Beginners' contest - July 2009 - demos uploaded

Dear friends,

The 15 demos that were created for the first beginners' contest are uploaded to Acknex Unlimited: AU demo download page

Please download them all, test them all and give feedback - that's how we will choose the winner. Tell us what you like / dislike about the demos, what demo(s) will be useful for the entire comminity and why, and so on. If you have created one or more of these demos, you are not allowed to comment on your own demos.

All the demos should run using Atari lite-C, the free version of GameStudio, which can be found at Conitec's download page: get lite-C free 1.70 here

Good luck! I am looking forward to seeing your comments!

Collision detection by LunaticX is very nice technology =)
It is pleasant to me =)

My vote is for **** Collision detection *****

Hi everyone

May I suggest for future competitions, the following:

1. The main program is called 'main.c'
(with some games, I just gave up bothering to find the main file to run it)

2. All programs must have a help file.
( eg. 2d_physics looks interesting but I just don't know how to play it ??)

3. Code comments in English, where possible
( Everyone speaks some English ... don't they ?)




My vote is for **** 3DGS Copter *****

Let me explain why:

The game is very easy for new people to understand. It also uses many important game features such as collision detection, animated panels and modular programming through external .c files.

The graphics are basic but it would give a learner great opportunities to make their own superior graphics. I have also suggested to Seb (the writer) that the game could be expanded to have the helicopter fire bullets at trhe balloons and also have a harder level.

This game might not be the most sophisticated, but I understand that the point of this competition is to act as extra tutorial help to demonstrate the use of PANELs. This is a great example !

Cheers

dracula

I vote for ****Megaman****.
It shows panel collision, animated panels, gravity for panels and stuff with great quality, and beside this it's real fun and nearly a full game.

2d_physics - feeling that something is unfinished...
3dgscopter - funny, espeshially falling and RIP picture
collisiondetectionwithprojections - very good work, i really like it
invisibleshadow - i didnt understand even if i shooted a bullet or not
lander - emm... dont know what to say, but i dont like it, sry
lightmaterialviewer - good work for beginner, but also dont finished
little2dgame - i didnt understand the point of the game
megaman - reminds me old-style games... very nice
omgman - i liked those effects and that raven xD
Pinniball - effects are nise, but a little boring, in addition ball always jumps at 45 angles.
robotshowcase - i also didnt understand, what it is
supermario - ahh, my old friend Mario ^^
texteffects - extremely nice and usefull
typingtiles - also good game for those people, who would like to learn keyboard
worm_dieder - i liked music, but i didnt understand, how to control worms... also there is no info, so thats not good.

Thats a pitty that i cannot vote for 2 or 3 works... but, as i need to chose one, i'll vote for ****Omgman**** because of nice arts.

I vote for Megamanas it felt more complete to me. Though a little hard in game play for me, I enjoyed the effects and the ideal behind it makes a great 2d casual game in the works..I let my son play with it kept him entertained for a couple of hours...and isn't that the idea...not just the code value to us but the enjoyment value as well.

Even though i agree with lostzac, entertainment is usually the idea of playing a game, I vote for the
****collisiondetectionwithprojections****
because of great coding.

I am just say: ****Texteffects*****
A short Why: I love it

2d_physics - Not bad! Very nice to use the 3DGS physics system to simulate 2D physics, although I think you missed to simulate the box with a quad-sprite.

3dgscopter - Idea is nice but it was a bit frustrating, though. Maybe it was that the sight to the right was too short and that I first thought that I have to collect the balloons and I always died. I even died when I though I wasn't supposed to. Why should I die when I get into clouds...?

collisiondetectionwithprojections - Although I don't know the math behind it I love it. Pixel perfect collision!!! Though, I don't know how versatile it would be for bigger game projects.

invisibleshadow - I was amazed firstly about the menu popping onto the screen. And then I was amazed how often I can die without ever reaching the end of the level... am I supposed to win? How???

