RIOT Tag-Team coding competition


wait so hatching an egg by force is not a good idea? hmm i guess theres more depth to this game then i thought
Haha... the coding was rushed by my limited moments to code, the ideas behind were well thought out. Thinking can happen in any circumstances, the actual sitting at a computer and turning it into code... that's the bit that requires you to have time.


I want to provide a very interesting virtual pet and although I don't consider PirateBaby anyway near finished, there are already basic elements of the bigger picture there.
 
Yeah, voting deadline is approaching quickly... and it is a tight race!


Btw, a little update for all the Pandora fans. There is now a version of PaperWars available for your favorite console (that's Pandora btw!) :) So you have a chance to try it out before you vote (or if you want to change your mind).


/Uni
 
Btw, a little update for all the Pandora fans. There is now a version of PaperWars available for your favorite console (that's Pandora btw!) :) So you have a chance to try it out before you vote (or if you want to change your mind).


/Uni

Awesome, I was getting a little jealous while watching my brother playing that on his Caanoo.
 
Yeah, voting deadline is approaching quickly... and it is a tight race!


Btw, a little update for all the Pandora fans. There is now a version of PaperWars available for your favorite console (that's Pandora btw!) :) So you have a chance to try it out before you vote (or if you want to change your mind).


/Uni

Thank you for that, I was quite miffed when it wasn't available for Pandora! Hopefully I'll be able to check it out and adjust my rating accordingly before the voting closes.
 
Sweet! Gotta try Paper Wars before it's too late!


EDIT: First impressions. The graphics are absolutely beautiful. Lack of sound is disappointing (may I recommend using a program called SFXR to make sound effects?). Needs a bit better manual camera control (second nub, perhaps?). Excellent use of the left nub, by the way. Touch screen is also used well. Menus should be a bit fancier. Better documentation should be included (like on the ultimate goal of the game, and how to create more units). Gameplay is cool, but there needs to be more maps.


EDIT II: Despite the lack of sound, I feel that this game is good enough to justify me changing my vote! Well done!
 
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just downloaded paper wars off this free wifi i'm leaching. it's beautiful - traylor, I'm insanely jealous of the look you´ve created! it's so smooth, too! got my vote for sure!


edit: thanks for the kind words on shootet, cassie!
 
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also just got paper wars and played one game, and while its only one level, and i suck at turn based war strategy, and it took me like a whole hour to beat the level, i will have to adjust my vote to add this to the list. and Uni, im unable to vote from the pandora using midori, chromium, or firefox. once i fill everything in, click on vote button, it gives me a quick loading circle, and doesnt go further than that, doesnt 404 or anything, just stays on the voting page
 
Aw guys, thanks so much! I really apologize for the delay in getting Paper Wars to the Pandora. That's all Crow's area (I'm just the art guy and don't have a Pandora) and he took a nice week of vacation just after the submission deadline.


From what I hear though, Paper Wars looks a billion times better on the Pandora's screen then the Caanoo's mess of an LCD.


You Panda folks are lucky to have such a beautiful screen!
 
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I'm voting tomorrow, still playing all the games :)


First impressions for a couple more games:


Skylark: Wowzers this game has a lot of nice art! So far I've played up to the winged demon-enemy, but my tiny pigsticker was really hard to use against it. Has the makings of a great game, but in my opinion the gameplay needs some adjusting. Most of the fights are while(enemy.alive){stab(); run();}. Reading from the description I'll get some skills and magic later on, but I think some should be available a lot earlier, so the gameplay is varied from the start and the player doesn't get bored always repeating the same sequence to beat enemies. There were some other things too like killing the knight-ghost-thingies by stabbing their swords. All in all, awesome project but the gameplay in my opinion needs some work. Pandora controls would also be nice.


GigaSun Jet: Looks nice and sounds promising. Didn't get very far in this one, because it stuttered on my pandora a lot. Anyone got this working smoothly? Also the controls are very unergonomic on pandora. Can I change them somewhere?


PaperWars: This game works SMOOTH on a pandora. Most likely the smoothest thing I've seen on pandora's screen. Just downloaded it, will dive deeper into it later today. I'm a huge fan of the genre (so far as to having done a browser-based multiplayer advance wars clone) so this game has a slight edge in my vote :) .


All in all, there seems to only be a couple of "complete" games in the entries (I've tested only the ones available for linux or pandora). I'm aware that the rules allow any interactive entertainment, but my fear is that some of these will not be finished after the competition though they'd deserve to be. :(


I think there could be some kind of continuous "competition" for long running projects that awards the ones making best progress (decided by voting) every couple of months, and separate competitions like this for quick stuff done explicitly for them. In my view the entries to these two competition types should not overlap. Actually the more I think about it the more it sounds like a bad idea. :D
 
Both myself and Jonny D wrote up our reviews for the games we were able to play in the riot digital competition. Jon's is more constructive, and since I was in a bit of a hurry, mine comes off as a bit more negative (sorry, optimism takes more effort :D ).


You can check out mine here: http://blog.bluedino...-competion.html


and Jonny D's here: http://code.bluedino...11-reviews.html

Great reviews, spot-on in my opinion, thanks a lot :) (also thanks for the fourth place :) ).


Most critique I have about the entries is mentioned in there, so I don't think I even have to do my own write-up :p


To reply about the Schizophrenia reviews (I won't do it on the site, because maybe people over here might also be interested):


Cassie's review:


You are completely right about the story, there won't be much text involved, I always try to convey story through gameplay or at least art and yes it will be about the human mind and condition.


