Tuesday 29 April 2014

C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition!


The fourth RGCD C64 16KB cartridge game development competition concluded on the 7th of December at midnight with 16 new games (and one cartridge re-release) 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 8th December 2014 (midnight on the 7th of December) - 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 2014 COMPETITION LINE UP

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




















THE JUDGING PANEL

The panel of judges is made up of the following people:

Andreas Varga/Mr. SID (HVSC Crew)
Hedning (Genesis Project)
David Simmonds/Jazzcat (RGCD/Onslaught)
Flemming Dupont (RGCD)
Frank Gasking (GTW64)
Jakob Voos/Jak T Rip (Protovison)
James Monkman/Heavy Stylus (RGCD)
Jamie Howard/Physcopanda (RGCD)
John Dennis (RGCD)
Martin Wendt/Enthusi (RGCD/Onslaught)
Matt Allen/Mayhem
Paul Koller/paulko64



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 Funstock for their sponsorship!


1st Prize
A 1541 Ultimate II Cartridge (RRP £110), Sam Dyer's C64 Commpedium (RRP £25) and £100 (paid via PayPal).

2nd Prize
A 1541 Ultimate II Cartridge (RRP £110), Sam Dyer's C64 Commpedium (RRP £25) and £50 (paid via PayPal).

3rd Prize
Sam Dyer's C64 Commpedium (RRP £25) and £50 (paid via PayPal).



RESULTS

01 - P0 Snake (Antonio Savona) (86.333 Points)
02 - Tiger Claw (Matthias Bock & Saul Cross) (76 Points)
03 - Voivod Attack (Achim Volkers & Mikael Tillander)(74.583 Points)

04 - Pixel City Skater (Luigi Vicari) (72.916 Points)
05 - Penultimate Fantasy (Georg Rottensteiner) (72.583 Points)
06 - Fickle (Malcolm Tyrrell) (66.416 Points)
07 - C-2048 (p1x3l.net) (61.833 Points)
08 - Paper Plane (Roy Fielding) (56.833 Points)
09 - Toyz (Jan Schulze) (54.666 Points)
10 - Aviator Arcade (Mark Hindsbo) (42.666 Points)
10 - Tutti Frutti 64 (Spider Jerusalem) (42.666 Points)
11 - Brilliant Maze (Geir Straume & Sean Connolly) (40.166 Points)
12 - Brick Buster (Ronny Nordqvist) (37.166 Points)
13 - Falling (Saul Cross & Andrea Schincaglia) (34.833 Points)
14 - Mini Arcade: Climax (Bamse) (32.75 Points)
15 - Honey Bee RX (Richard Bayliss) (29.75 Points)
16 - Race (Steffen Goerzig) (24.5 Points)


(Scores are out of a total of 102 points. For full details on the results, check the write up here.)

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