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edg3
30-10-2011, 10:03 AM
Theme: A vs B
http://geeksweat.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/red-vs-blue-by-Dennis-from-Atlanta-via-Creative-Commons-600x300.jpg
There are a multitude of games out there that have a central common theme of A vs B (Team Fortress 2, Gears of War, <insert a good percentage of other titles that we are allplaying these days>). The challenge is to design and make a compelling game around this central concept, whether it be a turn based strategy, a space simulator, or any other far-fetched genre that tickles your fancy as a designer.

Try to take into consideration things such as the characteristics of what you are pitting against one another, and how these can play into your game mechanics to help the player understand what is going on. This doesnt mean you cannot use your creative genius to invent new characteristics to suit your needs, but it would make sense for you to play at the publically acknowledged strengths of whatever you choose.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l-ve6Pq40VE/TSNKMvfw-4I/AAAAAAAAAAw/lLHCjHmb90g/s1600/gow_2_banning.jpg

Challenges you should follow at least one challenge from below.

Go mobile: target a mobile platform (eg. iPhone, J2ME, WP7, Android, etc)
Go global: target a web platform (ideally on a site such as Kongregate, you may as well try making some money)
Go multiplayer: Have some form of player vs player multiplayer, whether over the network or on the same pc
Free reign: Let the player change the game world (whether sim-style or minecraft-style, take this in any direction you want)


How this will work:
From the posting of this thread you have until the same time (11AM) on the 30th November 2011 to make a complete game that follows the theme 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.
You may take an existing work in progress and enter it into this challenge.
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 "GDC3: <Name of game>" on your respective game development forum, and post the link in this thread as a reply.

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:
Judge: Dave Russel
Book - Professional Windows Phone 7 Game Development: Creating Games using XNA Game Studio 4 - Courtesy of Microsoft South Africa

Providing an overview of developing games for Windows Phone 7 while working within XNA Game Studio 4, this comprehensive resource covers such essential topics as device/emulator, development tools, device orientation, tilt and accelerometer sensors, multi-touch, working with Cloud and Web services, and more. Three complete games are included within the book plus hands-on explanations and clear example codes help you gain a deeper understanding of the Windows Phone 7 features so that you can start building a game right away.

Judging Criteria out of 25
Implementation of theme (15)
Implementation of a challenge (5) - the best implemented one of the given challenges score
Overall polish of game (5)

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.

Entrants
edg3 - George vs the Clones (http://www.nag.co.za/forums/showthread.php?17754-GDC3-George-vs-The-Clones&p=363912#post363912)
BlackShipsFillT and Filip Orekhov - Hyper Knights VS Ultra Ghouls (http://www.nag.co.za/forums/showthread.php?17755-GDC3-Hyper-Knights-VS-Ultra-Ghouls)

SkinkLizzard
30-10-2011, 03:39 PM
Aaarg I'll try start something tomorrow after this damn design is done for varsity.

BlackShipsFillt
30-10-2011, 07:15 PM
Awesome! I got to play 0space this weekend, so I'm super-keen to try a twitchy 4 player local multiplayer prototype...

I'm thinking medieval, Good-guys vs Bad-guys... So knights and elves and priests VS trolls and werewolves and necromancers...

I'll have to find a weekend to work on it...

Also I like the prizes section, following the logic of "announce prizes, and they will come"... I'll see if I can sort something out.

edg3
30-10-2011, 09:39 PM
Glad you guys are planning on joining! I'm going to do some work myself from the 15th and I'm going to try for something multiplayer too :)

BlackShipsFillt
30-10-2011, 11:43 PM
I wondering something... Should this competition be advertised at SAGameDev and AnimationSA? It'd be nice to get some artists involved and I think there is a bunch of programmers at SAGameDev that never come here.

That said... If we do advertise this competition at AnimationSA and other arty places then we need to have a category for best art... (What do you think Edge?)

edg3
31-10-2011, 07:43 AM
I have posted on SAGD, if you could post on AnimationSA it would be great :) and you made me think of another community I could post it in, thanks.

SkinkLizzard
31-10-2011, 07:47 AM
I'm thinking co-op top down hack and slashy stuff, players vs the cliche's
depending on how big a scope I feel like going I might try do a challenge 3 and 4 (in a simple way)

edg3
31-10-2011, 07:52 AM
I'm thinking co-op top down hack and slashy stuff, players vs the cliche's
Im tempted to go cliche' heavy too, but I personally feel like there are too many unexplored avenues to pass up :)

BlackShipsFillt
31-10-2011, 10:45 AM
players vs the cliche's

Best premise! (assuming you mean that in a post-modern way)


if you could post on AnimationSA it would be great :)

Could we have a separate judging for best art in game? If two or more artists enter if would be great if their contributions are not just towards the 20% polish bonus.

edg3
31-10-2011, 11:26 AM
We can have a best art category indeed!

edg3
02-11-2011, 12:11 PM
Updated prizes section:

Book - Professional Windows Phone 7 Game Development: Creating Games using XNA Game Studio 4 - Courtesy of Microsoft South Africa

Providing an overview of developing games for Windows Phone 7 while working within XNA Game Studio 4, this comprehensive resource covers such essential topics as device/emulator, development tools, device orientation, tilt and accelerometer sensors, multi-touch, working with Cloud and Web services, and more. Three complete games are included within the book plus hands-on explanations and clear example codes help you gain a deeper understanding of the Windows Phone 7 features so that you can start building a game right away.

