Competition 2010 (now official)

[Daedeloth]

Well, if I understand it right you can develop an idea you already had (who's checking anyway?)
And since you started on it after the start date (that's the 18th of January, right?) I don't see a problem.

I myself will probably do a small space trading game where players manage spaceships. I will probably use the engine from my current game Dolumar (http://www.dolumar.com/). True, that includes a fairly large javascript client, but I read we were allowed to use libraries or previously designed game components.

Please confirm

[JGadrow]

Confirmed. Libraries, scripts, etc. are all allowable and even encouraged as specified by the first post that Chris made when suggesting the contest. The issue is a little gray, but what we're really trying to avoid is someone who has a game play advantage. Having base systems implemented gives you no innate advantage to making your game fun, it just saves you implementation time.

So, yes, entries that have base systems will likely have an advantage over those who are coding from scratch. But such is life. The point of this contest is just to get something out there that is playable. If you write for this contest, you'll have some basic systems for the next time it rolls around.

Really, everyone who has a playable game by the end of this competition is a winner in my book.

[maclof]

10 days late of the start, but I may just join this with an old idea I had a year or so ago..

(http://community.bbgamezone.net/index.php/topic,1951.0.html - For reference, still got the designs )

[Daedeloth]

Oh, by the way, I am working on a framework to easily include browser based games in social networks. At the moment we support Facebook, OpenSocial (so Hyves, Netlog, Hi5, MySpace, ...), Bigpoint, Popmog and more to come.

Our system is completely based on open source technology (OpenID & OAuth) and is free to use.

We also have a payment gateway that supports all these networks.

If you are interested to launch your game in a social network without going trough the hazzle of writing implementations for every single one of them, send me a message and I'll help you set up the implementation.

[Retimer]

I just got a game together Jan 1st..

I'm not sure if it applies to this competition - not much information was provided but I figured I would throw it out there...

http://RetimeRPG.com

It's multiplayer, has achievements, top listings (and daily rewards based on them), unlockable features (player-base works together to unlock global features), etc.

Client is made in Flash
Server(s) made in java (policy server), and blitzmax(c/c++/asm wrap langauge)/mysql for storage

[Retimer]

Oh, by the way, I am working on a framework to easily include browser based games in social networks. At the moment we support Facebook, OpenSocial (so Hyves, Netlog, Hi5, MySpace, ...), Bigpoint, Popmog and more to come.

Our system is completely based on open source technology (OpenID & OAuth) and is free to use.

We also have a payment gateway that supports all these networks.

If you are interested to launch your game in a social network without going trough the hazzle of writing implementations for every single one of them, send me a message and I'll help you set up the implementation.

Yeah, I had to do this for facebook - their constantly changing api is a pain.

If you don't mind me asking, do you intend to support this with flash as well, or strictly php/javascript? Commercial/Free? Thanks

[Daedeloth]

Well, it doesn't really matter if it's flash or not. The login procedure is handled by OpenID, so you'll need to work in some language somehow. What you load in your html is actually none of my business, so you can do flash or whatever you like

I haven't thought the whole business plan over yet, but here is what I'm planning to do: the implementation is free for anyone to use, but if your game has paid content we ask you to use our payment gateway as well. There will be a small charge (3% of the netto sale value)  on every transaction. That should take care of the server costs.

At the moment we have 4 games in our list:
http://apps.facebook.com/dolumar (my game, Dolumar)
http://apps.facebook.com/agartha
http://apps.facebook.com/bulletstar
http://apps.facebook.com/routetodestiny (an old game of mine, relaunched yesterday )

To give you an idea of our system, Dolumar is available here:
http://apps.facebook.com/dolumar (Facebook)
http://en.netlog.com/go/explore/games/dolumar (Netlog)
http://en.bigpoint.com/games/dolumar/ (Bigpoint)
http://www.hyves.nl/gadgetgallery/610/Dolumar/ (Hyves)
--- (somewhere on Hi5, I really don't understand that network)
http://de.popmog.com/games/15-dolumar (Popmog, new games network)

and some smaller networks as well.

