Competition G: Graphically Primitive - now with RESULTS!

francoisvn

Games encompass a wide range of different aspects, including things like programming, art and audio. Art has a huge impact on how your game is perceived, but also takes up a huge amount of time and makes it more difficult to quickly iterate on game design. For this competition, you can only use text and basic graphical primitives in your game.

Primitives include: circles, rectangles and triangles for 2D games, or spheres, boxes, pyramids, and prisms for 3D. You can fill them or use their outlines, and all colours, textures and opacities are fair game, provided the primitives remain recognisable as themselves. No models that are made up of hundreds/thousands of primitives - that defeats the point!

Rules

• Competition starts on 1 March 2016.
  
• Deadline for entries is 31 March 2016, 23:59 (UTC+2).
  
• Use whichever language, tool or development system you are comfortable in.*
  
• Ask for help when you get stuck.
  
• Your game must follow the theme.
  
• Your game must contain all files needed for it to run and should not require other bulky systems to be downloaded or installed, exceptions are browser plugins like Flash and self-contained DLLs distributed with the game).
  
• Your final game entry must include a readme.txt that EXPLAINS THE CONTROLS, RULES and any other information you want to get across to your users. If you have web builds, make sure the page serves as a readme.txt!
  
• Competition is open to entry for South African citizens, current residents of South Africa and South African passport holders.
  
• You retain all copyright to your work.
  
• The use of copyrighted material will not be tolerated. Do not steal!
  
• All risk or liability in case of copyright infringement or other legal issue resides with the entrant, MGSA takes no responsibility for entered games.
  
• The organisers’ decision is final and no negotiation will be entered into.
  

Entering

To enter the competition, start a thread titled "[Comp G] NameOfYourGame" and post your design ideas and game releases there. As you release files, edit your first post to point to the most recent version available.

Other people will reply to your post with their feedback and ideas. Please do your best to take any and all feedback as positively as you can and use it to make your game better. Consider releasing your source code and/or original files, it helps us pinpoint problems that you might be having and benefits the community as a whole.

Advice

Try view the theme not as a limitation, but rather an opportunity to focus on game design and make something that’s fun, even though it only has circles, squares and triangles. If it’s fun like this, just imagine how much fun it might be if you add more interesting graphics after the compo... Remember: everyone is working with the same constraint.

Once you have something playable and are looking to make it look better, consider improving the aesthetic feel by making it drip with juice. If you’re more artistically inclined, considering looking at colour theory and visual communication aspects (UX anyone?) to try make the most use of the few graphics you have at your disposal. When you really focus on the fundamentals you might be amazed at what you can accomplish!

If you particularly feel like challenging yourself, consider using only graphical primitives and no text. This should only be attempted if you’re a sucker for challenges, and you’re free to drop this optional goal at any point if you attempt it. There is no direct reward for completing this goal, so consider it something to spark some extra creativity. Who needs words anyway?

Last word of advice: a month seems like a very long time, but it quickly goes by and life gets in the way. Try focus on getting your core gameplay playable early, and only adding more advanced features later.

Good luck to everyone and enjoy the competition!

* (Downloading and using Game Maker is recommended for beginners or if you've never prototyped a game before)

Gazza_N

A couple of extra things, just to clarify and preemptively answer some more questions:

• If you're looking for game hosting, we've had itch.io enthusiastically recommended to us by many community members. We'd appreciate if you could keep discussion of the game in your forum thread, but as far as hosting is concerned, itch will mean you're sorted for the comp and beyond. You're not obliged to use it (we're happy as long as we can download your game at the end), but it is awfully convenient.
  
• You'll note we've stated no constraints for audio. That's because there are none. Audio people, you know what you have to do. :D
  

Das Finallisten:
(Finallisted alphabetically)

Blast Miner - Manikin - BOOM
BradCraft - vintar - Link
Deeper Darker - konman - Leenk
Falcon9 - Kobusvdwalt9 - Lingk
Falling Sands Factory - critic- Fallink
The Great Train - Pomb - Lynk
Island Assault - garethf - Linc
It's Not the Nail - TheFuntastic - I got nothin'
Nocturne - team roguecode - LINK
Pinball Wars - jamotaylor - Plink
platformCaster - damousey - link
Primitive Space - skinklizzard - Skink
Quack - fengol - Zelda
roboBiome - Japes - kniL
Rolling Thunder - Pixel_Reaper - L.I.N.K.
Sector I.C.E. - quintond - L1NK
Terra - General_Rincewind - Lahink
_UNDERSCORE - SUGBOERIE - |_ | |\| |<
You Try Not to Think About It - dammit - L I, N K
ZAP! - stofStorm - LINK!

dammit

Yay. Twine game here I come...

