Here it is your chance to win up to $5,000!!

Come2Play – Creators of the first white-label social gaming platform and multiplayer game API – are holding a contest, in conjunction with the LinkedIn Flash Game Developers group, for the development of turn based multiplayer games with prizes totaling $8,000.

In a gaming world where new games are launched and disappear just as quickly, multiplayer games with a social infrastructure are a huge hit amongst users; developing a loyal fan base that come back daily to play against each other and their friends.

Come2Play has developed this infrastructure and are inviting game developers to take advantage of it.

Come2Play is revitalizing the formula by allowing for correspondence challenges. With correspondence challenges, a player makes the first move in a game and then sends it to all their friends through email or their favorite social network. Each individual friend can then send back their next move. Each friend who responds starts a new game with the creator of the game. This gaming form provides a huge viral opportunity to game developers looking to expand the reach of their games.

In light of this initiative, Come2Play is launching their latest contest – The Games That Challenge the World Competition.

Using Come2Play’s multiplayer API, developers are challenged to create head-to-head turn based multiplayer games that fit this concept. Prizes will be given out to games that successfully implement this turn based model based on the contest’s concept. Games will be judged based on originality, design, game play and use of Come2Play’s API features. Judging will be done by Come2Play in conjunction with a panel of industry judges.

Games entered into the competition do not have to be exclusive. In addition, you can retrofit an old game that has already been published and released.

$8,000 in Prizes!

Prizes for the contest will be as follows:
$5,000 for first place,
$2,000 for second place
$1,000 for third place

The contest runs from January 1st through March 31st. Games must be submitted by 11:59pm EST on March 31st, 2010.

In addition to the prize money, Come2Play will pay developers with single player games, which have over 100,000 game plays and a rating over 3.5 on Kongregate or Newgrounds, up to $3,000 to convert their single player game to a multiplayer version. Contact Come2Play at submissions[at]come2play.com to see if you qualify.

More information at the official page

It’s a Box2D game made for the 60 seconds to fame contest built around Stabilize! concept.

You can follow the various steps during the creation of this game at this post and the links you will find in it (I won’t fill this post with links…)

You probably noticed I created a website for the game.

Once the contest will be over and the winners will be announced on friday december 11, I’ll start making a couple of game versions with a more interesting and complex gameplay (this is quite simple because it’s meant to end in 60 seconds) with some interesting additional features if the game is played on the website.

It’s also a good way to give some credit to all “underground” third party libraries such as Box2D and SWFObject.

So, from now on, every game I’ll make will have its own site.

If you like to buy a lifetime banner for a few bucks, give me a shout… you know I’ll drive some millions people to the site :)

Original press release:

« Come2Play has teamed up with the LinkedIn Flash Game Developers group to bring you an awesome Flash Game Competition! Just integrate their API in your game, submit it and you could win one of the following cash prizes:

1st Place: $5,000
2nd Place: $2,000
3rd Place: $1,000

It’s not a massive group, so everybody here has a good chance – this is a competition with no strings attached! The game does NOT have to be new, exclusive, advert free or free of sponsor links to be entered.

The main requirement is that all submissions must have the Come2Play API implemented.

Extra benefits of implementing the API include revenue sharing, game distribution to Come2Play partners and multiplayer features.

The deadline is January 31st, 2010, so there is plenty of time to implement the API to all of your games and submit them to Come2Play! »

More information at the official page.

Expect a tutorial about Come2Play features soon.

It was a Flash Game contest held by Mochimedia, and the staff awarded one game a week a $100 prize for being awesome. There were no other rules and no theme. It was simply the staff choosing something they really enjoyed.

Now things changed. The original Flash Game Friday has now become a monthly contest!

Developers will have one month to develop a game based on a specific theme, and the monthly prize is $500.

Winners will be chosen from the eligible games by the Mochi staff.

The first monthly contest is 60 Seconds to Fame.

Rules: Your game must be over/finished and ready for a score submission in 60 seconds or less. It does not matter how good you are in the game, it will still end in 60 seconds or less. The goal in these types of games is to push a user to get better, not so they can last longer, but rather get more points within that same time limit. It’s to spark the “oh, I get it,” or, “Maybe if I tried this…” in the player. Also, it’s to force a developer to stick to their idea without the fear of feature creep, which is often times a key factor in causing your game to not be completed.

