SyntaxBomb - Indie Coders

We have our winners

Congratulations to everyone that took part. Very close scores for the winners. One more vote could have changed the whole ratings.

The top three winners are :

		1st place winner : Title : International Kung-Fu+ Author : Qube Link : Take me there Vote points : 1st = 3 | 2nd = 0 | 3rd = 2 ( Total = 350 )
		1st place winner : Title : GORTON Author : MrmediamanX Link : Take me there Vote points : 1st = 2 | 2nd = 3 | 3rd = 0 ( Total = 350 )
		2nd place winner : Title : Grid Runner Author : Xerra Link : Take me there Vote points : 1st = 2 | 2nd = 1 | 3rd = 3 ( Total = 325)
		3rd place winner : Title : Fort 64 Author : Playniax Link : Take me there Vote points : 1st = 1 | 2nd = 3 | 3rd = 3 ( Total = 325 )

How was the scoring done :

1st place awarded 100 points ( £100 )
2nd place awarded 50 points ( £100 )
3rd place awarded 25 points ( £100 )

Complete voting breakdown :





Winners, PM me your PayPal address and I'll magic over your winnings

Comments about the games ( if sent with voting ) :

Xerra :

I'd like an additional point mentioned that I have deliberately not voted for Morpheus' game, Uridium, as he and I are friends, and I think it would be considered unsporting, possibly. If I had voted Uridium as someone else's game, then I think it would have been my second place. Morpheus will not vote on my game as well, for the same reason.

Fort 64

Always liked games like this on the C64, where the play area is huge, and you can spend hours flying around trying to explore it all. Fort Apocalypse was one of the first C64 games I ever saw, and I initially disliked it because it was so bloody hard to play. Once I'd played a few weeks (in those days we gave a game time to grow on us) then my opinion completely changed, and I played it a lot. Still never got very far into it and, judging by a view of a you tube playthrough, there's a ton of game area I never reached. Fort 64 plays at a slower pace and it's also a much longer game.

Plus points:
The game, while being hard, is quite forgiving where it doesn't kill any players you've picked up when you die. It will just leave all of them at the point of crashing, so you don't always have to get into a nasty spot to get the hardest ones repeatedly. That's a good gameplay decision because otherwise it would have been far too frustrating.
Map area is big so there's lots to explore.
Motion of the player feels about right for a thrust style of game. You can't just zip about like an idiot and expect to get through this.

Minus points:
I found the graphics style a bit muddled when trying to work out what areas were safe to land on and what was background, and not. Some areas I avoided flying into as it looked like they could be collision risks, but weren't. The collision detection on some floors with yellow debris also seems a bit unfair.
The music didn't really fit the theme of the game.
A lot of the time the game is played with just concentrating on navigating the tight spots and avoiding the lasers and other hazards. You either had a lot of enemies spawning in suddenly, or none for a long time. Bonus awards were a bit odd as a well, where one token gives you 60% towards and upgrade and then the next, 95%. The ship auto-firing laser – while I did really like it – was also easily the best upgrade to get, that I found, but it does seem random what luck you get in these being awarded.
I felt the inertia, gravity on the player ship was about right but it did feel unwieldy trying to get the ship moving the right way so you can shoot the enemies when they did appear, however.
The two elements I think would really help the game are some kind of mini-map, and a visual aid to perhaps point in the direction of the nearest player that needs picking up. As the crow flies would work for this, as you'd still have to navigate around tricky caves to get to them. Gravitus – a previous syntax bomb competition game – did this well.


Gorton

Plus points:
Developer put a little info file with the game that also gives you a load of cheats you can use to evaluate the game a lot further than trying to work through it slowly. We should all do this, as it helps with judging a game a lot better. And, yes, I did notice the "queens park rangers" reference. +200 voting points for that.
Very pretty, although the title screen was very basic – I've mentioned the lack of guidance on key to start game and other parts below. Also, the flickering of the game's logo was annoying enough for me to wonder as to whether it's actually meant to do that.
Playing the game is fun. You need to use your head to work out alternative routes, even in such a small area of play. Use the owls to get you up higher to get the bonuses that are out of reach etc. It's tough but it doesn't appear to be too tough and, as it's like the classic ghosts and goblins, you want to go back and keep pushing at it.


