GD War #1: Game Develop competition

Darkhog · February 4, 2012, 10:21pm

(for 4ian: Crossposting so both frensh reading and english reading people will notice this)
How about a little game competition? There will be no prizes, so it’ll be just for fun, but sometimes that’s all we need

I’ve wrapped some rules:

Game has to be either in English or multilingual (including English)
Game theme is: Sidescrolling platformer
You need to either provide source version of game or both Linux and Windows versions.
You may only use built-in extensions. No custom extension writing to make you game better!
You have one week (7 days) to finish game

If everyone agree, we’ll settle on date of start (I’d like to propose February, 29th )

French version (thank Victor for this one!)
Que diriez-vous d’une petite compétition pour créer un jeu ? Il n’y a aucun prix, c’est juste pour le fun, juste ce qu’on a besoin.
Je propose quelques règles

Le jeu doit être en anglais ou en version multilingue
Le thème serait : Jeu de plateforme avec défilement sur le côté (sidescrolling plateform)
Vous devez être en mesure de proposer les sources de jeu ou alors un version compilée Windows et Linux
Vous devez utiliser les extensions intégrés. N’utilisez pas d’autres extensions pour rendre votre jeu meilleur
Seulement 1 semaine pour finir le jeu
Si tout le monde est d’accord, il faudra choisir la date de début. (je proposerai le 29 février)

victor · February 5, 2012, 8:10am

Why ?
Everyone can use extension proposed on the forum (except Linux, use Wine).

It’s too short. A lot of people doesn’t have a lot of time in one week.

Darkhog · February 6, 2012, 12:36am

Thanks, will post it shortly

So no one who got “real” programming skills would have unfair advantage by writing extension that do something that is hard in GD but easy in C++.

Well, in Ludum Dare you got only 48 hours (2 days!) so I think it’s pretty fair amount of time. You can code your game after/before work or in weekend.

Orion-Pyro · February 6, 2012, 9:05am

It’s totally enough, if the amount of time we got is too long we gonna lose our interest in it, we don’t got to do a huge game.

sototo · February 6, 2012, 6:26pm

“ou alors un version compilée Windows et Linux”
=>
“ou alors une version compilée pour Windows et une pour Linux”
Je trouve l’idée plutôt pas mal, 7 jours je trouve que c’est bien assez, le 29 février pourquoi pas (ah ah tu as choisi ce moment là parce que tu as plus de temps), pas d’extension externes à Game Develop ça me convient, multilingue (je pense que pas mal de monde va utiliser Google Traduction) le jeu serait compréhensible par plus de monde, bien sûr proposer les sources c’est bien pour montrer aux novices comment faire (ou du moins comment c’est fait), jeu de plateforme avec défilement sur le côté ça me ferait penser à Mario Bros, qui est très joué, donc je pense que c’est une bonne idée.

Ce projet me plaît bien dans l’ensemble. Ce serait quand même bien que personne n’utilise Google traduction pour ce défi, et qu’on choisisse une date au hasard.

mtarzaim · February 7, 2012, 10:06am

I personnaly don’t see the point.

One week will only give half-assed creations, more prototype-ied than anything. Plus, we all have different schedules, and last minute “appointments”. You can have 20 challengers the first day, and none at the last, just because “sorry, got issues at home/job/whatever”.

It’s far too short, especially for a community as small as GD’s.

I favor an annual contest, twhich will take a look at all the creations of the past year, and “decides” who’s the best. Everyone will have time to do something good, it will help to bring in the limelight completed projects, pertinent demos, nice extensions, and the overall quality will certainly be higher.

cf Misao awards, Viewers Choice awards, etc.

Une semaine, c’est trop court. On n’aura que de sprojets de daube, à la limite du jouable. Sans compter les désistements en cours de route car “oups, j’ai un empechement”. Vous voulez vraiment un concours avec un vainqueur par défaut, faute de participants ?

Optez plutot pour un concours annuel, qui reviendra sur tout ce qui a été fait dans l’année. Les projets complétés seront mis en avant, les démos aussi, les extensions aussi, les contributeurs pareils. Bref, tout ce qui a pu être positif pour GD sera rappelé. Ce qui permettra aux nouveaux venus de voir immédiatement ce qui marche et ce qui ne marche pas avec GD, grâce à une vitrine annuelle des “best of the best” de compil games.

Cf : Misao awards, Alex d’or, Viewers Choice awards, etc.

Darkhog · February 7, 2012, 12:08pm

mtarzaim, that annual kind of contest is a good idea, BUT aside of GD War(s, may be more). In fact, in Polish RPG Maker community we have similar called Golden Forks (don’t ask me why it is named that, I have no idea).

This contest is made to make more GD games and bring more publicity to it. We have several “big-ass” games, but we lack mini games, short games that can be enjoyed and finished very quickly, though with replay value. If we would make many of small games and then post on various “general” game-making forums saying that it was done using Game Develop, I’m sure it’ll bring more people here that is now. Each GD War would have different theme, for the first one I’ve chosen platformer as it is fairly easy to write and we basically don’t have any GD platformers except this example game with Pea featuring wonky physics & movement.

TL;DR: We need to make more small games and publish on various game making forums to bring more people to GD (saying it was done in GD). And if we can use contest as excuse, then why not?

It’s not important how they are talking about you. The important thing is that they ARE talking about you.

mtarzaim · February 7, 2012, 3:18pm

I’m still dubitative because of the current size of the community. The lack of participants might remain.
Of course, those who want to do it, can do it, and see what happens.

It’s also worth noting that kind of event should be organized by the moderators, not the challengers themselves.
But I’m not sure there’s any official modo here…
… which could be a good opportunity to name at least one.

La commu est trop petite, mais faites ce que vous voulez. On verra ce que ça donnera.
Par contre, ce serait bien qu’un modo se charge de l’organisation, afin de faire plus officiel.
Ce qui serait une bonne occasion de désigner une équipe de modo officielle.

victor · February 7, 2012, 5:46pm

The number of forum’s users and particulary the number of people who often posts (20 maximum) is very low. In my mind, a moderation team will be useless.

Vu le nombre d’inscrits et surtout de le nombre de participants réguliers (on doit bien être une vingtaine maximum), la modération est un peu superflue. Enfin, c’est mon avis.

Darkhog · February 7, 2012, 6:19pm

Also I as organizer, won’t participate, so no one can tell me that I am unfair, by making game for contest, then announcing date then releasing game.

Darkhog · February 10, 2012, 11:14pm

OK, We’ll start next week on Saturday, 17th Feb at 12:00 AM CEST

Tiger · February 14, 2012, 11:06pm

PS : 4ian ne veut pas de modos ! / 4ian doesn’t want moderators ! (I don’t speak very well English)

PS2 : Saturday is this 18th Feb, not the 17th ! :s

Darkhog · February 15, 2012, 5:07pm

Sorry for that. Anyway, saturday, 12:00 CEST (GMT+1) is when competition starts.

Darkhog · February 18, 2012, 6:10am

Competition starts today at 12:00 CEST (now there is 07:07 CEST). Don’t forget if you want to participate!

When competition start, I’ll make submission thread. After submissions closure (Sat, 12:00 CEST next week), we will call public poll that will last one week (specific details will be posted in poll thread). After that we will have fair winner.