We are an Open Source community which makes ideas come to life. We take an idea from our members and create a complete final product from it which we then sell in our shop. Everything we do is completely Open Source. All Schematics, Software code and mechanical designs are available for any registered member to download and use as he wishes. All projects are publicly displayed in our project management section, with constant updates and feedback from the initiator of the idea.
One of the wishes that we got from our members was an Open Source Gaming platform which would be capable to look and operate as well as the latest gaming platforms currently in the market. After a period of development and feedback from the community we have developed the device and currently have it in our shop for anyone who wishes to purchase it or pre-order with a lower price since we do initial prototypes in quantities of 10 units at a time. You can read about the specifications of the gaming platform on our website.
An Open Source device which is great in every way is not enough, there are plenty of Open Source devices, with lesser specs and quality which use mostly Emulators for playing games that other companies created and are not officially supported nor they are meant for those devices.
In Order to break this curse we decided to make a contest for our own Gaming platform. It would be a shame not to use all the hardware features which the console has and marry them with a great Open Source gaming engine such as Irrlicht. To better understand the rules and idea behind this contest here is the description we came up with...
Rules
Anyone can take place in the contest, you can be 1 person or a team, freelancer or employee of another firm. The contestant/contestants should be 18years of age or more. The Contest is broken down to two stages, the Idea & Concept stage and the Development stage.
Stage1 - Idea & Concept
This is the initial stage which takes place between 05 of March and ends on 05 April. In this stage the contestants should introduce them selves to us and the rest of the community on our website where we shall be organizing the event in the Forum section, under the Game Development Contest topic. In the introduction you should describe your team or your self and the idea which you shall be developing. Once you have described your idea and the game theme you are going to develop you should create a discussion in the PXA Gaming Platform Group where you shall be updating everyone about your progress and development of the initial Idea or future development of the game. The initial description will NOT affect any decision or judgment for you final idea unless you create a second topic with the same title as the initial post in the forum with the addition FINAL IDEA. So for instance you create a topic "Super Racing Game" then you need to enter a second post when you are sure about your idea with the name "Super Racing Game - FINAL IDEA" and describe with as much detail as possible your idea attaching any images or demo files in a form of a zip or rar archive. The Judging and Voting will be based on the Second Post and NOT the initial introduction.
After 01 April the topics shall be locked and a decision based on Voting as well as Our own opinion shall be made after the period of 5 working days. There shall be 2 main Winners which will receive the following prizes:
1st Place
- 1 Free Gaming Platform with all Development hardware required for developing a game
- 1500 EURO money prize for development which will be Given in the form of 50% in the beginning of the Development stage and 50% when the development of the game is finished.
- Permanent place in our shop for selling this and any future games with an 80% sales fee from any sold game in the shop
- 1 Free Gaming Platform with all Development hardware required for developing a game
- Permanent place in our shop for selling this and any future games with an 80% sales fee from any sold game in the shop
Stage2 - Development
This is the main development stage which takes place between 05 of April and ends on 05 July. On 05 of April we shall transfer the initial 50% of the prize to the winner through PayPal or Bank Transfer (You shall be asked about the payment information once you enter the contest) and ship the Gaming Console with all required accessories for development. In this stage as the final product the contestant/contestants should present a working prototype of the game which should initially operate on a Linux Based system and later on ported onto the ARM based Gaming platform. We can help porting the game in the final stages of development if such help is required. All progress of development with descriptions and updates should be posted at-least once every week in the PXA Gaming Console Group discussion you have created in the first stage of the contest. If you fail to update your progress during the period of 10 working days then your submission will be canceled and you will not receive the remaining 50% of the prize. If you are in the 3rd or lower places then updates are optional but highly recommended.
All support and help on any console issues shall be provided during the entire development of you project. We shall help anyone who has a question and will give any documentation if such documentation is missing from our website. In general we shall be with you every step of the way and help you with any queries you have, may they be 3D design questions, Graphic design questions or related to software development.
Game Criteria
Since the game is to be developed for a Hand-held device with embedded processing power you should have in mind the following criteria:
- Overall space required for a game should not be higher than 1GB. The games are going to be placed on micro-SD cards of 32MB, 512MB and 1GB
- LCD Resolution is 480 x 272px with screen size of 4.3" Diagonal
- Touchscreen Can be used but is optional
- Analog Thumb stick on the Left side, 2 buttons on the left side and 4 directional buttons with a 5th center button on the right side can be used for controls
- Audio Should be present in the game
- Vibrator motor can be used (we can help on that) but is optional
- WiFi can be used but have in mind that it shall not be available on all consoles since this is an optional feature when purchasing the console
- Try making the game as Light-Weight as possible and try avoiding Hi-Res textures and High Polygonal models, additional optimization may be required
Your idea does not have to be massive or have complex content. You should have in mind your resources and the time given for creating the game. The main criteria is for the game to be fun, simple and entertaining. We prefer if you spend more time on the graphics and the presentation it self rather than a complex story and large amount of 3D models and 3D scenes. If you are limited on resources then take as examples games such as Tetris, Monkey Ball, Chess, Racing, Puzzles.
Have in mind that the game is to be used commercially and no foul language or provocative media should be used. Games should preferably be for all age categories and be interesting to all genders and nationalities.
Most of all try to have fun, we hope that this effort will give the Open Source community a truly Open Source gaming solution and we develop a large collection of games and even larger community that will learn and help others learn all about games and all the work that goes into developing them.
If you have any questions regarding this contest then please feel free to post here or send us a direct E-mail at info AT gizmoforyou DOT com
