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Hi All,
Quick update if you don’t already know: The deadline for the N-Gage challenge has been extended to the 14th of July! There’s also been some changes to the rules WRT how the short listed 5 will liase with Digital:CC on development of prototypes.General Topic:
Are any of you guys entering the competition? If so, where are you at with entries and what do you think of the restrictions of the N-Gage game deck WRT to designing games for it? has anyone played the thing? or a prototype?I think in general with the deadline fast approaching it would be good to get a dialogue going – also this can act as a placeholder for threads when things really heat up!
All comments welcome!
Come on…don’t be holding out on us!!!!
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I’ve just requested the info pack.
Can you tell us what the entries are like so far ;)
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finishing my entry today for submission tomorrow.
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likewise got mine in the post!
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Sounds good guys!
Me too! Posted it on Friday the 11th, needed the weekend free :)OK since none of ye will – I’ll start this one.
Rate your idea(s) out of 10:Idea 1: 6.5/10
A safe yet stylish – Arcade shooter / puzzlerIdea 2: 9.1/10
A risky but commercial job – New Genre – I believe!!! of VP nature!One more thing: how much additional info did ye lot attach with your application form. i.e. not a bit / a few sketches / small design document / big design document or your life story? Put a bit of a description about your concept too? I think were beyond the stage where confidentiality is an issue now anyway!
Hope to hear from you soon and good luck in the competition!
Ian
Ian
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I got mine away on the Saturday. Right up to the wire. I posted two extra sheets of A4 but no images.
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Hey Inch & All,
Well Done! it was a fair challenge! You did well to get it in for the Saturday and with extra info – you swat :) I have no hope!!!Good luck again!
When do you think we will start getting replys etc???
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Ian,
No too sure about the reply. I guess 4 weeks. Long enough to look at all entries and fo some judging but soon enough for the September shortlists.
Speaking of replies, there ain’t a whole pile on these pages. How much traffic do you think crosses these pages on an average day?
See my thread a page up for an example.
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Well you’ll have one less entry than you would had things panned out better for me.
I came home on Thursday to work on my idea only to discover my mom had downloaded a virus to the PC. All the Windows .sys files got deleted and I couldn’t get at the entry form. I brought my old PC back into the action only to remember that I had deleted the e-mail with the from Upstart off my hotmail account. I mailed them on the assumption that the reply was automated but it’s not!
An e-mail arrived first thing on Monday but I had to toddle off to work. I guess that’ll teach me to leave things to the last minute (no it won’t but it’s nice to think you’ll learn something from life’s little lessons).
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Hi Earthhorse!
Jeez bad luck there! Sorry to hear that! Did you get anything off to Nokia / Upstart? I must say though that it illustrates the point in my last post.
All you had to do was email either myself or Inch or any of the other posters in this thread, I would have been more than happy to email you all the forms in zip format!
Hard luck again! Nevertheless, stay in touch!
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Earthhorse,
You must be like me cos that exactly the same things that I do. College stuff esp – left till last minute.
The way the entry form from me for the N-gage panned out was;
I spent weeks before writing notes and changing things. Getting critizism(constr!). Doddles. Sat morning I had nothing solid you know presentable. I half thought about sending some of the scatterbrain notes but decided to reright em.
I feel sure that some other entries were concise, excellent presentation, full of diagrams but I am happy with what I sent.
I mean at least its a chance for a change, not like around here. Three years of this is gettin stale in a big way.:o
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Hey Inch!
As long as your happy with what you got in there, that’s the main thing. Nokia / Upstart also did say they just want good ideas! I think you’ve as good a chance as anyone!Must say I felt sorry for Earth Horse that sucks!
Did you go to the recent game developer meeting? there are some pictures in the news section! Where are the meeting times / places / agenda etc. posted?
So Inch you want to be a games designer eh? have you designed any other games? the sketches sound interesting!
Talk soon,
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Ian,
I err, didn’t send any sketches but I do have some in my head. Screen displays and layouts dedicated to a small resolution. I figure if my idea is any good there will be a call back.
Gettin ready for step 2.
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Well I’ve got my decent PC up and running again. The worst thing about getting a virus is the time it takes to recover your data. Still have a load of programs to reinstall though.
I didn’t manage to get a form off to Upstart because I only checked my mail when I came home on Monday so it was really too late at that stage. To be honest had I been more enthusiastic about my idea I would have sent it weeks ago. As it stood there was a lot of work to be done on it and I’m not *too* peed off about not getting something in.
I wasn’t at the recent shindig myself. Maybe I’ll pop along to one or two after a while. Make sure and let us know how you all do in the compo.
Best of luck
Earthhorse -
Hey Inch (Sing along, Sing along) & All,
Did any of you guys get a reply from the good people at Upstart Games re: your entries to the N-Gage Challenge? Confirming receipt of entries even?Well did ya? Did ya? Huh?
I’m beginning to worry a little about An Post!
It’s not like we’re getting pushy or anything but COME ON! :)
Later!
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I got my SAE returned.
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I have still not heard anything! hope they got the thing!
Talk soon!
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SAE returned with postal order etc. Here’s hoping! :D :confused:
Talk soon
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I got it returned to the Family House but I don’t live there anymore so I have to wait till this weekend before I can get it.
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I got a reply today saying I made it into the top 25 (yay!). Of course if there were thousands of entries I’d be very very proud but I feel it was closer to a hundred, if that.
