Wednesday 1 May 2013

C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition!


The third RGCD C64 Cartridge Development Competition concluded at midnight on the 30th of November with 12 brand new games (and 3 re-releases) for the C64!



RULES

So you can get started, the basic rules are laid out below:

  1. The competition deadline is 00:00 GMT on the 1st December 2013 (midnight on the 30th of November) - this gives you over 6 months of development time.
  2. There will be no competition unless a minimum of six entries are submitted by the deadline.
  3. All submitted games must be in working 16KB cartridge ROM format (help is available to test ROM files on real hardware). Compression is allowed (and encouraged) but the final file size must not exceed 16KB (.crt (VICE) at 16.0 KB (16,464 bytes) or .bin (C64) at 16.0 KB (16,384 bytes)).
  4. The games submitted do not necessarily need to be new, but must be your own work, not sold commercially or released in cartridge format previously. Cartridge ROM hacks will obviously not be accepted.
  5. PAL must be supported, with additional NTSC support optional (but encouraged). If possible, please consider GS compatibility.
  6. The maximum number of single entries from a person or group is set at three. If more entries are made, the applicant has the opportunity to replace a previous entry with a new one.
  7. All applicants that submit a valid entry (see above) will receive one physical cartridge copy of their game for free.
  8. The applicant owns their work, so therefore submitted games will *ONLY* be released for sale at an agreed price via RGCD if the coder expresses a desire to do so.
  9. There will be a panel of judges (announced in full over the coming weeks), and entries will be scored on a point distribution basis across several criteria. The decision of the panel is final.
  10. Judges *CAN* enter games themselves, but cannot self-vote (award points to their own release).



FINAL 2013 COMPETITION LINE UP

Here is an alphabetical list of the games that were submitted by the deadline.


















THE JUDGING PANEL

The panel of judges consists of the following people:

Alex Ross-Shaw (RGCD/Retro Fusion)
Andreas Varga/Mr. SID (HVSC Crew)
Anton MacArthur (RGCD/Retro Game Punk)
Flemming Dupont (RGCD)
Frank Gasking (GTW64)
Jacob Voos/Jak T Rip (Protovison)
James Monkman/Heavy Stylus (RGCD)
John Dennis (RGCD)
Martin Wendt/Enthusi (RGCD/Onslaught)
Matt Allen/Mayhem



SCORING SYSTEM

The scoring rules are very simple. Depending on the number of entries, the judges will award points to each game over several criteria (as discussed below). If there are 6 entries, 6 points go to the best, then 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 to the worst.

If a panel member has entered a game themselves, then the number of points that they can award will be adjusted (in this example, to 5) and they will not score their own release. This may initially seem harsh (and disadvantageous), but is countered by fairly taking a mean average based on how many people judged each game.

The criteria that each game will be evaluated on are:

Originality (is the game based on a new idea or a twist on an established design?),
Concept (quality of game design),
Execution (execution of design, taking into account controls, NTSC/GS compatibility),
Presentation (quality of graphics, audio and overall presentation),
Gameplay (a measure of how enjoyable the game is to play),
Lasting Appeal (replay value, addictiveness).

When the panel has scored each game accordingly, the totals for each criteria will be divided by the number of judges to produce a mean average. These averages are then added together for each game to give a final score.

We are considering opening an element of the vote up to the public this year on CSDB, but how this will be incorporated has yet to be decided.



PRIZES

As well as a free copy of their submitted game on cartridge, there will also be prizes awarded to the entrants behind games that place 1st, 2nd and 3rd (as decided by the judging panel). Many thanks to Gideon Zweijtzer and Gareth Darby for their sponsorship!


1st Prize
A 1541 Ultimate II Cartridge (RRP £110), £100 and a boxed Easy Flash cartridge (pre-flashed with Prince Of Persia).

2nd Prize
A 1541 Ultimate II Cartridge (RRP £110), £50 and a boxed Easy Flash cartridge (pre-flashed with Prince Of Persia).

3rd Prize
£50, a Nano SwinSID and a boxed Easy Flash cartridge (pre-flashed with Prince Of Persia).



RESULTS

01 - Monster Buster (p1x3l.net) (75 Points)
02 - Micro Hexagon (Paul Koller & Mikkel Hastrup) (74.1 Points)
03 - Powerglove (Matthias Bock) (67.1 Points)

04 - Kobo64 (Kajtár Zsolt) (66 Points)
05 - Rocket Smash (John Christian Lønningdal & Saul Cross) (64.2 Points)
06 - Vallation (Jason Kelk) (55.7 Points)
07 - Magic Duel (Jörn Ruchmann) (54.7 Points)
08 - Cosmic Ark (Max Hall) (47.5 Points)
09 - Invert (Richard Bayliss) (46.3 Points)
10 - Bellringer III (Geir Straume & Sean Connolly) (42.3 Points)
11 - Devil Ronin (Georg Rottensteiner) (40.6 Points)
12 - Linus Vs Simon (Simon Quernhorst) (33.6 Points)
13 - Candle Burner 1.1 (Dirk Schmitt) (20.4 Points)
14 - Revenge Of The Tomato (Richard Bayliss) (19.9 Points)
15 - S-Blox (Payton Byrd) (13.1 Points)

24 comments:

  1. Great, I'll make sure to have my game ready this year!

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    1. Good luck David, and don't forget to register :)

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  2. I shall be doing my puzzle game "Invert" as an entry for the compo. Should be easy enough to write, but because I don't get as much free time like I used to, this sort of game will probably be ideal for such a competition entry :)

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I thought that would make a good entry when I saw you post about it on Facebook :) - Good luck Richard, and don't forget to register! :D

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  3. Noooo!! My life! My time! All gone :)

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    1. Your boss (Smila) says "Endurion will not be entering the compo unless he has finished Hyperion!". So I guess we'll see you in the 2014 round! ;)

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    2. Damn right .... GET BACK IN THE CODE KITCHEN ENDURION.... N O W

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  4. Great !!!!
    Another year and another competition.

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  5. After the competition is before the competition... (I miss the pic with the colorful cartridges)

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    Replies
    1. Sorry Matthias, I'm not sure I follow you? Luca Antoniazzi made that image for us (fan art!) and I so I just had to use it. The coloured carts - our entire range - was only thrown up as a temporary placeholder :)

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    2. Ok, Yoda would say: "After the competition before the competition is.", but maybe it is one of these sentences that should not be translated.

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  6. SoS! Damn Bugs!
    I say no more ;-)

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  7. Wow, look at those games!

    Hey, is this competition open to people in the USA?

    ..as long as the game meets the guidelines (i.e PAL compatible) does it matter much where the game coder lives?

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  8. to bad I just saw this now..well maybe next year :D

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    Replies
    1. Still got about 6 weeks left:

      1 week for coming up with title/genre/storyline

      1 week for graphics

      1 week for music and sfx

      1 week for controls/physics/AI coding

      1 week for level coding

      1 week for debugging/title screen/ending scene

      DONE IN THE NICK OF TIME!

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  9. Invert now finished and submitted :)

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  10. I've definitely left it too late to enter this year...work commitments and all that.
    However, I'd love to enter next year. It'll give me time to get back up to speed with C64 coding again.

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  11. Just found out about this... Keep it up and I will definitely consider an entry for next year..!

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  12. C'mon, we need three more entries, or it's a no-contest.

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