Igor Posted November 9, 2021 Share Posted November 9, 2021 (edited) Hi All! It's been almost a year since the last game jam that we've put on. The physical cart has been released and received very well (going by the number of sales so far). So...it's time for the next (now annual) game jam from Atari Gamer. This is just a heads-up that the jam is coming up. As last year, there will be a theme, but the rest of the rules will be more or less the same (32k limit, etc). It won't be a ranked event again, so let's just have fun and make some games together. The timing for this jam will be a little different. We're extending it by 1 week (a 3 week contest), starting on the 20th of November and going until the end of 12th of December. Any feedback or comments are welcome. Update - The itch.io page for the game has been created here - https://itch.io/jam/lynx-jam-2021 Update 2 - The theme is - "Let's make something scary" Edited November 19, 2021 by Igor 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted November 9, 2021 Share Posted November 9, 2021 2 hours ago, Igor said: Any feedback or comments are welcome. Was there a theme last time? In any case this is likely a Xmas release. Right? 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nop90 Posted November 9, 2021 Share Posted November 9, 2021 (edited) I don't know if I could complete something this time but, I'm in. Edited November 9, 2021 by Nop90 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted November 9, 2021 Share Posted November 9, 2021 1 hour ago, Nop90 said: I don't know if I could complete something this time but, I'm in. Fortunately the format is quite limiting as you cannot use the cart. I do have a rough idea. But of course it depends if it fits the theme. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted November 9, 2021 Author Share Posted November 9, 2021 4 hours ago, karri said: Was there a theme last time? In any case this is likely a Xmas release. Right? Yep, this is what last year rules had... Your game must - Have a holiday/festive season theme All the ROMs will be available as soon as the jam completes but the physical cart will be released next year. In terms of theme...you will all have to wait and see I did commission a digital artist to do the artwork for the jam cover art/theme, so hopefully the concept will give you some inspiration. We will probably target February for the physical cart release, depending on the number of entries we get. Sounds like there will be at least 3 already (I'm in) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordKraken Posted November 9, 2021 Share Posted November 9, 2021 (edited) Dates are clearly not optimal for me, but depending on the theme, we'll see... So it's more like a "no, but maybe". (i.e. if the theme is christmas it´s a straight no :D) Edited November 9, 2021 by LordKraken 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted November 10, 2021 Author Share Posted November 10, 2021 I can confirm that the theme has nothing to do with Christmas. LynXmas took care of that, I think this annual event is an opportunity to explore different ideas on the Lynx. In fact maybe as part of the submission I should request a suggestion for next year's theme. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted November 10, 2021 Share Posted November 10, 2021 Perhaps the theme should be generic enough to allow for different style games. So not a theme like "pong". Is there any specific game style missing from the Lynx library? One possibility would be to take some graphics sheet that all use. What about a game with pirates. We could use a simple tileset like 16x16 Pirates Tileset by 0x72 (itch.io) But the game could be anything. Pirate pong, card game, platformer, doom, mini rpg. Or perhaps even a visual novel. Use of the tileset could be recommended. You could be allowed to add graphics, animate, whatever... The tileset would be the starting point. And the idea is to follow the visual style set by the sheet. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted November 11, 2021 Author Share Posted November 11, 2021 The theme will be quite open, same as last year. I do not want people to be locked into a specific theme. In fact I might remove the 'single screen game' requirement since that clearly makes platforms not eligible. About a tile set - not a bad idea but not this time around as I've already got it worked out and the jam cover art paid for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamaleon70 Posted November 12, 2021 Share Posted November 12, 2021 Will this jam be hosted on itch.io? I don't see it for November 20th on the list of the jams... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted November 12, 2021 Author Share Posted November 12, 2021 1 hour ago, kamaleon70 said: Will this jam be hosted on itch.io? I don't see it for November 20th on the list of the jams... It sure will, I've not set it up yet, but I will be the end of the week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drludos Posted November 12, 2021 Share Posted November 12, 2021 Cool to see that the AtariGamer Jam/Contest is becoming an annual event! I really love Karri's idea with at "starting tileset" as common theme. For one, it'll speed up development for people who are more comfortable with coding than drawing graphics (like me :p). But it'll also be very cool for a compilation cart to see many games with the same assets used in very different types of gameplay! So that'd be a cool idea for next year event maybe ;). For this year, I don't think I'll have enough free time to make something in the jam duration, but I'm looking forward the theme anyway! