Hey guys, I just thought I'd mention the intel 2009 level up contest. Im thinking of starting a game project on 22nd of june and making a little something just for the sake of entering and too see what the judges have to say, any of you guy's entered this contest or thinking of entering? I think it could prove to be some good fun.

Offical Link: Intel's Level Up Contest

Description:
"Do you think you have the next big idea in gaming? Intel has a good chance for you to find out, with a contest that allows independent developers to show off their game demos and concepts for a chance to win a variety of prizes, including feedback on your demo from a gaming executive, game development software, and of course new hardware to get work done. One of the most impressive things about this contest, however, is the level of talent that will be judging the entries.

The full list of judges:

* Sid Meier, Director of Creative Development, Firaxis Games
* Will Wright, Video game designer, founder of Stupid Fan Club, co-founder of Maxis games (now part of EA)
* Rick Raymo, Director of Game Content and Chief Instigator, Saber Interactive
* Brad Wardell, Founder of Stardock
* Christophe Canon, Co-founder of Frogames
* Representative to be named, Autodesk
* Dmitry Oganezov, Software Community Manager, Intel Corp
* Gina Bovara, Developer Marketing, Intel Corp
* Jeff Laflam, Software Engineer, Intel Corp
* Brad Werth, Sr. Software Engineer, Intel Corp
* Steve Winburn, Sr. Graphics Product Engineering Manager, Intel Corp

Having personalities like this take a look at your game concepts and demo is like being able to get up on stage and try your hand at a solo with Eric Clapton. Intimidating, but you're playing with the big boys.

Concepts are due by July 1, but you will have to prepare a working, playable demo by the end of the contest. This is a great way to get your game and ideas out there if you have the talent and the ability to put together a working demo for your game, so get cracking."

my jaw dropped at sid meier. those first two are like legends talk about pressure to perform

This might be a stupid question, but I couldn't find anything on the site: Does it have to use a specific toolkit? Their own, or something?

Some of the higher rated games on there at the moment are pretty basic. Could be fun to participate. I expected big-ass 3D games and shit.

This post has been edited by gabehabe: 17 Jun, 2009 - 12:04 AM

Your game Has to fall into one of these categories:

Best Threaded Game

Best Game-On-the-Go

Best Game Optimized for Intel® Graphics

When you enter you get these tools on a limited agreement:

- Intel® C++ Compiler 11.0
- Intel® VTune™ Performance Analyzer 9.1
- Intel® Thread Checker 3.1
- Intel® Thread Profiler 3.1
- Intel® Threading Building Blocks 2.1
- Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives 6.0

I think the threaded game category is the most interesting, multiple paths to complete your game is a great idea.

wtf is a "game on the go" ?

I'm intrigued by the threaded one. Library wise, I presume we can just use one of our choosing? (SDL/OpenGL/DX/Whatever?)

Yes I'm assuming you can, by game on the go they want you to focus on using some of their tools for laptop game develoment. They have some toolkits and other software specifically to improve laptop gaming.

Nice, that's what I thought. I'll see how much time I have this weekend and see if I can throw something together. Til then, I gotta rack my brain for ideas.

Perhaps I'll try something Kenta Cho stylee.

This post has been edited by gabehabe: 17 Jun, 2009 - 03:24 AM

is this a solo event or is it a team event?

I think it's a solo event. Not 100% certain though.

My project has evolved to something which is much less relevant to the contest I can't decide if it'd be worth entering it though, since it's still game programming...

Basically, the concept behind the game is nothing new - it's a side scroller. However, the engine is a new concept. (or, I've never heard of it being done, anyway) It allows for people to develop a game without doing ANYTHING related to code. All they need to do is draw maps, save them as .pngs and drop them in a folder for the executable to read and build a game based on them.

Worth entering it?

I guess the worst that could happen is it gets rejected... All I need is some good graphics to post as screenshots.

This post has been edited by gabehabe: 19 Jun, 2009 - 04:44 PM

Just out of curiosity, what is the name of that engine you used? And for what language? Thanks, and good luck in the contest

This post has been edited by ayman_mastermind: 29 Jun, 2009 - 08:14 PM

I built the engine, I'm yet to name it. Oh, and it's C++ with SDL.

Thanks, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna get time to enter it now. Need to see if this deadline is for a product or a concept, there's no way I can finish it before that deadline around work.

edit
Concept before July 1st. Finalists are announced on my birthday. Screw it, I'll enter tonight.

another edit
http://software.intel.com/en-us/contests/l...?entryid=132474
Suddenly I don't think a 2-week project for a side scroller is good enough. Then again, they're not all like that.

yet another edit
http://software.intel.com/en-us/contests/l...?entryid=132493
^ That'd be my kinda competition, I reckon.

Here's a video demo of my engine so far, ignore the graphics because I fail at photoshop - BetaWar sent me a map for it to mess around with tonight.
http://gabehabe.com/sidescroller/demo.avi

I may as well go for it.

This post has been edited by gabehabe: 30 Jun, 2009 - 05:16 AM

http://software.intel.com/en-us/contests/l...?entryid=132556
^ my entry.

Registration closes today so enter now!

The video demo that I linked to in the entry is also new, using graphics from BetaWar (he rocks)
http://gabehabe.com/sidescroller/demo.zip

This post has been edited by gabehabe: 1 Jul, 2009 - 04:57 AM

I like how I see this thread after its over. Nice. Oh well, not like I'm good enough to be in this competition anywho.

I don't think it is, it depends on the timezones but it closes at 3pm.

You only need a concept, don't need a demo at this stage.

It is indeed a very nice entry! Good luck, gabehabe! Hope to see you in the winners list!

I've got a 1 star rating.

Its looking cool! Nice work getting the per pixel collision detection

How do you plan on multi-threading the game? side scrollers by default are very linear.

Enemy AI is calculated in another thread, they currently each just run in their own threads (I know, it's bad) but I only did it for testing. Gonna set it so a number (5~10) operate in one thread at the same time. Lots of enemies on screen, but I'll try to limit to about 3 threads.

Played with ~50 enemies on screen last night, ran at full speed, at about 80% CPU. Pretty bad but like I said, I'm gonna cut the number of threads HUGELY over the next week or so.

This post has been edited by gabehabe: 2 Jul, 2009 - 12:01 AM