I (ab)used Krampus hack to motivate myself to improve an existing game. So I thought, why not do it again and even make it explicit? Easter is coming up, so.... Easter Hack.

Here are some of the rules I was thinking of:

• Use an existing game that you always planned to improve (well, you may start something new if you don't have anything yet)

• Start with something that is playable, and keep it in a releasable state all the time. So even if you give up halfway, you still have a playable game that is no worse than what you started with.

• Keep a progress record here on allegro.cc

• Bonus rule: You have to add an Easter egg to your game

• Deadline: Easter Sunday (April 16)

Who wants to join?

I was just thinking it's about time for a TINS or something. This'll do.

I'll join.

[EDIT]
What do you propose for a starting date? The 14th?

I'm down. I know exactly what game of mine needs the most improvement: The Path.

Any more ideas for the kick-off date? The 14th of March would mean a whole month. Won't the focus be diluted too much if we do that? Also, it would give very little time to sign up.

On the other hand, I don't mind if you already want to get started.

I was thinking we need another sort of motivational rule. The ***-hacks motivate through peer pressure. In the case of speedhack, the pressure comes from votes. In the case of krampushack, the pressure is in the form of not letting down your secret santa. For EasterHack, voting is tricky because you're not starting from scratch. But we could do a round of reviews. If we pre-assign reviewers, then it would be sort of like secret santa, but without the whole secrecy business.

Or maybe we could use the Seinfeld strategy and make the rule that you have to post a progress update every day during the competition, or you're out. It's just an idea at this point, let me know what you think.

You're right, it's been almost a year. Personally, I'm looking for an opportunity to work on an old game rather than create a new one. However, one does not have to preclude the other. If there is sufficient interest, I might do a TINS soon after EasterHack, maybe somewhere around June.

Haha - I invision a logo for Easter Hack with a game controller rising from the grave. A game is risen again.

I think a week of hacking is ideal for hackathon, starting on a Friday (so you can get a whole weekend) and ending on a Friday (so you can recover before the next work week). The only down side to that plan is you would be working during the work week your game would be due on Friday. (I really like "cheating" by doing some light preliminary work before the actual hack starts.)

With month of hacking, it's a little too easy to let it slide. Also, I feel like 72 hours isn't enough to get something good, as it gets harder to pull all-nighters as we get older.

We could vote on areas of "most improved". For example, a star rating from 1 to 5 in different categories:

• Most improved graphics

• Most improved gameplay

• Most improved audio

• Most improved codebase

• Most improved overall

Sorry, I meant the 14th of April. That would start on Friday and end on Sunday, like "traditional" hacks do. But I'm cool with a longer time, too (pulling an all-nighter is tough these days).

The concept of taking a working game and building upon it is nice. I've only made two previous games so far, and neither of them I care to extend though. Oh, and the code is totally spaghetti. I'll still give it a shot though.

Edit
I think voting on improvements might marginalize contestants who decided to make a totally new game, rather than improving on old ones (especially if they haven't made a lot of games before).

People asked me to complete my TINS'16 entry. May be I should do it. I hope I have time enough.::)

I like this.

Count me in too. I have some entries that may be cooler with some extra work.

Edit: I also like what's proposed.

Oh no, so I can't work on any of the things that aren't even playable...

Anyway, I like this idea, count me in!

Mine barely qualifies

I have an empty game loop that I've always wanted to improve on

How do you feel about doing the competition from 8 to 16 April? So that is a full week plus an extra weekend day. That's a period that is similar to Krampushack.

---

Voting on "most improvement" is difficult to do right, because you might not know how the game was at the start, which means that essentially you'll have to review two games, and it's easy to miss small things. That means you'll have to rely more on the evidence provided, e.g. documentation and progress logs.

Why not keep it simple an vote directly on the progress logs instead? Seriously, think about it. The motivation factor is there. Trying to have good entertaining logs with lots of interesting content is only possible if you make progress on your entry. And besides, marketing is an important indie developer skill.

So here is my proposal:

• we review the games (but not vote on them), and

• we vote on the progress logs

What do you think?

---

What are you talking about, you've got lots of playable games...

By the way, I've always wanted to play an expanded version of this:
http://tins.amarillion.org/2008/reviews/entry/91/

Sounds good to me.

