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#CPCRetroDev 2016 has started: Over 1000€ in prizes and special awards

Started by ronaldo, 22:16, 18 May 16

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ronaldo

At last, #CPCRetroDev is here again! #CPCRetroDev 2016 has started today! It is time to develop your greatest ideas because this year we want the contest to be a sound event on the full retro scene, not only within Amstrad CPC frontiers. Let's take Amstrad scene to the next level! It is time for Amstrad to recover it's real place in the world! :D

Okay, I admit it, I'm overexcited, but I've got great reasons. Check what we have prepared for this year's contest:

       
  • AWARDS ( 1.050 € )

            
    • Special awards

                 
      • 125 € – Gominolas to the best music
      • 125 € – Jon Ritman to technical development
      • 125 € – Dinamic to innovative playability
    • PRO Category

                 
      • 300 € – Best game
      • 150 € – Second best game
      •   75 € – Third best game
    • BASIC Category

                 
      • 100 € – Best BASIC game
      •   50 € – Second best BASIC game

       
  • DEADLINE: 26/October/2016, 23:59h (CEST timezone)
  • And, of course, there will also be a physical cassette edition with all 2016 games.
Yes, you guessed it right: César Astudillo (Gominolas), Jon Ritman and Víctor Ruíz will be part of the jury this year and will decide on games that deserve their personal seal of quality. Ever wanted your game to be played and evaluated possitively by a great programmer like Jon Ritman? This is your opportunity!

Please, do ensure that you carefully read contest official rules before submitting. Don't get too overexcited like me :D .

It's time for us, the Amstrad community, to show the world what we are capable of. Let's be part of it :D .

MacDeath

Let's make Amstrad great again...

;)

Can't wait for this year's prods.
Hope there will be at least as many as last year.

Also great to see John Ritman, the legendary creator of Head over Heels, one of the most refined production on CPC/8bit.

reidrac

@ronaldo:

"The jury reserves the right to correctly interpret these rules, and the ability to declare any award as undecided."
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

Trebmint

Would it be possible for the community to donate cash to the prize fund? The larger the fund the harder people will try to win surely?


I cant enter as I'm busy with symbos and life, but would like to contribute and perhaps encourage those that will. What do others think, would you be wiling to contribute & does Ronaldo agree?

Arnaud

Quote from: Trebmint on 09:49, 19 May 16
Would it be possible for the community to donate cash to the prize fund? The larger the fund the harder people will try to win surely?


I cant enter as I'm busy with symbos and life, but would like to contribute and perhaps encourage those that will. What do others think, would you be wiling to contribute & does Ronaldo agree?

I think you can buy the cassette of the previous CPCRetrovDev 2014 (soon CPCRetrovDev 2015 i guess)
   Buy #CPCRetroDev games on cassette tape

Or make donation to CPCTelera :
   CPCtelera Reference Manual - . .

Quote from: ronaldo on 22:16, 18 May 16
Yes, you guessed it right: César Astudillo (Gominolas), Jon Ritman and Víctor Ruíz will be part of the jury this year
You can be overexcited with such guests !  :o

ronaldo

@reidrac : thank you for the review. It is now fixed :)

@Trebmint: Thank you very much for your interest in collaborating :). I really appreciate all of you who collaborate in one way or another. This event grows thanks to all of you, really :). However, there is no way for us to receive donations for the contest by now. The only legal way would be to add you as sponsor, but that will also require some undersired burocracy :(.

This week we have finally achieved an agreement to sell the games directly from the University, without requiring third parties to help us for this task. However, the problem is that University mechanisms are quite inflexible. Casetes are now available and can be purchased, but only physically, in person. We are waiting for some more burocracy to end, to have a permanent online selling channel. Hope this takes only some weeks.

Next step will be to add the possibility of receiving donations. But this step will be difficult, because local laws require the University to do many things for institutional donations to be legal. So, this will be a uncertain way, and I cannot still even predict if it will be possible at some time. Sorry about that :(.

