This sounds awesome. I've been wanting to be more active on here/contribute to little projects and contests. This would be a great way without putting any stress or taking up a lot of any single person's time.

• Dependencies are limited to the standard library and the multimedia library only. No OS-specific calls
• The code must compile on your platform of choice, and should strive to be cross platform

These are kind of conflicting if it's to be truly cross-platform and native. What about X calls on linux? And on Mac unless you launch from shell and use fullscreen only it's pretty close to impossible to have a game running without some Obj-C (unless you opt for X as well I suppose). I haven't done anything Windows in a very long time but I'm pretty sure you'd need some specific calls, HWND's and all that junk to get something running as well haha.
I think that should be the only area allowed to have those dependencies, just so it can get up and running.
Of course this wouldn't matter if it's browser based. Or Java.

With SFML like was originally proposed I am almost positive you can get a window up and running with the exact same code. For the most part if people use standard C++ calls and didn't get absolutely crazy with SFML(I think their are a few calls that act different on the different OS's) then it should compile just fine for everyone. I just migrated my SF code over to Linux from Windows and it compiled and ran without one problem. That's the beauty of SFML. How easy it is to get going with it and how easy it is to work with other OS's

Whoops, my fault, thought it said SFMT (http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/SFMT/). That would make more sense lol. Just looked up SFML; I think that should do it then, looks awesome!

Ok, here is my current plan.

There does appear to be quite a bit of interest in HTML 5, so I'm considering running two concurrent ones, one in C++ and one in HTML 5. There will be a theme for each. I am thinking I'll start the experiment at midnight (GMT) 31st of October, and leave it run for the weekend.

While restricting consecutive commits by the same person is appealing, I don't want to disenfranchise people in odd timezones, so I don't think I want to enforce this.

My own experience with HTML 5 is limited, I wrote a basic pong many moons ago. Is vanilla HTML 5 sufficient, or is there a clear library (not a framework) that is popular for HTML 5, like what SFML/SDL are to C++/C? I'll probably include jQuery.

Do you really think you need art for such an experiment? You could just generate some bitmaps in memory procedurally, which could add some interesting code.

Good idea! I'd certainly encourage procedural generation, both for art and for levels or whatever. I think allowing manually generated programmer art could add to the hilarity.

Once you sort out all the details and get this thing started -- assuming you decide to go ahead -- might I suggest pinning the official topic in the "coding horrors" forum for the duration and linking from the lounge like the "PUTT" contest is currently doing?

Sure, will do.

Maybe I misread it somewhere but will their a end goal that we are to strive for? As in will what is added to the code actually be of "use" to the project? Or could I just say go and implement a simple/stupid game inside and force everyone to work around that?

The end goal is to have some kind of playable game, related to the theme. The details are left to your imagination.

That way the game and a built in editor could be embedded as a sticky at the top of the forum (similar to JSFiddle) so everybody could see live updates of the game.

I don't think that will be feasible in the time available, but it is a nice idea.

Also, I don't know if you plan on keeping any kind of actual repo, but if you're not I wouldn't mind making a git repo and updating it with each post to keep a "proper" history.

I didn't want to try to organise an official repository for the experiment itself, but I would appreciate someone who wishes to maintain one from what happens in the thread(s).

And if this works well, can we please do this annually?

Let us see how this one goes, but I'd certainly be interested in doing something similar next year. I reckon we'll learn a lot from running this one, as to what works or not.

If it's HTML 5 then I'll have to pass, as I have absolutely no clue how that works.

If it's HTML 5 then I'll have to pass, as I have absolutely no clue how that works.

Learning is half the fun!

Plus, with HTML 5 we have the opportunity to actually run it in a versioned, live-coding environment like JSFiddle...

Really interesting idea! I'm willing to participate.

I'd prefer C and SDL (without OpenGL), since its easier to access the framebuffer, and do direct pixel manipulation on surfaces, even if we can't directly rotate/scale sprites.

I think that direct pixel manipulation is also posible in HTML5/Canvas, but I think it was slower IIRC.

Really interesting idea! I'm willing to participate.

I'd prefer C and SDL (without OpenGL), since its easier to access the framebuffer, and do direct pixel manipulation on surfaces, even if we can't directly rotate/scale sprites.
I think that direct pixel manipulation is also posible in HTML5/Canvas, but I think it was slower IIRC.

Just....no.

I am thinking I'll start the experiment at midnight (GMT) 31st of October, and leave it run for the weekend.

Is it only going to be for 2 days then?

If it's HTML 5 then I'll have to pass, as I have absolutely no clue how that works.

Programming is programming. Type stuff in, cross your fingers and hope that it does something.

Is it only going to be for 2 days then?

Would it not be three days: Friday, Saturday and Sunday? I was hoping that a relatively short duration would lend some focus and impetus. However, when stated like that - it does sound perhaps overly short. Maybe I'll leave it run until the following weekend.

I wasn't going to lock the thread or anything, so the program could continue to evolve as long as people are sufficiently interested.

Programming is programming. Type stuff in, and watch the magic happen!

Fixed.

Is it only going to be for 2 days then?

Would it not be three days: Friday, Saturday and Sunday? I was hoping that a relatively short duration would lend some focus and impetus. However, when stated like that - it does sound perhaps overly short. Maybe I'll leave it run until the following weekend.

I wasn't going to lock the thread or anything, so the program could continue to evolve as long as people are sufficiently interested.

You're right, 3 days. Thought the 31st was Friday. My reading skills are not going well for me lol.

I was under the impression the whole idea was to be more a relaxed, hope for the best kinda thing. Either way would be cool. Perhaps two version could run alongside for a time? The short version, requiring more effort and organization; the long version, becoming a contrived mess but a more creative end result.

Is there really any reason it has to come to an end though? It's not being judged or anything like that, right? Why not leave it for a few months and see what happens. The only thing I see becoming difficult over longer durations is making sure everyone's following the rules. Although that's what makes it so fun, so I don't see why anyone wouldn't!