ChristmasHack website: http://xmashack.bafsoft.com
Some ideas for a ChristmasHack popped up in another thread about TINS. I proposed my own way of organising the thing, and you can read about it in this post.
Everyone participating registers with his A.cc number, A.cc name, a chosen password and an e-mail (no e-mail confirmation bullstuff, read later on). Once registered, you set three vague descriptions of games you would like to see. You can also vote on descriptions of other people in a four-way fashion (Good/So-So/Bad).
When the set time comes (say 17th, depends on how fast we can get ready), the system chooses the best-rated description submitted by every person. People are randomly assigned to each other. Once this is done, you receive an e-mail with one of those best descriptions chosen.
If a person doesn't have any description that averages above 35% (every Bad counts as 0%, so-so 50%, good 100%), he will have to wait until next Christmas. So be kind when voting, and vote "bad" only if it's really bad.
Once you have made the game, you submit it to the page. The games get sent through e-mail to their recipients on 23rd (along with information who made it), and made publicly available on the page some time between Christmas and New Year.
How does it sound? I'll start work on that once 5 people express their will to take part.
Please make suggestions, comment, and, above all, let me know that you want to take part in it because there will be no Hack if there are no participants!
]]>I would definitely participate . Sounds fun...
]]>I'll all for the idea of each participant being handed a unique task as long as they're done properly.
]]>You can also vote on descriptions of other people in a four-way fashion (Good/So-So/Bad).
Where presumably "Good" means "an idea that is suitable for the competition and should produce interesting results", "so-so" means "an idea that is suitable for the competition" and "bad" means "not suitable for the competition"?
]]>I would participate.
You could make this really easy by coming up with some general game ideas and then having each person select one of those. No voting, no screening, easy.
Let's see here, how about: Action, Adventure, Arcade, Board Games, Puzzle, Role Playing, Sports, Strategy
But your idea is good too. There's no way to know how it will play out so...just do it. Small suggestion is to have some considerations for OS.
EDIT:
competition
Competition?
]]>I must point out here that I really think that making the game genre a requirement is a very bad idea. It stifles creativity and might box people into doing a game from a genre they hate. A much better approach is to describe general themes or features that are not bound to genres, which the participants can then "twist" and make it fit with the genre game they want to make.
]]>Thomas: Exactly . Though I wouldn't use the word competition.
Mokkan: Great! I'll count you in .
William: I think I'll try with my idea... It just sounds a bit more interesting, and also gives you something to work with: if someone asks for a "puzzle" game, it can be anything, no room for creative variations on a theme. But if someone wants a game about pirates, that's more like it .
Now, a bit of technical stuff I omitted since now:
The hack will be open-source. Your submission is a ZIP that has the full compilable source and all data. The size limit I'm aiming for is 1MB, as in 1 000 000 bytes. If it fits within the limit, provide a binary.
When registering, you will mark Linux, Windows or both. The randomizer will try to pair up Linux and Windows capable folk together. When you receive the description, you will also receive a note if your pair is Linux-only or Win-only.
Also, I would like to propose one extra rule. Not everyone is born to be an excellent programmer, and not everyone is capable of completing a working game in such a short time. If you overestimate your abilities and are not able to get the game done in time, you just put what you completed in the zip, and then look for loads of nice X-mas stuff on the net and package it together (a Christmas card, a comic or whatever you see fit).
[Loads of edits because of the late hour.]
]]>When registering, you will mark Linux, Windows or both.
cough Mac OS X cough
Though I wouldn't use the word competition.
Competition?
Okay, okay! It isn't a competition.
]]>cough Mac OS X cough
Sorry . I must have somehow subconciously decided that everything that compiles under Linux is also easily compiled under Mac OS X. I will include that option. Do you intend to participate?
Also, X-G, do you intend to participate?
]]>No details, no guarantee. I don't really even use Allegro any more.
]]>I still think it would be more productive to instead of having a everyone hack up 50 half-complete programs to have everyone produce, or update, one program as a christmas present to the community itself. For example, imagine what could be done if we could even get 20 people to look over different sections of the allegro base code. I know that there are some outstanding issues on the 4.2.x branch (keyboard focus comes to mind), and maybe it is time that we devoted some serious resources to fixing these problems? Maybe while we are at it we could hack up system video bitmap support for OSX and a bunch of other goodies. The more the merrier, after all. The winner could be decided on a patchs per contest or improvements per contest ratio... We could even use the this "contest" (if you can call it that), as a kickstart for the 4.3 branch.
But meh, that is just me.
]]>I'd definately support this. Not sure if I'd have time to take part in it, but I can provide webspace/bandwidth for the compo + entries + emailing (much like I do for TINs), and even help with the backend for it if my help is needed.
[edit]
Heck, half the backbone is already there from the tins uploading system, just modify it so stuff isn't posted publicly at first, etc, and it could work nice. Add a ranking system, etc. If its okay, I could take the tins system and make a christmas hack system.
I believe I have already done half the work needed this night, so I think that we can use my own system, unless the TINS one can be hacked up faster than I can make my own.
I'm very happy you are willing to provide the bandwidth though. I'll PM you the details of what would be needed later today, after I come back from uni (I have to go in 8 minutes ).
I thought about the selection system and I can detail it now. The system will try to choose people in a friendly fashion, so:
a) you only get people who share at least one ticked OS box with you.
b) your votes influence what you get: first, the system will try to assign you one of the descriptions you rated "good". If that's impossible, the system will choose among those you rated "so-so". If that's impossibile - from those you haven't voted on. Only if all that is impossible, you will get one of the descriptions you voted "bad" (shouldn't happen).
A) can only be violated if it is impossible to fulfill it given the participants' choices.
[Attached: what I have now. Some parts are still mock-up]
]]>Jakub, that's the best idea I've seen in a long time.
There should be a due date, otherwise things tend to not get done. But what happens if your kriss kringle or you don't finish in the time limit? We obviously don't want people getting short-changed. I have no ideas or suggestions as to how to handle this.
]]>There should be a due date, otherwise things tend to not get done. But what happens if your kriss kringle or you don't finish in the time limit? We obviously don't want people getting short-changed. I have no ideas or suggestions as to how to handle this.
Well, you can't really do anything about it if you're not able to finish a game. My advice would be to try as hard as possible for that person on the other end of the wire - and if you fail to finish the game despite that, you can still pack everything you have done together with some nice stuff to show how hard you tried .
About dates: I will have the site done till tomorrow night. I intend for the contest to start at Thursday 15th, 16:00 GMT and run until 23rd, 16:00 GMT - a week and a day. That will give us at least two days to register, set up our descriptions and vote on them, and loads of time to make a game (at least for Speedhack veterans ).
I take it you would take part in it? Unfortunately, that would still be only 4 people (Mokkan, William, you, and me), but I think we can make the contest even with only four participants .
Jakub, that's the best idea I've seen in a long time.
Not mine . I only borrowed it and currently am trying to make it happen .
]]>There should be a due date
Morning on the 25th?
Unfortunately, that would still be only 4 people (Mokkan, William, you, and me)
I might join.
]]>Not mine . I only borrowed it and currently am trying to make it happen .
WH said:
I like Steven's idea for a "ChristmasHack" of sorts. If you missed it he proposed a sort of secret santa thing where each entrant is given the name of a fellow participating allegrian and must make a game for him or here by Christmas.
Of course, I didn't come up with any guidelines or rules, so it's become more of the community's idea.
BTW, I'm still in.
]]>That's a very nice looking site Jakub.
The 15th seems rather early, but time is closing in fast so there isn't much that can be done I suppose.
Anyway, I can't wait to get started.
I might join too, but it depends on many factors.
]]>Steven: Great, I'm looking forward to it.
Miran and OICW: Hope you can make it .
I'm introducing one modification, in my opinion beneficial - when the randomizing is over, you receive not one description, but all three description set by the person. You can then choose one of those when submitting your entry.
Right now I'm writing the full ruleset. Once I have it done, I'll put it up somewhere.
]]>Sounds good.
]]>Instead of saying the operating system you run, I think you should just ask what operating systems they feel comfortable developing for.
And as far as the TINs system hacking, that is basically just the file uploader thingy. That could be plugged into your system to provide a place to upload files, then just email private download links to everyone (then publicize it later if you wanted).
And perhaps we can get remote allegro.cc authentication (like awiki has) for this, if it's okay with Matthew.
]]>Instead of saying the operating system you run, I think you should just ask what operating systems they feel comfortable developing for.
Right now it asks what systems you are comfortable developing for, and what system do you prefer to play your games on.
And as far as the TINs system hacking, that is basically just the file uploader thingy. That could be plugged into your system to provide a place to upload files, then just email private download links to everyone (then publicize it later if you wanted).
I think I can do that part pretty quickly, if not, we'll rip out TINS' innards.
And perhaps we can get remote allegro.cc authentication
I don't think I would be up to that, but who knows. Right know the site has its own registration/authentication (very basic).
]]>If A.CC auth is possible, it may be more secure (IE, nobody could pose as someone else, email addresses are already verified, etc). Are you going to at least have users verify their email addresses?
]]>I haven't put much thought into security, I admit . Right now the only thing required from you during registration is your member #, and by that you automatically assume the identity of this member. I see how this can be abused in hundreds of ways...
I can add e-mail verification easily enough, but that won't solve the problem of mimicking someone else...
I think the best way would be to require being logged in to A.cc during registration for ChristmasHack. That way I could grab the ID and screen-name being sure that you're not posing for someone, and then use my own merry system for authentication later.
Now, if I only had an idea how to do that. How does AWiki do it?
]]>You can't grab the ID, cookies are not accessible outside of the set domain (though there may be an option to make a cookie public...not that anyone does that).
Your best bet for a "hack" would be to use cURL to access the A.cc login page. Have people give you their login info, then your script can attempt to login and if it works then you know it's them.
Not exactly the best way to do it though.
EDIT: Looking at AWiki it sends people to:
http://www.allegro.cc/account/login/http://awiki.tomasu.org/bin/view$logon=1
O_o
Your best bet for a "hack" would be to use cURL to access the A.cc login page. Have people give you their login info, then your script can attempt to login and if it works then you know it's them.
Not exactly the best way to do it though.
Not to mention that I wouldn't trust a semi-random person with my login data for A.cc. That's not really a solution, and BAF mentioned that a better one exist (AWiki uses it), so...
[EDIT] It seems that "/account/login/" passes a "token" to the URL provided. Whatever that token means... I think I will just PM Matthew and see if he is willing to help me out.
]]>Well
http://www.allegro.cc/account/login/http://awiki.tomasu.org/bin/view$logon=1
works for any url so like
http://www.allegro.cc/account/login/http://www.google.com
should work (I tried a different url, but google should work as well). The script returns a "token" variable in GET and REQUEST. I have no idea what that token is but it's a step closer to cracking this algorithm!
EDIT: Beaten!
]]>Token looks like a session ID of some sort to me... not sure, but it looks fairly easy to handle to me, run the login then store your data.
]]>Token looks like a session ID of some sort to me... not sure, but it looks fairly easy to handle to me, run the login then store your data.
OK, the fact of returning a token means that the user is in fact a member of A.cc. But, I'd like to be able to discern which of the members is it. AWiki does that, it has e.g. the %avatar% tag which can display my avatar - so it knows who I am. Somehow, it must get that info from the token.
Maybe I just didn't understand what you said, I'm getting a little sleepy .
]]>My guess is that AWiki takes the token and gives it to another a.cc script which returns user info. The process may seem redundent but it isn't. By having the server contact a.cc personally with an arbitrary hash it can be sure the data it gets is from A.cc, and not the user.
You are mistaken in assuming that when you get a token it means the person is an a.cc member. I could just as easily enter in www.yoursite.com/yourscript.php?token=blah in my browser. That is why the assumed second step of having the server take the token back to a.cc is important.
I hope to hear from either Matthew or Thomas Fjellstrom (he is the one managing AWiki, right?) soon. Meanwhile, I'll proceed with making other parts of the site. Once I get the required information I'll plug in the A.cc authentication.
]]>William: the returning of a token doesnt automatically mean you're logged in correctly, but the point was you won't recieve a real token unless you logged in correctly.
]]>I already got a reply from Matthew and I'm currently plugging it into the code. Once I'm done, I will put it up on the net.
]]>I'm curious as to what he said...
]]>Remote a.cc authentication is great for stuff like this. Perhaps amarillion and I could set this up for TINS/TINS uploading too.
]]>WH: Matthew asked me not to spread the information, but basically you had the right idea.
Everything is already set up and working. I'll queue a news item for the front page, and give you all the details here.
Right now you can:
register
set your game descriptions and preferences
vote on others' descriptions
If you are logged in on A.cc, registration should be really simple. There is no e-mail verification, so be sure you get it right the first time .
The link: http://xmashack.bafsoft.com
Enjoy! It's 3:17 here, and I'm going to have nice three hours of sleep . Please excuse any bugs that slipped in because of weariness.
]]>It isn't working. I am logged in but it says my member # is 0. Also it failed the first time I tried (url was broken).
Site looks nice though.
You have to hit 'register' first. It worked fine for me, pretty cool! Great job!
]]>Try now. Everything should be up by now. If it's not, it'll have to wait until tomorrow, I can't think straight anymore.
]]>I think the contest should require everyone to use a language they haven't previously used to code their entry. Like ruby or scheme using kazzmirs bindings. That would really show us who is king of christmas hackery mountain.
edit; nice site, I registered! (maybe I'll feel like coding around christmas time...)
]]>Thanks! Good night!
]]>It works now, yay! I'm all registered and I've voted.
Thanks for all the hard work Jakub! This is going to be fun
]]>Like ruby or scheme using kazzmirs bindings
Scheme? I hate you.
[EDIT] - Just signed up! Now let's get this thing more popular! I say, continually send-to-top until the event starts.
BTW, if you vote on something with "so-so", is it possible that you might get that as the game your expected to do?
]]>the [1MB] ZIP must contain (apart from game data):
If your pair is a Windows user: a Windows binary, all needed DLLs if any
If your pair is a Linux user: the source code, links to any external libs you used, binary if possible
If your pair is a Mac OS X user: a Mac OS X binary, and whatever one needs on Mac OS X to run a game .
The binary requirement is unnecessary and impractical. Just change it so that only the (cross platform) source & datafiles are required.
]]>One megabyte o_O!? Are you sure about that rule... ?
]]>The binary requirement is unnecessary and impractical. Just change it so that only the (cross platform) source & datafiles are required.
I liked to make an alternative for users of external libraries. For example, getting 3 libs installed just to compile a game is boring/tiring, while the binary version can ship with DLLs/whatever shared libs the system uses.