Axelay

Just quickly reading through the rules, a couple of questions come to mind:

First up "Each person can only be part of one game. "  Does this for example preclude a musician from contributing to more than one project? There arent that many CPC musicians and many of them are developers themselves, so I'd be concerned at not being able to get a musician if this is this case.


The second thing, although considering I havent decided on entering yet or not, it's getting a bit ahead of myself, but I have been using arnoldemu's bug fixed Toposoft tape loader since he made that available.  I dont know where that would stand with the licensing rules though?  I'd just drop it if it's an issue, but I do like flashy border loaders.

ronaldo

@Axelay : thank you for your questions. It's really nice to have great developers like you interested in the contest :).

   In fact, the rule is quite clear and prevents any author from participating in more than one game. There is a possibility, though: any musician can produce music or sound effects and license them to you (either directly or by publishing them with a free license). This will enable you to use the music/sound effects, but the musician will then appear as third party, and you will have to include the license in the submission. I don't think that's the kind of way to contribute a musician wants, but it's a way to participate in more than one project. It's more or less the same as considering me as contributor to all projects that use CPCtelera. In fact, I'm not an author of those projects, just a third party contributor, and I'd prefer to be an author :).

   With respect to tape loaders, there is no rule preventing you to use a tape loader. However, if the code from tape loader is not yours, you need a license. Take into account that we will be producing a real tape and selling it. Even considering that our project is non-profit, we cannot legally include a game that uses third party software without a proper license.

   On the other hand, be careful on using tape loaders: if your tape loader uses a higher baud rate, protection or compression, it could be perjudicial for the physical tape production. Many loaders yield to loading problems on machines, due to bad signal quality on recording (and this quality is highly dependant on our providers). If you like border colours on loading that's nice (I also do :)), but please, be careful with baud rates and compression.

reidrac

Quote from: ronaldo on 14:13, 19 May 16
In fact, the rule is quite clear and prevents any author from participating in more than one game. There is a possibility, though: any musician can produce music or sound effects and license them to you (either directly or by publishing them with a free license). This will enable you to use the music/sound effects, but the musician will then appear as third party, and you will have to include the license in the submission. I don't think that's the kind of way to contribute a musician wants, but it's a way to participate in more than one project. It's more or less the same as considering me as contributor to all projects that use CPCtelera. In fact, I'm not an author of those projects, just a third party contributor, and I'd prefer to be an author :).

I still don't know if I'll enter the contest or not, but one thing that got me a little bit confused last edition was actually regarding that point.

If the game can get score for the music and the graphics and those can be made and licensed by a 3rd party, there are 30 points from the general score that don't really depend on the contestant(s) but on finding people willing to allow them to use those assets.

There are two basic points in the rules:

- The game was never submitted to another contest and the game has never been published before.
- Any tool or language is permitted for programming (BASIC, C, ASM, libraries...) provided the authors have a license to publish the resulting game / source code.

That seems to refer to code and libraries, which is OK; but my point is that there are not explicit references to game assets like graphics or music, about what is acceptable what is not. Given that the jury "reserves the right to correctly interpret these rules" and their decision is final, I'm not sure it is a fair rule as it depends on the jury really.

I know that the rules have been published already and it may be too late to provide feedback, but there you are. My two cents!
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

AMSDOS

* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

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AMSDOS


Quote from: reidrac on 15:02, 19 May 16


- Any tool or language is permitted for programming (BASIC, C, ASM, libraries...) provided the authors have a license to publish the resulting game / source code.


I was wondering what that meant.
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

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Bryce


fgbrain

Great news as always, but:  64KB only and no multiload is not cool nowadays where most sceners have 512KB CPCs...Plus machines also will never see proper games..

But dont get me wrong, it's a start..
_____

6128 (UK keyboard, Crtc type 0/2), 6128+ (UK keyboard), 3.5" and 5.25" drives, Reset switch and Digiblaster (selfmade), Inicron Romram box, Bryce Megaflash, SVideo & PS/2 mouse, , Magnum Lightgun, X-MEM, X4 Board, C4CPC, Multiface2 X4, RTC X4 and Gotek USB Floppy emulator.

