Well you can write whatever tutorials you want in the tutorials section of the site, however what we actually need are basic game design/development tutorials. How to structure the main game loop and how to represent objects and such. Learning API X, Y and Z only helps those that want to learn an API, which is fine, but you can learn those yourself with the API's own documents.

I'd ultimately prefer if you didn't use too many if any libraries with these as the whole point is for people to learn something fundamental about game programming and development. The use of SDL for graphics-based lessons is highly encouraged since it is among the easiest to learn, set up and make use of for simple projects.

For this first competition, and probably all other ones, I would go for what PGD needs most right now. Tutorials about the basics.

Examples:

  • Organizing your code for a simple game project (Main loop, screen drawing, game objects, etc).
  • Basic simulated game physics and maths.
  • Basics of creating tile-based games.
  • How to create a simple platformer / side-scrolling shooter / maze game (pac-man) / (insert fundamental game genre here).
  • Game input and best practices for user interfaces.
  • How to add, with code, an easy menu for your existing game.
  • Introduction to the concept of an intermediate code layer for graphics API. (for when it needs to be changed in the future, should it be necessary)
  • From Pascal to Object Pascal for newbies in 5 easy steps...


These are the types of tutorials we need right now. We have lots of tutorials that sort of go off on a tangent, but don't really cover the essentials. All very good tutorials mind you, but not what the site really needs to encourage NEW blood into the Pascal game programming scene. So I'm only focusing on these types of tutorials, or similar ideas.

The best way to look at who it's for would be to take a high school student just learning CS and write for them. The ones that will read your tutorials will be the ones that have gone at least half-way or completed the first year, in which they will already know the language concepts of conditional statements, loops and functions. You have to take them from the completed level of a high school student to someone who now wants to take that knowledge of programming and the Pascal language and make a game now.

If it helps, try to remember when you were first learning about making games.