lander - Wow. Maybe one of the most entertaining games I ever played which were made with Gamestudio. Not graphically stunning (except the earth... great plus... and the music!!!), but simply addicting. Though, I noticed that the level loader interpets the same level differently in hires and lores mode... the platform in level 2 can in fact NOT be reached (the distance between the two blocks is too narrow!.. only in lores mode this works) and since I was only able to finish level 2 in lores mode, I had no platform at all in level 3.. so.. that is kinda frustrating. Keep working n it.. its great! Especially for a beginner.

lightmaterialviewer - Nice.

little2dgame - I did'nt had the clue what to do. I simply moved and nothing happened.

megaman - Beside the obviously ripped graphics I was kinda stuck.. maybe I was too dumb to fight against the masterchief. Maybe this belong to me being no fan of both megaman nor Halo ^^. Though, I really liked the special effects!!!

omgman - Stupid name. Great game!! I really love the style and the graphics, although I first didnt knew what to do.. I though I had to collect the raindrops :-) really stunning.

Pinniball - "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" These were my thoughts. And I liked it. I think it is about getting points in this psychdelic mind-race or whatelse this is... what like to see this in true 3D :-) Highly intersting when I think of a larger scale game. And abandon the paddel idea!

robotshowcase - Ok, this was even less entertaining than little2dgame.

supermario - This is even more a ripped game, but it certainly carries the Mario message... although I can't pass the first gap... too bad. You should also tweak the controls... heavily.

texteffects - Nice. I also love text effects

typingtiles - Nicely done, but the music is making me sick.

wormdieder - I was alone, so I wasnt able to play it.

Lander 1st, Pinniball 2nd and then omgman!!!

Hey! That is mean - I ve putted a read me at my submit!
Here is the link: Control TxT

[edited, nonsense quote]


Pictures were drawn by us=)

Sorry if you felt disappointed... I do not read readme's, because games are games and not VCR's

Okay, but your critic sounds very hard, so I sad this

it was very hard to choise especialy because i didnt do the contest myself this time any way

3 stayed over:
collisiondetectionwithprojections - i did try a colision system like yours but your is 10 times beter any way i ask you if i may use your code

typingtiles couldnt stop playing this game and it feels compleet this could be sold on the market realy good work

texteffects - realy nice



i vote for collisiondetectionwithprojections because he did what i wanted to see for a 2d colision system

I'd vote for "2D physics".

ok, i would vote for the 2dchopter game, because it does use many panels, which was the point of this contest, plus collision detectment, and some other things. which by the way, all that my script does is use a button (the orange button on the robot) to pull up another panel. nothing really impressive, but it everything on there is made with panels.

**TypingTiles**
A wonderfully addicting game, with clever use of panels. Did you write the music for this? The track called 'perfect_timing' reminds me of a N64 game called 'perfect dark'. A really good game that is..

[EDIT]I was right. Opened the MIDI files with anvil studio, and about half the tracks come from perfect dark.

@ mehmaster, Yeah all the midi files came from other games, usually the boss battles so that the pace increased with the level. I'm glad you liked it.


Okay, the three that really impressed me the most were;

OMGMAN - Absolutely beautiful, but difficult to get the ball going on different directions. You could pretty much get stuck in the corner with it going straight up and down indefinitely. Also, I wanted to be able to hit the bird.

Text Effects - This one made me want to learn more just because it was awesome and practical. Any game could be enhanced by some of the effects demonstrated here.

CollisionDetection - The concepts used here are over my head right now, but I was really impressed by how this was executed. Once I get a bit better I'm sure I'll be begging for a peek at the code.

My vote goes for Text Effects just because I felt it most demonstrated how just a bit of knowledge could be used to really enhance a project and I look forward to figuring out how to incorporate some of those effects in my future programs.

im undecided between super mario and megaman... i just lvoe oldschool2d projects.
but bothg ames are strange to play.... nut sure yet...

lots of WIN... still checking demos.

text effects
Done really well!!!

The projects that I did understand didn't show much creativeness or originality. Text effects, although limited, showed the simple possibilities of what 3DGS can do when the creative minds are looking for great results

ditto! +1 text effect...

