Gp2x Community Game Contest!

[Dzz]

Great. Also be sure to clarify the decision about whether the entries will be made available for public download or not.

 

[Magnulus]

Great. Also be sure to clarify the decision about whether the entries will be made available for public download or not.

Ah, yes. We'll get on it right now before I forget it. I have time to do this before the bread is ready to be put in bags so I can finally go to sleep.

 

[PSyMastR]

We also added a rule that we think works:

"Entrants will retain all rights to their game, but will agree to let the submitted build of their game be freely distributed to the public. The entrants may do as they please with alternate or future versions of the game, but the entered version must remain freeware."

 

[tshroom]

I see the site.. so is it official? the contest ends in december. I hope the prize pot gets healthy. lol.

 

[Magnulus]

Like I've said before, we made this contest for the community, which means we want to let you have your say if there's something you don't like about the rules, be it concerning copyrights or deadlines for entries.

We want to encourage healthy discussion in order to be able to best suit the community and developers, so please, if you see something you don't like, make a suggestion on how you would like to see it done. It will be heard. We are not an corporate entity with a poor grasp of Engerlish Inglesh Emlish this language.

We're a part of this community, and we are on the forums every day (more or less), so it's in our best interests that the community is happy about the contest. This contest is made by you, really, if you think about it. We're just taking the tedious gruntwork and doing it for you!

In other news, when the rules have been finalised on the 1st of August and everything is ready to go, we'll be writing and sending out some formal letters to retailers of the Gippex and gaming news sites, asking if they'd like to donate or give us a mention. We'll set a threshhold above which the donator will get a banner at the top of the thank you list. It's cheap advertising for the donator, and it's a great big help to us.

I'm thinking 500 or 1000 Euros. Probably 500.

EDIT:
We're discussing maybe releasing the games all together a few days after entry, since the games as submitted will be released for free on the web in any case. You can consider it an early Christmas present from the community's developers.
Doing it like this would give you the opportunity to release your games earlier while not giving you a shorter deadline, so I should think it would work nicely. Unless you hate the idea of the the freeware releases, which seems unlikely at this point.

 

[Dzz]

We're discussing maybe releasing the games all together a few days after entry, since the games as submitted will be released for free on the web in any case. You can consider it an early Christmas present from the community's developers.
Doing it like this would give you the opportunity to release your games earlier while not giving you a shorter deadline, so I should think it would work nicely. Unless you hate the idea of the the freeware releases, which seems unlikely at this point.

I think this is a great idea, and I think that the current rules also look good! Assuming no major changes I'll be contributing to the prize fund and I plan on making a game for the competition also.

Question: I understand why you don't want programs that have been release publically already for the contest -- the idea is to encourange new stuff and the impact on "release day" is huge when there's a big pile of new stuff. It really makes the end of a contest into a big scene event. As with all things, there is a line though. Is it okay for me to put in my signature: "GP2X PIE THROWER: In development for the Community Game Contest"? I assume that Epicenter could enter his game which has been publically announced for many months. How about the game "FireWhip" which has gameplay videos available? How about screenshots?

None of those things are public releases of the game itself so I think according to these rules it is fine to do that (although it does reduce the surprise on release day, it also creates anticipation so it seems harmless). I just want to make sure that "not released" does not actually mean "secret".

Thanks!

 

[X-Code]

The rules all sound great so far, I probably won't have my game ready this year lol ( T.I.M. - The Imploding Mutant ) , but I may get lucky for a following compo. Great work Magnulus and PSyMasteR.

 

[Magnulus]

Oh, heavens no!
The requirement states "released", not "announced". You're MORE than welcome to announce your games and even post screenshots of them, just like you would any other unreleased games. Building up anticipation for your entry game will simultaneously build up anticipation around the contest, so feel free!

I propose this change to that particular rule:

Original: The game can have had closed betas, but it cannot have been released in neither open beta state nor as a full release prior to the contest's conclusion. This also excludes ports of games you have made yourself for other systems (for example the GP32).

