Game On C

[chaguy2457]

As a graduating division B student, I've been watching Game On with much interest. I plan to be a video game programmer and have worked in scratch for several years. In my opinion though, I feel as though this event took the wrong approach. I find the idea of making a program and a handful of assets/sounds in 50 minutes restricting. I've seen some projects and though they were good, I'm sure that they could be better if they had more time. So, I thought I'd make a recommendation.

I think that the event should be handled more like a build event than a study event. I think that students should be presented a theme in advance so that they have more time to make their program. Then at the competition, the teams could present their projects to the supervisors individually, during which the supervisors would score the work based on the set criteria (maybe this time could be split into showing the code behind it and the supervisors playing it). This would allow teams to produce programs that have been optimized for the event.

Now when it comes to themes, The frequency of theme changes would most likely have to decrease to provide the time needed to make the game. How many themes would there be? I can't tell, but I was thinking that three or four would be a good number, changing with the level of the competition(invitationals, regionals, etc). I will admit it, having eight to ten months to make a game that would probably be ten minutes long at most is a pretty long time, so the theme should change at least once.

Of course there are several issues with this idea(mainly being that scratch is not the most powerful programming engine, and confirming that the assets used were made by the teams in the scratch editor would be much harder), but it still seems like a better idea then what we have right now. Either way, I am just tossing ideas around and seeing what people think

I've also thought of this idea, but think about the myriad of games available on Scratch. It would be hard to tell whether a competitor made his game from scratch (no pun intended) or not. Or if a coach helped out. Or anything. Placing everyone in a room and making them crank out a game in 50 minutes is the most fair way by a long shot.

What I do think would be helpful is a redesign of the rubric so there is little or no ambiguity. Especially the criterion "complex movement." What does that even mean? Like is bobbing up and down and circling "complex?" The rubric from the 2015-2016 season just left too much for the judge to decide.

[0ddrenaline]

A significant change to the event as previously suggested by JoJojohnson is probably not going to happen before next season. I'm not in the event, but I have heard many complaints about the rubric like the ones suggested by chaguy. I think a plausible change to the rules would be a more objective take on the rubric. A team member also complained about the rubric only having 50 points, although I don't know if that is a relevant argument, as there is a pretty solid tie breaking system.

[DaPlug]

At the National Competition does anyone know what type of game came in first place. The topic was LIGHT.

[0ddrenaline]

West Windsor-Plainsboro got first. If anyone saw what they made or if any team members are on here then we could know. It must have been a genuinely great game. Usually you have to add "for a game made in 50 minutes," but I probably would enjoy playing this game for fun.

[kenniky]

I liked our game, and we got 23rd, lol

I agree with the rubric being too subjective, but there's a super fine line you have to draw. If the rubric is too objective, you kind of lose out on the creativity aspect that makes Game On fun. If we look at Experimental Design's rubric, for example, it's super hard to be subjective with, but it also reduces variety. Game creation should be about creativity imo, so it's kind of hard to find a balance

I feel like Scratch is the easiest way they could go about running this event, unfortunately... Processing (which runs Java) could be used, though, that's not too hard. The problem is that the more complex the language, the more potential bugs you'll have and it gets pretty ridiculous.

If they wanted to test computer science skills, though, there could be a new event that's kind of a mix of Code Busters and the USACO... get a bunch of problems and see how many you can solve. Although that might be pretty hard to implement, and that's wayyyy outside the scope of what we should be discussing here lol

Game On is a flawed event

maybe if Scratch got a substantial update (Scratch 3, anyone? MIT, are you reading this?)

[Magikarpmaster629]

Game On is my team's worst event, and the people doing it are confused on two things. One is that they don't understand why the event allows two people and how to capitalize on that (they say one person codes and the other person sits there looking pretty). The other is how to practice and improve at this event. If someone could answer these it would be much appreciated.

[chaguy2457]

Game On is my team's worst event, and the people doing it are confused on two things. One is that they don't understand why the event allows two people and how to capitalize on that (they say one person codes and the other person sits there looking pretty). The other is how to practice and improve at this event. If someone could answer these it would be much appreciated.

What my partner and I do is that we have a set of default codes and sprites that are going to be in the game no matter what. So when the topic is announced, I make all the defaults while he comes up with a game idea. Once we have our idea I start putting code together while he gives constant feedback on whether something is too fast, too slow, too big, etc. Once we're done he redesigns the sprites and troubleshoots.

For practicing, we obviously practice making our default codes and sprites. The best way to do this is have another team member give you a topic and you create a game. Then have someone evaluate it. It's better if you have multiple teams so many of you can create games at the same time. By comparing you get to see where your creative/coding flaws are and get more ideas for competition. Hope this helps!

[arvind_r]

I emailed the person who said he could send me my Game On game for nationals in May but got no response. Must the request for the game be sent by a coach?
EDIT: The National organization has not authorized the release of the games from Nationals to the distribution of the teams.