A Coding Challenge

[mobeamer]

My previous post on "What's in Your Code Closet" got me thinking about this and I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts. How about running a 30 month program/competition/experiment. For those who are interested below are the details:

Choose a project and release it within 30 days.(end of Aug)
The competition starts Aug 1st where everyone has to reveal what they are working on.
Periodic updates will be given throughout August.
All projects must be browser based and game related
All participates must pledge to review and critic then post about all the projects released by the end of Sept.
If you have a personal blog, a few entries in it would be nice.

This seems to me to be a good way to encourage the completion of our "skeletons" while at the same time giving those more lazy of us (me) some incentive to get it done.

Thoughts? Takers?

I guess if we get too many entries we can divvy up the reviewing part.

[JGadrow]

Not a bad idea. I'm a bit too busy to actually participate right now, but I'd try and review people's code whenever I had a moment. Exposure to new thought processes can only help lead to further enlightenment.

[jannesiera]

I think it's a great idea! Not only for the participants, but also for others .

[Chris]

I'm in (a bit late, but couldn't visit the forum earlier, but I don't have the whole month anyway and I will start with a complete framework, so I might still make it ).

Game type: WildWest
Website: http://www.wildwestmmorpg.com
Code base: start with a complete framewok (login, register, security, sending messages, shoutboxes, installer, admin panel, moderator panel, logs) also some universal features not related to any specific game (draw colour bars, display notices & errors, timers handling). In short, everything except gameplay and layout (probably will add some smaller parts of code from other projects too).


Design doc (very incomplete):

WildWestMMORPG Design doc

Make a WildWest browser based game in a week.
---------------------------------------------

Plan:

Day 1:
* Primary goal: setup & customize the framework code, setup the server. Add list of players & gold mining feature. Must be playable by the end of the day, invite some players.
* Secondary goal: make a sand-like layout

Day 2:
* Primary goal: decide what the core features should be, make a design doc, add details to the shedule.
* Secondary goal: start working on core features, ideal if the core is 50% done by the end of the day.

Day 3-4:
* Make the game

Day 5-6:
* Testing & fixing unexpected problems.

Test layout: http://wildwestmmorpg.com/test/


Two questions:
1) What should be the core activity of the game? Gunfighting? Bunty hunting? Exploration? Gold mining? Please be realistic, I have only 3 days budget for the features.
2) Any idea how the layout should look like? Where to put the links/buttons?

You can also provide feedback via the game shoutbox.

[jannesiera]

Two questions:
1) What should be the core activity of the game? Gunfighting? Bunty hunting? Exploration? Gold mining? Please be realistic, I have only 3 days budget for the features.
2) Any idea how the layout should look like? Where to put the links/buttons?

1) I like bounty hunting the most  , but more like a "side-feature", so in combination with gunfighting etc. So for a smaller, easier, game: I would do something with the gold mining.
2) Since it will start as a small game, I would go for simplicity in the layout.

[saljutin]

interesting!
but I think the core of such type of game should be divided in some smaller cores. like user have skills for shooting, gold mining, exploring, maybe some other skill. so those skills should be the core.
bountyhunting is good and it should consist of 2 main skills ... like first u need to explore to find that guy and then kill him

[Zeggy]

Sounds interesting

I don't think I'll participate in this, maybe the next time. I'm interested to see the results!

[Chris]

WildWest progress

Day 2: Pretending to work (part 1)
Renamed attributes, copy pasted some adventure code from other projects. Added 1 line to the design doc (won't post it here to avoid embarrasment...)

Day 3: Pretending to work (part 2)
Copy paste some code from other project (the percentage of unique code is falling rapidly...), but this time changes some things. Also added a proper layout (and old one). New version online (in theory you can play it, not much excitment, but everything minimum needed is there). Adventures (1 event), Mining (1 action), Character advancement (no selection of anything) works.


You won't believe what cruelity to the game/code some are ready to do to meet the deadline

[Chris]

Day 4: Duels
Duels (PvP) and saloon.

Day 5: Final
Bug fixes, added trainable attributes, changed duel formula, copied gambling code from other project and adjusted for WildWest, the same goes for Mad doctor that increses players stats for money, copied clans (have I mentioned already how convenient it is when you can copy a whole system because you made it a few years ago? :-P).

You can see it here: http://www.wildwestmmorpg.com/

OK, the competition is over for me (barely managed befor the end of the month...). Is there anyone else hiding his goodies for the last minute or was I just competing vs the clock only?

So, waiting for the promised reviews now

[jannesiera]

Awsome!  It's great that you made this in so little time. And it could be a really great game if you would extend it more. Adding a more proffessional layout would be a good next step I think. And maybe adding a live chat.

Oh, btw, I suggest to make this the game of next month on the homepage of bbgz  . I think that would be suitable.

[JGadrow]

Well... there appear to be some issues, but for a game made in 5 days it's pretty good

When I train my first skill of a level, it increased ALL of my skills by 1 and the one I chose by 2.
Some minor typographical errors.
Ranking appears to not work properly
When I visited the doctor and tried to pay more than I had, the price still increased

[Chris]

Well... there appear to be some issues, but for a game made in 5 days it's pretty good

When I train my first skill of a level, it increased ALL of my skills by 1 and the one I chose by 2.
Some minor typographical errors.
Ranking appears to not work properly
When I visited the doctor and tried to pay more than I had, the price still increased

Ranking is based on experience*fame (it wasn't explained anywhere).
Levels & mad doc - these are display/refresh problems. If you look carefully you will notice that calculations are all right (when you level up you get +1 on all stats and you level up max 1 level per page refresh, so it might appears as if you getting it incorrect).
Spelling - ... yes, no point hiding it, there are tons of these