Have you ever thought that your graphing calculator was underpowered for its price? Maybe sometimes you felt that its limited speed and screen resolution were a bottleneck during your programming sessions and that you wished you had more room to develop games.
But what if your screen resolution was actually even worse? What if it was... let's say... 4x3, 3x4 or 3x3 pixels large? What if 12 pixels (or 9) was all that you got to work with?
This is why today we are officially launching our first mini-contest: The CW 4x3 Challenge!Description
Basically, you have to create a video game that runs at a resolution of 4x3, 3x4 or 3x3 pixels. You can simulate it via scaling if the platform doesn't support such low resolution, but as long as the entire game looks like a 4x3, 3x4 or 3x3 game you are fine. 3x3 is accepted too since some people might not need an HUD bar (eg to show energy and lives) but since there will be bonus points awarded on how much screen percentage the game fills, using 4x3 or 3x4 is recommended.
The goal of this contest is not to showcase your programming skills in particular, but rather to show what kind of game you can create under such extreme limitations. In other words, be creative!
Who is allowed to participate?
-People who have a CodeWalrus forum account, except the 4 staff members.
What platforms are eligible?
-TI-73, 81, TI-82/+/Stats, TI-83/+/Premium CE, TI-84+/SE/CSE/CE
-TI-85, TI-86, TI-89
-TI-Nspire Clickpad/Touchpad/CX (as long as it can run on non-CAS models with OS 3.1 or 3.6)
-Casio FX-7000G, 9750GII, 9860G, fx-CG10/20 or CP400
-HP 39gII and HP Prime
-Windows (as long as it can run on Windows 7)
-Android
-Web browsers (as long as it runs in the latest stable release of Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari or IE)
-We also accept NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, GBC and GBA homebrews (in ROM format).
Which programming languages are eligible?
Everything. But keep in mind that all entries compete against each others regardless of the platform and language, so FX-7000G BASIC might not be the best idea.
What are the contest rules?
-The game must only
use a 4x3, 3x4 or 3x3 blocks area. It doesn't have to fill the entire screen (or whatever is useable by the language), you get more points if it does. We will tolerate the drawing of each block using multiple commands (eg the Line() command), but if you do that then you must use the same sub-routine for every block and it must not erase other blocks. Do not emulate the gaps between pixels:
-The deadline is
May 31st 2015, 11:59 PM, GMT. All entries will be made public afterward.
-The
source code must be provided if it's not already viewable by default in the binary.
-You cannot use other people's code, same for pre-made engines (eg Game Maker).
-A
readme explaining the game controls and what is needed to run and compile it must be included with your entry in
.txt format.
-You must create a
topic showcasing your entry (description, screenshots, progress) on the CodeWalrus forums at
http://codewalr.us/index.php?board=34-
Participants cannot release code or binaries of their entry before judging and voting begins.-Judging will be performed by me. More judges might be added later, depending of if they own all the electronic platforms we got entries for. Once judging and voting are done, the scores will be converted then merged together to design the winner.
-You will be asked a working e-mail address if you win, so that we can send you your prize.
-Grading will be done as follows:
Quote from: Grading*(20 pts) Originality: Is it just another tic-tac-toe clone that looks exactly like the 100 other ones in ticalc.org archives?
*(20 pts) Creativity: How you managed to cram a game into 4x3, 3x4 or 3x3 resolution? Was your game choice reasonable (eg not Tetris)?
*(15 pts) Gameplay: How well does the game play? Are controls well-chosen? Is it too slow to be playable?
*(15 pts) Fun: Is the game fun? Would you play it again in the future?
*(10 pts) Graphics: How well the game is shown under such extreme limitation? Can we distinguish what is what for that type of game?
*(10 pts) Full screen: How much percentage of the screen (or whatever the language can use) can the game fill?
*(10 pts) Size, speed, installing & bugs: Is the game file size reasonable for what it offers? Is it too slow? Is installation easy? is the game bug-ridden?
Prize
The winner will receive a $30 (USD) gift card for Steam, iTunes or Amazon, depending of what he chooses and what is available in his country.
Where to submit your entryZip up the sources and binaries, even if it's a webpage, and send it to the following address:
c o n t e s t @ c o d e w a l r . u s
So what are you waiting for? If you feel you are up to the challenge and want to make the TI-80 look HD, then start coding now!
UPDATE (June 15th 2015): The final results are out! http://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=546.0
