Time For A Little Competition

ciw1973 · Posted: Jun 27, 2007 11:14 Post subject: Time For A Little Competition

I'm a big fan of minimalism in games (and small downloads) and I notice that recently KristopherWindsor has posted a couple of his creations in which all of the on-screen graphics are drawn using the primitives of fbgfx2.

So, I propose a competition where everyone has until 11.59pm GMT on the 31/07/2007 to write a game using no "pre-drawn" graphics, just what can be created in code. To make it more interesting I'll be offering £100 (roughly $200 / EUR150) as a prize for my favourite game.

There's no theme as such, and you can submit as many games as you'd like. With a prize on offer I guess there have to be rules, so here goes:

- To keep this fair, everything must be written from scratch. Whilst obviously there's no way we'd know if you were using code you'd written beforehand, I hope that people will do the honourable thing here.
- Only the libraries which are shipped with FreeBASIC v0.17 Beta released on 2007-06-03, and are therefore available "out of the box" can be used. Your game should run on a vanilla install, and should therefore also work on any platform.
- You must submit your entry as source code, and hopefully this will result in lots of examples which those new to FreeBASIC can pick up and learn from.
- Whilst you can work with others, there's only one prize, and you'd have to share it.
- My decision is final, and whilst I'm going to be as objective as possible, at the end of the day it'll come down to my personal preference.
- I cannot be bribed, so don't try.
- Whilst I'm probably going to write a couple of games myself, obviously they won't count in the competition.
- You can submit unfinished versions of your game for others to see, and only the latest version when the competition closes will be judged.
- Whilst I may download and play your games before the end of the competition I'll not be making any comments positive or negative on these, so please don't ask what I think.
- Don't worry too much about what your code looks like or how it's structured, you're not going to be judged on that, but remember that I'd like the resulting games to serve as useful examples for those wanting to learn programming in FreeBASIC, and I'm sure they'd appreciate plenty of comments in your code.

What I'm looking for:

- Game play. If it's not fun to play, then no matter how good it looks or sounds, it's probably not going to interest me.
- That said, good slick presentation is important. First impressions do count for a lot.
- Novel ideas. Pretty much all of my favourite games have been a little unusual, but I'm not going to give any clues as to what they are.
- Most of my favourite games have very simple concepts and straightforward controls. I don't want to have to learn too many rules, and I like to be up and playing pretty much straight away without needing to read pages of instructions and memorise lots of keys.
- I like games with random levels/elements, but not where success or failure is dependant on random things.
- I also like to feel I'm progressing somehow as I play a game, so having levels and/or increasing difficulty are things I'd like to see.
- For what it's worth, pretty much all of my favourite games were on the Commodore 64.
- Lasting appeal. If I want to keep playing the game, then that's obviously a very good thing.

All that said, there's no point in just trying to come up with an idea which ticks all of the above boxes. There's no reason why a good, simple shoot-em-up or simple text adventure couldn't win.

Links to the games should be posted on this thread, and assuming all of those submitting entries are happy for me to do so, I'll put together a website to host all the entries once the competition is over.

If you need clarification on any of the rules etc. then just post on this thread and I'll reply ASAP. The list above is just off the top of my head, and no doubt I'll have missed some important things out.

HD_ · Posted: Jun 27, 2007 11:33 Post subject:

Let me guess, someone lame will write some graphics to fb code converter and spoil the whole idea of hand coded graphics. Please make it clear if this is or isn't allowed.

Sounds interesting- I might try for it (but I am not interested in prizes- but I probably won't win anyway :P).

SSC · Sr. Member

I have been working on the same project for years, might be nice to do something on the side, so perhaps I'll enter as well =)

How do you plan on handing out the prize, paypal or something?

lee-pro · Posted: Jun 27, 2007 14:16 Post subject:

KristopherWindsor · Hero

Yay! I inspired some competition! ^_^

Are pre-written libraries such as Multiput(), or my menu, or even the code that calls Getmouse allowed? I could combine all of them into one file, and even with all of those, I'll still have to write a whole new game and idea.

