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#1 2015-11-02 18:00:54

Sanqui
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Registered: 2013-01-04
Posts: 20

gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015
===============================

Hi and welcome to this year's gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo!  The point of this competition is to create new homebrew Game Boy or Game Boy Color games and demos for everybody to enjoy.  Everybody is encouraged to join!  Even if you've just coded your first hello world (or you're going to), do try to make a simple game!  Your entry is welcome.

This comes rather late in the year, and slightly late in the month.  I'm sorry!  But never mind that, let's make some games!

Because last year's compo lasted three months, yet everybody's contributions were mainly last minute, this year you only get one month to work on and submit your game.  We also get a simple topic to inspire your game.  Since December is approaching fast, this compo's topic is winter!

Rehash of last year's guidelines:
1. Your entry should run on hardware and major emulators.  Do not rely on known emulator quirks.
  You're encouraged to test your game in accurate emulators like bgb and gambatte
2. Your entry should be your original work, and preferably not a rehash of any older project you may have released in the past.  It should be the first public release of the project, or at least substantially different from any older one.
  ROM hacks are not allowed.

Besides these two, use common sense - remember that your submission will be released to public scrutiny.

Don't know where to start?  Popular assemblers are rgbds and wla-dx.  You can also use GBDK, a poor C compiler.  Some more links may appear here soon.

You may post progress and screenshots in this thread to get feedback from people, or you may keep your submission under wraps - up to you.  However, please do not release early versions.

The deadline is 2015-12-02 (a single month after this announcement), after which voting will be held public for two weeks.  Finally, the results will be announced.

Short URL for linking: http://gg8.se/gbcompo/

Entries should be sent to gsanky@gmail.com, along with the name you want to use, your forum name, the project name a description of the project.  Some representative screenshots from you are welcome :)
You may send updates at any time until the deadline - only the latest version will be regarded.

Last edited by Sanqui (2015-11-04 13:10:06)

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#2 2015-11-04 01:35:52

ShantyTown
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Registered: 2015-11-04
Posts: 1

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Count me in!  So far, I've done the most important part--the intro screen.
https://i.imgur.com/lNZn3jC.gif

My project is something along these lines:

You're a small snowball that moves around in the snow.  As you move further, you get bigger in size.  There is fire shooting at you from all sides of the screen that you have to dodge.  As you get bigger, it gets harder to dodge the fire.  I guess the game is "stay alive as long as you can"?  We'll see.

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#3 2015-11-04 07:28:08

Xephyr
Member
From: France
Registered: 2015-02-26
Posts: 59

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Interesting, I'll definitly try to do something... just need to find an idea XD

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#4 2015-11-04 12:55:08

DevEd
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Registered: 2015-11-04
Posts: 9

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Count me in.

My project is going to be Christmas-themed. I'm not sure what it's going to be yet, but I am going to be writing a custom sound driver for it. Stay tuned for updates.


You know, the DevSound guy.

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#5 2015-11-05 17:36:53

a cat
Member
Registered: 2014-07-27
Posts: 98

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

what would the sound driver do?

if its just a set of functions for making good sound effects you could just write a program to convert a music track into music data


a cat in need of knowledge!!

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#6 2015-11-19 05:03:29

Xephyr
Member
From: France
Registered: 2015-02-26
Posts: 59

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

I guess the answer is obvious, but I would like to be sure : is it okay if my submission contain some characters under Creative Commons?
Well if I can't use them it's not really a problem because it won't really impact my project, but anyway.

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#7 2015-11-19 08:21:38

Glad
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From: France
Registered: 2015-03-04
Posts: 28
Website

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

I know it's a bit late but if anyone need help for the graphic, I can help !


Another boring artist.

Current software project --> Walking under the rain (GB)
Current hardware project --> GlitchBoy

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#8 2015-11-19 16:22:31

Sanqui
Moderator
Registered: 2013-01-04
Posts: 20

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Xephyr, it's absolutely fine to use Creative Commons licensed assets in your game, assuming you respect the license :)

Last edited by Sanqui (2015-11-19 16:22:39)

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#9 2015-11-23 12:26:16

DevEd
New member
Registered: 2015-11-04
Posts: 9

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

On second thought, I'm not sure if my entry will be done in time for the deadline. I'll keep working on it, but I probably won't release it for the contest.


You know, the DevSound guy.

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#10 2015-11-23 14:08:41

Xephyr
Member
From: France
Registered: 2015-02-26
Posts: 59

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Well, I guess you can always release a demo if you have enough work? I'll probably do that too because I had less free time that what I planned.

It feels like there won't be a lot of participation, but some people probably don't post here or wait for the last few days.

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#11 2015-11-24 14:30:25

AntonioND
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Registered: 2014-06-17
Posts: 134
Website

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Xephyr is right. I've been working on a game since Friday night, and I think in 2 days it will be finished. smile

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#12 2015-11-24 16:58:35

Xephyr
Member
From: France
Registered: 2015-02-26
Posts: 59

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Just another question : does the compo needs to be fully constructed around winter, or it just need to have a link of some sort with the theme?
Because I think I'm moving to the second direction the more I developp the idea XD

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#13 2015-11-25 17:29:55

AntonioND
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Registered: 2014-06-17
Posts: 134
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Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Just do it, all we really care about is that is for GB/GBC. smile

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#14 2015-11-26 07:57:54

Sanqui
Moderator
Registered: 2013-01-04
Posts: 20

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Xephyr wrote:

Just another question : does the compo needs to be fully constructed around winter, or it just need to have a link of some sort with the theme?
Because I think I'm moving to the second direction the more I developp the idea XD

No worries, it can be as loose as you want.  The theme is just there to inspire you and tie the entries together.