Deadline: December 4th, 2009 – 11:59PM PST

Prizes: $400 for the winner, $50 each for two honorable mentions.

If you need some inspiration, on the official page you can find six examples of games built around this theme. You will find all additional rules too.

It’s called WorDrop and it’s a Box2D game made in a couple of days based on this prototype.

It’s not that great game but I would like to localize it in italian and spanish and see how does it perform.

Obviously big kudos to winners and expect some prototype based on winning games durin next days.

The concept is based upon How to use an embedded text file in Flash and some concepts from SamePhysics.

Letters are falling (very quickly in this example), click on them to make a word, click on a previously clicked letter to submit a word and make letters disappear, or click outside to reset the word.

If a letter falls outside the stage, then it’s game over.

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package {
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.utils.Timer;
	import flash.events.TimerEvent;
	import Box2D.Dynamics.*;
	import Box2D.Collision.*;
	import Box2D.Collision.Shapes.*;
	import Box2D.Common.Math.*;
	public class HelloWorld extends Sprite {
		public var words:embedded_text = new embedded_text();
		public var m_world:b2World;
		public var m_iterations:int=10;
		public var m_timeStep:Number=1.0/30.0;
		public var body:b2Body;
		public var bodyDef:b2BodyDef;
		public var boxDef:b2PolygonDef;
		public var word:String="";
		public var letters:String="ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
		public var words_array:Array = new Array();
		public var remove:Boolean=false;
		public var release_letters:Boolean=false;
		public var game_over:Boolean=false;
		public function HelloWorld() {
			words_array=words.toString().split(",");
			var worldAABB:b2AABB = new b2AABB();
			worldAABB.lowerBound.Set(-100.0, -100.0);
			worldAABB.upperBound.Set(100.0, 100.0);
			var gravity:b2Vec2=new b2Vec2(0.0,10.0);
			var doSleep:Boolean=true;
			m_world=new b2World(worldAABB,gravity,doSleep);
			add_walls();
			var time_count:Timer=new Timer(1000);
			time_count.start();
			time_count.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, on_time);
			addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, Update, false, 0, true);
			stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, on_mouse_down);
		}
		public function add_walls() {
			bodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
			bodyDef.position.Set(10.5, 15.75);
			boxDef = new b2PolygonDef();
			boxDef.SetAsBox(10.5, 0.25);
			boxDef.friction=0.3;
			boxDef.density=0;
			body=m_world.CreateBody(bodyDef);
			body.CreateShape(boxDef);
			body.SetMassFromShapes();
			bodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
			bodyDef.position.Set(0.25, 12);
			boxDef = new b2PolygonDef();
			boxDef.SetAsBox(0.25, 4);
			boxDef.friction=0.3;
			boxDef.density=0;
			body=m_world.CreateBody(bodyDef);
			body.CreateShape(boxDef);
			body.SetMassFromShapes();
			bodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
			bodyDef.position.Set(20.75, 12);
			boxDef = new b2PolygonDef();
			boxDef.SetAsBox(0.25, 4);
			boxDef.friction=0.3;
			boxDef.density=0;
			body=m_world.CreateBody(bodyDef);
			body.CreateShape(boxDef);
			body.SetMassFromShapes();
			var the_walls:walls=new walls();
			addChild(the_walls);
		}
		public function on_time(event:TimerEvent) {
			if (! game_over) {
				var lett=letters.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random()*26));
				bodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
				bodyDef.position.x=Math.random()*19+1;
				bodyDef.position.y=-2;
				boxDef = new b2PolygonDef();
				boxDef.SetAsBox(0.75,0.75);
				boxDef.density=1.0;
				boxDef.friction=0.5;
				boxDef.restitution=0.2;
				bodyDef.userData = new letter();
				bodyDef.userData.lettertext.text=lett;
				bodyDef.userData.width=1.5*30;
				bodyDef.userData.height=1.5*30;
				body=m_world.CreateBody(bodyDef);
				body.CreateShape(boxDef);
				body.SetMassFromShapes();
				addChild(bodyDef.userData);
				bodyDef.userData.x=bodyDef.position.x*30;
				bodyDef.userData.y=bodyDef.position.y*30;
			}
		}
		public function on_mouse_down(evt:MouseEvent):void {
			remove=false;
			if (! game_over) {
				var body:b2Body=GetBodyAtMouse();
				var position:int;
				if (body) {
					if (body.m_userData.alpha==1) {
						body.m_userData.alpha=0.5;
						word+=body.m_userData.lettertext.text.toLowerCase();
					} else {
						position=words_array.indexOf(word);
						if (position>-1) {
							word="";
							remove=true;
						}
					}
				} else {
					word="";
					release_letters=true;
				}
			}
		}
		public function GetBodyAtMouse(includeStatic:Boolean=false):b2Body {
			var real_x_mouse = (stage.mouseX)/30;
			var real_y_mouse = (stage.mouseY)/30;
			var mousePVec:b2Vec2 = new b2Vec2();
			mousePVec.Set(real_x_mouse, real_y_mouse);
			var aabb:b2AABB = new b2AABB();
			aabb.lowerBound.Set(real_x_mouse - 0.001, real_y_mouse - 0.001);
			aabb.upperBound.Set(real_x_mouse + 0.001, real_y_mouse + 0.001);
			var k_maxCount:int=10;
			var shapes:Array = new Array();
			var count:int=m_world.Query(aabb,shapes,k_maxCount);
			var body:b2Body=null;
			for (var i:int = 0; i <count; ++i) {
				if (shapes[i].m_body.IsStatic()==false||includeStatic) {
					var tShape:b2Shape=shapes[i] as b2Shape;
					var inside:Boolean=tShape.TestPoint(tShape.m_body.GetXForm(),mousePVec);
					if (inside) {
						body=tShape.m_body;
						break;
					}
				}
			}
			return body;
		}
		public function Update(e:Event):void {
			m_world.Step(m_timeStep, m_iterations);
			for (var bb:b2Body = m_world.m_bodyList; bb; bb = bb.m_next) {
				if (bb.m_userData is Sprite) {
					bb.m_userData.x=bb.GetPosition().x*30;
					bb.m_userData.y=bb.GetPosition().y*30;
					if (bb.m_userData.y>500) {
						game_over=true;
					}
					bb.m_userData.rotation = bb.GetAngle() * (180/Math.PI);
					if (remove&&bb.m_userData.alpha==0.5) {
						removeChild(bb.m_userData);
						bb.m_userData=null;
						m_world.DestroyBody(bb);
					}
					if (release_letters&&bb.m_userData.alpha==0.5) {
						bb.m_userData.alpha=1;
					}
				}
			}
			release_letters=false;
		}
	}
}

