Gp2x Demo Competition: 750$ prize money


Dzz

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Dzz games announces:

GP2X SCENE DEMO COMPETITION
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Purpose: The purpose of this competition is to show off what the gp2x and its coders can do, by producing a (usually non-interactive) "demo" program consisting of artistically arranged video (and possibly audio) effects. For more information about the concept, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demo_scene

RULES
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1. The deadline for entries is August 1, 2006. (11:59 PM, GMT)
2. A submission consists of a single .zip or .rar archive with a maximum size of 5000000 bytes. This archive must contain a single subfolder named to match the demo, and inside that go all of the files associated with the demo. Subfolders may be used as needed. The idea is that it should be easy to decompress the archive onto an SD card. No external files beyond what is on the firmware shipped with the gp2x or is shipped with the demo itself may be required. (For example, if you demo needs python, you must include python with the demo and it must all fit within the size restrictions). The total uncompressed size of all files must not exceed 20000000 bytes.
3. No special configuration must be required to run the demo beyond running its .gpe file from the gp2x menu interface. That is, you must not require that additional files be downloaded or installed. The demo must function properly on the following GPH firmware build: 2.0.0. This list of firmware builds may be updated if new firmware releases are made before the competition deadline.
4. The total duration of the demo shall be a maximum of 5 minutes. I expect most will be shorter than that.
5. Entries may be submitted by individuals or teams. If an entry is made by a team, that entry must have a named representative who will receive any prize money. How the money is divided up after that is up to you.
6. An individual may only be associated with two entries, either as sole entrants or as part of teams.
7. I reserve the right to disqualify an entry if in my opinion it falls outside reasonable legal or moral bounds. Examples of this would be pirated copies of somebody else's work or a 5 minute explicit pornographic video. If you are planning something that might be borderline, please discuss it with me first.
8. This is NOT a game competition. Viewing or judging an entry should not require particular skills or in-depth participation. If achieving a particular artistic purpose requires a minimal amount of user interaction, that is allowed, but is not particularly encouraged. If an entry is clearly just a game, it will be disqualified. If you have a question about an entry that needs user interaction, please contact me for clarification or post your question on the gp32x.de forum. The best thing is to become a little bit familiar with the intent and criteria usually used by "demoscene" competitions.

JUDGING
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1. There will be a total of three judges. I (dzz) will be one judge. Another judge will be an as-yet-unchosen member of the gp2x community. The third judge will be a technically and artistically accomplished person who does not know anything about the gp2x.
2. Each judge will give a score between 0 and 10 for each of two different categories: Technical and Artistic. The total score for an entry is the sum of all scores.
Technical: how impressive is the demo from a technical standpoint? How well does it use the gp2x hardware to produce difficult effects?
Artistic: this is a judgement about the aesthetic qualities of the demo.

IMPORTANT NOTE: A lack of originality will result in reductions of both scores. It is NOT the purpose of this competition to encourage ports of demos for other platforms or clones of other people's work. Using other code for some low-level support functions (in a way consistent with the licensing terms of that code) is not discouraged and would not even be noticed, but if a demo appears too similar to another existing demo that will reduce its Artistic score (as clones are not as artistically impressive as the original), and stealing/reusing too much code will result in a reduction of Technical score (as copying and pasting code is not particularly impressive technically). I would not worry too much about whether your original idea might happen to be similar to what somebody else has done in the past. The purpose of this rule is to minimize the impact of ports and clones. Do something original!

PRIZES
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Prizes will be paid in US Dollars, either by paypal or check (or if more convenient for both parties, another method can be worked out).

First prize: $300
Second prize: $200
Third prize: $100
Honorable mention: $50 (the entry that shows the most interesting feature but didn't win one of the main prizes)

Best 64k demo: $100

Judging will be complete and prizes awarded before August 15, 2006. All entries will be available for download by the community shortly after the August 1 deadline.

A note on the 64k demo category: These entries must be a single .gpe file whose size is at most 65536 bytes. No secondary files are allowed except for text files describing the demo (which must not be necessary for the demo to function). The judging criteria are otherwise the same. In the event that no qualified entries are submitted, the prize will not be awarded. 64k demo entries ARE ALSO eligible for the main prizes, and a sufficiently outstanding 64k demo could win both the first prize AND the 64k demo prize.

================================================

If you have other questions, please feel free to ask in this thread, which will be the place for all official policies and announcements.

Instructions for submitting entries will be provided by July 1, 2006.
 
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very great, im realy looking forward to some kickass demos.
Many thanks toyou to spend so much money on that.

Moved to news and stickyd!
 
One other quick note:

The entrants agree that their entry will be available to be freely downloaded and distributed, provided that such distribution includes the exact original archive in its entirety. Beyond that fairly obvious requirement, all rights to the entries are retained by their authors.

What I mean here is that I do not get any ownership or special distribution rights to the entries, I just want to encourage some cool stuff.

Oh, also the judges are not eligible to win so I won't be trying to save some money by making a demo myself and awarding it first prize :lol:
 
Wait, what exactly is this aiming to do?