Last edited by Sanqui (2015-11-26 07:58:22)

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#15 2015-12-02 15:29:05

Xephyr
Member
From: France
Registered: 2015-02-26
Posts: 59

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

My submission will probably be sent a bit late, I hope I'll be able to finish it for tomorrow. Just a stupid bug that comes from nowhere, those are the worst.

Edit : only 3 hours late, I hope it's okay.

Last edited by Xephyr (2015-12-02 21:04:43)

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#16 2015-12-03 16:05:09

Sanqui
Moderator
Registered: 2013-01-04
Posts: 20

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Hi folks!  It's nearly a day after the deadline.  I have received two submissions so far: huge props to AntonioND and Xephyr, you two are awesome!  However, I'm sure we can do better than that.
So, I am extending the deadline by a week.  Hopefully, this will be enough to wrap up unfinished projects, or even makin a quickie from scratch if you're brave!
Get your submission in by December 9th, 23:59 UTC!

Last edited by Sanqui (2015-12-03 16:05:54)

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#17 2015-12-03 18:09:26

AntonioND
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Registered: 2014-06-17
Posts: 134
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Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Just out of curiosity, who else is coding something for the compo?

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#18 2015-12-03 19:35:51

Xephyr
Member
From: France
Registered: 2015-02-26
Posts: 59

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Well if we have a little more time I might try to do some improvement during this week.

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#19 2015-12-11 10:37:07

Xephyr
Member
From: France
Registered: 2015-02-26
Posts: 59

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Still no updates about the compo?

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#20 2015-12-13 17:21:05

AntonioND
Member
Registered: 2014-06-17
Posts: 134
Website

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Any news?

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#21 2015-12-16 09:14:05

rychan
Member
From: Paignton, Devon, UK
Registered: 2015-12-16
Posts: 103
Website

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Heyy, didn't know about this forum until just now. I made a lil game in GBDK last weekend for Ludum Dare. It's not eligible for this competition but I figured I'd put a link here in-case you fancy a quick play.

http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-3 … p;uid=6823

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#22 2015-12-16 10:10:57

AntonioND
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Registered: 2014-06-17
Posts: 134
Website

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

I've just tested it. It's a bit tricky at first, but nice game.

A few technical things, because this wouldn't run correctly on hardware. I noticed them with BGB, so I suppose you had all debug options disabled (the first one is impossible to miss if you had enabled them).

- It writes to OAM with "ld [hl-],a", which means that OAM could be corrupted because of a hardware bug. The thing is that I suppose you only do this once at the beggining, so whenever you write on it with the DMA the problem is solved.
- It uses 100% of CPU. You should use wait_vbl() or whatever it's called to save batteries.
- I've noticed by chance a lot of "jr" instructions that jump to the instruction following it, like a nop, at 0x1EEC. I don't know if you did this or GBDK did, though.

Well, I guess this means it could run on hardware after all. xD

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#23 2015-12-16 11:12:01

rychan
Member
From: Paignton, Devon, UK
Registered: 2015-12-16
Posts: 103
Website

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

Yeah, I like my games to be fairly tough tongue Did you make it to the end?

I've seen pics of it running on hardware so I think it should, I'll have a new flash cart coming my way in a little while, which should prove handy.

I haven't delved that far into battery saving bits but I might have a play around with that tonight, it'd be cool to get a bit further with this.

I doubt I'll delve all the way down to ASM as it's just too long winded for me, I understand that it can be optimized WAY, WAY more than GBDK ever can but, at least for the moment, GBDK will do what I need it to.

I'll have a look into the debugging options inside BGB also sometime, I have just been running it, checking if the game works and plays, then refining, haven't paid a bit of attention to battery meters, etc!

Thanks for the tips again Antonio, much appreciated, congrats on the recent sound stuff you mentioned on twitter again btw wink

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#24 2015-12-16 11:55:45

AntonioND
Member
Registered: 2014-06-17
Posts: 134
Website

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

No, not even in easy mode... I'll give it a try later.

Yes, of course it runs on hardware, the problems I've said don't make the game unplayable in hardware, just "incorrect".

The battery saving should be really easy. I don't know how are you synchronizing the game, but a single wait_vbl_done() should be enough to keep the CPU meter low (probably, I haven't checked your code much).

The ASM thing is nothing important, it's just that it's really strange, because it's pretty obvious it's not your fault (everything is C, so...).

You're welcome, and thanks. smile

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#25 2015-12-16 12:22:22

rychan
Member
From: Paignton, Devon, UK
Registered: 2015-12-16
Posts: 103
Website

Re: gbdev Gameboy Coding Compo 2015

I'll put a youtube video up sometime tonight of the the game and ending (if I mange to beat it!)

Yeah, err, my code, for that game in particular. Is a mess! It's what happens with me during game jams, quick fixes over things 'n' what not smile

Will see what wait_vbl_done() sorts out, it would be nice to reduce and also have a measure on how much CPU is being used, I have tried to stick to equality checks where possible and avoid multiplication, division, etc where possible.

I have a feeling that the Rect - Rect Collision is the main CPU usage case. I'm kinda excited to test this!

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