I can understand if they aren't allowed, but FYI, BeGemmed uses Joshy's Multiput() routine for the explosions.

Also, I hope I'm, not overlooking any FB features, but you're specs mean sound is out of the question?

duke4e · Sr. Member

please forbid the use of "data" or any other kind of importing graphics into game.

now, the good start whould be if someone can make perlin noise for FB. that whould be very helpful.

Zamaster · Master

duke4e, already been done! Check out my post in tips and tricks about the cloud generator. Its fairly old.

Pritchard · Guru

I'll be attempting to take part in this competition. I'm busy...I just hope I have enough time to do this :-)

I'm in the USA. Would I need to go to the bank and get US Dollars for the Euros, or would you do that for the contestant if they are a winner in the USA. Not so hard to do myself, of course :P

D.J.Peters · Guru

the spec's not clear for me

no predefined gfx (bitmaps, lines of Datas or Array=>{,,,,}) ?
no predefinded sfx (files *.wav *.mp3 or any mods) ?
no external libs opengl and fbsound ?
no inline assembler ?

ciw1973 · Posted: Jun 28, 2007 12:31 Post subject: Competition Rules Clarification

OK guys, I knew there would be plenty of things that weren't clear from my original post, as I said, the rules were just off the top of my head, so sorry for any confusion caused. I'll try and clarify things now.

I was hoping to keep this as simple and rule-free as possible, but I guess it's important to have rules for such things so everyone knows where they stand.

The idea is that you only use libraries which are shipped with FreeBASIC 0.17 Beta, by which I mean libraries for which there is an include file installed by default, so that would include things like SDL, Allegro, OpenGL, Newton, FMOD & BASS. Obviously in most cases you'd need to download/install the relevant SO's/DLLs, and I know that kind of goes against the vanilla install idea, but hopefully you'll understand what I'm aiming for and why.

There are two reasons for suggesting this - firstly, it'd be nice to have all of the games just compile and run in a vanilla FreeBASIC install, which is exactly what someone just starting out in FB programming would have, and secondly, it creates a more level playing field for everyone to work from.

If you can create your masterpiece using FBGFX2 or OpenGL, then you won't need any external DLLs for the graphics side of things, which would be nice.

In the spirit of the competition, I'd really like everything to be created by you and completely from scratch, but I'm personally not going to be checking if you've used other people's code or libraries you'd written previously.

How about we say that if you are going to use your own libraries, you can only do so if you also make then available to the rest of the community? Would that be acceptable?

Obviously, your code will be available for the rest of the community to look over, so I guess if there was any plagiarism, then you'll get found out pretty quickly. Again, I'm not really going to penalise you, it'd just be nice if you were to attempt this from scratch.

In the (hopefully unlikely) event of there being an issue with libraries etc. used by a submitted game, we'll take a vote from all of those who have submitted an entry, and if 50% or more of them agree, then the entry will be disqualified. So, if you're unsure, post up on the forum to get the opinions of your fellow competitors before you start.

My idea was that the graphics should either be drawn using primitives (lines, circles, boxes etc.) or for the more adventurous, maybe assembled from textures/pieces generated using procedural techniques. That in itself could produce some interesting results for those who fancy a challenge.

Just to make it clear - CONVERTING BITMAPS INTO DATA STATEMENTS FOR USE IN YOUR GAME IS NOT ALLOWED!

Obviously, if your game requires levels, movement data etc. then these could be stored in DATA statements, which would be preferable to loading them from a data file, again just to keep things together and make it more obvious what's going on from a new user's point of view.

If you need some terrain, a level map etc., then it'd be nice to see this generate procedurally, but this may not be practical, and could be stored in an external file or ideally data statements.

I'm not placing any restrictions on the sound aspects of the game, although I'd like to see the distributions kept as small as possible, so ideally the sound should be generated in code, or use MIDI tracks rather than WAV/MP3/OGG. You can get some really nice full sound effects from things like a couple of low but slightly different frequency square waves phasing in and out, and things like that should be achievable completely in code. I appreciate that the medium you're working in can often impact you creatively (give me a guitar and I'm fine, put me in front of a piano and I always seem to draw a creative blank) so there won't be any penalty for using MODs or audio files. Whilst it'd be nice, don't worry if your game doesn't have sound.

