The First Annual Festive Amiga Game Making Competition

[Cammy]

Seasons Greetings! In the spirit of Christmas, and due to popular demand we are hosting the First Annual Festive Amiga Game Making Competition!

Here's the deal: You have two weeks to make your own Christmas-themed Amiga game. All entries must be uploaded by Christmas Eve, December 24th, when we can all download and play them on our Amigas (or emulated Amigas). We will set up a poll for people to vote for their favourite games, and the winners will receive prizes donated by the Amiga community. As a bonus incentive, all runners up (all entrants) will receive a printed and packaged CD containing all the entries, bootable on any Amiga with a CD drive (although there's no guarantee ALL the games will run on all systems, they will be provided on the CD nevertheless).

The rules of the competition are simple:

1. You have two weeks to finish your game. If your game isn't finished by December 24th, you should still upload your incomplete entry anyway, but at least try to make it playable.
2. Your game must run on a classic OCS or AGA Amiga. This way, anyone should be able to play all the games, either on their old hardware or through UAE. Unfortunately OS4, Aros and MorphOS specific entries at this stage wouldn't reach enough people and couldn't compete for votes.
3. You can create your game with any software you like. This includes programming it yourself too. If you have no coding knowledge, feel free to use any of the available game making software such as Backbone, SEUCK, GRAC, GRAAL, Reality, Game Engine, or anything else you can find.
4. Your game must be themed around Christmas and the festive season. It doesn't necessarily have to contain religious references, but it must be identifiable.

That's it! The rules are pretty lenient, we just want to give as many people the opportunity to join in as possible. Further details on where to post finished games, as well as a list of prizes will be posted over the next week or so.

So, what are you waiting for? If you're up for a challenge, have some free time, and really dig the chance to win some fantastic Amiga prize packs, have a crack at it! We'll make this the best Amiga Christmas in years!

[Cammy]

I was wondering how long it'd take for someone to say that. :rolleyes:

Of course if someone feels the need to take advantage of ECS' 4-colour Super High Res mode or any of the other useful ECS enhancement, go for it.

Also, if anyone would like to donate any prizes to the prize pool, that would be great! Once we have a few items to choose from, we'll make packs for first, second and third place.

[Cammy]

Wow, those homebrew games look really cool, it'd be great if those guys wanted to make Christmas versions to enter, or even write something new from scratch!

Browsing through YouTube, I came across these compilations of Amiga SEUCK games. Anyone can work out how to use SEUCK (Shoot Em Up Construction Kit) and make their own game with it in a couple of days, it's simple and fun. Check out what other people have managed to make with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCjWOrT83mU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo72mA9CxqU

I particularly like the one where you play an angel, flying upwards in a side-viewed level, and the game where you play a fireman putting out fires with your hose.

[Cammy]

Here's an essential application that all Amiga users should have installed, it's perfect for importing GIFs and PNGs of sprites and graphics found on the web, editing them, and saving out as Amiga IFF/ILBM format to use in your games:

Personal Paint - http://aminet.net/package/biz/cloan/PPaint

Something else I think I should mention is that people don't necessarily have to make a FULL GAME, just a demo of a game with at least one playable level or challenge would be good enough to enter before the contest is finished. You can always continue to develop the game after Christmas, because we would love to collect ALL the full games people make together some time next year once everyone is happy with their finished product, and compile them together onto a bootable Amiga/CDTV/CD32 CD, packed with other Christmas and holiday themed extras, and make the full CD available both for free as a downloadable ISO, and to purchase for a small fee on a fully printed and packaged CD. Any proceeds can go towards charity and helping Amiga developers. Anyone who enters a game in the competition will receive a packaged CD free of charge.

If you like the idea of an annual Amiga festive games making contest, but you don't have the time to make a game yourself, perhaps you'd like to donate something towards the prize pool? For any of you in the Amiga business, it could be a good way to promote your company by giving away one of your products to the best Amiga talents, and it would certainly provide more incentive for people to have a go at the competition.

As an example of their dedication, the team at Underground Arcade is kindly donating the following prizes to the winners of first, second and third place. We hope to build the list of prizes over the next couple of weeks.

UPDATE!!!

Thanks to Amiga Maniac (http://www.amigamaniac.com) for helping to sponsor our contest. They have kindly donated a brand new v2.0 PAL/NTSC RGB S-Video adapter which works on any classic Amiga (except CD32, which already has S-Video) and allows you to plug your Amiga into a new LCD TV or any TV with an S-Video input.

