Lynx 2020 Programming Competition

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

Really lovely entries everyone! I genuinely liked each and every entry. Congratulations and thanks for adding games to the Lynx's library. ?

In the end it would of course have been nice with more entries since the prices are so fantastic (look who's talking), but in the end I think contrary to what one would think, ending the contest in summer is perhaps not the best time of the year for many. (I knew I wasn't going to make it, so i didn't want to register in the competition without being able to commit). It was probably also a little bit special last year since it was the 30th birthday of the Lynx.

Anyway, really enjoyable games everyone, and thanks Igor for arranging a competition with great prices!

For how long can you rate the games @Igor? I still have a couple of ones I need to play more to be able to rate.

Edited August 19, 2020 by Turbo Laser Lynx

[Igor]

Voting ends in 26 days 3 hours 44 minutes 39 seconds

It's on the itch.io page for the competition - https://itch.io/jam/lynx2020

 

I can see a huge increase in ratings since I wrote the article, which is great! I've still not submitted my ratings either.

 

What would be the ideal 3 or 4 month period for a competition to be held in? I thought with the summer break that would be the best time...especially in lock down conditions?

[Nop90]

I tought that with lockdown I could be alle to code 3 full games, but in reality I spent a lot of days making online meetings the whole day, and got depressed for being always at home without my martial art training.

 

So  was not motivated to turn on the pc to code. When in june in Italy the lockdown was relaxed had to care my 3 kids, that wanted to recover all the time lost at home, than no free time after work and family.

 

So could code a little more only from july.

 

It was a strange period. Big companies now want to mantain remote working to save facilities cost, but I think in the long period this will be a bad dacidion (not only for my homebrew production rate ?). People needs phisical interaction. Nothing is worth like an handshake in business.

[+karri]

1 hour ago, Igor said:

What would be the ideal 3 or 4 month period for a competition to be held in? I thought with the summer break that would be the best time...especially in lock down conditions?

The autumn is ok. But I probably start coding something for Silly Ventures 2020. So that time slot is taken.

 

In spring I am busy with rehearsals - they start around March and get worse all the way until end of June. At this time I am busy every day. July is the time for the show. There is 3 days per week without performances that could be used for coding (and sailing).

 

[No One You Know]

I registered with my friend on the competition and never even got around to doing anything. We have no Lynx experience, not really experience with anything but planned on giving it a go, only a little 6502 knowledge. Tonnes of free time but awful time management and no gumption. We were going to start learning first and then think of game ideas but I have only just now really thought of something properly that could have fit with the theme. If we did get going it probably would have taken much longer than we would have anticipated. Will there be any more competitions like this in the future? Last year's was for the anniversary, this year's for lockdown I think. Of course you don't need a competition to write software but it is more encouraging.

I might vote though and get my friend to too.

Edited August 19, 2020 by No One You Know

[+karri]

Just now, No One You Know said:

I have only just now really thought of something properly that could have fit with the theme.

Fitting the theme was a big problem for me as well. First I was wasting a few months on creating a DJ music sequencer. After that I got inspired to create a boss-fight game like Cuphead. Then I read the instructions and found out that I need to follow a theme...

 

But anyway I hope there will be more competitions, retro-events, demos etc. in the future. Usually there is no theme. You just do something to show off and have fun.

[No One You Know]

1 minute ago, karri said:

Fitting the theme was a big problem for me as well. First I was wasting a few months on creating a DJ music sequencer. After that I got inspired to create a boss-fight game like Cuphead. Then I read the instructions and found out that I need to follow a theme...

 

But anyway I hope there will be more competitions, retro-events, demos etc. in the future. Usually there is no theme. You just do something to show off and have fun.

I'm hoping there will be. I really need to start getting stuff done (I feel like I have been saying that for years). of course part of the problem is keeping interest in one thing consistently for a proper length of time. Oh yeah I saw you talking about the DJ program in this thread (or on itch) early on and it prompted me to ask the host on itch.io if we actually really needed to follow the theme because no one seemed to have brought that up to you with your program that as far as I could tell was not future themed. I was just told of course that you had to follow the theme. But i didn't see that for about a month anyway because it went onto another page, something I wasn't expecting and didn't realize for a while because there were only about 3 posts prior.