Oh, I completely forgot about that game Not sure it's a good candidate for improving as my pixel art skills are worse nowadays than they were in 2008.

Maybe I should finally work again on our old TeamHack entry instead... although just converting that from A4 to A5 is probably a big enough task for a week...

IwantIwantIwantIwantIwant...

If you have a 1999 speedhack entry... improve that. (I still have all of those saved on my hard drive somewhere)

So who is signing up so far?

• Amarillion

• Mark Oates

• Eric Johnson

• elias

edit: I'm updating the list

• GullRadriel

• Arvidsson

How about you Niunio? Neil?

I'm in! I have something old probably that I could improve on if I dig around, or I might create something new.

Man, I have the impression amarillion black listed me.

COUNT ME IN FFS !!!

Sorry Gul, that was just an oversight. I've added you to the list.

The blacklist

Mark wins ^^

Can we just put random people on the list? I'll add Edgar Reynaldo in that case

Yeah. That pesky one needs something like a easter hack.

I wasn't planning on joining but... the last one I took part in was the first Speedhack in 1999 so, maybe it's time to join again.

Sure, sign me up. Maybe I'll update the Speedhack 1999 entry <shrug>.

Yes, I second that for Edgar!

Hey, hey, I'm just trying to graduate here... don't mind me... Besides, all I have are half finished hacks with a few transition screens. I never really get into coding the game anymore. I could work on an old SantaHack but I don't really have much time these days...

Not that I wouldn't have some old things lying around that could get the actual gameplay in - about a year ago I went through them and ressurected them to the state one can actually compile them - but I fear that they'd need to be written from scratch and ported to a newer version of Allegro.

Unfortunatelly, all that is purely academical as I don't have time for this, although I'd very much like to join. While I'm not busy at work, I'm busy doing lectures, no time for hacking

Ok, so the list is now:

• Amarillion

• Mark Oates

• Eric Johnson

• elias

• GullRadriel

• Arvidsson

• Neil Roy

I can probably find some time, and I do have a game in mind that I wanted to get back to at some point.

Where will the we be writing the logs?

I'm in.

Maybe one can set up a quick copy of a speedhack website ?

From scratch, or is there already source code available from past hacks?

I was originally planning to use allegro forum threads.

But I could make the TINS site available. As you know the logs are not advanced but they probably suffice. It's not going to take much to get it ready, we can ignore all the rules & voting related stuff.

So, allegro thread or TINS logs? Or is there another option?

I'm content with using the Allegro forum.

^^ This is cool.

If I have a hack-a-thon backend ready in time, we could try that out.

I'm in

I'd be content with that, too. Really, whatever is fine.

Are we allowed to brain storm ideas now, or is that cheating?

Also, @amarillion: I posted a comment on your blog the other day, but it's still awaiting approval.

Updating the list:

• Amarillion

• Mark Oates

• Eric Johnson

• elias

• GullRadriel

• Arvidsson

• Neil Roy

• Niunio

• Siegelord

• Dizzy egg.

I think it's fine. My idea was that like krampushack we have very loose rules. Everything goes, you'll only be voted on the logs you write during the competition.

Thanks, that was quite an elaborate comment so I can understand you were anxious. I plan to post about once a week so I would have seen it quite soon anyway.

So Easter Hack for sure starts on April 8th, yes? And how do we go about voting for progress logs? For example, in other hacks, the are various categories to vote on, and them an overall score is reached. Will progress logs be voted based on categories, too? Some categories could be scored based on humor, proper use of English ( ), how interesting it is, etc. Just an idea.

Loose is fine by me. I think I'll improve upon my TINS 2016 entry, Mori.

My angry face was posted in jest, by the way. No worries about how long it takes to approve comments. I just figured I'd remind you in case you hadn't seen the comment yet. And please know that my comment was supposed to be educational / suggestive, not critiquing or bashing in any way.

Good, because if I HAVE to update an old project, I honest don't know if I have that much energy as my old stuff really sucks.

As for logs, I am good at that! I keep logs on all my games as I find that helps me a great deal. My Deluxe Pacman 1 game for example has a long log that goes back to something like... 1999 up to earlier this year and it is 159K in size.

And for the date, is it still from 8 to 16 ?

