Mini Contest: Make a self-playing screensaver!

[Taxxodium]

Ed and I just came up with a great idea for a mini contest.

The idea is very simple: Create a screensaver module for Mac OS X. However, the screensaver in itself must be a game. But rather than letting the user play it, let it play with itself. Kind of like the "demo" mode you see in quite some games, Duke Nukem 3D comes to mind.

Go nuts on it. It doesn't have to be 3D, 2D will do fine as long as it's enterning and don't forget the "eye candy".

Good luck.

Time frame: a week starting from the moment we have 3 or more people interested :) Trust me you'll be happy to have a week as debugging screensavers is not funny.

[SOUR-Monkey]

Sounds fun - I'll do a 'Barrage' port.

[unknown]

I'm going to try my hand at Asteroids!

[DaveN]

The idea is very simple: Create a screensaver module for Mac OS X. However, the screensaver in itself must be a game. But rather than letting the user play it, let it play with itself. Kind of like the "demo" mode you see in quite some games, Duke Nukem 3D comes to mind.
Are we supposed to write an AI that's playing the game, or could it "just" be a movie? And can I work in Flash? I first used basic, but after some time I changed to Flash..

Dave :)

[unknown]

For all those entering or planning on it,

A really nice tutorial that shows you how to get an OpenGL screensaver set up.

http://cocoadevcentral.com/articles/000089.php

[Taxxodium]

Are we supposed to write an AI that's playing the game

Yes, a movie is not allowed. So basically you have to make a game but without the interactivity.

You can use whatever you want as long as you're writting code, so not a movie or a sequence of pictures.
Also, you don't need to release source code, as there are no real prizes, but it's appreciated for starters...

The only requirement is that your game must run on a Mac (Universal or not). I don't care if your game is crossplatform, if it doesn't run on Mac OS X (so no classic and no Mac OS 9 and below) it will get disqualified.

Oh and to be clear, if has to be a screensaver, not a double clickable binary.

[DaveN]

Ok, thanks a lot for the info. I'm going to have a try. As it's jsut the second or third time I'm working with an AI I don't know how well I can do it, but I'll give my best :)

I think I'm going to write a screensaver with some Spy Vs Spy action.. Let's see what I can do :)

mfg Dave

[Taxxodium]

Small reminder.

The contest ends tomorrow Saturday 18 February at 23:59:59 (GMT)

My entry is done and can be found here (http://www.edot-studios.com/webgroups2/index.php?menu_item=281).

[unknown]

I was going to make it aim and fly around and all that clever stuff but then I gave up.

http://www.fax.xmgfree.com/Asteroids.zip