On the other hand, preparing a cross-platform makefile (or even just a makefile) takes some work, and even then MSVC only users won't be satisfied. And I wouldn't like to split the "develop for" tick-boxes to cover compilers .
I'm going to reword the rules a little, possibly making binary for the two systems an "encouraged option", and the source - required. I will also add information about the screening process (I overlooked it the first time).
Anyway, I have a small upgrade for you - looking at your participation page, you will be able to see how your descriptions are rated. Red is below the screening threshold, green is good. [Corrected this: now gives the right figures ]. Also, you can now click the "registered user(s)" text to get a list of participants.
[edit]
[RULESET UPDATED!] Source is now a requirement, binary is an encouraged option.
One megabyte o_O!? Are you sure about that rule... ?
We won't have as many participants as SpeedHack/TINS, so that shouldn't be a problem. And even if it would be a problem, it would be BAF's call to make the limit smaller (he provides the bandwidth).
]]>If we host elsewhere, can we upload more than a 1 megabyte project? The Allegro DLL is like 800kb alone. I really want to focus on giving as much as possible (MP3s, art, etc...), as opposed to worrying about space constraints.
]]>The Allegro DLL is like 800kb alone. I really want to focus on giving as much as possible (MP3s, art, etc...), as opposed to worrying about space constraints.
The Allegro DLL when properly prepared is only like 250kb, and you don't have to distribute it with your game (take note of the fact that the rules were updated). We can probably safely assume that everyone has or knows where to get 4.2.0 shared libs.
The 1mb requirement is already extremely lenient in comparison to other hacks. I don't think we should push it further.
I could allow adding an "extended version" link to a ZIP hosted externally, in addition to the "hack version" hosted on BAFSoft. I'll think about it and let you know, OK?
]]>If we host elsewhere, can we upload more than a 1 megabyte project?
Make your game download the data when it is started for the first time.
]]>1MB+ is fine by me, bandwidth is not a problem.
]]>Well, I've just entered. That makes nine of us. I think I may go and try to write something a little interesting codewise in preparation. Are there any feelings others have about use of prexisting code?
]]>It seems that if I'll find time I'll sign in, maybe this evening.
]]>It seems that if I'll find time I'll sign in, maybe this evening.
That'd be good, not only because more participants is always good but also because it might make me look less stupid for saying there were already nine when in fact there are eight.
Of the 18 ideas already up before I signed up just moments ago, there was only one I don't think I could do. And I don't think any of mine are unrealistic, so hopefully end results should be interesting.
]]>Well, I've just entered. That makes nine of us. I think I may go and try to write something a little interesting codewise in preparation. Are there any feelings others have about use of prexisting code?
Great to have you on board!
If that makes your entry better, so be it . I intend to use a pre-written entity engine myself, if I find it applicable for my task. After all, it is not a competition to make the best game, just a warm Christmas hack.
OICW, hope you can make it, once again .
]]>Are there any feelings others have about use of prexisting code?
I'll be starting from scratch, but I don't have any feelings against having preexisting code (other than I hope your my secret santa...)
[EDIT]
Jakub, you might want to edit the first post to have a link to the ChristmasHack website.
I've registered, but I'm yet to think whether I'll have enough time to enter or not.
Are there any feelings others have about use of prexisting code?
With "no preexisting code" requirement I probably wouldn't enter. Starting from scratch just make you spend extra time on making things you already done many times before. Also without this requirement you can dig one of your abandoned projects, rethink it, limit features you were going to implement and try to finish something smaller and still enjoyable.
]]>I registered.
]]>With "no preexisting code" requirement I probably wouldn't enter.
Well it certainly isn't a rule - the full rule list is on the Christmas Hack website and makes no mention of time limits for code writing. The date that we'll receive our Santa target and the date of submission are the only things fixed timewise.
I wanted to make sure I wasn't misjudging the spirit of the competition, given that the initial discussion sprange from a TINS discussion and that is a time limited competition. I think it is pretty clear that nobody minds the use of old code, which is certainly helpful for me as AllegroGL remains broken for my OS and most of the stuff I've written with intent to make reusable segments is GL based.
I registered.
Cool! I'm going to go and vote on your ideas right now...
]]>Cool! I'm going to go and vote on your ideas right now...
Kind of losing the anonymousity in the voting, aren't we?
]]>Small suggestion to the site: knowing target hardware in addition to OS would be nice. It would be cool if there was a place to put CPU, CPU speed and GPU information, which would be passed to person who is going to make the game.
]]>Kind of losing the anonymousity in the voting, aren't we?
Only in this one small case. And I had to go to the site to change something else anyway...
There's only 48 hours to go! Who's excited?
EDIT: also, my small site suggestion is that we be allowed to see the list of ideas we've already voted on. Otherwise there seems no way to see a complete list at any time after voting.
]]>Who's excited?
Me! Of course, that depends on what game I get assigned to.
my small site suggestion is that we be allowed to see the list of ideas we've already voted on. Otherwise there seems no way to see a complete list at any time after voting.
I second that!
]]>Ok it's on the good way, right now I'm thinking about three ideas to put there - it's hard to come up with something. And I think that I can get all X-Mas presents for family on time so there will be loads of time to do some extra gift. Maybe this would be the first time I release a game
]]>I signed up . This sounds like a lot of fun... I can't wait for it to start . I just compared my ideas to the currently existing ones though... and mine seem a bit longer . Hopefully thats not a problem...
]]>Small suggestion to the site: knowing target hardware in addition to OS would be nice. It would be cool if there was a place to put CPU, CPU speed and GPU information, which would be passed to person who is going to make the game.
Probably a little too late for that, and I think we're going a bit too far with that. Next we'll start adding favourite color, music style, and haircut .
my small site suggestion is that we be allowed to see the list of ideas we've already voted on. Otherwise there seems no way to see a complete list at any time after voting.
OK, I'll do that right away. [Done. Available from the vote page.]
]]>Registered.. although I have no idea whether I'll have the time or not.
]]>Ok I'm going to register. Anyway I've made a logo - feel free to comment it and use it as you wish.
]]>OK, I'll do that right away. [Done. Available from the vote page.]
Is there any magic to their ordering?
]]>Ok I'm there and I'm looking forward to Thursday afternoon.
Btw my post number 1000
It's ChristmasHack not X-Mas Hack
]]>Hell no. Anyway X-Mas Hack is shorter, but I'll try to make new one (will be tommorow).
]]>Small suggestion to the site: knowing target hardware in addition to OS would be nice. It would be cool if there was a place to put CPU, CPU speed and GPU information, which would be passed to person who is going to make the game.
Probably a little too late for that, and I think we're going a bit too far with that. Next we'll start adding favourite color, music style, and haircut .
IMHO knowing target minimum specs is essential to game development, especially when it comes to hardware-accelerated rendering. It wouldn't be cool if someone got a game he can't run because it requires GeForce 2 class GPU he doesn't have. The same goes for CPU speed.
]]>Count me in for this. My only question is can we start on graphics early? I don't want to use programmer graphics and then not have time to replace them with the semifinals before the deadline.
[Edit]: Nevermind I think I'll work on my own projects those days.
]]>My only question is can we start on graphics early?
I can't really imagine how do you intend to make graphics in advance for a project whose description you'll receive later. Graphics are not exactly one-size-fits-all. But I don't have anything against it - you can use any content prepared before the hack. This is not a contest, after all.
TH: They're ordered by score.
OICW: Nice logo, though IMHO it should bright and vivid . But that's only me.
]]>Well it don't matter. I didn't see that part about making for one and someone making for you. I was all for it but I prefer doing it for myself rather than others. Thus, why I have to withdraw from the Christmas Hack .
]]>I got bored at work and did the attached in about 10 minutes. Ah, if only I had my tablet or possibly another program beside PAINT on my work machine.:'(
]]>KK: Even with specs it's hard to tell if your program is going to run right especially with hardware acceleration. Sometimes it just doesn't work right
I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Need an actual logo? Have at thee!
]]>TH: They're ordered by score.
That's what I guessed. Now we can all see whether we should feel embarassed or not! But not tell anyone, obviously.
I can't really imagine how do you intend to make graphics in advance for a project whose description you'll receive later.
All I've done is tied some basics together, a screen update thing, a generic multipurpose main game/timing/resting loop (with fairly blunt CPU release when possible), some generic drawing routines I might like to use, a font and what will be the front screen, alternating between an instructions screen (currently with no instructions, obviously) and a logo screen. All completely generic stuff.
]]>Well, what happens when it comes time for the compo and there is an ODD number of people registered?
]]>That doesn't matter, does it? We don't have to be paired off - a big circle can be formed if necessary, although you'd expect lots of smaller loops with random picking.
EDIT: has someone managed to submit the same ideas twice?
]]>has someone managed to submit the same ideas twice?
It seems so. Perhaps they are greedy...
]]>
KK: Even with specs it's hard to tell if your program is going to run right especially with hardware acceleration. Sometimes it just doesn't work right
I wouldn't worry about it too much.
I don't recall anything like this happening to me.
]]>Well that's cause your awesome, but not all of us are awesome so have some consideration
]]>I registered!
Can the identity of the person who is making the gift for us be kept a secret until the contest deadline? I'm quite excited.
BTW, I'm reusing code from my game framework. I don't see the issue since this is not a competition and we want the games to be nice... right?
[edit] now everyone go and vote on the descriptions I submitted to save me from the dishonor of having three 0% ratings!
]]>I don't recall anything like this happening to me.
OK, I've just recalled some problems with VX-RoboArena because of Z-fighting caused by shaders. Anyway, when it comes to using extensions, it's nice to know what extensions you can use (multitexturing is cool, dot3 combiner is even cooler) so I guess it has to happen to everybody sooner or later. Another thing is that I don't release too often so I have lower chances to make something not running.
Anyway, another question about the compo: how complex our games should be and how much time should we spend on it? I'd like to know because I probably won't have much time and I'd like to avoid situation where I make something quickly and get something polished in return as it wouldn't feel fair.
]]>dot3 combiner is even cooler
It is if you can source normal maps! Especially for those of us with chips that can do dot3 but do not extend to pixel shaders of any sort. Out of interest, is there any card that supports env_dot3 but not texture_cube_map?
Anyway, another question about the compo: how complex our games should be and how much time should we spend on it?
I'm hoping to produce something of the complexity of Robotron or Defender in gameplay terms. I'm really going for an old school arcade feel and hope to have the project - whatever it turns out to be - more or less complete within the first three or four days with evening work only. And hopefully be entirely bug free in time for submission!
BTW, I'm reusing code from my game framework. I don't see the issue since this is not a competition and we want the games to be nice... right?
I certainly see no problem with that. The aim of the event is to be nice and to see what people come up with from the descriptions of varying vagueness within the time limit, I'd say. I've been spending this evening, and probably a small part of tomorrow, trying to knock up a "normal Allegro" framework so that all the dull stuff is out of the way when I get my game descriptions.
]]>Well if Jakub has time I suggest a simple text box to enter system specs into.
]]>I joined. I am not sure how much time I will have, as I don't get home until 6 on the weekdays until the 20th, minus an hour for homework/telling people to go away leaves me with not much coding time, but I'll make up for it on the weekends, I suppose.
]]>I went ahead and joined the contest.
]]>how complex our games should be and how much time should we spend on it?
That's up to you. This is an event, not a competition. I understand a lot of game theory, but I haven't gotten a chance to do a SpeedHack or put anything in the depot, so I'm interested to see what I can do. I think I'm more interested in seeing what game I'll get!
I suppose I might as well get a few basic things set up as well...
]]>Out of interest, is there any card that supports env_dot3 but not texture_cube_map?
There are some - quick look at Delphi 3D extension database shows KYRO and some strange GPUs from S3 and Trident.
]]>Me joins
]]>Well if Jakub has time I suggest a simple text box to enter system specs into.
Okay, I'll succumb . Will be up in 30 minutes or so.
[Done. If you do post your specs, please do that in the format: "CPU, GPU, RAM, OS(s)", like "Athlon XP 1800+, GeForce 5600, 1 GB RAM, WinXP/Ubuntu".
Anyway, another question about the compo: how complex our games should be and how much time should we spend on it?
Well, as always, there will be more polished entries and the less polished ones. You should spend as much time as you can devote, and try to make your partner happy - simple as that . If you think it's done, it's done.
And a warm welcome to all the newcomers .
]]>You should know that Christmas Hack is happening when I A) Have the study for finals. B) Am going up to northern california. In fact, I probably won't be able to start until the 18th. So maybe you can take some of those factors into account when assigning partners. =) I don't want to recieve a fully functional 3D mmorpg with 100 hours of gameplay and send my partner pong wihout sound. =)
]]>I don't want to recieve a fully functional 3D mmorpg with 100 hours of gameplay and send my partner pong wihout sound. =)
I think that aiming for Robotron or Defender complexity could be reasonable guideline to everybody.
]]>I don't want to recieve a fully functional 3D mmorpg with 100 hours of gameplay and send my partner pong wihout sound. =)
I'll not be able to code this to you in 15 days !
Anyway, i'm registered too, so if someone gets a pong with sound ... it will be by lake of time
]]>Couldn't we see how our specs are going on the voting?
]]>I'll not be able to code this to you in 15 days !
Do not fear - in this event we only have 8! Starting in 25 hours...
Couldn't we see how our specs are going on the voting?
If you go back to "Participation" you can see the current percentage applicable to each of your ideas, and the full list is ordered by current score, highest scorers at the top. Are either of those good enough?
]]>Me doesn't matter unfinished game. I will be satisfied with the feeling that somebody out there on the other side of fiber optics had time to do something.
]]>Me doesn't matter unfinished game. I will be satisfied with the feeling that somebody out there on the other side of fiber optics had time to do something.
Yeah, I know what you mean. Even just something that shows potential would be nice. Especially if it ends up getting finished, even if much later.
It's also nice that nobody has felt the need to call this "SeasonsGreetingsHack".
]]>Ok just finished the new logo as I promised yesterday. Comments are welcome, especially on the background, I cannot resolve/find some good background (here comes my lack artistic skills ) - I don't want to use pure white or black, the background should be brihgt as Jakub said so I need advice.
]]>In the logo, the r and the i are too close, making it look a n...
]]>Ok that should be fixed, any other comments?
]]>General logo creation comments:
- demonstrations of your PSP/PS/etc filter collections do not work as logos
- the effectiveness of a logo is not determined by the amount of colours and visual effects you cram into it
- a logo can have different shapes and it can be colourful - where to draw the limit is pretty much based on media differences, intuition and eye for design
With that said, I'll say that the logos are pretty gaudy and tasteless. In one word, bad. Of course, ChristmasHack is not a company or anything, but that doesn't mean you're free to do just about anything. Don't take this wrong way, though.
