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LMS Behavior Contest! Sign Ups Closed

Name:	Glenn Thomas
Date Posted:	Jan 05, 2008
Rating:	4.3 out of 5
Public:	YES
Comments:	YES
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Blog post

Many will enter but only one will exit...

***Update***
Thanks to the great support from Garage Games we now have a prize for the winner and anyone that survives to the final round! The winner will receive $100 off anything in the GG.com store but it get even better, any contestant that makes it to the final round will receive GG T-shirt! For all the people just competing for bragging rights get to have their cake and eat it too! The contest will begin on Wednesday at midnight, so sign-up and have fun!

The contest is a Last Man Standing Behavior Competition that will encompass 4 rounds for a period of two to three weeks. The first three rounds will be 3 days each and the final round will consist of 5 days with 24-48 hours for judging in between each round based upon the amount of competitors that enter. The competition is designed to encourage the creation of Behaviors in TGB but programming in its nature is boolean, so because of that fact the competition will encourage the competitors to use creativity and tie other features of TGB into their submitted projects. There will be several tasks with a certain point value attached to them that will be added to the judges score if you complete one of the extra tasks. The behaviors and the extra tasks will be cohesive and tie in together and the ability to use them for a serious project will be apparent. Creativity is encouraged in this competition and the judges will be able to add one point to one competitor each round for who they believe is the most creative. Judges will rate each competitor from one to ten there behavior and creativity. If the behavior is only partially working 5 points will be deducted from the judges score and if it doesn't work the judges will score you a zero. After reviewing all the competitors they will give an additional point to the most creative behavior package. Once the judges scores are in the additional task scores will be added and eliminations will begin. If by chance a tie still happens we will break a tie by how much their project helps the community. This can be the comments in their code to the extra art asset they contributed in an extra task. Eliminations will cut 50% of the competitors each round. If 50% ever creates a fraction then that fraction is eliminated. A minimum of two competitors will enter the final round if the final round will end in less than 2 people then the percentage to pass will be increased beforehand. Competitors will know the number of competitors to enter each round before the competition begins. Competitors will only know the behavior and extra tasks for the round that they are in. The project for the next round will be posted within six hours of the next round beginning. Difficulty levels will be ramped up per round. The final round will either be innovative or inspire innovation. All projects must be submitted as a .plan resource by 11:59:99 pm PST on the date due. No late entries will be excepted. Contestants must post a complete TGB project file in their .plan or as a resource. Projects must be ready to go so that judges can hit the play button and test your entry. The winners entry will be posted in the TDN for the community to utilize.

Here's some insights of how the rounds will go:

The first Last Man Standing Behavior Competition will be centered around a character in a platformer game. The contestants will use the ninja character from the mini platformer tutorial in the TDN. They will need to think outside the box because the behaviors will focus on a mega man/ super metroid based character. For any TGB trial owners we'll have to provide a copy of the ninja art source in the forums. The rounds will encompass four different areas to make a well rounded character. It will be the competitors decision on how they structure, breakdown, and tackle their assignments. The minimum requirements for each round will be in these four areas. Creativity is encouraged both artistically and with the programming.

Round 1 - Movement

Round 2 - Projectile Handling

Round 3 - Health, Damage, Respawn, Pick-ups, and Status Handling

Round 4 - Special Abilities

There will also be several extra tasks to inspire your creativity and earn bonus points.

Sign ups are open for both judging and competing. Please reply here or in the TGB General Forums to sign up for your desired section or ask any questions you may have.

Judges:
1. Glenn Thomas
2. Donald Harris
3. Ali Tahiri
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Contestants:
1. Phillip OShea
2. Braedon Hinchcliffe
3. Michael Hartlef
4. Saiko
5. Glenn Prince
6. Joe Rossi
7. Shawn Simas
8. J. Alan Atherton
9. Sam M
10. Aun Arinyasak
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Recent Blog Posts

List:	06/19/08 - The WIGI (Women in Games International) fundraiser 05/20/08 - Keeping the Independent Spirit Alive. 01/09/08 - Last Man Standing Behavior Competition - Round 1 01/07/08 - Sign Ups Closed - LMS Behavior Contest 01/05/08 - LMS Behavior Contest! Sign Ups Closed 01/03/08 - Community Involvement 09/10/07 - The Risk Taker

Submit your own resources!