Oh wait, nvm, but if I choose to enter, this can be ANYTHing right? Note word...ANYTHING special or flashy, or cool..
 
Loubear posted on Apr 9 2006 at 10:12 AM said:
Wait, what exactly is this aiming to do?

Oh wait, nvm, but if I choose to enter, this can be ANYTHing right? Note word...ANYTHING special or flashy, or cool..
Yes, it can be anything (within reasonable legal and moral bounds). If the concept seems odd to you, read up on the "demoscene" in that wiki article or other places to see what sorts of things are done for competitions like this on other platforms.
 
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hackgrid posted on Apr 9 2006 at 10:20 AM said:
.zip and . rar?
And why not tar.gz, .7z, whatever?
The goal is to make sure that an unsophisticated user will not have difficulty installing and viewing the demo.

If it is not possible for some reason for you to create an archive in the specified formats, please contact me before the deadline and I will assist you in creating your archive.
 
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This is a fantastic idea DZZ and I really hope the GP2X community gets involved with this one. All the great platforms have had a strong "demoscene" sub-culture backing them which has helped push technical achievements. The C64, Atari, Amiga, PC, etc all have a strong demo culture. The Gameboy Advance, for example, has a pretty strong demoscene which has produced some really amazing technical demonstrations.

Sadly I only ever remember ONE real demoscene production on the GP32 and I don't think the GP32 has ever really been pushed to its technical limits. That's a shame for a system with so much power and potential.

Hopefully this compo will make GP2X coders, artist and musicians aware of demos and perhaps some of those people who put so much effort into "emulating" inferior architectures will begin to realize the true potential of the GP2X in its own right. A strong demoscene is one of the keys to pushing a system to its limits and encouraging technical experimentation I think. They're also just plane fun to produce...not only for coders but also for graphicians and musicians. :) So this compo is a great idea!
 
Dzz: just added a quick news item on gp2xdev.org

would be cool if gp32x.de done the same as their frontpage would give it more exposure :)
 
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kraft posted on Apr 9 2006 at 11:50 AM said:
Dzz: just added a quick news item on gp2xdev.org

would be cool if gp32x.de done the same as their frontpage would give it more exposure :)
Thanks!

I am continuing to make small changes to the rules post to clarify various points; nothing major will change, just clarifications. However, i did just make one change that is important: I have increased the 64k demo prize to $100. Additionally, I clarified the point that 64k demos are eligible for the main prizes as well.

There will be no further changes to the prizes.
 
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Ravnos posted on Apr 9 2006 at 12:28 PM said:
Holy crap, are you personally putting up $750 in prize money? If so, can I have some money too?
There's only one way to get money from me. You have 3.5 months to earn it.
 
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Note that a real demoscene-style demo was recently released for the gp2x, check it out on archive.gp2x.de.
 
Dzz posted on Apr 9 2006 at 05:32 PM said:
hackgrid posted on Apr 9 2006 at 10:20 AM said:
.zip and . rar?
And why not tar.gz, .7z, whatever?
The goal is to make sure that an unsophisticated user will not have difficulty installing and viewing the demo.

If it is not possible for some reason for you to create an archive in the specified formats, please contact me before the deadline and I will assist you in creating your archive.
To be honest I would have thought .rar was just as hard to open without a special progam as .tar.gz/bz2/.7z
 
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Aninhumer posted on Apr 9 2006 at 01:18 PM said:
To be honest I would have thought .rar was just as hard to open without a special progam as .tar.gz/bz2/.7z
That may be true. My arbitrary choice was guided by the fact that a fair number of the "intended for the masses" downloads on archive.gp2x.de are in .rar format (though most are zips and a few are in other formats).

Edit: I went through the entire "games" section on archive.gp2x.de. Most of them are zips, but I also found 12 RARs and 4 TAR.GZ. I could probably have just said ZIP only but eh.
 
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WinRAR supports .zip/.rar/.tgz/.gz/.tar and other formats. So if your going to support .rar, you may as well support the other formats it supports too :)

Personally though, I don't think your going to get many entries. Radek may redesign his gbax compo entry, but I don't know about anything else. Time will tell no doubt!
 
It's a really nice idea Dzz. I hope that coders will show us some nice effects and visuals possible on Gp2X.
I enjoyed demos on Cpc or Amiga (and Atari ST, with the Gp2X emu ;) ).
Btw, if someone's interested, I can do some wikidi-fresh tunes on one of those. Just PM me.
 
Squidge posted on Apr 9 2006 at 02:59 PM said:
Personally though, I don't think your going to get many entries. Radek may redesign his gbax compo entry, but I don't know about anything else. Time will tell no doubt!
Yup, I suppose only a fraction of people "get" the "art for art's sake/code for code's sake" nature of the demoscene. I think a few people will be interested in giving it a try though, and the results will be interesting.

The memory of the Amiga lives on in the gp2x community, we'll see if its spirit does too. :)
 
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