where embedded_text.as is coded as follows:

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package {
	import flash.utils.ByteArray;
	[Embed(source="words.txt",mimeType="application/octet-stream")]
	public class embedded_text extends ByteArray {
		public function embedded_text() {
		}
	}
}

And this is the result… (a bit shrinked to make it fit in the blog)

Download the source code… four days left…

Beside the cash, this is a very interesting contest because you must use words, and this will require a lot of game design skill to procude something different than Scrabble.

Another interesting thing is Dictionary.com is even providing a word list to help you get started! The only rules for using this list is to mark on the Title Screen of your game that it is being powered by “dictionary.com”.

You can download the list at this link, and in the zipped file you will find a .eps file with the logo and a list of 147,306 (!!) words.

I will made a couple of tutorials about the use of these words during next days, meanwhile let me talk about the prizes:

1st Place – $7,000
2nd Place – $4,000
3rd Place – $2,000
Honorable Mention (x2) – $1,000 each

Start Date: June 9th, 2009

End Date: August 14th, 2009

Contest Criteria:

* Must incorporate the MochiAds Version Control and Encryption service
* Must be distribution-enabled and use MochiAds Leaderboards
* Must run MochiAds advertisements
* Must be a word game or a game themed around words and puzzles
* Must be entered in MochiAds before midnight August 14th, 2009 PST
* Must be tagged with “dictionary.com”

Check the official page for all information.