]]>At first I must add that I said that any comments are welcome - so I'm not taking it wrong way. I understand your opinion and I must say that I partialy agree with it (if we're talking about simple logos I like yours). But I had a feeling that this should be used in-game (in intro for example) and it should look winterish. So when this idea came to my mind I was thinking about font made from ice and above is the output.
EDIT: Attached is lightened version - only the snow remained.
That new logo shows some potential, only:
the alignment is too close - I'd move the two texts a bit away from each other
red and green don't really go together, trade green for something
the red font should be nice and crisp, now it looks like it was converted to a bitmap and then scaled with bilinear
the snow shouldn't be blurred
IMHO, we don't really need a logo, but if you like to contribute one for the participants to use in their games, I'm all for it .
Thomas:
The day someone suggests calling this SeasonsHolidayHack, I'm calling it off .
Now, off to get everything ready for the big day.
]]>It was meant to be used in programs. I'll try to fix those problems.
]]>I understand your opinion and I must say that I partialy agree with it (if we're talking about simple logos I like yours).
Why partially? What parts do you not agree with?
The logo I did was more of an example of a simple, yet working logo. I'm not saying it's the best thing after sliced bread, and I'm not trying to coerce you/anyone else into using it, but I will say that it still works better as a logo than your/Silvey's productions. This is not exactly a matter of opinion, either.
Just because my logo is simple, it doesn't mean it's worse than a "complex" logo. Just because your logo is "complex", it doesn't mean it's better than a simple logo. If you add "complications" to it just for the sake of having a "complex" logo (and thinking that simple is not enough), you're doing it wrong.
But I had a feeling that this should be used in-game (in intro for example) and it should look winterish. So when this idea came to my mind I was thinking about font made from ice and above is the output.
Well, they don't really work in a game, either. It might be used in some games, some people may like it, but that just goes to show more about the developer/person than the logo. The new version you did is slightly better, but still under the threshold of usability (at least for me, and I'd say for anyone with some visual design sense).
I also attached a more "christmasy" version of mine.
]]>but I will say that it still works better as a logo than your/Silvey's productions.
Of course it does. Mine was just the result of boredom and was more of a joke than anything else.
]]>IMHO, we don't really need a logo, but if you like to contribute one for the participants to use in their games,
It was meant to be used in programs. I'll try to fix those problems.
I note it isn't in the rules, so presumably use will be optional? In asking this question, I have my eye on the 1 MB file limit. If there is to be a rule added, can it simply be that Christmas Hack '05 status is acknowledged in whatever way the author wants as long as it is reasonably prominent?
]]>That partialy was meant that simplicity/complexity of logo depends on situation. So I've made last version of the logo. I just want to ask you for reason which makes you feel that it's under the treshold of usability - I just want to learn something new.
]]>So I've made last version of the logo.
Meh, I think your first one was your best.
I'll probably just throw all the logos made so far into one big collage as an intro screen.;D
]]>Hell don't do that.
]]>I'll probably just throw all the logos made so far into one big collage as an intro screen.
Why not cycle between them if you have a repeating introduction sequence, or else pick a random one when the game is started?
]]>IMO, the best intro would be the recipient's picture(with some decoration maybe) but looks like it conflicts with the "anonymousity" thing.
]]>That would be interesting, personaly I don't have problem with anonymousity - OICW is shorter to type than my real name
]]>IMO, the best intro would be the recipient's picture(with some decoration maybe) but looks like it conflicts with the "anonymousity" thing.
Nah, the point of anonymity is not to let the person you are writing for know your identity until final submission. So if everybody who is willing to have a picture of themselves displayed at the start of the program attaches one here then there is no problem. Except for those of us who remain edgy about the 1 MB limit! That said, sound effects are traditionally my big space filler.
]]>That partialy was meant that simplicity/complexity of logo depends on situation.
Of course it does (and this is what I suggested in my post - does that mean you completely agree now? ), but going for a complex logo doesn't mean that you have to stuff it full of effects and tricks.
When you design a logo, it's good to keep in mind how it looks if it's colours were reduced to only 2 - black and white. Do multiple versions of a logo (for different uses - letterhead/website/promotional/etc). Does it work well in limited/printed media? Could you just throw that on a letter template?
And just because a logo is potentially not going to be used in letters etc limited medias, it doesn't mean you can still go filter wild. The result will be bad, no matter what the purpose of the logo is.
I just want to ask you for reason which makes you feel that it's under the treshold of usability - I just want to learn something new.
It is too gaudy and incoherent. The colour selections, fonts, placements, etc bother me.
Besides, it's quite impossible to learn sense of design if you don't have any - you may try to wake your latent artist up, but if he isn't there, he won't be there no matter how many books and lessons you take.
Now, I'm not saying that you can't do it. There may be an artist within you. Just draw, draw and draw a lot (learn to use your tools, imagination, common sense, etc), be critical of your own work and see if he wakes up.
(I'm not saying that I'm the bestest evar supergodultimatebeing when it comes to visual arts, but I'm 'pompous' enough to say that I have an eye of it. )
This is going quite off-topic though. If you want more comments/hints/whatever, PM.
]]>OICW's logo is nice and expresses "hack"
Inphernic's logo is very clean, simple, and power
Of the two I personally like Inphernic's better, but that is simply my taste. They are both acceptable.
Now to the point...why are we making logos?
Because there are 22 hours left and you have nothing else to do .
]]>Heh good question though. My idea was to show it somewhere in the menu or something like intro: this game has been made for Christmas Hack etc. Nobody forces you to use it, it's up to you.
Inphernic: I know that I won't be a great artist (if I'd I wouldn't be here), but still I'm trying to do something. I agree with you that when you use too much effects it looks not nice. But in this case I tried to make icy looking text so some effects are necesary to do. Howk.
But in this case I tried to make icy looking text so some effects are necesary to do.
Inphernic's logo looks icy/snowy without any effects.
]]>Ok, let everybody sort it out and let's discuss something else.
]]>Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition!
]]>
21 hours to go go go, 21 hours to go go go...
I more or less have my framework sorted and some of my drawing routines, which means I've more or less picked a graphical style - which I hope is "unique" but not as in ugly. Out of interest, will there be a capacity for submitting early? I don't expect I'll use it, but...
]]>Can I make logo's too? I like making logos! (I'm not participating though, not enough time
I liked inphernic's, so I used his design as inspiration for the first one.
]]>Out of interest, will there be a capacity for submitting early?
I'll be submitting early 'cus I'm headin' on vacaction at the end of next week. Plus, I'm working 9-6 during the weekdays, so I'll pretty much just have this weekend. Should be interesting...
]]>Oh well, (at least!) one more post on the subject!
OICW's logo is nice and expresses "hack"
Not in a good sense, though - it expresses how hacky the job on the logo it is.
They are both acceptable.
Not to someone with a bit of sense for design.
so some effects are necesary to do
..no. Just.. no.
Can I make logo's too? I like making logos!
I don't know, you'd have to ask logo.
1: The font and colours should go
2: There's an idea but it's ruined by the font, colours and placement
3: ..nope.
4: ..nope.
Sooo...why are there so many "spectators" registered? Are they not participating?
BTW, I think we should use miran's post as a logo, it makes me feel all christmas-y inside.
]]>Oh well, (at least!) one more post on the subject!
What do you think of my logo? I think it is super and better than everyone else's put together and I hereby table a motion that mine be adopted as the official logo for Christmas Hack.
http://images5.theimagehosting.com/HackLogo.png
EDIT:
Sooo...why are there so many "spectators" registered? Are they not participating?
I count 19 participants of the 27 registered, which is just more than 70%. I don't think that's bad. It should certainly lead to an "interesting crop" of end results! I just hope I get one of the ideas I really like the look of...
]]>What the hell I've done? Next time I'll let my mounth shut
]]>Oh yeah, take this logo!
]]>Oh yeah, take this logo!
You're hoping to get "I want a game where you compete in one or more winter sports. There should be lots of snow and/or ice."?
What the hell I've done? Next time I'll let my mounth shut
I was just being "comical" about Inphernic's responses to everyone else's logos!
]]>I was just reffering that my initiative almost started a flamewar
]]>What do you think of my logo? I think it is super and better than everyone else's put together and I hereby table a motion that mine be adopted as the official logo for Christmas Hack.
I was just being "comical" about Inphernic's responses to everyone else's logos!
I never said mine are super nor tried to 1) coerce anyone into using them, 2) get them instated as official logos. I said and will say that my logos work better as logos, and tried to give suggestions and directions. What exactly is your problem with that? You think that those programmer art "pieces" are super cool awesomest evar and therefore I'm obviously wrong? Something comical like "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"?
]]>What exactly is your problem with that?
I didn't mean to suggest that you had done either of your numbered things, or that I hold an opposite opinion to you. I just thought it would be funny to give you the chance to respond to an absolutely awful piece of art promoted as though it was the best thing ever. In particular, I think there is a lot of scope for suggesting problems and improvements with my work - even though it already beats every other logo ever devised since time began throughout the known universe. And the idea I would exaggerate is 1,000 times falser than you could imagine even if you thought really really hard for a million billion years.
]]>Please, take your logo discussion to some other thread, OK? The topic of this thread is still (believe it or not ) "A.cc ChristmasHack".
On another note, I have finally managed to code the randomizer in the way I like. It shouldn't be called a randomizer, though, because it's a rather intelligent matching algorithm. I won't delve into details, but basically it boils down to this:
Calculate "matching score" for all recipient-author pairs. Order recipients by highest possible score, if they were paired with the best matching author (ascending). For each recipient on the ordered list: Pick the best matching author from those still available. Matching score is based on several factors: - most important of all, operating systems. If the author can develop for the recipient system, +20. If he can't, the points are based on the author's versatility (someone who can develop for both Win and Lin is considered more likely to make something portable enough to run on a Mac than some Win only, for example). - total number of points the author gave the recipient's descriptions in voting (good = 2, bad = 0).
Works pretty well, and the outcomes, while random, are very sensible (during all of the test runs I got at least one of the descriptions I marked "good").
]]>What should we do if something does go wrong?
]]>Between Inphernic's, Derezo's, and OICW's logos, I think OICW's look slightly noobish (due to the childish looking fonts/etc). I personally SUCK at anything graphical, so you've done much better than I could do. Derezo's first two looked professional and nice to me, as did Inphernic's. I think I'm more drawn to Inphy's due to the simple, crisp, clean, professional look of them.
[edit] Missed the post on no logoness, sorry. The matching algorithm looks good to me, I was going to ask if you kept track of who voted what, so you could match based on their assessment of the idea.
]]>I didn't mean to suggest that you had done either of your numbered things, or that I hold an opposite opinion to you. I just thought it would be funny to give you the chance to respond to an absolutely awful piece of art promoted as though it was the best thing ever. In particular, I think there is a lot of scope for suggesting problems and improvements with my work - even though it already beats every other logo ever devised since time began throughout the known universe. And the idea I would exaggerate is 1,000 times falser than you could imagine even if you thought really really hard for a million billion years.
I.. see.
Please, take your logo discussion to some other thread, OK? The topic of this thread is still (believe it or not ) "A.cc ChristmasHack".
I don't believe it!
Works pretty well, and the outcomes, while random, are very sensible
Are you excluding users from the pairing? My participation is still quite unlikely and it'd be a drag for someone to expect a game from me if I can't find the time.
]]>Are you excluding users from the pairing? My participation is still quite unlikely and it'd be a drag for someone to expect a game from me if I can't find the time.
You are registered only as a spectator now. Once you post your 3 descriptions you are considered a participant - and only then would you be included in the pairing.
You have time to make your decision before tomorrow, 15:45 GMT. Around that time I'll fix the participant list and run the pairing script.
What should we do if something does go wrong?
Something? As in, with the pairing system? Well, I'll examine the pairing myself, and unless I see something braindead (like assigning someone withouit any Linux experience to make a game for a Linux user), I'll let it stay the way it is. If you don't like the descriptions you receive, well... there is no algorithm that could make all 20 people happy .
]]>Is the automated script going to automatically email the pairings and automatically email the emails linking to downloads / etc at the end of the competition? If so, you might want to do a quick test of mail() (just make a quick script to email yourself something) to ensure it will work. It works for me, but I have had a couple people complain of it not working.
]]>If you don't like the descriptions you receive, well...
I don't think there's any description right now that I can't work with. I was more concerned with having a contingency plan for any problems that could happen. More of a proactive risk management type rather than reactive.
]]>In case something goes wrong, you'll have to contact me ASAP, because I'm the only person who is maintaining CH. I will be available every night (my night, GMT+1) throughout the contest. I can't guarantee being in front of the computer 24h. Depending on the nature of the problem, I will try to fix it, and fix the effects that it has had on the database.
I try to triple-check every possibility of a screw-up during testing, but of course I can't be sure everything is right. But I can promise that I'll devote myself to fixing any important problem that should arise.
When I'm using the computer, I always have these forums open, so a PM will get my attention instantaneously, and that's the preferred form of reporting major problems. Minor problems/feature requests can be posted in this thread.
BAF:
The mailing system works as expected.
]]>I won't delve into details, but basically it boils down to this:
Bunch of stuff happens, probably involving magic, santa's bag, reindeer, and unicorns. Gotcha.
]]>Bunch of stuff happens, probably involving magic, santa's bag, reindeer, and unicorns. Gotcha.
With just 15 hours to go, I'm getting even more enthusiastic now than I was. This'll be the first time I've participated in a functioning programming event in almost a decade. I possibly should have been less gushing in my voting in the hope of increasing my chance of getting something really fun to make but I haven't voted 'good' for anything I couldn't make a decent hack at.
Just in case I should get it, can someone tell me or else find a link explaining who "Santa Claws (the one from Futurama)" is, and what his characteristics are? All Google seems to get me is a picture of Zoidburg holding a crab.
]]>http://tfp.killbots.com/wall/155/155_santa-2004_1024.png
http://www.dvd.net.au/movies/f/04019-3.jpg
http://img38.exs.cx/img38/5286/64-grab0182.th.jpg
http://img38.exs.cx/img38/6366/a1-grab0184.th.jpg
The above is all I can find, just in case you (or anyone else) needs it.
]]>He's nasty! So a game featuring Santa Claws would involve a Santa dressed robot with guns shooting at things?
]]>So a game featuring Santa Claws would involve a Santa dressed robot with guns shooting at things?
That is not very "christmasy" .. but it would be more like it if you could buy different guns (3 for the price of 2).
]]>So a game featuring Santa Claws would involve a Santa dressed robot with guns shooting at things?
Yes, if I remember those futurama episodes correctly. Santa Claws's nice expectations were set too high, putting everyone on the naughty list. He thus goes around every christmas destroying everything in site, using a vast assortment of weapons. He also cannot be destroyed, as he has paradox proof crumple zones built into his head. He can, however, be frozen in ice and rendered immobile.