Donald \"Yadot\" Harris (Jan 05, 2008 at 03:23 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

I am in for a Judge seat

Please send bribes to... Just kidding.

Ali Tahiri (Jan 05, 2008 at 05:39 GMT)

I would like to be a judge.

Braedon Hinchcliffe (Jan 05, 2008 at 08:02 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

I will enter. Im still a beginner scripter/programmer because im a design and production student. I assume since behaviors are scripted it won't matter that I actualy don't own TGB yet?

Glenn Thomas (Jan 05, 2008 at 08:45 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

The contest will be great for you. TGB is my favorite product and I'm sure the contest will help you see why. A purchase will give you a slight edge with access to the TDN and private forums but the contest behaviors are out of the box and brand new for the most part so everyone has an equal playing field.

Donald \"Yadot\" Harris (Jan 05, 2008 at 09:50 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

@Braedon
You never know one of the prizes could be a copy of TGB.

Braedon Hinchcliffe (Jan 05, 2008 at 19:47 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

If the prize was a copy of tgb then this poor university student would suddenly be very excited (stupid scholarships only pay my rent xD)

Anyways I didn't really think there is a prize. Im more using this as a learning thing becuase im still very new to TGB.
Edited on Jan 05, 2008 19:48 GMT

Phillip OShea (Jan 05, 2008 at 22:47 GMT)

Is there going to be a *shell* game made available? I mean, will there be a base for the contestants to build upon? Or is it start from scratch? If there isn't one available, then that interpretation of the basics of a platformer may have an effect on the outcome of the event.

For example: Someone may think that a controller just notifies the object what buttons are pressed and hence which direction to move. Someone else might think that the controller actually moves the object. Both are correct under different circumstances, however.

My interpretation of the purpose of this contest is for the community to have access to good quality scripts, for free. Behaviors *should* either be designed to work independently, or interact with parental behaviors (i.e. PlayerBehavior is the parent, and ControllerBehavior and AnimationBehavior are children).

If a shell is made available, one where constraints are already imposed on the player, then it may be easier for the contestant to create something which works well and abides by typical programming restraints.

I hope my ramblings made a little sense.

Tim Heldna (Jan 06, 2008 at 07:06 GMT) Resource Rating: 1

Quote:

but programming in its nature is boolean

You lost me there.

Glenn Thomas (Jan 06, 2008 at 16:03 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

With programming it either works or it doesn't.

Tim Heldna (Jan 06, 2008 at 16:21 GMT) Resource Rating: 1

Quote:

With programming it either works or it doesn't.

I slightly disagree. The code always works, it does what it is instructed to do. Sometimes code will work however the outcome is unexpected or undesired due to user error, yet still the code still works even if in a manner not intended. Long story short, programming isn't simply a boolean, there are many more variables at play.

So is this competition endorsed by GG, are there any prizes on offer? What is the incentive for the winner? Almost sounds like you're after some free code! =)

Glenn Thomas (Jan 06, 2008 at 16:43 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Phillip, I believe that starting from scratch would be the best solution so that beginner contestants learn the process. I have an in depth description of the what needs to be done and what is expected at the final result. The contestants will be told to make a platform, create collision, and to apply gravity all through the TGB editor. From there they will begin creating their behaviors from a pseudocode description. If they create the desired outcome then their behavior will be judged accordingly. The behavior must contain certain properties and the character must perform a certain way. If the contestant meets those requirements then they have an acceptable entry. It is true that some people may go the hard or unnecessary route in completing their goal but the true purpose is for them to learn from the experience but afterwards the community can get together and come up with the most efficient methods or just share scripts.

If this doesn't answer your question or you still have concerns please reply with an example description of a shell you'd believe to be necessary.

Glenn Thomas (Jan 06, 2008 at 16:53 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Tim, I'm not after free code and I kinda figured I'd get that response eventually. My goal is to build a more active community here at GG. This is designed to have fun while learning TGB. Yes this is my idea but I have been in contact with GG and have their support. We are still working out the details of the exact prizes involved but there are prizes. The prizes offered are actually bigger than I expected. Eventually an official from GG will make their announcement but until that time you're more than welcome to sign-up or ask anymore questions that concern you.

