1st Official Gp2x Game And Application Development Contest

[HydraLancer]

Excuse the lengthiness, but I speak right from the heart:

All in all I think that this contest is pretty cool way to get that little extra push that Stargazer needs to get it to a state where everyone can play it without having to wait too much time. So even if it really doesn’t win anything it will be something that the community can enjoy upon its release during that time. If anything at least we can look forward to having a lot of neat stuff on our GP2Xs this September.

In regards to what some said, sure many believe that a homebrew game may not be up to snuff to be counted as something grand and worthy of true representation of what the system can do, but rest assured, I am putting fourth 100% maximum effort in order to achieve the quality that of a commercial game. For me its been my dream to make a 2d game since I was 4 years old, hell, while people were in kindergarten were saying they wanted to be firemen and doctors I said I wanted to be a game artist, and here I am with the same ambition. So with this dream firmly in my mind I will try my hardest to achieve the quality that everyone can say really represents the hardware as a machine with its own games as well as emulators.

I will say this, I am far enough along to realize that I may not become a big hot shot owner of a massive game studio making all my own games that can be bought at the local game store, but at least with the GP2X scene I have a shot of accomplishing some of my dream projects and maybe making a few people happy along the way.

In regards to the emulators, I agree that they should not be downplayed, because after all, it’s a good percentage of what we do with our systems. But one of the highlights of the system is indeed the ability to make your own games as well, so I just believe that that should not be downplayed at all either, because I believe homebrew games only encourages other potential home brewers to make games themselves as well which brings out yet another highlight of the 2x, community.

One thing the Gp2x offers is the chance to make something and be appreciated without having to be some giant company, and although Epicenter and I can’t do it alone with help support we can achieve something that is truly great that everyone can enjoy. So all I’m really saying is that homebrew games should be given an equal chance, and that although many may not believe that a homebrew game of commercial quality can be achieved, all I can say is sit tight, because there’s a first time for everything!

 

[paulobecker]

I'm sure there are a lot of people who only brought the GP2X to play emulators.

However people who only brought it to play "GBA" and "PSX" are setting themselves up for dissapointment.

It's not the fact that people bought the GP2X only for emulators that gets me. It's the disrespect and disregard with which they treat the homebrew developers that really makes me pissed. I myself did buy the 2X expecting to some day play GBA or PSX games on it, but it's not my only plan for it.

 

[Draken]

Good post, I'm looking forward to this game.

(Had exactly the same regarding programmer, wanted to be one ever since I played my first game...)

 

[___]

yeah it makes me angry, too that people disrespect other people's work and love that they put into homebrew. I think somebody who says stuff like that should ask themselves what they intend to provoke... do they want to drive homebrew coders out of the scene and kill the community? Obviously they don't want to be part of the community since they disrespect it, so why don't they just leave?

 

[___]

hey I have got a pretty sweet idea for a game-entry! I am not a programmer though... I can provide ideas an gfx... the game mechanics shouldn't be very difficult though... anybody wanna help me by providing code and eventually teaching me some more coding skills in the process ^^ ? PM me... don't want to make the idea public yet...

I am off to make some concept art... lol

 

[gaterooze]

Great post, Hydralancer!

 

[Azure]

screw homebrew games
i wanna play 1000's of gba games on my soon-to-come gp2x.
emulator is going to draw lot more customers then a good homebrew game is. Come on you gba or psx emulator!

ur wish will come true, cos i live in essex, england too.
i'd rather have a full speed gba emu then a homebrew game that is really good. Hope someone decides to give a gba emu a go to try and win this competition

i didnt like payback that much
i thought gta advance was better
the camera angles and graphics on the gba version of payback were terrible.
bit of a rip off to gta 1

I think this whole thing is just getting out of hand, and I don't think Freddy here is being as harsh as everybody thinks. To me, it appears that he's just saying that he'd rather have an emulator than a homebrew game (Though he says it with passion). There's nothing wrong with that and that certainly doesn't mean that he does not/will not support homebrew developers. Probably at the worst, he'd be indifferent about the works of Epicenter and other homebrew developers. If you asked someone on this forum whether they wanted a perfect playstation emulator or Epicenter's Stargazer (Again, sorry about using your game, but it's right there and seems to be the reference point for a homebrew game in this thread), would you seriously be as offended as you guys are now if he said "Screw Stargazer! I want me a PS1 emulator!"? If you never mentioned the playstation emulator, do you think he'd have any negative comments to say about Stargazer? Just because one would prefer an emulator over a homebrew game doesn't mean that that person does not support homebrew developers.