AMSDOS

Quote from: fgbrain on 17:13, 20 May 16
where most sceners have 512KB CPCs.

Not here I don't have 512 and it's unlikely to ever happen given the modifications to the expansion port.  :(
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

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mr_lou

Sadly I won't have any time to join this year, but will repeat my comment from last time I participated.

The rules state that the game must run on an unexpanded CPC464. I was puzzled that "expansion" included a joystick Y-cable (to connect 2 joysticks). That's not an expansion in my book.

Then it should probably read "Standard CPC464 without expansions and accessories".

I also find a lack of coherrence between "let's make Amstrad great again" and "let's stick to 64k and not allow multiloading".
It's either "Let's make Amstrad great again and create some awesome 128k+ multiload multiplayer games"
or else "Let's relive the good old days of game-development by creating some games within the lowest denominator".

When you have "Pro" and "BASIC" category, you might as well add an "Extended pro" category that allows expansions and accesories and multiload and network and whatever you can imagine.

My two cents.

Wish I had the time to participate this year too, but I'm just way overbooked as it is.  :(

EgoTrip

Quote from: mr_lou on 06:17, 21 May 16
Sadly I won't have any time to join this year, but will repeat my comment from last time I participated.

The rules state that the game must run on an unexpanded CPC464. I was puzzled that "expansion" included a joystick Y-cable (to connect 2 joysticks). That's not an expansion in my book.

Then it should probably read "Standard CPC464 without expansions and accessories".

I also find a lack of coherrence between "let's make Amstrad great again" and "let's stick to 64k and not allow multiloading".
It's either "Let's make Amstrad great again and create some awesome 128k+ multiload multiplayer games"
or else "Let's relive the good old days of game-development by creating some games within the lowest denominator".

When you have "Pro" and "BASIC" category, you might as well add an "Extended pro" category that allows expansions and accesories and multiload and network and whatever you can imagine.

My two cents.

Wish I had the time to participate this year too, but I'm just way overbooked as it is.  :(

I think as already has been stated, its because a tape of the entries is produced. It would be unfeasible to have multi-load games on it. Also it maximises the audience having it run on the smallest machine.. It also increases the challenge. Also a lot of the entrants are students who are learning to program a limited machine. Not necessarily sceners. It would kind of defeat the purpose of the exercise if limitations were relaxed.

At the end of the day be grateful this opportunity exists, with good prizes. There is really no unfairness or need to complain about having a format everyone can access. Nothing is stopping people producing games for expanded machines outside of the contest.

There is one thing though. I think maybe every entrant should receive a copy of the tape.

mr_lou

Quote from: EgoTrip on 08:30, 21 May 16
I think as already has been stated, its because a tape of the entries is produced. It would be unfeasible to have multi-load games on it. Also it maximises the audience having it run on the smallest machine.. It also increases the challenge. Also a lot of the entrants are students who are learning to program a limited machine. Not necessarily sceners. It would kind of defeat the purpose of the exercise if limitations were relaxed.

I know very well the arguments for this ancient debate. They are the same every time the topic comes up - and is has come up many many times.

Quote from: EgoTrip on 08:30, 21 May 16At the end of the day be grateful this opportunity exists, with good prizes. There is really no unfairness or need to complain about having a format everyone can access. Nothing is stopping people producing games for expanded machines outside of the contest.

I am in no way ungrateful. Didn't say there was unfairness, and I'm not complaining in any way. I am merely giving feedback.

We know very well that a contest like this boosts production.
All I'm saying is, it wouldn't hurt to have an extra category.
No one says all categories has to end up on the tape. Could easily say: "Extended Pro category entries will (obviously) not be included on the tape".

reidrac

Quote from: mr_lou on 08:40, 21 May 16
We know very well that a contest like this boosts production.
All I'm saying is, it wouldn't hurt to have an extra category.
No one says all categories has to end up on the tape. Could easily say: "Extended Pro category entries will (obviously) not be included on the tape".