What about starting and ending time zones?

If we're not required to make an improved version of something we've already made, then I think I will join too. It'll probably get me to finish something or at least make something actually playable.

Eric: times are generally in UTC when it's about a competition here. IIRC :-)

I'll probably pull out of this competition as my wife has been very ill lately and I have too much on my mind. Sorry.

GullRaDriel: Okay, thanks.

Sorry to hear your wife is ill, Neil. I hope she gets better soon.

Aw Neil, my best thoughts for her and you, I join Eric in the hope.

Thanks.

All the best Neil.

Do our games have to be made with Allegro written in C/C++? I ask because Niunio recently shared allegro.js, a JavaScript library based on Allegro 4. I think it'd be really neat to make a browser game for a hack.

I'm almost thinking it would be easier to completely rewrite my game from scratch using better separated components and source tree.

Exactly my problem with many of them, they'd need an entire week of just refactoring the code and re-implementing stuff just to get to the point were they are now (or possibly even losing some features)

You'll have to find the balance between refactoring and adding features. My personal rule is to not spend more than 33% of the time on paying down technical debt, although it's not always easy to stick to that.

Eric, do keep in mind that this thing is going to be very loosely organized. More like krampushack than TINS.

For example, I could say the deadline is 12.00 AM UTC on April 16, but honestly I'm not really going to be bothered by an entry that is a few hours late.

Also, I don't think we need a lot of voting categories, just one vote for the overall quality of the log. And I'll let you decide what quality means: volume, entertainment value, or demonstration of hacking skill - whatever you think is most important.

And to confirm again: the dates are from 8 April thru 16 April. That gives you two weekends and a whole week to play with. I don't expect to be in full on speedhacking overdrive mode the entire time, I'll just find time whenever I can.

Loosey-goosey then. Got it.

@Mark: You mentioned a hack-a-thon backend thing-a-mah-whats-it a week or so ago. Any word on its progress?

I know it's a bit last minute but...

I changed my mind. I will open up the TINS website for running this competition.

Head over to tins.amarillion.org, register or log in, and then click "Join a competition"

Please do this right away, because then we'll have some time to fix any issues with forgotten passwords etc. before the start. PM me if you have any issues with the website.

(The reason for this change of heart is that I figured that it's not going to be so easy to use allegro threads for our purpose - either we use one big thread, in which case it will be confusing to get a good overview what someone wrote for voting - or we use several threads, but then you get problems with locking, intermingled replies etc. Also the TINS website will help with entry uploading and tracking votes)

At this time of writing, I haven't fixed the rules page yet to reflect the rules of Easter Hack. So please disregard the current rules page, in the coming days I will update it.

@Mark, if you were about to open up the allegroplanet competition engine then I apologize. We'll use allegroplanet next time around

No time to ramp up AllegroPlanet for this, unfortunately

TINS website all the way!

I want participate! I have thought any ideas for this. Hope also have much time for this.

I'm registered! Woohoo!

@RmBeer2 great, welcome! Have you found the way to the registration page yet? Go to http://tins.amarillion.org and click register, and after you've registered, click 'join a competition'

Registered, so kind of you amarillion !

I joined! Thanks for setting this up, amarillion!

Edit
Considering that this is a very loose event, is it alright if I write my game using JavaScript/HTML5? Or do I have to use Allegro 5? I've really been itching to make a Web browser game.

I've customized the rules page for Easter hack

It shouldn't have any surprises, but have a look anyway.

@Eric, this should also answer your question. I've added a rule to say that the use of Allegro is not compulsory. So yes, HTML5/JavaScript is fine.

The rules look great, thanks. Best of luck to everyone when Easter Hack begins.

I can't register, appear this: https://ptpb.pw/GKWC
And where i go to log in, appear that i have registered the user, but is inactive ("This account is inactive.") and i can't enter.

seem like a very permissive rules. Now make one from a exist game.

Edit:
Then i need update all in the forum during the process of building?

Good luck to all, get ready when it starts ^^

@RmBeer2: the problem was with sending email, I just had to restart the mail server.
Looks like you managed to register now, welcome to the competition.

Anyone here on Twitter? If so, use #EasterHack if you tweet about your game(s).

