Peregrination, Sessions

About two weeks ago I mentioned that I had a new server up and running, and that another, better, machine would be coming along shortly. After non-stop downloads and installs of drivers and software over the past two days, I am finally posting from that new machine.

Er... did I say new? I don't know how old it is, but it's newer than any of the other boxes I have laying about. The case is in rough shape and whoever originally built the thing is a damn fool. All the drives stick out from a missing face plate, and I found the hard drive hanging by it's bus connection - just kinda floating there; it's missing whatever part was supposed to hold it. There's 2GB of non-matching RAM. I think one of them might be on the way out, as the BIOS refused to load today until I swapped them. The processor is a Mobile AMD Sempron. I like AMD, but what's a low end notebook processor doing in a desktop? The motherboard is a MicroATX from "Biostar", a company I'd never heard of, and doesn't match any of the diagrams printed on the case, which complicated my search for drivers. I don't know if the motherboard was original to this case, but nothing matches up, and a good jostle in the room will result in the side panel falling off.

For someone who's used to running ~10 year old desktops and laptops, though, it runs pretty fast. It runs Regressia smoothly, which my laptop never could, and even JKD seems to run pretty well, which is a miracle on any machine.

So now I have one slow but stable computer in an excellent case (I am very impressed by how sturdy and user friendly the Sony Vaio desktop case is), one (comparatively) speedy shoe-box that may or may not boot tomorrow, and one comfortable laptop which caught a nasty virus the moment I fixed all it's hardware woes.

So, what should I host today? Got a nice board game or text MUD? Anyone got a sturdy case they're not using?

Close your books, pencils down, the test is over. The programming portion of the GiaD 2009 is officially closed. If you haven't already sent in your source, send in whatever you have right now and hope that I won't notice the time stamp; even if you're disqualified for time, I'll still include a write-up about your game in the results. So far we've had a better turn out than previous years.

So get some sleep, say a little prayer that Acebloke doesn't die from his time without sleep or food, and consider joining me in a game of Jeet Kune Do on my very laggy server. I'll leave it up for a while if people want to chat, etc.

byond://96.253.14.217:7231
DarkCampainger has saved you all from terrible lag:
byond://67.175.210.134:3000

I hope to be back within 2 weeks with the results, sooner if all the prize stuff goes smoothly. Thank you to everyone who participated or spread the word, and good luck!

Just a reminder to anyone confused by the time zones, there are now only 2 hours remaining in the 2009 GiaD event. So remove all those test verbs, patch up the most important bugs, and get those entries to me (iainperegrine, gmail.com). Remember to specify that you don't want your code released if that's your preference.

Good Luck!

Edit: I forgot to mention that we have some prizes this year! Farawayhost.com is offering 1 month of hosting to any developer who's entry gets a "polished" rating, and is also offering a BYOND membership to their favorite game. Additionally, the developers at Paperclip studios have offered a BYOND membership as well. So get to it!

---

I've searched high and low for an appropriate theme for this year's event, and it's turtles all the way down!

Or Flight.
Or Mechanics. Edit: Several people commented by pager asking what counts as "mechanics". Robots are good, as are steam powered vehicles and devices, and lots of gears and oil is always a plus, though this is by no means an exhaustive list of what's acceptable.

Last year we tried out a new approach and announced several themes so that no one would be turned away by a bogus idea. From what other people have told me, that seemed to work out well, so I'm announcing three themes this year, too. An action, an atmosphere, and a joke (like last year's "sandwhich").

Pick whichever theme you want (though I'd suggest either flight or mechanics). If you were hoping for either Airships or Steampunk, just combine Flight and Mechanics :)

Click here for the full rules. Please note that the event will be judged with ranks for "1st Place", etc.

Whatever you do, make sure that you send me your source files (iainperegrine, gmail.com) by 11:59pm (Eastern Time) Sunday. So get to it, and good luck!

One more last minute change before we get the GiaD underway. In the past we've had problems getting judges for the GiaD, and I've judged the last two events alone. For various reasons, I decided that it's better to judge the entries individually ("Complete" or "Unplayable", etc.) instead of competitively ("1st Place" or "Honorable Mention", etc.).

I recently explained my reasoning for this policy in a response to D4RK3 54B3R (skip):

>D4RK3 54B3R wrote:
> [...]

Those are all contentious issues which have come up every year when doing the GiaD. I have strong opinions about how the event should be held, but they may not be in sync with what this community wants. I'm more than willing to consider any input, just keep in mind that I'm the only person judging these entries. Until that changes, the reality of bias in my preferences and judging style must be accepted.

> Is anyone pitching in for prizes, or is that not going to happen anymore?
> And also, is there even going to be top places awarded? Like first place, second place, and third place?

Purchasing and distributing prizes is a logistical hassle I'm not suited to handle. That being said, the main reason I don't award "1st Place" or anything like that is because a lot of what I do is highly subjective. I play the games, I write up a review, take a screen shot, and then talk about what I liked or didn't like. If there were four of us judging then I could feel more confident about the relative rankings, but until that happens I don't feel that it's fair to the participants to comparatively rank the entries.

I feel that is a vital part of the GiaD, that the entries are evaluated individually, and not comparatively. Each entry is categorized based on completion, polish, gameplay, and use of theme. I believe that any competent developer with a good grasp of the development process should be able to achieve a rank of Complete given the time frame and restrictions. Requiring that they then best all other developers robs them of this achievement.

In the past I have tried to balance both sides in the same document, and (unless someone changes my mind) I'll be following the same basic format. Each entry will be judged according to the criteria and will be given one of the categorizations. Then I will order them on the page according to how well I feel they did comparatively. If you look at the results for 2007 you'll see that JP's Ragnarok is listed first, followed by CaptFalcon33035's Frost Fortress, which are both fantastic games. (I seriously wish Frost Fortress were expanded on, I would probably be playing it right now). Even though there is no formal declaration, I felt JP's was the strongest entry in terms of scope, depth of play, and replay value, none of which are determining factors in evaluating whether or not a game is complete.

I hope that I'm striking a balance, that that both sides can be satisfied with the result. If not, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

> without a strict 24 hour timeframe, the GIADs really lose a lot of their appeal to me. I like the tension and the stress and pumping something amazing and cool out of that.

So do I. This has been a concession I've had to make given the geographical distribution of BYOND members. Acebloke and Elation are in England, and isn't JP is Australia? For them, a time frame of 6:00pm Saturday to 6:00pm Sunday doesn't make a damn bit of sense. I'd like the rule to be midnight to midnight, your own local time, but I have no way of enforcing that without giving each time zone its own theme. I, personally, work from midnight to midnight, and I think that anyone else who can get that time free (from work, etc.) should do the same. In the end it does come down to the honor system, but at least it's a fair honor system.

I hope the above addresses your concerns. It is an imperfect system, and if you have any ideas for improvement please let me know. For the sake of clarity allow me to summarize my thoughts:

1. In keeping with the spirit of the event, games are judged individually, not comparatively. Game are, however, ordered (highly subjectively!) in the results document based on their comparative strengths. The first game in the document is analogous to the first place winner in a competition.

2. A strict 24hr time frame is preferable, but not feasible given the worldwide distribution of developers. An honor system wherein developers choose their own 24hr period from a 48hr window is the best compromise I can think of while still announcing a unifying theme at the start of the event.

(Back to Top)

If you are a past participant, or if you are planning to participate this weekend, or if you would participate if there were rankings, I would like to hear your opinion. Please note that, though this is a poll, I will be basing future policy on ideas, so please comment about why you voted the way you did. If I get a convincing response before the day is through, I may change the policy in time for tomorrow.