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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines (Tentative)

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 11:26 am
by infiniteneslives
I'm of the mind that typically there is only one main programmer of a given entry.

If one person contributes art/music to two separate entries, with two separate programmers, the fact the programmers are different separates the teams into two different teams for prize consideration.

For example:
Basket ball game:
-programmer: mario
-music: princess
-audio engine: luigi

Football game:
-programmer: luigi
-music: princess
-audio engine: luigi

If the basketball game wins 1st place, and football game wins 2nd place, these are seen as two separate teams. Just because luigi shared his audio engine with mario, and princess composed the music for both, the games were primarily developed by two separate people.

As the rules are written though, I think these would be seen as the same team submitting two entries. It would especially sound that way if a 4th person made the artwork for both games. At that point it might seem like a team is just taking turns who's the main developer/programmer.

Ultimately we can't cover every possible scenario in the rules. I think the rules as they stand are as explanatory as we need. Further elaboration on this will only confuse things. This is something best left to the judgement of the organizers I feel. And entrants are welcome to elaborate on their situation explaining why they should be judged as separate teams, and let the organizers make a judgement call.

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines (Tentative)

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 8:27 pm
by NESHomebrew
These are the two rules regarding cash/collabs:
NESHomebrew wrote:
  • Only one cash/cartridge/physical prize will be awarded per entrant across all categories. If multiple submissions place in a cash winning position, the greatest prize will be awarded, and the runner up will receive the prize. You can only win one cash prize. You can only win one cartridge. You can only win one physical prize.
  • Collaborations are allowed, prize distribution will be decided by those who collaborated on the project.
I don't think adding percentages will solve anything. Every project is going to be different, and we aren't going to fill all the loopholes. I'm going to recommend the following change. Thoughts?
  • Only one cash/cartridge/physical prize will be awarded per entrant across all categories. If multiple submissions place in a cash winning position, the greatest prize will be awarded, and the runner up will receive the prize. You can only win one cash prize*. You can only win one cartridge**. You can only win one physical prize.
  • Collaborations are allowed, prize distribution will be decided by those who collaborated on the project. This decision should be known by the person who submitted the entry as they will be our primary contact. Please make these decisions beforehand.

    *In the event that a single entrant wins multiple cash prizes, regardless of who collaborated on the projects, the person who submits the project represents the whole. i.e., Project A and Project B won 1st and 2nd respectively. They were submitted by Bob. Larry was a collaborator on Project B. There will only be one cash prize for the two projects. Sorry Larry, talk to Bob (or see below).
    **If the entry is a collaboration, additional cartridges may be purchased at cost for fellow collaborators (or deducted from a cash prize if applicable).

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines (Tentative)

Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 11:25 pm
by na_th_an
FrankenGraphics wrote:My reasoning is that it fixes something i percieve as a loophole where the status of a contributor can give you a better chance at scoring a cash prize than one having the status of a submitter (most often if not historically always the coder or main coder). What's your thoughts on that? Also, the absense of rules on team wins requires actively making deals (which may amount to nothing), repeatedly. A collective agreement is energy and time saving, perhaps a bit more secure, thus encouraging team efforts.

Hm, but perhaps the rules shouldn't explicitly specify how hypothetical prizes are split between team members, though, since contributions can vary, and/or if you think that is discouraging teaming up.
But that's a matter of honesty. If you look our blurbs, there are three people involved in my three entries. I might be the programmer and do most the GFX, but Davidian is the sound guy and Anjuel has made quite a lot of input in the design of the game (with a 9 months old baby he's quite busy now). Had I wanted to cheat, I could have entered the contest as three different "entrants", making Davidian and Anjuel submit one game each. In such case, we would have perceived two prizes as we have scored a 4th and 5th position. But I don't find that honest. That would be cheating and taking advantage of a loophole. Not my cup of tea.

Anyways, we are grown up adults and this compo is small enough so special situations can be dealt with personally and solved practically.

