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Posted By
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Message
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Sketchy
Cornwall UK
Registered
06/11/2004
Points
1971
 
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19th June, 2011 at 01:58:10 -
Anyone got any good ideas?
It seems that whenever one competition is launched, people immediately try to start more (and consequently none are successful, because the entrants are spread too thin).
Right now though, things are pretty quiet around here, the summer holidays are coming up for a lot of people, and we haven't had a competition in a while - so if you have any ideas for a fun competition, now would probably be a good time.
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s-m-r
Slow-Motion Riot
Registered
04/06/2006
Points
1078
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19th June, 2011 at 03:04:21 -
I think it would be cool to have a TDC-user-submitted engine, and contest entries make their own game from that engine. Editing the engine is prohibited, but as long as the selected engine is the primary gameplay engine for the game, anything goes. That way, each entrant has the same foundation/limitations to work from, and it's all about where they go with it with graphics, sound, and other gameplay features.
...No, I'm not suggesting this because I just released an engine example.  I think it would be a great way to showcase the engine-programmer's work, create several games that most TDC users would want to play, it would take a lot of the learning curve out of making a game happen, and above all create more content for the website.
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Jon Lambert
Administrator
Vaporware Master
Registered
19/12/2004
Points
8235
     
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19th June, 2011 at 03:43:51 -
Let's have a competition to see who can come up with the most competitions, and then to see who can host the most competitions at the same time. Bonus points to the people that try to host other peoples' competitions.
In all seriousness, I like s-m-r's idea.
Sandwich Time!Whoo!
JoyCheck & KeyCheck Widgets
For easy implementation of customizable joystick and keyboard controls.
http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=8364
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Strife
Administrator
Der Dairy Crick
Registered
21/11/2002
Points
2305
    
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19th June, 2011 at 08:27:06 -
I also approve of SMR's idea. Having a premade engine to work from would speed up the development process for a lot of people. We could also make it so that people can add extra events to compliment the engine, but the engine group itself should remain unchanged and enabled at all times (i.e. no "Start of Frame - Deactivate Group 'Engine'"  ).
Any ideas of who will be the host? And what kind of engine we would use? Platform seems the obvious choice, but we could also do shoot-em-up, tile-based, RTS, etc. (I think it'd be pretty clever if an engine for a specific genre of game was used, but someone ended up making a different genre out of it. )
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nim
Registered
17/05/2002
Points
7234
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19th June, 2011 at 12:12:56 -
Nice idea. You could compile the entries into one final game at the end (each entry being a level in itself)
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s-m-r
Slow-Motion Riot
Registered
04/06/2006
Points
1078
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19th June, 2011 at 12:15:42 -
I'm personally partial to shoot-em-ups myself, but yeah, I agree that platformers seem to be the way to go due to everyone's familiarity with the style. There are several here on TDC to choose from, as well.
I'd say categories would be the usual: sound, graphics, gameplay, lastability; the final category would be something like "engine integrity," which would factor in an unchanged, well-utilized game engine. For those who go vanilla, this would be an easy max points in a category.
Discretionary bonus points could go to someone who adds to the engine, but what they add doesn't interfere with the coding of the initial engine. For a platformer, someone could put in a "jetpack" into Contra for instance, adding a new dimension to gameplay but not interfering with the togetherness of the initial engine.
Have no idea who would host; at the moment I've no spare capital to put forward into a competition award. 
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OMC
What a goofball
Registered
21/05/2007
Points
3516
     
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19th June, 2011 at 12:53:06 -
Would it be too complicated to have an engine contest and then have the second contest based on the winner?
Or at least vote on a few that are already made to prevent people from burning out.
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Sketchy
Cornwall UK
Registered
06/11/2004
Points
1971
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19th June, 2011 at 15:56:18 -
The "Dungeon Dash" engine maybe? (with permission of course) - it's simple, has loads of scope for adding/changing stuff, and I'm just soooo sick of platformers.
TBH, I'd personally prefer a contest that was more about game-making, as opposed to game-modding - seems like using an engine would result in a lot of games that all feel the same, but just have different graphics, and maybe one or two extras tacked on. I'd rather see something that will produce lots of completely different entries (like in the 20 event contest, for example). That's just me though...
 Edited by Sketchy
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Duncan
Thelonious Dunc
Registered
18/05/2002
Points
552
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19th June, 2011 at 17:22:04 -
It'd be nice if we had a flexible engine floating around, with dedicated modding tools, but otherwise, I'd prefer something more creative too. Especially as the twenty-event competition was pretty recent and had a strong technical bias - I've only got TGF2:NE installed which would, again, be an arbitrary barrier
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s-m-r
Slow-Motion Riot
Registered
04/06/2006
Points
1078
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19th June, 2011 at 20:22:10 -
If you want to go with this concept, then pick an engine that is already made.
Asking people to come up with their own engine will take too long, and too many people will stumble on the learning curve and produce nothing. The whole point of suggesting the engine contest was to remove barriers to creating a game.
Regardless of the contest, there will doubtless be similar games. For this competition concept, only basic gameplay need be similar. But even for platformers and shoot-em-ups: think of all the different directions one can go, conceptually. There are countless possible variations.
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AndyUK
Mascot Maniac
Registered
01/08/2002
Points
14586
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19th June, 2011 at 20:41:38 -
I could donate a version of my platform engine I use for all of my games. The trouble being I know how to use and would like to enter to competition!. Also it's pretty badly designed. (also it will expose my lame code)
It's got a very simple to use level editor though!
Edited by AndyUK
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Phredreeke
Don't listen to this idiot
Registered
03/08/2002
Points
4504
 
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19th June, 2011 at 22:07:52 -
Originally Posted by AndyUK
It's got a very simple to use level editor though!
Which was coded by Phizzy 
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
Make some more box arts damnit!
http://create-games.com/forum_post.asp?id=285363
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AndyUK
Mascot Maniac
Registered
01/08/2002
Points
14586
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20th June, 2011 at 01:01:09 -
http://andyuk.tengudev.com/Sources/Andyplatformengine.zip
How is this for everyone? It might take a while to learn how to use everything. I hope it's easy to understand everything.
Ive not locked any groups since you guys might need to look at the events to understand what to alter to make your own objects interact with the player etc.
I can update it at any time.
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Hagar
Administrator
Old klik fart
Registered
20/02/2002
Points
1692
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20th June, 2011 at 17:00:22 -
Originally Posted by Sketchy
I'm just soooo sick of platformers.
.
I agree with this, although I like playing platformers I really find developing them quite boring - I have tried a few times over the years to do a platformer.
I must also express that I would also prefer to see a competition about game making rather than modding, not sure using a ready made engine could keep my interest up - but it is the summer so I guess a competition based on reducing workload is a good idea.
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Disthron
Registered
08/02/2005
Points
1101
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20th June, 2011 at 23:04:50 -
Well, you could use my engine. I actually made it with the idea of flexability in mind. I wonted to make an engine that I could use for multipul games without too much editing once it was done. It has it's own problems thought but it also has quite a few built in features. It also just uses the regular fraim editor for it's level editor.
http://create-games.com/download.asp?id=7602
"Oh, my god! A lightning monster just ripped out this poor woman's eyes, and your mocking her shrubbery!" - The Spoony One
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