24-hour mini contest

[OneSadCookie]

We will be holding a 24-hour mini contest (no prizes) from 12.01am GMT, Saturday September 10. The theme is "Mechanical". The contest IRC channel is #idevgames-mini-contest on freenode (irc://irc.freenode.net#idevgames-mini-contest).

If you're on the west coast of the US, that's probably 5pm Friday to 5pm Saturday.
If you're on the east coast of the US, that's probably 8pm Friday to 8pm Saturday.
Somebody please verify those for me ;)

Note to insomniacs: the intent is that whatever time-zone you're in, you should have 8 or so hours to do some programming in, even working around some other responsibilities, not that you should program for 24 hours solid ;)

[ss2 cire]

cool, methinks i might have a few ideas, if i dont enter i'll be looking forward to the games that come out of this :)

[CarbonX]

Sounds interesting... maybe I'll enter if I don't fall asleep. 6 to 6 my time, I've been itching to do some programming anyways so I think I'll at least give it a shot :)

[Corun]

We will be holding a 24-hour mini contest (no prizes) from 12.01am GMT, Saturday September 10. The theme is "Mechanical". The contest IRC channel is #idevgames-mini-contest on freenode (irc://irc.freenode.net#idevgames-mini-contest).

If you're on the west coast of the US, that's probably 5pm Friday to 5pm Saturday.
If you're on the east coast of the US, that's probably 8pm Friday to 8pm Saturday.
Somebody please verify those for me ;)

Note to insomniacs: the intent is that whatever time-zone you're in, you should have 8 or so hours to do some programming in, even working around some other responsibilities, not that you should program for 24 hours solid ;)

Erm, but we can program for 24 hours solid, right? :-)

(Ok, maybe not 24 hours. Maybe more like 16-20)

[diordna]

OK, I'm in if I can think of a decent idea. Er, maybe even if my idea isn't all that decent :)

[OneSadCookie]

Erm, but we can program for 24 hours solid, right? :-)

(Ok, maybe not 24 hours. Maybe more like 16-20)

Yes, you can, if you're crazy enough :)

[cgoran]

Sweet let's roll!

[AnotherJake]

If you're on the west coast of the US, that's probably 5pm Friday to 5pm Saturday.
If you're on the east coast of the US, that's probably 8pm Friday to 8pm Saturday.
Somebody please verify those for me ;)
I think you're correct. I'm UTC -6 right now in the Mountain time zone during daylight savings time, which adds an hour from being normally UTC -7, which would mean 6 pm to 6 pm local should be 12 to 12 UTC. Pacific (west coast) is behind me an hour, so that would be 5 to 5 there. Central is ahead one hour so 7 to 7 there. And Eastern time zone is ahead two hours, so 8 to 8 for the equivalent time period there, by my figuring. Arizona is on my time zone right now since they don't observe daylight savings time, and I think Indiana might be on Eastern right now too. I'm not totally sure about that though.

[OneSadCookie]

Whatever the times, it's been going for four hours now. Get cracking!

[Andrew]

PST is GMT - 8. In other words, 4:01 PM Saturday.

[AnotherJake]

Daylight savings time right now should make it -7, shouldn't it? Or is that PST in Canada, and you don't do daylight savings time there?

[FreakSoftware]

It is -7. That really through me off.

[Andrew]

Oh ya... I forgot about daylight savings time...

That means that British Columbia, Washington, California, etc. are all on PDT (-7) right now, not PST (-8). Technically, though, I said nothing incorrect in my previous post ;)

[OneSadCookie]

My entry, with help from reubert:
binary: http://onesadcookie.com/~keith/Mechanical.tar.bz2 (known to work on 10.3 and 10.4, won't work on 10.2)
source: http://onesadcookie.com/svn/repos/Mechanical

[unknown]

My entry
www.geocities.com/ed72678954/MechanicalThing.zip
www.geocities.com/ed72678954/MechanicalThing_Src.zip

[NCarter]

On behalf of Jorge Arroyo, who's still waiting for the forum registration email:

http://george.makasoft.net/MechanicalJob.zip

[diordna]

And here's mine:

http://diordna.macintoshdevelopers.net/Whizbang.zip

[Andrew]

My entry, with help from reubert:
binary: http://onesadcookie.com/~keith/Mechanical.tar.bz2 (known to work on 10.3 and 10.4, won't work on 10.2)
source: http://onesadcookie.com/svn/repos/Mechanical

That's pretty cool! I'm stuck in the 2nd level though. I fell off the big wheel (nice physics there, BTW) and now there's no way to get to the door. If I go back, I hit an invisible barrier.

Also, going into fullscreen mode in the 2nd level throws you back to the first level.

[Andrew]

My entry
www.geocities.com/ed72678954/MechanicalThing.zip

really cool concept and physics, but it's impossible to beat the first level!

[unknown]

No its not!

[Andrew]

On behalf of Jorge Arroyo, who's still waiting for the forum registration email:

http://george.makasoft.net/MechanicalJob.zip

I really liked this one! Yes it has quite a few bugs, but the concept is very original.

[Andrew]

No its not!

If I put the box right in front of the door, and take a run at it from the striped circle, I still can't get to the box in time.

Also, since the character is a tank, is it possible to shoot?

[Andrew]

And here's mine:

http://diordna.macintoshdevelopers.net/Whizbang.zip

Oh man! I love this one! Very original, sweet graphics, and fun to play! :)
I really like the electromagnetic wheels!

[diordna]

Keith: Good physics, lack of bugs. However, very little graphical and auditory polish.