Ramperkash

I'm assuming that the point is not to spend time on models and the like. For a 3D game I would guess that whatever primitives that Unity (or your editor of choice) can create for you with essentially no effort is fineas well? For Unity, these include boxes, spheres, capsules, planes, quads, and cylinders but no other prisms, and no pyramids either (as far as I know).

Gazza_N

Pretty much. It's not a requirement that you use every primitive listed there, just that your models don't stray beyond that minimum level of complexity. Also remember - they must be recognisable as primitives. Planes have to look like planes, etc.

Tuism

So... What, you shouldn't texture, say, a concrete floor as it'll look like a floor instead of a plane? And an ice cube shouldn't be an ice cube, it should be a cube?

So all levels of graphic representation should be *about* primitives and not look like something else?

Gazza_N

As stated in the OP, you can texture the primitives however you please. Take Minecraft as an example. The entire game is recognisably made of cubes, but those cubes are textured to represent different things. Instead of cubes, however, we're giving you a larger range of primitives which which to emulate that aesthetic. So a tree can be a cone with a leafy texture applied, and so forth.

garethf

Are there limits on libraries/plugins/asset store assets etc you can use? Besides the theme limit on graphical primatives?

francoisvn

Nope, you can drag and drop in all the plugins if that helps, the limit is just on the graphical primitives present in your game (wherever they come from)

dislekcia

Anyone have functioning examples of any Game.Dev Comp 16 entries they could upload for reference?

Fengol

Comp 16 Text [ Results ]

mikethetike

Are ribbons allowed?

francoisvn

@mikethetike: Sorry, I'm not quite sure what you're referring to. Can you please clarify what you mean by "ribbon", perhaps with a screenshot?

mikethetike

Like a single triangle strip

I want to use a windy road.

francoisvn

@mikethetike: well I'd say it depends on the scale. If that screenshot is exactly what you're doing it's probably fine, but I'm assuming the road will be much bigger/longer and be compromised of a lot more triangles. So in that case I'd say it goes against the spirit of the theme and shouldn't be allowed. Sorry!

mikethetike

Good thing I asked then :D

konman

Hi, Just want to check if Unity Lights, and other effects are deemed legit? Effects such as 2D Dynamic Lights and Shadows. Or applying light shaders to primitive sprites? SpriteLamp shader to add juice for example. Also trailrenderer?

Gazza_N

Bump maps are a texture effect and are therefore allowed provided they do not obfuscate the geometry, as are specular, emissive and cube maps (if you must). Majorly geometry-distorting texture effects such as displacement or parallax mapping are right out. Lights are allowed. Shadows are allowed. Trails are triangle strips as discussed above, sure, but they're allowed as a special effect if you keep 'em low-fi.

Rule of thumb: nothing is strictly limited other than the geometry itself, but try to focus less on getting AROUND the simplicity of the geometry, and more on making that simple geometry pop visually and work well in service to your game mechanics.

Gazza_N

Creative postprocessing is also encouraged. A perfect example: https://twitter.com/Chippitsaur/status/706170218960318464

Gazza_N

Alright lads and lasses, we're a week into the comp, I've taken inventory, and a list of all the entries that currently have threads (TEN SO FAR ZOMG) is now live in the second post of this thread. I'll update this list weekly, so if your game doesn't appear for some reason, shout. Loudly.

Here's also where I encourage all entrants to give each others' games a whirl and post whatever critique you can muster. And remember - if someone plays your game, it's only good manners to play theirs in turn.

We love the ideas we're seeing in these threads, and wish you all the best of luck!

farsicon

I was wondering if may be useful to define the metrics by which games are judged. A couple comes to mind like:

Gameplay (was it fun, interesting, unique)

Juice (in lieu of art, maybe something around player feedback - sounds, animation, screenshake etc)

Completeness (is it closer to a game than a prototype - not sure about this one but it is a nice target to aim at in terms of learning to reduce scope)

Even if not for this compo, maybe for the next one :)

francoisvn

@farsicon: thanks. We haven't finalised the guidelines for judges yet, and it probably won't happen in time for entrants to really benefit from being aware of them, but it might make sense to make them a bit more public for the next compo. For now, entrants should just focus on trying to make a "good" game ;) Feedback will be fairly tailored to each entry, so they won't miss out if they go off at a bit of a tangent.

quintond

Just a quick question ... although my whole game is using primitives at the moment, can my explosions and particle effects be non-primitives ... cos an explosion is so much cooler with a fireball?

francoisvn

@quintond: I think it's better if particle effects were also primitives, but fortunately an orange circle can look surprisingly like a fireball, especially if the color and size changes... :)

quintond

@francoisvn: Okay cool. I will change my particles.

