Volunteers for Next PGD Challenge Judges...

[WILL]

Hey everyone! I need at least 2 volunteers (3 would be better!) to be judges for the next PGD Challenge Mini Competition. The competition will take place starting this month and run for about 3-4 weeks, in which time you can prepare for a judging session of all games sometime in late January/early February.

Without judges, we cannot hold another mini competition so if you have both a PC and a Mac computer please contact me via PM (http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/private.php?do=newpm&u=144) or by email at contact@pascalgamer.com to submit your request as a judge. Thanks!


As per the previous PGD Challenge, it will have no prizes. It's just for fun so if the judges would like to help out it is also possible for them to make a mock competition entry to follow along, but they cannot enter for obvious reasons.

Should you not be available during the time of the actual competition to compete, but feel that you will have time afterwards, perhaps volunteering as a judge would be a great way to help contribute as well?

I hope to hear from all those who can help. Thanks again.

[Traveler]

To be sure, is it a requirement to have both a Mac and a PC in order to be a judge?
I wouldn't mind doing some judging as I wont be participating, but it's pc only for me.

[code_glitch]

Woah people - lets not forget the elephant in the indie game dev room - linux!! If I recall a LOT of Ludum Dare games target ubuntu/linux based operating systems, not jusy mac and windows. Just a thought to include - but as linux is free and can be run in a VM/dual booted you can't say you dont have it right ;)

[WILL]

I would be interested in getting all 3 major platforms (Windows, Mac OS X and Linux) as officially supported for competition entries, unfortunately not everyone has all the systems available. I currently have 2 volunteers who have all 3 thankfully. I really was only expecting to get the top 2. I'd like to get a third that also has all 3 if possible, but will have to make due with what everyone has. Windows is a must simply because of the sheer number of users that it would eliminate otherwise.

This is so that all judges may play the games. Dev teams may include/produce any number of ports as they desire, however all the judges need to be able to play what is submitted. So I do encourage those that know how and are practiced as making games in multiple ports to do so, but I'd caution anyone who is new to this to stick with whatever platform/development they are most familiar with so they have the best chance of completing their entry.

[code_glitch]

all the judges need to be able to play what is submitted


Then I think you will find that OS X is going to be a problem - and not a small one at that. Although it is true they could cross compile from Linux with SDL the issues regarding testing it for non-Mac owners would make that impractical if there is a mac only judge... Although to be fair I doubt this will be the case. :)

[paul_nicholls]

Woah people - lets not forget the elephant in the indie game dev room - linux!! If I recall a LOT of Ludum Dare games target ubuntu/linux based operating systems, not jusy mac and windows. Just a thought to include - but as linux is free and can be run in a VM/dual booted you can't say you dont have it right ;)

You can also install Ubuntu from within Windows and run it natively via booting into it when starting the computer up. You don't even have to partition the hard drive or other stuff, and you can then uninstall Ubuntu from Windows too just like any other program if you wish :)

[Ingemar]

When do you plan to run it? I would like to participate, but I can't do anything during december-january since I have a CG course to run and we are revising it for OpenGL 3.2. But if the course gets in the way for participating I could just as well be judge. I have access to OSX (many versions), XP/Vista and Ubuntu (a bit old, should upgrade it). But no Windows 7.

[WILL]

I'm just waiting for things to pick-up on the site. I'll be starting the competition once, I have confirmed all judges will be ready at the end of the deadline and gotten their specs. Rules are being drafted this weekend.

I would like to advertise, but it takes time and effort to make videos of each game. Perhaps if competitors of the last competition were to send me videos of their 1st Challenge entries, I'd have a much easier time of it.

[Ingemar]

I'm just waiting for things to pick-up on the site. I'll be starting the competition once, I have confirmed all judges will be ready at the end of the deadline and gotten their specs. Rules are being drafted this weekend.

I would like to advertise, but it takes time and effort to make videos of each game. Perhaps if competitors of the last competition were to send me videos of their 1st Challenge entries, I'd have a much easier time of it.

Well, I've had a video up for a long time, if it counts. http://www.ragnemalm.se/lightweight/twobitclip.mov But I guess the top entries would be more important.

