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  • 1st PGD Challenge Mini Competition

    Enough talking about it already, we have finally set the dates for PGD's 1st mini competition. Theme and specific challenge rules will be announced on the day of the event. Everyone note on your calendars the 17th of June as the start of the PGD Challenge.

    We can't tell you the exact theme of the competition obviously, but we can tell you that it'll be something simple so don't fret it you are programming newbie. This mini competition is open to everyone and anyone who uses Pascal or Object Pascal in your entries.

    This was originally going to be a prize-less event, but thanks to the kind generosity of Johannes Stein (aka Stoney) he has offered up some game titles which haven't been claimed to be yours if you place among the top of the scored entries at the end of the competition. First place will pick first and the remaining after will get their choice until all prizes are selected.




    Prizes will be:

    • Mass Effect 2 (EA Download Manager code)
    • Terraria (Steam gift)
    • Frozen Synapse (Download with optional Steam key)
    • The Secret of Monkey Island (Steam gift)


    An FTP server will be setup for you to upload your entries to. To enter the challenge, all you must do is upload your submission as an archive file. (zip or rar for example) Entrants will need to include basic documentation in the form of a readme file or a game manual including their full name (first and last) and email address to contact them should they win a prize. In this documentation, please include basic directions as to how to play your game. Failure to do so could greatly affect your score at the end.

    Further details such as scoring, theme and rules will be provided on the 17th of June at the start of the competition. Everyone please check back here on the PGD site for those details.
    Comments 54 Comments
    1. chronozphere's Avatar
      chronozphere -
      Great. I guess the 17th is not that bad for me at all.

      How is judging done btw? We still need people to volunteer right? Also, how long will the event take (Guess 2 or 3 weeks)? Finally, can't we use the competition website? It did a pretty good job during the last Annual competition. It's a bit nicer than FTP, allthough that'll do too.
    1. Ñuño Martínez's Avatar
      Ñuño Martínez -
      Count me in!
    1. Traveler's Avatar
      Traveler -
      Nice,.. I might just enter after all.

      Oh and thank you Stoney for taking care of those prices. That's pretty cool of you.
    1. code_glitch's Avatar
      code_glitch -
      Hell yes, count me in... I'll definitely spend more time than on my LD20 entry (5.5hours)

      But, this does throw a wrench in my schedule: fix all the errors in libs, draft up some new code for managing physics etc and get engine components talking in 6 weeks - though job. I'd planned it out for late Sep - early Aug... Hmm. Pepsi stocks holding up, time to begin!
    1. chronozphere's Avatar
      chronozphere -
      Quote Originally Posted by code_glitch View Post
      Hell yes, count me in... I'll definitely spend more time than on my LD20 entry (5.5hours)

      But, this does throw a wrench in my schedule: fix all the errors in libs, draft up some new code for managing physics etc and get engine components talking in 6 weeks - though job. I'd planned it out for late Sep - early Aug... Hmm. Pepsi stocks holding up, time to begin!
      Or use an existing library.... ehm... ZenGL? (I will probably use it ^^)
    1. paul_nicholls's Avatar
      paul_nicholls -
      Looking forward to it! I might use Jarrod's library to speed things up

      cheers,
      Paul
    1. JSoftware's Avatar
      JSoftware -
      That's very generous of Stoney

      I've always wanted to play Mass Effect. Maybe this will be the excuse..!
    1. Ñuño Martínez's Avatar
      Ñuño Martínez -
      Quote Originally Posted by chronozphere View Post
      Or use an existing library.... ehm... ZenGL? (I will probably use it ^^)
      Or Allegro.pas... *cof*
    1. WILL's Avatar
      WILL -
      The competition will run until midnight on the 17th of July. (Though I'm going to be flexible as this is not the PGD Annual and it's mostly for fun and practice.) Athena is not yet done with the PGD Annual site yet so we'll use FTP for this one to give her time to get the site completed and polished for the Fall/Winter time-frame for the PGD Annual.

      I'll post further details about how the FTP uploading will work along with the account information you will require. And we are looking for an extra judge or two if anyone would like to volunteer. It obviously can't be a competitor to remove any possible bias.

