The First Annual Festive Amiga Game Making Competition

[Cammy]

Seasons Greetings! In the spirit of Christmas, and due to popular demand we are hosting the First Annual Festive Amiga Game Making Competition!

Here's the deal: You have two weeks to make your own Christmas-themed Amiga game. All entries must be uploaded by Christmas Eve, December 24th, when we can all download and play them on our Amigas (or emulated Amigas). We will set up a poll for people to vote for their favourite games, and the winners will receive prizes donated by the Amiga community. As a bonus incentive, all runners up (all entrants) will receive a printed and packaged CD containing all the entries, bootable on any Amiga with a CD drive (although there's no guarantee ALL the games will run on all systems, they will be provided on the CD nevertheless).

The rules of the competition are simple:

1. You have two weeks to finish your game. If your game isn't finished by December 24th, you should still upload your incomplete entry anyway, but at least try to make it playable.
2. Your game must run on a classic OCS or AGA Amiga. This way, anyone should be able to play all the games, either on their old hardware or through UAE. Unfortunately OS4, Aros and MorphOS specific entries at this stage wouldn't reach enough people and couldn't compete for votes.
3. You can create your game with any software you like. This includes programming it yourself too. If you have no coding knowledge, feel free to use any of the available game making software such as Backbone, SEUCK, GRAC, GRAAL, Reality, Game Engine, or anything else you can find.
4. Your game must be themed around Christmas and the festive season. It doesn't necessarily have to contain religious references, but it must be identifiable.

That's it! The rules are pretty lenient, we just want to give as many people the opportunity to join in as possible. Further details on where to post finished games, as well as a list of prizes will be posted over the next week or so.

So, what are you waiting for? If you're up for a challenge, have some free time, and really dig the chance to win some fantastic Amiga prize packs, have a crack at it! We'll make this the best Amiga Christmas in years!

:smilietree:

[Cammy]

Here's an essential application that all Amiga users should have installed, it's perfect for importing GIFs and PNGs of sprites and graphics found on the web, editing them, and saving out as Amiga IFF/ILBM format to use in your games:

Personal Paint - http://aminet.net/package/biz/cloan/PPaint

Something else I think I should mention is that people don't necessarily have to make a FULL GAME, just a demo of a game with at least one playable level or challenge would be good enough to enter before the contest is finished. You can always continue to develop the game after Christmas, because we would love to collect ALL the full games people make together some time next year once everyone is happy with their finished product, and compile them together onto a bootable Amiga/CDTV/CD32 CD, packed with other Christmas and holiday themed extras, and make the full CD available both for free as a downloadable ISO, and to purchase for a small fee on a fully printed and packaged CD. Any proceeds can go towards charity and helping Amiga developers. Anyone who enters a game in the competition will receive a packaged CD free of charge.

If you like the idea of an annual Amiga festive games making contest, but you don't have the time to make a game yourself, perhaps you'd like to donate something towards the prize pool? For any of you in the Amiga business, it could be a good way to promote your company by giving away one of your products to the best Amiga talents, and it would certainly provide more incentive for people to have a go at the competition.

As an example of their dedication, the team at Underground Arcade is kindly donating the following prizes to the winners of first, second and third place. We hope to build the list of prizes over the next couple of weeks.

First Prize
A new, boxed AmigaOS3/Aros/MorphOS-compatible USB Rocket Launcher
An unopened A1200/A600-compatible PCMCIA 5-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/SM/MS/MSP)
Two brand new control pads compatible with all 1-button and 2-button Amiga games
An original Oscar/Diggers game for CD32/AGA-CD/UAE (or HDD-installable with WHDLoad)
A sealed box of 25 floppy disks in assorted colours
A packaged copy of the first Amiga Christmas Contest Compilation for CDTV/CD32/Amiga-CD/UAE

Second Prize
One brand new control pad compatible with all 1-button and 2-button Amiga games
An original Oscar/Diggers game for CD32/AGA-CD/UAE (or HDD-installable with WHDLoad)
A sealed box of 25 floppy disks in assorted colours
A packaged copy of the first Amiga Christmas Contest Compilation for CDTV/CD32/Amiga-CD/UAE

Third Prize
A sealed box of 25 floppy disks in assorted colours
A packaged copy of the first Amiga Christmas Contest Compilation for CDTV/CD32/Amiga-CD/UAE

Does that help convince anyone it's a worthwhile cause? I think just being able to play some new Amiga games during the holidays is going to be the best. And while they may not be too complete this year, imagine downloading or buying the full compilation to play or give as a gift next Christmas, during which time we'll be holding the SECOND festive game making contest!

[Puni/Void]

Congratulations on a fine intitiative! :thumbs: I hope you'll receive many contributions for the competition.

I think I'm going to try to put together a little game myself in AMOS Professional. Have used this language for years, but never made a game yet. Guess it's about time. ;)

Let the games begin!! :cool:

[Harrison]

I probably won't have the time to make a game myself, plus I don't really have the skills in any Amiga programming languages to do any game ideas justice. If it had been a flash or shockwave based game I might have jumped at the challenge.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing the entries and what everyone can come up with. :)

[Cammy]

You could try using Backbone, it's easier to use than Shockwave. Backbone is available on Aminet, along with an update and a recently released keyfile to unlock the full program without limitations!