That is about all I can remember about his description from the show, haven't seen it in a while though.
Anyway, back on topic.
This may have already been asked, but are we making these games all have some sort of (even remotely) christmas theme? I don't want to turn in zombie mutants while everyone else has sugar plums.
I don't want to turn in zombie mutants while everyone else has sugar plums.
Clearly the answer is zombie sugar plum mutants.
]]>This may have already been asked, but are we making these games all have some sort of (even remotely) christmas theme?
The rules don't specify and I may or may not stick to a Christmas theme depending on the description I end up with...so that makes at least two of us! Worst case throw some santa hats in there and you're set.
]]>I will be starting late on my project. I have one last final tomorrow night at 8PM my time. Business 101 final (passed all my courses thus far, as far as I know anyways).
]]>Same here, no biggie, I hope to finish it well before due date (which means I do it all Christmas eve).
]]>"Your mistletoe is no match for my T.O.W. Missile!" -Robot Santa
]]>Since I should be able to spend 1-2 evenings (or nights) working on my entry next week, I've decided to enter, so you've got something extra to vote on.
Good luck!
]]>That is not very "christmasy"
Of course it's not very "christmassy". But it is very "xmassy".
]]>Miran I was going to say something simmilar.
EDIT: One question - how would you handle odd number of participants?
Just drop the idea of pairing up people and just give someone a random suggestion from another participant.
]]>Ooops, I'm sure that I read that yesterday, just stupidity
]]>30 minutes! Gogogo! \o/
]]>Oh yeah I can't wait.
]]>The participant list is closed. Just half an hour left .
I will state this one last time, perhaps I wasn't clear enough the two previous times: You will do a game for someone, and someone will do a game for you. Those "someones" can and most probably will be two different persons.
]]>The participant list is closed. Just half an hour left
So that gives us 21 participants? That's very good for round here, isn't it?
]]>Ok one minute to go, I can't take it
]]>And they're off!
I think 21 participants is pretty big, I certainly did not expect that CH would be such a big event. That puts more stress on me as it is the first time I'm organising something like that...
]]>Ok here we go. [speaking to myslef]This will be tricky bit. Let's get some ideas[/speaking to myself]
]]>Whoah, I got a some difficult instructions (for me at least). But I'll try my best...
]]>I have to admit that by applying the rules of a real life Secret Santa, I had assumed we would find out who we were coding for. It doesn't really matter, I'm just curious! Luckily whoever I got has understood the rule 4 - "The descriptions you provide should be written with the time limit in mind. Also, they should be vague enough to encourage creativity", so I might even come up with something decent. I guess I'd better get going!
Is there any chance of the 9 "observers" volunteering to test compositions under a strict non-disclosure agreement? It's always easier to bug hunt and tweak if someone else will help test for you...
]]>Yay! It's started. I got on desky just to check what I ended up with. Not the best, but I can work with it.
Jakub, thanks again for putting this together. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun for all of us.
10 days to go.
]]>they should be vague enough to encourage creativity
Mine are too specific. I don't think I voted "good" on any of them. Oh well, guess it's going to be challenging for me.
]]>10 days to go.
I count 8.
The main part of the contest starts at 15th Dec 2005, 16:00 GMT and ends at the same time on 23rd.
]]>
Oh it ends on the 23rd? Rip off. Oh well, no problem.
]]>No development blogs? Oh well...
]]>Well you wouldn't want the person you're making a game for to read your development blog, would you?
]]>Well you wouldn't want the person you're making a game for
Who AM I making this game for? It would be nice to insert some personal comments and best wishes.
]]>I'll use collegro nyan.
]]>Who AM I making this game for? It would be nice to insert some personal comments and best wishes.
Yeah, but the surprise's also fun. And you don't need exactly to know who's getting the game to leave best wishes
]]>Who AM I making this game for?
Yeah, I thought we would know the who-part as well (that's the way it works in most secret santa groups). We should know who we are developing for but not whom we are receiving from.
]]>We should know who we are developing for
/me disagrees.
]]>If there is demand, I'll add revealing the recipient's name as an option in the "Your task" subpage. You won't have to click it if you like the surprise.
Anyone against that addition?
]]>Well at first I thought that I'd know for who I'm developing, but this is better - you have more motivation. So I'm against.
]]>you have more motivation.
How so?
It'd be nice to have a feature that allows you to see who you are developing for, but it is not a big deal. I'm pretty sure my end-product would be the same.
]]>Of course it's not very "christmassy". But it is very "xmassy".
It was supposed to be a reference to the lack of commercial drive in just destroying/killing things. If you can't buy anything, it's not christmassy/xmassy/whateversy!
]]>No development blogs? Oh well...
If you're not a participant, I could message you daily with my progress!
If you can't buy anything, it's not christmassy/xmassy/whateversy!
But then again, the mere act of making a game just because someone else wants it is festive, and some of the descriptions possibly work better if you don't try and force a Christmas element on them.
]]>No development blogs? Oh well...
Actually, I'll be posting little tid bits on my devlog. It'll mainly be technical information, like "my path-finding algorithm is finally working", and won't actually give any details of the game itself away until the event is over.
]]>I'll use collegro nyan.
Very awesome, thank you very much.
I JUST uploaded a tiny fix to collegro. The header file spelled *create_bbox wrong for some reason. Problem solved.
Just wanted to give you a heads up if you already downloaded it.
]]>We didn't have to say what our games were or our specs, but just say the progress on the progress blog
I'll download it at night Nyan.
We didn't have to say what our games were or our specs, but just say the progress on the progress blog
But it'd be no fun without screenshots! And a lot of "progress" would read stupidly like:
"I managed to get another gameplay element working properly. It had been doing weird things, but now it isn't"
Rather than (hypothetically):
"I managed to get the troll properly trying to steal mushrooms and cowering from the player, whereas he had been cowering from mushrooms and attempting to impersonate the player"
]]>Yeah, I thought we would know the who-part as well (that's the way it works in most secret santa groups). We should know who we are developing for but not whom we are receiving from.
That is when you add credits to the game to reveal yourself or make hints like a web site url as credits etc.
Well I have to finish studying for my test in business before I can start my game.
]]>But then again, the mere act of making a game just because someone else wants it is festive
Bah, humbug!
]]>If there is demand, I'll add revealing the recipient's name as an option in the "Your task" subpage. You won't have to click it if you like the surprise.
I WANT this.
]]>but not whom we are receiving from.
That is when you add credits to the game to reveal yourself
Well I have to finish studying for my test in business before I can start my game.
Good luck! I have to finish up work before I can start on mine.
]]>Yeah, I want the find-out-who feature too, cause I want to personalize the game a bit. I probably won't click it until a few days before contest end, but I still want the feature.
Well, since I'm now kicking around in university residence with no parental nagging or academic duties to keep me hinged to the mortal flow of time, I seem to have shifted into a 25 hour day, and I slept 3 hours through the CH e-mail (which came for me at 11 AM )
But I've got it now! My requirements are... vague, but at the same time, specific... hehe. I've got to think about how I want my game to be... but in the meanwhile, I think I'll start coding!
]]>
If there is demand, I'll add revealing the recipient's name as an option in the "Your task" subpage. You won't have to click it if you like the surprise.
I WANT this.
Agreed!
]]>Yeah, I want the find-out-who feature too, cause I want to personalize the game a bit.
I have to admit that whoever it is that I'm writing for won't affect the game in any significant way, other than the high score table probably defaulting to their name. Curiousity is a factor, but I think I can guess mine anyway.
If it's optional and most people want it, I don't see the harm.
]]>It may not look right while I'm not in it but I'm watching it closely. I think it would be best to have that learning-who option 1-2 days before the end. Be honest, it may cause you to lose interest or get under too much stress if you learn the recipient. Also customization shouldn't require more than half an hour...
]]>It may not look right while I'm not in it but I'm watching it closely. I think it would be best to have that learning-who option 1-2 days before the end. Be honest, it may cause you to lose interest or get under too much stress if you learn the recipient. Also customization shouldn't require more than half an hour...
I agree with this thoroughly. But is anybody being forced to cut off the last two days of competition due to other constraints?
]]>I WANT this.
You have it .
No waiting 6 days, no forcing anything on you. If you want to know who are you doing it for, you can. If you don't want to, I'm with you .
]]>I WANT this
You have it
Problem solved:)
]]>Just remember: Curiosity killed the cat!
]]>It seems that I've been voted. Doesn't matter. I was going to agree with the time limited reveal. Anyway I'm going to reveal it before the end.
By the way I have managed to make main character for my entry and I must say that this was my first attempt to do an pixel art and it doesn't look so bad. I just love Graphic Gale.
By the way I have managed to make main character for my entry and I must say that this was my first attempt to do an pixel art and it doesn't look so bad. I just love Graphic Gale.
I'm at the level where I have a title screen, instruction screen and the beginnings of world display and a world generator. I also have a pretty clear idea where I'm going. I just hope I make it!
]]>Heh, I don't think I'll have enough time, not at least to make all the maps and all, since I'm completely dumb and slow, I won't end up making the maps, the game ok, but the maps, ouch...
]]>[...] the game ok, but the maps, ouch...
Aren't they a substantial part of the game?
]]>have the maps be randomly generated?
]]>I can't see any info on my target's machine.
]]>I can't see any info on my target's machine.
Why would you? It's not like in 8 days of gamework you'll be able to not make the game playable by most of the computer, just assume something at least 1ghz, 256mb RAM and some HW-Acceleration. Otherwise I think he would have posted it.
]]>Yay, finally got home! Now to start some design work!
]]>My progress: I've got the game structure practically done, nothing on screen so far, but the base is complete, which is a start, I think I'll have enough time to finish this, or at least I hope so. Let's see, sprites and sound are my main consearn.
]]>I have the game idea and 20% of 1 sprite.
]]>I've just got some generic base code written at this point... I'm working on my ideas .
]]>Aawwww, you guys, this secret santa idea is so cute!
]]>It's a bit like the dutch tradition of "surprise maken" we have here at 5 december. The only difference is a "surprise" is usually made of papier maché and contains a real present inside it.
]]>I can't see any info on my target's machine.
That's because your partner didn't provide any. Just assume the average, I think. I'm going to finish the site today (the part that will allow to download games and send out e-mails on 23rd is still not done), and then I'm going to study for tomorrow's exam. I did well on today's, so I think tomorrow will be easy as well, but I wouldn't like to go unprepared.
I'll hopefully start coding tomorrow after the exam, and probably after a visit to a few pubs. So, it'll be ChristmasBuzzHack for me .
]]>Just got back from school, I have big amount of ideas about the project, just need to sit down and make them happen. Today I've got two tests - English (piece of cake) and Geography (big piece of cake). Now I have to go outside to obtain some Christmas presents, but I don't want to go there because there's hell out there for the time being. It looks that tommorow I'll go to pub and today I'm going to dance. BUt the weekend will be fully dedicated for programming.
]]>Finally ended my first sprite ever (sincerally), it looks a bit good for a start... It took me two hours, but at least I'm starting to learn how to colour it. That sprite isn't the most used one ... Have lot's of work to do.
]]>Hrm . . . I don't know about anyone else, but this 1MB limit is going to 0wn me. I happen to be using lua and luabind (perhaps a mistake considering the size limit, but it's the framework that I have and that I've been using for a long time) and the executable is already ~750 K after stripping all symbols and compressing it with UPX.
Looks like I'll have to put the binary up on my own webspace for people to download, since I'm sort of using 5 external libraries that many people won't have... cough*flagrantdisregardforguidelines*cough
I was also planning on taking pictures with my digital camera to use for cutscenes. Whether I'll get around to it is a different story, but there's no way I'll be able to do it (unless I use half-size 35% quality jpgs or something... but that's another external lib ).
Is there some sort of possibility that this size restriction can be relaxed? Say, by about 3 or 4 MB? 1MB is pretty ridiculous--even most freeware indie game releases are around ~100 MB these days. And although we only have a week... I'm still going to have to cut material to fit the 1 MB limit.
]]>I agree. The limit should be 5 megs. Baf already said space isn't an issue.
]]>5 or 10 megs each would be fine with me. But 100mb would be an issue
]]>I think 1MB is fine, you can even bring your game with you on 3.5" discette
So far I've got the main character and beginning the framework. And preparing to go dancing.
I bet cURL and a little "install" script would fit in 1mb
]]>I bet cURL and a little "install" script would fit in 1mb
That's what I said, only not with those exact words.
Speaking about this size limit thing, I think 64k would be a good number for source only releases.
]]>the executable is already ~750 K after stripping all symbols and compressing it with UPX.
Don't use UPX if you are going to ZIP everything, anyway. UPX has quite poor compression algorithm so just try searching for efficient ZIP compressor.
Speaking about this size limit thing, I think 64k would be a good number for source only releases.
It would be OK for source-only releases, but games usually require data, which rarely fit in 64k. Of course unless you are focusing on making everything compact (demoscene 64k prods come to mind).
]]>You can make data inside a game.
]]>I meant source + data. 64k would be enough.
]]>That would be tricky but with descriptions I got not so hard to implement.
I can try to do it, after main game will be done.
I meant source + data. 64k would be enough.
I'm sure it would. If this were a competition, I'd say go for it. But it is more of a flexible event and there's some participants who haven't spent much time on optimization and data crunching (me included) and I think they'd rather spend more time on the design stage rather than the deployment stage.
]]>As I'm running the event, it turns out that this is ultimately my call to either change the limit to something higher, or leave it the way it is. I wouldn't like to appear despotic, and, especially considering the fact that this is not a competition per se, I'm ready to listen to you. But I'd also like you to see an alternative point of view.
The rules are the thing that encourages creativity during a hack. I agree that sometimes such limits seem very restrictive. This year I took part in my first coding competition: SpeedHack 2005. At first, I thought: 256 kb? Hey, that's simply ridiculous. The source code for my previous games was usually about 200! I participated anyway, and it turned out that the limitation contributed much to the excitement I felt during the competition, and the satisfaction I got upon finishing my entry.
I also entered a One Switch Competition, where the game was allowed to use only one button for all gameplay control. Now, while that felt crippling for the first few days, I ended up liking the design-wise challenge it posed. I believe that my submission to this contest is one of my best games so far.
So, I would like you to consider the rule not as a stupid restriction, but as a challenge and additional motivation. After all, we could remove all rules. Someone could complain that he got awful descriptions from his partner, and he would like to make an altogether different game, because he doesn't think he can manage. Should we allow that too? (Please, don't consider this as a straw-man argument. I am well aware that this is exaggerating, and that this is a much more fundamental rule to this event).
