Just to add to what I said above, if there where badges, what if in order to receive one some extra steps where required?

For example, it would be required a post with a specific format (to be decided) with the name of the user, name of the game and some kind of tag to point out is a "Completed Game" post (or maybe a section for completed games)

The sample video should be on top of the page, but the user should also provide the code, and if he feels like some additional informations below the video, maybe noteworthy things about the code like which patterns he used and so on.

This way we would build a library of completed games examples and one would be able to "peek inside" the one that looks particularly interesting, sounds like a good learning opportunity

For instance, I would probably jump inside every project that do stuff in a ECS way, just to learn more about it 

Do you guys think that the "show your code" requirement is too much? Maybe an optional requirement? :\

2 hours ago, MarcusAseth said:

Just to add to what I said above, if there where badges, what if in order to receive one some extra steps where required?

For example, it would be required a post with a specific format (to be decided) with the name of the user, name of the game and some kind of tag to point out is a "Completed Game" post (or maybe a section for completed games)

The sample video should be on top of the page, but the user should also provide the code, and if he feels like some additional informations below the video, maybe noteworthy things about the code like which patterns he used and so on.

This way we would build a library of completed games examples and one would be able to "peek inside" the one that looks particularly interesting, sounds like a good learning opportunity

For instance, I would probably jump inside every project that do stuff in a ECS way, just to learn more about it 

Do you guys think that the "show your code" requirement is too much? Maybe an optional requirement? :\

Providing the code is depends on the type of competion. There might be some which dont need one and one which is a requirement. I would say, trophys / achivements will only be valid when the source is provided - ideally as open source (github).

I would like if challenges were a community learning experience and not a competition. Everyone should share their findings, ideas, and solutions to problems during the challenge so everyone can learn from it and become better game developers. Providing relevant learning resources at the start of a challenge would also let people get started quicker. We should also aim for having participants being able to complete their project so they can add it to their portfolio as well.

There should also always be a way for non-programmers to participate, and I'd do that by letting people work in groups. If it's not a competition then that shouldn't matter. Participation from these members should be encouraged, perhaps by ranking submissions on all of mechanics, design, sound, levels, overall, and so on. This also encourages members to do their best in any case, and even to branch out and develop secondary skills.

I'd only have one challenge at a time to reduce various problems including unbalanced participation, less learning, feeling the need to do both, and so on. However every challenge should offer new and multiple skills to learn. For example, a racing game could potentially teach vehicle physics, collisions, splines, tracking positions, etc. Then the next week could be some text adventure which teaches a whole new set of skills. It's good if skills can be revisited occasionally.

I'm not sure about requiring source code submissions as some may want to further develop and sell their creations, or not have it on their public repositories.

I would avoid challenges that are...

• Too broad - Without a focus, there's less to be learned. It means there's no central discussion points, and people may not push themselves to learn new skills. Projects may also spend too much time on trivial stuff and we'll see less interesting content.
• Tool constrained - We should be making games, it doesn't matter what tool is used. It will also waste time that could otherwise be used for creating interesting content for the challenge. The skills learned will apply to all tools anyway.
• Technical - Limits on memory, performance, etc, encourage less interesting content and the learning of more useful skills. It also rules out many tools and platforms.

Some example challenges I'd consider to be good are... (shortened here to save space, can be made more specific or simpler)

• "Create a 2D platform game where there are walking and flying enemies. Attacking or jumping on an enemy will kill them. However, platforms will be varied in shape and orientation, and players can walk around these with a local gravity. Change platforms by double jumping. - 2 weeks".
• "Create a 2D game where you control two separated characters, both responding to the same input at the same time. You must use this to solve the puzzle of the level and bring the two characters together. - 2 weeks"
• "Create a game of pong where the ball can be spun by hitting it with a moving paddle and this affects the way the ball travels. - 1 week"

5 hours ago, MarcusAseth said:

Do you guys think that the "show your code" requirement is too much? Maybe an optional requirement?

I think this is a perfectly good requirement in order to participate on the forum bits.  Nothing would stop anyone from completing the challenges on their own time without submitting them for feedback, so if you don't want to share, you don't have to, you just don't get the benefit of the peer-review + feedback.

Also, I'm glad to see this moving forward instead of just being discussed.  Good stuff.

7 hours ago, Finalspace said:

Question: How creates the challenges? Everyone? Mods only? Everyone but with approval of mods?

This is open, and I'm hoping it can be part of the discussion, but I lean toward a submission process for challenge ideas.

If it's open there might be a lot going at once, and I don't know that having more than one or two at a time is a good thing.

I agree. With the challenges there should be as few as possible. IMO, 3 (assuming they are related to the same project).

Hopefully this will increase the use of blogs... and proper tagging.

23 minutes ago, Alpha_ProgDes said:

I agree. With the challenges there should be as few as possible. IMO, 3 (assuming they are related to the same project).

Hopefully this will increase the use of blogs... and proper tagging.

I agree.

34 minutes ago, khawk said:

This is open, and I'm hoping it can be part of the discussion, but I lean toward a submission process for challenge ideas.

If it's open there might be a lot going at once, and I don't know that having more than one or two at a time is a good thing.

Submission would be much better otherwise there will be chaos. Two things at a time should be the max.

I think this is a perfectly good requirement in order to participate on the forum bits.  Nothing would stop anyone from completing the challenges on their own time without submitting them for feedback, so if you don't want to share, you don't have to, you just don't get the benefit of the peer-review + feedback.

Also, I'm glad to see this moving forward instead of just being discussed.  Good stuff.

I fully agree, everyone should be able to participate even when the challenge time frame is exceeded. Sharing should be optionally as well, but its prefered to share the source.

Submit to the community, the mods, or both? For "both", I mean have a Challenge chosen by the Mods and a Challenge chosen by the Community.

Could do a "lets choose the next/current challenge" thread, maybe.

This is an old challenge but you guys can tell me what you do and don't like about it. We can use the feedback to inform the future template.

Quote

 
The contest will be 31 days long.
 
The contest will focus around the game of pong/table tennis. Everyone knows how this game works so I won't go into a lengthy explanation. However, the game will have to be a complete game. This means the game must have:

• Start Screen
• Win/Lose Screen
• Graphics for the background, ball, and paddles (ie. not just a monochrome rectangle and ball)
• Scoring
• Sound effects
• Music
• Exit (key and screen)

Game Rules

• The theme for this contest is Time. So that means that your game must in some way or ways reflect the Time theme.
• As the title indicates there will be power ups and they are mandatory. 3 powerups are mandatory. The mandatory 3 powerups will be Time based. 2 of the mandatory power-ups are: Speed Up and Speed Down. You can apply these powerups as you see fit (ex: make the paddles move faster, make the ball move faster, or make the timer move faster). Also it's totally up to you how the powerups are distributed to the players. In other words, you determine how the powerups get on the board and how the players get the powerups. The 3rd mandatory powerup must be Time-based but you can make it whatever you want.
• Because there is scoring, there must be a score limit that determines the winner.

Options - The following are optional but will make your game more interesting.

• Also, 2 additional, OPTIONAL powerups can be added as well. The 2 additional powerups can be anything you want them to be (ie. not does have to be Time-based) and they are optional.
• Timer
• Variable score limits (ex: 5, 10, 100, infinity)
• Pause functionality
• Difficulty settings
• Level progression
• Save functionality
• Animated background
• Different backgrounds and graphics for level progression