First Prize
A brand new V2.0 RGB S-Video Adapter for classic Amigas
A new, boxed AmigaOS3/Aros/MorphOS-compatible USB Rocket Launcher
An unopened A1200/A600-compatible PCMCIA 5-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/SM/MS/MSP)
Two brand new control pads compatible with all 1-button and 2-button Amiga games
An original Oscar/Diggers game for CD32/AGA-CD/UAE (or HDD-installable with WHDLoad)
A sealed box of 25 floppy disks in assorted colours
A packaged copy of the first Amiga Christmas Contest Compilation for CDTV/CD32/Amiga-CD/UAE

Second Prize
One brand new control pad compatible with all 1-button and 2-button Amiga games
An original Oscar/Diggers game for CD32/AGA-CD/UAE (or HDD-installable with WHDLoad)
A sealed box of 25 floppy disks in assorted colours
A packaged copy of the first Amiga Christmas Contest Compilation for CDTV/CD32/Amiga-CD/UAE

Third Prize
A sealed box of 25 floppy disks in assorted colours
A packaged copy of the first Amiga Christmas Contest Compilation for CDTV/CD32/Amiga-CD/UAE

Does that help convince anyone it's a worthwhile cause? I think just being able to play some new Amiga games during the holidays is going to be the best. And while they may not be too complete this year, imagine downloading or buying the full compilation to play or give as a gift next Christmas, during which time we'll be holding the SECOND festive game making contest!

[Cammy]

If you plan on writing an Amiga game in C, it might help to try and find the GameSmith package, which includes lots of examples for you to look through, compile and try for yourself.

[Cammy]

Amigo:

I would like to have a 'diploma' added to the prizes.
A certificate for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and even runner up.
To me, a diploma is a very valuable prize.
Thanks!!!

rednova

This is an excellent idea! A certificate for each winner and contestant would make a neat addition to the prizes, I'll definitely add this. Are there any graphic artists out there who would like to lend a hand to designing some Annual Festive Amiga Game Making Competition certificates?

I'm looking forward to playing Geit's Christmas edition of his excellent Boulderdash game on Christmas day! If anyone doesn't know, Geit has written some awesome Amiga software including the incredibly useful Meridian mouse-gesture commodity. Check out his site if you haven't already.

I'm still trying to get a couple of extra prizes added to the pool. I'm just waiting for a couple of replies, and with any luck we might have an extra gadget or some software to add.

If anyone has any Amiga stuff they'd like to give away for Christmas and aren't sure who to give it to, why not consider giving it away as a prize for the hard work put in by these dedicated Amiga users rushing to get part of a game made in time for Christmas? It would be nice to show some support, and might encourage more people to join in.

[Cammy]

Hi Everyone,
I just take part to the forum now because I wanted to tell a small note concerning this competition.
 
Firstly, I want to thank the "creators" of this competition. It's alwayss cool to see a competition for Amiga World As usually, there are no one ..
 
But, to be honest, I think this competition is a "shot in the water".
As I said from previous posts, the objectives were to try to revivify the Amiga coding community ... and to bring new products to Amiga World ... But where is the real interest of bringing games that will be only used for ... "emulation" ... Or, if they're compatible with AmigaOS4, MorphOS or Aros ... They will not use the technology available for these Amiga... computers ... So, the games developed for this competition will bring nothing new to Amiga .. only things that already exist thousand times ...
And these games will not attract anyone to the Amiga World because it does not show what new Amiga's can do
So, this competition will bring ... nothing to the Amiga World ...
It's a good idea for retro gaming competition ... but will be useless for actual Amiga World ..
 
I just wanted to give my opinion on the subject.
 
EDIT : However, I'll try to submit something Amos+Asm made
 
Kindest Regards,
AmiDARK
http://www.amidark-engine.com

Please allow me to defend myself, I have many reasons for creating this competition with the rules it has. First of all, you should read this thread - http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=50563 , which was started to ask the question of why the Amiga scene doesn't hold game making contests like the MSX scene does.

We concluded that to have a competitive contest, there needs to be a common platform everyone can develop for, and more importantly, more people can download, play and rate the results so we have a fair contest with lots of votes. Anyone with a computer can play classic Amiga games, either on their original hardware or through emulation, so there's nothing stopping them from playing all the contest entries. If someone were to submit an AmigaOS4 game, I would not be able to test it myself, and I'm sure most other Amiga users won't be able to try it either. The same goes for a MorphOS or Aros game, although there are hardly any excuses for not being able to run Aros these days. We had to keep a common target platform to keep the contest fair, but also because a lot of people still know how to program games for them who wouldn't know where to start when it comes to coding for RTG, AHI, PPC and things they weren't used to when they still programmed with classic Amigas.

I'm not saying that it's too hard to make games for OS4 or other modern Amiga systems, and I encourage people to maybe port their games to newer Amiga systems after the contest is finished. But this contest is just a small retro gaming one aimed at classics for now, and it is the first of many I hope we can run. The contest is being run on Amiga.org, Classic Amiga, The English Amiga Board, and Indie Gamer. We're not running it on AmigaWorld or Amigans.net because those sites are either increasingly against classic development, or just simply OS4-only. There would be no interest there, and it would only be met with hostility and speculation. It has been pointed out already that anyone is more than welcome to start their own OS4 game making contest on one of those forums, and I encourage anyone willing to do so.

