Anyone Willing To Have A Game Contest?

[davidthefat]

This is just light hearted contest between fellow programmers. It will allow programmers to experience programming outside of robots and get to practice programming more. So the game will be judged on the user end, so no extra points if you program in Assembly or Fortran (or other "hardcore" language). So the points will go toward Gameplay, Graghic/looks and Replayability (how addicting). Is anyone willing to participate in this seriously? The contest will have a generic genre and you can interpret it any way you want. Any theme and any language, just needs to be from scratch. So anyone willing to do it? If enough people are willing, we can set something up

[Radical Pi]

by scratch do you mean writing the entire engine? Would a free open-source engine work (or collection of open-source libraries). What about a HL2 mod (need to have any Source engine game to play it)

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Radical Pi

by scratch do you mean writing the entire engine? Would a free open-source engine work (or collection of open-source libraries). What about a HL2 mod (need to have any Source engine game to play it)

I guess using a game library is fine, but a mod, nah... not really fair since its using HL2 Graohics and stuff

[slavik262]

Any game besides Pong is a serious undertaking. I know you're just trying to get a lighthearted competition going, but game development is serious work. It would be more practical to have FIRST programmers join up than compete, each with their own project. I'm currently working with a college student on a Tactical RPG, and I've found that once you start work you begin to realize just how much goes into a game. There's a reason it takes professional game studios made up of a huge staff over a year to produce a game. Yes, commercial games are a lot more complicated than what you'd see here, but a game with any depth is a lot of work.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by slavik262

Any game besides Pong is a serious undertaking. I know you're just trying to get a lighthearted competition going, but game development is serious work. It would be more practical to have FIRST programmers join up than compete, each with their own project. I'm currently working with a college student on a Tactical RPG, and I've found that once you start work you begin to realize just how much goes into a game. There's a reason it takes professional game studios made up of a huge staff over a year to produce a game. Yes, commercial games are a lot more complicated than what you'd see here, but a game with any depth is a lot of work.

I am aware of this, don't think I do not have any experience with making games... I have started programming for the sole purpose of making games, even before I joined robotics. Obviously the contest would be at least 3 months


Also this is why I personally think that its good practice, its significantly more complex than robots, which is GREAT practice. BTW its not as complex as you say, its a big loop pretty much, handle input then logic then draw and repeat until game is exited or done

[slavik262]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Also this is why I personally think that its good practice, its significantly more complex than robots, which is GREAT practice. BTW its not as complex as you say, its a big loop pretty much, handle input then logic then draw and repeat until game is exited or done

That's like saying that the code running on the stealth fighter is just "a big loop pretty much, handle input then make it fly." You're over-simplifying the concept.

Maybe the game is just a loop, but there's a lot of other stuff that goes into it... user interface, options, save systems, scene/level management, plot (or if you're doing a multiplayer game lots and lots of networking code), art assets/graphics, lighting, optimization, etc... I too have development experience outside robotics and I'm good friends with a professional game developer. On average, it takes him 3 months per product, working on it 40+ hours per week as his full-time job.

I'm not saying this is a bad idea. It is great practice and a great way to get people involved in more programming. I'm just saying it's not a cakewalk either.

[timothyb89]

I'd say it's an awesome idea. It's fun and is a great way to get deeper into programming.

And hey, it doesn't have to be some hugely complex beast of a game- some of the best games are really simple (solitaire and minesweeper, anyone?). Shiny 3D graphics are always nice, of course, but I hardly think you need them to make a good game.

And hey, you can still make pretty awesome games with only 2D graphics. I found Epiar a while back and really like the idea behind it. I spent a week or two last summer doing a fairly comprehensive rewrite of it in Java. Great learning experience for me, plus it was fun to see how an old favorite game of mine worked. (On a side note, converting non-OO C code to strict-OO Java code is sort of hard )

As long as you don't shoot for something unreasonable, anyone with enough ambition and free time should be able to do it. It isn't *easy*, but I think that's the whole point?

Anyway, count me in! And I bet there's a few people on my team/school that would like to as well. (And this reminds me.. has anyone else seen the SummerPyGames? It seems pretty similar to this idea.)

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by slavik262

That's like saying that the code running on the stealth fighter is just "a big loop pretty much, handle input then make it fly." You're over-simplifying the concept.

Maybe the game is just a loop, but there's a lot of other stuff that goes into it... user interface, options, save systems, scene/level management, plot (or if you're doing a multiplayer game lots and lots of networking code), art assets/graphics, lighting, optimization, etc... I too have development experience outside robotics and I'm good friends with a professional game developer. On average, it takes him 3 months per product, working on it 40+ hours per week as his full-time job.

I'm not saying this is a bad idea. It is great practice and a great way to get people involved in more programming. I'm just saying it's not a cakewalk either.

Hey, we are not going for the next God of War here, we are going for what a casual gamer would play, like doodle jump, its simple (game wise and code (compared to most games)) and looks good and its fun