There are a lot of interesting and some very well done demos among the entries, however the winner for me is Typing Tiles. Typing Tiles is a simple but entertaining concept. It is exclusively made with panels (except the music :P ) and it is a complete game with menu, difficulty, loosing or winning screens, replay options etc.

I have started a lot of projects in my "3dgs career" but I have never finished a game to where it could be published. Respect for accomplishing more in your first project than I have in countless tries.

PS: I suck at typing so maybe this will hep me get better.

I vote for megaman, because it's just fun! The Code from texteffects and collision detection is very professional, but they neither are fun nor they have a goal.

I agree with hopfel about the texteffect entrance. It's good to look at but it's not a game.
I think the objective of this competition should be to make the use of panels easy to understand and accessible to people learning. Some of these entries are 'too good'. We end up marvelling at their incredible abilies and learning nothing much. That's why I voted for the Copter game. It's not that good but there's a lot to learn for newcomers.

the contest was based on the above, learning purposes was never mentioned, it wasnt aimed to get beginners to learn, the learning would've resulted from studying panels in order to participate.. just wanted to make that clear.. am sure every contestant worked with one thing in mind "add as much functional and innovative code as possible"

Hey Vet!




My first try also ended with "what the,... where are the controls...???
But on my second try, i found the controls-editor in the game. You have to define the controls of each player.
I like the little game. Also the little face-expressions... funny.

cheers
Marcel

My vote goes to "Typing Tiles"

Lots of nice entries, though some of them could use a little more work (adding a game menu etc.).

I rated all the entries on different factors from 1 to 10, and the top5 on my list got the following overall ratings:

1. TypingTiles - 9,25
2. Text Effects - 9
3. Super Mario - 8,75
3. Worm Dieder - 8,75
3. OMGman - 8,75

A few comments (didn't take my time to comment on all entries, sorry):

Typing Tiles - a game with a simple and nice concept (a bit like the game "typer-shark"). I chose it due to the fact, that it had a simple game menu, instead of just starting right away (like many of the other entries) and by telling the user what to do/controls - which many of the entries didn't. Had had to choose one, and as all of the entries were great, this is the little thing that made me choose it.
This game proves that Gamestudio/Lite-C is fully capable for making professional 2D games.

omgman - I really enjoyed this one, but it seems a bit unfinished due to the lack of a menu system. If a nice menu system was added, it would be my favourite

Invisible Shadow - a nice game, with very nice graphics! It's just a bit buggy though (as when I complete the level and return to the menu, the player and he bad guy is still being visible). The "combat system" might as well need a little more work.

Text Effects - Simply amazing work It's not a game, making it a bit hard to compare to the other entries. However it's a nice coding job, and you really got my respect for that.

Little 2D Game - Very nice looking game, but it really seems unfinished


1. Yes, unless it's compiled into an exe-file.
2. Agreed.
3. Would be nice, but shouldn't be necessary in my opinion - not everyone even uses comments.

Hmm... when ends the voting?

Yeah, i was in a top five - not one vote

You really did a great job though, and made a game which you can be very proud of!
There are lots of very nice entries in this contest, and it's very hard to pick a winner - but at least these contests seems to become quite frequent

That comment of yours did as well remind me of when I tried entering Conitec's contest (Spring 2004) with this small game that I made (my first game programmed almost entirely by myself - at the age of 12).
I didn't even get mentioned anywhere, and I was quite dissappointed, as I was very proud of it - however, looking back at it by now is quite funny (and I guess that it might be hard to play for anyone who haven't been working on the game :P)

Anyways, I curious to know when the voting stops as well, seems like it has been going on for quite a while

Thanks - I´m even only 13 - 14 lifeyear(i like the number 14 moar so i say often i´m 14)

Ah cool, it's always nice to see such talented people around quite close to my own age - it's a bit sad the none of my RL-friends aren't interrested in what I'll call "real programming" (instead of just doing boring HTML, PHP, etc.)

my friends too xD - if one of them likes programming at all, not lite-c or c++ - only php

But cool - were are so same

okay :P it's quite a shame

yeah, seems so

Anyways, we'd better not hijack George's thread :P

Don't worry, guys. The second (and final) stage of the voting process starts today. Just give me a few hours.