I think we all need to take a deep breath and relax and think about more important things than this silly quarrel...such as the fact that MY GP2X JUST SHIPPED

 

[paulobecker]

MY GP2X JUST SHIPPED

Mine tooooo!! Just got the email a while back. Now the long and horrible wait until it crosses the equator and comes to my anxious little hands. Sometimes I wish I could speed up time.

 

[Paradox]

But I think that people like freddykreuger666 should be banned from this community. If you're not willing to support homebrew games which are the heart of the 2X, you probably shouldn't get one in the first place.

I'm sure there are a lot of people who only brought the GP2X to play emulators.

However people who only brought it to play "GBA" and "PSX" are setting themselves up for dissapointment.

I bought it cause its a cool little gadjet i can play old games with using emulators, homebrew didnt really cross my mind, but if there's a good homebrew game ill play it, and im looking forward to stargazer and will most probably buy it just for the love of a good shmup!

 

[icurafu]

But I think that people like freddykreuger666 should be banned from this community. If you're not willing to support homebrew games which are the heart of the 2X, you probably shouldn't get one in the first place.

I'm sure there are a lot of people who only brought the GP2X to play emulators.

However people who only brought it to play "GBA" and "PSX" are setting themselves up for dissapointment.

I bought it cause its a cool little gadjet i can play old games with using emulators, homebrew didnt really cross my mind, but if there's a good homebrew game ill play it, and im looking forward to stargazer and will most probably buy it just for the love of a good shmup!

Right there. Same here about hombrew, and I was surprised by vector which was a great retro styled game.

I got mine because I'm a retro gamer and a coder, but still, this isn't an exlusive community for homebrew developers or retro gamers.

 

[NinjaFae]

But I think that people like freddykreuger666 should be banned from this community. If you're not willing to support homebrew games which are the heart of the 2X, you probably shouldn't get one in the first place.

I'm sure there are a lot of people who only brought the GP2X to play emulators.

However people who only brought it to play "GBA" and "PSX" are setting themselves up for dissapointment.

I bought it cause its a cool little gadjet i can play old games with using emulators, homebrew didnt really cross my mind, but if there's a good homebrew game ill play it, and im looking forward to stargazer and will most probably buy it just for the love of a good shmup!

Right there. Same here about hombrew, and I was surprised by vector which was a great retro styled game.

I got mine because I'm a retro gamer and a coder, but still, this isn't an exlusive community for homebrew developers or retro gamers.

I got mine, because I wanted entertainment on the go, so my primary use is MP3 and DivX, so I'm not really an authority on games for the GP2X.

However, I think all software for the GP2X, regardless of type or source, is all beneficial, and since this topic seems to be about a competition, then I think each entry should (probably has been) judged on their individual merits. Personally, I'm looking forward to the commercial games that are about to be released, Payback not so much, but I've seen stuff that looks promising, HPC (HTC?) looked like it could be truly awesome to play, so thats what I'm looking forward to seeing most, and would LOVE to see a rolling demo, instead of video footage.

Until then, I'm going to play my Beat2x to extinction, it's quite addictive!

 

[___]

I think I would prefer stargazer over a psone emulator... but that's just me. Ofcourse I am anxious to see what psone emulation is going to be like but still... also I think it is mean to say stuff like "freddy" did. Certainly he is not going to play emulators only, the thing that bothers me is that by comments such as "screw homebrew blabla" developers get discouraged and feel insulted.

EDIT: Whatever... this is totally offtopic. So we should now get back to that awesome compo! Open another thread in gp2x general talk... "homebrew vs. emulated games" or something.

