Next competition ideas ( the great debate )

[Qube]

Not all games were arcade in style, even the Speccy had a Flight Simulator!

Far from it. There was, arcade, puzzle, isometric, flight sims, space sims, sims in general, action, adventure, racing, etc, etc, etc.

There was no force limit of low res ( optional ). The only limit was to use the provided colour palettes and make a game which could easily be recognised as an X computer game. The best one wins the comp and the 8-bit wars. You could get as technical as you want or not. So Derron ( as an example ) could of done a ZX Spectrum version of TV tower in any resolution but used the colour palette. Sure he'd of lost points on the authenticity vote, but could have romped to a win down to playability alone.

Lack of imagination I think.

Sure, it would have been tricky to mimic the limitations of either system (colours per 8x8 wise) but I'd lie and suggest that I'd coded some fancy machine code to get around this and allow 16 colours  OR just go full monocrome

The rules did say you didn't have to do all that - It was in there for those who like a challenge + could have won you extra points in the voting.

[Qube]

Qube, could you post the original themes and others can maybe add to them until everyone is happy with the options and then just go with random again? 

Here's the original code.

Code Select Expand


<?PHP
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Belfast');

$themesPT1 = array(
"Roguelike",
"Sim/simulator",
"Adventure",
"Real-Time Strategy (RTS)",
"Puzzle",
"Arcade",
"Remake",
"Retro",
"Low-poly",
"Cards",
"Card Collection",
"Tower Defence",
"Platformer",
"Escape the room",
"God game"
);

$themesPT2 = array(
"Strategy",
"Action",
"Mario",
"Endless",
"Stealth",
"Shooter",
"Match Games",
"Combat",
"First Person Shooters (FPS)",
"Sports",
"Role-Playing (RPG)",
"Educational",
"Hack and slash",
"Open world"
);


srand( time() );

echo "\n";
echo "May 4th to Jun 30th Competition" . "\n";
echo "Generation time : " . date('Y-m-d H:i:s') . "\n";
echo "\n";

echo "Option 1 : " . $themesPT1[ rand( 0, count( $themesPT1 ) - 1 ) ] . " / " . $themesPT2[ rand( 0, count( $themesPT2 ) - 1 ) ] . "\n";
echo "Option 2 : " . $themesPT1[ rand( 0, count( $themesPT1 ) - 1 ) ] . " / " . $themesPT2[ rand( 0, count( $themesPT2 ) - 1 ) ] . "\n";
echo "Option 3 : " . $themesPT1[ rand( 0, count( $themesPT1 ) - 1 ) ] . " / " . $themesPT2[ rand( 0, count( $themesPT2 ) - 1 ) ] . "\n";
echo "\n";
echo "Pick your option and code code code :)" . "\n\n";

?>


[GW]

It sucks to see the competition was pulled, Just because one person is sour-grapes.  It seemed like a good challenge to me and was looking forward to it.   
I'm guessing it also means we'll never have a retro style compo in the future.  Looking forward to the next announcement.

[Steve Elliott]

I can't put it any clearer.  Derron will only use Blender 3D Rendered graphics, because he cannot draw.  I too found pixel art challenging, but I didn't complain because to challenge oneself is a good thing.  To limit yourself to only a certain type of gameplay also shows a lack of imagination.  Think outside of the box, and what the hell are you thinking when graphics are restricted in colour or resolution and all you think is arcade game?!  Like I previously mentioned, even the ZX Spectrum had a Flight Simulator, as well as many game styles, despite a lack of graphical prowess.

[Qube]

It sucks to see the competition was pulled, Just because one person is sour-grapes.  It seemed like a good challenge to me and was looking forward to it.   
I'm guessing it also means we'll never have a retro style compo in the future.  Looking forward to the next announcement.

Yes but there comes a time when you have to let the vocal people have a go. This is not a dig at Derron or anything personal but more of a "OK, go for it" thing.

I have asked Derron to take the lead on the next comp as maybe he'll be much better at creating a game competition than I was. I'm up for a good comp so let see what he comes up with

[Derron]

I am not doing anything here for the next days. I am pretty p* off by Steve's attitude to me.


@ Steve
I use Blender for rendering.
Photoshop for doing pixelstuff (like in my TVTower game). I just do not like to get artificially restricted.

bye
Ron

[Steve Elliott]

What you do personally should not be dictated to every SB competition!

If graphics cannot be 3D rendered and a game style is not something you like, then you selfishly try to sabotage it! A restriction or something out of your comfort zone is a good thing!

Clearly you're so stuck in your own ways you do not want to be challenged or learn a new skill.  That is not how game competitions work.  A challenge is set, then people use their skills and ingenuity to produce something interesting for themselves and the community.  Rather than sulk because it's not ideally what suits their strengths.

[Xerra]

Why not just get a show of hands and see how many people were actually in favour of Qube's idea for the next competition?

If it's just Derron who doesn't want to participate and there are quite a few who publicly confirm they're going to have a go then reinstate it.

I'm firmly in the "up for it" camp despite my fear of working with a restricted palette and not going too mad with game features because I want it to look like it could possibly be running on a 64k machine.

[Xerra]

In fact, what the hell, here's what I drew up roughly this afternoon as a design of the game I was going to do.

[Morpheus]

Why not just get a show of hands and see how many people were actually in favour of Qube's idea for the next competition?

I'm up for it! 

[DragonEgg]

Not that i will contribute (to busy)

How about a 2d/3d maze, monster mash.

In any style.Retro,Modern

Just a thought.

[STEVIE G]

In fact, what the hell, here's what I drew up roughly this afternoon as a design of the game I was going to do.

Spy Hunter would be a remake 

One of my ideas was similar - although side scroller (and driving a Van obviously) 

EDIT:  I'd be up for the original 8 bit wars too.

[Xerra]

In fact, what the hell, here's what I drew up roughly this afternoon as a design of the game I was going to do.

Spy Hunter would be a remake 

I'm covered under the sequel banner which I confirmed would be ok with Qube in the original thread. I wouldn't have been using the name Spy Hunter either. Just in case there's still some remnant of U.S Gold out there who could sue my arse :-)

[Xerra]

Not that i will contribute (to busy)

How about a 2d/3d maze, monster mash.

In any style.Retro,Modern

We had the A-maze-ing themed compo a couple of competitions back. A game of that style could have been done then.

[iWasAdam]

The coffin lid opens.... 

Personally I thought the spectrum vs c64 was a great idea.And  (Like many people here) was settling down and thinking about how to approach it.

So... Qube, Why not just reinstate the compo as decided?

Maybe clarify slightly:
spectrum palette 2 colors per 8x8 block
c64 palette 2/4 colors per block
I would make the sound both 3 channel basic sound (no samples of harpsichords, etc) - Spectrum did have 3 channel sound from the 128 onwards and 1 channel beeps is too much of a limitation (imho)

I've added the atari and amstrad64 palettes

Maybe pick a palette, maybe only use 2 colors per 8x8 block. fix max resolution to 320, 256 as that would fit the best 8 bit?