Well I am going to try put something together for the Mini Challenge. I have not done any game deve for the last 18 months.... I have dug out all my old S2DL code and read through it to make sure I remember what I was doing with it all those years ago - overall I am still quite impressed with what I achieved with it.

I have been wanting to write a puzzle game for quite a bit, a proper puzzle game with level progression, trophies, highscores etc. So for this contest I will throw a basic puzzle game together.

So here are my plans
1. Review S2DL and repackage it as needed (Done - will release S2DL ver 2.1 this week)
2. Build a puzzle game template that manages the Game State transitions etc. This template will be added to the S2DL package and distributed as an add on to 2.1 - Game states will probably be Splash Screen, Menu - 2 levels, Progressions screen, Puzzle screen, Highscores and closing screen. I might include a Movie state for cut scenes if my SMPEG libraries are working
3. Build a basic keyboard based puzzle game
4. Get someone to build me some nice graphics - I have 2 graphic designers I can use for this

I dont really have a decent idea for a puzzle game mechanism but have a faint idea of using the Bejewelled 3 in a row system, but using the 'missing piece' puzzle system. So the puzzle screne has a 10x10 grid. In the grid are arranged a number of objects and the goal is to get 3+ items of the same type in a row. within the grid are 4 blocks that are empty (Marked A,B,C and D) selectable by choosing the relevant controller button. By pressing an arrow key the neighbouring block moves into the open space and the game checks for a 3 in a row etc.

No idea if that mechanism will work using the controller.

I am also going to have a non-pgd mode that allows using the mouse to click a block and switch with the neighbouring empty square. Obviously for the PGD contest this will be disabled.

I have been wanting to build a 'sleeping beauty' game for a long time - ever since I created a simple board game for my kids using the theme. So for the contest the idea is you are the prince trying to find the princess....