write code, draw graphics , make music and do everything properly

[alpine9000]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

I am ok with all this. I can't do a mod properly either too.

That's why I thought we could accept teams instead of just single entries. I don't expect one single person to be able to design games, write code, draw graphics , make music and do everything properly

What about ports?

Can you take a game from another platform, reuse all assets gameplay etc?

How is this judged versus a completely original game?

[Shatterhand]

I wouldn't have a problem with ports either, though I guess the entry would lose some points for lack of originality I'd guess.

[Tsak]

In this case a split would be logical I think. A port should compete against other ports not against original games cause the criteria here are completely different.

And since this is moving forwards, we could also do a couple of polls to define the rules.

[alpine9000]

Originally Posted by Tsak

In this case a split would be logical I think. A port should compete against other ports not against original games cause the criteria here are completely different.

And since this is moving forwards, we could also do a couple of polls to define the rules.

Yeah, def don’t want to disqualify ports, all games should have a place if possible.

[Lazycow]

3 categories for ports and 3 categories for non-ports? How many participants do you expect?

I'm suggesting to avoid special handling for ports. (and try to avoid many categories for the same reason)

edit: What about a compromise?
category1: A500, 68k, 512k chipmem, 512k slowmem, no ports allowed
category2: A1200, 68030+fastmem allowed, ports allowed

[majikeyric]

why making distinction with ports ? it requires as many hours of work than any other games.

Then why not making different categories for ASM, Amos or Blitz projects ?

Only hardware requirement should be retained.

[alpine9000]

Originally Posted by majikeyric

why making distinction with ports ? it requires as many hours of work than any other games.

Then why not making different categories for ASM, Amos or Blitz projects ?

Only hardware requirement should be retained.

I’m not making a case for a different category for ports, but depending on the source of the port, it could be considerably less work.

If you can re-use art assets vs spending countless hours on original pixel gfx.

Level/world design again, a port can give you proven working/fun levels compared with designing original stuff.

But then again if your port is a port from a higher spec system it might be more work to get it all working on Amiga hardware than if you designed a game with Amiga hardware in mind. Graphics might be just as much work as doing them from scratch etc.