DragonBox OpenSource Coding Competition - Rules (DRAFT!)

[EvilDragon]

DRAFT UPDATED (2012-12-17)


This is not the official announcement yet it's just a first draft of the rules I am planning.


Please let me know your ideas, etc.


Also, in case anyone wants to design logos or banners for it:


Let me know. The last one (Rebirth Compo) was awesome


Here is the draft:


DragonBox Coding Competition


---------------------------------------


Welcome to the DragonBox Coding competition - a competition for the OpenSource handhelds Pandora, GCW Zero, GPH Caanoo or GPH WIZ.


The competition will end on February 15th, 11:59pm, UST, so use the upcoming holidays to code, code and code


All entries will have to be uploaded to our FTP Server, packaged as ZIP-Archive or PND-File.


The entries should be included in a way that makes it as easily as possible for the user to play it (i.e., for the Pandora, create a PND, for the Caanoo, include the INI-Files, etc.)


We like to encourage OpenSource entries - but you can also participate if you don't want to release your sourcecode.


There are various categories each with its own prizes - you can enter as many entries you like in any of the categories.


The categories are:


* Application


This can be any application you think might be useful.


A browser, Mediaplayer, PDA, Calculator, etc.


It can be port or something completely new.


It can also be a something like a port of a full OS distribution, ready to be installed on one or more of the above mentioned handhelds.


* Emulator


This can be an improved version of an already existing emulator, a totally new emulator or a port of an existing emulator that didn't exist on any of the above mentioned handhelds yet.


* Original Game


A game written by yourself (or a small team), either new or an improved version or port of a game you have written already.


* Ported Game


A port of an already existing game that is either vastly improved from a previous port or didn't exist yet on any of the above mentioned handhelds.


Some of the rules and guidelines:


1. It's totally fine if your entry has already been released for the system before December 1st, 2012, as long as your competition entry will be an improved version.


2. You can do public beta tests, if you like and get feedback to improve your entry until the deadline.


3. There's no need to include an annoying splash screen, but the competition logo has to be somewhere in the entry (corner of the title screen, credits screen, etc.)


4. You have to include at least one compiled version that runs on one of the above mentioned handhelds. To make the game available to as many users as possible, it would be great if you could either release versions for as many systems as possible or release the sourcecode. In case you include your sourcecode and win a prize, you'll get a few bucks extra.


5. Selected members from the OpenSource Handheld gaming scene will be the judges for your entries.


Here are the prizes:


1. A 200 EUR voucher (250 EUR if the source is released) for www.dragonbox.de


2. A 100 EUR voucher (150 EUR if the source is released) for www.dragonbox.de


3. A 64GB SDHC Card (+ 50 EUR voucher if the source is released for www.dragonbox.de)


So with four categories, there'll be 4*200 EUR vouchers, 4*100 EUR vouchers and 4*64GB SDHC cards - that's quite some price.


Additionally, there will be community prize pots: Community members can throw in money into the different categories as well.


I'll let you know more about how to add money to these pots soon.


Happy coding!

 

[ekianjo]

How about a special "OPT team prize" on top of that, that would be from ED / Craig / OP team members to reward one project across all categories, with a 1Ghz as a prize ?


ANother thing - a 32gb nowadays costs almost nothing so it does not have much value as a prize. How about t-shirts instead, or something a little more unique than a 32gb card?

 

[Linux-SWAT]

-The vote points has to be clarified, because last time it was possible to put all three for the same entry, and only few people were aware of this.


-So a handheld-related program that runs on non-handheld is not allowed this time ?


-Only .zip are allowed, or also .bz2 and .gz ^^ ?


-If someone posts 5 entries in the same category, and all entry get 1 point, does this competitor scores 5 points ?


That's a lot of prizes. It sounds good for the OP community.

 

[graupelschauer]

As I said last time: I don't like deadlines. If we have competitions with a deadline we will always get a lot of unpolished/unfinished software at the end and most of it will not be developed any further. The idea of a constantly running competition with a winner every month or maybe less sounds far more promising to me but that would mean constant costs, too. What do you think?

 

[_wb_]

Why not allow PND submissions too? I would make it a rule that submissions for the Pandora should be as a PND and uploaded to the repo (with some tag in their title), that would make it significantly easier to try things out.


I would ask to include the source either in the submission itself, or on a robust external website like github or sourceforge. Just a link to some random personal website is not good enough in my opinion, because of high risk of link rot.


It's probably a good idea to not allow to give 3+2+1 points to the same entry.

 

[_wb_]

As I said last time: I don't like deadlines. If we have competitions with a deadline we will always get a lot of unpolished/unfinished software at the end and most of it will not be developed any further. The idea of a constantly running competition with a winner every month or maybe less sounds far more promising to me but that would mean constant costs, too. What do you think?