Jorje: Excellent gameplay! Keep developing this. The music was perfect.

Unknown: With more variety and more levels, this could definitely be a game worth playing (though it's worth playing as it is). Oh, and I'm seeing extra doors on the second round of levels.

I have no personal favorite.

*slaps Andrew on the wrist for double/triple/quadruple posting*

[Corun]

If I put the box right in front of the door, and take a run at it from the striped circle, I still can't get to the box in time.

Also, since the character is a tank, is it possible to shoot?

Andrew, you put the box on the circle and then the door stays open so the tank can go through. The objective is to get the tank to the other circle.

[Andrew]

Andrew, you put the box on the circle and then the door stays open so the tank can go through. The objective is to get the tank to the other circle.

ohh... I thought I was supposed to get the box through the door and onto the other circle

[AnotherJake]

I have no personal favorite.
I agree. You'd have to do some pretty serious hair-splitting to declare a clear winner here IMHO. Looks like a pretty solid four-way tie if I've ever seen one. I'm good for debate though. :)

[EvolPenguin]

I think the best thing about these is the idea of no winners. I would have entered but I went all day to an Illinois football game. Fun stuff! Congratulations to all! They're all good.

Alex

[unknown]

That competition was so fun, and we got some good stuff at the end.
Im just dissapointed that some failed, Wheres the Arm and Crane in Unity, wheres the Rope physics one..
I really hope you guys finish those because I was really looking forward to playing it.

I think Keith's sidescroller was the most mechanical, most complicated levels and good difficulty level and Im really impressed that it appeared in 24 hours.
Whizbang was really fun once I got the hang of it, its a great fun throwing yourself about and grabbing on to the walls, I really enjoy playing that.
Mechanical Job I so fun too but im going to play it more because im not very good, my best score is 888. It looks buggy when you dont know how to play but once you know what to do Its actually really great.

Uploaded the source code
www.geocities.com/ed72678954/MechanicalThing_Src.zip
Ive left in the commented out code that used to make this work, before lua. This is BAD code, thats why its not being used.

[skyhawk]

keith, that was an excellent side scroller. It reminded me of my nintendo days. *thumbsup*

[Taxxodium]

Can you guys post screenshots of your games, preferably in game and not the menu :p

I'd like to see the results, but I don't wanna download them all (to save myself some bandwidth)

[unknown]

If you want to see what there like you should really play the games because, well Im not a graphic designer and most of my effort went into the code.

http://www.geocities.com/ed72678954/screensh.jpg

[aaronsullivan]

I got into Mechanical Job the most, even though I didn't get very good at it.
I like how the short time frame brought out some really creative simple ideas. All 4 entries were impressive.

All of them need polish on the imagery and sounds, etc. but that's to be expected.

Here's some advice for taking these to the next level. Take it or leave it, I realize that a lot of this has probably been thought of already by the creators, but time did not permit. Still, I hate not getting useful feedback when I post a game, so...

Whizbang needs some real physics, I think, to really put it over the top with fun. As it stands it leans towards frustrating because the player can't predict the movements of your player very well.

Mechanical (side scroller) needs more living things to interact with. Jumping can be fun, but I'd like to see enemies/bonuses to mix things up. I'm sure they're not there because of the time, obviously. Also, getting stuck sucks. :)

Mechanical Thing needs a couple of simple additions like a different image for the exit, a simple onscreen way of telling what the controls are, and, of course, the addition of deeper and deeper puzzle mechanics. :)

Mechanical Job needs some more visual and audio feedback. Maybe arrows at every intersection showing that the arrow keys are effecting all at once. Maybe numbers ON the "stamps", so you can tell which stamp matches which key. Otherwise, it has a great KLAX feeling going on with the music and visuals... I think you need some differentiating images (besides just colors) for the color blind players out there, though.

[diordna]

aarunsullivan, I'm not sure what you mean by "real physics." Could you be more specific? I know that I'm at a disadvantage here, because I'm the programmer and know exactly how to move.

I plan on scaling all of the graphics down to about 0.5 so as to make the playing field much bigger, then making more use of both strategy and "shoot everything with a machine gun" elements.

[EvolPenguin]

Lucky you for using blitzmax, shrinking is super easy ;)

I dunno, I like the crazy physics, it's a different world!

Alex

[maka123]

Hi all!

I've just managed to complete the registration and now am able to post :) (BTW I did the entry MechanicalJob)

Thanks for the feedback. I really would like to know bugs you guys found in the game, 'cause I've got some ideas to make this a better game.

First on my list is to make the box movement more "real" The way the boxes move fluently now is faked and that's why the boxes moves so strangely when they are on top of a changing belt when you press an arrow key...

Then more feedback... printing the numbers and the arrows... I had no time for this... but i'll do it...

And then levels. I'm making a very simple editor. This game could benefit from different layouts and more varied colors to for the player to match, not just the basic ones... and in order to finish a level you have to get a certain number of each color... could be fun

so what you think?

[aaronsullivan]

diordna: Actually, making things smaller will be great. I just meant using real gravity calculations as they tend to give the elements more weight and feel more natural. Maybe it's only one part of the vehicle that gets magnetized with a visual cue, so the player knows exactly what will be slamming into what. Try the "local" game Ragdoll Masters (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26962) if you haven't. The physics are natural enough that you can begin predicting what will happen. I haven't played your game enough to be more specific, though. In the end, if it's more fun, it's the best choice. :)

maka123: I think all of your ideas are great on your game and I look forward to playing later versions. I know my wife will dig it, too. :D