Minus points:
Windows defender flagged up the game as being possibly dodgy. Easy enough to override but it will probably put the shits up some people. Also, the game required installing directplay and a computer restart for me. Most annoying. Guess it's a very old version of directx it's using.
I got a memory execution error box come up on losing my last life every game I played. It's possibly a Windows 11 thing here.
When you start the game the level screen just shows you running on the spot with no indication how to progress (press return), and I thought the game had locked up here, and maybe having a controller plugged in was causing the char to run on the spot. Once I hit a few keys and found how to continue then it was fine, but this might catch some people out. I know you gave instructions in the text file, but a few in-game guidance pointers can't hurt.
It's a bit trial and error with the lives lost when progressing through the game. I was hesitant to put this as a minus point because Ghosts and Goblins was the same. But it's a bit indistinct to see some hazards behind other objects and must lose a life before you learn that you need to jump/avoid that. Also, I had a situation where a projectile from a bad guy hit me causing me to respawn, and it was in such a place that the same projectile caught me at the respawn point to lose another life. There's also a ledge that seems to be missing a collision that you need to land on when doing a high jump early on the first level. That causes you to land on spikes below and I've yet to find a way around that to progress so far. That's unfair.
Hopefully I've managed to get word to you about the problem using the cheat modes to progress further in the game because, when I activate any of them, I'm getting the memory error at game start, rather than just at the game over point.


UridiumX

Uridium is one of Braybrooks best early games and I spent hours and hours playing this but don't think I ever got beyond level four or so without cheating. This game plays the same and is just as punishing if you're not paying attention 100%. Everyone remembers how nasty the mines were – and they are just as nasty here. It's great fun trying to avoid them and the original games tactic where a mine wouldn't be able to destroy you while you're rolling the ship works just the same here. I found myself playing about just doing this on some levels as it was such an achievement outwitting them back then. In all honesty I played this game far more than I needed to because it's just so hard and yet so much fun. A lot of that is admittedly down the how great the original game was, but you must admit that as a remake, this has been done almost perfectly. Even the mini game is here, but I do miss the original games big scrolling message in the title sequence.

Plus points:
It looks lush compared to the original games' big pixel style. That style could have been copied for a remake but then you'd have been getting too close to be copying the same game. The graphics are in a much higher resolution and make use of bright colours at certain sections, which the C64 game didn't as it wanted to just lock you into a metal look exclusively. It looks like the alien ships that randomly strafe across the decks have been redesigned too. The most important part though, is the raised areas that you are at risk of colliding with, still have the warning drop shadows so you can avoid them. If you're quick enough.
Music and sound are just spot on. That title tune is haunting and makes a good alternative to the great tune that the original game had.
Saving scores and initials is in this game. Playing Uridium is all about high scores so at least you can keep trying to beat those.
15 decks in this game. That's a lot of work to recreate. I don't know if there's an end-screen as I've never been good enough at the original game, or this one, to reach the end and see. Braybrooks game just had the big message at the end of the last deck that probably most people never saw unless they cheated. There's a lot of game here.

Minus points:
Possibly some people are going to be put off by the game being tough. That's just how the game was though.
If you're not familiar with the original game, then you've got to learn how to use the rolling function effectively and master the side on turn because you need to use that in parts of the later levels. Might find some people won't give the game enough time to get used to the player ship controls – especially if they have never seen or played the original game. There isn't much else I can fault on this game.

1986

This is more like an early demo of what's to come than a full game. There is one attack pattern, a few different plane designs, large areas of unfeatured background areas for land and sea areas and there is only the 1, very short, level. I think you started too late to get a game put together with this one, so I won't list any plus or minus points for this. In your defence you did say that you'd been unable to get a lot done with the time you had.

Base VR37

This is a nice little puzzle game like loderunner, where you move about along ceiling conveyor belts, drop from ledges and dig out blocks, like the original space panic. There are only 10 levels, but I've not been able to get past level 5 so far.

Plus points:
An interesting, if slow, puzzle/platform game. It's fun trying to work your way around the levels to get all the metals before the exit will open.
The animated player character and the background graphics are nice and neat.

Minus points:
Sound seems very sparse and very quiet. I had to put up the volume very high to be able to hear much.
The levels work in such a way that it can lead to a lot of dead-end situations where you're waiting to die. The enemy use a very basic AI system where they lock onto you when you're at the same either x or y position, which can make it difficult to trap them, and the blowtorch works too slowly to be worth using sometimes.
The enemies are a bit suspect when you're close, but not actually next to them. It feels like the game shunts you into the block next to them and kills you off, when you've still potentially got a chance to outrun them.