 

[Dzz]

I would be pretty amazed if they allow emulators in this contest. If you look at gp2x.com you don't see mention of emulators anywhere. I'm sure they realize that most gp2x owners play eumulators but it's not smart at all for them to position their device explicitly as the choice of software pirates. If they pay the maker of a gba emulator, a letter from nintendo lawyers wouldn't be far behind.

Although some use of emulators may be justified (legality is not always clear, it depends on the exact license agreement for the game even if you bought it), it's doubtful to me that GPH would want to publically advertise or encourage their use.

I'm sure we're all eager to see more official info about this contest. Those two top prizes might be enough to get some development houses to do a quick port of games from other platforms.

(I'm on vacation, it's amazing the places you can find an internet connection these days!)

 

[MaDsk8tard]

hello all

i'm very interested to dev an homebrew game for the gph competition !

i'm game and graphic designer and if you want to create a team with me, please contact me with PM

i have a good idea to dev a game on it !

 

[DaveC]

Those two top prizes might be enough to get some development houses to do a quick port of games from other platforms.

(I'm on vacation, it's amazing the places you can find an internet connection these days!)

I think the game "Blue angelo" should be ported from the GP32. That was pretty good for a game released on the obscure GP32.

 

[OrR]

Screw emulators, I bought the GP2X for original games.

 

[Dzz]

Confirmed

More infos and a very own page about the contest (need to design one ) soon

Hi! Is there any more info about this? It could be a huge event for our scene, so I'm burning with curiosity to hear the details!

 

[Paradox]

as much as i'd love a GBA emulator i dont think it's going to happen, at least for this contest. it seems a bit of an "overkill" to give $5,000 to a team who made a homebrew game though? stargazer looks AWESOME. but is it really worth a $5,000 prize? what WOULD be worth a $5,000 prize? anyone really know what we can expect to see as the winner here or runner ups?

 

[Dzz]

Well $5000 isn't that much for anything "professional". It MIGHT be enough to get a small game house with an exsiting GBA or cell phone game to consider porting it if they retain complete rights to the result and the entry is not to be distributed freely. What we'll see depends on the details of the rules and the details of the rules depend on what GPH is trying to accomplish:

1) Suppose they are trying to encourage more commercial games or apps, to give the gp2x a higher profile. In this case they would allow anything but skew the rules toward that end (for example, no emulators). The entries would NOT be freely distributed as part of the contest (so the makers can still sell them).

2) Suppose they are trying to get a set of stuff they can distribute on the GP2X when it ships, as a value-add proposition (to make the purchase more attractive so they can sell more). In this case, they need to specify that the result will be distributed in this way, make sure that copyrights are handled properly, and so on. They'd encourage exactly the sort of stuff they would want to distribute (again probably no emulators, but better text readers and mp3 players would be encouraged). I'm not sure whether ports of GPL stuff could be allowed or not if GPH is going to distribute it as part of a product for sale.

3) Suppose they are trying to increase sales simply by expanding the amount of available stuff (making the gp2x a more attractive buy). In this case, they would need to specify that the entries be freely distributable. If they are brave they could include emulators though that still seems suicidal to me.

4) Suppose they want to encourage development; they could require that source code for all entries be made available and placed in the public domain, for others to build off of. I doubt they would do this but it's possible.

Developers kind of need to know what they are trying to do before deciding what if anything to work on. Epicenter's Stargazer project has been mentioned in this regard. Would they be interested in entering if they had to make their entry freely distributable (assuming they might be thinking of selling it commercially)? Would only winners be distributable or all entries?

Lots of questions! Who is the judge? What are the judging criteria? Have family members of two GPH employees already been selected to receive the big prizes?

 

[subin]

4) Suppose they want to encourage development; they could require that source code for all entries be made available and placed in the public domain, for others to build off of. I doubt they would do this but it's possible.

hah. that would be most ironic XD

i'm pretty surprised they have the money. maybe this is sponsored? maybe they have sold lots of gp2x's? from something craigix said, they apparently spent about this much developing the gp2x! but still, this is great, whether we end up with commercial apps or homebrew.