Programming Contest

[aaaron]

**[Virtual Pet::Programming Contest]**

_**Summary:**_

Think you have what it takes to program a virtual pet that you can feed, water and take care of? Maybe you didn't have any good use to put forth such a thing. Now you do. You could even win yourself a copy of Windows 8! The guidelines may sound like a lot, but it's one easy and fun contest.

We hope that most of you join in on this.

_**Contest ends:**_ December 31st, 2012 (may be pushed back)

_**Guidelines:**_

- You may use: _C/C++/C#/Java/VB6/LUA/VB.NET/HTML5/Javascript_

- Any library is fine

- Pet must have three stages: _Happy/Neutral/Sad_

- Must be able to _feed_ pet

- Must be able to _water_ pet

- Must be able to _sleep_ pet

(Some sort of indication bars for each above)

- Must be from scratch

_Meaning no engines, libraries are fine_

- It can be text based, image based or game based

- Must be made for PC

- Must be uploaded on [Eclipse's Filehost](http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/community/index.php?/page/index.html/filehost.html)

_**Prizes:**_

**1st place winner** - _1 Windows 8 Pro Activation Key_

**2nd place winner** - _1 Windows 8 Activation Key_

**3rd place winner** - _Contest Winner Usergroup and uhh.. bragging rights?_

_**Judges: (Send me a PM if you would like to help)**_

General General Pony (VB6)

Budweiser (C#/VB.NET)

Magical Magical Magical Magical Aeroplane (C/C++/C#/VB.NET)

Duke (Visual Appearance)

[Mal]

When you say "from scratch", what exactly do you mean? Does it have to be graphical? If so, can we utilize intermediate libraries such as SMFL, XNA, and SlimDX (obviously, these would not constitute "from scratch")? Can it be text-based? What kind of platform should it support (Win 7? Win 8? Surface RT? Linux? Android?)? Are we limited by the hardware that the judge would use (DX10, Shader 3.0, etc) or can we go balls out?

If you're going to hold these contests you need to start putting a little more thought into them; just a piece of advice.

[Xtrea]

For say you were to enter this. Would graphics be taken into consideration into judging it cause Im a crappy artist.

[Marsh]

.Net is a platform?

Think the contest is fine, But a clearer definition of from scratch would be nice. I really doubt anyone here is going to make it from scratch. Everyone is going to use a engine or library of some sort.

[JohnPony]

I think Aaron meant that the portion of the program handling the virtual pet itself must be from scratch, you cannot use existing code on the internet.

[Marsh]

Makes sense. Might enter this once school is over if i can find some time. Doing 3 projects at the moment.

[Mal]

> .Net is a platform?
>
> Think the contest is fine, But a clearer definition of from scratch would be nice. I really doubt anyone here is going to make it from scratch. Everyone is going to use a engine or library of some sort.

It's a framework, but yeah, nix the .NET since I have win7 and 8 up there.

[Lavos]

Sounds fun, I'll take part of this project. =D

[aaaron]

Added to main post:

- Must be made from scratch

_Meaning no engines, libraries are fine_

> When you say "from scratch", what exactly do you mean? Does it have to be graphical? If so, can we utilize intermediate libraries such as SMFL, XNA, and SlimDX (obviously, these would not constitute "from scratch")? Can it be text-based? What kind of platform should it support (Win 7? Win 8? Surface RT? Linux? Android?)? Are we limited by the hardware that the judge would use (DX10, Shader 3.0, etc) or can we go balls out?
>
> If you're going to hold these contests you need to start putting a little more thought into them; just a piece of advice.

Thanks for the tips.

- It can be text based, image based or game based.

- Any library is fine.

- Must be made for computer

[JohnPony]

> - Must be made for computer

Yeah, because everyone would totally make it for the potato.

[aaaron]

Right on.

Also, should it be based off of community judging or sticking with General Pony and a few others?

[Mal]

> Yeah, because everyone would totally make it for the potato.

I think what he means is Windows PC; other platforms are excluded (e.g. no phone/tablet OS's).

> Right on.
>
> Also, should it be based off of community judging or sticking with General General General Pony and a few others?

In my opinion, this is a programming contest and not a "lets see who can make it pretty" contest; design and programming are two very different topics and should be kept separate in terms of graphics or games in general. That being said, I think it should be judged based on following proper programming guidelines and principles, like encapsulation/scope, naming conventions (NO Hungarian), etc.

As far as who it's judged by goes, they need to know their shit and know their shit when it comes to multiple languages; that includes .NET, C++, and VB6; I don't know of a single person on this forum that is intermediate or better at those other than Jeff (c++/c#, don't know about VB6); Mrsh is a close second since he's not very familiar with .NET but is getting along in C++ and I'm sure he's retained some knowledge of VB6.