[Fadest]

15 minutes ago, No One You Know said:

Will there be any more competitions like this in the future? Last year's was for the anniversary, this year's for lockdown I think.

Igor said last year there would a competition this year. So I guess it has nothing to do with lockdown.

 

Of course, there was a theme, but I'm not sure it was really important if you are in the contest for fun, and it is quite easy to fit the theme.

I mean, a DJ program to play music live on Lynx was something futuristic back in 1990...

 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Fadest

[No One You Know]

22 minutes ago, Fadest said:

Igor said last year there would a competition this year. So I guess it has nothing to do with lockdown.

 

Of course, there was a theme, but I'm not sure it was really important if you are in the contest for fun, and it is quite easy to fit the theme.

I mean, a DJ program to play music live on Lynx was something futuristic back in 1990...

 

I suppose that is a good point. I suppose you just give a futuristic setting to whatever kind of game/whatever you were making. I suppose the things I think about have past settings . I suppose 2000 was the future from 1990. Like incoming from 1999 is set in 2009.

[LordKraken]

Or you can just give a non-mandatory theme that gives you extra points if you follow it

 

Now I have to say that I'm one of the 23 who registered but didnt submit anything. I have a game though but didnt't feel it was good enough to show...

 

My wishes for the next time:

- less is more: while 4 months sounds like a lot of time, what happens is that many participants wait until the last moment thinking there is enough time anyway... also there is a risk that the community forgets about it... which brings me to my second point

- while itch sounded like a great idea, it made the contest quite anonymous and apart for a bunch of messages here on AA in the last 2 or 3 weeks, there was very little buzz, if any, amongst the developers...

- dont end the contest on a friday... give us this last week end of crunch

 

Still, I want to thanks Igor and all the organisators for creating the contest. I had a lot of fun (all alone ^^) and while i feel a bit bad I didnt submit anything, im amazed by the games submitted. Here again, sometimes, less is more

 

[+karri]

33 minutes ago, LordKraken said:

Or you can just give a non-mandatory theme that gives you extra points if you follow it

 

Now I have to say that I'm one of the 23 who registered but didnt submit anything. I have a game though but didnt't feel it was good enough to show...

 

My wishes for the next time:

- less is more: while 4 months sounds like a lot of time, what happens is that many participants wait until the last moment thinking there is enough time anyway... also there is a risk that the community forgets about it... which brings me to my second point

- while itch sounded like a great idea, it made the contest quite anonymous and apart for a bunch of messages here on AA in the last 2 or 3 weeks, there was very little buzz, if any, amongst the developers...

- dont end the contest on a friday... give us this last week end of crunch

 

Still, I want to thanks Igor and all the organisators for creating the contest. I had a lot of fun (all alone ^^) and while i feel a bit bad I didnt submit anything, im amazed by the games submitted. Here again, sometimes, less is more

 

Yep. Two months. And Don't End It On A Friday! Any day of the week - except Friday. The contest could end at midnight, local time!

Igor is best!

Thanks for running these events and AtariGamer!

[Igor]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Duly noted that it will not end on a Friday next time. I must admit that it was my fault for not creating as much buzz around this year's competition as I did last year but with all the house renovations and a baby on the way I just didn't have the time/energy for it. @SainT and I have discussed about making this an annual event and I plan to continue hosting it in the future.

 

Two months is a great idea, I may shift it to August/September. Finishing in a local time zone is not really doable with itch, but I can pick an ending time that works for everyone (maybe a Monday morning Australia time to give you all in Europe till end of Sunday to submit). Of course I don't want to leave too little time between this competition and SillyVenture.

 

I'll still hold the next one on itch, but I'll not make it anonymous like this time, this is a setting I can control.

