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edg3
01-02-2011, 11:54 AM
Ok, so after the success of the first challenge, I am proud to announce that we are taking game development in South Africa and showing the world that we are here, doing awesome things, and all that jazz. So basically I will be running these challenges for our local game development competitions, and through them we can get the world interested in what we are doing!

So, the date voting has begun, you can vote (no need for logging in) here (http://prototyped.cz.cc/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5&start=0), it will be some time in March.

Being open "globally" now, and after some consideration from after the first challenge, there have been some rules added and some adjustments to the existing ones to get bigger communities involved. So spread the word.

Also, rules: (http://prototyped.cz.cc/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4)

How a Prototype is Defined by This Challenge:
A section of a game (or full game) that demonstrates a concept or idea through you being able to play it (or some part of it).

How this will work:
Just before 4PM on the Friday of commencement the topic for this challenge will be posted as an announcement for everyone to see, you will then be able to make your thread and spam away at your ideas. You will have 48 hours (with a bonus 4 hours) to plan and execute your prototype. Try to update your thread regularly.

Dates and Times:
The month before a challenge starts there will be a global announcement to allow people to vote on which weekend in the next month the challenge will be held on. At the end of the month the weekend will be announced, and a week before the challenge start a topic will be posted for voting on the topic.

Topics:
Topics will be voted on before the challenge begins, there will be a poll announced that will give you the option of several topics. The topic with the most votes will become the topic on the weekend of the challenge.


Rules:
Any releases must contain all files needed to run and should not require other bulky systems to be downloaded or installed. (This does not apply to things like redists, browser plugins needed, etc).
Any releases entry must include a readme.txt that EXPLAINS THE CONTROLS, RULES and any other information you want to get across to your users. IT MUST
ALSO LINK BACK TO THIS COMPETITION POST!
The judges' decision is final and no negotiation will be entered into. All risk or liability in case of copyright infringement or other legal issue resides with the
entrant, Game.Dev and NAG take no responsibility for entered games.
You may work in teams.
All content of the prototype should be created within the challenge time period (4PM GMT + 2, till Sunday 8PM GMT + 2)
Any permanent resident of Earth may take part in the challenge. If you are just visiting that is alright as well.

Entering:
Create a new thread with a title starting with "<platform>: <Name of game>" in the relevant challenge forum, please edit your first post to give the most updated version of your game and playing instructions. <platform> can be one of the following 1 to 3 letter codes
WF - Web, flash
WU - Web, Unity
WJ - Web, Java
WO - Web, Other
WIN - Windows
LIN - Linux
MAC - Mac
O - Other
So an example windows game would be: "WIN: Nameless Island", also, you will be able to enter without registering an account, but then your thread should only be created for the final version that you are submitting.

Images:
Please provide one (or more) image in your game thread to act as an indicator of what your game looks like, this will be used for summaries as well as lets people get a visual idea of what you are aiming for.

Judging and Prizes/Awards:
There will be no formal judging, prizes or rewards for these challenges. If there is a big enough demand we can add a system for people to rate each others games, or find people to do judging for the challenge.

Development during the challenge:
We would like to recommend that you post your initial prototyping ideas on your own local community's website for feedback and response, and use this site only a secondary source of input (unless you do not have another community to turn to). You are more than welcome to use this site as your primary place for sharing your ideas as you take part in the challenge.

CiNiMoDZA
01-02-2011, 09:58 PM
Yeah, this = WIN..

At the company I work at (Nologo Studios (http://www.nologostudios.com)), we have an awesome bunch of guys who love coding!! Im gonna try convince them to camp out at the office for a weekend and see if we can get an entry in.

We have just got a Windows Phone dev team together so hopefully we can get a WP7 entry into the comp :)

If current work goes smoothly I hope to get in an entry...cant wait :D

edg3
01-02-2011, 10:02 PM
Sweet! Glad you guys are in :)

Also, how are you guys getting into the AppHub?

CiNiMoDZA
02-02-2011, 11:10 AM
Uk accounts unfortunately :(

edg3
02-02-2011, 11:14 AM
And the GeoLocate step?

(I have a UK account as well as a ZA account)

BlackShipsFillt
03-02-2011, 04:07 PM
Obviously Edg3 you already have awesome ideas for this next challenge (and probably a bunch of others)...

But I was speaking to Fuzzy a while back about themes for these challenges, there is a good game design book by Jesse Schell (I haven't properly read it yet though) who suggests 100 fundamental aspects of game design (http://artofgamedesign.com/cards/lenses.htm). I thought it might be a good idea to work through the prototypable sections of that list. There are a lot of fundamentals there that are usually quite easy to overlook (to our game's detriment), but if one were forced to focus on them individually (as they would in a prototyping challenge) then that fundamental would be burnt into the designer's mind.

Like I feel like this would be a decent challenge : http://artofgamedesign.com/cards/20_Judgment.png
Judgement is really easy to overlook, and without good judgement player's may feel uninvolved or unappreciated. Maybe for a prototype like this a prototyper could take a game or prototype from a previous challenge and fix that game's judgement.

Just a thought. I'd like the prototyping challenge to take me out of my comfort zone and force me to improve the weaker aspects of my game designs. Also I'm sure Jesse Schell would approve of it if you chose to strictly follow his "lenses".

edg3
03-02-2011, 06:14 PM
Nice ideas BlackShips, will definitely throw some of those into the mix for the theme voting :) They will definitely make the challenges more interesting. Will send Jesse an email in the morning (if I can find an email address) and see if we can get some input on the challenges aswell!

BlackShipsFillt
03-02-2011, 11:22 PM
Oooh! It would be awesome if Jesse supports the idea, it doesn't really stop you guys from loosely following some of his ideas if he doesn't support it (or simply has no time to give any feedback), but I'm sure he'd be keen to see people sincerely trying to prototype his lessons.

BlackShipsFillt
19-02-2011, 08:03 PM
Did you manage to send that email in the end? I know future challenges are a ways off, but I'm interested.

Also, if you need to flex some muscle you could tell him that this isn't a community of total dorks... recently a game that came out of this community was nominated for the IGF Grand Prize... depending on whether Nandrew is okay with us exploiting his success, and sullying his good name, in that way.

edg3
20-02-2011, 01:54 PM
Got a bit lost in my own world, but I have sent the mail now, and hopefully will have a response by the end of the week.

Also, just a side note, you now will have to register to post and vote (due to spam bots pwning the system), but I am hacking away at the phpbb code to put in a work around for posting without registering for the compo.

CiNiMoDZA
24-02-2011, 04:36 PM
Any news on the date of the comp yet?

edg3
24-02-2011, 07:50 PM
The current date looks like the last week of March, but let me know what suits you guys here (as for many people it seems they cannot access prototyped.cz.cc, the current numbers are:

4 to 6 March 21% [ 4 ]
11 to 13 March 21% [ 4 ]
18 to 20 March 26% [ 5 ]
25 to 27 March 32% [ 6 ]

(data skewing ftl, but that host sucks)

Most likely the challenge will be run here because of the useless host...