   3H-GDC m.VII, April 10th, 2100 UTC ($128 of prizes) - Theme: Spring
3H-GDC m.VIITL;DR Summary:Make a puzzle game in 3 hours. Win GDNet+ Membership. April 10th, 2100 UTC.Prizes:#3: a PayPal transfer worth 3 months of GDNet+ membership ($12.95).#2: a full year of GDNet+ ($39.95).#1: a $75 gift card for Amazon.com (email gift card).Description: For the seventh competition ever (it seems weird to me that we've done 6 of these things already, and yet the last one was over 3 years ago.), we are going to mix things up this time. I've just open sourced some code for creating grid-and-tile puzzles, ala Tetris or Dr. Mario or whatever. It provides a very basic framework for defining pieces and figuring out different ways to place them on a board. Included in the distribution is an example of the Tetris game. On top of that, there are two examples of UI implementations for the game, using either the system console or Windows Forms, demonstrating a sort of MVC setup for game development. Also, I've included the NUnit tests in the source code; if you want to run them, you will need to install the framework (the solution file is current configured to not build the test project when building the solution, to avoid errors for anyone who doesn't have NUnit installed). It's pretty simple, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask.So, the contest will be based in some way on puzzle games: you can use my library if you want or not, you can spend the next few weeks porting my library to your favorite language if you want (I've released under the MIT license), you can develop your own puzzle game library if you want, it doesn't really matter, as long as you meet the secret theme. If you would use my library, I would greatly appreciate it, to give it a sort of "real world" test, see what people make of it, and see where it should be taken from here. But, it's not required.We usually have prizes for this contest, typically a certain amount of cash via PayPal intended to be used to purchase a GDNet+ membership. Prizes are donated by the community as a whole. I've donated games before as well. At the very least, I'll end up covering 1 year, 3 months, and 1 month of GDNet+ membership fees as the top 3 prizes. I might dig through my hardware pile and find something interesting. Anyone else is free to offer something.Date/Time:Saturday, April 10th.Theme: "Spring"The past six contests were "Black and White," "Fire," "Crackers," "CARTS," "The Stars", and "The Pits". The emphasis is originality in interpretation. With the Crackers theme there were entries that featured fire crackers, saltines, people "cracking" windows open to prevent leathal doses of methane gas, and southern honkeys.I'm getting rid of the ASCII art requirement this time. If you want to do that, that's up to you, I like ASCII art games. I personally think the contest is easier if you do ASCII art, but that's just me. You might find it easier to do it in HTML5 or Flash, which is perfectly acceptable.Rules:Submissions must meet a predetermined theme (which will be revealed 15 minutes before the beginning of the contest)Any Language (C, Java, C#, Python, &#106avascript, Brainf***, I don't care) or API (SDL, Allegro, PyGame, JOGL, even SVG in HTML5 is cool) are acceptable, as long as you handle all distribution yourself (Ideally include all assemblies. You may link to download page, but please, don't just link to the project's homepage). This is especially true if you use a "game maker", I don't want to have to hunt anything down to play your game.Writing the code in the time limit is "on your honor". That's why I keep the theme a secret: you might be able to make a generic game between now and then, but you won't be able to make anything specific to the theme. But seriously, why would you cheat for such a simple contest?Judges will judge on a full binary version of the software. They will not compile the software. Source code is not required, though you may request source code to be posted with your submission.Judging is conducted by a panel of non-competitorsJudging is based mostly on overall gameplay and originallity of game design. We understand that content will be light, that graphics will be underdeveloped, that input MIGHT be a bit akward. Gameplay and concepts are key.prizes (when available) are listed above, runners up receive nothing.Three hours is plenty of time to make a classic arcade game, or something new with simple gameplay. The threads for the previous contests are available below. Unfortunately, all of the links are broken. I still have an archive of all of the games, I just need to find a place to put them (maybe CodePlex?)The first 3H-GDC3H-GDC m.II3H-GDC m.III3H-GDC m.IV3H-GDC m.V3H-GDC m.VIIf anyone wants to volunteer as a Judge, please post here and list your machine specs as well as your pertinent software running on your computer. For example, I'm:Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8600Memory: 8GB RAMGFX: NVidia GeForce 8800 GTSOS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64bitBrowsers: Google Chrome (default), IE8, FireFox 3.6Other Software: Whatever the lastest, non-beta versions of Java, .NET, Python, Ruby, DirectX, and XNA are available. I don't remember, but I'll make sure everything is up to date before the contest.Not that it's terribly important, given the low level graphics this contest will require.[Edited by - capn_midnight on April 10, 2010 3:41:54 PM]
  This sounds pretty interesting.  What day of the week are they generally held, or are they generally coded in 3 hours, some time over a weekend (being honest about how much time it actually took you)?   ;Quote:Original post by MoeThis sounds pretty interesting.  What day of the week are they generally held, or are they generally coded in 3 hours, some time over a weekend (being honest about how much time it actually took you)?The way it's gone in the past: For a Saturday or Sunday, I pick a time that works for the timezone of the majority of people interested. At the start of the three hours, I post a theme for the submissions. Three hours later, I check my email for submissions. After three hours and 15 minutes, I ignore any new submissions (well, not completely, but they aren't added to the judging pool). Then, the judging period runs for however long it takes all of the judges to get back to me: I always do it right away but some people take a couple of days. I try to write a review of all of the submissions as well.   ;  Sounds like I've chosen a good time for my epic return to GameDev.Net [smile] It's good to see this contest coming back, I will definitely be joining.Here comes, well, me.   ;  I'd totally be interested in participating. Hopefully the timing works out such that I'm not asleep! April 10th is fine for me.   ;  This definitely looks interesting. :PEST is...GMT-5? I think.EDIT: Damn. I've just realised I'm in Berlin on Saturday 10th. Ah well.   ;  Yes, GMT-5. April 17th is also a possibility. Heck, if there's enough interest, we could do both.   ;  So does anyone want to volunteer for judging? Anyone want to donate any prizes? I'd also like to know who is going to compete about a week ahead of the competition, just so I can select a time that suits everyone and get everything prepared.   ;  It'd be fun, but I don't think I'll be able to (previous things going on on the 17th, 10th could be a possibility).  That, and I really question whether or not I'd be able to actually churn something out in 3 hours...   ;  Ooooh! :)I'm definetively in! I love those challenges.Edit: Oh, and my vacation ends on 11th of April, so preferrable before that.[Edited by - Endurion on March 25, 2010 3:59:35 PM]