New Competitions Section

Well after a full night of starting at countless lines of scripting, I managed to complete the new competition section of the site!

And with it, I am proud to announce the theme of the 2006 PGD Annual Competitions to be 'The Big Boss'. This year we will be focusing on the creation of the coolest, toughest and most evil bosses you can make put in your games.

Register Now!

So gather your team leaders and registering now, because the 2006 PGD Annual 'The Big Boss' Competition is now officially registering those entrants that will compete.

Release of Deadlines and Goals

Next week on the 15th I'll release the stage deadlines and goals with their point values. There will be a brief planning period which will help those that got wind of the competition late, and to allow teams to organize based on the new deadlines and the goals for each.

Prize Announcement

Thanks to our very generous sponsors, we have managed to do better last years prize payout which has come to around $4,500 USD worth in prizes.

This year's competition is sponsored by: 3Impact.com, Borland, Delgine 3D Tools, Firelight Studios, Lazy Dog Software, Savage Software Solutions, Spiral Graphics and the PGD Team it's self.

Click HERE for further information and to register for the 2006 PGD Annual 'The Big Boss' Competition!

Please note that this year, ALL competitors MUST register to compete! We will not be accepting emailed requests to join the competition or as a means to submit your deadline entry.

The Rules:

REGISTRATION: All competitors must register to compete. We will nee your full name, email address and mailing address to be able to contact you and send you any prizes that you win. You may register as a team or as an individual. We will ask the team leaders how they want their prizes split in the case of teams\' winnings. All this information will be kept private and will not be used for anything other than this competition!

PASCAL: All entries must be made using Pascal, Object Pascal or any of the Pascal-based languages available. The most popular of these compiler aned IDE tools are Delphi, Kylix, Free Pascal, Lazarus and Dev-Pascal.
GENRE: Pick and game genre you wish. Either 2D or 3D graphics is fine. Just make sure whatever game you create is organized into LEVELS and has BOSSES your player(s) go(es) up against. All else is open for your creativity.

PLATFORM: The only platforms we will be accepting games for this year will be Win32 and Linux. We were unable to provide a MacOS X system this year.

OPEN SOURCE: This year we are letting the competitiors choose to include source or not. This will allow the games created in this competition and their engines to be used for commercial use afterwards. The option is yours, but you don't have to include it to compete this year.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: You will have to design to the judges hardware specs. If they cannot run it, then they cannot score or check it. See below for judges hardware and operating system specs.

To be sure that your game will run on the judges hardware by the next deadline, make sure you submit early enough to make the nessissary changes to meet it with a working copy, as you will not be able to make any changes for that submission after the deadline.

STAGES: This year we will be breaking the competition into several stages. Each stage will have a set deadline. Each stage you will be given a set number of development goals to complete which will each be worth a set amount of points.

If you have any number of incomplete goals, you may still continue until the end!

SCORING FOR GOALS: The first stage (the planning stage) will not be scored. Each stage after will be scored as FULL points or NO points for completed and incompeted goals. If a goal is partially completed, it will be scored as incomplete and awarded NO points.

FINAL SCORING: After all the stages are complete and the final submissions are uploaded the judges will then begin awarding each entry with scores for each of # categories; graphics, sound & music, sability & lack of bugs and fun factor.

SUBMISSIONS: You must submit a working executable on or before each stage deadline to show your completed goals. If no entry has been submitted by the deadline all goals for that stage will be considered incomplete and NO points will be awarded.

Each submission will be either a single archive, compressed with a common format(Zip, RAR or GZip), that contains the executable and ALL other required game data and library files that are CLEANLY organized within OR a single installer that will both install and uninstall cleanly.

The easier it is to setup and run you game on any Linux or Windows system, the happier the judges will be about trying your entry!


The Stages:

Stage 1 (1 week): Jan 15th - Jan 21st

Planning stage! Plan your game, your engine, level editor and your initial project deadlines, resources, etc...

Stage 2 (3 weeks): Jan 22nd - Feb 11th

Goal #1 (5 Points) - Make a basic playable game engine.
Goal #2 (5 Points) - Make a basic level editor.
Goal #3 (5 Points) - Create a simple level with editor to test (and show off) the engine features.
Goal #4 (5 Points) - Include a basic documentation of user controls.

Stage 3 (3 weeks): Feb 12th - Mar 4th

Goal #1 (5 Points) - Add basic enemies to game engine.
Goal #2 (5 Points) - Add player pick-up items/weapons to engine.
Goal #3 (5 Points) - Design a better level to test out new features.
Goal #4 (5 Points) - Provide an \'exit\' for the level.

Stage 4 (3 weeks): Mar 5th - Mar 25th

Goal #1 (10 Points) - Add a boss to your level that you fight to finish the level.
Goal #2 (10 Points) - Basic \'game over\' death sequence. Player must be able to die.

Stage 5 (3 weeks): Mar 26th - Apr 15th

Goal #1 (10 Points) - Engine must allow you to play more than one level per play. Design a minimum of 2 levels to be played by optional selection or in sequence.
Goal #2 (10 Points) - Add basic menus, game options and settings.

Stage 6 (3 weeks): Apr 16th - May 7th

The last run for it!

Add to your game any way you like,the final result must have:

Goal #1 (2.5 Points) - Create a min. of 3 playable levels.
Goal #2 (2.5 Points) - Add game music and sound effects.
Goal #3 (2.5 Points) - Have a game splash screen showing your game\'s title.
Goal #4 (2.5 Points) - Add an in-game list of credits listing all involved of it\'s development.
Goal #5 (2.5 Points) - Have a minimum of 2 mini-bosses you must fight in the game.
Goal #6 (2.5 Points) - Have a minimum of at least 1 kind of enemy per level.
Goal #7 (2.5 Points) - Add an ending sequence of some kind.
Goal #8 (2.5 Points) - Add and design The Big Boss at the end of your game that is tougher than the mini-bosses.