All you need is a mouse to make games with Backbone. Just download some sprite rips and mods from the net, change them around, and make a game out of it!

There are some good royalty-free characters to use like Santa Claus, Christmas Elves, Snowmen, or just a kid in winter clothes. Collectables could be presents, toys, candy canes, tree decorations, roast turkeys. If you want to be a smarty pants and give Santa a machine gun and have him riding an angry mutant reindeer feel free, be creative.

You could also use Shoot Em Up Construction Kit, or an adventure game maker!

[Harrison]

If I get a day free next week I might have a look at Backbone as I've not tried it.

[Cammy]

I'm glad I have convinced you to try Backbone, I've loved using this program on my Amiga ever since I found out about it myself. It's a shame it went so unnoticed back when it came out over ten years ago, as with more users and more support, the author probably wouldn't have abandoned it before adding all the extra features he planned. I wish someone could find him and ask if he'd like to release the source code, the Amiga community could turn it into the ultimate game maker, replacing all the Amos routines with optimised ASM ones or make it more system friendly.

If you would like to download some example games made in Backbone to try on your Amiga (or UAE) to give you an idea of its capabilities, get this pack - http://www.spin.net.au/~amiga/BackboneGames.lha and this quick demo of a Sonic type game - http://www.spin.net.au/~amiga/Sonic030.lha

[Harrison]

Thanks for the links Cammy. I will definitely check them out on Monday when I have time. :thumbs:

[Philski]

Hullo all!

I posted on this discussion over at amiga.org, but I was wondering if anybody here can help me.

I'm trying to put together a game for this in GRAC, however I'm having difficulty figuring out how to do certain things, for instance does anyone know how to get characters to talk to one another/create a conversation tree?

Good luck to everyone!

Phil

[Puni/Void]

Hi there Philski and welcome to the forum! Enjoy your stay!

Sadly I can't help you with GRAC. I've got no experience what-so-ever with that package. :( Hope someone else can give you a hand. Good luck! :thumbs:

I'm currently working on a little game myself, but it takes time, and the deadline is not far away. So far I've got parts of the basics in place, but I lack stuff like graphics and sound. If I don't manage to finish it in time, I think I'll deliver it as a very early alpha. ;) I'm using AMOS Professional by the way. Are you familiar with that language?


Hullo all!

I posted on this discussion over at amiga.org, but I was wondering if anybody here can help me.

I'm trying to put together a game for this in GRAC, however I'm having difficulty figuring out how to do certain things, for instance does anyone know how to get characters to talk to one another/create a conversation tree?

Good luck to everyone!

Phil

[Cammy]

Hey P G, thanks for joining in! If you're having trouble with graphics for your game, feel free to use some ripped from another game, modify them a bit if you want, just make sure you credit the original game in your ReadMe file. Or if you're attempting to pixel them yourself, and just need a little help or advice, there are two very good pixel art forums you could post your work in progress pics on where people can offer critique and help. For music, I am going to try collecting as many Christmas mods as I can and posting them on the Amiga Christmas Tree website, so keep an eye on that, I'll be updating it soon.

Here are some useful links for you for graphics:

http://www.spriters-resource.com
http://www.bghq.com

And for pixel art:

http://www.pixeljoint.com
http://www.wayofthepixel.net


I think the best idea for now would be for each contestant to upload their finished game to their own space and private message me with a link to the download, or send me an email with the game as an attachment. I will then upload them all to the Amiga Christmas Tree Website, which I am in the process of updating for this year. The website is here - http://amigachristmastree.condor.serverpro3.com - but at the moment it's still showing last year's page. I intend to replace it with the new one soon!

All entries should be provided as either an LHA archive that can be extracted and run from Workbench, or as an ADF file that can be written back to floppy or run in an emulator. A burnable ISO image for CDTV or CD32 would be fine too. Please provide a ReadMe file with your entry to explain what the game is about and how you made it, this should help people make a fair choice when voting for the games. If you have used any ripped graphics, sound or music please credit your sources, and let us know which language or game maker you used to create the game.

After the new Amiga Christmas Tree page is uploaded, I'll post all new information about the contest there, as well as replying to anyone on the forums. I can be contacted through PM on this forum, or through MSN or email (both are the same address) which you can find out on my profile. Also, if anyone would just like to chat about Amiga stuff, feel free to add me to MSN (I use AmiMSN on my A1200 and SabreMSN on my Aros laptop).

Merry Christmas, and good luck everyone!

[Cammy]

Hey everyone! I'd just like to let you all know about a wonderful update to our prize pool. The lucky first place winner will now receive a brand new v2.0 RGB-S-Video adapter from Amiga Maniac (www.amigamaniac.com)!

I have also updated the Amiga Christmas Tree website now, and will shortly add more details about the competition. I will also add the links to all the game entries on the page on Christmas morning.

[Harrison]

Great. I look forward to seeing what everyone has created. Sadly I didn't get the time to try and make one myself.