GitHub Game Off

https://github.com/blog/1303-github-game-off

by remi • 14 years ago

199 40 14 years ago

github.com

hahainternet2• 14 years ago

Apple Store Credit? I'd rather take cash thanks.

hackmiester• 14 years ago

Yes, it seems strange that github would be giving away prizes that are so... closed.

jychang• 14 years ago

There are more legal restrictions on giving away cash.

streptomycin• 14 years ago

A proprietary software company giving away prizes that let you buy stuff from another proprietary software company? Say it ain't so!

swang• 14 years ago

Are there more restrictions with having a contest that gives away cash/check rather than prizes/gift cards?

elemeno• 14 years ago

Apple Store Credit can be trivially given to anyone in a pretty large number of countries in the world - something that probably isn't true for cash.

w1ntermute• 14 years ago

I'd be more than happy to accept payment in the form of Bitcoins. OTOH, Apple Store Credit is worthless to me, as I don't own any Apple products, nor do I have an account on Apple's digital store.

jonpaul2• 14 years ago

Doesn't this sentiment feel a bit too entitled to anyone? If someone is having a contest and you don't like the prize, just ignore the contest.

johncoltrane• 14 years ago

If someone is posting something on a public discussion forum and you don't like some or parts of it, just ignore the post? Or give your opinion?

This news was posted here to generate discussion and that's what happened. Are you not OK with that?

And I second the parent's sentiment: the prize has no value at all. "Karma points" or SO reputation have probably more value to the target population than that.

matthuggins• 14 years ago

I presume the projects that are built are intended to be public repositories, but it is not clear from the contest rules. Is that correct?

laggyluke• 14 years ago

The original repository you have to fork (github/game-off-2012) is public. You can't make forks of public repositories private, so you're right.

daigoba66• 14 years ago

The nice thing about git is that it is distributed. Meaning, you don't have to push to your public fork until just before the deadline if you concerned about your ideas being stolen.

sneak2• 14 years ago

However, (having not read the rules) I assume there's nothing stopping you from committing an obfuscated/minified/compiled version if you care that much.

epaik2• 14 years ago

Oh man I'm psyched about this. I love game jams, and GitHub's event will surely draw people new to the concept. The more the merrier!

I'm honestly a little turned off by the prize though. I'd rather there be no prize at all but instead some internet recognition maybe (like Ludum Dare). Perhaps they'll introduce some alternative prizes later on?

jrajav• 14 years ago

So give yours to charity when you win it. It's great motivation for a lot of people who would otherwise not be that psyched to participate.

epaik2• 14 years ago

I understand where you're coming from, but my point wasn't "I don't want an iPad", but rather that I feel like these prizes specifically cheapen the feel of the jam, especially considering how big github is. I don't know, I guess I've never participated in a game jam with a prize. But seeing as Ludum Dare pulled >1000 participators last jam, it doesn't seem like game developers need too much of a monetary incentive to jam.

In any case, I'm happy that this is happening; prize or no prize :)

beghbali• 14 years ago

The internet recognition is through limited edition Coderwall badges: http://coderwall.com/p/4me4eq

encoderer• 14 years ago

No joke, on my "ideas to hack on" list, I have: "A game of some kind based on Github pull requests"

I think this could be good.

alttab• 14 years ago

No Ipad mini? Those prizes are so last week.

ionforce• 14 years ago

Hence the store credit!

vitorbal• 14 years ago

Can anyone recommend me some good game development books for someone who wants to create "small" games as a hobby? By "small" I mean that my goal is to be able to create games for ocasions like the GitHub Game Off, or some small indie games

saiko-chriskun• 14 years ago

Books? Just pick a framework and start hacking.

eigenbom• 14 years ago

Just go through tutorials, e.g. ,on pygame.org

damian2000• 14 years ago

There's a book here that looks good - published by Packt - http://www.packtpub.com/game-jam-survival-guide/book ... its by Christer Kaitila, a game developer with 17-years experience. I don't think its got any technical information. I haven't read it myself, but these headings from the table of contents look like good advice...

- Go with what you know

- Don't try a new language

- Don't worry about making it beautiful!

- Keep It Simple, Stupid!

- No-art (rectangles) gameplay proof-of-concept

- Heinous hacks and ugly code are A-OK.

VSerge• 14 years ago

Jesse Schell's "the art of game design". It will give you a solid understanding of what game design is and how you can do it. Also, it's a very good read, which doesn't hurt when you're trying to learn something.

I disagree strongly with the advice consisting of: "start hacking and see what happens". For any kind of product design, starting something without any kind of direction is the surest way to go nowhere.

padobson2• 14 years ago

Anybody want to put a HNers team together for this?

jeremiep• 14 years ago

I'd be interested! I've got plenty of free time on evenings and weekends the entire next month.

padobson2• 14 years ago

Cool, send me an email (check my HN profile), and we'll discuss.

brackin• 14 years ago

This is quite cool, the coding alternative to NaNoWriMo.

MartinCron• 14 years ago

That's what I thought as well.

Also, for anyone who has ever considered doing NaNoWriMo, I strongly suggest you give it a try. It's an amazing experience that not only seriously improves your writing skills, but it also helps you appreciate the craft of storytelling when you read books or watch movies or whatever.

zevyoura• 14 years ago

> You have the entire month of November...

So... it's not November yet. Can you start?

EDIT: They answered this here: https://github.com/github/game-off-2012/issues/15

> I should clarify that. Yeah, you can start now :)

GitHub Game Off

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