Alien Invaders

I am basing my opinion of this game having watched the YouTube video of the game in action rather than playing the game myself. I have done this because there's only so many virus warnings and errors I can work through before I decide that it's just not going to play for me.
From what I can see, you've made a clone of space invaders but it's just so dreadfully slow and unexciting, I wouldn't even be able to get to the point the player on the video got to. I'm sorry to be so harsh but I'd frankly just rather play the original arcade version instead. I'm not sure what language you've used to write this so can't make a judgement as to whether the game can only play at that speed, or it's just a limitation of the dev system you're using.
Minus points:
Please use Itch.io or another file hosting method to host future games. I had all sorts of windows warnings trying to download the game from your source.
McAfee does not like your game. Even after I excluded it from quarantine it was being a pain. Eventually I managed to get it to leave it alone, but I got an error message when trying to run which said "Alien Invaders 51_V2_09 MCI.Exe system error. GfaWin23.Ocx was not found.

IK+

By a weird coincidence I found myself playing this game on the years anniversary of the death of the legendary Archer Mclean. Us older guys will remember that he was the genius behind this game, as well as the original International Karate and the fantastic Dropzone, amongst many others.
This game is funny as fuck because it features 3 doddery old gits trying to bash the hell out of each other to score the most moves in a timed stage, so they don't get eliminated. It takes a while to learn the moves but it's rewarding when you start to master it. There's something about headbutting old grandpa in the nose just after he's tried to kick your legs out from underneath you.
Winning game for me.

Plus points:
The graphics and animation are excellent. There must have been a ton of work gone into this. Watching them mooch around while creeping up on you is great.
Music and sound are also good here. Nice background suitably themed music and some crunching whacks as limbs get broken.
The guide to the full list of moves is essential and I'm glad we didn't have to trial and error our way through. My first game I was a stumbling fuck trying to work out how to do any kind of attacks because I hadn't looked at that first.
Landing a double kick (fire and up left) and being in the sweet spot to nail both the AI guys is one of those game moments. Kind of like the time you execute the perfect 360-degree spin in Barbarian and manage to lop off your opponents head in your first move.

Minus points:
You have a game breaking issue where after somewhere like round 7 the green player stopped fighting and just stood there for easy points. Once he's not fighting back then it's easy to just keep going because he's always going to be the lowest ranked fighter every round. I got up to red belt and around round 18 with 80000 points before I stopped on my longest game. With both ganging up on the player then it's unlikely I'd get as far.
No two-player option. This game is crying out for some two-player beating the shit out of the AI player. Come on, we all did that back in the C64 days.
Picky comment, but the game is a bit inconsistent with the keys to advance screens and exit them. Press space to exit here, hit return to start game when shift is the button for fire so assume it should do everything.
I didn't see any move where you could throw Werther's originals at your opponents. Games featuring old people should have that as a minimum 😊


Morpheus :

As I know Xerra personally I thought it wouldn't be fair to vote on his game as I have had input to it and have been testing it for him. I would have placed his game 3rd.

International Kung-Fu - Really great job on this one, the character graphics are amazing! The game plays really well, like the original. Button bashing doesn't work, you need to get used to playing it to beat the computer players. I found the AI was a little worse in the later levels but some tweaks will make it even more fun. The music could have been a bit more upbeat, the original games music was one of the best tunes on the C64, so would have been hard to match. This is the one game I keep saying "one more go".

Gorton - Hand a lot of fun playing this one, the first few plays I couldn't get very far at all. Really liked the ghosts and goblins vibe, graphics are really well done, the sounds work well too. Some parts of the game are a bit too difficult, I got through by luck and not skill. I found that if you died near to the next check point some of the enemies were firing; this made it almost impossible to get to the next check point. The continue option? I thought that this would take you to your last checkpoint but it started the game again? Last minute one, I tried with a ps4 controller and I could jump shoot move right but not left.

Fort 64 - When I watched the video for this one, I was really looking forward to it, it reminded me of 'Gravitus' one of my previous competition entries. Great music, nice graphics, great parallax backgrounds. But the control system feels wrong, especially on keyboard; one tap and the ship turns and you crash into a tight gap of which there are many. Sometimes you can land on a surface, sometimes you can't, other times I crashed into what I thought was background scenery. Sometimes getting stuck when you land, so you press too hard to take off and then crash into something above you. The little things that attack you are more annoying than anything, at first I tried to shoot them down but with the shooting (left/down/down) it's too difficult to hit them, so I opted for kamikaze approach as it was easier. I've gone back to play this a few times because I wanted it to be great, but with its issues it wasn't what I hoped for.

Gridrunner - I have been playing Sir Minters versions of this game since the early 80's and right unto his last version on the consoles and in VR. Xerra has made his take on 2 of Jeff's games and has kept it faithful to the Vic20 look, this is his best game by far, a lot more attention to detail and to making what looks a simple game much more than that. Great job, now that's 15 pints he owes me, right?

