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Geek Culture / TGC Supported Community Competitions

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Daniel TGC
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Posted: 19th Feb 2008 15:16 Edited at: 19th Feb 2008 15:17
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Hi, now, thankfully that the nVidia prize problem has been solved, and the various winners are receiving what was promised to them, The Game Creators has once again turned it’s attention to the planning and execution of future contests. However, the company as a whole has expanded it’s product range to such an extent that the time we are able to dedicate to such a proceeding has become very limited. While TGC remains as dedicated as ever to the community we’ve built, and the people it serves, issues such as future development, released product development, support, sales, and various other support services and maintenance issues draw almost all of our collective attention.

For this reason it was decided to open up a website area for community led competitions, with prizes issued by us, and official monitoring to ensure they are just and fair. To test this concept we are putting together a small team of judges, artists and web builders from the community who will be able to develop their area on the TGC server, and then judge any entries. Anyone who is interested in helping out is more then welcome to post here. Discussions as to how this should be organised is also up for debate. The competition will most likely have a retro theme to start off with, however this is also open to debate at the moment.

While this project does not preclude the option of official TGC competitions directly from us in the future, we are going to plan and develop such competitions more carefully, which will take an unknown period of time.

I thank anyone in advance who wants to join, and wish you all the best of luck.
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Kentaree
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Posted: 19th Feb 2008 16:01
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I would like it to be a Retro competition, seems like a more reasonable target to achieve than people trying to make the next HL2 for a compo. I also suggest including DGDK/DGDK.net in this competition, as they have been sitting teary-eyed in the corner for all previous ones.

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geecee3
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Posted: 19th Feb 2008 16:35
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Great idea Dan, I like it.

lets just hope the compos stay sensible enough that the majority of people can enter and they don't get too specialized or niched by tying points to things like use of shaders. Retro is a perfect genre for a compo because there are so many retro style games out there to inspire you, not just shooter and platform games. Another winner for the retro style is the fact that the games don't need to be graphically and audio heavy to stand a winning chance. Immersive games practically demand the graphics and audio be as good as the code that drives them or they just don't feel right. Assume that every entry will be a one man effort and pick a theme that takes this into account. A team-made game compo could be a good idea for those that want to see immersive title compos. Just bear in mind that any compo is something everyone should want to enter, niching the compo instantly reduces the number of people interested in competing.

Lets get it right first time, and keep the compos well within the skills of most formuers operating in a one man capacity.

cheers, grant.

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
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Tom J
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Posted: 19th Feb 2008 17:42
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Sounds good and I agree about starting off with a retro competition, in the same way as the text adventure compo. it is great for all audiences, both newcomers and experienced coders.

I dont really understand who sets the competitions though? Are they set by TGC but regulated by the community or are they completely started up by random members of the community, with TGC offering the prizes? (Sorry, ive just got a little confused )
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Daniel TGC
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Posted: 19th Feb 2008 18:15
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Set by the community and regulated by myself most likely, or another moderator. But only so far as "the judges can't submit their own work and vote for it" situation goes. Or possibly, obvious voting for mates so they can share prizes. Also we need to keep an eye on themes. For instance we don't want someone coming up with "the best strip poker game" and thus encouraging inappropriate materials being posted as we've seen in the past. The monitoring won’t be very strict, we don’t want to discourage imagination and creativity, in fact we wish to reward it, but I think we can all agree that occasionally some people take things too far.


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BatVink
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Posted: 19th Feb 2008 20:32
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I would suggest that this is not a complete free-for-all, as it will only lead to huge forum-wars. Each competition needs leadership and rules, which is non-negotiable, and probably set up by someone like Daniel. So he would pick the theme and team to run it based on what the community are shouting about.
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Jeku
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 02:46
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I would be interested in judging as my current employment bars me from making games and entering, and I have a brand new computer.


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Mnemonix
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 02:59
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I've been wanting to put together a coding contest for quite a while now, I have plenty of time to put towards it, and I know this community quite well.

Count me in, if there is room left

TheSturgeon(playing me at chess) : I will use my powers of the horse and pwnzor you.
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Daniel TGC
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 03:03
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Both Kentaree and Batvink are our first two judges at the moment, so I'll let those guys pick whoever they wish to work with. A three man team should prevent favoratisam, and deadlocks when voting. We will likely change the three judges for future competitions so people gets turns at it.


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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 03:29
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I would like to help out somehow, but am not sure of all the responsibilities of judging. I'm going to school full-time and working part-time currently. As long as judging isn't another part-time job I'd love to help out

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" -Isaac Newton
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dark coder
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 08:27
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When you say "with prizes issued by us" I hope you mean actual tangible prizes and not vouchers or something. Or better yet, prize money!

