IRC Less-Impromptu mini-contest: "Flying" (19 EST, 00 BST)

[Corun]

Well, due to the fact that I took part in yesterdays Impromptu mini-contest and failed miserably. I thought I'd try and get people to do another one today. This one is a bit less impromptu so hopefully we'll get more people.

Prizes:
None! You get recognition and anyway, programming games is fun!

Theme:
Flying must be a main gameplay element.

Start:
05 September 05. 11 PM GMT, Midnight BST, (7 PM EST(Not completely sure of that, you might wanna check))

Duration:
3 Hours

It is highly recommended that you come to IRC a bit before the start.

[diordna]

7:00 is correct.

I may or may not enter, depending on how my homework is.

[EvolPenguin]

So, 7 Eastern, 6 Central, I'll see what I can do to enter, I do have homework unfortunately. I love this theme though :D.

Alex

[BeyondCloister]

When is there going to be an European friendly 3 hour contest?

[Corun]

When is there going to be an European friendly 3 hour contest?

Whenever you want. You want a Europe Time Friendly Contest? Set one up yourself, it's not hard :-). The hard bit is thinking of a good theme.

[socksy]

Hah! I've said flying loads of times before. It's probably because the amount of times I've said it that people ignore it. Like waffles.
Just because you're up at midnight on a weeknight doesn't mean we all are. I don't want to work until three in the morning :(

[Corun]

Hah! I've said flying loads of times before. It's probably because the amount of times I've said it that people ignore it. Like waffles.
Just because you're up at midnight on a weeknight doesn't mean we all are. I don't want to work until three in the morning :(

I don't want to be up till 3am either. But it's the only way to actually get a good number of people.

[lightbringer]

Unless we do something like we discussed last night.

A 24 hour contest.

[Corun]

Popular demand in the incredibly busy #idevgames irc channel means that the length of the contest is being extended to 4 hours.

It now starts at 7 EST and ends at 11 EST.

Also, a few questions were asked about the theme:

Question: "Flying"... Through what Medium?
Answer: Any medium (including space).

Question: "What about "Flying through the pages of a book"? (As in reading a book), is that OK?
Answer: You cannot use Flying as a metaphor. It must be actual flying.

[MarkJ]

I don't usually get on until 9 or 10:30 Central Time, so I just found out about this. It looks like I have negative 30 minutes to complete my entry.. :\

[OneSadCookie]

These are the contest entries:

corun - "Rings"
binaries: http://corun.kurand.net/Rings.zip (requires SDL and SDL_image)
binaries: http://corun.kurand.net/RingsSDL.zip (stand-alone)

lightbringer - "Queen Firefly"
binaries: http://www.batteryacid.org/downloads/QueenFirefly.zip (requires 10.4)

ThemsAllTook - "Jetpack Escape"
binaries: http://www.sacredsoftware.net/software/jetpackescape/archives/JetpackEscape.2005090501.tar.gz
source: http://www.sacredsoftware.net/software/jetpackescape/archives/JetpackEscapeSource.2005090501.tar.gz

megabassjosh - "Stuntcopter MX"
binaries: http://www.joshuacender.com/download/JJC%20SCMX.zip (requires SDL and SDL_image)

EvolPenguin - "Flying"
binaries: http://www.isbninfo.com/gravitygames/Games/Flying.zip

OneSadCookie - "Ascent"
binaries: http://onesadcookie.com/~keith/Ascent.app.tar.bz2 (known not to work on 10.3)
source: http://onesadcookie.com/svn/repos/Ascent (may contain post-contest fixes)

freaksw - "20XX"
binaries: http://www.freaksw.com/temp/20XX.zip no longer massive, seth has compressed his audio :)

[FreakSoftware]

I know mine's a huge download (because of huge WAV files) -- I'm going to fix that ASAP and reupload it. Just an FYI.

[lightbringer]

On behalf of myself and everyone, good job to all the participants!

[EvolPenguin]

Seconded!

Alex

[FreakSoftware]

EDIT: If you insist on getting a build with no muic, use the link below. It's about 5.3 MB. If you want a build WITH music (now using ogg) the link is up at the top and is 9.9 MB.

Ok, well for now, here's a build with no music: http://www.freaksw.com/temp/20XXNoAudio.zip Without the really awesome music you won't get the same effect, but you know mine's the best anyway, so who cares? Just VOTE FOR ME!! ;)

[blobbo]

20XX: I flat out refuse to believe that this game was coded in 4h. Proof lives in the "About" menu item alone - I'm guessing that 95% of the code is from a previous project. Still, kudos. Nice work, fun gameplay.

Jetpack Escape: As always, a clever idea from Alex ;) I love how this game combines the puzzle element that you love so much but adds action. I'd like to see this developed a bit more - this is a solid game concept, and already fun to play.

Ascent: Huh? What to do, how to play?

StuntCopter MX: Crashes on startup.

Queen Firefly: Cute Readme. Cute graphics, smooth gameplay. Needs some sort of audio feedback, and also a keyboard option for those of us using trackpads. Still, polished and nice.

Flying: Admirable, but all the characters seem too... big? Also, space between frames is far too much, and I don't think that you're calibrating the speed to be constant rather than relative to CPU.

Rings: Interesting idea, strange controls. Controls are unintuitive, difficult to grasp. Still, nice job on a fun game.

All in all fun and terrific work. I see a couple of ideas here that could be successful shareware...

[megabassjosh]

I had a lot of fun this contest, and I actually produced something that has a hint of functionality. One day I'll be fast enough to crank out a whole game in four hours :)

Great work to everyone involved!

[megabassjosh]

StuntCopter MX: Crashes on startup.

I'm going to see if I can't get a SDL bundled-app going tonight, that may fix it. WHat does your console say?

[OneSadCookie]

ascent -- awsd and the mouse are the controls. they're not working properly... not quite sure why not. I may fix it at some point if I get motivated enough :)

there's no gameplay, even then, though. It was a bit ambitious for the 2.5-3 hours I actually had to compete :(

[megabassjosh]

Well, I give up on the SDL bundling for now, but I've updated StuntCopter MX a little. Better background, better sprites, better physics etc etc etc. The contest link still points to the old build, but I will chronicle updates in this thread (http://www.idevgames.com/forum/showthread.php?p=96624).

[FreakSoftware]

20XX: I flat out refuse to believe that this game was coded in 4h. Proof lives in the "About" menu item alone - I'm guessing that 95% of the code is from a previous project. Still, kudos. Nice work, fun gameplay.

Of course it wasn't. I started 40 minutes late! :)

[lightbringer]

It seems the collision detection just completely falls apart in 'Queen Firefly' unless you run the game at 1024x768 (although it's not that good there either :p). I've already fixed that and most everything else that I can find. Once I find some sound effects and ambient noises I'll post an update.

[megabassjosh]

To those who were unable to run StuntCopter MX, I've uploaded a build with the necessary SDL libs bundled:

StuntCopter MX 0.2 (http://www.joshuacender.com/download/StuntCopterMX_0.2_SDL.zip) (SDL and SDL_image INCLUDED!)

[lightbringer]

Alright, updated Queen Firefly, you can now get it from http://www.batteryacid.org/queenfirefly/. You can still grab the original version from the end of the contest from the link onesadcookie posted, if you'd like.

[ardam the third]

I think u should take stunt copter mx to the next lvl,from a gadget to a game. like you have to pick up evil ninjas and stuff and throw them around.