SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

I'm on holiday from work this week so I've been tinkering with some of my old games, mainly just to bug fix for the hell of it, and with the idea that I could update the builds on itch.io, as it seems the really old ones get download warnings now. Considering some of the windows builds weren't even done on an actual PC, but my Mac using parallels, it was probably due.

Getting some of the old dogs working again, considering how Gamemaker has evolved over the last six years I've been using it, was sometimes a very interesting challenge. The IDE has a feather system now which will show stuff like errors that will compile, but it considers bad syntax now, and issues which could potentially fail under certain conditions, and like how BlitzMax would work if you turned on Strict, or Superstrict. I'm one of those people that just has to go and tidy these things up, so I've spent a lot of time tidying up stuff you'd never actually know wasn't quite right, and also stupid bugs that have come to light over the years, usually noticed just by me.

Bah, Humbug! - for example - had a stupid bug where you couldn't use West or North directions on the icons, if you wanted to go in those directions. It was a text adventure anyway, so nobody apparently noticed apart from me, but I had the urge to fix it anyway.

Rockman had skulls populating the caves if you played on either difficulty level 2 or 3 and these would turn into cakes if you cleared all the gems, so you could eat them for bonus points before moving onto the next cave. Only it turned out that the cakes weren't removed when you did this, so you could have actually racked up a huge score by just repeatedly moving over them. Can't believe that one has never been noticed before - even by me, because I only ever replayed it occasionally, and only on level 1.
 
Anyway, I digress. My point is that I was going over all these old games and deliberately not changing anything gameplay-wise, or graphically deliberately, as I do think they should just stay as the games that were written for the time, and my level of ability to make games back then. Naturally a few of them are rather lacking now, when replayed, and it got me thinking about what I would do if I was to go back to any one of them and either remaster it, or sequel it.

This could be an interesting competition idea but it would be a bit restrictive in a few ways unless some extra rules/allowances were made:

Anyone who hasn't submitted a game previously can have a clean slate. Make whatever they like.

Anyone who has made a game previously can remake one of their own, or do a sequel to it. Qube, as the overlord, would be the one to decide which of their games he'd like to see them redo.

If doing a remaster then the game would have to contain significant additional content and not just be a few simple additions and repackaged.

Anyone who has submitted games previously but doesn't want to revisit any of their own projects as per the game theme could perhaps still compete by doing someone else's. I know we've done that itself as a theme previously, but just shooting out random ideas for how to not limit anyone who did want to run.

Thoughts?

I'm onboard for that idea. It definitely gives enough scope for anyone wanting to join the comp.

cool - I'l remake doom as a frypan hit'n'cook fps

Quote from: iWasAdam on April 03, 2024, 11:28:26cool - I'l remake doom as a frypan hit'n'cook fps

When did you originally make doom as a frypan hit'n'cook fps?

I thought ide remake that guy. what's his name. hmm John Carmack

I understood xerra this way:
- you did some competition entries in the past? Then Qube would decide which one you have to do a remake or sequel of/to
- you did not enter yet? It is up to them to choose from the entries of other previous contestant entries

I would allow the "second thing" for the "first group" too, as else this is kinda too restrictive for people who entered eg just 1 or 2 times.

Also for "group 1" there is no "I will start secretly" because they would have to come out of the dark and ask Qube which one to remake/sequelize.




Just throwing in random competition ideas my brain farts out now:

• "square(s)" (a square game area, square hud, square gameplay elements, square wave sound effects ... you choose)
• "Mommy, I can count to 10!" (10 colors, 10 game element variants, 10 enemies to kill, 10 levels, ...)
• "Experience" (games in which units gain experience and get stronger, games requiring a lot of experience in a certain topic to be solveable, ...)
• "Jelly Fun" (something with jelly, blob monsters, jelly fishes, slimey aliens, ...)
• "Empires" (strategy games, economic games, jumpnruns with villains)
• "Silence" (a game whose aim is to create silence, or peace, or plays in space, or ...)
• "Time Play" (nothing to say... time manipulation in some sense)
• "upside down" (self explanatory)
• "mirror mirror on the wall" (mirrored worlds, fairy tales, ... you interpret)
• A harder one: "two games, one control" (you have two play fields or so - and whatever you press, has a reaction on both play fields / games, be creative like "willently loosing a life on one game screen to solve the second"), might be too tough to come up with some playable game idea

bye
Ron

Quote from: iWasAdam on April 03, 2024, 13:35:42cool - I'l remake doom as a frypan hit'n'cook fps

I do recall PO'ed doing something like that. Motion sickness the game that was.

Quote from: iWasAdam on April 03, 2024, 13:35:42I thought ide remake that guy. what's his name. hmm John Carmack

You can't. He never entered that game into a Syntax Bomb competition originally. Bad Adam - go stand in the corner !!!

Hmmm, Bugger, <SULKS>

I would be happy to alter history if Adam was going to make a game like that!!