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Daniel TGC
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 16:58
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That depends on how successful this idea is. I'll discuss prizes with Rick once the competitions details have been set out. But if the system isn't setup and users don't participate then what prizes we issue isn’t going to matter.


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Benjamin
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Posted: 20th Feb 2008 17:41
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Quote: "Both Kentaree and Batvink are our first two judges at the moment, so I'll let those guys pick whoever they wish to work with."

BatVink's a good choice, he's a well known and respected member of the community, but who is this Kentaree chap you speak of?

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Jess T
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Posted: 21st Feb 2008 00:20
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Quote: "That depends on how successful this idea is. I'll discuss prizes with Rick once the competitions details have been set out. But if the system isn't setup and users don't participate then what prizes we issue isn’t going to matter."


Isn't that why the NVIDIA compo failed? Because the prizes weren't secured and ready to ship before the competition was announced?

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BiggAdd
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Posted: 21st Feb 2008 02:12
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Sounds like a great Idea. If you need an artist I'd be more than willing to help.

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kBessa
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Posted: 21st Feb 2008 03:23
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Great idea! And as Kentaree mentioned, it would be really nice if DGDK/DGDK.NET could also be used.

I'd finally have a chance to get into a compo (although I've owned a copy of DBPro for more than 4 years now, I'm really not comfortable with it), and also, I've only been an active member for the past 14 months


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MSon
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Posted: 21st Feb 2008 13:02
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i've never entered or judged a darkbasic compo, its a good idea so id join in if the prizes where decent.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 21st Feb 2008 13:39 Edited at: 21st Feb 2008 13:40
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Well hooray, I think I can enter a next one. Also, I like the idea of retro-remakes again, the original went well.

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flashing snall
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Posted: 21st Feb 2008 18:51
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this sounds cool. like a bigger verson of the 2 week coding challenges, and with prizes to motivate people.


This is my WIP, not even ready for a WIP thread yet though.http://smallgroupproductions.com/
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David R
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Posted: 21st Feb 2008 22:03
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Quote: "I would be interested in judging as my current employment bars me from making games and entering, and I have a brand new computer."


Absolutely no idea whether this is of interest to you Jeku, nor whether it's applicable/possible, but I was reading about a guy in a similar position to you, who wanted to develop open source stuff in his spare time, but his contract barred him from doing so etc. in the same way

He found that he could get his employer to sign off all rights/liability to what he had made provided it was released in the public domain, or something along those lines; there was some standard protocol that he followed.

Obviously yours is likely different, and it sounds as if yours applies strictly for games (whereas this guy was just a general programmer) but I'll see if I can find the article that I read (assuming its of use, you've probably investigated this kind of stuff though, so it's probably useless, but it just made me think of the article is all)


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Jeku
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Posted: 21st Feb 2008 23:11
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Yes, please forward me the information. For me this only applies to games, but I'd love to see how other people got around this. Frankly it sucks Thanks!


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BiggAdd
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 04:10 Edited at: 22nd Feb 2008 04:12
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I got a bit bored today:


What do you guys think?
Its a bit dull atm, but I haven't started to play around with Levels yet.

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Mnemonix
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 04:44
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Looks great

TheSturgeon(playing me at chess) : I will use my powers of the horse and pwnzor you.
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flashing snall
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 04:51
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wow, thats pretty good. when do you think the first compo would start?


This is my WIP, not even ready for a WIP thread yet though.http://smallgroupproductions.com/
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BiggAdd
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 04:55
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Quote: "when do you think the first compo would start?"

Hope that isn't directed at me!
I dunno, I only made that website because I was bored/needed practice.

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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 05:32
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WOW, that looks really good Big Add. You in Graphic Design at all?

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" -Isaac Newton
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BiggAdd
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 05:35
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No, Engineering.

Thanks btw! Its just a hobby.

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BatVink
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 10:20
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@Bigadd: It's Daniels baby, so it's his decision, but I like the design personally.
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Van B
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 10:46
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I think retro is the most fun, for one thing it's accessible for solo developers but I think that the work flow is much easier to manage when remaking something - you have something tangible to aim for, then can spend more time on graphics, effects, and your own touches.

Plus I have a 95% finished Ghostbusters remake that won't see the light of day unless someone forces me to wrap it up at gunpoint. Not that I'd feel comfortable entering an already completed game as an actual entry, but if everyone else was going all retro I could hardly resist joining in.


less is more, but if less is more how you keeping score?
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BiggAdd
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 12:36 Edited at: 22nd Feb 2008 12:46
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Quote: "@Bigadd: It's Daniels baby, so it's his decision, but I like the design personally."

