AC2013 - Speed coding contest

[GroovyBee]

This morning we arrived back in the UK from RGC's AC2013 event held at the weekend (April 6th/7th) in Meaux (near Paris) in France. As part of the event a speed coding contest is held. This year I entered on the Inty (I entered on the 7800 last year). About a month before the event the organisers publish the theme for your game so you can do some preparation. When the contest starts on the Saturday morning you are also given additional parts that must be present in your game (just so that you can't prepare too much in advance).

 

This year's theme was :-

 

The theme of the AC 2013 speed coding contest is to create a Baroudeur clone.

 

What is Baroudeur?

Baroudeur video. Baroudeur is a game published by Algorythme on the French computer Hector. The aim is to walk through the levels in a limited amount of time.

- Each level is displayed in one single screen

- Each level has its own purpose

- Each level has its own limited time

 

The game is a series of minigames which the main character has to complete. Each of the minigames has different gameplay. The goal is to complete all of the minigames as fast as possible.

 

Rules :

- at least 3 minigames

- at least one of the minigames must have a random structure (i.e. : different each time you play)

- the whole game should have a medieval-fantasy theme

 

The additional parts added at the start of the contest were that the player's avatar had to collect items and if they didn't collect them the player would see a different ending.

 

This is what I came up with on the Inty :-

 

On the first level you have to make your way from the yellow house (top left) to the grey castle (bottom right) while collecting hearts and avoiding the bird. The holes in the wall of trees, hearts and bird height on the screen are all random to start with.

 

Is didn't have time to complete the 2nd level but it would have played like Frogger. You'd have to collect hearts on the logs as well.

 

There was no time to complete the 3rd level either, but the objective would have been to jump over the pits with the knights in. Its game play style would be like Hunchback with the knights raising/lowering their pikes. The hearts would have been in the air so you'd have to jump up to collect them between the pits.

 

There was no time to create a nice title screen or any endings for the game either.

 

This is the ROM for the game so far :-

 

ac2013.rom

 

Use the disc to move the player. When you get to the castle on level 1 the screen will move onto the frogger like screen so you need to press fire to skip it and then it moves onto the next screen.

 

The game came 3rd overall in the contest and there were plenty of other entries on a variety of machines too.

 

I'll be continuing the game on an "as and when" basis this year to build it up to 6 or 7 screen and I'll probably run a contest to win carts of the game for the best and worst 5 times to complete the whole game. I'm not sure there will be a run of carts besides those available in the contest.

 

Thanks go to nonner242 for help with the graphics before the contest and also to sh3-rg for pixel help at the event.

[voltron]

kewl! So you plan on finishing the contest game?

[GroovyBee]

kewl! So you plan on finishing the contest game?

 

Yep! Because each screen will be different its ideal as a pick up and put down project.

[Fushek]

And ... if I don't ask, you know someone else will so ...

 

When is it coming out on cart and who's designing the overlays and box?

 

Really ... it was only a matter of time.

[voltron]

 

 

Yep! Because each screen will be different its ideal as a pick up and put down project.

 

Nice, so will the rom be available for those that dont win the contest?

[GroovyBee]

Nice, so will the rom be available for those that dont win the contest?

 

The ROM will be freely available before the contests so that you can practice before entering your best time.

[voltron]

 

 

The ROM will be freely available before the contests so that you can practice before entering your best time.

 

Thats Great

[GroovyBee]

When is it coming out on cart and who's designing the overlays and box?

 

You'll have to enter the contest with a good (or a bad ) time to get a cart. No plans for a manual, overlays or box for this game.

[+SoulBuster]

This morning we arrived back in the UK from RGC's AC2013 event held at the weekend (April 6th/7th) in Meaux (near Paris) in France. As part of the event a speed coding contest is held. This year I entered on the Inty (I entered on the 7800 last year). About a month before the event the organisers publish the theme for your game so you can do some preparation. When the contest starts on the Saturday morning you are also given additional parts that must be present in your game (just so that you can't prepare too much in advance).

 

This year's theme was :-

 

 

 

 

 

The additional parts added at the start of the contest were that the player's avatar had to collect items and if they didn't collect them the player would see a different ending.

 

This is what I came up with on the Inty :-

 

On the first level you have to make your way from the yellow house (top left) to the grey castle (bottom right) while collecting hearts and avoiding the bird. The holes in the wall of trees, hearts and bird height on the screen are all random to start with.

 

Is didn't have time to complete the 2nd level but it would have played like Frogger. You'd have to collect hearts on the logs as well.

 

There was no time to complete the 3rd level either, but the objective would have been to jump over the pits with the knights in. Its game play style would be like Hunchback with the knights raising/lowering their pikes. The hearts would have been in the air so you'd have to jump up to collect them between the pits.

 

There was no time to create a nice title screen or any endings for the game either.

 

This is the ROM for the game so far :-

 

ac2013.rom

 

Use the disc to move the player. When you get to the castle on level 1 the screen will move onto the frogger like screen so you need to press fire to skip it and then it moves onto the next screen.

 

The game came 3rd overall in the contest and there were plenty of other entries on a variety of machines too.

 

I'll be continuing the game on an "as and when" basis this year to build it up to 6 or 7 screen and I'll probably run a contest to win carts of the game for the best and worst 5 times to complete the whole game. I'm not sure there will be a run of carts besides those available in the contest.

 

Thanks go to nonner242 for help with the graphics before the contest and also to sh3-rg for pixel help at the event.

 

Awesome attempt and third is a good position. I am interested in seeing more of this game as time permits. I downloaded what you have and will check it out on my CC3 tonight, once I figure out how to get it on there.

[GroovyBee]

Awesome attempt and third is a good position.

 

I had hoped to get all three screens going in time but you have about 30 hours (if you stayed awake all night and kept breaks to a minimum) to work on your game. Its a fun event when you are chatting and having a laugh with with your friends, catching up with people you haven't seen in a while and listening to the project presentations (given in French and English). However, trying to get something done against a backdrop of people chattering, people walking around you, all manner of video game music and sound effects is nothing like coding at home (for me at least) and so adds to the challenge too. Maybe if I'd prepared more in advance the goals would have been achievable but then again I like to see how far I can get in the allotted time whilst doing the minimum amount of prep.

 

I am interested in seeing more of this game as time permits.

 

I have ideas for the remaining screens and the good/bad ending so its just a matter of finding the time to work on it.

 

I downloaded what you have and will check it out on my CC3 tonight, once I figure out how to get it on there.

 

If you get stuck just ask. The ROM is NTSC only at the moment so the timer will run a bit slow on PAL machines. This will be fixed at some point in the future.

[Oscar G.]

First of all... Congratulations for the 3rd place.

 

Thank you for sharing the game with us. Looks awesome. I will definitely give it a try!

 

Cheers and congrats again!

[Gaztee]

Was great to see Groovy work on this at close quarters. And it was very kind of him to add the bottom 5 scores to the top 5 in the contest. I'm guessing my rocketeer skillz left some impression on him