Another thing you might consider is the fact that people may have already designed their games with the restriction in mind, and already started some work. Increasing the maximum filesize would be a bit unfair to them, don't you think?
Having presented my point of view, I'd like to offer you the following three options.
1) leave the rule as is, 1 MB for source and game data with optional binaries
2) leave the 1 MB rule for source and game data, and allow an additional binary+DLL package (no additional data) of unlimited (but reasonable) size.
3) extend the maximum ZIP size to X MB (state how much would satisfy you)
The choice is yours. I'll wait until a reasonable number of people respond, and then follow the majority vote.
I vote 2).
]]>I second option 2!
]]>Two sounds the best, though I don't think I'll have an issue with size.
]]>2) 2) 2). So, nobody even commented my litle sprite? you bunch of insensible people .
]]>It's ... uhm ... very nice.
But is it thought for a sidescroller? Because in this case the first sprite I had made would have been a sideview of the sprite.
]]>Two sounds the best, though I don't think I'll have an issue with size.
I second this quote
]]>I vote 3) to increase the limit to around 4 or 5 MB, then 2). I understand that a size restriction can make for a very fun contest. I remember a 10kb contest that was very fun. However, I didn't think that a size restriction was the point of this ChristmasHack--it's not supposed to be a coding challenge (aside from the timeframe, I suppose) but a nice thing that we're doing for each other. Personally, fitting everything into 1 MB will be more of a stress than a fun challenge for me. Majority will rule, though.
Looks like zipping the executable got it down to 347 KB, so it's not so bad. Hopefully it can do something comparable for images!
[edit] hmm... nope
]]>Well, 1mb is a little low, I would suggest an additional 1 - 3 mb.
The way I see it, this is supposed to be a gift, so the more space, the better we can make the gift look.
]]>Quit voting and get to work
]]>I vote 2 . And I'm getting back to work right now, Helium Wheatley .
]]>I vote 3, and you should include binaries in that zip.
]]>I think that the zips should indeed come with binary, what's the point? I wouldn't like to have to compile my game. For linux people it may be necessary.
EDIT: What's up with the spell checker? It's not working or what?
]]>You can make data inside a game.
After making this I have some code capable of doing such things, but it requires extra effort not needed in some cases.
I meant source + data. 64k would be enough.
Since 64k can be enough for binary + data in some cases, it can be enough for source + data, but it can require some additional effort if you want your game to look good and sound cool. Not everybody likes pixel art and chiptunes and 64k can be sometimes not enough even for them.
I vote 2).
2) should be fine. Making additional package with Windows binaries shouldn't require much effort, so everybody probably will do it anyway.
]]>After making this [pouet.net] I have some code capable of doing such things
Hotness
Some comments: Your theme needs to be more coherent. Stick to one atmosphere and area. You were jumping between the weird organic structures with digital backgrounds to landscape and then to a city. And the music fit none of it except maybe the intro scene.
Looks like you did your part well with code, but what you need is a good designer.
Well... I just finished the game engine... from here on in, it's 100% content for me, plus a few minor tweaks to the engine here and there
Although, the engine is very highly data-driven, so saying that there's no more coding isn't saying much.... but at least now I cut down on compile times.
Hurray for Lua!
]]>I just finished the game engine
Sounds like you're in good shape.
I'm about 50% done with the design. I suppose my method is somewhat backwards of yours, shaping the game before coding the actual engine (of course, that is almost necessary for my type of game). Also, I decided on the 40-20-40 method (40% Design/Plan; 20% Coding; 40% Testing) before this all started and so far I'm on schedule. We'll see if that is still true on Sunday night.
]]>Sounds like you're in good shape.
Probably better than me. I finished my game engine and discovered that my idea was "not very good". So from here on in, I'm on a patch up job!
]]>After making this [pouet.net] I have some code capable of doing such things
Coming to ASM'06?
]]>
1) leave the rule as is, 1 MB for source and game data with optional binaries
2) leave the 1 MB rule for source and game data, and allow an additional binary+DLL package (no additional data) of unlimited (but reasonable) size.
3) extend the maximum ZIP size to X MB (state how much would satisfy you)
2 is good, and 3 is also good. Option 2 ensures that that people conserve the amount of content that goes into the game. However, it complicates things by having people upload two versions of the game. Option 3 makes life simpler for the developers. Plus, it allows the game makers to swap EXE / DLL space for more room for data, if needed. So it's really a toss up.
Personally, my game is totally retro, so I doubt the source & data will take over a megabyte in the end. But you never know about EXEs and DLLs. Shrug
]]>I'm counting with shipping only source and data. There will be txt file with instructions how to build this simple game. But at first I must find a bug in my memory allocation
]]>Personally, my game is totally retro, so I doubt the source & data will take over a megabyte in the end. But you never know about EXEs and DLLs. Shrug
Ditto - my source + data currently total something like 264 kB of ZIP data. I could crush that substantially further if I had time to play around with sound generation, but I don't so I'm wastefully using fully prerendered WAVs. I think I actually have a really cool retro feel to my game, so hopefully if I can fix up the gameplay a little it won't be too bad.
]]>I just had a very hard day at the university. I had an exam, taken on a bunch of computers. I filled in my test in time by pressing the correct button and waited for the transaction to finish. It didn't, so I called the test supervisor to look at my computer. He did so, and then went on to check if he got my submitted results on his computer. Then he said that everything was in order (despite the fact that my monitor still displayed "Transmitting data..."), and that I can leave.
So I did. When the time came for looking at the test results, I wasn't even on the list. The guy supervising us was nowhere to be found (after all, it's Saturday... who the hell schedules a test on Saturday?), and the professor claims that he never even saw my name amongst the submitted results.
What's funnier - this is the only exam on this course in this semester, which means that I won't be allowed to try the final exam - because I have 0 points. I spent the major part of the day trying to find out where the heck my results are and why they weren't on my professor's desk. The supervisor (I managed to catch him on cellphone) claims that he has sent everything.
Sorry for the rant. On topic of the competition:
It seems to me that option 2) has gathered the most following. That's great, because that is the option I like the most myself. I'll amend the rules and put up a warning on the site.
The final idea will be something like this:
- you are required to submit one ZIP, 1,000,000 bytes or less in size, which contains all the source and game data.
- you are allowed to additionally submit another ZIP, up to 10,000,000 bytes in size, which would contain only binaries and shared libs needed. No duplication of game data - all the game data would sit in the first archive.
I don't want to dwell on this longer - I really would like that implemented fast. I don't know how much time the issue with the exam will eat (at that point, I think that, at best, I will be allowed to take the test once more with a different set of questions), so I don't have how much time I'll have on my hands. I still have to start work on my entry, but I'm mentally exhausted for now .
So long. Keep up the good work, all of you. I'll try to make the modifications before 21:00 GMT.
]]>Sorry to hear about what happened Jakub. Finals are always hectic and annoying.
Anyway, we all appreciate your efforts in keeping this thing going. gets back to work
]]>
It didn't, so I called the test supervisor to look at my computer. He did so, and then went on to check if he got my submitted results on his computer.
...
When the time came for looking at the test results, I wasn't even on the list ... which means that I won't be allowed to try the final exam.
Naturally you're going to fight this? How long do you have until the final, and have you contacted the department committee (or whoever is in charge of this stuff in your course's hierarchy) to sort this out? I can't see how it would hurt them to let you sit the final while from their point of view the doubt persists and then to strike you from the list if they ultimately find that you didn't take or pass the earlier test - which of course they won't.
you are allowed to additionally submit another ZIP, up to 10,000,000 bytes in size, which would contain only binaries and shared libs needed. No duplication of game data - all the game data would sit in the first archive.
I don't want to dwell on this longer - I really would like that implemented fast.
In that case sorry to dwell, but I was planning on submitting a range of binaries for all three major Allegro targets - the third being MacOS X. Unfortunately the artificial separation of data and program files is something that isn't really maintained in the Mac world, instead applications come as a bundle, which means that a single icon represents all of the binary and data files for an application. To install the application you drag its icon to your /Applications folder, to uninstall it you drag the icon to the trash.
The icon actually represents a directory structure that includes the binary and the data files. It is possible to delve inside using the Finder (analogue to the Windows Explorer) but the layout isn't very user friendly and it isn't always obvious where the programmer expected data files to be put - especially as vanilla Allegro ignores the normal pattern of doing things.
The normal Mac user will consider an application that stores its data files separately ugly and hard to manipulate. Not as bad as a program with a Windows style installer, which usually simply won't get installed, but pretty evil. Of course keeping a Mac application bundle in a zip file rather than a Mac-ordinary dmg virtual disk images will produce some ugly extra files if extracted on a Windows or Linux machine, but I can live with that.
If the consideration is space, could it not be 10,000,000 bytes without data, 9,000,000 with - so that if the user wishes to duplicate data files they can simply "pay" for it by giving back what theoretically could be duplication of source code zip contents?
I still have to start work on my entry, but I'm mentally exhausted for now
I'm virtually done with mine. It helps that I started on a framework that included functioning placeholder title and instruction screens two days early, but even considering that I think I may have aimed too far on the simple side with gameplay. I can add some extra graphics, I suppose. At least I've managed to make it much more fun than it was, albeit at the cost of now having only a much weaker link with the spirit of the descriptions sent to me.
Anyway, we all appreciate your efforts in keeping this thing going. gets back to work
I want to second this. I have personally failed miserably to organise two competitions now, so I'm in awe.
]]>Sorry to hear about what happened Jakub. Finals are always hectic and annoying.
Those are not the final exams yet. In Poland, we have the winter term finals in Jan/Feb. Those are just mid-term exams that determine whether you are allow to take the finals or not, and with what base/starting grade.
I'll sort this out somehow, but I was really looking forward to the free time. Now it seems that I won't waste my time on learning anymore, but on chasing different officials across the buildings .
Anyway, we all appreciate your efforts in keeping this thing going. gets back to work
I want to second this. I have personally failed miserably to organise two competitions now, so I'm in awe.
That's great . But I don't really think that I'm doing such a good job, considering how many things need constant tweaking and changes. I'm doing my best, though.
If the consideration is space, could it not be 10,000,000 bytes without data, 9,000,000 with - so that if the user wishes to duplicate data files they can simply "pay" for it by giving back what theoretically could be duplication of source code zip contents?
Sure, no problem. I'll just allow including an exact duplicate of the data from the 1MB zip.
]]>I see no reason why the data cannot be in both zips as long as they're the same. I think that I won't have enough time to finish my game, but let's see. starts working.
]]>I will probably have enough time once I get passed these really odd preliminary bugs (such as my prog only accepting keyboard input for the short time it is running before set_gfx_mode has been called)
]]>I see no reason why the data cannot be in both zips as long as they're the same. I think that I won't have enough time to finish my game, but let's see. starts working.
I seem to be having quite the opposite problem. The thing I planned proved to be so much easier than I thought it would be that apart from one graphic I'm finished. I guess I get a lot of time to tweak the difficulty curve, which at the minute doesn't really climb like I'd like it to. Although I am enjoying my little game much more now than I was, so either the various tweaks and changes I've made have worked or it's a grower!
EDIT: I even double checked the name of the person I'm making for (my guess was correct!) and already inserted the near-obligatory reference to them. Indeed you now play the game as that person.
]]>I'll make sure to use C++ next time and use premade data structures, since I seem to lose a lot of time making my own in C. I'm dumb!(this was not a l.ol)
EDIT: By the way, can any of you give me a good font that could be loaded with allegro itself or maybe with the library it might be required? I didn't want to lose more time in that.
]]>EDIT: By the way, can any of you give me a good font that could be loaded with allegro itself
All I can offer is the slightly illegible Gothic thing I used several years ago in my Anarchy project, shown more clearly here in something else:
{"name":"Anarchy1996-1Allegro.png","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/9\/b949a3ab5aafc2cffafba70fa173f540.png","w":640,"h":480,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/b\/9\/b949a3ab5aafc2cffafba70fa173f540"}
Presumably that doesn't fit the bill? On the off chance that it does, it's included in the datafiles of both real Anarchy and "Anarchy: Early 1996 Turbo C attempt - 2005 Allegro update" (which is a much lighter download) on my members.cc site.
]]>In fact it does quite fit it, at least it's better than allegro's default font. Thanks. Care to teach me the basics of using it? I don't feel like messing with your source-code.
EDIT: Actually, it seems pretty easy, nevermind.
EDIT2: My compiler just went crazy now, and I can't figure out what's wrong. Is global variable initialization bad programming?
//global variable int x = 0;
EDIT3: Never thought that the compiler would go so crazy for something so silly, I just forgot the ";" on the end of a declaration on a header file.
]]>Well, I have an arial font I use with allegrogl that I made for openglui. You may have to tweak it a littlbe, but it will save time.
]]>By the way, can any of you give me a good font that could be loaded with allegro itself
I've only glanced at fonts, but from what I can tell, you can use the Allegro Font Editor to load any font on your computer that you'd use for some other program, say MS Word, and put it into an allegro game.
]]>Thanks Steven, I'm gonna try it now.
Anyone know how to do rotations on images on photoshop without anti-aliasing, or even to disable anti-aliasing for good?
Damn beaten, I was just going to post Allegro Font Editor. Anyway I have functioning framework of my game and terrible headache from palettes and transparent colors. I was trying to change the index of color by redefining the macro in my headers but it didn't helped.
]]>Well, I've tweaked mine heavily and have just made my first submission! I still think that the idea I invented based around my receiver's suggestion was probably too simple and more of a 2 day SpeedHack type thing than an 8 day Christmashack, but I find the end game strangely mesmerising so I'm happy with that. I'm also busy tomorrow and Tuesday, so if I hadn't started on my framework two days early I probably would only have finished on the final day. I'll probably just sit around tweaking it from now on.
How is everyone else doing? Has anyone else, like me, picked something that was probably a little too simple? Is anyone suffering with something that is possibly slightly too complicated?
Anyone know how to do rotations on images on photoshop without anti-aliasing, or even to disable anti-aliasing for good?
Sorry, not a clue. But the popular shareware Paint Shop Pro can do it if you can live with a few days of that - although perhaps writing a tiny Allegro program with rotate_sprite would be less hassle than downloading and installing something like that. Alternatively, if your ultimate recipient isn't me and you're happy with me knowing it isn't me then I could do them for you via an email swap.
]]>There's no way how to disable antialiasing in Photoshop (as far as I know) and I don't recommend to do graphics with it. If you want to use it you have to use .tga files which can store alpha channel and then use draw_trans_sprite()
Try to use Graphic Gale.
Well Thomas I'm suffering from headaches for the time being, but there's only two related to the Christmashack, first I posted above - 8bpp palettes, and the second is that I don't know whether continue with the current work or write something else (maybe I can finish both). Yeah maybe there's one more: graphics.
