After looking over the rules, there one I really disagree with:

Quote:Entries with screenshots, movies, or any playable form (i.e. beta, demo, release, etc), released to the public or outside testers before MONTH DAY, YEAR at 11:59 PM GMT are ineligible.

I really don't see the point of this. Unity's last competition, which ended recently, encouraged developers to post builds, screenshots, ect to the forum. This seemed to help generate a lot more entrants than previous Unity competitions, and in my opinion better quality applications.

P.S. I am happy to see this actually happening! ^_^

bronxbomber92 Wrote:After looking over the rules, there one I really disagree with:



I really don't see the point of this. Unity's last competition, which ended recently, encouraged developers to post builds, screenshots, ect to the forum. This seemed to help generate a lot more entrants than previous Unity competitions, and in my opinion better quality applications.

P.S. I am happy to see this actually happening! ^_^

That date will be set to the beginning of the contest. The idea is that you're only really supposed to work on the game during the contest itself, having screenshots etc before hand is definitive proof that you started in advance, and so that game is ineligible. There's nothing to stop people posting screenshots in the first week and during the contest.

Ah crud, and here I thought I'd be able to relax this winter.

Thanks for giving me an excuse not to!

To all newcomers of uDevGames...

uDevGames has various goals. One of them is to see YOU succeed. I want to see all of you move up a level. Some of you will (and have) gone on to work as full-time game programmers. When we say, "Enter a game that you haven't worked on in the past, code it within 3 months, do your best." What we are trying to do is instill the pressures of what real world game programmers experience. The better you handle the pressure, the better your chances of succeeding in this industry will be. Your experience in this contest is something you'll be able to utilize when you go for a job interview or help to attract funding. ie "Any coder can take 10 years to make a game... but can they do it within the project time schedule? Because at the professional level, its all about ROI."

You handle the pressure of starting at ZERO on the day the contest starts by...

* Selecting an idea that is feasible in order for you to "launch your product"
* Selecting an idea that will be "marketable" once it is compared to its peers
* Writing a good game design document before even coding
* Utilizing/leverage code snippets/framework/techniques/ from your past to help your new project. ie It might not be a good time to decide to make a 3D baseball game if you've never had coding experience in 3D. That said, challenge yourself.
* Using tools that help to track your code such as Subversion
* Use tools for project management to help you set tasks, to-do, milestones, etc
* Utilize the community for feedback on gameplay
* Stick to your original game design doc, with modifications that will get your game completed (ie don't decide to add networking play with 2 days to go)

This is a contest, but it isn't just about a bunch of programmers making a game and getting prizes. It's about an educational experience!

Ah, that makes sense. I was interpreting that date to be at the end of the competition. Sorry for the confusion!

Rock on uDevGames 08!

I've been using amazon s3 recently. I'm just throwing out the idea of using it to host people's uDG games. It could save massively on bandwidth costs?

Carlos has said the plan is to use a 3rd party service. I don't know who he has in mind.

Bandwidth is always our archillies heel. PureStatic helped a bunch in 2004, but the company was sold off.

>Carlos has said the plan is to use a 3rd party service.
It will in the hands of each developer to find their provider. I will add a list of various "free" providers to the FAQ. Community members often also volunteer their bandwidth in past contests.

I think if contest goes well, then perhaps in 2009 we can approach a company liek PureStatic and offer some cross-marketing in exchange for bandwidth.

By the way, if a game will be kept in the open source realm, I don't see why SourceForge wouldn't be an option.

Hang on, the entry fee is to cover bandwidth. It should be more than enough to pay for S3.

If iDG isn't hosting games, there should not be an entry fee.

Errr.... yeah.

iDG should host the games for sure! Heck, charge more if you have to. Partner up with a temporary service for hosting the games during the contest if you have to. I really think all the games in the contest should be served through the same intertube.

It turns into some level of chaos when some games' links are down at the moment a judge wishes to judge. Not only is it frustrating for the contestants, but it is also annoying to the judges, hence judging can wind up being a bit skewed against otherwise great games, simply because of a stupid network issue or a skinny pipe.

AnotherJake Wrote:iDG should host the games for sure! Heck, charge more if you have to. Partner up with a temporary service for hosting the games during the contest if you have to. I really think all the games in the contest should be served through the same intertube.

It turns into some level of chaos when some games' links are down at the moment a judge wishes to judge. Not only is it frustrating for the contestants, but it is also annoying to the judges, hence judging can wind up being a bit skewed against otherwise great games, simply because of a stupid network issue or a skinny pipe.

Yeah…

Where does the entry fee go if not to host the games?

Hairball183 Wrote:Yeah…

Where does the entry fee go if not to host the games?

I thought it was hosting and shipping of prizes.

I thought that it might be the running of the udevgames site/prize shipping costs. Anyway, I don't think it would be bad to up the entry fee to $15 and then grab some dedicated hosting....

I was "prize redistributor" for two years and I remember it costing a pretty penny each year.

I'm cool with an entry fee whether or not iDG provides the hosting.