This contest wasn't started to revolutionize the Amiga platform or bring amazing new things to it. It's for fun, in the spirit of Christmas. The only thing I hope to bring to the Amiga world with this contest is joy and happiness, and a few extra games for us to play at Christmas time each year.

I hope you understand this competition wasn't meant to exclude anyone, but to include everyone!

I'm looking forward to all your entries, good luck with them!

[Cammy]

I'm not sure what could be causing this, there are a lot of bugs in Backbone that you have to learn about through trial and error, and just avoid. If you would like to pack your game files in an lha and the Backbone project file, I could have a look on my A1200 and see if it compiles.

Sometimes it happens when you have set the map size too large or add too many objects. If you have any scenes, make sure they flow/link properly.

I hope you get it working, there's always a way with Backbone, you just have to keep trying other ways.

[Cammy]

Wow, I'm happy to see more people joining in!

I think the best idea for now would be for each contestant to upload their finished game to their own space and private message me with a link to the download, or send me an email with the game as an attachment. I will then upload them all to the Amiga Christmas Tree Website, which I am in the process of updating for this year. The website is here - http://amigachristmastree.condor.serverpro3.com - but at the moment it's still showing last year's page. I intend to replace it with the new one soon!

All entries should be provided as either an LHA archive that can be extracted and run from Workbench, or as an ADF file that can be written back to floppy or run in an emulator. A burnable ISO image for CDTV or CD32 would be fine too. Please provide a ReadMe file with your entry to explain what the game is about and how you made it, this should help people make a fair choice when voting for the games. If you have used any ripped graphics, sound or music please credit your sources, and let us know which language or game maker you used to create the game.

After the new Amiga Christmas Tree page is uploaded, I'll post all new information about the contest there, as well as replying to anyone on the forums. I can be contacted through PM on this forum, or through MSN or email (both are the same address) which you can find out on my profile. Also, if anyone would just like to chat about Amiga stuff, feel free to add me to MSN (I use AmiMSN on my A1200 and SabreMSN on my Aros laptop).

Merry Christmas, and good luck everyone!

[Cammy]

cgutjahr, this is quite a good idea too! The only reason I didn't choose Aminet for the place to upload everyones files is because they can sometimes take over a day to approve new uploads before they appear on the Recent page, and if some people were to try uploading their entries at the last minute they would certainly miss the deadline.

I recommend everyone to upload their game to Aminet, mentioning the contest and the URL for the Amiga Christmas Tree website in their ReadMe file, since you will definitely reach a larger audience there, but it would also be advisable to find an alternative place to upload your file or send it to me in case it doesn't appear on Aminet soon enough.

I would like to host all the entries in one list on the Amiga Christmas Tree website for easy access, but uploading your games to Aminet as well is no problem at all. The more exposure the better!

[Cammy]

Thanks, Moto!

[Cammy]

Hey everyone! I'd just like to let you all know about a wonderful update to our prize pool. The lucky first place winner will now receive a brand new v2.0 RGB-S-Video adapter from Amiga Maniac (http://www.amigamaniac.com)!

I have also updated the Amiga Christmas Tree website now, and will shortly add more details about the competition. I will also add the links to all the game entries on the page on Christmas morning.

[Cammy]

Hi everyone. I'm really sorry if I have missed anyones entries, but I have uploaded eight so far to the Amiga Christmas Tree website. Please, if anyone can see an entry that I missed out on, let me know! I'm not at home at the moment, and I'm kinda forced to use a Windows PC, which is frustrating me, and I might have made a mistake without realising it.

Also if someone can help out with a sample of a telephone could they convert it to .sam format for Philski so he can finish off his game? Thanks!

Thanks Methuselas, I fully plan on more than just the Christmas competition from now on. Our next contest will have a longer period to work with too, and we've already come up with a theme we hope you'll all like.

Thanks everyone, Merry Christmas!

[Cammy]

I'm trying to find a way to add a five star rating system to a page on my site that works in IBrowse, but so far I can only find one that works in OWB (as well as Opera in Linux and probably most other modern browsers).

I'd like to make a page with a screenshot of each game with a 5-star rating poll under each one. This way no games will be left out of the voting process, and everyone would get a fair chance. Results from a 5-star poll are averages of the ratings, so whichever three games end up with the highest rating (out of 5 but with two decimal places) will be the winners.

Do you guys think it would matter if I used a system like this even if it doesn't work on classic browsers? http://www.ratehoster.com

I'd also like to give everyone the chance to try out all the games. If anyone has a problem running any of them, please post about it here so we can help get them working. They're all fantastic games!

[Cammy]

I hope people don't mind that the voting page isn't compatible with IBrowse and AWeb, I'm not well versed enough in web design to code my own voting system, so I'm using a free service. It will be fully compatible with OWB, I've tested it in Aros and it works fine, so it should in MorphOS and AmigaOS4 too (and UAE OS3).

I'm sorry for taking so long with everything, I'm trying my best to get all these things sorted out! I'll post a link to the voting page as soon as it's finished.

I was wondering if maybe anyone had a little bit of time to try out the games yet?