CPCRetroDev 2020

[Norman]

I've been working hard on something.
Hopefully I can finish it!

Same here, working on something too, very much WIP at the moment. I've yet to draw animations, take care of music and sound and design the levels, but the gameplay is coming together, just missing enemy AI and fighting. Hope I'll be able to finish it in the five weeks left 

Cheers

[XeNoMoRPH]

[Gryzor]

I may be going a little blind... where are the entry rules?

[Norman]

Hm, I can't find any either. It just says here:

The rules of the competition will be published and announced in the next few days.

Apparently there are no rules, just make a game, submit it prior to the deadline and get bonus points for a Prince of Persia reference 

Cheers

[Gryzor]

Yeah but WHERE does one submit? Is there a form? What?

[XeNoMoRPH]

Yeah but WHERE does one submit? Is there a form? What?

The rules of the competition will be published and announced in the next few days,

that's what i read on the web

[reidrac]

So the rules will be available around one month of the deadline.

I'm getting anxious and I'm not even submitting a game!

[awergh]

Yeah I would have expected the rules to be out in August since they are usually pretty similar each year.
Instead we have got dribs and drabs of award categories without any concrete rules.

As the rules are usually pretty open its unlikely to affect the game I am making but it preferable to have some certainty.

[reidrac]

I got some second hand info. Looks like this situation is because the contest happens in the context of the University of Alicante, and being official, the rules must be approved by the Uni.

With all the covid situation, things have been complicated everywhere. So I guess it makes sense.

I'm sure the rules will be pretty much like the previous year, so there shouldn't be issues for people working on a game to be submitted :+1:

[XeNoMoRPH]

https://twitter.com/UtopiaRetroDev/status/1311784823892193280

[XeNoMoRPH]

https://twitter.com/UtopiaRetroDev/status/1313934219635294208

[Gryzor]

Cute cover though it reminds of Speccy!

[skylas]

My game in BASIC <STROOPIE!> announced for Cpcretrodev!

https://twitter.com/AmstradSakis

[CPCRetroDev]

Hello, guys!
We're very happy to see all the content you are posting 
The date is very close now, so give it your best!


By the way, I'm here to tell you another new...
Thanks to an anonymous patron, the winners of the PRO, Student and Special Mention categories will receive a free copy of the 2020 cassette!
See all this info in the contest website!

Looks like this situation is because the contest happens in the context of the University of Alicante, and being official, the rules must be approved by the Uni.
With all the covid situation, things have been complicated everywhere. So I guess it makes sense.

As Reidrac said, we will add the rules of the contest in the next few days. We apologize for this. 
In the meantime, use last year's rules as a reference, the basic parts will be similar.

[Norman]

That's great news.

In the meantime, use last year's rules as a reference, the basic parts will be similar.

Nice, it was about time for this, luckily I'm not making a 6128+ game or something 

I couldn't put together a teaser like previous posters, but here's a little attack animation as "proof" I'm working on something 

Cheers

[Gryzor]

Those are some lovely pixels there.

[krusty_benediction]

In the meantime, use last year's rules as a reference, the basic parts will be similar.

I've been looking at the rules of the last year, and found this paragraph:

Games must load into memory in a single pass. Several loads are valid before  the start of the game. Once the game starts, it must load nothing more (that is, no multi-load permitted). Therefore, only 64K of RAM will be available for any game during execution.

@CPCRetroDev I have well understood that it is possible to load and play an introduction, then the game that has to be completed without loading any further data. However, how would be considered an end screen. Does it take part of the game and should not be loaded ? Or does it  not count for the game and could be loader after ?

[ronaldo]

The rule against multi-load games has been in the rules of the contest since the first edition in 2013. Its intention is to set an equal base for all contenders, as well as to fix sizes of games so that producing them on a single cassette is viable. Also, as the contest is annual, memory limitation also puts all contenders in a space where best quality results are achievable from one contest to the next. This also prevents (not completely, but mostly) an uneven competition between games developed in 2-4 years time with games developed in 6-months time. A 6-months time game for a 64K target can achieve similar quality levels than a 2-4 years production. Therefore, people wanting to compete are not to be discouraged by superproductions, as it is always possible to find enjoyable and original ideas that can be done in N-months time and will be ready to compete.

