Amiga Game Development Contest

[trydowave]

Feel free to enter using the rules outlined below:

Rules:
1. Single hardware category. Submission should mention target hardware (OCS 1Mb,AGA,Anything) and judges may take into consideration appropriate use of resources when scoring.

2. Games must be a substantially new work for the competition. Significant reused game elements (eg graphics, audio) are permitted and should be declared such that the judges can identify the original work done for the competition.

3. Judgement will be made on the publicly available submission (That is, what the judges play is the same as what anyone else following the competition can play).

4. The competition will last 6 months from the official start date, and final submissions must be made by 23:59 UTC on the last day.

5. Team entries are permitted, with team size being declared. A single contact point should be provided.

Additional information:
The competition makes no claim to ownership, licencing or distribution rights, which belong to their respective owners. Submitting an entry to the competition expressly grants the competition organisers the right to distribute the entry for purposes of the competition only.

Judging criteria will be on "best game". Judges may consider the amount of reused material and technical proficiency.

Submissions must be in the form of a disk image (or images) playable on both emulated and real hardware, according to the stated target hardware configuration. Instructions, etc, to be provided as necessary, as determined by the submitter. An archive in a standard format (eg lha) suitable for harddisk installation is also acceptable.

Prizes will be distributed thus:
1st place = 55%
2nd place = 30%
3rd place = 15%

Shatterhand will get things going officially kick things off when he has the time in September.

But as rule 2 states, the game doesn't have to be written entirely in the 6 months from the official start date, so as I have said before do crack on chaps and chapeses.

Please not, there will be two threads, one "Entry: your game" for you to post all your updates in in a relatively clean manner, these posts will then be copied to a "Discussion" thread where others are will be able to ask you questions, provide moral support or advice.

If you have a question please do not hesitate to ask.

We will help where we can, but as this is Shatterhands idea, it's only right for him to decide ultimately.

See this thread in relation to prize money: Amiga Game Development Contest - Prize Money.

[trydowave]

This thread has been split from the original discussion by request as it went off in another direction from the original scope. Both discussions have value on their own merit.

The original thread can be read here:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=78107

[Shatterhand]

For a while the MSX scene has a game dev contest. Here is the site:

https://www.msxdev.org/

Since this begun, the amount of homebrew releases on MSX went through the rooftop, a lot of people begun coding for the system.

Today I heard about this:




Maybe if we had something similar for Amiga, more people would care to make stuff for it? I know making games for 8 bits its easier, but maybe this would motivate people to code for Amiga?

And of course, people need to lower expectations. No one is going to make a new Lionheart or Cannon Fodder on its free time, earning no money out of it.

[Dunny]

...Which would result in tonnes of Kickstart 1.2-era quality games that require a minimum of an '030 with 4MB RAM to run...

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Dunny

...Which would result in tonnes of Kickstart 1.2-era quality games that require a minimum of an '030 with 4MB RAM to run...

Yeah.
You don't want to up the quantity without also upping the quality, and the ratio right now isn't great (but maybe changing?).

[Shatterhand]

Originally Posted by Dunny

...Which would result in tonnes of Kickstart 1.2-era quality games that require a minimum of an '030 with 4MB RAM to run...

You could have minimum requirements for the contest. I remember one of those MSX Dev contests people could only make games that would fit a certain size of ROM. For an Amiga contest you could have "Just ECS games on a 68k and 1mb Ram" or "Nothing more than a 020 and 2mb ram", etc.

Also, the quality of the games on those contests keep coming up. As there's some incentive, people keep coming back to it and learning more about the machine and doing better year after year.

NOW, like I said, people should have proper expectations. There were some gems on those contests, but most of the games are very simple, yet many of them are very fun. And you DON'T SEE people dissing simplier/amateurish games, what you see is people encouraging devs to do better.

I really wouldn't mind new Amiga games that felt like 8 bits games if they were fun to play. Developing a full blown-title with high quality takes some investment. And on Amiga circles, I keep hearing something which seems to be true: People want to pay for hardware, but not for software. And even when software is free, there are a lot of people bashing and asking for better/more. And then complaining "Oh why isn't the Amiga homebrew scene more active?"

[mcgeezer]

I'd love to see this happen. I think the categories would need a bit of thought though. I was able to build Beer Edition in exactly 6 months so creating a half decent game is possible (if I don't mind saying so myself )

[Shatterhand]

Yes, 6 months is possible. The MSX contests are usually 9 to 12 months.

I made Quasarius in 3-4 weeks and Roadtrip in like 10 days. I know none of them are great games, but it shows its possible to do something good in 6 to 12 months, but it may be hard to keep working for something during this time without any kind of incentive. I still haven't played your Bomb Jack game, but from videos its obviously its awesome

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

NOW, like I said, people should have proper expectations. There were some gems on those contests, but most of the games are very simple, yet many of them are very fun.

To me it doesn't matter that the game is actually simple, if it's done right.
A normal Amiga game that looks a little bit dated (8-bit style or whatever) is fine if it runs on my 512K A500, but NOT if it requires a 030@50 and 4MB of Fast RAM.
I think that's what Dunny is getting at (ie shit made with Backbone, really bad AMOS, etc)

For example: simple game feeling slightly dated/oldschool but done right: the upcoming ALCOCOPTER, which I am really looking forward to.

[Shatterhand]

A normal Amiga game that looks a little bit dated (8-bit style or whatever) is fine if it runs on my 512K A500, but NOT if it requires a 030@50 and 4MB of Fast RAM.

Ok, I agree with that 100%.