 

In terms of the theme, 'Future' was quite flexible and open ended. Future (ehehe) events will continue to have loose themes like that too, even if it's purpose is to set the mood of the competition artwork.

 

I hope with @Albert's focus on publishing Lynx games that this will become a launching ground for many great homebrews and it will be an Atari Gamer/RetroHQ/AtariAge event going forward.

[+karri]

5 hours ago, Igor said:

I hope with @Albert's focus on publishing Lynx games that this will become a launching ground for many great homebrews and it will be an Atari Gamer/RetroHQ/AtariAge event going forward.

I have been dreaming about some kind of hi-quality on-the-demand label printer. @KevinMos3 has created absolutely adorable labels in recent years like this:

 

My games are mainly loose. Either in small plastic boxes in an briefcase or in a small Lynx folder with place for a few dozen games.

I have multicarts but when I want to run some specific game I still open up my briefcase and reach for the real cart.

So I could well get loose carts with quality labels. These labels make a difference.

 

Would this be a way to publish minigames?

 

A small envelope with a cart weighs just 18g. If the cost of the cart (excluding postage) is €22 or lower then you don't have to pay customs in Finland. This makes a big difference as you don't have to spend time with paperwork or pay taxes.

 

I also love the artwork that Carl's brother has been creating. All these new Songbird boxes are pieces of art. They also take very little space unfolded. So perhaps you could order boxes unfolded in the same way and get them as letters?

 

Just some thoughts I have about the large number of minigames coming out annually. I would rather keep the money inside the retro-enthusiasts circle and not waste it on taxes and mail.

 

PS. I did not finish Titan in time as the end was on Friday in the middle of the day. So I have decided to add the bomb dropping hawk section and the final boss before allowing people to burn the game on carts. There may also be some extra nasty giant fish in the water areas - who knows. This should make the game less repetitive. The last 50% of the current Titan entry will be replaced by new content as it is boring.

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

19 hours ago, Igor said:

I thought with the summer break that would be the best time...especially in lock down conditions?

Sorry @Igor, I didn't really clarify clearly enough. Anyway it's just a theory, but I think that people always think they will have the time for a lot of projects in the summer time, but in reality when you finally have a few weeks off the grind, a lot of the time is spent recuperating and with family and friends. And thanks again for arranging these fun contests.

I agree with you guys that two months probably is enough, we've seen most people scramble things together in the last weeks before deadline. Maybe a couple of weeks extra for the brain to react "I wanna join too", to think of a game idea and to spread the word of the competition.

@karri thanks for always thinking of ways to do physical releases better! I think a physical release is a dream for many (although there seems to be quite a few that are happy with doing the software only too).

 

15 hours ago, No One You Know said:

of course part of the problem is keeping interest in one thing consistently for a proper length of time.

This is my biggest issue, I spend a lot of energy being excited and jumping between different "retro"-systems and try to learn about game development for them. Also between music, drawing and game development. Social media adds to this issue, an infinite stream of new things and a trillion new retro games. Also it kind of devalues the fun (but also hard) work of people, since most people now has got a maximum 5min attention span and time for everything new. Best to keep SoMe to a minimum. Recently I got the fever for the Lynx's big sister, since my computer club buddy repaired the psu for my old Amiga 500.

Edited August 20, 2020 by Turbo Laser Lynx

[enthusi]

The shorter the time the more shallow the game will (have to) become. While you can set up a puzzle engine rather easily. It is the balancing and testing that really takes (and should!) time to be able to release a stable and proper version in the end. Not to speak of anything more in the adventure/RPG genre. If exclusive titles (and not mere ports) are wanted -and the Lynx can pull off fanatic things when pushed a little- you need rather a year than few weeks. Not full time job on 1 year of course. But people with kids for example had way LESS time during lockdown usually.

[+karri]

Good points. If you want to release a full game as part of the competition you can easily work on something for a year. When a suitable competition pops up you can submit it. The "Xump back in space" is a good example. It probably builds on the previous Xump version.

