Game devs: Intel wants YOU for competition! (and free games too)

Divebommah

Update, 9/16/09: The winners have been announced, and I invite you to come download and play the winning games. You can find those here: http://software.intel.com/en-us/cont...9/contests.php. In other words, FREE GAMES PEOPLE!

Note: I work with Intel promoting this competition. Got a green light from Apotheos.

AWESOMETASTIC UPDATE!!!!!!!1111!!!!!!!!
Hey everyone. I'm resurrecting this thread because I have some bloody awesome news. As a recap, I'm working with Intel to get the word out about this indie game development competition.

Well, we just announced our panel of judges. I'm stoked because YOU MAY HAVE HEARD OF SOME OF THEM:


Sid 'Alpha Centauri' Meier _and_ Will 'SimCity 2000' Wright


Brad 'GalCiv' Wardell (no disrespect to Brad, just couldn't figure how to fit all three on one row)

Check out the rest of the judges here: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/levelup-judges/

I also have more awesome news. The winners of our competition will be included on a PC Gamer DVD later this year!!! Am I allowed to lime twice in one post?

So, a reminder -- our deadline to submit a game CONCEPT (NOT CODE) is July 1. We also have a contest going on right now where the highest rated game concept every week wins a $100 gift card. See currently submitted concepts (and vote for them!) here: http://software.intel.com/en-us/contests/levelup2009/viewall_entries.php

Please read on for more details, and please tell all your developer friends.

---

Dear game developers and indie gaming fans. This one is for you. The third year of Level Up, Intel's game development competition, just kicked off, and we're looking for competitors. Details follow -- I'll try to answer any questions here or at the FB group (see the bottom). Game devs, please show us your stuff! :winky:

Wut's this now?
Level Up 2009 (maek click for homepage) is all about building a game that plays nice with Intel's graphics hardware. If you've used a laptop, you've probably tried to play a game on one of Intel's cards. This is all being done in the spirit of showing off what the GPU's and development tools can do, hooking up finalist devs with awesome swag, and giving all of us awesometastic games to play for free.

What to submit and when?
Check the rules page for details, but here are a few milestones:

• March 23, 2009 through July 1, 2009: Contest registration is open. Participants may submit abstract details, screenshots and movies of their game demo during this time. Otherwise their contribution will not be considered or judged. You do not need to submit the whole game.
• July 2, 2009 through July 17, 2009: Judging takes place to identify ten finalists in each category. Judges will also evaluate screenshots and movies of all entries from each language-specific site combined. At the end of the judging period, the top ten scoring entries in each of the three categories will proceed as finalists for final judging. Intel reserves the right to pick alternate finalist entries if any of the chosen entries are deemed ineligible to compete for a category prize.
• July 24, 2009: Finalists will be announced on the main contest page. Finalists will be required to submit their game demo executable program as well as an article on their work
• August 10, 2009: Finalists executable programs and articles are due.

Wot are the prizes then?
The lists of prizes are long. Check them out here, or just let me summarize a few:

First place!

• A meeting with a lead game developer or executive to have game demo reviewed at the 2009 Austin Game Developers Conference. Travel expenses not included.
• A high end gaming desktop selected by Intel Corporation from a local OEM or retailer with the highest performing Intel® processor available at that time. Up to US$4,000 retail value.
• A game developer software package including Adobe* Creative Suite 4 Production Premium, Autodesk* Maya Complete 2009, and Cakewalk* SONAR 8 Producer. US$4,300 retail value.

Second place!

• One (1) Boxed Intel® Coreâ„¢ i7-940 Processor (8M Cache, 2.93 GHz, 4.80 GT/s Intel® QPI) FC-LGA8 or equivalent model. Up to US$1,000 retail value.
• A game developer software package including Autodesk* Mudbox 2009 and Cakewalk SONAR Studio Edition. US$890 retail value.

Third place!

• A game developer software package including Autodesk* ImageModeler 2009 and Cakewalk Rapture. US$1,200 retail value.

Where are the free games plzkthx?!
Here's a link to the finalists from 2007 and here's one to the 2008 finalists. Sorry for the tiny screenshots :P Here's a short list of what's there:

First place, 2008: Goo:

Download link

Second place, 2008: Xenus 2: Белое Золото (yes, a lot of our competitors are from overseas -- the russians are putting out some awesome games these days yesno?)