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted November 15, 2021 Author Share Posted November 15, 2021 Hey everyone! The jam's itch.io page has been created now here - https://itch.io/jam/lynx-jam-2021 This will be updated with this year's theme once the jam starts, so keep an eye on that. Very excited to do this all again. A proper announcement will be made around the same time as when the theme is unveiled. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordKraken Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 Waiting for the theme, I have a couple of ideas that wouldn't require too much time but we'll see if it can fit the theme Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 On 11/11/2021 at 7:24 AM, Igor said: The theme will be quite open, same as last year. I do not want people to be locked into a specific theme. So my guess is that anything small and playable should be ok. On 11/10/2021 at 6:31 AM, Igor said: I can confirm that the theme has nothing to do with Christmas. So obviously Christmas is banned. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninjabba Posted November 16, 2021 Share Posted November 16, 2021 I'll try to join on this one haven't been able to participate in a while 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted November 16, 2021 Author Share Posted November 16, 2021 @karri yep, that's the idea. The main purpose of these jams is to seed game ideas that can be expanded on and worked into larger games after the jam. @Ninjabba I hope you do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted November 17, 2021 Share Posted November 17, 2021 If the entry should also be available as a *.o file I seem to have some problems in using HandyMusic. A simple compile into non-segmented space and manually patching the addresses for the tune seem to provide a crashing game. Has someone already ported HandyMusic to be included in a *.o compilation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted November 17, 2021 Share Posted November 17, 2021 only for BLL assember 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted November 17, 2021 Share Posted November 17, 2021 3 minutes ago, sage said: only for BLL assember Ok. Spill the beans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 In case there is someone planning to participate but still wonders how to create the required *.o file. Here is how to run the linker to produce a game.o file using cc65 suite. cl65 -t lynx --config lynx-bll.cfg -o game.o $(objects) lynx.lib Running the command above links the object files to provide an executable game.o file for the jam. By using the default config file "lynx.cfg" you get a game.lnx file. Padding this to become a game.lyx file requires a little more. Like running this in Python3: fname='game' with open(fname+'.lnx', 'rb') as f: raw = f.read() data = raw lyx = data[64:] + bytearray([255] * (1024*256 - len(data) + 64)) with open(fname+'.lyx', 'wb') as f: f.write(lyx) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefred Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 I just ran across this on reddit : https://www.reddit.com/user/PainterKira/ She has some pixel talent. maybe someone could commission her for some artwork. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted November 18, 2021 Share Posted November 18, 2021 4 hours ago, thefred said: I just ran across this on reddit : https://www.reddit.com/user/PainterKira/ She has some pixel talent. maybe someone could commission her for some artwork. She is really great. Her Street Café is incredible. Changing it to Lynx resolution does ruin the image a lot. But it is still good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordKraken Posted November 19, 2021 Share Posted November 19, 2021 So today is the day it seems. Are you going to reveal the theme on hour Zero of the itch countdown? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Igor Posted November 19, 2021 Author Share Posted November 19, 2021 Ok ok a few hours early but I am going to be in bed when the counter reaches zero, so here we go... Just repeating what I wrote on the jam page... Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make an Atari Lynx game within the next 23 days, to have fun and put a smile on players' faces. This is an unranked jam and we encourage collaboration and showing off your skills, but above all to have fun making a new game. This year's theme is "Let's make something scary". So dig up your bodies, pull out the skeletons from the closet, unleash the monsters, spill some (pixelated) blood and maybe have a witch or two fly by. Let's make it the best scary game jam so far! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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