There's no problem if you want to re-create an existing game, in fact a good, solid, playable, polished version of Tetris would be really nice. The novel ideas suggestion is just letting you know the sorts of things I like personally. I only made a few suggestions to help get your creative juices flowing, and it may well be that something I've never considered before will really capture my attention when I see it. Don't worry too much about these sorts of things though, just create something that will make you happy and keep you entertained, as in all likelihood it'll also entertain me and others.

I'm going to say no to inline assembler, simply because it adds an element of "voodoo" to the resulting game. As I've said, I'd like the final games to be useful as examples for new FreeBASIC programmers, and assembly would go against that goal. Personally I've developed in everything from 6502/Z80 through 68000/PIC/x86 etc., and have to be honest and say that I'm much more at home hitting the hardware directly, but that's not what the competition is all about.

I'll spend the week following the end of the competition looking at the entries and announce the winner on the 7th August, which should mean all things being well, that the winner will have their prize money by the weekend of the 11th/12th.

I'll send feedback on each game privately to the author before I make a final decision, to allow them to respond and clarify anything before the winner is decided. I intend to do this over the weekend of the 4th/5th August.

As far as payment is concerned, it'll be whatever is best for the winner. Something like PayPal would be easiest as there is the security aspect and to a degree the anonymity that it provides, but if the winner isn't able (or doesn't want) to use it, then I could sort out postal orders, a Western Union transfer or even cash sent via registered delivery.

To keep it simple, what I'll do is say that the prize is £100 or US$200 or EUR150 whichever you prefer, and I'll take the hit on the exchange rate and any fees. If you live somewhere none of these currencies are used, then I'll pay you in your local currency, and again sort out the exchange rate and any fees.

redcrab · Sr. Member

I submit my "Moon Lander"
http://www.freebasic.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8405

But I don't know if it fit well with all the rules

That's look like a CSGP competition , The constraints looks quite the same except for the bitmap Data stuff (lander use coded drawing)
NB : CSGP rules are at http://csgp.suret.net

Looks very fun, if lander can't be accepted AS IS, I've no enough time currently to create something new (Have to earn a living :P )

I'm very interrested by the result of this comp.

That's fun !

ciw1973 · Posted: Jun 28, 2007 15:47 Post subject:

Hey redcrab, that's a fine game and pretty much exactly what I had in mind when I said that the graphics had to be created entirely in code. Of course mono-coloured vector stuff isn't the only thing that you can do using just code, and it'd be good to see some nice, jolly, colourful entries as well.

However, I was actually wanting people to write something specifically for the competition, as that way everyone will have the same amount of time to work on their game, which I think is fairly important.

So, I'm going to introduce another rule - that the game cannot have been previously released to the public or submitted for entry into another competition. Sorry redcrab.

And yeah, I guess it is very similar to the CSGP competition. Not intentionally, I promise.

What I will do, if you don't mind though, is adopt one of CSGP rules for this competition, which is that there should be no platform/OS specific code. Very sensible that.

redcrab · Sr. Member

KristopherWindsor · Hero

@ciw1973:

You said the program *must* run as a single file, right? That would mean:

- Graphics and (level) data can't be stored in external files
- Audio can't be stored in external files
- Things that use *.DLLs can't be used
- No external *.BI or *.BAS files

But then you said those might be allowed?

Also, since you want all the code to be original and multi-platform, is there any way to use sound?

PS. Data-based graphics shouldn't be your only limitation:
http://fusionware.ourproject.org/itech/uploads/resultingprogram.bas

PPS. I'm not sure how OpenGL works without any textures, but it probably still is better than Line and Circle. :-|

Lachie Dazdarian · Master

No external graphics allowed? For what purpose? Like, if someone is really good in creating cool sprites in small amount of time he has to be resticted to FB drawing primitives.

Ah, whatever.