Why we dont have GAME development contests

[persia]

The problem with writing games for the Amiga is the great variation in hardware and the small community there is to use it.  I've recently started writing software again and decided to work with the iPhone, their development support is phenomenal and even a completely unsuccessful program that actually makes it into the App store pays far more and is seen by more people that an wildly successful Amiga app.

So bottom line, it's a very hard slog compared to other platforms and when you succeed the rewards aren't there...

[utri007]

Best solution would be create OS friendly 68k games, so they would be playable OS3.0, OS4 and Morph OS

There is lots of consept guides in www

1. Create consept
2. Plan story line
3. start coding
4. create graphics
* DON'T changes your plans about consept and story
* figure out what is realistic

[justthatgood]

Maybe because it takes way too much time? At one time I wanted to develop for these little machines, but when I got ahold of some of the development documents to do it, I found I would be spending precious time trying to learn alot of very archaic tomes.

It's kinda like this spend time trying to make a game that a few people might enjoy or put food on your table. Slave at what would be a labor of love that you probably won't get any money from, or spend that time saving up to get medical insurance.

Unfortunately I have to pick work over "fun" anyday.

[ami_junki]

I think at the end of the day the Amiga is a dead platform, it is only hobbyist machine now, and if people are looking to make any decent money out of it they are not on the same page as the rest of the world.  A competition with a decent prize would probably offer more than could be made for a developer than if they sold it, also take into consideration that most people would probably just copy it anyways.   If people are looking to make decent money making software then create software for the pc or iphone, but just as in the 8 bit community people have competitions because they love the hardware and can accept it as a hobby, there is the element of fun in partaking in a competition.  At the end of the day, people who worry that the game won`t make enough money are seriously not taking a realistic look at the situation of Amiga.

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Why we dont have GAME development contests

My guess is that the MSX was popular in Japan, and the Amiga was not.

[skurk]

I don't know if it's such a good idea to host a competition. There might not be enough entries. I'm sure the people who actually want to make Amiga games will want to make them without needing to be offered the chance of a reward from a competition.

I'd bite if the competition had some sort of a challenge, or interesting twist to it.  Well, other than making a game.

For example: 4k, boot block, text based, no bitplanes, etc.. :-)

[Linde]

My guess is that the MSX was popular in Japan, and the Amiga was not.

Astute observation, but it hardly answers the question. As far as I understand, the participants in the MSX game contests are mostly European and South American.

My own idea is that the Amiga community in its bulk consists mostly of hardware collecting end users, and on the creative side we mostly have OS developers and some demo coders + Amiga musicians still active. This in its turn is possibly a result of the relative complexity of the system (compared to the more active 8-bit machines) and the hardware modularity/expandability.

The Amiga community might be divided in too many ways for game competitions like these to ever be possible, not to mention hardware. Amiga 1200, Amiga 500, AGA, ECS, graphics card, no graphics card, RAM expansions, register fiddling vs APIs, OS3, OS4 MorphOS, Power PC, 68k. In an already small community, differences like this can be devastating for collaborative effort.

[rockersuke]

It's a bit of a paradox, I think. Amiga has the tools that make easy to creae fancy-looking programs for non advanced programmers, but 8-bit fans are much more active with their machines. In Spain Spectrum, MSX an Amstrad CPC people are making quality games even if that requires digging into machine-code, which itself requires high programming skills. We have AMOS, Blitz... but somehow we lack the enthusiasm (or maybe the free time ^^')

--

[desiv]

The problem is twofold I think.
1 of course, time.  It takes a while to write a good game.
The other is quality.  There are already a LOT of good games out there.  So, anyone starting will have a hard time coming up with something that hasn't been done or looks better.

I know when I started trying to write a few games back in the day, it was related to that.  I started writing an Ultima clone, and I got my basic game map with a jump scroll and non-animated characters moving.  No game logic or double buffering yet, but it was a decent start, and then Zerg was released, which was almost exactly what I was going for, but better.
My second attempt was for a solitaire game with some flexibility.  Got that one all the way working (when you selected cards to move, it outlined them, you didn't "pick them up", I was just starting to work on the BOB routine for that) and Klondike came out.  MUCH better than mine..    
(Although, Asha DeVelder (an Amiga fidonet chum) liked it, and told me she was still using my version in either late 90's or early 2000's, I can't remember which.  That was nice.)