So.. I guess we could have multiple judges? One for VB6, one for .NET, one for C++ / other?

[Ertzel]

I'll enter this one. Sounds like it could be some fun to make. I made something like this in App-form last year (lost the code though) and would be nice to re-create it but for the PC.

For judging, I'd say pick a select few people who know wtf they are doing in terms of coding. I assume this will be judged based on the actual codes and not the visual aspect so it shouldn't be a community driven judging as a lot of people may not know how to actually judge the codes fairly.

[Richy420Rich]

Open source?

Connection or Offline?

[Mal]

> Open source?
>
> Connection or Offline?

Open source and I'm assuming it'll be stand-alone.

[Ertzel]

> Open source?

It has to be open source at least to the extent of showing the source to the judges, or else how would they judge programming without seeing the code…

[Richy420Rich]

Mk, I'll see if I can do something for the lulz..

[Ertzel]

Question about the virtual pet. Do we need to have it be like real-time based or only based on when the program is running. Like, if the pet gets hungry every 20 minutes lets say does that mean my program should be running for an overall 20 minutes (so like run for 20 minutes at once, or 10 minutes then 10 minutes, ect..). Or should it mean if I start my pet, then 5 minutes into the timer I close my program and open it up 14 minutes later, my timer should only have 1 minute left on it since it has been 19 minutes overall even if the program wasn't running.

[Mal]

> Question about the virtual pet. Do we need to have it be like real-time based or only based on when the program is running. Like, if the pet gets hungry every 20 minutes lets say does that mean my program should be running for an overall 20 minutes (so like run for 20 minutes at once, or 10 minutes then 10 minutes, ect..). Or should it mean if I start my pet, then 5 minutes into the timer I close my program and open it up 14 minutes later, my timer should only have 1 minute left on it since it has been 19 minutes overall even if the program wasn't running.

Just going on assumption, but I'm guessing that it wouldn't hurt to save game states so that you can load them or start a new pet.

I'll be entering a C (that's right, not C# or C++.. straight C) command line program into this contest in an effort to learn C; I plan to do it as OO as possible. It'll be primitive but it'll be in a low-level language.

[Exception]

Isn't this just a rebut of a contest that either you, Landon, or John hosted on Devox about a year back? 

Well, I'll enter with something in C#.

Also, question, howcomes VB6 and C# is fine (Deprecated and .NET regardless, respectively), yet VB.NET isn't?

[aaaron]

> Question about the virtual pet. Do we need to have it be like real-time based or only based on when the program is running. Like, if the pet gets hungry every 20 minutes lets say does that mean my program should be running for an overall 20 minutes (so like run for 20 minutes at once, or 10 minutes then 10 minutes, ect..). Or should it mean if I start my pet, then 5 minutes into the timer I close my program and open it up 14 minutes later, my timer should only have 1 minute left on it since it has been 19 minutes overall even if the program wasn't running.

I think whenever the programming is running, so just have it save the game.

> Isn't this just a rebut of a contest that either you, Landon, or John hosted on Devox about a year back? 

Now that I think of it…. probably something I had on an old site. Not Devox though. ;p

[AeroEBrown]

> Just going on assumption, but I'm guessing that it wouldn't hurt to save game states so that you can load them or start a new pet.
>
> I'll be entering a C (that's right, not C# or C++.. straight C) command line program into this contest in an effort to learn C; I plan to do it as OO as possible. It'll be primitive but it'll be in a low-level language.

You can't OO with C Bud…impossibru.

I'll see if I can get a hold of Stephan within the next month and find out if he will be a judge for this.

Thanks,

Aeroplane

[Mal]

> You can't OO with C Bud…impossibru.
>
> I'll see if I can get a hold of Stephan within the next month and find out if he will be a judge for this.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Magical Magical Aeroplane

Yeah, I found that out pretty quickly.. procedural.. yuck. Is it weird that I've practically forgotten how to write procedurally??

[AeroEBrown]

> Yeah, I found that out pretty quickly.. procedural.. yuck. Is it weird that I've practically forgotten how to write procedurally??

I R TELL YOU. What R I say earlier? I R say "U CANNOTZ MAEK OO IN C!" 

Nah, I forgot procedural as well.

Thanks,

Aeroplane

[Mal]

> I R TELL YOU. What R I say earlier? I R say "U CANNOTZ MAEK OO IN C!" 
>
> Nah, I forgot procedural as well.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Magical Magical Aeroplane

Silly OOP.. making us forget things. So I'm renigging on writing it in C. Way too close to machine for me (don't have a need or want to be that close to it). That being said, I don't have a need to enter. I'll volunteer to judge .NET if no one else wants to.