Well, I’ve been on this overtime marathon again at work, so I haven’t had any time to do much on here. Well, lets fix that. I can’t really offer any prizes this time, but hopefully that doesn’t deter people.

The Goal: Make a Tetris-like game
The Inspiration: Tetris, Pokemon Puzzle League
The Rules: This contest is open to all game developers, with the following requirements and/or conditions:

1. No more than 3 people per project
2. You may submit as many projects as you like
3. I prefer SDL / C/C++ (optionally can use OpenGL with SDL); SDL must be used. Other languages allowed: Delphi, VC++.NET, Java
4. Project must compile/work on at least one major operating system (Windows, Mac OSX, *nix); extra bonus points for cross-platformy*
5. You give SDLtutorials.com permission to use any and all submitted resources, code, and/or files for non-commercial use. Submitter retains the rights to his/her project. (SDLtutorials.com will most likely use the winning project as the basis for a tutorial)
6. All code, resources, and/or files submitted must be the submitters original work, with the exception of use of 3rd party open-source libraries, and/or royalty free resources. No commercial libraries and/or resources are allowed, and will result in immediate disqualification.
7. No plagiarism is allowed, with the exception of the “minor”** use of code from tutorials. Code used from tutorials cannot make up more than 20%** of a submitted project’s code. You may use the framework provided on this website without limitation.
8. SDLtutorials.com has full discretion to accept/reject any projects submitted, and can cancel this contest at any time.

* No actual points are involved in the judging of entries.
** This, obviously, is hard to determine. Be fair, do your own work; if you use code from online, make it your own.

The Details:

• The game should play / look like a Tetris clone
• You must provide a completely working no time-limit game. (Meaning, there don’t have to be levels, bosses, etc.)
• The game should at least be point based
• You must provide a basic menu (Start, Exit at minimum)
• The game may be 2D or 3D (using OpenGL), and may use scripting

The Prize:

• None this time – open to donations

The Deadline:
May 1, 2010

Once all entries are received, I will post 5 of the top projects received. The community will then be able to voice their opinion (which should help weed out any plagiarism). A week after the deadline, I will post who is the winner. If I cannot contact the winner within 30 days, the 2nd place project will become the winner (and so on).

You have plenty of time, make it as cool, and interesting as possible. I could probably make a straight Tetris clone in a day, and all you will have almost 2 months. The only thing I don’t necessarily want to see is something exactly like Tetris (not unless you put some crazy spin on it).

Please send all completed Projects to: tim [at] metacipher.com

You may send your project multiple times up to the deadline. The last project I receive before midnight is the one that I will use.

Good luck everyone!

Terms are subject to change at any time; I will give notice to such changes.

The following are some guidelines for when you submit projects. A real quick note first: by submitting your project multiple times up to the deadline, I can give you feedback and/or help. Please note, I will not give you any code, or any links to code. All I will simply do is point you in the right direction. This should even the playing field a bit for newbies.

1. Please provide a project file and/or makefile for me to compile your code depending on the target platform.
2. Please include any and all libraries involved with your project; already compiled. I don’t want to have to sit here for hours compiling libraries that are used in your project. Exceptions: if the library is easy to grab myself, simply let me know in a ReadMe.txt or something (i.e., being able to apt-get what I need, or simply download).
3. Please compress your project into a single file, and email it to me with the subject: CONTEST – [My Project Name] ; remember, email to: tim [at] metacipher.com
4. Though you can submit projects ahead of time for help, please do not submit your project more than once a week to me. I will provide help, but very limited; remember, this is a contest. I would only ask for help if you really need it; it’s very likely I’ll give more kudos to a project that asked for very little to no help, v. the person that asked every week.
5. Please…. please! Comment your code. Please.

I’ve decided to not give up, please forgive me everyone for even thinking that. I don’t want to send the wrong message. When things get harder in life we need to keep pressing on. In this new year hopefully I can push out a lot more tutorials. I’ve also decided to show on the sidebar upcoming tutorials in the works. Hopefully this will create some excitement. In addition, this year I plan to get a new website out and rolling for SDLTutorials.com, along with a new website for MetaCipher Studios, my upcoming indie game studio. It will not only be a place where I can put my own games to sell, but for all of you as well.

If you all cannot tell, I have been very busy in life lately with two kiddos, full time job, and all sorts of other stuff. As such, I’m having to cut certain things out to make more time for other things. Unfortunately, that may mean SDLtutorials.com . I hate to say this, but only by donating will keep SDLtutorials.com going (it’s actually depressing to have only 1 donation [for the contest] come in since the website started). Otherwise, I’ll be looking to sell the SDLtutorials.com domain name, and only the domain name, to the highest bidder. Sorry, I won’t be selling the rights to my tutorials unless you make an extremely good offer.

Update:
It has come to my attention that even if I wanted to sell the domain today, I wouldn’t be able to do so for at least a year. At any rate, I am simply stressed out and I don’t think I want to give up on this venture. So, I need your help. 1. Please continue to be patient as more tutorials will eventually come. 2. Lets be an active community helping each other, so that if I’m idle for a while, people are still getting help. 3. If you’d like to donate, that’s up to you guys.