Prev/Next Blog
by date

Last Man Standing Behavior Competition - Round 1

Name:	Glenn Thomas
Date Posted:	Jan 09, 2008
Rating:	3.0 out of 5
Public:	YES
Comments:	YES
RSS Feed:	or Subscribe with .
Profile Page:	View profile page for Glenn Thomas

Blog post

Welcome to the first LMS Behavior competition!

The rules are posted in my previous .plan so please see that before asking questions. It is the competitors decision on how many behaviors they create to get the task done. You may utilize any artwork you feel necessary to create your behaviors. For those who don't have the time or the want to create art can utilize the resources that came with the TGB package or the resources found throughout the TDN. Contestants are recommended to utilize the Ninja Image Map from the mini platformer tutorial found in the TDN. The contestant will also be required to set up animations, create a platform for their character, and apply gravitic physics. These instructions can be found in the mini platformer tutorial. With that said welcome to round 1!

Round 1 - Movement Based Behavior(s)

* You will create a behavior that can be attached to an animation that will allow the user to select their
desired keys, joystick, or mouse click for left and right movement and a jump function within the TGB
editor. The user must be able to edit the movement and jumping speed within the TGB editor. The
user must be able to select what animation they want to use when the character moves left, moves
right, jumps, and falls within the TGB editor.

* You will create a behavior or add to your existing behavior the ability to perform a double jump. The
double jump must only function when the user presses the jump button near the peak of the jump
animation. The user must be able to turn the double jumping ability on/off with a check mark box in
the TGB editor.

* You will create a behavior or add to your existing behavior the ability to dash when either direction
has been pressed twice rapidly. There is no requirement for it to call a separate animation for the
dashing ability but the dashing ability must be visibly apparent

* You will create a behavior or add to your existing behavior the ability to mount the camera to an
animation. This behavior must allow the user to set the amount of force from within the TGB editor.

The Extra Credit Tasks for this round are

* You get 1 additional point for using your own art resources in the project (3 minimum)
* You get 1 point for creating your own particles and using within the project (3 minimum)
* You get 1 point for every 3 additional platformer movement type behavior you create that doesn't
exist on the TDN already. (These additional behaviors must stand alone)

This round will last 3 full days. Due to the lateness of this post contestants will have until 12:50 am this Saturday morning to upload their project files. You can either upload your project to a resource or to the TDN. All TDN entries should be on a separate page unlinked to the official Behavior Page. The winners behaviors will be uploaded to the official page at contest close. After which any other unique behaviors can be uploaded to the TDN or existing ones can be updated. Please use this post if you have any questions or concerns.

Judges can still sign up for the contest until round one closes but all contestant entries have closed.

Eliminations will go as follows

Round 1 - 3 contestants will be eliminated

Round 2 - 2 contestants will be eliminated

Round 3 - 2 contestants will be eliminated

Round 4 - 2 contestants will be eliminated

Who will be the Last Man Standing?

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 Arinyasa

Judges:
1. Glenn Thomas
2. Donald Harris
3. Ali Tahiri
4. Derek Bronson
5. Mike Lilligreen

***Important Update***

Due to the ability to comprise the contestant entries. Contestants can email me the files for safe keeping until the round is over. Please email files to nocompstudios@onlinefilefolder.com The subject of your email should be "Contest" without the quotes. Contest must be the subject or else the message will not go through. I will give the judges access to the files after the round is over.

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!

Joe Rossi (Jan 09, 2008 at 09:35 GMT)

Man, that seems like a lot of work for only 3 days. Good luck people!

Oliver Rendelmann - DerR (Jan 09, 2008 at 10:15 GMT)

Good luck to the participants! :) Going to watch closely. :)

Saiko (Jan 09, 2008 at 14:26 GMT)

Good luck everyone.

Just to clarify here... the deadline is 12:50 am PST Saturday? That's about 8:50am GMT. Right?

Also, Joe is right - a lot of work in the time available - especially when you have to work as well - I'm looking at about maybe putting in 12 hours max in 72 possible here.

Anyway, should be fun! Good luck again people.

Ali Tahiri (Jan 09, 2008 at 17:44 GMT)

Hey Glenn,
I was reading some of the posts here and I agree with them that 3 days is not enough to get the job done specially during the weekdays, you know with people having jobs and other commitements. I think it would be better for all of us { including me :P } to have a week long competition starting on monday at midnight and ending sunday at 11:59 pm. That way people have the whole weekend to work on the project. Keep in mind that we want the participants to bring us the best they have. Let me know what you think and also let me know a little bit more about the time we have to judge the projects?
Edited on Jan 09, 2008 17:45 GMT

Phillip OShea (Jan 09, 2008 at 20:12 GMT)

Well, this one has started, so lets just do the best we can and if it is too hard, or people don't submit projects the Glenn can decide if it needs tweaking.

Saiko (Jan 09, 2008 at 20:12 GMT)

Ok - After having a good look at this and breaking it down into what is actually required its not actually that much work. The real work is in the first section ie handling the movement well. It be interesting to see if any one has a really nice and flexible solution for that. There is an ok example for how to do this in TDN already. Once that's done the rest is pretty simple. The camera thing is in TDN already, though with a little tweaking it is a lot more useful for platform games.

So, anyway we've started this round so lets get on with it. I think the time I have available is going to be fine for me to get an entry in. Maybe we can tweak things for the next round to make the it more competitor friendly so we can take a bit more time over each task.

Anyone, started a sweep stake yet? ;)

Joe Rossi (Jan 09, 2008 at 20:15 GMT)

I made good progress on this last night between 4 and 7AM lol. Only because I had today off. This might take me another 3-6 hours to complete, hopefully tonight so I can get back to work on my project. I think all I have left to do is double jumps and some final touches. It's all in one big behavior so I may break it into a few, if I have time.

