Code a game competition - Sep 1st to Oct 14th

[Steve Elliott]

Here's my submission, Game Title: 'The Young Prince'

Nicely done.  It's not my type of game but I think you should develop this game further.

[Matty]

Thanks Steve.  I'm not quite sure exactly what direction to take it in from this point.

[Steve Elliott]

I think this is your best game by far, so rather than switching from game to game I think you should flesh out this particular game.

Develop characters and the universe they inhabit.  Get feedback and ideas from like-minded gamers...

[Matty]

Thank you.  I will work on it.

[therevills]

Here's my submission, Game Title: 'The Young Prince'

@Matty, I spent quite a while playing 'The Young Prince', it is really well done technically, I think the graphics should be more consistent. I preferred the dungeon tile graphics and would have liked smooth scrolling instead of the popup appearance of new tiles. The scope of the game for the compo is huge and I think you should spend more time refining it as it could be something special.

[Matty]

Thank you therevills....glad you played it.

[Qube]

Voting is now open

[round157]

Well done to all applicants, looking forward to giving them all a whirl, is it a record number of submissions?

I just checked this out of curiosity.

Competition 1 - 6 Entries
Competition 2 - 4 Entries
Competition 3 - 10 Entries
Competition 4 - 6 Entries
Competition 5 - 8 Entries
Competition 6 - 11 Entries

So, yes, a new record for entries this time round, which is excellent. Unfortunately, I don't think we have any debutants this time round, which is a shame. I definitely thing more people should be aware of what we're doing here so we get some new people having a go each competition.

Hi, it is because there is nearly no promotion for these competitons and this forum.

[Qube]

Hi, it is because there is nearly no promotion for these competitons and this forum.

There is no promotion for this forum or the competitions. This site is ad free and fully funded out of my own pocket for us old farts and new coders who like to hang out and have a bit of fun. The site was only relaunched over a year ago and although we're small we have a great dedicated talent onboard which is brilliant I think. Hopefully over time the site will gain more members willing to post and join in.

I have thought about paying for adverts to raise awareness of this site but I don't know what kind of people it would bring in?. Personally I don't want a huge members number with loads of crappy posts. I kinda like the smaller niche forums where we all know each other and slowly build up. I'm in this for the long haul as coding has been my hobby for the last 35 years ( VIC 20 for my 10th Birthday started all this ) so I'm in no hurry to build up the numbers. Hopefully in time new members will trickle in and become part of this community.

We have a whole bunch of members willing to dedicate their time to post and boost this forum and its those type of members I'd like to see continue being part of this forum and help it grow. It's all about the sites members and it's them alone that make a community, not me, so here's my opportunity to say thanks to those that contribute to the forum.

If members have any experience or ideas on promoting this site then please feel free to spread the word. I wish I had time to do it myself but when I'm not busy I immediately become super lazy

[Derron]

Promotion could be done in other coding forums:
- create a thread about the coding competition
- post "votes now open" in this thread
- if there was no reply in this thread: post about results there too
- if there were many replies - new thread (for the structure ;-) - and awareness increasing)

Benefit is, that you will reach the desired target audience.


Disadvantage: smaller communities might not like the idea of getting users "stolen" (which is not the case) and in bigger communities there might be certain rules to follow - or there are too many people advertising in some ways.


Still: every promotion has a little chance to attract a new coder.


bye
Ron

[BasicBoy]

Still: every promotion has a little chance to attract a new coder.

For the next code-a-game compo here at SyntaxBomb, I will definitely promote it over at the (extremely quiet) forums that I frequent in the hope of getting one or more of my fellow BBC Basic users to participate, or at least collaborate with me. I really wouldn't want anyone from BBC Basic Land using a SyntaxBomb compo to overtly promote their favourite version of Basic, mostly because I think that would be rather rude and discourteous as most members here are (ex-)BlitzBASIC/BMax/Monkey 1/2 etc, and in any case already have access to (and use) a vast and fantastic set of dedicated cross-platform game dev tools. Personally, I don't participate to promote any particular dialect of Basic, I just like making games (passing the time at work!) with the rather limited set of tools that I have (rebooted my efforts learning Blender yesterday - this time I'm going to stick with it). So, yes, hopefully I can persuade someone from the BBC Basic userbase to pull their finger out and participate in the next compo. I'm not holding my breath, though.


Daivd.
--   

[Derron]

If you need "basic help" with Blender - create a thread in the forums and I will try to help out (Blender user for 10+ years).

And yes - promotion is not there to help people spread the word about their language - but about their "personal" capabilities to code a game in a given time frame.


Another option for the next compo might be "team tag". This would need collaboration between two (or more) forum members. If there is no monetary price in the pot, the "share" should not be a discussion topic.
For now many of us prefer coding "here and there" on our own. But it would be surely better to "learn" how to code a little indie game with a team. No need to have all of the team doing the game-coding, some could create tools and assets, some do music, ...
... voting would of course become a bit more problematic if you build up a big team (half of the competition-voters - who then cannot vote for their own game).



bye
Ron

[BasicBoy]

If you need "basic help" with Blender - create a thread in the forums and I will try to help out (Blender user for 10+ years).

Thanks Derron, I might very well tap you for your knowledge at some point! 

I started right from the beginning yesterday with this tutorial by 'Blender Guru' (an excellent teacher, I reckon):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYj6e-72RDs

I'm currently up to Part 5.

If anyone wants to know how to create a glowing, radioactive-looking donut, then they should check out those tutorials.


David.
--

[Steve Elliott]

Hi, it is because there is nearly no promotion for these competitons and this forum.

The site was only relaunched over a year ago and although we're small we have a great dedicated talent onboard which is brilliant I think. Hopefully over time the site will gain more members willing to post and join in.

Personally I don't want a huge members number with loads of crappy posts. I kinda like the smaller niche forums where we all know each other and slowly build up.

We have a whole bunch of members willing to dedicate their time to post and boost this forum and its those type of members I'd like to see continue being part of this forum and help it grow. It's all about the sites members and it's them alone that make a community, not me, so here's my opportunity to say thanks to those that contribute to the forum.

I agree with Qube, the Community has sensible discussions on game-related topics and no flame wars with a ton of trolls, unlike some larger coding community sites.  The place has a nice relaxed vibe.

[Derron]

Pay attention when watching Andrew Price's newer videos. In the past he did very nice tutorials, newer ones were mostly hmm ... using his "pay"-stuff (materials you have to pay/register/... for - or have to look for quality stuff somewhere else with the result being not able to be absolutely sure if you did it correct as the visual result will differ).

Next to Blender Guru there is also CGGeek - who does nice stuff, for short tips I prefer Jayanam-videos (think he is German like me - so excuse his maybe "simple" English) as they are concise. Blendernation.com links to many nice tutorial videos.

And most useful thing is: to just start working with Blender for many things. If you do not need absolute precision you can even handle simple CAD stuff there (just am on my way to model a children's pumpkin-lantern with thread/nut and screw-ability of the LED light ... adjustments are done way easier then to fight with the pumpkin-modelling/sculpting in Solidworks ;-)).

Every little thing you do there helps to get "used to" Blender - and to improve your model-skills or at least model-speed.


Please also pay attention to the upcoming 2.8 release of Blender - it changes the interface (some newer tutorials use it already). I think it would be a good idea to try out the "alphas" to not get overrun by the interface changes then. I am still with 2.79.

bye
Ron