A few games get released out of contest and they're not targeting the plus or extensions (apparently, I may be wrong). Why is that?

My point is that you don't need CPCRetroDev to make a game and release it for any spec you want. I only have a 464, and that's what I prefer to develop for; but others could target other machines (and I would enjoy them on an emulator).

Yes, a game contest is an extra on motivation, but the limits CPCRetroDev imposes make sense (as the organizers have explained several times). If anyone wants multiload, 128K or plus features, just do it!
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

mr_lou

Quote from: reidrac on 09:00, 21 May 16A few games get released out of contest and they're not targeting the plus or extensions (apparently, I may be wrong).

And that's why it's about time.  ;)

TotO

Quote from: reidrac on 09:00, 21 May 16I only have a 464, and that's what I prefer to develop for; but others could target other machines (and I would enjoy them on an emulator).
Your 464 can be expanded since 80s. So, you can expect to use 128K games on your nice computer too.  :)

Quote from: reidrac on 09:00, 21 May 16Yes, a game contest is an extra on motivation, but the limits CPCRetroDev imposes make sense (as the organizers have explained several times). If anyone wants multiload, 128K or plus features, just do it!
Exactly! And, I think that like movies festivals they should be "out of category" instead.
"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

reidrac

Quote from: TotO on 09:11, 21 May 16
Your 464 can be expanded since 80s. So, you can expect to use 128K games on your nice computer too.  :)
Exactly! And, I think that like movies festivals they should be "out of category" instead.

Yep, even you recommended me to buy a 6128 instead ;)

Well gentlemen, nobody has exclusivity on game contests. Anybody, given the time and the motivation, can organise a game programming contest. It could be targeting the GX4000, or the Plus; you set the rules, and see what happens.

Of course some people will go with CPCRetroDev, but if there are enough people interested to make those games and they only need a contest, then do it!
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

TotO

Quote from: reidrac on 09:17, 21 May 16
Yep, even you recommended me to buy a 6128 instead ;)
Is that could allow to discover it. It is better than using emulators.  ;D

"You make one mistake in your life and the internet will never let you live it down" (Keith Goodyer)

AMSDOS

Quote from: mr_lou on 06:17, 21 May 16
Sadly I won't have any time to join this year, but will repeat my comment from last time I participated.

The rules state that the game must run on an unexpanded CPC464. I was puzzled that "expansion" included a joystick Y-cable (to connect 2 joysticks). That's not an expansion in my book.

Then it should probably read "Standard CPC464 without expansions and accessories".

I also find a lack of coherrence between "let's make Amstrad great again" and "let's stick to 64k and not allow multiloading".
It's either "Let's make Amstrad great again and create some awesome 128k+ multiload multiplayer games"
or else "Let's relive the good old days of game-development by creating some games within the lowest denominator".

When you have "Pro" and "BASIC" category, you might as well add an "Extended pro" category that allows expansions and accesories and multiload and network and whatever you can imagine.

My two cents.

Wish I had the time to participate this year too, but I'm just way overbooked as it is.  :(


Also if I'm reading this correctly, they have opened the door by saying "Any tool or language is permitted for programming", so extra points for writing a game in another Language? Or is it simply more points in Technical Achievement?
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

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Morn

Heise.de is reporting about this competition today: Retro Computing: Programmierwettbewerb für den CPC 464 | heise online

I'm getting all my current CPC news from Heise from now on.  :D

AMSDOS

Quote from: Morn on 12:19, 21 May 16
Heise.de is reporting about this competition today: Retro Computing: Programmierwettbewerb für den CPC 464 | heise online

I'm getting all my current CPC news from Heise from now on.  :D


:laugh:  That's so funny, "Lets make the CPC Great Again", but it must be 64k, no multiloads, oh and it has to be written in BASIC 1.0. Hint: next year's slogan should say "PLOT -2,-2,1 Rulez"  ;D
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

Home Computing Weekly Programs
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Your Computer Programs
Updated Other Program Links on Profile Page (Update April 16/15 phew!)
Programs for Turbo Pascal 3

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