[betpet]

Hi all,

Thanks to my stupidity (no comments please), I have accidentally purchased the multipack of Zero Gear on Steam.  I have donated copies to worthy people but I am keeping one copy for the winner of the following compo...

Create a PBeM remake

SmileyMan, Pags, Bob and myself are trying to set up a PBeM (Play By eMail) game of Civ IV and having a large number of issues.  Can you do better than Firaxis?

You will have a few weeks to put together this beauty.  I'm setting a closing date of

1st March 2010
1st April 2010
Midnight 11th April 2010

You don't have to go the whole hog with automated emailing and the like, saving progress to a file to send on is good enough.

Feel free to be as imaginitive and crazy as you like but...

1.  It must work (duh I know but it has to be said).
2.  The judges must be able to play it on their machines.
3.  This must be new work (although nicked sprites are acceptable I guess).
4.  Late entries will get a mention but won't be eligible for the prize.

The judges are currently myself, SmileyMan and Bob.  I'm sure a couple more will join later on (once I've had a chance to ask them) and announcements will be forthcoming.

I'll let you in on a secret.  I'll personally be awarding an extra 5% to any entrant that does Laser Squad, Rebelstar (or any derivitive), or Lords of Chaos.  Apart from being well suited to PBeM, they're favourites of mine.  The other judges may have other favourites they'd like to see attempts on.  They may hint as and when they read and respond to this thread.

Oh, could entrants please add a response to this thread to let me know that there is actually someone taking part?

PRIZES (ZOMG, THERE IS SOME!)

From Betpet

The prize is one copy of the Steam edition of Zero Gear and an achievyment and no other alternative is available.  You will be required to supply your email address or (better) your steam ID to allow transfer of the game to the winner.  Judges decision is final and if you don't like it, tough shit.  There is no hidden agenda (apart from another medium for remakes and more lines of fun for the guys at RR!)  The winner will also agree to occasionally join in with the RR loonies online for battles, races and general personal abuse and fun

From Smiley

Got some money to burn now, so I'm adding in six(?) Judges Prizes (one each I think) - a Steam game of your choice up to £7 in value.

To give you an idea, right now this would get you something like Braid, Defense Grid, Plants vs Zombies, AudioSurf or perhaps a classic like Half Life, GTA: Vice City or Deus Ex

From Tam Toucan

An Acekard 2

From Lobo

Anyway, on another note, since I do like the idea (even though my entry might fail totally), was thinking to boost up the spirits of competition a little and add to betpet prize.
Basically, I will donate 4 copies of "Time Gentlemen, Please! and Ben There, Dan That! Double Pack" for the first four places. These two games are cool.

From Amarth

I'll jump on the bandwagon. Since this is a competition about PBEM games, I'll offer a PBEM game of choice (or something TBS-like and closely related to it) to the entry with the highest standard deviation in judge scores. Yeah, I stole this from the IF competition and I LIKE IT. Winner can choose among:

* Solium Infernum (standalone)
* Civ IV complete (Steam)
* X-Com complete (Steam)
* Freedom Force complete (Steam)
* Space Empires IV + V (Steam)
* Jagged Alliance 1 + 2 + extensions (GOG)
* Heroes of Might and Magic 1 + 2 + 3 (GOG)

From Bob

For the overall winner, a Steam game of their choice up to the value of £20 (at the time of the results being published, obv.)

Get coding people!!!

[SmileyMan]

Yes, Smiley's a judge - be afraid!  I'm not after a particular favourite, since pet's covering Laser Squad, but I'll add that although turn-based strategy games (and RTS games bastardised) are the obvious candidates, I will look favourably on anyone who can really break the mould.  PBEM arena shooters, PBEM puzzle games, these will grab my attention.

Although if someone remakes WIME I will love them forever.

[AndyH]

I have an idea for a remake that could translate to pbm, but I'll have to expand the original a lot so it has a chance of working for several players.

Count me in.

[Sokurah]

Although if someone remakes WIME I will love them forever.

What's WIME?

[SmileyMan]

What's WIME?

If I tell you, everyone will have a go at the same game!  People who know what WIME is will know what it is, and people who don't, won't.

