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Lynx coding contest


Lynxman

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If we are required to use BLL then I dont think Ill be able to participate. I can't program assemble, tried and ended up giving on programming for the Atari 2600 because of it.

 

Maybe a couple of good examples for BLL would help, but I find mini games extremely difficult to do.

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I'm against setting such strict rules... you see already disjaukifa couldn't participateif BLL was required, and it was him who revived this thread.

 

Such a competition should not just be for minigames you can code in a few days; it should be up to the coder what he wants to do. Actually I think we might miss the chance to see some truly great stuff if we have such restrictions. I'd take the SMSPower coding competitions as an example; entries could be very different, there were mini-games like Snake or Sokoban, some great graphical base for a game (Lost Raider), and even an almost complete action game worthy of a full cart release (DARC).

 

http://www.smspower....ons/Coding-2012

 

Imo that's the way to go; this way we might end up with something good for even the average Lynx player instead of restricting so much that the entries will be more interesting to the coders than to actual players just because they squeezed something in a small limitation or a short timeframe. For example, Pong entirely in the RAM may be an impressive feat on the 2600, but in the end it's still just Pong and not terribly exciting for players. There's enough demos people look at one time and never again already, so away with restrictions and just let the coders show off what they can do, no holds barred!

 

Minigames! Big games! Graphic demos! Music demos! It should be up to the coders. :)

 

If you aim low to begin with, nothing great will come out of it. Aim high, and even if you fail the result may still be decent. :)

Edited by 108 Stars
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Ok. So how about the Fools Day contest starting now. No strict rules. High Score Club will be the forum of the judges with the scoring system mentioned previously in this thread.

 

We do not have any sprite sheets. So feel free to team up with graphics artists.

 

Should we announce the interest in this thread to see who participates? I am in.

 

This thread could also be used for reporting progress on the competition entries as teasers.

 

--

Karri

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We do not have any sprite sheets. So feel free to team up with graphics artists.

If someone needs some space themed sprites and backgrounds that fits (pretty) well with Lynx screen & resolution, all graphical assets used for Yastuna 2 are free to use and should be available for download on y2 page (look in my sig, I can't check right now).

 

Of course, this is mostly space-invaders biased, but I still managed to make 4 different games with these (and even 5, cause current build of SPACE for Jag, which is a boardgame like used these sprites also)

 

I cannot guarante I will participate, cause I am a bit overbooked right now, but if I decide to free some time for Lynx coding, I will be in (but not for a 1kb or 2kb experience, I tried once with my poor C skill and didn't manage to go under 4kb :D)

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Ok. So how about the Fools Day contest starting now. No strict rules. High Score Club will be the forum of the judges with the scoring system mentioned previously in this thread.

 

I think that Lynxman needs to say when it starts because he is the one offering a prize.

 

We do not have any sprite sheets. So feel free to team up with graphics artists.

 

I still think that sprite sheets should be provided. Some people don't know any pixel artists or if you do have an artist in mind their time may already be taken if you don't ask early enough or the artist may feel compromised by working with several programmers at the same time.

 

Should we announce the interest in this thread to see who participates? I am in.

 

Agreed! I'm in if a selection of tile sheets are provided at the start.

 

This thread could also be used for reporting progress on the competition entries as teasers.

 

Agreed!

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nice to see this topic revived! Last contest I could only submit a half-assed version of gomoku.. and I believe I was the only one to make the deadline? With a deadline set to Aprils Fools day I think we can have a good competition :) but I don't feel like doing a 1k competition.. perhaps a 64k competition so we can add some gfx/sfx?

 

I already offered to download sprite and tile sheets from that site and convert them to 12bit 16 colour images but the idea was shot down pretty quick. I think these guys are expecting a pixel artist to just come along and make new graphics for them for free.

 

The lesser rules the more can come out of it, right? I don't see any objections as long as its not copyrighted material. People should team up a lot more in my opinion

Edited by Ninjabba
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I think these guys are expecting a pixel artist to just come along and make new graphics for them for free.

 

And why should they not? They code for free, so others in the community can do some pixel art for them for free. It's not that difficult to do anyway.

 

I'd do it myself, but I am already caught up in several Lynx-projects, and it would be unfair to the devs I have already made a commitment to help if I now take on an additional task while I'm not done with their stuff.

 

I could contribute next year maybe, but not right now.

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>Should we announce the interest in this thread to see who participates? I am in.

108 and I should be able to enter with something too.

 

>I think these guys are expecting a pixel artist to just come along and make new graphics for them for free.

This is an art repository for open source games, that makes sense to me.

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And why should they not? They code for free, so others in the community can do some pixel art for them for free. It's not that difficult to do anyway.

 

Programmers are a dime-a-dozen, good pixel artists are hard to find so I thought providing people in the competition with some tiles and sprites made by professional pixel artists, which they have provided free and open source, would help some of the programmers who can't find a pixel artist to team up with.