Edit:

My Twitter handle is @ecjii, by the way.

Looks like a few people from the original sign up list are momentarily MIA: Arvidsson and Mark Oates. Don't fall behind guys!

Everybody, you can follow the progress here:
http://tins.amarillion.org/easter17/log/

Oh, and I'm on twitter too nowadays: @mpvaniersel

Hm, wasn't there a way to comment one someone's TINS post?

I think I'm going to write a new post on each merge. I'm good at compartmentalizing my major changes into branches. Would be some good symmetry.

That would be fun.

Rename it 'Beast Hack 2017' and I might join in. 101.

You can join me @GullRaDriel .
Let's get it starteeeeed !!!

Markdown for posts would be nice too.

I've read the rules and it doesn't say anything about the language.

Unfortunately not. The only improvement I've made recently is that URLs are linkified.

@amarillion: I noticed that .io domains aren't made into links. I posted atom.io in one of my progress logs, but it wasn't made into a link.

@eric: I'm using the urlize django tag to generate the links. If you prefix http: or https: then it should be recognized, even for less common TLDs.

The Easter hack logs are going really great. Keep it up everybody!

WheeeeEeEeeeEeeEeeeeeEEe. I don't sign up for hacks because I don't have the time or motivation (or skills), but it's good to see the ones that can do them doing it.

I don't know whether to read that in an excited or sarcastic tone. I'll go with the latter.

You don't need madskillz to join a hack. I see them as a way to earn some much-needed game-programming experience. Even if the end result isn't what you expected, you'll likely come out with more than you did going in. Give it a try sometime.

I've tried before. I typically don't make much progress and procrastinate instead. I think it's because I'm really not all that interested in making games. Truth is, I prefer to play them. Since I love writing software and playing games you'd think I could marry the ideas and especially love making games, but thus far it's just the opposite. I think since my graphical talents are severely lacking and I'm a rather visual person it cripples my ability to succeed at game development. I become blocked by the need for artistic resources for which I cannot make and development halts in pursuit of things that are more fun, like playing games and drinking beer!

It wasn't sarcasm though. It truly is exciting that a hack is going on (even as an observer it can be energizing). Also I'm drunk so there's that.

You should make a game about drinking beer.

The thought occurred to me. I think I made a joke about creating a drinking game a few weeks back! But that leaves me out of my element because I'm more of a lone drinker myself (and I never needed any games to drink too fast). And again, art leaves me "high and dry". I can imagine a decent thing in my opinion, but creating it out of drawn assets? Not so easy.

In any case, it's worth pursuing. I really want to create a mobile app for the EXP points and a game is a good excuse. The app stores provide a convenient way to share it.

I just need my wimmins to motivate me! I tried proposing that she help me come up with a software idea [on any platform!] and I'll try to make it, but she couldn't have been any less interesting.

bambams shits all over the ambition of the hack thread.

I hope that doesn't deter anyone.

I think there are lots of interesting games you can do with very little graphics skills - Like for example box boy. And for the hack I'm now doing a text adventure with minimal graphics.

Is it over ? I couldn't even add a thing

If you mean the competition, then - yep it's over!

I'm pretty happy with the participation given that it was a spur of the moment thing. Seven people registered and all posted on the logs. There weren't many drop-outs as such, but we did get only three uploads - I feel we can do a bit better than that. If the remaining four still want to upload something, let me know. I left the upload page open for a few hours more.

My personal goal was to be motivated to work on one of my games, and that certainly was a success.

How to proceed? It would take me some time to adapt the TINS site to the voting system that I proposed, and it doesn't seem all that worthwhile. So here is what I suggest we do instead.

1: Voting: All the participants can say who they think should be the winner here in this thread. For seven entrants I think I can easily tally the results manually without the need of a dedicated website. Don't vote for yourself. I will tally the results, announce them here, and put the results back on the TINS site for posterity. Quick reminder: you're supposed to vote on the logs (not the game per se) and you may decide for yourself which quality is most important.

2: Reviewing: For those who wish to get feedback, create a depot thread here on allegro.cc. I strongly encourage all other participants to give feedback in those threads.

(sidenote) I would consider opening the review system (not voting) of the TINS website if people really want me to, but at this moment I don't think it's really necessary. I'm ready to be convinced if you feel otherwise.