I'm not enforcing the design, I just need some practice developing Ideas. I'm hoping to start some freelance Web Dev, but I'm always stuck for ideas for practice.
I take opportunities like this to see If I can cut it in the web dev world.
(Thats why you always see me with a new sig. )
By no means am I trying to take over, sorry if I presented myself that way.

But I'm glad you like it.

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Mnemonix
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 15:16
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Not at all BigAdd. I for one am appreciative for a good visual designer for the website, as this is an area I completely suck at.

Here's to making a good website for some good contests.

TheSturgeon(playing me at chess) : I will use my powers of the horse and pwnzor you.
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Libervurto
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 17:33
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Quote: "I would be interested in judging as my current employment bars me from making games and entering, and I have a brand new computer."

That's crazy! Are you sure you just can't make games for another company?
I was wondering why I haven't seen anything from you Jeku

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flashing snall
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 17:39
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Quote: "Hope that isn't directed at me!
I dunno, I only made that website because I was bored/needed practice."


haha, no.


This is my WIP, not even ready for a WIP thread yet though.http://smallgroupproductions.com/
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Kentaree
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 17:50
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Well, our first priority now it to get the website up and running. I don't know if we announced it yet, but Batvink and I have chosen Mnemonix as the final judge.

I believe the plan for the banner is actually a mini competition where people can enter their banners and if they got chosen they win a prize, and the banner will be used for the website. After this is done, we'll start planning the competition properly.

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Jeku
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Posted: 22nd Feb 2008 23:57
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Oh well then, good luck guys


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BiggAdd
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Posted: 23rd Feb 2008 01:22
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I don't think I'll enter... After being called a cheater last time round really took the fun out of it.

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Daniel TGC
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Posted: 23rd Feb 2008 04:33 Edited at: 23rd Feb 2008 04:33
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Kentaree you need to communicate with Steve I think. He e-mailed me saying that he wanted to use BiggAdd.


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BatVink
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Posted: 23rd Feb 2008 11:02
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It's good to see so many people interested in running this as well as taking part. Myself, Kentaree and Mnemonix won't be the only people assisting in the long term, we are simply the guinea pigs at the moment I think the idea is to choose new judges each time, which suits me because I might want to enter sometime. So don't think it's all over bar the shouting.

As for the graphical things, I like BigAdds stuff, but I'm only one voice amongst many. We need to discuss whether it will be a compo in itself or not.
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BiggAdd
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Quote: "As for the graphical things, I like BigAdds stuff"


Thanks, the design can be altered if people don't like it. Also I've made it so the colours can be changed.

Its a bit basic at the moment. So changes can be done if needs be.

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da power pwnerer
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Posted: 23rd Feb 2008 21:54
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I would personally like to see an RPG compo.



-Dan


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Come to Noobisoft's website today!
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Daniel TGC
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Posted: 24th Feb 2008 03:49
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RPG's are often very hard to code.


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BiggAdd
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Posted: 24th Feb 2008 03:54 Edited at: 24th Feb 2008 03:55
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It would be good to have a "DB Tech demo".
Utilizing plugins such as Dark Physics and Dark AI to create graphical technology demos, to promote Dark Basic.

Perhaps creating short stories etc.

Say, a short war stint, where your character is immersed is battle, with things blowing up left right and center.

Just an Idea.

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Mnemonix
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Posted: 24th Feb 2008 10:05
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I think that would be an interesting competition, as it promotes both good, original coding and good graphics in an original way .

TheSturgeon(playing me at chess) : I will use my powers of the horse and pwnzor you.
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Benjamin
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Posted: 24th Feb 2008 11:56
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I vote for a competition that requires your graphics be as good as Crysis or better.

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Dared1111
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Posted: 24th Feb 2008 16:46
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A sandbox compo where all programming languages in your range are allowed and the winning camp gets 20 pound vouchers

A horror game compo.


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kBessa
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Posted: 24th Feb 2008 23:50
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@Benjamin:

Dude, why would we have to make such crap graphics like the one in
Crysis?

LOL :-P
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Benjamin
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Quote: "Dude, why would we have to make such crap graphics like the one in
Crysis?"

I feel we should set a low standard so that anyone can enter.

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Mnemonix
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Are we permitted to discuss the methods of our judging here? I.E. to discuss the methods we could use, and see how people respond and go on to fine tune any method of judging.

TheSturgeon(playing me at chess) : I will use my powers of the horse and pwnzor you.
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Jeku
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Posted: 25th Feb 2008 08:07
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Wouldn't the actual contest have to be announced before the judging methods are decided?


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Mnemonix
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I mean in general, Like, If some kind of a point system is going to be used or something else, and what people would prefer.

TheSturgeon(playing me at chess) : I will use my powers of the horse and pwnzor you.
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