[phx]

Originally Posted by Akira

A normal Amiga game that looks a little bit dated (8-bit style or whatever) is fine if it runs on my 512K A500, but NOT if it requires a 030@50 and 4MB of Fast RAM.

Absolutely. A stock A500 with 68000/7MHz should be the reference platform for homebrew developments. Although supporting all bigger Amigas is not forbidden, as long as it still works on the aforementioned machine.

The 512K RAM limitation might be a bit low. With a double-buffering bitmap, graphics, sprites, a protracker mod and some samples you can already fill up most of it. 1MB (1MB Chip or 512K Chip + 512K Slow) is a typical configuration of most machines in the golden era.

A development contest wouldn't encourage me to develop a game, though. I'm doing that for my own enjoyment and I hate timelines.

There is probably already a new game under developement... which is progressing nicely. But you all know that I would never talk about it before it is finished.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by phx

The 512K RAM limitation might be a bit low. With a double-buffering bitmap, graphics, sprites, a protracker mod and some samples you can already fill up most of it. 1MB (1MB Chip or 512K Chip + 512K Slow) is a typical configuration of most machines in the golden era.

Yeah I agree, my comment was strictly for games that are CLEARLY way too simple and CLEARLY should run on the bare basic specs (like, not having music at all, or barely any graphics).

[Shatterhand]

I am really surprised how 512kb are filled very quickly indeed. I load all assets of Roadtrip in the beginning, the game has just a few graphics, sfx and one song playing, and it doesn't fit on 512 kb. I know Double buffer takes a big hunk of memory, and the way I did scroll there wasn't very easy on memory (but it can reach a very fast speed because of this ), but still you'd think 512kb could handle a little bit more of stuff... but it cant

I think its amazing there were games that even worked with just 256kb.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Shatterhand

I think its amazing there were games that even worked with just 256kb.

I think it's amazing there were even VERY GOOD games using only 512KB! A lot of my favorites do, like Lemmings.

I guess at that point it really matters to use stuff like assembler and be a coding genius.

[alpine9000]

Originally Posted by Akira

I think it's amazing there were even VERY GOOD games using only 512KB! A lot of my favorites do, like Lemmings.

I guess at that point it really matters to use stuff like assembler and be a coding genius.

You can use ram to “cheat” and make it easier to make things faster.

For example, 32 colors with triple buffering and interleaved bitplanes with interleaved masks is great for performance but eats chip ram like crazy.

But when you have limited development time, it’s easier to set the minimum spec at 1mb rather than trying to get the same performance as the above config through hard optimisations.

My next game (worthy) has a minimum spec of 512/512 68000 and it’s we have used pretty much every byte and every cycle ;-)

[Dunny]

Yes, I was thinking primarily of games made in Backbone, RedPill etc. Games that should have run on a basic OCS machine which for some reason require an accelerator and RAM expansion.

If you think about it, the catalogue of games that ran on a basic A500, unexpanded was huge. And yet we don't seem to be able to fit anything these days in 512Kb of RAM.

So as a rule, I'd like to see new games that run on the bare minimum hardware for the target chipset - unexpanded A500 for OCS (a 256Kb A1000 was expanded to 512Kb by pretty much everyone who owned one) and unexpanded A1200 for AGA.

[Shatterhand]

Originally Posted by alpine9000

For example, 32 colors with triple buffering and interleaved bitplanes with interleaved masks is great for performance but eats chip ram like crazy.

I don't even know how to START doing this using Blitz Basic, and it's the only thing I can use to code on Amiga

[LongLifeA1200]

If you're going to do that, you might as well invite Atari to participate.

Let's just say that C64 & MSX have a lower 'ceiling' than Amiga. I doubt they see it as being any 'easier'.

And yet, even with a lower 'ceiling' they still find the need to work in teams.

When David Murray (The 8 Bit Guy) made a game for the C64, he had help for the music. Now that he has decided to remake the game for DOS, he has employed a pixel artist too.

Shaun Southern and Andrew Morris spent two years creating Kid Chaos and besides not seeing a penny, their game received an average score of 80% from the critics. Gosh! That's how tough it is for a pair of legends that spent two years on their game.

Maybe we should invite only the winners from other contests from other platforms to participate in a chance to win huge cash prizes.

But first, we should acknowledge those that have already tried making games for the Amiga as winners. Retroactively, for whichever category they would have fit in. That would be a good start. Recognition.

In any case, is there anyone available to organise something like this? There would have to be plenty of categories and tutorials provided for each of them.
An example:
> Major Category (Technical Limitation)
|
>> Sub Category (Software Used)
|
>>> Final Category (Genre)

I don't think the community is ready yet.

[swinkamor12]

If we talk about using chipset.
Either You are good in using copper, blitter, sprites, bitplanes and 2D games look amazing on Amiga 500 with 1 MB RAM, either You make crap which need 68030, 4MB RAM and AGA.
There is nothing between.
It of course take time to get knowledge and skill to code in Amiga 500 way.
And no one in Amiga community want to pay for 2D games.

[LongLifeA1200]

Originally Posted by swinkamor12

And no one in Amiga community want to pay for 2D games.

I wouldn't say "no one". Besides, money isn't the primary motivator.

Originally Posted by swinkamor12

There is nothing between.
...
Either You are good in using copper, blitter, sprites, bitplanes and 2D games look amazing on Amiga 500 with 1 MB RAM,
...
either You make crap which need 68030, 4MB RAM and AGA.

This "all or nothing" approach is what I mean by the community not being ready yet.