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WILL
18-07-2013, 09:02 PM
So if I held a 3rd PGD Challenge this summer, would there be any interest if it was a "Jam" instead of a straight judged competition?

We could have a handful of "winners" if say each PGD staff member were to pick one that they liked the most and these games were just listed as "picks" instead of any kind of 1st, 2nd or 3rd places. What do you guys think of this idea?

Is there any interest in a 3rd PGD Challenge at all? I would like to know as I have been thinking about it and don't want to have another well... flop, for lack of another term, like the last PGD Annual and all kinds of effort was put into a competition that for all we know only 4 people participated.

So far PGD Challenge submission have been decent, but is that just because I caught the community on a good day?

Also there wasn't much "talk" on the Event thread about the design competition concept. Is that lack of interest in the "design" challenge or in PGD community events at all?

Give us some feedback folks! I need to know if I should keep trying to do something and if there are those out there that want to take part in one of these events.

Thanks for all those that have participated in past events and I really hope to do more in the future. Hopefully with less turn-around time required so we can keep the community energized and active.

T-Bear
18-07-2013, 09:26 PM
Im trying to be a little more active on this forum now so here it goes. :) I have never been in any PGD challenge before but a few things I would find interesting:
There was a discussion on here some time about an AI challenge were everybody would basically code their own AI for a game and compete against each other. It kinda died because nobody wanted or could code the game but I would still find it interesting.

The idea with the "picks" seems good to me. I find it interesting when several people code a game to the same theme and see what the different developers make of it.

Of course we should have a lot of participants. Come on guys!

Cheers!

Darkhog
18-07-2013, 10:55 PM
Or even winner-less (or rather "everyone's winner") sort of deal. Since I guess there wouldn't be prizes anyway, I think it could be great to do some games with common theme.

Super Vegeta
19-07-2013, 05:59 AM
A Jam might be a good idea, only make sure not to run into Ludum Dare. ;)

SilverWarior
19-07-2013, 07:12 AM
I would gladly participate, but I'm afraid I won't have much time lately as I recently been asigned to new workplace and therefore I have to learn a lot since my current job is compleetly different from previous.

Cybermonkey
19-07-2013, 07:24 AM
Well, it depends on the "theme". If it's interesting for me I would participate.

Ñuño Martínez
19-07-2013, 09:27 AM
Or even winner-less (or rather "everyone's winner") sort of deal. Since I guess there wouldn't be prizes anyway, I think it could be great to do some games with common theme. :yes: Depending on dates, I'll try to join in. :)

WILL
20-07-2013, 02:04 AM
Well since we are asking about dates, how does starting sometime next month (August) sound?

When does the next Ludum Dare take place? I don't think there is one running now is there? My twitter app isn't humming with the sounds of LD so I think we are in a safe zone, yes? ;)

Duration; what do you guys think would be a good time-frame? 2 weeks? 3 weeks? a whole month? How fast can you guys put together a prototype that is playable and gets the basic gameplay across?

The picks idea is just to make it interesting for those that are not participating and when showing off what everyone did to highlight things that were accomplished among the whole event. Really it's mostly just dressing for interest's sake.

And well theme I would pick out something cool, interesting yet something that doesn't have to be a huge game project and could be completed in a matter of weeks for an event. It's kept secret so that everyone is "on par" when the event begins. So far no one has outright hated any of my themes so far. (That they have told me lol) And if you are not crazy about this theme, the idea is that there is another one around the corner in the next challenge that you'll probably like more.

WILL
23-07-2013, 10:24 AM
Do I really have to bump the thread? :(

SilverWarior
23-07-2013, 11:53 AM
As I have written before I probably won't have much time due to new job so dates doesn't matter much to me as I will have verrylitle time for the next few months but I'll still try to participate anywhay.

As for the duration of the challenge longer it will be easier it will be for me.

As for theme why not create some simple strategy game or maybe arcade game with larger map.
Not long ago there was discusion about making AI challenge and the main problem for making it was the fact that we would need some base game for making AI challenge.
So why not make this challenge in such a way so we actually develop a game which could then be used as base game for making AI challenge in the future?
Now we don't need to develop it in such a way so that it will use AI right from the start but in a way so that it could be easily modified/extended by adding computer AI to it.

Cybermonkey
23-07-2013, 01:33 PM
3-4 weeks in August sounds good to me.

Super Vegeta
23-07-2013, 04:26 PM
Personally I'm for shorter durations, because I find it easier to just allocate a block of time and do it all in one shot, but as long as it's shorter than 1 month, I think I'll be okay. August and September are both fine with me.

paul_nicholls
23-07-2013, 06:38 PM
I would like to have a go too, not that I have much time with my current job and programming projects....

User137
24-07-2013, 04:35 AM
I could participate, and date doesn't really make a difference for me.

WILL
24-07-2013, 05:27 AM
Ok so I'm starting to get a feeling for sometime in August about a month of less in time. Does this sound like I'm on the right track?

What if I started it in the middle of the month?