Anyway. My idea was a Gauntlet-style fireman game. I sent in a few pixel-based sketches to show the character size as related to the screen resolution. It’s OK but nothing breakthrough; could be made into a quality game with good level design.
It struck me though that the N-GAGE can support the entire Playstation back catalog, if it chooses to, not to mention arcade games of the past three decades. Should be no trouble picking quality titles to migrate – they just have to look at the hall of fame.
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Hi Kaari,
Have you heard any more news?Talk soon
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The original announcement was meant to be Tuesday week ago, but that got put back to the end of this week, but seemingly its about to head into next week before an answer.
Time is definately being taken over it :(
Dave
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Hi All,
I’d just like to wish everyone in the final 25 the very best of luck in advance of tomorrows (???) final 5 announcement.The wait is nearly over! :)
Cheers,
Ian -
I really hope their ability to produce the games is better then their ability to run the competition. 2 Weeks past deadline without a word :(
(…a very disappointed/frustrated)
Dave
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Hi Aphra,
Just wondering, have you heard any more news about the Challenge?Cheers,
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Just minutes ago I got a call from Catherine Byrne that I had made the final 5! Yay me!
Meeting the judges on Friday. If you hear nothing from them, you’ll be hearing from me.
For those who didn’t get in this one, I know I found it a very rewarding step just to go through the process of getting my ideas down in an organized form. Which will be useful to me – and you – in the next contest that comes along. Be philosophical. And read up on sprite animation libraries.
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Congrats to all of the top 5, definately seem to be an interesting mix of games. Two (at least) of the top 5 also seem to post here from time to time, which is a good sign that this site is achieving its goal of bringing our top game developers together.
Looking forward to talking to yis all later
Dave
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Hi All,
I would just like to say thanks to one and all for your kind wishes and congrats! I have to agree with skyclad that this site is definitely doing its job in style!Thanks to Aphra for the news story, the publicity is most welcome when trying to make a bit of a name in the industry! I have got some good emails because of it.
Of course: Best of luck to the other four finalists!
Yeah right :) I’ll Voodoo yer asses if ya beat me :)
Cheers,
Ian -
Nice to see the five winning concepts from the N-gage challenge on show as prototypes at the launch of the Play exhibition in the Digital Hub last night…was a bit busy so didn’t get to explore them closely..did anyone else?
Apparently from the end of the week they should be up on the UpStart website and people can vote for their favourite…hope Jab makes it through the week!!
Aphra.
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Some teens glued themselves to the Counterstrike computers at the opening, so I don’t think anyone got a go on those. I did try each of the N-Gage finalist demos, so here’s a biased review.
Fishtank Frenzy – The shark tank and character are part of the background, the foreground is a game like LucasArts’ Pipe Dream. I built a route from the pump to the drain in the ceiling but couldn’t figure out what to do with the water spilling out of the spare T junctions. I spent the last several seconds just wondering what else I could do, then I lost. The pieces provided didn’t seem useful. I suspect you need to close off all T junctions to each other or not use them at all. Grade: C
(Ian’s) Voodoo Vengance – If there’s a pattern to the doll movement, I couldn’t see it. Based on a digital photo of somebody, the doll just reappeared at random positions rather than smooth movement or animation. I didn’t do well at dropping safes on the doll but not sure if practice or studying the pattern would help. This reminded me of an old Mac game called Despair. Grade: C
Pitbull Frenzy – Cute, I could grasp the concept of how to win quickly but couldn’t quite do it – ended with half my sheep in the pen and half in the corner. Recommend headphones highly so you can hear the barking. Grade: B
Spin – A cleanly executed and easily grasped concept. Circular Pong or Breakout In A Barrel. A fine touch on the controls is crucial and I didn’t do well, but had fun. Grade: A
Firefighter Kelly – I liked this one the best. :D Mouse control for the firehose, keyboard control for the character. Some minor issues with hanging on corners and not knowing whether a score was bad or good. Grade: A
Kaari
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I dont think anything much can be taken from the demos…they were rushed to be completed in time, and ran too quickly on the machine that they were on, roughly twice the speed.
Spin seemed to be the only game that had any degree of polish, most likely because it was the simplest concept there and one that worked well the the vector based flash animation used.
I’m waiting for the second set of demos hopefully done with a little more time and attention given to the actual goal of the games.
Dave
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Nothing yet…. I’ll post a link here as soon as I get it….
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Hi All
Unfortunately there is no link to the demos to post here.
At this stage it seems increasingly unlikely that the public voting will actually take place at all. Sorry :(Ian
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Sad, but not a massive surprise.
Do you know who they are actually getting to develop the game that does win?
Dave
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Hi Dave!
The only thing I recall is from the initial documentation supplied by Upstart which mentioned one of Upstarts ‘development partners’ being employed to develop the winning title.
Have a good night tonight & have a pint for me!
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Holy Guacamole! They’re up!
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Hi All,
I’ve posted some additional content to help explain the concept of Voodoo Vengeance:
http://www.slowrocket.com/Voodoo_Vengeance/index.html
Best of luck!
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Nokia release some more N-GAGE titles.
(interesting to see the quality of some).http://www.n-gage.com/R1/en/games/games_clips.html?game=mdprosoccer
Cheers,
Ian -
Hi All,
As far as I’m aware that’s the end of the voting phase in the N-Gage challenge (December 10th). Thanks to anyone who has put a vote my way.We should have the results soon! Best of luck to the other finalists!
Cheers,
Ian -
“Soon” being a relative term, of course. The site has changed: “Fishtank Fire” by Phil Burke is the winner.
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