[paul_nicholls]

I'm just waiting for things to pick-up on the site. I'll be starting the competition once, I have confirmed all judges will be ready at the end of the deadline and gotten their specs. Rules are being drafted this weekend.

I would like to advertise, but it takes time and effort to make videos of each game. Perhaps if competitors of the last competition were to send me videos of their 1st Challenge entries, I'd have a much easier time of it.

I would be glad to make one of my entry Vectored!...unfortunately, it would be without sound, as I have never had any luck recording audio + video ever...

Any idea if this is possible?

[Stoney]

Any idea if this is possible?

What are you using to record your game? I've been using Fraps myself and recording audio + video is no problem at all. Fraps is not free (it's 27 EUR), but it beats CamStudio anytime when recording gaming content.

[Ingemar]

I would be glad to make one of my entry Vectored!...unfortunately, it would be without sound, as I have never had any luck recording audio + video ever...

Any idea if this is possible?

If you can't find a program that can record both, hook up your audio output to whereever you can record it and merge them later. That is a hack, and there must be better ways (as Stoney suggested) but sometimes that kind of fixes are the fastest way.

[paul_nicholls]

@Stoney: I have tried Camtasia Studio 3 (from my work), and CamStudio too, but haven't managed to record audio from programs/games yet...
I don't have a copy of Fraps unfortunately.

@Ingemar: hmm...I might have to try doing it that way, thanks :)

[paul_nicholls]

Well, I have downloaded Fraps and the unregistered version seems to have done the trick! (thanks Stoney!) :)

@WILL: Here is my video of Vectored! (22.8MB 7-zip file):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1805932/vectored!_video.7z

cheers,
Paul

[WILL]

FRAPS is the best for Windows. However what is the best for Mac? I got a commercial copy of FRAPS for PGD use, but since I don't run a Windows machine anymore, I'm trying to find an alternative to it for my system.

Thanks for the videos guys! Just about 6+ min. more and I can make some kind of video ad. ;)

[Stoney]

However what is the best for Mac?

You can make screencasts using Quicktime in Lion, although I never tried that. I have been using Screenium (http://www.syniumsoftware.com/screenium/) which I bought two years ago during their christmas sale, but you may need to tweak around in the settings depending on the video (quality and framerate) you want to have.
I have tried a lot of solutions for Mac OS X (except for using Quicktime) and Screenium is the one that I liked most and yet not as pricey as Camtasia for example. In fact, every video on my Youtube channel that uses a Mac OS X environment was made using Screenium (except for the timelapses).

[Ingemar]

You can make screencasts using Quicktime in Lion, although I never tried that. I have been using Screenium (http://www.syniumsoftware.com/screenium/) which I bought two years ago during their christmas sale and but you may need to tweak around in the settings depending on the video you want to have.
I have tried a lot of solutions for Mac OS X (except for using Quicktime) and Screenium is the one that I liked most and yet not as pricey as Camtasia for example. In fact, every video on my Youtube channel that uses a Mac OS X environment was made using Screenium (except for the timelapses).

I never even heard about Screenium, but I have several others that I've bought in various bundles. I don't use them very often, but I think ScreenFlow was the one that really performed well. I also have Screen Mimic, which I think couldn't do the same frame rate, but the price was great.

[WILL]

Are our volunteer judges about ready for another Challenge?

It's coming real soon. I have the theme all picked out and it's ready for all to get started. Pending final write-up we will be set to start next week as long as I can get a hold of all of the volunteer judges and confirm they are still in. Sorry for the longer than anticipated wait on getting the 2nd one going, my real life career path has forced me to stray away from many PGD activities of late, but I'm here now to get things going again.

So far I have Jim McKeeth and Luuk van Venrooij as volunteers which will allow us to have all 3 major platforms (Win,Lin,Mac) supported.

Also with the addition of the Smart Mobile Studio, this will allow an extra, common platform based on Web Browser support of HTML5 and JavaScript. I may have to go over what is possible for details on how distribution works for the competitions considering the resulting code would require a web server to run them, but I'm sure we can sort this out easily before next week.

Get excited everyone, it's almost here! :)

More details will be announced soon and theme and all participating info will be announced on the day of the competition. This isn't the official public announcement, but it is all accurate information.

If there is anyone that would like to volunteer as a back-up judge that would be very helpful as well.