So far 8 people in total have expressed interest, which is pretty nice. I feel more comfortable with a bit more interest shown. And would make me the more enthusiastic about it too! :)

Retention is kind of key if that's the numbers we are working with. I'll also contact Dr. Norman Morrision to see if his students are interested.


Side-note: I do miss doing thee challenges. It's been a little while since the last one so personally I am itching to put something together. I think I'm just missing the last leg of motivation to get this one going.

pstudio
24-07-2013, 03:49 PM
Well I'm always interested but unfortunately I may have to skip. I'm relocating and starting a new job in August so plenty of things to do. However if the challenge is interesting I probably can't help myself making a small game ;)

WILL
25-07-2013, 06:17 PM
Well I'm always interested but unfortunately I may have to skip.

Well that would suck Peter. You did pretty good in the last one. I hope you can squeeze in some kind of entry at least! Even if it's only a very basic game.

We need lots of people to take part in this next one. Hopefully more than the 11 entries from the first Challenge. But at least more than 7. :)

Oh an in case anyone doesn't know about this, there is a PGD Challenge showcase: http://www.pgdchallenge.com/ (http://www.pgdchallenge.com/Welcome.html)

phibermon
26-07-2013, 12:48 AM
I would like to enter with a Jink based submission, been planning to for a looooong time :)

Assuming the scoring criteria / theme is such that I gain little or no advantage from using it, otherwise I'll technically of had longer to work on my submission than is within the bounds of fair play.

August sounds good! couldn't give a flying monkey about Ludum Dare, just as long as it doesn't coincide with the Assembly party 1st-4th in Helsinki where I almost certainly won't win anything :)

WILL
26-07-2013, 07:27 AM
Oh man Assembly. I remember the demoscene from back in the 90s. Before Assembly had a website online. Well before the internet is what it is now. :D *sigh* Just let the "old fart" have it will ya? :P

Maybe one of the future challenges could be something that brings back some of the nostalgia from the old days of oldschool Amiga/C64/PC demos. Nothing too intrusive, but will reward you for the more "inspired by" the entry is... anyhow just an idea no spoilers! ;)

Ñuño Martínez
31-07-2013, 10:16 AM
3-4 weeks in August sounds good to me.


Ok so I'm starting to get a feeling for sometime in August about a month of less in time. Does this sound like I'm on the right track?

What if I started it in the middle of the month?
I'm in. :)

WILL
01-08-2013, 10:36 AM
So far we have 8 or 9 interested! :) Not bad numbers if everyone is able to create an entry. More would be better still! ;)

I'm considering themes...

Past themes:

#1 was Simple Controller = game mechanics
#2 was The Journey = game play
#3 would likely go back to something game mechanics...

WILL
02-08-2013, 07:51 AM
Alright lets do this then! :)

I thought up a theme and am I'm writing up the rules. Start date will be the 15th of August. It will be a "game jam" style event so there are no judges to target your games towards. However I have to encourage everyone to try to support as many platforms as they are able since his will allow more people to try their games when it's done.

All the rest is standard fare; FTP upload, theme announced on the start date, new thread created on start date, etc...

Any other quiet forums readers planning on taking part?

dazappa
02-08-2013, 10:09 PM
I haven't been very active in the Pascal community, but I'm definitely interested in it.

Ñuño Martínez
04-08-2013, 01:45 PM
Alright lets do this then! :)

I thought up a theme and am I'm writing up the rules. Start date will be the 15th of August. It will be a "game jam" style event so there are no judges to target your games towards. However I have to encourage everyone to try to support as many platforms as they are able since his will allow more people to try their games when it's done.

All the rest is standard fare; FTP upload, theme announced on the start date, new thread created on start date, etc... I'm in! :yes:

But you forgot to say how many time we will have.

WILL
04-08-2013, 05:54 PM
But you forgot to say how many time we will have.

Oh sorry about that. It will be 4 weeks. This seems to be about the right amount of time needed in past Challenges.

de_jean_7777
05-08-2013, 07:16 AM
Any other quiet forums readers planning on taking part?

I'll take a stab at it. Think I finally managed to get free time outside of work.

WILL
05-08-2013, 07:33 AM
12 interested is great!


Well I'm always interested but unfortunately I may have to skip. I'm relocating and starting a new job in August so plenty of things to do. However if the challenge is interesting I probably can't help myself making a small game ;)

BTW you should be posting in the Oxygene for Java and OUYA threads my friend. :)

We need more people interested in OUYA and Android game development. Esp. Oxygene for Java. I like variety. ;)

And in case this isn't obvious it's an all compiler (that is Pascal language based) inclusive; Delphi, FPC/Lazarus, Oxygene(for .NET/Java/Cocoa) and Smart Mobile Studio. Personally I'd love to see a wide spread across all these dev environments and supported platforms, but some have stronger usage and knowledge-base to work from than others I can understand.

WILL
18-08-2013, 08:47 AM
The Challenge has begun! http://www.pascalgamedevelopment.com/content.php?377-3rd-PGD-Challenge-At-Your-Command!