So, if you're interested in joining the network, let me know

[JGadrow]

I just got a game together Jan 1st..

This is prior to the start of the contest and has obviously been in development for quite some time. So, this game will not be considered for the contest. Sorry.

[Chris]

Tomorrow the competition ends (to simplify things you can interpret the exact end timeline according to your timezone).

Make sure to post your game www in http://community.bbgamezone.net/index.php/topic,2620.0.html topic (in the first topic about the game, not in the further progress posts, post it next/below your game name and post it in open text (http://xxxx.xxx) so we can easily copy paste it and give to judges).

[-fedexer-]

Well that's a shame that i missed this, maybe i will get a chance to have a go next year if it's re-run 

Good luck to all of the entrants, hope it goes well for you 

[jannesiera]

Well that's a shame that i missed this, maybe i will get a chance to have a go next year if it's re-run 

Good luck to all of the entrants, hope it goes well for you 

I think we should do a new contest as soon as Chris knows what game he wants to build  .

[Chris]

People who wanted to offer prizes for winners (specify to whom #1, #2, #3 place, all, etc) please post it here or PM me. Not terribly important since it is mostly fun competition, but if someone wants we won't stop him

So far there are these prizes:

I have some very under-used hosting I could chip in as a prize. It's shared hosting at Dreamhost so it's not blazing fast, but it'd work for a basic game or asset (img, css, js, swf, video) hosting (can't be used for personal backup, they watch for it and bitch).

Winner could have an FTP account to their own domain/subdomain for six months. Store up to 300G, use 1TB/month in bandwidth.

I recall someone with a toplist was offering some promotion but can not find where it was...

Murzim:
As for prizes, I will offer some to start with:

3 Months of Premium Membership to #1 in OMGSPIDER.com
2 Months of Premium Membership to #2 in OMGSPIDER.com
1 Month of Premium Membership to #3 in OMGSPIDER.com
News Support for the event

A game review + 10 admin rating for #1,#2,#3 in OnlineGamesGallery.com
News Support for the event

[jannesiera]

I welcome every participant to share their experience in a post for BBGameDesign, if you feel like it .

[Chris]

Banners/crests for winners and participans (you can hotlink).
http://banners.freeonlinerpg.org/bbgamezone/bbgzcompetition-2010-1.png
http://banners.freeonlinerpg.org/bbgamezone/bbgzcompetition-2010-2.png
http://banners.freeonlinerpg.org/bbgamezone/bbgzcompetition-2010-3.png
http://banners.freeonlinerpg.org/bbgamezone/bbgzcompetition-2010-finished.png

[Chris]

I welcome every participant to share their experience in a post for BBGameDesign, if you feel like it .

It's best to post such article on progress topic http://community.bbgamezone.net/index.php/topic,2620.0.html and mark it FOR BBGameDesign, this way jannesiera will be able to find them quickly and post on his site.

Note: BBGameDesign is a PR1 site and their links are without "no follow" attribute and it will appear for a while on their homepage surrounded by natural text. In short, it is a quite tasty meal from SEO perspective and each participant that think seriously about promoting their game should post such short article/experience containing link to their game.

[bbgames]

It looks like I was a little late to the party here, but I'd also like to publish some post-mortems or thoughts from other participants on Building Browsergames.

[Harkins]

Banners/crests for winners and participans (you can hotlink).
http://banners.freeonlinerpg.org/bbgamezone/bbgzcompetition-2010-1.png
http://banners.freeonlinerpg.org/bbgamezone/bbgzcompetition-2010-2.png
http://banners.freeonlinerpg.org/bbgamezone/bbgzcompetition-2010-3.png
http://banners.freeonlinerpg.org/bbgamezone/bbgzcompetition-2010-finished.png

Maybe there's a place for one more: http://push.cx/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/bbgzcompetition-2010-almost.png

[dbest]

Maybe there's a place for one more: http://push.cx/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/bbgzcompetition-2010-almost.png

I like this one and am using it.

[Chris]

LOL