Finally, now that I got your attention - I'm considering doing a real TINS (with full TINS rules) somewhere around the September-October timeframe. How would you feel about that?

Oh come on!

Everyone did well, but I cast my vote for NunoMartinez; he posted often, included interesting screenshots, and frequently discussed some of the technology at work in his engine. I just liked his logs most overall.

By the way, I created a depot thread for Keebo's Quest.

EDIT:

Sounds good to me!

I kind of didn't put much effort into my logs (except the last one ), but the motivation was great to let me put in some work into a nice game of mine. Thanks Amarillion for hosting it.

It was tough to pick the best logger, as I liked them all in their own special ways. I'm going to go with Eric's, as there was a nice video to go along with it.

It'd be sweet to do a real TINS as well.

C'mon Elias, Gull, Niuno we need your vote!
I want to keep my vote for last.

I'm too busy still working on my entry so had no time to look at other entries yet

Yes, but did you look at the logs?
You have to vote on the logs you know...

Ups, sorry. Too busy latelly. I'll try this evening.

[edit]
How can I vote?

Amarillion, I'm playing all the entries but can't vote from here
I will, from home in a few hours.

Guys, read my comments!

First of all, it's not necessary to actually play the entries to vote.
Secondly, you vote by commenting here in this thread.

Read my previous comments carefully and all should become clear.

edit: @GullRaDriel, I'm not sure what that message means or how I can prevent that. What does it say if you go to https://tins.amarillion.org?

I'm hereby voting for... amarillion. I enjoyed reading all the logs, but some went too much into coding details, some didn't have screenshots of the actual game - if I have to pick just one I think it is this one.

Woah, anyone can vote? I'm glad I checked this thread.

Each entry is rock solid, so I almost feel bad about choosing one. However, owing to the quality of its writing, I have no choice but to vote for amarillion's entry, BUN. Thank you for sharing it with the world.

Thanks for your kind words Gideon, but I was planning to only allow votes from the seven entrants. Now I have to read back my own comments to see if I accidentally said somewhere that anyone can vote???

I don't think you did, amarillion. I think it was Gideon's mistake.

My bad. I squeezed that in without reading the whole thread (in case there was a voting deadline).

This Hack kinda snuck up on me. I didn't even realize it was happening until it was too late.

Hello, i have problem in all week or more, and fail with Easter Hack. But same post all my changes here:

https://bitbucket.org/rmbeer/hardchangegame

Is very little. But is sufficient for give a little funny with new levels and graphics. The graphics have also in source code, but not have the correct import/export. If anyone want, i can also uploaded in the bitbucket such as this.

!^%@$* EDIT:

I suggest posting videos if the games have much changes. This is good for motivate more.

Can't vote because I don't find out how.

@Gull: amarillion wants the participants to cast their votes here. You're voting on the logs, not the games, by the way.

Ok, The in order of preference: Amarillion, Niunio, Eric !

The others entry logs were interesting in general. I loved to look at Niunios graphs.

Yes, it was announced last minute, so don't feel bad. Keep an eye out for the TINS 2017 announcement, which will be around September-October

Back to EasterHack:

I don't want to drag the voting out too long. Niunio, Mark Oates and RmBeer are still allowed a vote. And myself. Tomorrow I'll tally the results and announce the winner.

Ok, my vote is for Eric, have a large amount of changes in the logs and screenshots.

Also is good for logs of the Amarillion and MarkOates in this order.

I Add the Game with the changes.
I hope for the September or October have a game of Allegro where working.

========= EDIT
now thinking that i also can take from one of my game, why not take one? My best games have spoiler, and the other games not have nothing interesting... Still need apply much for working or adapt to in my new app...

I vote for Eric as well. Eric was certainly the most prolific logger, and gave it a lot of attention to detail (like the the youtube movie).

With that I count

Eric: 3 votes
Amarillion: 2 votes
Niunio: 1 vote

Congratulations Eric!

Results page

Wow! Thank you everyone for your votes!

Easter Hack was great fun. Thank you Amarillion for organizing it! I look forward to TINS 2017 later this year.

I am really very sorry. When I thought my life were ordenated it became a labyrinth again. Truly sorry.

Thanks for the vote. I do my best.