How About A Competition?


where did you get that from? There is a gp32 revival compo on at the moment. Also, I don't think this is about marketing but about community.
 
xnopasaranx said:
hmm... i don't like it. We don't even know when the pandora will be out. Shouldn't we rather keep the gp2x alive some more and bait people with pandoras as prices? That was my initial idea and I would like to stick with it.
seconded

if i had any advanced dev skillz i would be stoked about a compo like this. plus i still own a gp2x, so it would provide something to do while im waiting for the p&|a.
 
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Ah the basic one! Right... now I remember. Thought only the gp32 compo was going on at the moment.

Okay, who would want to organize a compo with me? I'd like to get some people for organisation and judging entries. Also I was trying to reach craigix about this but his pm box seems to be full :D

I'd like to get this started even if we cannot get craig to donate 3 pandoras. We might still be able to get donations for this.

So who'd like to be on the team?
 
So a GP2X competition with Pandora as price?

I do not have a GP2X, but I have had two of them and know how to code for them, perhaps I'll enter the competition. Now I need a good idea for a game
 
xnopasaranx said:
Well, obviously Craigix and the gang would have to either provide Pandoras as prices or another community funraiser would be needed. As far as I understood, the first 100 Pandoras were going to be given away to devs anyway so I guess they could spare three for a little competition. We would have to ask them what they actually think of the idea.
First 100?! I didn't even know we had 100 devs. Plus who's got £20000 to spare to finance that?
 
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yeah I should have phrased that differently. I am sure those first 100 won't be given away for free. Still they are reserved as far as I understand.
 
Well in that case maybe I should start coding a game slightly more difficult than breakout so I can get into those first 100 reserved.
 
I like the competition idea.

A little note on the first 100, or the 'first editions' if you like.

They are there for devs and also to find any faults quickly and correct them in the 3000 batch, some will be given away, others sold.

If you buy one of these you obviously get the unit in advance of normal customers but also would be expected to report back any faults or issues you find, if you find any faults of course you will get a 'real' pandora to replace it, devs will just be expected to, well, dev :)
 
xnopasaranx said:
hmm... i don't like it. We don't even know when the pandora will be out. Shouldn't we rather keep the gp2x alive some more and bait people with pandoras as prices? That was my initial idea and I would like to stick with it.

I'd like to be on the team for organisation of the compo. First we need a word from craig about the prices.
Just a word of caution: around the time the Zodiac came out, GuyFawkes and Craigix got accused (mostly unjustly - I'm fairly sure it wasn't intentional) of deliberately trying to steal GP32 devs by holding a competition for GP32 and GBA with the prize being a Zodiac. Whether intentional or not, it is a matter of fact that Yoyofr basically left the GP32 scene shortly afterwards, having just released OpenSnes9x and won the compo with it, to develop for the prize machine.

Now, the situation here is different. Crucially, the home of Pandora is here, just as the home of the GP2x is basically here (although GP32spain.com I believe still has a huge community too), so whereas in the Zodiac case, it was seen as stealing devs (if such a thing is possible) from the community, here they wouldn't be leaving the community, which might make it more acceptable.

Nevertheless, it's worth being careful - there are bound to be some who misinterpret the best of intentions in a darker light. This is of particular note on the GP32spain forums, where I'm not entirely certain how big Pandora is as yet (have they become the de facto home for it for the Spanish speaking world, or not yet?). Just a few thoughts.
 
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I was too thinking about a competition. But more likely one that will bring more attention to the Pandora. First off: I'm not a coder nor do I really have an idea what it does take to create a game by oneself, so feel free to ignore my post if it's quintessence is just bullshit.

Like every competition, it will be the most succsessful the more people are taking part. So I think it would be a good idea to not force the participants to start from zero and build up a whole game by themselves. I like the idea that they can build up on a basic gamestructure so they don't have to come up with everything. What I'm thinking about is kind of like a mapping-contest. For example: A competition for 3D games: The coder get a physical engine where alle the basic movements of characters and things 've yet been coded. In a first person shooter game, jumping, moving, using ladders, walls etc would be accessible to averyone and the participants could focus on their actual idea. I.e. they could focus on creating a storyline if they're doing a little adventure or modificate the physics to make a little racing game.

It wouldn't even be necessary to complete a whole game. If somebody wants to do a detective story, he can just create the first level/the first case. Later on he could use proposals from the community to do more levels.

Anyway, I just think it would be a very strong push up for the Pandora if it could very early from the start serve with 3D-homebrew. I think that would bring a lot of attention to the Pandora community and maybe coder that work out their homebrew for the PSP or the NDS would change the system.

I know my idea has massive holes in it but forgetting about the technical problems (simply because I've really no idea what is possible and what isn't) I think it's a great startup for a competition.

Finally, I hope you guys can even understand what I'm trying to say. It's been a while since I've last written something in english.
 
Talk of stealing devs is childish. Noone owns devs. They develop mostly out of interest/glory/?profit?.

If a dev has to be bribed by recieving a console for good work, than that's just great that someone would help the dev be able to develop for a prefered system. It's not like a condition of winning the Zodiac was for yoyofr's GP32 to be smashed. It was just that Zodiac was more interesting AND/OR glorifying AND/OR profitable to yoyofr.
 
okay... So Craig likes the idea. That's good. I need some more input by people who want to organize this competition though. I would like to get something going here and start to pull this off now.

I think I will make a new thread.

@tobriand: Advice taken. This is exactly why I think having the devs code for the gp2x is crucial. It's a statement to keep gp2x alive even after the release of the Pandora. I think I will state this in the compos description!

EDIT: @Craigix: I cannot send you PMs as you either turned them off or your inbox is full. I need to contact you about this though! Is there another way of doing this?
 
icurafu said:
Talk of stealing devs is childish. Noone owns devs. They develop mostly out of interest/glory/?profit?.

If a dev has to be bribed by recieving a console for good work, than that's just great that someone would help the dev be able to develop for a prefered system. It's not like a condition of winning the Zodiac was for yoyofr's GP32 to be smashed. It was just that Zodiac was more interesting AND/OR glorifying AND/OR profitable to yoyofr.
Agreed - as I mentioned, it's not exactly that easy to define what stealing a dev is in the first place; devs tend to develop for whatever they find interesting, everything aside.

However, just because it's childish to talk like that doesn't mean that at least some of the less sensible elements in the community won't. And we really don't want to create animosity between the GP2x owners and the Pandora ones (as and when the latter exist), especially considering that the two communities probably will benefit from eachother, at least somewhat - the Pandora obviously, and the GP2x through backports.

Not that I'm suggesting the competition idea is a bad one. Just that, if it's possible to find a solution that renders it beyond repute when it comes to accusations like this, if at all possible...
 
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craigix said:
A little note on the first 100, or the 'first editions' if you like.

They are there for devs and also to find any faults quickly and correct them in the 3000 batch, some will be given away, others sold.

If you buy one of these you obviously get the unit in advance of normal customers but also would be expected to report back any faults or issues you find, if you find any faults of course you will get a 'real' pandora to replace it, devs will just be expected to, well, dev :)
This is the first I have heard of this. Can you elaborate on how the (slightly less than) 100 devs will be chosen?
 
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I've changed my mind, competitions are born from desire to win, as quoth lord buddha, desire leads to suffering. The competition is held, everybody stops releasing anything until the compo releases everything and we'll suffer another 9 months to a year before anybody starts to release anything new and just when things are starting to come out we hold another compo and start the vicious feast or famine cycle all over again. I suspect the games may suffer from rushing to contest too.
 
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