PGD Challenge in the Winter?

[WILL]

Or you could write it using Oxygene for Java and it will run on Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX if Java is installed LOL

I think you still need to get Platformation working on all 3 platforms though don't you Paul?

[paul_nicholls]

I think you still need to get Platformation working on all 3 platforms though don't you Paul?

LOL yes
I tried Platformation in the latest Oxygene for Java, and I am having to change a bunch of things due to compiler changes...so that hasn't happened yet

[LP]

However multiple platforms does provide the bulk of the tool, development and testing logistical problems of running competitions. And in the future it looks to be even more level of a playing field with at least 5 (maybe 6 including the web browser with HTML5?) major platforms PC and mobile combined. I can only see volunteered "judges" as the way to make official scores for entries.

Well, there's always Apple Store for Macs and iOS, and Google Play for Android, so if competition entry appears there, it would be easy installing it. On the other hand, doing so might require quite an effort and specifically regarding iOS might require payment.

It would be really awesome if they'd be some sort of mobile-exclusive Pascal compo. (maybe you can request Apple some iOS-development program donations prior the compo? )

However there can be some kind of unofficial scoring or value I guess, even for those that don't make their game for ALL possible platforms. That would require all entries to submit at least 1 video capture of their game after being completed, being played, recorded and posted on YouTube or Vimeo for public viewing. That does have a little bit of a problem of course as not everyone may have the software or know-how to make such a recording of their game or an account on YouTube or Vimeo to post with.

Then the game development competition will become visual demo competition. You won't have opportunity to actually "feel" or "measure" the actual ingame experience, the gameplay, fun factor, etc. Video is not gameplay.

[WILL]

Well, there's always Apple Store for Macs and iOS, and Google Play for Android, so if competition entry appears there, it would be easy installing it. On the other hand, doing so might require quite an effort and specifically regarding iOS might require payment.

To get your games onto the Mac App Store and the iTunes App Store, you'll need to pay an annual fee of $99 each. (totally worth it if you plan on going commercial with your games!) I currently am registered as an iOS developer, but not a Mac App Store developer. The biggest issue with submitting a game to these is not only the cost, but the time it takes for Apple to get to your game with it's approval process. I'm not knocking the approval process (I've not put a single trogan or malware app on my iPad or iPhone to date!) but it does make for a slow submission time-frame. And it varies in length of time.

That's the only reason I'd not try a mobile competition with iOS at this time. Then again maybe if there was a year-long event or challenge I could come up with something including iOS.

Then the game development competition will become visual demo competition. You won't have opportunity to actually "feel" or "measure" the actual ingame experience, the gameplay, fun factor, etc. Video is not gameplay.

Well the results of that side-portion of the challenge rating, would reflect only the "looks" of what everyone submitted, yes. There are a lot of competitions that go for this however. NecroSOFT and Dirk Nordhusen would often push visuals no matter what they released so this could just be a side thing to offer up a "something for everyone" solution. It would not be the "official" scores of the challenge competition though. Just a side rating that PGD members all could have a say in.

[phibermon]

I'm personally ok to submit a game in Win,OSX,Linux but developing stable support requires all 3 platforms working with capable hardware, least of all the fact that it requires an in-depth knowledge of the platform APIs, it's no trivial task and takes time to achieve acceptable stability and performance on all 3. I'm interested in seeing submissions in JVM bytecode or HTML5, see what people can get out of the related restricted hardware!

[code_glitch]

Well, as you all know I'm one for simplicity and tried and tested methods... There will be 3 versions of my entry: Linux, Windows and vmdk... And thats mainly because a lot of the stuff I do for windows is a quick scan through my code and the kludgiest of fixes, so the vmdk will be the recommended method - I'm already playing with minimal installs at the moment and using ubuntu server as a base (since its the closest to JeOS I can find for ubuntu like stuff...) although I am now strongly considering a DSL setup

[code_glitch]

Well, I've been toying with that idea, and I get a decent experience dished out to every user (granted they need 128m of ram and at least 800mhz of shunt) within 20 seconds of them hitting go. And when the virtual image is all zipped up, it fits in a 65-70MiB envelope. Would anyone consider this an excessive download?