 

So tell me, what is wrong with the artwork on OpenGameArt.org? It's free for anyone to use in their games, and even if you plan on doing the graphics yourself or teaming up with a willing pixel artist the graphics would still make good placeholders while the game is being coded.

 

I thought since I've successfully run a few game making competitions for classic systems before that my insight might be appreciated, but I guess not.

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Cammy, you should feel so offended. :) I find it natural that people prefer stuff from the AA community, and doing low res and low color pixel art like this is quite easy. Many more people could do that than code if they took the time. I'm doing it, and it's really no magic, I'd say it is probably the most trivial aspect of making a Lynx game.

The sprites from PD ressources tend to use too high res and color, and the downgrading usually makes more work before it looks decent than to start from scratch. 15 colors for everything on an antiquated screen requires careful consideration not needed for modern spriteart... it must be versatile and contrastful, yet still several colors must mix well for shading etc., because without good shading stuff will look flat and lifeless. Adjusting existing pixelart to these restrictions is massive work imo.

 

To help out I am posting a palette now, it is from Green Little Quak-Quak with only one little change; I am posting this because it is a pretty versatile, vibrant palette, with all primary colors plus shading.

 

Feel free to change it, guys, I just thought I'd contribute a starting point.

Everyone can change their colors to match their individual projects of course (since a space shooter will probably need more tones of grey rather than three tones of red for example ;)

 

palette.bmp.

 

I also sent PAC-MAN-PLUS a message, maybe he will agree to do the graphics pack. If not you can still get back to some PD sprite art. :)

Edited by 108 Stars
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Cammy, you should feel so offended. :) I find it natural that people prefer stuff from the AA community, and doing low res and low color pixel art like this is quite easy. Many more people could do that than code if they took the time. I'm doing it, and it's really no magic, I'd say it is probably the most trivial aspect of making a Lynx game.

The sprites from PD ressources tend to use too high res and color, and the downgrading usually makes more work before it looks decent than to start from scratch. 15 colors for everything on an antiquated screen requires careful consideration not needed for modern spriteart... it must be versatile and contrastful, yet still several colors must mix well for shading etc., because without good shading stuff will look flat and lifeless. Adjusting existing pixelart to these restrictions is massive work imo.

 

To help out I am posting a palette now, it is from Green Little Quak-Quak with only one little change; I am posting this because it is a pretty versatile, vibrant palette, with all primary colors plus shading.

 

Feel free to change it, guys, I just thought I'd contribute a starting point.

Everyone can change their colors to match their individual projects of course (since a space shooter will probably need more tones of grey rather than three tones of red for example ;)

 

palette.bmp.

 

I also sent PAC-MAN-PLUS a message, maybe he will agree to do the graphics pack. If not you can still get back to some PD sprite art. :)

 

Spriting is easy because you have a gift for it 108 Stars :) I'm sure PAC-MAN-RED thinks a drunken baby could make decent sprites :P

 

So, can we say that the above palette is the standard for our sprite/tile pack? If so, what is our sprite and tile sizes?

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Spriting is easy because you have a gift for it 108 Stars :) I'm sure PAC-MAN-RED thinks a drunken baby could make decent sprites :P

 

So, can we say that the above palette is the standard for our sprite/tile pack? If so, what is our sprite and tile sizes?

 

Oh, one thing. Please put black in index 0 and white as index 15. There are lots of cases where the code assumes this behaviour. It helps in defining transparency of sprites. If black is also used as a color we may need two blacks in the palette.

-

Karri

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Maybe you should PM pac man red instead, pac man plus might be busy coding ;-)

 

Damn, we just have too many Pac-Mans on this forum! :P

But no worries, I actually PM'ed the correct one, my dementia didn't start to show before I posted in this thread. And best of all, PAC-MAN-RED is interested in helping! :)

 

 

Spriting is easy because you have a gift for it 108 Stars :) I'm sure PAC-MAN-RED thinks a drunken baby could make decent sprites :P

 

Well, if you call too much free time on your hands a gift, then I guess I have one :P

 

So, can we say that the above palette is the standard for our sprite/tile pack? If so, what is our sprite and tile sizes?

 

 

Yeah, we have to settle on the guidelines or else PAC-MAN-RED won't be able to do anything. Like the palette he will work with, tile and sprite sizes and what kind of graphics he should do. No use if he does a dozen of racing cars top-down view if nobody makes a racing game, you know.

 

Oh, one thing. Please put black in index 0 and white as index 15. There are lots of cases where the code assumes this behaviour. It helps in defining transparency of sprites. If black is also used as a color we may need two blacks in the palette.

 

Black is meant to be used as a color, I had the pink on the right in mind for transparency. So pink should be 0?

Edited by 108 Stars
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Well... I also arranged the buttons in the indexed order.

 

palette.bmp

 

So the pink is index zero, black is 1 and so on until white is 15.

 

I also believe that Yastuna has a good size for sprites. It can fit around 6 rows of sprites on the screen.

 

I believe that these are of the size 16x16.

post-2099-0-63985900-1350675122_thumb.jpg

 

--

Karri

Edited by karri
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