In this sense, the best possible rule would be "fit everything in 64K". However, loading screens are traditional and presenting games in cassette without loading screens doesn't feel good. So we decided that loading screens should be permitted. Then, it is difficult to draw a line between types of loading screens without bothering authors too much. For instance, loading screens such as Dragon Attack's are really nice and valuable, but could be easily prevented with something like a "one loading screen maximum" rule. We have discussed using rules like this, and they are periodically considered for the same reasons as the rest of the 64K rule. However, at the moment, we feel it ok as it is by now.

However, the 64K rule is clear: once the game starts, no more loading is permitted. Any loading from that moment onwards is a violation of the rule, and leads directly to being disqualified. And, of course, we have many times being asked for permitting loaded ending screens. This represents a source of troubles. First, an ending screen outside your game (loaded) gives you more space for your game. That is contrary to the idea of limiting all contestats and requiring less development time to have a competitive game. But one could argue that same is applicable to extended loading screens. We agree, and that's the main reason why extended loading screens are constantly being discussed. However, the greatest source of troube is making exceptions to the "64K rule". Once you start with an exception, you give a new valid argument for making new exceptions. We don't want to go down that path. That path goes agains exposed principles of the contest in its present form. So, it is much more probable that we end up limiting extended loading screens, than we let contestants add a loaded ending screen.

Hope that this explanation helps understand our design decisions better.

Maybe, in the future, we could think of other categories and/or branches of the contest. Or, even better, may be other organizers will launch to create different contests with different conditions to better suit other developer interests. We are not against different ways of creating games for Amstrad: we are just fitting community, developer and educational requirements into CPCRetroDev the best we can, up to the limit of our abilities. As Amstrad users and fans, we would always love to see as many different developments and new games as possible.

[krusty_benediction]

Thanks @ronaldo ; the answer is crystal clear. If you can still edit the rules of this year, to add this sentence once the game starts, no more loading is permitted should disambiguate that.There is no reason to discuss that,we'll stick to this rule

[Skunkfish]

I've just found the source of the (unreleased) snake game I wrote 15 years ago (for Windows).

I'm SO tempted to have a go at porting it to the Amstrad for the competition, it won't be in danger of winning any prizes but it would be a nice personal accomplishment. How easy is it to get to grips with CPCTelera?

[Norman]

How easy is it to get to grips with CPCTelera?

Rather easy IMO. The documentation is quite extensive and the included examples are really helpful, though there isn't much tutorial-wise apart from "Prof. Ronaldos" Spanish youtube videos. The individual routines do what they're supposed to, no unpleasant surprises.
If you already know C or (Z80) assembly you should give it a try.

Cheers

[awergh]

I've just found the source of the (unreleased) snake game I wrote 15 years ago (for Windows).

I'm SO tempted to have a go at porting it to the Amstrad for the competition, it won't be in danger of winning any prizes but it would be a nice personal accomplishment. How easy is it to get to grips with CPCTelera?

I say go for it, the cpctelera examples directory has a bunch of simple examples of how to use various functionality as well as a full game example.
There are of course previous years entries source code but they might be a bit too big to learn from with short notice.

[Arnaud]

I've just found the source of the (unreleased) snake game I wrote 15 years ago (for Windows).

I'm SO tempted to have a go at porting it to the Amstrad for the competition, it won't be in danger of winning any prizes but it would be a nice personal accomplishment. How easy is it to get to grips with CPCTelera?

Of course try to port it, even you have no time to finish it for the competition, it will be nice to see your own game on CPC.
And if you know C language it's not very difficult to use CPCTelera and you'll find help in this forum.

[CPCRetroDev]

Hi everyone!


The submissions for the contest are open!!
You can submit your games from now until November 3rd 23:59h UTC+1 on http://cpcretrodev.byterealms.com/cpcretrodev-2020-2/


In addition, we have published the rules of the competition, check them out carefully.


At this time, there are 2015€ in prizes. Don't miss the chance to win something.
And if you haven't developed anything yet, give it a try by treating the contest as if it were a GameJam. Have fun unraveling the mysteries of this machine with cpctelera.

[XeNoMoRPH]

https://twitter.com/UtopiaRetroDev/status/1319944111542198273