I like the idea to purchase extra carts at cost. I'll be purchasing two extra carts for Davidian and Anjuel ;)

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines (Tentative)

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 11:44 am
by RogerBidon
This is not critical, as not a formal part of the rules, but I have troubles to understand this sentence:
NESHomebrew wrote:Category 2 is intended to give publicity to homebrewers [...], and to encourage entrants to finish their projects.
How does it encourage to finish the projects? According to last year, changes where allowed long after the deadline without making it "category 2" games. Is it targeted to entrant of previous years, to take time to expand their entries? Is it for any kind of game that is finished?

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines (Tentative)

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 11:56 am
by tepples
A project in Category 1 is judged as of the snapshot submitted before the deadline. It can progress further, but the build at the deadline is judged.

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines (Tentative)

Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 2:02 pm
by infiniteneslives
RogerBidon wrote:How does it encourage to finish the projects?
The idea of the motivation comes from someone having a project they would like to see included on the cartridge, but aren't concerned about winning prizes. The project must be effectively complete to be included on the cart. So they may be motivated to finish their project to the point where it's publishable so it'll get included on the cart. The action53 project effectively provides developers means to get their creations on a physical cartridge without really having to do any of the work involved with publishing physical cartridges.

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines (Tentative)

Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2017 8:41 pm
by NESHomebrew
I have updated the original post. If everyone is happy with the changes made, I'm ready to finalize the rules for this year.

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines (Tentative)

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:51 am
by FrankenGraphics
Looks good! :beer:

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines (Tentative)

Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2017 3:05 pm
by infiniteneslives
Looks good to me. Thanks for putting this all together!

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines (Tentative)

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 1:23 am
by NESHomebrew
infiniteneslives wrote:Looks good to me. Thanks for putting this all together!
Thanks for all the input! I'll be picking everyones brains regarding voting soon.

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines (Tentative)

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 8:15 am
by Alp
infiniteneslives wrote:Considering the graphical limitations of the system accurately depicting gore without coming off as cartoonish is a challenge IMO. We have never had a submission with blood before, so I have a hard time seeing the limitation. That said, personally I don't have an issue with 'mortal kombat' blood in general.
Coincidentally, I had mocked up a Castlevania clone at one point, with Splatterhouse-levels of realistic gore. (I won't post it, don't worry.)
It had two different scenes, one in a run-down cathedral, and another in a hellspawn-infested underground passage.

If it was developed, the game would be too complex to be entered in the compo, as the sprites are quite large, and require dynamic CHR-RAM. (The main character alone, stood at about 56 pixels tall!)

The project starred a nun girl with huge boobs, ripping zombies into chunks, with a metal chainwhip.
Gore is easy on the NES, it's just that nobody has bothered too much with it.

The mockup exists, only because I had read that "Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti" was made as a joke, and deliberately left out the gore, because they didn't believe that the NES could handle it. (Mighty Final Fight also exists, for a similar reason.)

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 8:35 am
by FrankenGraphics
(I won't post it, don't worry.)
I'd like to see it, though, if you're willing to share a link!

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 8:40 am
by Myask
FrankenGraphics wrote:
(I won't post it, don't worry.)
I'd like to see it, though, if you're willing to share a link!
This.

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 12:00 pm
by Zutano
To be clear, do all entries in both categories 1 and 2 get put on a multicart, or just exceptional entries?

Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2017 1:07 pm
by infiniteneslives
Zutano wrote:To be clear, do all entries in both categories 1 and 2 get put on a multicart, or just exceptional entries?
In general all entries get included on the multicart, there isn't a judging score requirement or anything like that to get on the cartridge. Following the rules is generally all that's needed to get inclusion on the multicart. With the exception of judge's discretion for explicit content that was added to the rules this year.

If there are any issues with your entry that would prevent it from inclusion on the multicart entrants will be given feedback on what changes are necessary for inclusion.

The only entries to date that haven't been included were for specific reasons:
-copyright/trademark issues, entry contained audio ripped from NES games published by Nintendo 30+ years ago.
-entry was far from completion, this was actually my own entry and not much beyond sprite collisions with the background.
-entrant decided to withdraw their entry from the compo prior to completion of judging/awards.
-submission(s) that utilized mapper that wasn't supported by multicart mapper.