Hello, fellow forumgoers! It seems a bit early to announce this, but whatever, we'll have more time to plan and garner attention.
So, I'm assuming you've all heard of a 7-Day Roguelike. If you haven't, it's exactly what it sounds like- attempting to program a roguelike in a week or less. They don't come out finished, and definitely not polished, but the idea is just to get your code moving (and also to a fairly "playable" state).
Anyway, this is the same thing as a 7-Day Roguelike, only with a smaller time frame- three days, or 72 hours. Throughout the month of February, post in this thread to mark when you're starting, and again when you finish (remember, you can keep working on these after the contest if you want; but the "entry" version is whatever you have 72 hours after your "starting" post). Then, send me your finished product, and at the end of the month I'll post a listing of everything, as well as some accolades for particularly brilliant aspects. I will be participating, but not awarding myself any accolades.
If enough people are interested, I'll see about making this a monthly thing. For now, though, here are the guidelines for February:
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Contest Administrated By: me, biag. PM if you have any questions, or if you want to help out!
Entry Deadline: I'll be accepting entries from midnight February 3rd to midnight February 28th, Central time. PM me a download link (for a good file host, I recommend Mediafire).
Theme: the player as a "director" rather than having complete control. I.E., Dwarf Fortress.
Specific Guidelines: -The player must provide orders for units, rather than having direct control.
-The player should generally have multiple units available.
-Guidelines are flexible; above all, try to make something you want to make! This is mostly a starting point.
Additional: not required, but when you put up your "Finished!" post, it would be neat if you also posted any interesting problems you came across and how you solved them. You may be as open or secretive about your development as you wish.
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Any questions? Post them here, or PM me! Any suggestions? Post them here, or PM me! Interested in signing up? Post here! Don't PM me about that one.
Tutorials, Tilesets, Libraries, Etc.The Roguelike Development Megathread has pretty much all the resources you could possibly want for this,
here.However, I know it looks a bit intimidating, so here are some of my personal favorites. Feel free to suggest your own!
Roguebasin is basically the best thing ever for roguelike devs. Pages and pages of tutorials, examples, and even unused design notes! If you haven't been there already, go now. You'll thank me for it.
Python is my language of choice, mostly because it's pretty. It can be a tad slow, but that doesn't matter much for roguelikes, unless they become massive like DF. The Python site has loads of well-written documentation.
C++ is industry-standard for pretty much anything. That site (reportedly, I don't know C++ so I've never been there) has some helpful stuff.
libtcod is my library of choice. It's designed specifically for roguelikes; its functions deal primarily with rendering to the console, handling mouse & keyboard input, and pathfinding. Basically, it takes all the tricky-but-boring stuff about programming roguelikes and does it for you.
This is a brilliant tutorial for Python and libtcod; it's perfect for complete novices and Python pros alike. I can't believe I actually used that line.
libjcsi is supposedly similar to libtcod, but in Java.
And finally,
Oryx's Graphics Set and
Open Game Art are great resources for those in need of tilesets. Remember to give credit!
Can I work as part of a team?Absolutely!
Can I put in more than one entry?As long as they're separate pieces of code, sure.
What about assets- fonts, tilesets, music, etc.? Do I have to do those in the 72 hours, too?It depends. You can use stuff you've created outside the 72 hours as long as you make it available to everyone; no cheating! If you don't want to share, then you must make it inside the time frame.
Can I reuse code from previous projects?The traditional answer is "Everything must be typed within the time frame." However, I'll give a little leeway, since you only have three days. So, the official answer is that Everything Must Be Typed Within The Time Frame, and you're free to interpret that however you want.
Can I start early?I didn't expect nearly this much interest, which is why I posted a February contest in early January. So the answer is, sure! Follow the same guidelines, of course. If enough people start early, I'll probably put up a "January Honorable Mentions" section or something.
Are there prizes?No. There aren't awards, either- I won't be saying someone got first place, or whatever. On the other hand, I will be highlighting projects that I think handled something really well. Again, I won't be awarding myself any of those. If you'd like to help "judge," pop me a PM and we'll talk about it!
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Topic: The Bay12 72-Hour Roguelike Contest - February Theme: "The Director" (Read 16210 times)