New: The game can be announced in public prior to entry, but cannot have been released for download to the public. The game can have had closed betas. This rule excludes straight ports from other platforms from entry.

I shifted the wording a bit and made it more clear. Still not sure what kind of an agreement we came to regarding the last bit, about the ports. I'd like to say "substantially changed" ports could enter, but then there's the whole process of "what's substantial enough?". Should we let people enter their GP32 games?

I mean, if Yeti for the GP2X was entered, I don't think that'd be a BAD thing.

 

[Dzz]

Oh at heavens no!
The requirement states "released", not "announced". You're MORE than welcome to announce your games and even post screenshots of them, just like you would any other unreleased games. Building up anticipation for your entry game will simultaneously build up anticipation around the contest, so feel free!

I propose this change to that particular rule:

Original: The game can have had closed betas, but it cannot have been released in neither open beta state nor as a full release prior to the contest's conclusion. This also excludes ports of games you have made yourself for other systems (for example the GP32).

New: The game can be announced in public prior to entry, but cannot have been released for download to the public. The game can have had closed betas. This rule excludes straight ports from other platforms from entry.

I shifted the wording a bit and made it more clear. Still not sure what kind of an agreement we came to regarding the last bit, about the ports. I'd like to say "substantially changed" ports could enter, but then there's the whole process of "what's substantial enough?". Should we let people enter their GP32 games?

I mean, if Yeti for the GP2X was entered, I don't think that'd be a BAD thing.

I don't think the "porting" issue should be part of this rule, I think it deserves its own rule.

As to what that rule should be, it depends on what you're trying to accomplish with the contest. Personally I like the idea of banning all ports (making my Nethack port disqualified even though I wrote a TON of new code to adapt it to the gp2x), but this is one of those areas where you guys are going to have to make a stand one way or another because I think the interested parties will basically be evenly split on the issue.

If ports are allowed, what about ports of things that in order to work force you to go and find data files from existing games?

 

[Magnulus]

If ports are allowed, what about ports of things that in order to work force you to go and find data files from existing games?

But would you then, as required in the first rule of fight club of the competition, "originally own the rights to use all media and code in the program."?

This rule excludes all ports that don't directly come from a game you made yourself or own the rights to publish. "originally" shouldn't be there, though, but I think Psy just forgot to remove it after we discussed it. It's one of those "what does THAT mean?!" things that made people so iffy about the GPH contest in the first place.

After reading through your post a couple of times and using my grey cells a bit (Ohhhh, the pain!) I think the most uncomplicated thing to do would be to barr entry for all ports, regardless of copyrights. Firstly, it reduces the amount of what ifs and but whos (etc), and secondly, it's in keeping with the mission statement (as of yet unreleased due to a lack of polish. Ahem.) that we want to encourage original games for the GP2X, not just ports, emus and clones.

I'll have a chat with Psy when he comes online again, and see what he thinks. And the rest of the forum? what are your opinions?

Oh, and to X-Code: Thanks! It means a lot to us that people seem to be excited about this new opportunity. It makes it all worth-while.

 

[X-Code]

C'mon people, keep this topic active and donate for the competition, don't be soooo tight ! ... Competitions like this one could make things better for everyone B)

 

[Dzz]

C'mon people, keep this topic active and donate for the competition, don't be soooo tight ! ... Competitions like this one could make things better for everyone B)

My understanding is that we are in a "rule discussion / finalization" stage until the end of July. Once the rules are set (assuming they are still something I like) I'll be donating to the fund, and probably a more pointed call for donations will be made by the organizers.

 

[X-Code]

True, but I had to bring this back to the first page, and I'm quite sure that the donations will be used wisely when the time comes B) ... I've donated, it feels good :lol:

 

[Yono]

I donated 5 euro. Good luck developers!

 

[Dzz]

True, but I had to bring this back to the first page, and I'm quite sure that the donations will be used wisely when the time comes B) ... I've donated, it feels good :lol:

While this is back on the page, there are still some things in the rules that need spelling out in detail, as has been discussed in this thread previously....