      Also just so anyone not familiar with competitions here knows all 3rd party libraries are welcome so long as the core of the code is indeed Pascal, Object Pascal, Objective-Pascal or any other dialect based on the Pascal programming language.
    1. code_glitch's Avatar
      code_glitch -
      Hmm... pascal dialects, or based on pascal. So that means I could use (no kidding)

      Ada, Component Pascal, Java, MOdula, Modula-2, Oberon, Oberon-2, Object Pascal, Oxygene
      Or so wikipedia seems to think

      If you need an extra judge, I'm good to go on XP, 7 and ubuntu. (perhaps mint and a version of SUSE if I'm in a good mood ). Oh, and if you make a game for Server 2008 32 bit, than I can play that too teehee.
    1. Darthman's Avatar
      Darthman -
      If I'll get some time, I'm in.
    1. WILL's Avatar
      WILL -
      Quote Originally Posted by code_glitch View Post
      Hmm... pascal dialects, or based on pascal. So that means I could use (no kidding)

      Ada, Component Pascal, Java, MOdula, Modula-2, Oberon, Oberon-2, Object Pascal, Oxygene
      Or so wikipedia seems to think
      Nope. Actually Oxygene is a brand not a language. And I've never heard of Component Pascal. And well Object Pascal... of course.

      Please no one ask me if they can use C#. Answer will be no of course.
    1. code_glitch's Avatar
      code_glitch -
      C#, a no. really?
      Can I use Fortran-77 then? I have a book on problem solving with it from 1987 right here (Brian D.Hahn) if anyone here remembers those days.
    1. Ingemar's Avatar
      Ingemar -
      How about OS? I mainly work on OSX (FPC).
    1. code_glitch's Avatar
      code_glitch -
      WILL has a mac (unless he sold it since) so I guess he could test it out... I'm sure other PGDers have macs too (remember a few threads on em going screwy with lazarus)... And beside that, I'm sure compiling a win32 isn't that hard... Or so says the nix user
    1. pstudio's Avatar
      pstudio -
      Out of curiosity - how is Java based on Pascal?
    1. Ingemar's Avatar
      Ingemar -
      Quote Originally Posted by code_glitch View Post
      WILL has a mac (unless he sold it since) so I guess he could test it out... I'm sure other PGDers have macs too (remember a few threads on em going screwy with lazarus)... And beside that, I'm sure compiling a win32 isn't that hard... Or so says the nix user
      How hard it is to compile under win32 depends on what libraries and APIs you use. OpenGL as such is pretty easy, SDL too, but if I use Apple's own APIs, it can take months to port. I do use OpenGL a lot, so maybe it won't be a problem, but my text renderer is platform dependent at this point.
    1. WILL's Avatar
      WILL -
      I would love to try your Mac OS X games. However for the sake of this mini competition (and future ones I would think) I'd suggest that you also make Win32 versions too. I'm a Mac user, but not everyone has one (unfortunately) so having a OS X only game might end up hurting you in the points spot.

      Odds are, if you are using graphics, sound or other API on a Mac or Linux, it'll be supported on Windows too. DirectX and XNA being the odd API out I guess. So just pick safe API to use so that it'll support Win32 too.

      Other than that, I do hope to see more OS X and Linux, but don't worry about losing points from me by not making a Mac version of your game as I have a copy of WinXP SP3 on my Parallels virtual machine. Failing that my fiance has Windows 7 on her fairly new laptop and I can steal that for a couple of evenings should it not run on my setup.
    1. Ingemar's Avatar
      Ingemar -
      Quote Originally Posted by WILL View Post
      I would love to try your Mac OS X games. However for the sake of this mini competition (and future ones I would think) I'd suggest that you also make Win32 versions too. I'm a Mac user, but not everyone has one (unfortunately) so having a OS X only game might end up hurting you in the points spot.

      Odds are, if you are using graphics, sound or other API on a Mac or Linux, it'll be supported on Windows too. DirectX and XNA being the odd API out I guess. So just pick safe API to use so that it'll support Win32 too.

      Other than that, I do hope to see more OS X and Linux, but don't worry about losing points from me by not making a Mac version of your game as I have a copy of WinXP SP3 on my Parallels virtual machine. Failing that my fiance has Windows 7 on her fairly new laptop and I can steal that for a couple of evenings should it not run on my setup.
      Sounds nice! One problem is that even if I rely on cross-platform libraries like OpenAL, they are AFAIK not guaranteed to be installed, so some extra installations may be required. I might be able to make some list of required installations, but I know that I wouldn't like kind of requirements myself.

      I have done Win32 programming in the past, a little game programming, even tested my OpenGL tutorial demos under Win32 just to make sure that all my students will like them, so it is not totally alien territory to me. I can try supporting it.
    1. WILL's Avatar
      WILL -
      One more week until the 1st PGD Challenge Mini Competition begins! Are you ready?