Hi all,
would the judges be releasing the rankings of games? because I would like to see by how far I got my ass wooped! 
Assuming you’re talking about the recently-announced Java Technology Game Development Contest, I would guess no.
They will announce a grand prize winner, a runner-up and two honorable mentions, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the judges mention projects they liked but that didn’t quite make the grade.
However, it’s not considered fair game to single out the worst in any competition, and it would be far too much work for the judges to have to decide on the overall ranking of potentially thousands of different projects, anyway.
Reckon they’re going to get that many entries eh? Hehe
Cas
Hey, I did say “potentially”! ;D
Okay, prediction time! How many entries will the contest get? The prizes are good, and two months is a reasonable length of time for many projects to get a working beta out. However, non-US developers need to deal with the stupidity of an intercontinental fax before they can enter, knocking most casual entrants out immediately, and as there’s no requirement to start from scratch it’s only the already-established projects that have a chance of winning.
I’ll guess at 50 entrants/teams.
(Is it just me, or have they removed the ability to see who’s involved with a project in Java.net? You used to be able to do that, right?)
- If those were all commercial-quality entrants, then that would could be counted a great success for the comp. Please allow me to draw your attention to the IGF (Independent Games Festival, part of the GDC each year), which in no previous year has managed more than about 5 entrants that I would call “commercial-quality”. And this is despite being featured at the GDC itself, with a huge glitzy awards ceremony, dedicated free space on the show floor, etc. (nb: haven’t checked out this year’s IGF but I hope this has changed and there’s load of great ones this time?)
[] The reaction on these boards appears to be:
[list]
[] “I don’t have a chance unless I’ve already got a game I’ve been working on for months”
[] “Need more time”
[] “Can’t do it on my own as a hobbyist”… and yet very little evidence of teams forming, which is sad 
(nb last IGF I asked if anyone was interested in collaborating on a game and got several responses all along the lines of “wish I could but don’t have time” or “wish I could but I’m not confident I have the ability”).
[*] The reaction outside these boards appears to be
[*] …deafening silence…
And I’m assuming that you can also email a scanned copy or post a signed copy - seeing as those both have the exact same legality as a fax.
(Nb: prior experience with US organizations that needed signed docs is that an emailed scan has never been a problem for any of them, whereas getting faxes to talk to each other across the atlantic seems strangely difficult [I suspect it’s due to the cheap international phone call deals with some kind of noise on the line / unusual line configuration; all I know is the last 2 times I tried to different offices it failed whereas UK is fine]).
[quote]blahblahblahh (weird name by the way :-/ )
[/quote]
It’s distinctive; no-one forgets who I am ;). And you can pretty much bet there’s no other player anywhere who’s adopted the nick ;D.
I’ve started a thread (just trying to get the ball in motion) which hopefully will be a place for you to find other people from here; better to use a new thread with an obvious title for this I think :).
Personally I don’t know yet if I’ll have time to enter. I suggest you post a 100-word summary of your game idea in that thread and try and attract some partners.
well I’m entering with at least two other developers - so that’s a team.
We just formed it in private not on the boards
And I’ve been able to send faxes to Sun before from Australia - we’ve got a special international fax number which I think does some funky stuff (maybe it’s even a proxy?) to make the faxes work.
Will.