But I remember, except for Asha, when I showed people what I was working on, there wasn't much support.  People were always saying "This game is better" or "that demo does that, you need to add that".

So I stopped and went in to other stuff..

Getting back into the Amiga, part of me would love to throw something together, but I don't see that I could write anything better than what is out there.

With the old systems, (8-bits) you are trying to do something that hasn't been done or shouldn't be able on an 8-bit.    

With the Amiga, part of me would love to write a top down RPG engine(maybe somewhat ISO), but I know it wouldn't compare with whats out there.  On the 8-bit side, I see people supporting projects, whether or not they are new or better.  On the Amiga stuff, I see people complaining about commercial game quality on the forums and I know I couldn't even get to there...

Now, if you put up money, that won't effect me at all...  :-)  But I suppose you might find some retired amiga game/demo coders out there...  I'd doubt it tho...

desiv

[hbarcellos]

Could it simply be a case of the MSX scene being much bigger?

 I'm not sure about the Amiga community size, but MSX scene is not that big. Most of those games are made by a small European group (Netherlands and Spain mostly). I should say no more than 20 ppl, divided into coders, musicians and gfx artists.
 My thoughts are:
 1) Developing a game on Amiga is much harder than it is on MSX
 2) There is a lot of other things you can do with an Amiga than you can`t do with an MSX. (i.e. WEB, 3d modeling and etc...)
 3) I think, that mostly due to complexity, emulators for MSX are far better than WinUAE and others. They are simple and filled with hacking tools like debuggers, rewind feature and several others.
 4) About ppl talking about making money out of a hobbyist platform, at the msx scene, all of the games are freely available to download. Some guys who tried to sell .ROM files were deeply criticized by the community. Normally the best games receive reals versions on cartridge with fancy labels, manuals and box. Those are sold, and everyone happily pays for them.

just my two cents.

[ElPolloDiabl]

2 Billion Peecees vs around a thousand Amigas. And about 10% of them may like the game. That is very generous of someones time to reach 100 fans.

I will say that there is a complete lack of originality in PC games. Not too mention all those MMOs (which I avoid). The only PC games I'm going to buy in the forseeable future is: The Sims 3 and Cities XL.

There are a number of great Amiga titles from the 80s/90s that just need some 24 bit(or 8-bit) graphics to be awesome games.

I like the cinemaware style of having various arcade mini games wrapped into the one package.

[persia]

The iPhone is addictive, they're hard to put down and I'm playing more of my Amiga games there now.  A rich development environment, Obj C, which I find more fun than C, people willing to pay money for apps.  Really the iPhone in 2010 reminds me of the Amiga in 1986.  I live in 2010, my mortgage is in 2010, the mortgage on my retirement house in Sunshine Coast is in 2010, my work is in 2010.  Much as I love tinkering with the Amiga, it's the past, I can't dwell on it, life in the present calls.

[desiv]

... I live in 2010, my mortgage is in 2010, the mortgage on my retirement house in Sunshine Coast is in 2010, my work is in 2010.  Much as I love tinkering with the Amiga, it's the past, I can't dwell on it, life in the present calls.

...
Yet, you're posting here...

Hmmm...

:roflmao:

desiv

[Cammy]

I'm not sure if this thread is finished now, or if I should get back on topic. I was feeling enthusiastic about it for a while...

[leszeka33]

Best solution would be linuxppc games, so they would be playable on AmigaOne,Sam440,Classic+ppc,Pegasos,eifka.

[amigadave]

Don't dispair Cammy, keep hoping that Amiga programming will improve a little anyway.  I am still working on that plan to get kids/teens interested in programming and using Amigas that I told you about.

I have to add that I am typing this post from my A1200 using IBrowse2.4 and Miami via my wireless card.  That is something that I have wanted to get set up and working for a long time.