I don't think the deadline is a major problem, as long as the contest rules allow submitting improved versions of existing software. So the unpolished/unfinished stuff the previous contest produced can now be polished and submitted again.


The problem though is how to rate such submissions: do you give points for the entry as a whole, or for the improvement delta between the pre-contest version and the new one? If one entry is completely new and has a "greatness factor" of 50, and another entry already had a greatness factor of 30 and is now improved to 70, which one should win? 70 > 50 but (70-30) < 50, but it's not really clear to me which way of judging is the best.


Intuitively, I would say you need to consider the delta (otherwise a tiny improvement to, say, qemu would be enough to make it a winner each time), but on the other hand, that means we're giving an incentive to maximize the delta which means you better keep something hidden for a longer time (or not release updates) until it is good enough to win - which means less frequent updates. So perhaps we should not rate based on improvement delta but on total value, and add a rule saying that previous winners cannot win again.


Same thing with ports vs original software: for games these are separate categories so it's not a problem, but for applications they are mixed together. Should a port be judged on the total value, or should only the actual contribution from the submitter be counted? I feel like in this case it should clearly be the latter, but it is very hard to judge how difficult a port actually was and exactly how much work was put into optimizing it specifically for the platform (except of course interface changes, those are easy to spot).

 

[notaz]

If you allow Wiz and Caanoo, you could allow GP2X and maybe GP32 too. Although there are not many people who can test on those (I guess), it would still be cool if somebody released something for them, and you could maybe ask for videos so others can see if they want to vote for those.

 

[ptitSeb]

Why not allow PND submissions too? I would make it a rule that submissions for the Pandora should be as a PND and uploaded to the repo (with some tag in their title), that would make it significantly easier to try things out.

Maybe we can just "zip" the PND B) . I like the PND system, it is sometime hard to package something, but for the end-user, it's cool, and very Console-like experience. So I thing the competition should promote PND for the Pandora (of course, for OS distrib for example, PND may not work).

 

[Scntrblob]

Whilst I highly appreciate competitions (so, first of all: Thanks for organising and sponsoring one) a few remarks:

• I find the deadline to short. That's barely 2 months, 3 is more like the average here and imo a better choice for more polished entries.
  
• Invest more in advertising for community-donations. Maybe a paypal button somewhere on the board-frontpage
  
• Don't, just don't allow techdemos, alphas and such. In previous competitions it seemed to be enough to init opengles to make people vote for something...
  
• Force pnd for pandora. May sound evil, but it comes to the favour of the users
  

Apart from that: Thanks once more

 

[EvilDragon]

Thanks for your suggestions.


I WANT PNDs, just need to add that to the rules I guess.


I just wanted a zip with everything (readme, PND, binary, etc.) to have everything in one place.


Need to make that more clear.


About GP2X and GP32: Sure, I can add them, why not?


A video is a good idea, maybe even for all entries is a nice idea as well, I could help out here myself in case the original author doesn't have the time or equipment to do that.


I want more advertisement here, yes.


Do you really thing the deadline is too short? There's the full christmas holidays which gives time to code stuff.


I know some things take a while, but I alsol don't want to have a too long competition time. I always loved those 'code something cool within 24 hours"-compos

 

[pmprog]

Do you really thing the deadline is too short? There's the full christmas holidays which gives time to code stuff.

Christmas holidays tend to get bogged down in family gatherings and excessive eating and drinking.


However, the compo will be a good reason to boot my Pandora back up. I've not used it for an age

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Two months seems long enough. It's also some kind of OP trademark ^^.


I also remember that some more time were given during previous competition.

 

[WizardStan]

I do zero work over Christmas holiday. Even when I'm paid to, nothing gets done (don't tell my boss).

 

[_wb_]

Here's a contest banner - of course feel free to make something better, but it's a start...

 

[Scntrblob]

The christmas holidays are probably my most inactive time

 

[notaz]

Do you really thing the deadline is too short? There's the full christmas holidays which gives time to code stuff.

Christmas holidays tend to get bogged down in family gatherings and excessive eating and drinking.

Yeah, plus it's not a big deal in some places, mostly an extra weekend here that's loaded with things pmprog listed..

 

[LuSimon]

Here's a contest banner - of course feel free to make something better, but it's a start...

Great banner!


maybe I will make one.... maybe...

 

[Binky]

Nice banner, apart from the tiny pandora shoved into the right. Perhaps a pandora logo instead? or a dragon

 

[skeezix]

Maybe no Pandora at all, given gp32, gp2x, caanoo, wiz, gcw, etc are part of it


jeff

 

[erico]

What is the theme of this comp?