quote:

---

Original post by Ðragun

1) Can the artwork be modified? (i.e. rotated, color change, etc.)

2) Can there be additional game specific artwork? (i.e. flags, icons, etc.)

3) Are the games going to be judge by genres? I don''t think it would be fair if a puzzle\strategy went head to head with an action adventure.

---

Let me clarify a few things. First of all, you CAN use art in addition to what''s in SpriteLib, and you can modify the art contained in it in any way you want to. But the game should use SpriteLib in some way more than just a token appearance, or it will be disqualified.

Next, we have quite a few copies of FG to give away. We decided to leave that a little open ended. If your game is fun and creative, you have a good chance of winning, regardless of what types of games are submitted. Judging will be done by the staff and a couple of members; we have a broad range of tastes, so no particular genre will be favored.

Finally, this is the FIRST contest we''ve ever run. It''s not going to be the ONLY one. We wanted to have something nice and simple to start off with, so a lot of people can participate. With a DX wrapper and pre-made graphics, even many beginners will be able to submit an entry. Future contests will have different conditions. We''ll even do some cross platform ones, firahs, provided we have access to hardware to test them.

The point is we have to have some restrictions, or it would be too hard to compare entries, and unfair to many of our visitors. Every contest I''ve seen has been that way.

The grass is greener on the other side firahs...

What's with this talk about how artwork is *not* important? Notice how only the programmers say that. You don't see movie producers saying "oh, even though we only have an 80 watt bulb for lighting and ketchup for blood, the storyline kicks ass!" A game entails music, sound, graphics, and programming, not just one or the other.

Edited by - Ðragun on 3/2/00 4:13:29 PM

Hey, I downloaded the sprite library, and well, I need a password to extract the zip file. Where is the password, what is it?

"Remember, I'm the monkey, and you're the cheese grater. So no fooling around."
-Grand Theft Auto, London

Edited by - PsYcHoPrOg on 3/2/00 4:29:05 PM

Click on "register" fill in the fields, and it''ll be e-mailed to you within a day.

I am probably just repeating what several other people have already written cos I haven''t read all the replys.

Altough I think that the art is not brilliant and the games may all look the similar but this makes it easier for the judges to judge because its a programming contest and if everyone used their own grafix then if you are an artist you would have an unfair advantage over someone like me who can''t draw a circle with a circle tool althought your game was two lines of QBasic

//--- Created by Tom Oram ---
// tom.oram@vodafone.net

I have to agree with Dragun to some degree. I''m a visual artist who has learned to develope software. Is this a "programming contest" only? If so lets truck out some of the standards. Towers of Hanoi? If we are limited to graphics, are we also limited to sound and API? What about network issues?

Dragun, against your point, I think contests often work the best when there are constraints. It forces everyone to work harder. I don''t think the constraints always are there to ''level the playing field'', but to focus the contest on certain aspects. Next time the contest might be ''use any artistic concept you want while implementing the towers of hanoi'', or ''make pacman (a single player game) multiuser without diverging from the classic look''.

A better definition of what the contest is (gamedev with graphic constraint) would be more helpful, and would keep everyone on track and interested, I think.

Nonetheless, I do think those tiles are pretty dull.

To address the programming only thing...the contest is based on design. I will not say the basis of judgement, because I want to see what people can create out of all this.

Also, I think the contest rules are pretty well outlined now. I''ve modified them quite a bit to make things clearer and more detailed. If you have questions because you don''t understand something, feel free to ask.

Firahs, you can make a DOS game if you like. It just needs to be able to run on our Win95/98 machines. Unless, like Rhino mentioned, we can work out some way that we can access a Mac.

To answer Dragun:
1. Artwork can be modified, provided you modify SpriteLib and do not add your own sprites to the library.
2. There can be additional artwork as outlined in the rules for such things as title screen, cursors, menus, fonts, etc.
3. Games will be judged with our own special blend. No single genre has an advantage over any other.

To answer Sphet:
You are not limited on sound, music, input, genre, etc. The art is the only limitation. You MUST use SpriteLib. Very simple rules I think...I guess people just don''t like limitations.

Hopefully this has helped address everyone''s concerns.

Kevin

(I can hear people groaning now... "Oh no, Mith''s replying...")


Okay then. Not to bash the contest or anyone who enter''s it, I think that you guys could have come up with something more challenging.

I was under the impression that most of the people here cannot draw in the first place, and using SpriteLib should be a piece of cake. Besides, what the heck kind of limitation is that anyway? On just game art?

I say that since the vast majority of the people who regularly visit this site are Programmers, maybe there should have been some kind of programming limitation, because, lets face it, the art would be severely limited anyway.

Im sure many would say this is true for them also: I can only draw stick figures. (hehee)

I guess I''m done ranting for now. BTW, whats FastGraph anyway?

(Im not going to enter, Im working on a cool project right now)




===============================================
I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped. I was disturbed at this; I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said, You can never -- "

"You lie," he cried, And ran on.

I believe i said "artwork should be the least of your worries"

From my understanding, and i may be wrong, this contest is designed to see who is the most creative and who can come up with the best design. Not who can make the best game.

I dont think anyone will try to have their game sold at computer retailers, i think everyone is just trying to make a better game than the next person, that is why its a contest.

The point of giving everyone the same sprite library is to see who can come up with the best game _using these sprites_. By giving everyone the same sprites to work with, you''ve essentially taken artwork out of the competition, leaving design and creativity left to be judged.

Dragun:
The grass is green wherever i go, and please stop implying that i said something which i didnt.

I am having a hard time with the spritelib password ,the registration page is unavailable . I have always done my own music , artwork and programming , so forget the myth

quote:

---

Programmer cant do artwork.

---