Base_VR37 - Nice little puzzler based on Loadrunner, Nice use of graphics and sounds. I was able to complete the first level easily and was hoping the next couple of levels would introduce to the games mechanics, but was in at the deep end from level 2 onwards. I found I could sometimes complete a level and another try I couldn't because of the way the robots wandered around. I found the controls very sticky and sometimes got killed because they didn't do what I was expecting. After a lot of swearing I managed the first 4 levels. With some tweaks to level design and a bit tighter controls could be a good retro puzzler.

1986 - Clearly run out of time on this one, the start is there for a 1942 style game. Played it through shot every enemy not much else I can say really.

Alien Invaders - Really poor control system on this, I played a few times and it pained me to get to Level 3.

Congrats to the winners! 

Yeah with 1986, it is really a demo - I ran out of time as these days I only have the weekends to code, also learning LibGDX from scratch didnt help the me, and it took me awhile to decide on the game 

Well done everyone's ... And as usual the winning for me can either go back into the pot or split between the other winners. 

@Xerra Dang I though I had fixed the 'projectile delete distancing', Must have been from a early build, It got to point I was annoyed with it
happening.

All & all ... Merry Christmas everybody, have a good one. 

@MrmediamanX that's very generous of you. Xerra, Playniax, do you wan't a split prize fund or back in the pot for next time. I'm more than happy either way as I have it separate and safe

I really had fun doing the compo but I am not sure I will have the time to enter another one soon so I don't mind to recieve the prize. I may organize a compo later on and will put that prizemoney back on the table. Thanks for all the people voting for us and the feedback! . Congrats to the winners also. Merry Christmas.

I'm happy to split prize with playniax then. Extra beer is always a bonus at xmas. I'm a bit shocked that Uridium wasn't in the top 3. I'd have sworn that game or IK+ was going to wind up the winner. Guess you youngsters don't remember the original game, unlike old farts like me.

Thank you to everyone who voted - even if you didn't vote for me, bah humbug!  

Hope everyone is having a great Xmas day.

Congrats to the winners, hope the results made your Christmas a bit cheerier or beerier in Xerras case 

I would have liked to some feedback from you guys, feedback good or bad helps to make the right decisions on the next project.

Have a Merry Festive pPeriod and a prosperous New Year,

Morph

Just a quick post to let the winners know that they'll be receiving their £300 each next week 

Winnings sent out  sorry about the slight delay, the post at Christmas is slow 

Quote from: Qube on January 02, 2024, 23:53:01Winnings sent out sorry about the slight delay, the post at Christmas is slow

Thanks!

Received, thanks. 

That'll go towards the £2,500 bill i just got quoted to replace the fence that blew down in my garden yesterday

Quote from: Xerra on January 03, 2024, 22:54:04Received, thanks.

That'll go towards the £2,500 bill i just got quoted to replace the fence that blew down in my garden yesterday

Oh bollocks!, sorry to hear that. Time for another comp?  

Quote from: Qube on January 04, 2024, 01:24:22

Quote from: Xerra on January 03, 2024, 22:54:04Received, thanks.

That'll go towards the £2,500 bill i just got quoted to replace the fence that blew down in my garden yesterday

Oh bollocks!, sorry to hear that. Time for another comp?  

Haha, yeah. Might need more than one to afford that bill though

Quote from: Xerra on January 04, 2024, 14:38:55

Quote from: Qube on January 04, 2024, 01:24:22

Quote from: Xerra on January 03, 2024, 22:54:04Received, thanks.

That'll go towards the £2,500 bill i just got quoted to replace the fence that blew down in my garden yesterday

Oh bollocks!, sorry to hear that. Time for another comp?  

Haha, yeah. Might need more than one to afford that bill though

Man if I was situated a little ... a lot more locally I would build you a new one reenforced, I'm a bit or handy man.

Quote from: MrmediamanX on January 04, 2024, 15:01:10

Quote from: Xerra on January 04, 2024, 14:38:55

Quote from: Qube on January 04, 2024, 01:24:22

Quote from: Xerra on January 03, 2024, 22:54:04Received, thanks.

That'll go towards the £2,500 bill i just got quoted to replace the fence that blew down in my garden yesterday

Oh bollocks!, sorry to hear that. Time for another comp?  

Haha, yeah. Might need more than one to afford that bill though

Man if I was situated a little ... a lot more locally I would build you a new one reenforced, I'm a bit or handy man.

One? I had to have two, as the other side went as well. I'd temporarily repaired it from a previous windy day but it didn't hold more than 24 hours. What's even worse is I've now discovered my fence on one side collapsed against my neighbours and damaged theirs. So, yeah, gotta pay for that repair too. Good old british weather and buying a house with cheap fences