Code a game competition Nov-Jan 2018 - Minimum £500 prize fund

Qube · January 21, 2018, 18:58:22

Quote from: RemiD on January 21, 2018, 17:37:55
@Qube>>Thanks for this competition, this revived my "coding flame"

It was a highly fun comp

- It's kinda sad that it's over

Derron · January 21, 2018, 20:32:50

Quote from: TomToad on January 21, 2018, 16:33:52
@Derron: Retro is just a style. It isn't done to hide artistic abilities, as a matter of fact, it is very difficult do do right. As for your Mountain example, there are mosaics in which art is created with tiny colored objects. Here is a bunch of art made from Jelly Bellies. https://www.jellybelly.com/ArtGallery

As for size, here is someone that actually does postage stamp sized paintings https://www.boredpanda.com/tiny-paintings-karen-libecap/

Do not get me wrong. Of course it is cool to paint "postage stamp sized". But as said: imagine you paint with your default PEN ... not a micro-sized "consisting of 2 horse hairs"-brush. In other words: take your squared/quad paper. And then place 3 others so you have a big rectangle. Now you are allowed to color quad or not ... now draw a mountain.

"size" is not equal to "pixel resolution". You can view your game on a 13 inch b/w screen or on a 85 4k-LCD. This is "dimension". But we are talking about resolution. Density of pixels/information.

@ RemiD
Of course there are wizards creating wonderful things - but we are noobs in that regard. And resizing you game to 320x160 will get rid of most of the information. It will look "dull". No possiblity to show what helmet is worn, what blanket is teared. Except for exaggerated cloths ("blue helmet") you wont recognize things.

bye
Ron

RemiD · January 21, 2018, 21:06:40

Quote
"size" is not equal to "pixel resolution"

i suppose that you mean pixel/texel size (how it appear in the 2d/3d world), does not equal to game view resolution (width/height) (the view that the player can see) ?

Qube · January 22, 2018, 02:48:34

QuotePS: Votes should be somehow made "hidden" - eg. in a topic in which we normal users cannot read replies or so. Why? It might influence you when reading who voted for what and who was leader yet. After the vote end, Qube could just modify the threads ACL/move to a forum allowing reading for normal users - so all could read replies there.

I have been thinking about the voting and some votes being influenced by the trend etc. But for now I'm happy to go with members being fair and in the spirit of the game.

iWasAdam · January 22, 2018, 06:27:23

@Qube - slightly off topic. would you like me to link back to the syntaxbomb website from my itch.io page? It only seems fair

Derron · January 22, 2018, 07:25:35

Quote from: RemiD on January 21, 2018, 21:06:40
i suppose that you mean pixel/texel size (how it appear in the 2d/3d world), does not equal to game view resolution (width/height) (the view that the player can see) ?

Nope - I am talking about real world size and the "grid" we use. the cell-size (means "size of one pixel in centimeters") is not important (as you could go further away to remove the grid-distinguishability).
Similar to a quad paper you have a limitation in both directions: x and y - so eg. 30 cells wide and 60 heigh. You cannot just draw on half a cell - either full or not. As said it is not important how big the cell is in the real world - it just matters how many grid cells we have at all.

bye
Ron

Qube · January 22, 2018, 07:43:15

QuoteQube - slightly off topic. would you like me to link back to the syntaxbomb website from my itch.io page? It only seems fair

I think that's a great idea

- This site is not advertised in any fashion so popping the word around can only be a good thing.

iWasAdam · January 22, 2018, 08:21:50

No Problem. Link now installed and operational - be interesting to see if this leads to more people coming this way...

freeman69 · January 22, 2018, 08:58:09

On the subject of 320x200 being too low rez - I would have to admit that my own artistic abilities are zero, and it is an excuse for me not to have pretty graphics.
But as also mentioned, it's about programming and playability, which is why I'm here. (Still more geek than cool, apparently.)
I also remember what programmers from the 80's managed to do with very limited speed and resources, and some of those games are still fun to play.
Like Stevie G said, this competition made me think of other things I would like to do, so hopefully everyone has gained from ideas being shared. Btw I haven't looked at all of the entries, but Van Tourisimo - excellent!

RemiD · January 22, 2018, 09:27:40

Quote
what programmers from the 80's managed to do with very limited speed and resources, and some of those games are still fun to play.

i totally agree, and i find surprising how some developpers manage to create buggy/slow video games considering all the ressources and tools we have nowadays. (even if some bugs/artifacts/slowdowns are not caused by the developper/code/assets but by the computer/OS)

@participants>>not tested anything yet, i will test your games in the evening...

TomToad · January 22, 2018, 10:07:27

Many good entries this contest. Difficult to decide which entries are best.

I think one of the reasons why 8 bit and 16 bit games were so much more enjoyable than games today is that, with the limited graphics, you had to really focus on game play. I entered a game jam on itch.io a few months back in which you were limited to 64x64 resolution. Some of the games came out quite good. https://itch.io/jam/lowrezjam2017/results.

STEVIE G · January 22, 2018, 17:46:29

Quote from: TomToad on January 22, 2018, 10:07:27
Many good entries this contest. Difficult to decide which entries are best.

I think one of the reasons why 8 bit and 16 bit games were so much more enjoyable than games today is that, with the limited graphics, you had to really focus on game play. I entered a game jam on itch.io a few months back in which you were limited to 64x64 resolution. Some of the games came out quite good. https://itch.io/jam/lowrezjam2017/results.

I was close to entering that one. Some of the entries are fantastic.

RemiD · January 22, 2018, 22:31:15

What i realize now, is that for a game making competition, what is important is to make the gameplay easy to understand and to play and fun, and some of you totally did that, so i bet that you will get more votes because of this.

On my side, the gameplay is not easy to understand unless you watch my presentation video. But at least it is functional

. But next time, i make a racing game or a shooter

Scaremonger · January 23, 2018, 06:24:54

Quote from: RemiD on January 22, 2018, 22:31:15
But next time, i make a racing game or a shooter

I've had two game designs rolling around in my head for years and this competition finally extracted one of them and brought it to life. It's not quite finished but I might do something about that after the votes are complete.

As for the next competition.. I can't wait, but the wife isn't too impressed.

freeman69 · January 23, 2018, 12:40:32

Quote from: RemiD on January 22, 2018, 22:31:15
What i realize now, is that for a game making competition, what is important is to make the gameplay easy to understand and to play and fun, and some of you totally did that, so i bet that you will get more votes because of this.

On my side, the gameplay is not easy to understand unless you watch my presentation video. But at least it is functional . But next time, i make a racing game or a shooter

A really unusual and interesting idea. I didn't look at the video, but found 3 statues (not sure how), and three items using the directions and spyglass.
That's the trouble with competitions - you need separate prizes for artistic content, innovation, etc. And games that require work to design different levels may lose out if the players/judges don't see them. (My excuse was limited time, but given the chance I'd put more effort into making something more original than point-and-shoot, having seen the quality of other entries.)