One thing though... I currently use a class for the object to store his dashing functions and whatnot. Is that ok or should it all be within the behavior? Maybe I'll just add some checkboxes to control where the behavior looks for its movement functions.

This a lot of work for such a short time frame, and there is no way a beginner could do all of this. This is pretty hardcore coding. If I hadn't had a few days off I may have thrown in the towel just looking at the deadline. Maybe we should consider either toning down the requirements per round a bit, or extending the deadlines.

Glenn Thomas (Jan 09, 2008 at 20:49 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

In all fairness of the competition I can't change the length of this round of the competition. Next round I will extend the competition if six out of the ten contestants feel that there's not enough time to get the work done or several projects don't get submitted. Regardless of the state of your individual projects please submit what you have to be judged. As Phillip said, this contest is the first and from your feedback I'll be able to judge the length and difficulty of the contest.

@Joe

Everything should be within a behavior. I'd hate to see a judge mark working scripts due to a technicality. Your project should reflect the behavior playground.

Joe Rossi (Jan 09, 2008 at 21:05 GMT)

Thanks for the clarification Glenn. Since I wasn't too sure on this when I started, I added an enum to allow users to choose between calling movement functions inside the SceneObject (class functions etc.), outside the SceneObject (globals for example), or the ones in the behavior itself (the default).

Aun Arinyasak (Jan 10, 2008 at 01:49 GMT)

While I think 3 days is definitely enough time, but having the event from Thursday to Saturday (at least my time) will force me to work on it only Friday night. If possible, maybe next time we could have the event on Friday - Sunday ? Anyway, this seems to be a fun event for everyone so enjoy ! :D

Glenn Thomas (Jan 10, 2008 at 07:05 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Please read the updated information.

Joe Rossi (Jan 10, 2008 at 07:19 GMT)

Glenn, I tried sending you my project with Contest as the subject.. here's what I got back.

The dropbox for 'nocompstudios' is protected with a remote delivery ID. Specify the ID in the subject of your message.

Your email either didn't specify an ID, or provided an incorrect ID. Your file was not delivered

Donald \"Yadot\" Harris (Jan 10, 2008 at 16:38 GMT)

@Joe
Try sending to my inbox donaldharris29 at G M A I L DOT COM

Yeah... I hate spam

Glenn Thomas (Jan 10, 2008 at 18:17 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

I'll remove the remote ID I set it up to stop spam but I'll release it for the contest try again in 30 mins. This will most likely be a better set up Donald because it's a server that I can provide shared access to for the judges.

The remote ID never updated last night but I did remove it so go ahead and send it. Next round I'll be sure that the remote ID is set up correctly.
Edited on Jan 10, 2008 18:21 GMT

Shawn Simas (Jan 10, 2008 at 19:06 GMT)

I think I'm going to have to drop out. 3 days during the week just isn't enough time. I won't even be able to start until tomorrow evening. I figured we would have had a week to do it.

Sorry, maybe next time when you pick a more reasonable length (or at least do it on the weekend!)

Joe Rossi (Jan 11, 2008 at 02:25 GMT)

Glenn, I resent it and I also CCed Donald. I hope you will let me know if anything went wrong.

Glenn Thomas (Jan 11, 2008 at 04:28 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Joe, everything is fine I did receive your submission in my drop box, plus Donald emailed me a copy.

Glenn Thomas (Jan 11, 2008 at 05:11 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Shawn, I know time is an issue for many contestants and for the next round I will extend the contest to weekly matches, but I have to keep this round of the contest fair for everyone. If the contestants unanimously agree I'll extend this round to a week. Please reply in this thread if you want to vote for the extension. Joe your vote counts as well, even though your entry is already in.
Edited on Jan 11, 2008 05:15 GMT

Joe Rossi (Jan 11, 2008 at 05:29 GMT)

I'd say extend it if you can, but I doubt the vote will be unanimous. It's just a shame people like Shawn aren't participating just because of the time constraint. That said, it only took me 10 hours total to (I believe) meet these requirements and add a few extras..a week should be more than enough time for anyone.

Here's another issue to consider... If a contestant doesn't send in an entry, is he eliminated by default?

Glenn Thomas (Jan 11, 2008 at 21:59 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

I have received 3 entries so far. One is from Michael Hartlef, the other is from Joe Rossi, but the third has no name on it. I don't actually receive an email at the address your sending the files. The address automatically uploads all files to my server. So Please in include your name with the project. thank you.

There's also been a family emergency, I'll have further details soon regarding how it's going to impact me. The judges will receive access to the files around noon tomorrow. Round two will be a week long but I may need Donald to post it for me. Will be in contact.

Shawn Simas (Jan 12, 2008 at 00:14 GMT)

Sent in my entry. Had just enough time to get the basics in, none of the bonuses though.

Saiko (Jan 12, 2008 at 01:25 GMT)

My entry has also been submitted. I'm glad you made it Shawn :)

Anyway.. been long day @ work and it 1:20 am here so I'm crashing.

Good luck everyone! And have fun judges...hope everything is ok there Glenn.

Edit: corrected tired English
Edited on Jan 12, 2008 10:22 GMT

Michael Hartlef (Jan 14, 2008 at 18:56 GMT)

Hi Glenn, I hope everything will be fine with your family.

Glenn Thomas (Jan 15, 2008 at 20:46 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

I'm so sorry about the delay, things are pretty bad but I'll make sure the entries are in the judges hands this evening because I'll have a little time to access the internet. I should also be able to get the second contest prepared so Donald can post it after judging if I'm unable. Next time there will always be a back up. Thanks for all your hard work and sympathy for my situation.

You must be a member and be logged in to either append comments or rate this resource.