[RobF]

Women In Moomin Ecstasy.

[betpet]

Something people may not realise immediately is that doing PBeM can eliminate the need to do AI for the game which is something I know can put a lot of people off.  It saves a lot of work and hassle too since you only have to enforce the rules without having to tell the AI how to play the game too.

[Minion]

Women In Moomin Ecstasy.

Shouldn`t that be Moomin in moomin Ecstasy #replacewomanwithmoomin

[deps]

My first reaction was €"#%#€"! not now!! Since I'm fiddling a bit with an entry for the Game Jolt compo. But then I saw that I have until march to do it, so february should be open for this. I'm in! I have some ideas as well. I don't have a steam account, but I'm not going to win so that wouldnt matter.

[betpet]

YAY!  The ultimate aim is to get more remakes and some PBeM games for us to fuck around on.  The prize just happened to come about by accident.

[Endurion]

What's the consensus on the email part? How is that usually done or preferred? Just preparing a binary save game file to play from or doing the whole email connection shebang as well (which would be pretty dumb IMHO)?

[SmileyMan]

What's the consensus on the email part? How is that usually done or preferred? Just preparing a binary save game file to play from or doing the whole email connection shebang as well (which would be pretty dumb IMHO)?

Thanks for reading betpet's original rules!  Given the time constraints, a binary file, ready to email, preferably with a sensible name to help people with filing.  No need to put in an auto-emailer, especially one that will cope with the multitude of badly-configured mail servers out there.

[SmileyMan]

BtW, why is it that as soon as you can't enter for something, you instantly have hundreds of brilliant ideas?  Grrrrrr......

[betpet]

BtW, why is it that as soon as you can't enter for something, you instantly have hundreds of brilliant ideas?  Grrrrrr......

There's no reason why you can't enter me ole mucker.  But being a judge you're ineligible for the prize or judging your own entry

[betpet]

What's the consensus on the email part? How is that usually done or preferred? Just preparing a binary save game file to play from or doing the whole email connection shebang as well (which would be pretty dumb IMHO)?

As SmileyMan said.  It's in the rules but saving a file to manually email to the next player would be fine.  As Smiley also said, a sensible naming convention would help brilliantly.

[SmileyMan]

An example:

Code:

Bad    : save.dat
Better : turn1.dat
Best   : MyGame_CustomNameSoWeCanPlayManyAtOnce_Turn1_to-betpet.dat

[betpet]

An example:

Code:

Bad    : save.dat
Better : turn1.dat
Best   : MyGame_CustomNameSoWeCanPlayManyAtOnce_Turn1_to-betpet.dat

This

[caffeinekid]

Wouldn't this need an online database too for games with a game id and turn id that is the next one expected to make sure people don't play turns out of order and mess everything up?

All this goes whoosh over my head - only one I've ever played was Naked War and it works by being connected to a website player profile and turns/games database.

[betpet]

Wouldn't this need an online database too for games with a game id and turn id that is the next one expected to make sure people don't play turns out of order and mess everything up?

All this goes whoosh over my head - only one I've ever played was Naked War and it works by being connected to a website player profile and turns/games database.

Naaah.  You store everything in the save game (including player details, turn, board state, whose move it is, etc.) and send it over to the next player.  You only really need the online stuff if you're playing online together in real time.  naturally there is an element of trust when it comes to turns and cheating.

[betpet]

Great news.  Caff and Pags have agreed to be judges.  Woo hoo!

[Amarth]

Are we allowed to have multiple entries? I currently have a few small silly ideas but am still waiting for inspiration for a really good one.

[betpet]

Are we allowed to have multiple entries? I currently have a few small silly ideas but am still waiting for inspiration for a really good one.

Knock yourself out.  One prize for the winning entry.  The rest will be honourable runners up

[Happymonster]

Only +5% for Laser Squad?! But it's not public domain though is it.. copyright issues?

[Endurion]

Duh, that's what I get for skim reading *donkeyhat*

Damn competitions, just fresh done with TIGsource, and now this. M U S T  R E S I S T...

[deps]

Why even try to resist? We all know that we will be sitting here coding like, or because, our pants is on fire the last few days of the compo!