Here it is! The first (possibly annual) SDL Game Contest. Woo hoo!
The Goal: Make a side-scrolling shooter.
The Inspirition: R-Type
The Rules: This contest is open to all game developers, with the following requirements and/or conditions:
- No more than 2 people per project
- You may submit as many projects as you like
- I prefer SDL / C/C++ (optionally can use OpenGL with SDL); SDL must be used. Other languages allowed: Delphi, VC++.NET, Java
- Project must compile/work on at least one major operating system (Windows, Mac OSX, *nix); extra bonus points for cross-platformy*
- 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)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- You must make one complete level that has at minimum 3 minutes of game-play
- You must provide a scalable structure that allows players to easily add additional levels
- You must provide a basic menu (Start, Exit at minimum)
- You must provide lives, and score at minimum
- You must provide at least 3 different weapons
- You may make the side-scroller shooter any theme you would like (i.e., a banana flying through the air with a machine gun)
- It is not required to provide any sound effects/music, but this would be a major plus
- You must provide at least 3 basic enemies, and 1 boss
- The game may be 2D or 3D (using OpenGL), and may use scripting
The Prize:
- $200 (PayPal) (Thanks Sergey Tikhonov for the donation!)
- Permission to help moderate SDLtutorials.com (if the winner wishes)
- SDLtutorials.com email address (if the winner wishes)
- Has first grabs at joining (as a developer) Tim’s upcoming Indie Game Development Website.
- Free Copy of Half Life 2 (via Steam)
The Deadline:
September 1, 2009
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).
Be creative as possible. If you want 30 enemies, that’s fine. If you want 30 bosses, that’s fine. “The Details” section is sort of a general guideline, but aim to go above and beyond it.
Please send all completed Projects to: kizare [at] gmail.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.
Update (6.5.2009):
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.
- Please provide a project file and/or makefile for me to compile your code depending on the target platform.
- 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).
- Please compress your project into a single file, and email it to me with the subject: CONTEST – [My Project Name] ; remember, email to: kizare [at] gmail.com
- 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.
- Please…. please! Comment your code. Please.
Did you like this tutorial/blog post? Feel free to donate to keep more comin', and have more contests.
*tries to imagine someone writing a SDL game in ASM*
*head explodes*
…anyway, no, I do Delphi, with SDL support through the JEDI-SDL headers. Its conceptual structure is a lot like C++’s, but with a syntax and grammar that’s designed specifically to both compile quickly and be easy for human beings to understand, so even if you’re not familiar with the language you shouldn’t have too much trouble figuring out the code.
Bobfrank,
You’re starting to get into a rough area that I won’t go, as the purpose of this website, and thus, the purpose of the contest, is to help people expand their knowledge in using SDL. Which has a primary target audience of C/C++ programmers. What I meant, is that if the language used is something like Python, or Java, I (Tim) can translate it into C++ to match the rest of the tutorials on this website (if I even choose to go that route). What I don’t necessarily want, is projects to be written in Lisp, Assembly, Perl, etc.
I wouldn’t say that C++ translates well into other languages. It doesn’t even translate particularly well (or particularly quickly!) into machine code as often as not. Especially if you get too deeply into templates. C++’s template system is actually Turing complete in itself, which means that some uses of it are formally undecidable due to the halting problem.
Mason’s right. Pretty nmuch any other language would work better than C++, especially if your goal is to make tutorials that can be read and understood and profitably applied by inexperienced coders.
3. Must use SDL / C/C++ (optionally can use OpenGL with SDL)
Does that mean, then, that using the SDL library with headers for any of the many other languages it’s been translated to, most of which are easier to work with than the C family, isn’t permitted?
Ok Tim, just to clarify.
“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.”
So we can use the code from tutorials on this website as much as we like but can only use 20% from other websites. Correct?
Vin,
Right. I know some people have come to use the tutorials on this website to form a framework/structure for all their games. In that respect, these tutorials are different then some other websites. However, what I don’t necessarily want to see, is the straight copy+paste type of code slapped together. Ideally, any code used from anywhere should be “made your own” – that is, modified; which will demonstrate an understanding, and not simply half-hearted attempt.
Mason,
This is a tricky question. Though I would like to allow other languages, part of the purpose of this contest is to lead into upcoming tutorials. I definitely prefer C/C++ as it translates well into new tutorials, but I suppose with a bit of work, other languages could as well. What language were you thinking of?
I am in the middle of another project. But I am going to try this one too. I probably have no chance but still good practice.
More like 3 months. June, July, August. Looks like fun!
It used to be 6-7 months, I moved it up in light of the value of the prize.
Thanks Tim. This is awesome! 7 month timeline is perfect for me
Gonna participate too
I will start as soon as my school year ends. Good luck to everyone. Tim rox.
That is so cool!! I’m going to participate! xD But 7 Months is like, forever… Anyway… Good Luck Everyone
Gives plenty of time to polish your project.