Yeah maybe there's one more: graphics.
Oh, you won't believe how simple my graphics are - part of the design brief I was forced to adopt involved being able to survive without any talented artistic input! I'll post a screenshot as soon as the competition ends so that you can see, although I'm definitely marking mine to be publically available after the event so you can check it out yourself maybe.
Actually, who's up for a mass screenshot posting thread kicking off at 16:00 on the 23rd? Obviously not a formal part of the competition, but if we can all try and grab an establishing screenshot (e.g. the title screen) and a "cool" in-game shot then it should be interesting to take a step back at the end and see what everyone has come up with. Especially once we can reveal titles, base descriptions and recipients!
]]>How is everyone else doing?
If I didn't have to go to work tomorrow, I could have finished it in time no problem. But I still have so much to do and so little time, I'm not sure how "finished" my game will be. It's a relatively simple game and I reused my framework that I also used in the last Speedhack but I wasted a lot of time I normally wouldn't if it was a 2 day competition. I still have a bit of pixel work to do, collisions, AI, levels, sounds, music, etc. Basically everything. All I have so far is a few sprites that move on the screen...
]]>How is everyone else doing? Has anyone else, like me, picked something that was probably a little too simple?
I was debating last night whether I should switch to a different idea or stick with the one I'm working on. I actually wanted to switch to a different, simple idea, but I decided to stick with what I have.
Let's see here, 5 more days. Should be plenty of time.
EDIT: By the way, one of the most annoying things is when you run into a problem. With time short you can't just post the problem and then read a book until the problem is solved; you have to either fix it or work around it and keep going with the rest of the project.
I'm also having trouble keeping track of what to do next. There's so many things that need to get done before I even have something to work with. One of the reasons why I wanted to switch ideas. Like, I'll have spent the past 30 minutes doing one feature, compile, run, and then I have to go do 3 other features before this feature even does anything.
How is everyone else doing?
I'm still designing things, but I have solid idea for a nice game. It's mostly based on one of my abandoned projects, but I'll have to write everything from scratch since original one was made in Pascal in mode 13h (but I will reuse some levels from it).
]]>I'm still working on my idea, kind of... working along (actually i havent done much in the past 2 days ).
]]>Things are coming along ok, but far from good. Whenever I start to make a little bit of progress, I come across an odd bug. But, I do have a completley textureless version of the main char on the screen that moves around
(Textureless because the allegrogl make texture fuction below for some reason doesn't work, despite that the bitmap is loaded fine.)
glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D); BITMAP* texture = load_bitmap(material<i>.textureFilename.c_str(), 0); glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR); glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR); material<i>.texture = allegro_gl_make_texture_ex(0, texture, GL_RGB);
]]>
How is everyone else doing?
I've made a well-rounded game in a month, but a week is a different story. Plus, I'm still relatively new at the allegro library, so I have to spend a lot of time checking the manual. I was hoping to catch up to my planned timeline today, but I'm having this problem.
]]>My problem is that I'm doing everything I can so far, but I'm not testing anything since everything is interligated. My problem is that I'm not a artist and I went way too far from what I really know of allegro, that, in 8 days, heh. Well, I think I'll make it, maybe it won't be polished, but it will be playable.
]]>Well, I am still having the texture problem. Since the only thing it could possibly be is an OpenGL error, I went through to find the first occurance of any opengl error. The only problem is that the first opengl error occurs on the 3rd executed line of code, allegro_init(). So now I am sitting here completely confused as to how that is even possible.
]]>I was debating last night whether I should switch to a different idea or stick with the one I'm working on. I actually wanted to switch to a different, simple idea, but I decided to stick with what I have.
Same as me William.
Steven that's a pitty.
Well after yesterdays 8 hour coding & pixeling marathon I was going to do the same today but I went to obtain a Christmas gift for me - new cell phone since the old one refuses to work . But they didn't have the one I want and I can afford, actually they have but with f***ing firmware from T-mobile which screws up the whole menu. So my last hope is that it will be aviable on tuesday. And then when I got home from city I realised that we have a problematic test from math tommorow so I did nothing today. So I feel bit angry about this, but I think this is nothing compared with your problems.
]]>Well I've just submitted again, having fixed two minor drawing errors, one very minor gameplay error and a potential crash if for some reason the sound files cannot be found. I've also heavily tweaked the difficulty curve. I think I'm not giving too much away if I say that my game is wave/zone based. With the earlier version I could get to wave 45 and still not feel much of a challenge. Now I tend not to get beyond wave 20 at best. And a quick test by others via non-Allegro.cc means seems to end with most of them not getting beyond the first five waves, so I'm quite happy with the learning curve given that I've been playing it or lesser variations of it for around 2 days now.
]]>I'm spending most of my time e-mailing and waiting for e-mails regarding the misplacement of my test at the university. I'm a bit stressed out, so I end up doing much less than I planned to, but I have a solid design and close to complete graphics...
I watched some snooker to relax (the UK Championship Final - a very nice match this year, featuring one of the oldest and the youngest player in the championship ), and now I intend to finish the graphics and start coding tomorrow. I have a pretty solid framework (designed with the type of game I will be doing in mind), so I don't anticipate any big problems. Except for the possible lack of time.
Great job Thomas, you're the first participant to submit anything. To all people having little time, or struggling with some code/design problems: I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.
]]>I watched some snooker to relax
I lived in York for 5 years, and one time saw an entire table of snooker people in a restaurant (the Italian about 2 minutes from the Barbican should anybody here still live there). Unfortunately I don't know enough to remember or tell you any names. So perhaps not a very interesting story.
]]>I lived in York for 5 years, and one time saw an entire table of snooker people in a restaurant (the Italian about 2 minutes from the Barbican should anybody here still live there). Unfortunately I don't know enough to remember or tell you any names. So perhaps not a very interesting story.
Damn, what I would give for that opportunity. Of course, I would probably stand there to shy to even speak a word to them, but still... I'm a player and a fan, and I would surely sell my liver to just play a frame with one of the pros . The closest I ever got to that was playing against a champion of a city-level English tournament (I believe it was Brighton). But I digress .
I've done 90% of the graphics, though I'm not really pleased with their quality. They'll have to do for now. I'm wondering if I was in Speedhack mode when I was doing them, because altogether they weigh 50kb . Now, time for a designing night.
]]>How is everyone else doing? Has anyone else, like me, picked something that was probably a little too simple? Is anyone suffering with something that is possibly slightly too complicated?
My idea might be a little too complicated based on the limited time I have to spend on it -- I'm also entering in a music composition contest run by the CBC to commemmorate Mozart's 250th birthday, and the two together are a difficult task. It would be a lot easier if my pesky friends didn't keep inviting me for dinner and such. I hate other people!
I'm determined to finish the game eventually if I can't do it for contest end, and regardless, I'm also determined not to leave my pair empty-handed, and to at least have some fun playing experience.
]]>I'm determined to finish the game eventually if I can't do it for contest end, and regardless, I'm also determined not to leave my pair empty-handed, and to at least have some fun playing experience.
Seconded.
]]>I vote for a time extension to Christmas Eve (then just email the stuff on Christmas as a Christmas gift). That would help me GREATLY... my vacation starts on thursday, and the compo ends midday Friday, if I could have until Saturday night, I'd have a greater chance of getting this done.
]]>I wouldn't mind about that, actually I would like it, since I'm only getting rid of college on wednesday. I've finally decided to test my stuff and having some minor bugs, now I just need to get graphics and maps loading work somehow, and then just tweak the game enough for it to look good
EDIT: I'm very happy with myself, I coded almost half the game without testing it even once and got some very minor bugs because I changed stuff I shouldn't . Still lot's to go though .
]]>EDIT: I'm very happy with myself, I coded almost half the game without testing it even once and got some very minor bugs because I changed stuff I shouldn't . Still lot's to go though .
Hot Sauce!
]]>Well, although no where near my original timeline, I'm happy with today's progress. I somewhat caught up on where I need to be. I've now got the core framework of the game engine: Moving, Collision Detection and AI Processing. Tomorrow, after work, I plan on tweaking, expanding and hopefully getting it fully functional so I can focus on content by Tuesday (of course, the chances of that right now are pretty slim).
I wonder how far the game for me is coming along...hmmm...can't wait till I get to see it at the end!
Speaking of work, I should at least get four hours of sleep before going. Guess that ends the weekend and my major amount of time.
]]>Ah another snooker fan, unfortunately I didn't have the time to watch it.
BAF: You don't mean that your vacation starts on thursday, don't you? If yes it would be unfair to me because my vacation starts on friday
Anyway I'm getting more angry - our math teacher has canceled the test today and didn't even bother to check the homeworks (she returned them imidiatelly). And I've spent two hours to get prepared. Jesus that's ridiculous, but still nothing compared to Jakub, I wish you good luck.
]]>Boy you guys are slow! I've pretty much completed my framework, and have nothing left to do but finishing touches such as power-ups, add a few more baddies, slap together more levels, add a menu with a high score..uhh..better get to work
]]>Ah another snooker fan, unfortunately I didn't have the time to watch it.
I knew there was something I forgot to watch. I completely forgot, so I guess I'm not such a big fan. Who won? I'm too lazy to look for results...
]]>Ding beat Davis 10-6.
I've finished the level editor, I only have to do the actual game for it now .
]]>Heh Ding? Is he the one who won Chinesee open last year. Anyway I'm not wondering when O'Sullivan got beaten and Hendry too as far as I know. But to be ontopic: I've got functioning framework. It seems that I have to poslish my update functions and tune the collision detection - so far it's not playable As level editor I'm using and I'll be using notepad.
]]>Try out Collegro for your collisions! I decided to give it a try, and got it working in a few minutes . Saves you some time, at least
]]>I'm not planning to use external libs, and I prefer to write theese functions myself because I want to learn something. I'd use pmask/ppcol/Collegro only when I need bitmasks, for the time being I need only bounding boxes and in my non Christmashack project rotating polygon collisions. And I said that those detections must be only tuned up.
]]>I vote for a time extension to Christmas Eve
I vote against on the basis that changing the rules mid-event as to more than simply end packaging is to substantially change the nature of the event and so what people thought they were participating in. I believe there is, for many of us, an element of pride in our submissions and a want to compare favourably to the other efforts. Since some people may have chosen and already irrevocably worked towards designs that were deliberately abbreviated for the time limit it would be frustrating for them to extend the event in length as it could mean that they could have instead worked on what was otherwise a more favourable idea.
Of course that assumes that the majority will have judged their timing well or, like me, judged too harshly and finished early. With a non-competitive event there isn't any unfairness in moving deadlines back so the case isn't as strong as it would be for something like SpeedHack.
If you want the extra day could you not just submit a short demo or something and release fully the day after? I'm sure some, like me, are keen to show what they do have to the world and are looking forward to the end of the competition to see how the person they wrote for receives their game and in peripheral to see how the community as a whole takes to it.
I'm not planning to use external libs
I've used no external libs! In fact I've not really used Allegro that well. I must use a total of less than 20 Allegro functions, all the install_xxxx's included.
]]>I agree with Thomas. Let's just turn in what we have by the deadline and we can update it later if we choose so.
BTW, we are quickly catching up to the chess in numbers of posts in this thread.
]]>I will definitely not extend the deadline, mostly for the reasons Thomas stated. The original reason for choosing the deadline to be on 23rd was that many people visit their families in distant corners of their countries during Christmas, and don't have Internet access/time/will to check their CH gifts on 25th. I'm one of these persons, and I must be present when the event ends, to supervise and troubleshoot everything. I leave on 23rd, in the evening - hence the date.
Steven:
Go CH! And we managed to do it in 8 days, not 8 months .
Anyway, a very strange visual update bug has surfaced in my code on one person's computer (leading to my investigation of locking and my post to the "Allegro Development" board earlier today), so I'm not as finished as I would have liked to be and I'm glad I have some time for bug hunting.
]]>We harvest presents on Christmas Eve
Well Thomas I meant that I don't want to use any external libs except Allegro, since there's in the rules that the project must use Allegro.
I claim the magical 300th post!
]]>OICW: Yes, Thursday is my first day. CGamesPlay has this whole week off... lucky bastard.
]]>Well, I've had good success bug crushing. In the event that page flipping is in use but a frame needed skipping, I was not drawing another frame but nevertheless requesting a page flip. So you'd get weird stuttering. I've also eased up the timer stuff so that skipping occurs less spuriously, modified a particular visual aspect of my game that was otherwise a little sickening, and achieved a speedup on accelerated DirectX platforms by reading the internal source code of Allegro and learning about some of the hidden surface unlocks contained therein. Oh, and I've added a high resolution display option!
Now that there is a display option, I guess I need some sort of persistance in the setting for that option so I guess I'm not quite finished yet. I'm also toying with persistance of something like a high score, but I'm not really sure it suits the style of game.
There remains one very slight potential drawing issue, but I can't rule in a sufficiently easy fix to be certain of having it corrected. In any case, I severely doubt anyone will really notice it.
]]>I'm trying to conjure up some vigor in order to proceed further with the gameplay. To ignite my creativity, I wrote a falling snow effect to better the atmosphere. It works out nice .
]]>To ignite my creativity, I wrote a falling snow effect to better the atmosphere. It works out nice
A falling snow effect? I'd steal that idea right now if I thought I could afford the processing!
]]>Today I hardly worked on anything except some typing job I was doing. The only thing I did for the game was to put a FPS counter (which wasn't work for some very odd reason of allegro) and tested it a bit. Tomorrow I won't work on it at all, but after tomorrow I'll be free, so I'll have 2 days of speedhack to finish everything .
]]>At the end of this event, we should all post screenshots of our project on a new thread (this was mentioned by someone else) and then the rest of us try to guess which descriptions they got based on just the screenshots. If they're easy to guess, then most likely, they did a good job of working off their original descriptions.
]]>Yarg, I spent an hour yesterday debating whether I should do a different game or not, and if so which one. I'd come up with a cool idea from time to time and then when I went to start it up I didn't because I knew it would take forever to start another project as opposed to just working on what I have
But today I got some more components in my game and I'm finally having some fun with it.
I'm trying to conjure up some vigor in order to proceed further with the gameplay. To ignite my creativity, I wrote a falling snow effect to better the atmosphere.
I always work like that.
At the end of this event, we should all post screenshots of our project on a new thread (this was mentioned by someone else) and then the rest of us try to guess which descriptions they got based on just the screenshots. If they're easy to guess, then most likely, they did a good job of working off their original descriptions.
I second that.
]]>I may not be able to finish it. I'm on my laptop now but the game was being developed on my old 98SE box and the drive crashed. I lost several days work. The laptop had just #include <allegro> on it so now I have to start all over again and pray my memory is good enough to remember the original code.