Gazza_N

To further address the judging question - please remember that art can't be objectively metricated. Judging guidelines are in progress, and we'll certainly be looking for things like creative interpretation of the theme and general quality of execution, but the judging as a whole will be more organic than filling a matrix with numbers. We'll provide as concise feedback as we're able to, but no star ratings or percentile scores at the end, I'm afraid, unless you can come up with an SI unit for fun. :P

Besides, above all, the comps exist to challenge and educate through experience, so in keeping with that spirit we'd much prefer that people just try to make the best game that they can rather than trying to fulfil some checklist of "sure-win" criteria. Best practice is to make a game, make it as well as you can, learn as much as you can from the experience, and see what happens when you throw it at the judges. ;)

francoisvn

@Gazza_N put it much better than I did, but now I wonder what the SI unit for fun would be...

Gazza_N

It's called a Gaben. OBVIOUSLY. :P

Gazza_N

List updated for the week, also now with entrant names! Check out the second post and shout if I've forgotten you. We're up to fifteen comp threads, which is starting to severely tax my ability to write "link" in different ways.

roguecode

Wow, we're the only team? These seem like the perfect opportunity to link up with other people so more people get involved.

thefoofighter

I am residing in South Africa on a VISA, can I join in?

Gazza_N

Knock yerself out. The citizenship/residency thing would only really be an issue if we were giving away prize money. ;)

roguecode

Regarding post formatting, is it better to add new posts in our thread when we add new stuff, or edit the first post?

@thefoofighter, I don't speak for the people organizing this, but it is safe to assume you can definitely join.

Gazza_N

@roguecode: Both. Your first post is a bit like your entry's "home page", so it pays to keep your latest download links and latest screenshots/videos updated in there for easy access. More detailed update info and such can go into new posts as you go, to bump the thread and show everyone you're still active.

Boysano

Since game maker is for beginners maybe judge our games separately from the unity ones then

dammit

@Boysano - I think everyone is being judged on what they produce in terms of fun, rather than being thought of in terms of professional or beginner. The first game I ever made on Game Maker placed 2nd in a competition like this one, so there's no reason to have any separation. Also, many "professionals" on this forum prefer GM :)

Gazza_N

Indeed. A good game is a good game, regardless of tools used. A lot of professionals use GM to produce excellent commercial games (Vlambeer, anyone?), so you'll forgive us if we don't segregate based on that. ;)

Boysano

I don't want segregation I don't want GMS labelled as for beginners

roguecode

Boysano said:

I don't want segregation I don't want GMS labelled as for beginners

I think you've misunderstood what "* (Downloading and using Game Maker is recommended for beginners " means. It means that GM is a good tool to get started on. It doesn't say anything about it _only_ being for beginners.

RocketLeague is a great game for beginners because it is so easy to start using. But it also has an insanely high skill-cap, and people that have played for 1000+ hours are still able to improve their skills.

Boysano

No misunderstanding I know what it means but as a GMS user this constantly makes me feel alienated from the Unity focused click here at mgsa

Gazza_N

We recommend GM for beginners (and have done so in local comps since before Unity even existed) because it IS more approachable for first-timers than Unity or its equivalents. However, any implication that *only* beginners use GM is totally unintentional.

Straight talk: In these comps, we only care about the end product, not how you made it. It's our belief that there is no "right" tool - use whatever you want, however you want to, and make as good a game as you can. End of story.

roguecode

Boysano said:

No misunderstanding I know what it means but as a GMS user this constantly makes me feel alienated from the Unity focused click here at mgsa

At the Durban meetup 3/4 of the room was using Unreal. And as someone using Unity currently I sorta felt like I was being judged by the elitist Unreal crowd. Looking at you @quintond :P
But at the end of the day, fun isn't made by fancy engine features. So who gives a crap if you use QBasic or Unreal.

EDIT: My point here was that it can feel like people judge you for the software/engine you use, but in reality it is just that they may prefer something else and that naturally shows. That isn't a problem in the slightest.

Gazza_N

Boysano said:

No misunderstanding I know what it means but as a GMS user this constantly makes me feel alienated from the Unity focused click here at mgsa

@Boysano: GM is an excellent tool. More than any other software I am aware of, GM combines accessibility to people who've never written a single line of code through its drag 'n' drop option, while still providing them with plenty of room to make functional games and learn more advanced skills such as scripting and shaders. It also provides plenty of power and functionality to produce top-tier games for commercial or hobbyist release. That is why we recommend it to beginners, and that is why we will continue to recommend it to beginners without reservation. I'm sorry that some in the community see it as a kids' toy, but that is not an opinion that this comp's organisers share.

@ Everyone else: I've not personally seen it in any of the comp threads, but any "engine elitism" will not be tolerated. We're not here to measure technical prowess, people. We're here to make some games.