Jonny's review:


First of all: I forgot about that damn door ;) I removed it in a local update, it will eventually lead to the final level. To fix your savegame just delete the save.dat file, it will let you start in the first level again (collectibles are not affected).


Difficulty of puzzles is something very hard to get right. My last game, Greyout, was way to hard for most people, yet simple for myself, Schizophrenia seems to be about right for the most part (as the first levels are meant to be simple, don't want anybody to get frustrated right from the start). Still if you are interested in becoming a beta tester for the final game, I would be happy about a PM with your e-mail address so I can send you the next levels when they are done :)


I disagree about the number of clones, I think it is about right now, you can create about 2-3 clones in every level, yet you only need 1-2. Having an army of clones is indeed funny and could make for some hilarious puzzles, but it does not fit the context of the game and the story.


I also don't like how clones are handled currently and how easy they are dispatched and "used" like controllable boxes (that is an interesting psychological detail if you think about it, you work with your clones like you would work with boxes, no strings attached, no "feelings" or second thoughts, yet they are supposed to be the exact same person that you control and which you probably care about because you have to guide it thorugh the levels somehow).


Maybe a few puzzles like that will be added as separate bonus-content, but we will see about that.


On that note (and I am not sure whether I already posted that), ALL puzzle pieces can be reached without deleting or killing (jumping in spikes, etc.) A SINGLE CLONE. Keep that in mind and maybe find a different solution to some of the puzzles, it makes it quite a bit harder.


Controlling all or multiple clones is a good idea, which will be integrated in some form (and not only restricted to clones). It is on our todo, but we simply did not make it before the deadline.
 
GigaSun Jet: Looks nice and sounds promising. Didn't get very far in this one, because it stuttered on my pandora a lot. Anyone got this working smoothly? Also the controls are very unergonomic on pandora. Can I change them somewhere?

I figured out what was slowing down the game (broken broadphase collision detection for walls) and fixed it locally. When the compo is over, I'll update the game with better controls. I didn't realize that my input class was not going to cut it until too late, so I reverted to these controls. You might be able to change the controls in your save file, but I'm not sure if this version listens to that any more. I have a control setup sequence that I probably should have kept in the game...
 
Review by Jonny D:

Fantastic visual style, obviously. Archibald has done an amazing job and makes me want to hire him. :) The sound is pretty good and works well with the art to set an excellent atmosphere, but there's no music.
On the forums, there was a lot (a lot!) of hype regarding this game, because it looked so beautiful. I think experience and time were the big factors that made it fall short for this demo. Perhaps the biggest problem is still ongoing. The game design is for a simple, standard platformer. There is nothing that makes the game nearly as special as the graphics, and we all know that graphics aren't everything. In fact, in the indie community, graphics are often not much of anything. Indie games depend on innovative gameplay or at least some fun from the game being a little different than the usual.


The story is introduced via static text on a static screen. It's not a particularly interesting story, but the presentation makes a big difference too. I think what would work well would be a slowly scrolling view of the town in the rain with a voice-over instead of text.


The thing is, go ahead and make a Pong clone or a simple platformer to get it out of your system, but please do not make it the most beautiful Pong ever unless you are creating gameplay that goes above and beyond what is expected for Pong! For Rainy Day, maybe something like creating small wind gusts with the umbrella to push enemies or objects would improve the concept, or maybe if you had to put down the suitcase to take care of business (like solving a puzzle) and collect it again later would be enough to do something unique.


The game, as submitted, is a single screen level. There are little icons to collect for points and a couple of bad guys to beat. That's all, but it does show that everything works right. I just hope that glimpse of the game is not what the whole game will feel like. It is just too plain of a game for such beautiful art. It earned last place because it is not much of a game right now and the outlook on intended gameplay is a let down. A set of beautiful images should not win a game dev competition.

Thanks for taking the time to write your thoughts about the game :) Here are my thoughts about the review (+ info about final version):


"but there's no music."


> There will be music in the final game, don't worry :) + I will put some more work in the existing sounds (Every token will have a different sound when you collect them, reflecting the amount of score they're worth)


Perhaps the biggest problem is still ongoing. The game design is for a simple, standard platformer.


> I once had the idea to make it more of a 2D RPG but Archibald didn't agree... He wants to keep it simple because it's our first game... I have heard this from a lot of people already, so now I just HAVE to find some sort of interesting puzzle element, which won't be a problem :)


"The story is introduced via static text on a static screen"


> The story in the final game will be the same but will be told in a more interesting way


More like this:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/NCKUR_XBNYk?feature=oembed

So it will be images + text + a part ingame :)


Thanks again for the feedback, I'll discuss some new gameplay ideas with Archibald :)
 
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Sorry, I haven't read through this entire thread to see if anyone else has experienced the same problem...but my mate is having problems voting, because at virtually the end of the voting process where it says, "a spinner should appear on top of the Vote button. After the vote is registered you are taken to the Thank You page, and a confirmation email sent."...


Well, none of that is happening, as in my mate doesn't get taken to the Thank You page and never actually receives a confirmation email? Should he be worried that he's vote didn't get counted?
 
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I had the same problem, I'm not sure how I fixed it, but it may be that I capitalized the first letter of the spam filter.
 
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