I also understand what you mean in your description of programming, the statement I made was to explain that without creativity as a part of the contest it would be possible to receive working behaviors from each competitor which would in turn break the possibility of this being a contest. Although the scenario may or may not be likely all possibilities must be taken into account.
Edited on Jan 06, 2008 17:03 GMT

Tim Heldna (Jan 06, 2008 at 17:28 GMT) Resource Rating: 1

I see, I wish you well and hope it's all a success. I don't own TGB so I won't be entering, actually I haven't touched my copy of TGE for close to a year now (moved on to better things).

Glenn Thomas (Jan 06, 2008 at 17:45 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Thanks for your support Tim, and your always welcome to enter with a trial version. Hopefully we'll be able to expand this contest to TGE in the future.

Phillip OShea (Jan 06, 2008 at 20:01 GMT)

It is obvious that you have put a lot of thought into this Glenn, I hope the community appreciates the effort. I understand what you are trying to achieve in your explanation and I agree that it will give more choice and promote clever programming, I just hope the judges are able to throw a decent amount of time into their work!

I cannot wait to start!

Glenn Thomas (Jan 06, 2008 at 20:40 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Thanks Phillip, and I can't wait either!

Braedon Hinchcliffe (Jan 06, 2008 at 20:51 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Glenn I think the behavior's should be something not available and then added to TDN after. TDN's platform controls are broke so thats a good idea anyways I guess. But Health, Damage, Respawn, Pick-ups and projectile's are already behaviors in the TDN.

Dunno just my 2 cents.

Joe Rossi (Jan 06, 2008 at 21:11 GMT)

I'll be a contestant.

Although I'm not exactly interested in platformer development, and I'm not sure how all this is going to work. It seems interesting and there aren't many signups yet, so why not.

Donald \"Yadot\" Harris (Jan 06, 2008 at 22:49 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

@Joe Rossi
Hopefully once get the prizes listed I am sure that the participation will increase.

Saiko (Jan 07, 2008 at 00:01 GMT)

yay Joe's playing too :) Come on lurkers join in :)

I think this will be a good exercise to get the TGB community working together, to help improve TGB and to meet other TGB users.

One thing I think we should make clear is that this is for TGB! So, any one who downloads the TGB demo can enter and it is a script contest so you don't need the pro version.

Also, I have some reservations about the platformer concept as it can be a right pain figuring out why your heads stuck in a platform...I'm more in the improve TDN behaviour stock camp like Braedon, but hey, it should be fun anyway. Maybe there should be a qualifier submit a new behaviour to TDN round ;)

Does anyone know if there are any more frames around for that ninja art?

One thing I would suggest is that the behaviours are made as generic as possible. Maybe ease of use / re-usability / usefulness for the community should be a factor in the judging.

Also, what are the best days for these rounds to take place for everyone? For me I'd say Friday / Sat / Sunday as work commitments take up my weekdays. Dunno, I think there may need to be a little flexibility like GID has in their contests as most of us play with TGB in our downtime.

Anyway, that's my 2c.

So, when are going to kick off? I've got another baby due @ the beginning of March and the clocks a tickin' down on my free time :)

Glenn Thomas (Jan 07, 2008 at 02:36 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

The platformer behaviors are designed not to be a nuisance. They are in-depth but you'll see that they will be pretty beneficial to the community. I wanted to base this on genre because that's how game designers think when they need to develop a game. The winner of the contest will name the next genre for the following contest. This way we mix it up bit and new behaviors are added to the TDN.

Eric Fritz (Jan 07, 2008 at 19:13 GMT)

Quote:
So is this competition endorsed by GG, are there any prizes on offer? What is the incentive for the winner? Almost sounds like you're after some free code! =)

Yes, indeed, it is fully endorsed by GG! It's a great idea for a contest and we can't wait to see what you folks come up with for Behaviors. Ali has already signed up as a judge (he is interning with us in the Tech & Tools division), and we'll get a couple other folks from Tech & Tools to sign up as judges as well.

As for prizes, we would like to offer up $100 off any product(s) in the GG.com store. So, if you don't already own TGB, you can pick up the binary if you win this contest. If you already own TGB, you can pick up some content!

I'll post a news item shortly pointing to this blog post and to the TGB public forum post.

Aun Arinyasak (Jan 09, 2008 at 02:01 GMT)

Count me in as a contestant. :D

Looks interesting . . .

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