New Coding Competition with 1Ghz Pandora Prize ?

[PokeParadox]

On one hand i agree the 'anything goes' really doesnt scale well. I actually entered in my from homebrew project Polyhedra, and of course it had no chance against something like qemu.

That is why we need a few categories. ANd maybe a few leads from ED or the jury members as to what kind of apps they would like to see.

(unless there's some rule about starting before the compo, I hope not)

Most competitions have this rule. But in fact: This rule is stupid, because most competitions also allow to use every library you want. So I could use sparrow3d if I want, instead of writing a LOT of stuff again - and you know, how much time I spent writing it.

Agree, this rule is stupid. YOu are always basing your work on previous' people's work anyway and no application is ever written from scratch.

Normally the rule is you just don't release it before the compo... Not that you cannot already be working on it.

 

[pmprog]

Normally the rule is you just don't release it before the compo... Not that you cannot already be working on it.

That's fine. There's been no public release of P01, only a couple of YouTube videos

 

[_wb_]

Hmm, maybe I should have kept the flashlight and Microbes a secret

 

[Wally]

Hmm, maybe I should have kept the flashlight and Microbes a secret

Thats the problem with these competitions.. Have too many of them any nobody releases stuff until the event D:

 

[Ziz]

(unless there's some rule about starting before the compo, I hope not)

Most competitions have this rule. But in fact: This rule is stupid, because most competitions also allow to use every library you want. So I could use sparrow3d if I want, instead of writing a LOT of stuff again - and you know, how much time I spent writing it.

Agree, this rule is stupid. YOu are always basing your work on previous' people's work anyway and no application is ever written from scratch.

Normally the rule is you just don't release it before the compo... Not that you cannot already be working on it.

That is (nearly) the same rule as the "don't work on it before the competition"-rule I mentioned before. If I use the sparrow3d example again: I released sparrow3d already, but because it is a library, it is okay to use it in a competition. Also I could release a jump and run and put all the loading code, the physics code, the logic code, etc. in a "library" and only a have a executable application like „int main() { start_juanru("firstlevel.lvl"); return 0; }“. I know, this example is VERY constructed, but it doesn't break the rule.


So maybe releasing versions before the deadline should be allowed? In the last competition users had MUCH time to test every application, but it was quite a big amount and often every application got not enough time to really get tested. Furthermore platform specific bugs could be found earlier and fixed and with the deadline NO further update could be allowed.


I once had a bug in the snowman-PND in a competition before. Of course I had closed beta testers, but there had a specific version of the pandora OS, where the bug did not appear. After the deadline and IN the voting time I found out about the bug and fixed it, but many people already voted and didn't get the message, that a working version of snowman was released. With more open beta testers this problem should be minimized.


Just my thoughts about it. I think in fact a "don't release before competition"-rule wouldn't affect me. Maybe I am just to German and think too much about rules and how to bypass without breaking them. If a German guy HATES anything really, then breaking rules. XD


greetings,


Ziz

 

[PokeParadox]

To revise what I said - Normally the rule is "Don't release the current version that you are preparing for the compo before the compo deadline."


And it's usually "Previous work isfine but new features should have been added"


But regardless we don't know the current rules since we haven't really got as far as setting up a compo yet...

 

[Ziz]

But we can discuss old rules to have the perfect™ ruleset for the next competition.


One rule set to rule them all, one rule set to find them, one rule set to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.


Or similar.

 

[ekianjo]

Thats the problem with these competitions.. Have too many of them any nobody releases stuff until the event D:

Too many ? Where??

 

[graupelschauer]

What about an alternative to a normal competition. Something like a reward for finished and polished products? Competitions with a deadline always generate lots of apps that have a cool game idea but were developed in a few weeks and miss many important polishing work, like bug fixing or some non-essential but nice to have features like highscores or achievements. Good software needs time and the pandora needs some more games that get the best out of this device


Maybe the community may vote to reward developers for their title after they released? I would like to have developers rewarded that release their game when no competition is running, too.

 

[Binky]

How about a running competition as part of the repo?


Anyone can donate anything to the prize pool (money, pandoras,etc)


Every time an app becomes the one with the highest 5starvotes:totalvotes ration (overtaking the previous one) the developer receives a prize equal to 10% of the prize pool's value

 

[mcobit]

That would just lead to fakeaccounts as people might try to manipulate it somehow.

 

[Ziz]

And to win a pandora, the pandora would need to be 10% of the price pool value... Even with an "old" one would that mean, the price pool would have 2500€ total value in it. O_O

 

[mcobit]

Also notaz and exo would get all the money over time Just joking.

 

[ekianjo]

Also notaz and exo would get all the money over time Just joking.

Thats probably true anyway - most of their apps are five stars

 

[graupelschauer]

@mcobit: I believe the pandora community is very honest and I didn't notice anyone trying to manipulate the last contest, so I don't see a problem here. And if notaz and exo make the best apps they deserve the most prices


As I said, this should not be a competition, but rather something like a reward for good apps. How this could work exactly is something that we would need to elaborate.

 

[EvilDragon]

Something like the "clicks for devs" I did years ago?


Users would suggest devs and programs here on the boards, these will go into a voting and the one with the highest votes will get the money which is being put into a donation pool within the following month?


No app / game could enter two times in a row, there always has to be at least one month inbetween.


Worked well back for the GP32

 

[Binky]

^ sounds like a good idea.


Can the repo ratings system be used to encourage more voters?


Perhaps every time you rate a nominated app five stars, that counts as a vote?

 

[_wb_]

I'm a newbie dev so my opinion is not very relevant and very possibly not representative for other devs, but still I'll offer it. I'm not interested in money. I am interested in physical prizes like t-shirts, SD cards, or 1GHz Pandoras. Or just the moral support of users that like my stuff.


If you're interested in money, you can always sell your software. The Pandora isn't the best platform to do that anyway, and this will not change unless it has several orders of magnitude more users. I suspect most of the Pandora devs do what they do because they enjoy it, as a hobby.

 

[ekianjo]

Same here, not interested by money. A 1Ghz pandora is a much more interesting prize.

 

[Ziz]

Same thing here. Of course, I would go for the first prize (a pandora! ), but nevertheless a third 16 GB SD-card, a shirt or even a pandora-cup would be nice, too. It would be somthing... pandora-y. If I won money, I would not save for a pandora, I would buy stuff I need for my live (or think I need...).