On feedback:

An easy way to get more feedback would be to have more judges. If you wanted to take it really far, you could have the entire community be judges. Of course, it might be fun to do that anyway, if only on an unofficial basis. Like a poll or something.

Quote: Original post by Servant of the Lord
There's a minimum level of hardware I need to enter?

No - its a minimum requirements for the software you submit. Basically, your entry has to run on a system with these requirements or better. If it doesn't run on one of the judge's boxes, you'll have a problem! [wink]

Quote: Original post by Mushu

Quote: Original post by Servant of the Lord
There's a minimum level of hardware I need to enter?

No - its a minimum requirements for the software you submit. Basically, your entry has to run on a system with these requirements or better. If it doesn't run on one of the judge's boxes, you'll have a problem! [wink]

Okay, that's a bit better. I assume I can release my game before actaully submitting it, to gather feedback on how it works for different computers?

[Edited by - Servant of the Lord on May 22, 2006 3:07:03 PM]

Quote: Original post by Servant of the Lord

Quote: Original post by Mushu

Quote: Original post by Servant of the Lord
There's a minimum level of hardware I need to enter?

No - its a minimum requirements for the software you submit. Basically, your entry has to run on a system with these requirements or better. If it doesn't run on one of the judge's boxes, you'll have a problem! [wink]

Okay, that's a bit better. I assume I can release my game before actaully submitting it, to gather feedback on how it works for different computers?

Yes. Several people did exactly that last year.

Quote: Original post by Spoonbender

Quote: Original post by superpig
On the shader thing: I think you underestimate how many people have those chipsets - no, the Valve hardware survey is not a reasonable source of statistics - but I'll talk to the judges and see what the consensus is.

Well, it's a pretty accurate survey *for gamers*. [wink]

No, it's an accurate survey *for FPS gamers,* who tend to have higher-end hardware than most other genre gamers.

Quote: Original post by leiavoia
An easy way to get more feedback would be to have more judges. If you wanted to take it really far, you could have the entire community be judges. Of course, it might be fun to do that anyway, if only on an unofficial basis. Like a poll or something.

That'd be anything but easy. I guess you might get more feedback due to the 'scatter' effect, but you'd probably have to say goodbye to the judging ever actually ending and the prizes being awarded.

Quote: That'd be anything but easy. I guess you might get more feedback due to the 'scatter' effect, but you'd probably have to say goodbye to the judging ever actually ending and the prizes being awarded.

I hope I'm not stepping on any judge's toes, but you might expect a certain level of professionalism from the judges on the feedback and judging deadline part. After all, most of the contestants will sacrifice a lot of their free time (or even free additonal time) to participate in the contest over 5-6 months, so I'd think asking this bit of extra effort on the judge's part shouldn't be too much of a problem.

*ducks* [smile]

Quote: Original post by superpig
So, using previously developed tools and engine tech will most likely be fine; it'll be reusing the gameplay code you built on top to be careful about, simply because by reusing the gameplay code you reuse the gameplay.

Well, I guess that will make it easy for me, considering I really never did have any gameplay code... [rolleyes]

Not only that, but it looks like I now have an excuse to use the DirectX fixed function pipeline, rather than having to learn shaders...

Does the next contest really have to be yet another four elements contest?

Quote: Original post by Rob Loach
Does the next contest really have to be yet another four elements contest?

No, but why not? If people want something else, we can run it as well.

Trust me when I say that the "four elements" aspect of this year's contest will not be a particularly limiting factor.

Back on my "can I use my 4E4 entry" question... my entry was not exactly gameplay-rich. It was more of a prototype RTS engine - so I'd have to write substantial specific gameplay IF I chose to follow this path.

A bit of a sore point from 4E4 - the judging and scoring process. Several of us were very disappointed that marks were never posted, after months of effort the only information given was "you're not in the top 5". I understand that the rules allowed this change from what was originally planned and I understand that there were many more entries than expected. However can the judges be better prepared, and selected on the condition they are committed to putting in the required time? After working for 1/2 a year it seems reasonable to expect that every entry gets an equal review and that scores are published. If a second round of judging is used after this for the finalists that's cool, but please be a lot more open this time... I'd rather wait a month to know I got 37th than find out in 1 week "you suck".