[42bs]

That's the advantage if you want to release something on a party like SillyVenture. You can start right after the last one ended to code a new entry ?

 

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

@enthusi It's true that the competitons maybe should be some sort of "mini game"/small game competitions. As you say, even a medium sized original game can take a year or even years, from coming up with all the ideas (both theme and game), coding, graphics, music, game design, level design, etc. it's a lifelong journey really.

I don't think there has been almost any really sizeable games in the competitions? On duty comes to mind, not sure about the size if Xump, Lawnmower, Nutmeg and Sila's adventure for example. Please refresh my mind if I missed some title that indeed is "medium to large".  I think many of the competition games that were supposed to be a bit bigger games never were finished anyway? ? I know Odynexus is still in development.

Edited August 20, 2020 by Turbo Laser Lynx

[Nop90]

1 hour ago, karri said:

Good points. If you want to release a full game as part of the competition you can easily work on something for a year. When a suitable competition pops up you can submit it. The "Xump back in space" is a good example. It probably builds on the previous Xump version.

Yes the core engine is the same and this helped, but had to make changes and optimizations that introduced bugs: nothing is free.

 

I started working on another RG title in january (I'll try to finish it for SV), but the competition theme required to move to something else, and Xump2 was the best choice. The team is not happy for the quality of the demo, there are some small bugs and the gfx are not polished: without @miker help that made great tunes we could have not release it.

Edited August 20, 2020 by Nop90

[LordKraken]

I like @Turbo Laser Lynx idea of having this contest focusing maybe more on smaller games and concepts (think game jams) rather than commercial quality games, which is not doable in 2 or 4 months anyway (it took me and @agradeneu 6 weeks to create Odynexus for SV, but 8 months to turn it into a commercial quality game - and we're not even done - this takes definitely a lot of time esp. when you have kids).

 

This would be a great way to check ideas and new concepts and push development further for the promising one (i.e. turn them into real games).

 

One example that immediately comes to my mind is Timeloop. This is a great example of a "small" game that show a super original and still very interesting concept, and I would love to see this game evolve into something bigger.

 

Also, last but not least, jams are real fun

 

ps: I want to stress that my intention here is NOT to criticize the competition itself, but just to play with ideas to make it even more appealing in the future, because we all love the lynx community and it deserves tons of new games 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2020 by LordKraken

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

29 minutes ago, LordKraken said:

ps: I want to stress that my intention here is NOT to criticize the competition itself, but just to play with ideas to make it even more appealing in the future, because we all love the lynx community and it deserves tons of new games 

 

Yes, absolutely this. I can't help brainstorming all the time, I never intended to criticize either, hopefully it didn't come across like that.

[+karri]

I have been admiring the beautiful graphics. Perhaps Titan would be worthy of a facelift to make it a real cart release.

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

The label looks fantastic, but so does the plastic cart part, that's not 3D printed, is it? ??

[+karri]

19 minutes ago, Turbo Laser Lynx said:

The label looks fantastic, but so does the plastic cart part, that's not 3D printed, is it? ??

It is 3D printed. I bought new feed gears and upgraded the extruder. So now I have the capability to print really pro looking shells.

 

The label is printed with Canon Selphy CP910 on a 10x15 photo paper. I bought this printer years ago and forgot about it. Just for fun I tried to connect it to my WiFi network and to my big surprise it provided excellent quality. The good thing is that 108 photo papers with sublimate colour rolls cost €43. As I can fit 4 cart labels on one sheet the price per label is just 10 cents.

 

Perhaps the next purchase is Silhouette Cameo 4 for cutting cardboard boxes. And Canon PIXMA PRO-100S for printing the artwork on the box before cutting. With these you could do a complete boxed Lynx game factory. But the box processing stuff is too expensive so I am just dreaming...

[Turbo Laser Lynx]

That 3D print looks insanely good! You've got some really fantastic stuff going on again, setting up your own Lynx factory! I wanna do a co-release with you sometimes again!