If anyone has any other issues regarding the comp rules, they're welcome to contact me or @francoisvn by DM.

quintond

roguecode said:

At the Durban meetup 3/4 of the room was using Unreal. And as someone using Unity currently I sorta felt like I was being judged by the elitist Unreal crowd. Looking at you @quintond :P

But at the end of the day, fun isn't made by fancy engine features. So who gives a crap if you use QBasic or Unreal.

Hell ... I am sorry if I made anyone feel like that. I do not rate Unreal as an elitist engine at all and I truly apologise if it came off like that.

I believe in using the right engine for the right job and I use Unreal because I know C++ and Unreal works for me. I know C# as well and I could switch over to Unity if I wanted to ... both engines are great and they work.

I am truly sorry if anyone was offended by anything that I said, it was never my intention to come off like that and I don't even remember saying anything that would give that impression. 8-{

Gazza_N

I think our stance is clear as far as the comp is concerned. If anyone would like to discuss all of this further, I'd request you do it in a new thread or via DM.

Onwards with the competition! o/

quintond

In light of everything, I would like to withdraw my entry. Thanks.

Elyaradine

...

Guys, what the hell.

"If you're new to games, check out GameMaker. It's really easy to prototype games in that!", if anything, is saying how awesome GameMaker is. I don't understand how that translates into "GameMaker is for noobs, Unity is for pros!" or "Recommending GM is alienating the GM users!" How is that even a possible interpretation? Unity wasn't even mentioned.

In the past few months, I've jammed games in Unity, RPG Maker, Twine, Tyrannobuilder, Ren'Py, probably some others I don't remember, and nobody's given me crap for using whatever game engine I've used, ever. Here at Free Lives we have a shrine dedicated to a fantastic writer-developer who makes all of his games in RPG Maker. I've been learning UE4 for the past couple of weeks because of doing an art test for a studio that uses UE4 exclusively, and seeing how many cool things UE4 does for me out-of-the-box when it comes to fx, particles, lighting.

I can understand throwing your toys out the cot because of something like religion, or politics, or feminism. I can maybe understand being super picky about a game engine because of pricing structures/licensing, or being nervous about dropping money on 10-20 licenses for a studio or some other long-term investment.

But what game engine you use in a game jam? I just don't get it.

Oh, and to decide not to enter a competition because of misinterpreting what someone else said? It's not as if the competition awards prizes or anything. But what you get for entering is guaranteed feedback by a relatively senior/experienced game developer, and I just don't get why being salty over something meaningless like what game engine one uses would trump getting rad feedback from someone who's relatively senior in the local game dev community. Heck, the biggest reason I'm doing the art test is because it guarantees me a couple of rounds of feedback from a super senior artist who specialises in vfx (which is a position that basically doesn't exist in SA afaik).

I can't believe how short-sighted some of you are behaving.

Tuism

I didn't follow this thread for a while... And errr...

What?

I didn't actually see anyone say anything negative or detractive towards any other. Game Maker is a good entry portal into making games. And that means NOTHING else. Vlambeer is fucking amazing and all their fucking amazing games are made in Game Maker. ALL OF THEM. Vlambeer are the gods of this small industry. They're not beginners. Julian and Mike is finishing off Phase Edge in GM. To ship. They're not beginners.

I didn't see anyone crap on Unreal, or Unity, or Cryengine, or any engine here. I didn't see any superiority complex.

This is among the most inclusive communities I've seen and I don't understand how that perception came about.

Make games. The engine is just the tool. Some people use pencils, some use pens, I can only use a clutch pencil. So what? Make art. Make games. Make stuff. Share them. We sure as hell don't care which engine who did what in.

(except mac compatibility. It's sucking that I can't play some of the stuff cos damn compatibility XD )

dammit

It's so interesting to see the concept of "cliques" come up here. I've had a number of conversations with people recently who *all* feel like they're not part of some or other clique. Like, apparently everyone has a group of people in mind that the believe excludes them. But, you know, it's probably just in your head. Knowing the MGSA community, you'd probably find if you invited yourself to hang out with them they'd be super happy to have you. Probably haven't invited you because they thought you were too cool for them or something :P

Life is strange.

Boysano

Sorry, my intention was not at all to make this a sour competition for anyone, but I'm glad we had a chance to talk about this. However silly my feelings are.

Upon reflection I could've private messaged the original poster and ask them to change it to say:
"Here is a list of resources and engine(s) and what they excel at..."

But honestly, I'm glad I didn't since it seems like there was some air that had to be cleared, and I now see that we are all very passionate about our tools and engines and would like more people to share this with us since yes this is about community. Also, this competition is a great community project and the way for us to break down "cliques" and help each other make better games!

I do hope that all who participated do re-enter this competition otherwise it will be a loss for all of us!

roguecode

A cool idea for a future jam could be to have the theme of "make anything, but use an engine or framework you have never touched before".