]]>That is sad indeed
]]>I'm a bit disappointed with my game. It's not even close to what I imagined at first. The gameplay is not very exciting and so far the high point are two out of the three sprites that I pixeled (the third one is very bad), which says a lot as I'm not an artist. And I still have no music and sounds, no collisions and no AI...
I hope the person I'm making this for doesn't have very high expectations...
]]>I kind of hit a bump myself. I spent some time making a grass tile that took a long time. Afterwards, I tried to get the collision detection scheme for the player to work with the AI units, but I messed up one calculation that took me a few hours to figure out. It was one of those, "duh" moments. Now I'm really behind, but I'm gonna see how far I can get by tomorrow night to see where I stand for the final stretch.
]]>I'm stuck on artistic elements... everything else seems to be going okay. I'm not sure I went the right direction with my game idea though... I hope I can still make it fun .
]]>I think I'll steal the snowfall effect too. For the time being I need to draw some characters and still don't have music nor sound. And still I'm thinking about different idea but have one big problem with that.
]]>We're all fucked up, let's just not be that expectative on our gift. I think I'll be able to finish it on time, but I don't know, if the time get's shorter, I don't know...
]]>Finally, I've got something playable and coded keeping in mind possible future improvements. Now it needs some polish (menus, map scrolling, etc.) and more maps. Unfortunately, I won't have too much time, but I think I'll manage to finish it.
]]>The only thing I think I could really do to mine is to add joystick and/or mouse support. I'm not really sold on that though.
It does sound from the things posted that almost everyone else has picked a more complicated idea than me. Mine is constructed in a style that allows me to get away with a minimalist approach to art and aesthetically actually looks quite nice. It also uses a style of play that doesn't rely on a series of individually constructed levels but rather on the variance of certain factors within a single framework. I wish I could post a teaser picture, but I daren't.
At the end of this event, we should all post screenshots of our project on a new thread (this was mentioned by someone else) and then the rest of us try to guess which descriptions they got based on just the screenshots. If they're easy to guess, then most likely, they did a good job of working off their original descriptions.
I would go for this! Presumably we could post screenshots + who they're for since there is no way to match participants to game descriptions on the site.
]]>It does sound from the things posted that almost everyone else has picked a more complicated idea than me.
I don't think necessarily more "complicated." It's mainly the things I've never done before that I have to research and test. I wish I could get the engine finished so I could focus on the actual game play!
]]>I don't think necessarily more "complicated."
Obviously we shall see, but if I exclude sound effects then my entire source + graphics (which are actually source embedded) ZIP archive is 28 kB and the project includes all the gameplay + a title and attract screen, a screen explaining controls, two little introductory segments before each section of gameplay and another two little segments that may sometimes play - one of which being the game over screen. Only with sound does it get up to near 300 kB. I could fit all three major OS binaries (Windows, Linux, OS X) and all data into a single ZIP file and still be below the original 1,000,000 byte barrier!
]]>My unzipped source now is at 80kb.(Only code)
It does sound from the things posted that almost everyone else has picked a more complicated idea than me.
I don't think my idea is complicated, it's completely classic and have been done several times before, just not by me
EDIT: 11kb ziped
]]>Obviously we shall see
Indeed.
Of course, you're are kicking my butt is comparison of byte-size, but I don't think that's a measurable unit of complexity.
]]>My source weighs around 150k unzipped (60k zipped) right now. A lot of it is my generic game framework though. For comparison, I have about 65k of data, but that's without most sounds and I still have no music...
]]>I'm gonna have just now 2 hours of time to work on the game, yay
]]>I'm gonna have just now 2 hours of time to work on the game, yay
How did it go? I've submitted mine again, this time "definitely" for real. It now has that nice feature that many people like in their games - it will fully explain itself at runtime so you need never ever open the readme!
]]>The deadline sure is approaching fast, but now I get home at a sensible time again, so I should be able to go a bit faster.
Though still, I think I am going to have to focus alot less on minor details, which I seem to frequently obsess over, causing my to program something in a few minutes then tweak it for a few hours.
Also, I have to say, while the graphics are far from perfect, they aren't all that bad. YAy for a pluthera of freely available 3d models.
]]>Though still, I think I am going to have to focus alot less on minor details, which I seem to frequently obsess over, causing my to program something in a few minutes then tweak it for a few hours.
That's been my biggest problem. I can't wait to get back home and get to work! Good thing the misses is workin' tonight...hmmm...I really should get her something for christmas...
How did it go?
Terribly bad, just had 1 hour to work, which I did nothing but very boring work and tweaking my sprites a bit, and then had to go to the hospital because I'm sick, anyway, I'm gonna finish the game tomorrow or after tomorrow no matter what...
Tomorrow I've got a exam and then I'm free of college.
I still don't have much time to work on it
I hope to devote all of Thursday and a couple hours on friday morning before 10 (when the compo ends) and finish it up.
I have a fully polymorphatic Music engine, semi finished map/drawing engine, tile set engine, and a particle engine. This is my first fully c++ (game) project using polymorphism that I've done on my own.
]]>I'm trying to get caught back up but right now it seems like I may miss the deadline.
]]>Yay! I finally finished the basics of all the gameplay. All that's necessary for a decent game is some sound effects. I might add one more two more gameplay ideas, but at least I don't have to.
]]>Still working on content. The game will definitely be done and playable, but as for how much stuff will be in it, and how polished it will look . . .
I'm fairly pleased with the music that I wrote for it, though. It's nothing groundbreaking, but at least it's not eardrum breaking!
]]>I'm fairly pleased with the music that I wrote for it, though. It's nothing groundbreaking, but at least it's not eardrum breaking!
I wasn't able to find any good music for my game nor can I make any
Oh well.
I'm fairly pleased with the music that I wrote for it, though. It's nothing groundbreaking, but at least it's not eardrum breaking!
1) I don't have anything to write music (use to have Cakewalk)
2) I wouldn't have time to write anything
3) My music is pretty weak anyway
So I'll just be ripping some music off from somewhere. Hate to do it since everything else is 100% me, but I've got to start cutting corners. On a different note, a few good pieces of the puzzle that is my game fell into place and made me quite happy. I'm also happy that I still have 2-3 hours to work tonight and two days left, enough to get some content in there! Yay! Just gotta keep at it...
]]>I wasn't able to find any good music for my game
Mine plays without music. But that is inkeeping with its style.
EDIT: on the source length discussion as before, a quick line count using wc as suggested by ML in the Programming Questions thread about that sort of thing reveals that I have just 3003 lines and 8339 "words". And I've adopted a very space inefficient coding scheme whereby each little running segment of game (e.g. title screen, level introduction, etc) is a complete class of its own.
]]>I've adopted a very space inefficient coding scheme whereby each little running segment of game (e.g. title screen, level introduction, etc) is a complete class of its own.
same here.
Mine does have some music written by someone I know, I had to kill the quality, but it sorta fits in with the theme.
]]>I've adopted a very space inefficient coding scheme whereby each little running segment of game (e.g. title screen, level introduction, etc) is a complete class of its own.
Mine started off as an attempt to "smart design", creating classes that inherited properly and the framework would be easily expandable. However, as time went by, it became more and more mushy and I'm almost to the point of doing your method above. Heck, I've got one class called ENEMY that houses both the bad guys and the good guys (NPC). This would've been avoided had I made some class diagrams, but meh.
I've also spent a lot of time on sprite-editing and tile drawing. My main sprite has 24 frames that it could be on. Since I didn't want to spend that much time to make 24 more frames for a new bad guy, I just inverted the colors and called him a meanie. It turned out surprisingly well, minus the sky-blue pants.
If I were to take a stab at a percentage point, I'd say I'm 60% done with the game, even though all you can do now is run around and try to avoid the other meanies (that are either hunting you or just running around randomly). It's kind of like a game of tag, but hopefully this last 40% will build this into a decent game.
]]>There is no way I'm finishing mine . I spent all day either doing experiments in the Physics lab or chasing university officials throughout the complex. I managed to resolve the issue with the test, but not exactly to my liking - the professor (who is a total jackass, as it turns out) agreed to give me an oral exam on Friday. I usually do good on oral exams, but I will have only one day to prepare for it (I've already forgotten some of the stuff I learned for Saturday, and the knowledge and skills you need for an oral exam are a bit different), so it will be stealing from my CH time.
Another bad thing - I'm having that exam on Friday, 16:00. That's 15:00 GMT, so I'll have an hour to get back home and get things running. I'll set everything to go off automatic on 16:00 GMT, but I still want to be there to supervise in case anything goes wrong.
I'll go finish the CH site stuff no so that it'll be ready for Friday. My sincere apologies to my partner in the Hack... I'll try as hard as I can, but I don't see how I could possibly make it :\.
The submission handling will be changed a bit, so that you will be able to attach a note to your gift (only your partner will be able to see it), and select which of the descriptions your entry fulfills. Re-submission will be required for those who already submitted, I hope you're okay with that.
]]>oral exam on Friday
Uh oh, that sounds dirty!
The submission handling will be changed a bit, so that you will be able to attach a note to your gift (only your partner will be able to see it), and select which of the descriptions your entry fulfills.
That is a good idea.
Well, do what you can Jakub. I don't think anybody's going to be dissappointed with what you have done. Plus, the main fun of the event comes from making the games, at least, I think.
]]>Don't worry about the game jakub, just like Steven said, we're here to have fun making the game, and not to be pissed off because we didn't get our gift, if it's me, I won't even care at all, I'll have all the other games to play . Today and tomorrow will all be devoted to the game and a litle of after tomorrow also. screams to itself I WILL FINISH THIS GAME /screams to itself. You have done a very good job Jakub, thank you.
EDIT: I have yet to make: AI, map loading (mappy), frame animation, particles and effects.
]]>Finally, I've managed to finish my game. There is completely no sound (although lack of it doesn't take too much from the game) and it really needs some more maps, but when it comes to coding everything is on place (of course there is still some room for polish and improvements).
]]>I have just gotten my game to a playable state, I will at least have something. Though, hopefully, I can make it ALOT better by the time it is delivered.
]]>It's official I have to drop from Christmas Hack 05:(. My Win98SE box HDD is currently at PC Gurus where they are going to copy my old HDD to a new bigger and formated HDD, but I won't receive it until the 24 at 9am. I must regrettibly back out at the last minute due to losing all my data that was only on the HDD. I was in the middle of copying it to a disk to put on my WinXP laptop when the 98SE box crashed and didn't work right anymore. Sorry .
]]>Dont worry Death Gauge, nothing you can do about it.
Everything that I try to do to my just seems not to work, things are just going bad, Mappy currently is not what I can use for my game
EDIT: I ended up using Mappy anyway, map loading is kind of done.
]]>Ahhh... Finally, finished three levels, 2 bosses, a bunch of enemies, challenging level design. I'm very pleased with my final product, and am looking forward to comments . Not trying to gloat; I've had the last 3 days off, allowing complete devotion of my time to working on my entry, and I found time to setup my girlfriends gift with wireless and a bunch of software like limewire, openoffice, and a wireless adapter (laptop)
On another note, I'm saddened to hear many of the problems you guys are having. Sounds like a lot of you aren't havning much fun with your game, which was the whole point.
Heres a screeny:
[edit]twoops
The new system for submitting games is in place, together with the notes and everything.
I would like to kindly ask everyone who already submitted their games (AFAIK, that's Thomas Harte and Craig Niles) to re-submit their entries. Sorry for the inconvenience.
]]>I would like to kindly ask everyone who already submitted their games (AFAIK, that's Thomas Harte and Craig Niles) to re-submit their entries.
That's okay - I have further tweaked mine a little anyway. I'll rebuild and resubmit ASAP.
Heres a screeny:
Oi! There is meant to be another 24.5 hours of secrecy!
]]>Oi! There is meant to be another 24.5 hours of secrecy!
gasp! I'll fix that.
And ok, I'll re-submit
]]>So finally I school ended. I got back from a pub and I'm going to draw enemies, actually only one enemy, code their scripts, make a menu, add sounds, add levels test it and package it. Note this game will be partialy made slightly drunken but don't worry it'll be ok.
]]>Note this game will be partialy made slightly drunken but don't worry it'll be ok.
I for one hail you for steering a successful course between being a nerd and an alcoholic - apparently avoiding both pitfalls!
And ok, I'll re-submit
I've just done the same thing. Alas with my tweaks, I'm now at 1,072,137 bytes for binary + source files - although that total does include my data three times over (once for source, once embedded into an OS X bundle, once loose for Windows users) so I still could have made 1,000,000 for everything if I'd wanted. I've also written a longer than intended and probably boring text on the things I tried before ending up at what I have. I really really really really think I'm finished now. It's stupid really - this could easily have been a SpeedHack entry with more compressed work and less sitting around tweaking for days afterwards!
gasp! I'll fix that.
Well, obviously I'm not an authority or anything. Yours does look significantly more complicated and varied than mine, especially in art terms. I do have some neat screenshots of my thing lined up for tomorrow though!
Is there anybody who is not planning on marking theirs available for the public or else releasing independently later?
]]>I'm back in the hack . I still have the exam tomorrow, but I think I won't ever be more ready than I am now - even if the professor is an asshole and already thinks that I'm a cheat, I won't achieve anything by sitting and re-reading the same stuff over and over.
I don't have much time left to finish my entry, so it'll be more of a speedhackish quality, but I intend to have it polished after the hack.
Yes, I intend to release the game for the public, both on the CH site and on my own.
OK, 24 hours left. Wish me luck .
]]>Wish me luck .
Good luck to you and the rest who are finishing things up!
I'm pretty sure it's going to be an all-nighter for me. I'm going to write as much code as I can during my breaks at work. Should be interesting to see what compiles...hehe. BTW, this whole week has been like one long all-nighter and I'm starting to feel slightly delirious.
]]>I for one hail you for steering a successful course between being a nerd and an alcoholic - apparently avoiding both pitfalls!
I'd like to know if this is some kind of an idiom, if yes I need explanation. Else I'd like to know what leads you to theory that I'm steering between being a nerd and an alcoholic. I was in pub, but with friends to celebrate beginning of holiday and one of our classmates has returned from Ireland for Christmas. I only had two beers and a pledge. Anyway I'm joking, because when I'd be drunk I'd not be able to operate computer and respond here.
So far I have drawn first frame of my enemy sprite.
]]>I'd like to know if this is some kind of an idiom, if yes I need explanation. Else I'd like to know what leads you to theory that I'm steering between being a nerd and an alcoholic.