Dont forgot to spread the word!

My game: George vs The Clones (http://www.nag.co.za/forums/showthread.php?17754-GDC3-George-vs-The-Clones&p=363912#post363912)

cairnswm
07-11-2011, 02:25 PM
Is sport, as in team based sports: A vs B??

edg3
07-11-2011, 02:33 PM
It fits, yes

cairnswm
07-11-2011, 03:00 PM
Cool, been working on an idea for a combined Web/Android Rugby game.

edg3
07-11-2011, 03:36 PM
Sounds good, looking forward to it! :)

edg3
22-11-2011, 02:27 PM
Reminder: there is only a week or so left for this.

SkinkLizzard
22-11-2011, 11:11 PM
:( and I have failed horribly at not being distracted, I got as far as drawing a textured quad in unity
(it was going to be the basis for the player class/prefab thing) then skyrim happened.

01DT!m3r
23-11-2011, 09:30 PM
VikingsAndKnights (http://www.nag.co.za/forums/showthread.php?17827-GDC3-VikingsAndKnights&p=366722#post366722)

my GDC3 entry is up in early alpha,will try finish it(before the deadline) .But can't make any promises,time is a bit lacking at the moment.
I do plan on one day making it a finished product.

BlackShipsFillt
24-11-2011, 03:39 PM
DAMN YOU SKYRIM AND YOUR PRODUCTIVITY-HALTING GLORY!

Fuzzy directed me at a really cool plugin for Unity called "Playmaker"... it looks like an AMAZING prototyping tool. http://hutonggames.com/playmaker.html I'm going to give it a try this weekend.

SkinkLizzard
24-11-2011, 07:09 PM
ugh why must unity require me to download the entire thing again when a new version comes out :(
also playmaker looks amazing unfortunately it comes with a $100 price tag

edg3
09-01-2012, 10:13 AM
The book, courtesy of Microsoft South Africa goes to "Hyper Knights vs Ultra Ghouls", this was chosen by Dave Russel. Congrats.

BlackShipsFillt
10-02-2012, 11:55 AM
I've been kind of not responding to this for a while. And I guess that could be seen as rude... But that wasn't my intention...

When I first started making games, about 5 years back, this was the community that greeted me with open arms and helpful advice. There were other communities that I visited, but none of them showed a fraction of the enthusiastic camaraderie that I found here. None of them became my friends.

And the competitions were a part of that. People getting together to make games because it's fun and it makes us better at making games was novel to me then. I know it made me a better game designer. I think it made all of the participants better.

So, it's out of sadness that I haven't responded. I despite Edge and others' struggle to keep this community alive it has been in decline for a while now. If the greatly reduced thread views didn't already indicate this decline then the poor showing of this last competition is an indisputable sign of how near-death Game.Dev has become.

I feel like South Africa has lost something staggeringly important. I think that while there are other local communities, they don't share the same nurturing spirit and don't foster debates as intelligent or as eye-opening as the ones I've found here. And while there are regular international competitions like Ludum Dare and Glorious Trainwrecks they aren't being participated in by South African's with the same devotion as the Game.Dev ones were.

I believe a golden age of South African game development as passed. Fortunately the scene is constantly growing and improving and undoubtedly greater things are yet to come. But it breaks my heart that Game.Dev will not be around to facilitate it.

D3zmodos
10-02-2012, 05:29 PM
Maybe new people (like me) will discover the community and being taking part again...Although maybe thats being a little hopeful I'm pretty sure it is possible.

Konman
29-03-2012, 12:34 PM
Mmmh, interesting thread. I'm a bit late for the Challenge.

So instead, with Diablo 3 on the horizon...(yeeeeah!) check out my RPG game tech demo here:

www.webapple.net (coded in XNA 4.0 - it's ~47 MB download)

Dynamic cast shadows, bloom effect, A* path finding etc and is a top down 2D.
Chat to the necromancer to see the branching conversation options. ;)

Warning: It is still very rough so don't expect much, the animations need some work on some of the creatures.

I'd love to hear any feedback, good or bad.

Ciao,
Konman

maleficarum
07-04-2012, 07:47 PM
Quik Q is there a challenge for this year?

Bonezmann
09-04-2012, 04:11 PM
Yeah edge, come on. I'm itching for a challenge!

edg3
14-04-2012, 02:54 PM
Alec has started challenges as part of the community meets, this month's challenge is "Dubstep".

Bonezmann
17-04-2012, 01:14 PM
Any sort of link towards this edg3?

Karuji
20-04-2012, 12:42 PM
Bonez: The competition is run using SA Game Developers mailing list, no official association with the SAGD forums, you can find the group at http://groups[dot]google[same as other bracket]com/group/sagamedevelopercommunity

Please excuse the bungling of the link, we've had some issues with spambots recently.

Bonezmann
20-04-2012, 02:15 PM
Thanks Karuji :)