MochiAds and Warner Bros have teamed up to bring you a fresh new promotion.

It’s an open casting call for all top Flash developers out there to submit your awesome game ideas for a chance to create an officially licensed game starring none other than Batman himself!

Out of all the submissions, Mochi will select their favorites. Those selected developers will then go on to create these games with, for the first time, official Batman assets provided by Warner Bros. and a chance to win one of many cash prizes!

DEADLINE

Game idea submissions for this promotion are to be submitted by 3/27/2009 11:59PM PST

PRIZE BREAKDOWN

Grand Prize – $9,000 + Contract to create another game for $15,000
WB Choice Award – Four winners receiving $5,000 each
WB Appreciation Award – Five winners receiving $4,000 each

RULES

Phase 1 (3/11/2009 – 3/27/2009)
Submit a game idea that describes your idea for the perfect Batman: The Brave and the Bold game! The submission form asks for items like “game description” and links to “game mockups”. The more comprehensive and detailed these pieces are, the better idea we will have on the game you plan on creating and can then judge accordingly.

Phase 2 (4/10/2009 – 7/2/2009)
Finalists from the casting call are announced and invited to start development on their game! Official Batman assets passed out to finalists participating in the game creation!

Phase 3 (7/3/2009)
Winners announced!

MY CONSIDERATIONS

Obviously, if just had to draw a game idea for a Batman game, it’s quite easy to talk about a GTA game where you roam around Gotham City hunting and chasing criminals.

Unfortunately you must be able to complete your game in about two months, so I think your project will be also evalued according to its chances to be completed in two months.

Moreover, you must provide mockups using the assets you can find at the official page, so I think this will be a very interesting contest.

Read more at MochiLand blog

MochiAds and ArcadeTown are running the Flash Game Walk of Fame Contest with $16,000 in sponsorships to be distributed to top five entries in this way:

1st Place: $7,000
2nd Place: $4,000
3rd Place: $2,000
4th Place: $1,500
5th Place: $1,500

To be elegible for the contest, games have to incorporate the MochiAds Version Control and Encryption service and run MochiAds.

Unlike most contest, this one has no theme so you can unleash your creativity (or submit any of your games currently under development without changing a byte) and you have to opt-in your game to enter the contest.

Deadline is midnight December 31, 2008 PST.

More information at the official page.

It’s the case of byronay that worked on Multiwinia, a multiplayer game that will make you challenge your opponent to a game of stick-man slaughter and witness devastating digital-war unfold.

Byron has decided to give away all 10 copies to random people and all you have to do to get one of those 10 copies is:

1 Download the demo copy of Multiwinia, from the Multiwinia website

2 Play the demo and take a screenshot of the game over screen showing you winning the game. Change the gamer tag to show your name and you have to have won the game to qualify.

3 Send the screenshot of you winning the game to dev[at]xiotexstudios.com. Make sure you put ‘The great Multiwinia give-away’ as the subject of the email.

Then Byron will choose the winners and post them his blog, where you can also find more information about the give-away in the official page.

At this time I wanted to know something more about RTS making and game developing on platforms different than Flash, and that’s the exclusive content Byron is sharing on this blog.

Byron’s opinions

Multiwinia was the first RTS game I have worked on. Previous games were games like Mutant Storm Empire for XBox 360 Live Arcade and NHL for XBox so Multiwinia was a fresh change. The biggest challenge was the sheer amount of activity going on in a single game and making sure that all 4 players saw the same thing. We did that by using a predictive physics system that when it worked well was a dream but when it went wrong was a nightmare to debug. The network protocol devised for this game is very light-weight and sends very little information between the clients and the server and yet we are able to have over 2000 units all having battles on screen. I must admit from a game point of view it is the game I am most proud to have worked on.

One of the biggest issues we had however was on the control mechanism – everybody has their own view on how an RTS game should be played and this caused a lot of issues with our beta testers and the magazines that were reviewing the game. In the end Chris Delay locked himself in a room for a week and came out with the current control methods we have and I think it works well.

Cheers,

Byron.

Let’s win the copy!

At the time I am writing, only 2 people won the free copy, so there are 8 more waiting for us.

What are you waiting for?