I wouldn't like to put too much reliance on it being an idiom, but by steering a course between the two it means you avoid becoming either despite the possibility. Like if a sea captain - or more interestingly, a pirate! - successfully steers between two islands. He lands at neither. So, in other words, you are not an alcoholic because you leave the pub still able to operate a computer and you are not a nerd because you don't avoid the pub to do programming.
]]>Ok, I understand. At first when I got to know that we're going out there I was refusing to go but was persuaded to go. Then after hour or hour and half I appologized that I have to do some programming and got out. And tommorow I have the whole day till 17:00 CET.
EDIT: So I have the enemy sprite and going to implement it.
]]>Wow, some bugs really slowed me down... now I'm probably not gonna make it big till the end. But I hope I can get it finished (even if with little maps/characters).
]]>I may not have music in my game, but I got custom sounds! My voice acting fits perfectly for the creatures in my game
]]>I will have no sounds and no music. And no lots of other stuff either...
]]>Bla... if I have anything to show, I'll be happy .
]]>To everyone worrying about his/hers entry:
Hey, don't get down . Up till now I was thinking that I'm not going to make it, with the exam and uni problems and all. But right now I entered SpeedHack(TM) crunch mode, which probably means that I'll spend the following 20 hours working hard.
You can finish it if you only believe it . And I believe in you .
To general public:
I don't know if I'll be able to supervise the closing ceremony (:P) tomorrow, so if anything goes wrong please be patient, I'll get to you ASAP. I assure you that your entries won't be lost, I quadruple-checked that, so any bugs will be non-lethal for your games .
Its time to start crying and begging for forgiveness of the unlucky soul who has me making their game, I dont know if I can finish in time.
]]>Well, I have one level of mine working, and I think I am going to work more on features (ie: settings, highscores, etc.) before I make another. Still, I am planning on coding right up until the deadline to see if I can get 2 or 3 good looking levels in. I must say, that the graphics are quite good on the one level I do have, and the music, while annoying, fits it quite well, and is also quite original. (YAy for knowing artistic people.)
]]>I'm currently feeling that my brain wants to go ut through my ears, in a positive way. Still a lot of work to do, though, and it's only 1:54 AM .
Good news: the game is now in a state that could be submitted to the competition if it was neccessary, so even if I won't do much I still get to submit my entry .
Is somebody else still working now? North and South Americans don't count, it's only about 8-9 PM on your continent .
]]>Is somebody else still working now?
I'm an hour behind being right here on the prime meridian, but I've just come down to switch the computer off. I'm feeling I should still be working because my game isn't exactly brimming with content, but I remain, as I have been for days, unable to think of a way of extending it that wouldn't take weeks. I'm certainly not ruling out a blitz tomorrow should something come to me, but it seems rather unlikely...
]]>My game is playable, it's problem now is that things are not very organized and that I'm not good at all on graphics, which makes me have to steal artwork, or go with crap crap. I'm going to work all night still to see what I can turn my game in.
]]>It seems like a lot of people need extentions, including myself (Christmas shopping and stuff took a lot of time, plus I had finals and came up North.) It also seems silly to end on Friday morning, the first day a lot of us will have time to seriously finish up.
I suppose I can just finish it up after the hack though, and just turn in an incomplete game.
]]>It also seems silly to end on Friday morning
Well, we've already discussed a deadline move and the outcome was that it wouldn't be moved.
You might also want to check out the Allegro.cc users map, as it suggests there are likely to be at least as many participants for which it ends on Friday afternoon as Friday morning. And maybe some for which it ends late evening.
]]>I declare officialy I quit now.
Some memory bugs (just like all the times) killed me and I don't have enough time to make the game complete. I hope I ever make it to figure out that memory bug though, so I can send the game even if late.
I still vote we extend this until Christmas eve then send the games on Christmas day... but I'm still not sure if I'd have time to finish, but I'd be a lot closer.
]]>It's a bit good to know that at least I'm not going that bad as I thought I was. My main problem is still art, no matter what.
Edit: To the people that won't be able to finish this, don't worry about it, I'm only going to finish it because I plan not to sleep today
]]>A big problem for me is I also have real life things going on, so I cant devote a lot of time to this. I got a nice system started, unfortunately the timing is bad.
]]>A big problem for me is I also have real life things going on, so I cant devote a lot of time to this. I got a nice system started, unfortunately the timing is bad.
Sorry to hear that, I today struggled a lot with myself to keep in front of the screen and not going to see my girlfriend, tomorrow I'm her's though .
EDIT: I can't keep up without sleeping, now the things are going to get harder, my game is playable but it can't be called a game yet, needs a lot more tweaking, going to bed now, and waking some hours later. Wish me luck.
]]>12 hours left. Better put on Pink Floyd's Time, cause the clock is tickin'.
]]>I can't keep up without sleeping, now the things are going to get harder, my game is playable but it can't be called a game yet, needs a lot more tweaking, going to bed now, and waking some hours later. Wish me luck.
I wouldn't (and won't) be able to do that. If I went to sleep, I wouldn't wake up. With an 8 to 6ish, 7ish job, I've hardly got any sleep this week. I'm planning to work all night and polish this game into at least a presentable demo, even though I feel dead tired.
Good news though, I managed to write two new AI types in 5 minutes approximately. That's not saying much since I had the framework designed for just that, but it's still nice to see it work on the first try.
PS: No one should quit or drop out. Just send what you got. Spend a moment on the front screen of your game and explain what you intended to do. It'd be better than not getting anything at all.
]]>My game is playable but a few important things are missing. As I already said, there are no sounds and music (might still add that actually). But the big problem is that I still have no santa (and santa is the main character in my game), I only have his sleigh and the reindeer (sp?). Also a few things need tweaking and I still have to make sure it compiles and runs on Linux. And if I have time, I might add a couple more "levels" (so far I only have 1 and it's not even good). And I have to write a readme.txt. I'd also like to have a highscore table kind of thing but I think that won't be possible. I'll have about 4 or 5 hours of time to do all that before the deadline...:-/
EDIT:
PS: No one should quit or drop out. Just send what you got. Spend a moment on the front screen of your game and explain what you intended to do. It'd be better than not getting anything at all.
I completely agree. Getting something (anything) is better than getting nothing.
]]>OK, I've submitted my entry. It could really use some more maps, so I'll resubmit it if I'll manage to make some more, but 19 maps it has now should provide fun for some time. Still, I'll probably add more maps after the compo.
]]>I'm back at home, having travelled here today from university, with a copy of my game that I've e-mailed to myself. My parent's computer does not have a compiler installed -- luckily, my game is centered around lua scripts, so I don't need to touch C++ code for the remainder of development. Today I made two new enemy types, a new set of tiles, and much more... I'm working on cutscenes now, and then I have to make a few levels... all-nighter time! Let's see if I can do it!
P.S. no, I'm not going to skip making the cutscenes to spend some actual time on levels. The cutscenes are fun.
]]>So the final countdown began. I've woke up to finish my entry. From yesterday I have semi-functionning enemy (he don't want to die properly) and now I'm going to implement the rest of cutted down gameplay. I think I'll finish it on time but the code will not be very polished so I advise everybody not to read it . Still there shouldn't be any memory leaks or any critical bugs, only animation is still a bit buggy but I'm gonna fix it.
]]>I uploaded a little tech demo since I didn't have time to work on it today, and I really don't want to stay up all night working.
I was planning on finishing it up after the contest was over anyways.
]]>Again I have to say that I don't care if that game would be crappy/suck at graphics/not finished. I know that somebody tried to finish it. I know that somebody could not finish it, because of broken computer so it's an excuse. To the rest of you: I think that everybody has simmilir meaning about it as me, so all you need is just to show that you were working on it so everybody can see it.
]]>There, I just made a submission of my one leveled game. It is a nice looking level though, at least in my opinion. I decided to go the route of making a little bit of good looking, well working gameplay, rather than a lot of buggy, ugly gameplay, thus the aforementioned one level. Although, it is somewhat boring and easy, but hey, level 1 of any game normally is. If I can, I will add another level later, but odds are I will still be sleeping when this is over.
]]>Yeah... I caved and have decided to sleep now. I uploaded a sort of demo. I think it's pretty sweet, but it will be a lot better once I finish it, which shouldn't take too long (but then again, I am lazy ).
Merry Christmas, everyone!
]]>It seems like a lot of people need extentions, including myself (Christmas shopping and stuff took a lot of time, plus I had finals and came up North.) It also seems silly to end on Friday morning, the first day a lot of us will have time to seriously finish up.
In addition to what Thomas Harte said: Please remember that there are timezones on the + side of GMT, and in these countries the hack actually ends the night before Christmas Eve. Myself, I live in GMT+1, and the hack ends at 17:00 for me.
Most of people don't have time during Christmas themselves, and that includes me. I have to be there to at least salvage the whole thing if something goes wrong, and I am driving 200km into countryside this very evening.
Also, I strongly believe in the argument about those who thought ahead about the schedule feeling cheated. I would certainly feel cheated after pulling an all-night session until 4:30 AM and waking up at 10:00 AM, if I was to find out that I still had one more day and this crunch-fest was for nothing.
We have 9 submissions now, out of 21 participants. That is good - some more people will submit just before the deadline, I'm sure, and even Speedhack has about 50% entry/participant turnout, so we should be pleased .
I still have to include a menu, sounds, some particle effects, well-done screen and tweak the physics a little/lot, and I have time only till 16:00 (15:00 GMT) (the exam), so I probably won't post much before the hack ends.
Good luck to everyone still trying to finish!
]]>5 and half hours left to go! It's 4:30AM for me and I'm posting more to keep my brain from turning off more than anything.
I've still got a long way to go. I've got a list of things in front of me that need work, but it's highly unlikely they will all get done. Nonetheless, I've created an interesting set of AI bots that might make for some interesting combinations. Who knows! I'll probably package everything around 8:00ish and get to work a bit late.
BTW, I finally added some ripped music which really livens it up!
]]>12 hours left. Better put on Pink Floyd's Time, cause the clock is tickin'.
12 hours is just long enough for a Pink Floyd guitar solo!
5 and half hours left to go!
5 and a half hours isn't.
Ho ho ho. No offense meant, obviously. Although I prefer Thom Yorke & Sparklehorse doing Wish You Were Here.
Again I have to say that I don't care if that game would be crappy/suck at graphics/not finished. I know that somebody tried to finish it. I know that somebody could not finish it, because of broken computer so it's an excuse. To the rest of you: I think that everybody has simmilir meaning about it as me, so all you need is just to show that you were working on it so everybody can see it.
I agree 100% with this. I think it's incredible that this competition has been put together so quickly, run perfectly and attracted so many volunteers who have been willing to invest their time and energy pursuing someone else's game design ideas.
]]>I still vote we extend this until Christmas eve then send the games on Christmas day... but I'm still not sure if I'd have time to finish, but I'd be a lot closer.
I think we should have a... second attempt
Being more descriptive: for the ones who (mostly likely) didn't have time or any other problem that kept them from finishing the game (as they would like to, cause I believe some finished something playable but would like it to be bigger), we could do sort of a second round... just for these ones.
In any case I'm still finishing my game so my partner can get it even if late.
Jakub Wasilewski: I won't be able to submit anything cause of not having anything until I get my HDD back tomorrow. I will finish working on it and send it to the person I was supposed to but it may be actually Christmas when I finish it though.
]]>Still one hour left to go, my game can't be called a game, I'm trying to polish the menus so it just won't exit after one level or something like that. I wish I had more time or that I didn't spend a lot of time trying to do graphics.
]]>[edit] Nevermind
]]>The main part of the contest starts at 15th Dec 2005, 16:00 GMT and ends at the same time on 23rd.
Unfortunately, you didn't manage to submit your entry in time. That's a shame. Your partner will still receive a replacement gift, so no worries. Better luck next year!
Friday, 23 December 2005
15:41:00 / 3:41:00 p.m.
>:(
There should still be 20 minutes left, but the site says time is already up.
>:(>:(>:(>:(>:(>:(>:(>:(>:(>:(>:(
]]>WTF! I tried submitting too, only to be told Its too late. What the heck!
Jakub! Fix it! The server is GMT -5, so there should be 18 minutes left.
]]>OK, I'm back. My entry is submitted and ready for download, and I certainly hope that the site is ready also.
The jackass professor finished the exam with a sentence in tune with: "I can't understand why did you try to cheat out of the test if you understand the subject.". I think the notion that I never cheated in the first place didn't even cross his mind. Fortunately, he was honorable enough to let me pass with full marks.
We have 12 submissions out of 21 participants now, and still 15 minutes to go. Those who didn't have the luck to have someone submit a game for them will receive the game I submitted instead, so nobody will get nothing.
The question I'd like to ask you is: when should I make the games available publicly? ASAP, or after Christmas, or... your call.
Also, get ready for the A.cc ChristmasHack Super Screenshot Thread (TM). I think I'll let Thomas Harte start that one, he seemed most eager to post his .
]]>I am pretty sure it was ended an hour early, I got that message when I woke up at 10.
Also, Jakub, could you repackage your binary zip with the dlls? Neither the vorbis dlls I have, nor any I can find work with your submission. (vorbis_synthesis_halfrate could not be found) and vorbis.com doesn't make a windows distrobution with makefiles. So I am more or less stuck...
]]>I'm still in the process of packaging up mine. I don't want an extention or anything, but if I could send it five to ten minutes late, that'd be much appreciated!
It'd be done had I not passed out. sigh
]]>Argh! I knew something would go wrong if I set it to end at a specified time by itself :\. Those who have seen the false start - please excuse me, the site is even more of a hack than my game.
Stapler:
I think I'm allowed to distribute those DLLs with the game, so I'll repackage right now.
Also, get ready for the A.cc ChristmasHack Super Screenshot Thread (TM). I think I'll let Thomas Harte start that one, he seemed most eager to post his
It is also the "guess which description people got" thread, so I've got it ready to post with a big list of all possible descriptions and two screenshots of my own project - one in game and one at the title screen, with game name removed. I will hit "post" in about 3 minutes...
EDIT: or maybe 8 minutes, from the Allegro.cc clock.
]]>*starts taking screenshots
]]>Well, I posted it four minutes early. I figure I don't want to hold anyone else up, and if we've all found out who was making our ideas already anyway...
Now go post screenshots and play the game!
]]>Blah, will it ever end? I hacked for 20 minutes to get this incomplete thing down to 1024 KB zipped, only to find out you count a meg as 1000 KB (which, it is 1024 KB ).
]]>Nooo, I forgot to submit a file along with my zip on the hurry, I just hope there's enough time to fix that.
]]>Looks like theres is time.
]]>Submitted 2 minutes before deadline. Phew. Now I'm going to take a screen shot.
]]>CH is officially over. 16 out of 21 is a great score, I think . Now go post your screenshots, while I get the public download page ready .
]]>