- the odd "originally" thing in the first rule
- a decision about porting and how that should be worded
- details on judging

etc

 

[X-Code]

Yes, indeed, some rephrasing and some clearing up will need to be done, but most of the outline is quite good so far

 

[Magnulus]

I was awaiting some sort of communication from Psy, but since I haven't had a chance to speak with him since my last post, here's what I think:

All ports excluded from entry. End of story.
This, like I said earlier, is in order to simplify the process of deciding what is allowed or not.

About the use of "originally" in the first rule, just ignore that bit. It's not supposed to be there and WILL be removed as soon as I get a hold of Psymastr.

Regarding Judging...
As far as I remember (I'll go back and check this afterwards), the proposal that was recieved with the least dissent was that we set up a panel of five judges (Invitation only. No applications accepted, just so that people don't get their hopes up.) who will judge the entries in the following categories:

• Playability
• Innovation/ Originality
• Use of Graphics
• Use of Sound

By "use of" we mean that games will not be judged by the eye- and earcandy, but rather how well the graphics and sounds work for the game. Not all games need to look like a first-rate SNES game (or a PSX game) but there's always such a thing as good execution of simple graphics. Vektar would score high in graphics, for example.

A few days after the deadline for entry (december 11th) all the games will be released for download, and the community at large will be allowed to rate the entries themselves, deciding a winner of the Community Favourite award (currently named Public's Favourite, but I think we should stick with the word Community.). There are two more awards, Most Technically Impressive and Most Original but they are pending to a large degree, since we'll still need to find some kind of prize for these. This is where distributors come in later. If we can get them to donate a total of six units (maybe with accessories?) we'll definitely want to keep these awards.

There are at least three ways to do the "judging of the judges":
One or two "controllers" who are not part of the judging team.
All the judges control eachothers' reviews and report suspicious reviews to an administrator.
Community checkup. The reviews are released to the public as they are written, and people in general can report suspicious reviews.

What I don't like about the third way is that the suspense is sort of negated. If you know what the reviewers think of a game, there's little point in having a date for the official revelation of a winner. It'd be much cooler if the revelation really was a proper revelation and not just a confirmation.

I think the judges-judge-judges (or JJJ) approach sounds the most sane of these, but I'd like to hear what you people have to say about this.

PS: I was going to do an update to remind people that August is fast approaching, so thanks for reminding me. It's important that iffy issues are ironed out come finalization.

EDIT:
Current state of donations: 38.95 EUROS!
I intend to donate 30 euros myself come next payday.

 

[PSyMastR]

Hey, Im here. Sorry about that, I was away for 2 days. I intend to donate much later, as right now I was hit with a $1200 phone bill (I thought I had free nights) and am currently fighting the phone company over it...

Anyway, Ill be back later, off to dinner now, and will be updating the page then. Ok, well, I totally agree with the ports thing, as this is to spark your creative juices, and not be a lemming like EA who ports their games to everything that has more then 6 buttons.

 

[Magnulus]

Well, I'm off to bed now. I just wanted to remind everyone that if there's ANYTHING at the contest website that seems iffy or unclear to you, say so NOW. In just over a week, we'll be closing it for suggestions and requests, and locking the rules in place.

It's not to be "square" or "difficult". It's just to make sure people feel secure about the contest.

I cannot stress enough that This is your contest! Participate!

Oh, and even though you can't apply for the job of reviewer yourself, you're free to nominate people you think would be good, impartial reviewers.

 

[Wite_Noiz]

I have trying to keep up with this thread because it interests me, but I still took quite some time finding the link to the "contest website mentioned

I'd like three questions expanded on:
1) After seeing the "Demo Contest" still shows no entries, at what stage will this contest be cancelled if there are less than X entries? (and what will happen to the money?) I would hope they'd be enough entries, and if not the money would roll over for a future date to get extras.
2) Can an entrant submit more than one entry?
3) Does it have to be a "game"?

I think I know the answers to these, but would like clarification.

Cheers