Hello, a week or so ago, we started a discussion in
this thread about having a timed programming "competition". A lot of people seemed to like the idea but nothing has happned yet. So im checking if there is any interest and to get some ideas for how it could work.
Doing a competition now could give AppGameKit some publicity for the kickstarter that is going on right now and it would probably be a lot of fun for anyone entering.
First of all, the competition would have a short time in which you would need to make a game. Most of us agreed that 48 hours is probably a good amount of time since it will give some time to think and polish the game yet still be a short time to make a game in. Now, one thing that was brought up in the other thread was cheating. It is possible that someone could take an old game and say that they made it in 48 hours, and it would be pretty easy to do. On the other hand, im sure a lot of us have little functions for doing something quick and easy that we use in all our projects (move sprite forward, create a button ect). Should we allow those kinds of functions? And editors, personaly I have a level editor which im using in some projects, should we allow you to use things like that. And how much diffirent is a level editor from say Spine which simplifies animations.
Personaly, I would say that the project has to start out as a new project (or a fresh template for T2) and all code used must be written in that project (no including old functions). But external programs can be used however you like. Perhaps we could have a rule saying that if you want to use a prewritten function, you must post it in this thread (or make it avalible to anyone in some other way). That way everyone is on the same terms. Of couse that shouldn't mean a complete engine, just short code snippets for doing small things like moving a sprite based on angle.
Of course, Stopping the cheats is also hard. We can't have judges sitting by everyones computer and making sure they don't cheat. One solution could be to have a theme which would reduce the chance of
someone already having a half finished project laying around. But personaly, I don't realy want a theme, i'll explain why further down. Another way could be to force everyone to record the whole process and upload to youtube. Im not realy a fan of that either. You need software which everyone dosn't have, you need to upload everything you do on your computer to youtube which im sure a lot of people wouldn't be a fan of. Uploading things take a long time especially if you are on a mobile internet connection like I am right now.
My thoughts on cheating are that we have such an honest comunity that most people wouldn't cheat, and if someone does it might not be the end of the world, we would still get the experience from the event.
I mentioned that I don't realy want a theme for the competition, which is something that might seem a bit weird but i'll try and explain why. First of all, since this is a timed competition, and we all have diffirent amounts of experience with programming, something that is trivial for some to make, may be impossible for others. Also, one of the hardest parts for me about programming is comming up with ideas, but most of us probably have atleast some ideas laying around. However having a theme would render most of those ideas useless. However, a theme could do the oposite aswell and give someone an idea about what to do. The example of a theme in the other thread was that everyone should make a snake game. A snake game is a pretty "closed theme" and making someting unique might be hard. So if we should have a theme, I think it should be a broad one like "make an RPG" or "make a shooter". Another problem with having a theme is that the use of the results as examples of what can be done in AppGameKit might get worse. If we have a "slim" theme like a snake game, we will show that AppGameKit is great at making snake games, but there would be a lot of them and someone might get the idea that AppGameKit can only do snake games
(perhaps a bit to extreme, but you get the idea).
Another thing we need is judging (if we want to make it a competition rather than just a game jam). Since im guessing that there are very few people that would like to be judges without being part of the comptition (which will be impossible if there are a set few people that are judges). Instead I would suggest having a voting system for judging the entries. After the competition, we would create a poll for each game where everyone can rate some aspects of the game (gameplay, sound, graphics, technical achivement for example) and we would the combine the results to an average score for the game. Higest average score wins. We could also select a winner based on individual categories. A problem with that is that someone could go in and vote for one entry sevral times which could be prevented by making sure everyone votes for every game and if one has more votes than the others, we take action.
The last thing we "need" if we want to have a competition is prices. Personally, I am not able to give anything (or more precise, I don't have anything to give) but most competitions around here usually have someone donating some prices. Perhaps we could convince TGC to give the winners a badge. Or we could make a banner for someones signature.
Quite a lengty read, but I hope someone would like to participate in such a competition. I will write down some preliminary rules for you to comment on. Keep in mind that I want some feedback on this idea and I would like to se if anyone is actually interested.
Preliminary rules
*The game must be made in 48 hours. You may use tools that you have made before, but the code for the game and all media must be created between the start and end of the competition. (external media can be used if it is avalible for free for anyone entering)
*The game must be published for free for the PC. (Publishing to some appstore is naturaly better for the publicity of AppGameKit and is encouraged)
*A winner will be decided based on the results from a poll. Higest average score for gameplay, graphics, (sound) and technical impressivness. Polls will be created after the competition. You may not judge your own game. The polls will run for a week before a winner is selected
*The game has to contain some reference to AppGameKit and this competition. (For getting publicity since that is part of the point)
Like I said, this is all preliminary and I would love to hear feedback and suggestions. I would also like some help with some form of logo which can be included in the games since I am terrible at logo design. Also, when is a good time to host the competition? Im guessing a weekend is the best (I could do it on a weekday because of summer vacations but im sure some people don't have that privilige). Im guessing this weekend is to soon, but we probably want to do it fairly soon (atleast before the end of the kickstarter).
Interested entrants:
Lucas Tiridath
SMD_3D Interactive
unlikely
baxslash
Zeerun
MrValentine
Edit: After some discussion, I have decied to host the jam this weekend (20-21 july)
