»

[Cammy]

Seasons Greetings! In the spirit of Christmas, and due to the previous year's success we are hosting the Second Annual Festive Amiga Game Making Competition!

This year the competition is very much the same as it was last year, except you now have three full weeks to work on your game rather than two. Remember we had seven playable entries made within the time limit last year, so don't doubt yourselves about being able to get something basic produced before Christmas, you can do it! I believe in you!

Last year we had some prizes on offer, but unfortunately I have nothing left to offer as prizes to the winners of this year's competition. Regrettably I also had trouble trying to save enough money to have the certificates printed and send the prizes out, so I'd rather not promise awards this time around unless anyone else is willing to help by donating Amiga-related hardware, software or money to help pay for the postage of the prizes.

Nevertheless, I think there is more fun to be had making games for the Amiga than winning prizes, so I really hope you will consider giving it a go. It's rewarding to see people enjoying the work you've put into something, helping out and making people happy are in the spirit of the season too!

The rules are pretty easy going:

1. You have until December 24th to finish your entry, that gives you a full three weeks from the starting date. If your game isn't finished by Christmas Eve, upload what you have finished so far anyway, just try to make sure it's 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 or the festive season. It doesn't necessarily have to contain religious references, but it must be identifiable. Try to make something you or a child you know would enjoy playing during the holidays.

That's all there is to it, hopefully the rules are lenient enough for anyone to be able to contribute. I will post further details about where the games should be uploaded, and if there will be any prizes this year once I have more information, hopefully we'll build this into something worthwhile over the next few weeks.

I hope everyone has a happy festive season and that we get some fabulous new Amiga games to play again this year.

For more information about the previous year's competition and links to the games that were made, check out the Amiga Christmas Tree website. At the moment it's still last year's site, but I will start working on one for this year soon and have a link to the two previous years from there. http://amigachristmastree.ultimateamiga.co.uk/

[haywirepc]

No NG native games? BOOO! SISSS! BOOO!

What am I supposed to do break out amiga basic? I haven't programmed on a classic in a decade...

BOOO!

[Cammy]

This makes me feel very sad. I thought people would understand the reason we are restricting the games to classic hardware only is because it's the only way to fairly ensure all games are played and rated so we can find a clear winner. A game coded for classic Amigas is playable on all Amiga systems as well as any modern PC, games console or mobile phone through emulation.

There is no need to learn a new programming language. Here is a post from Rebel from last year's competition:

You don't need to have any programming knowledge to make decent games on an Amiga. Here are some useful links to help people get started:


Backbone - Easily build your own platform games and overhead multi-directional shooters.

The full Backbone game making package - http://aminet.net/package/dev/misc/Backbone_Full
Final update for Backbone - http://aminet.net/package/dev/misc/Backbone_Upd
Free keyfile to unlock all Backbone's features - http://aminet.net/package/dev/misc/Backbone_Key


GRaphic Adventure Creator and GRaphic Adventure Authoring Language - Create your own Point & Click Adventure games.

Full GRAC 2 package - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/GRAC2
Extras for GRAC 2 - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/GRACUser1
Intro creator for GRAC 2 - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/IntroCreate
GRAAL 2.3 A - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/graal2a
GRAAL 2.3 B - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/graal2b
GRAAL 2.3 C - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/graal2c
GRAAL 2.3 D - http://aminet.net/package/game/role/graal2d


3D Game Creator - Create your own three dimensional game worlds.

3D Game Creator - http://aminet.net/game/shoot/DBIB.lha


Some nice Christmas sprites to rip and use in your platform or horizontal shooter - http://www.nes-snes-sprites.com/Daze...Christmas.html
Some Christmas mod music to use in your game - http://www.westnet.com/Holiday/mod.html

[haywirepc]

Cammy,

I understand the need for that. I suppose any ng system should be able to emulate any game for classic with uae or similar...

Wish I had the extra time to make a game, but I'm sure I have the extra time to try out the games others make at least!

Good luck with your contest Cammy!


Steven

[Pyromania]

@Cammy

Sounds really cool!

[Hattig]

Originally Posted by haywirepc

No NG native games? BOOO! SISSS! BOOO!

What am I supposed to do break out amiga basic? I haven't programmed on a classic in a decade...

BOOO!

It's 68k assembler only for you! Hitting the hardware only. Not allowed to use any pre-existing code libraries you may have. Anyway, three weeks, I expect something like Lionheart or Alien Breed 3D from you!

I'm sure Blitz Basic will be allowed. No need to suffer with AmigaBasic.

[fishy_fiz]

Originally Posted by haywirepc

No NG native games? BOOO! SISSS! BOOO!

What am I supposed to do break out amiga basic? I haven't programmed on a classic in a decade...

BOOO!

Strange response. I can only guess you had no intention of getting involved anyway. What language, or functions was you planning on using that would make it an "NG" only game anyway ? Unless you was intending to use X86 or PPC asm your response is quite moot.

[JJ]

Glad to see you have gone ahead cammy. After seeing your thread on EAB was not sure you would.

I am feeling geneours. So I am willing to donate a stock A600 as first prize as long as I get a say in the winner

I would be grateful is someone else could help with the postage though as it will cost a bit especially if the winner outside the uk.

[Franko]

Good luck with the compo Cammy, remember if anything happens with the site my offer still stands...

I won't be taking part myself though as programing games and coming up with ideas for them is not my thing (prefer making utills and tinkering/improving other folks code)...

Best of luck anyway...

@JJ

As your willing to donate the A600, I'll cover the postage cost's if you like...

[Cammy]

Thanks for the support you guys! Wow, an A600 and postage costs will make the competition more appealing, especially with those ACA630 accelerators coming out to make the A600 a little more appealing to more people.

With any luck maybe we'll have more prize donations from the community and our supporters, and hopefully make this an even more successful competition than last year!

Remember everyone, you're welcome to work in a team! If you're good at coding but aren't feeling creative, or if you've got some good ideas or creative talent don't be afraid to team up with someone. If you end up winning prizes, you'll have to work out who gets what between yourselves though I'll try to get certificates printed for everyone involved though.

Also, if anyone is a member of an Amiga forum where I haven't posted about this competition yet, please feel free to quote or replicate my first post or link back to this forum. We want to involve the whole international Amiga community, not just the English-speaking part of it!

Thanks everyone, and good luck!

[tone007]

Originally Posted by Cammy

so don't doubt yourselves about being able to get something basic produced before Christmas, you can do it! I believe in you!

This bit of encouragement almost got me going, and then I realized I haven't written a program since 1996.

[Rob]

Originally Posted by Franko

@JJ

As your willing to donate the A600, I'll cover the postage cost's if you like...

What about if the winner turns out to be English?

[Franko]

Originally Posted by Rob

What about if the winner turns out to be English?

In that case it could be tricky, I mean there are lots of strict guidlines, paper work and customs stuff to do when sending something to such a far off backward country...

[Cammy]

If anyone wants to check out what last year's games looked like, maybe to get some ideas of what you can achieve in under a month, have a look here:

http://amigachristmastree.ultimateam...mpetition.html

[JJ]

Originally Posted by Rob

What about if the winner turns out to be English?

If somone english wins the compo I will fill the A600 with Jelly before sending on.

I will have to check if I still got the power supply etc for the A600. it might be just the wedge only. But better than nowt