Download link

2007: Synaesthete (this one is awesome - think, um, Crusader: No remorse meets Guitar Hero)

Download here

2007: Red Assault

Download here

And and and!
We started a Facebook group. We'll be posting interviews with winners from previous years, some technical articles that will interest the uber devs, and probably give away swag and stuff. Hope you'll join us.

That's it. Thoughts please! I KNOW some of you have already played Synaesthete since I think I learned about that game on these forums a couple years ago -- what did you think? I prefer it to Audiosurf, personally.

anoffday

I wish I knew how to make games. I can't even figure out game maker.

Divebommah

anoffday wrote: »

I wish I knew how to make games. I can't even figure out game maker.

Aw c'mon Anoffday, that doesn't count you out of the picture. There's tons of ways to get involved in making games -- make art, music, scripts, help market or sell the finished product.

I can make a mean BASIC text adventure. Thought: Get a forum to collaboratively build a BASIC text adventure. Each person writes twenty lines of code.

xzzy

Seems odd that performance with intel's graphics chips is only used as criteria for one of the categories.. the other two are targeted for mobile systems, or a top of the line gaming rig.

It's a neat contest, not really accessible for amateurs though. Building anything that could fit in those categories by July 1st is going to require the author hit the ground running. Not to mention you'd have to actually own the hardware, so you could test your code.

Divebommah

xzzy wrote: »

Seems odd that performance with intel's graphics chips is only used as criteria for one of the categories.. the other two are targeted for mobile systems, or a top of the line gaming rig.

It's a neat contest, not really accessible for amateurs though. Building anything that could fit in those categories by July 1st is going to require the author hit the ground running. Not to mention you'd have to actually own the hardware, so you could test your code.

There's no need to create a full game -- the equivalent of a playable tech demo will cut it for judging. Like all indie games, past winners tended more towards innovation than sexiness or sprawling gameplay.

Also mobile systems are a big deal for Intel (as they are for many companies), and Intel wants developers to know they have tools available for development on those platforms. As for a top of the line gaming rig -- nawww. I seem to recall that Galactic Civilizations 1 and 2 are threaded games, and they certainly never required killer gaming rigs.

xzzy

Any i7 or quad core processor certainly qualifies as top of the line for me.

I'm not slamming on the contest, I think it's a neat thing, it just seems like anyone not already geared up to work with Intel's hardware and development tools are going to be at a disadvantage.

Divebommah

xzzy wrote: »

Any i7 or quad core processor certainly qualifies as top of the line for me.

I'm not slamming on the contest, I think it's a neat thing, it just seems like anyone not already geared up to work with Intel's hardware and development tools are going to be at a disadvantage.

Xzzy, sorry man, not seeing the i7/quad-core requirement in the rules. Are you inferring that?

Argh, you know what I forgot to mention in the OP Xzzy? The period between now and July 1 asks that you just submit a registration form with the details, screenshots, and movies of your game -- not the whole game. You will then get access to these tools:

• Intel® C++ Compiler 11.0
• Intel® VTune™ Performance Analyzer 9.1
• Intel® Thread Checker 3.1
• Intel® Thread Profiler 3.1
• Intel® Threading Building Blocks 2.1
• Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives 6.0

You won't actually have to submit the game itself until August 10. OP updated!

Divebommah

Okay Xzzy, I think I'm getting a better understanding of where you're coming from. I've been reading a heck of a lot more about parallel programming lately.

I really don't think you need a high-end CPU, just a multi-core CPU. Intel is on a big push to get developers thinking about programming in parallel, as opposed to serial. Whether you're executing two instructions or four doesn't matter, so long as they take full advantage of the proc. Does that make sense? Am I getting closer?

Divebommah

Hope no one minds my bumping this, but I have some HUGE news. See opening post or hit the spoiler:

Sid Meier, Will Wright, and Brad Wardell will be among the judges who will evaluate the games submitted to our competition.

Also

PC Gamer will distribute the winning games on their DVD later this year.

AND

The owner of the highest rated game concept every week will win a $100 gift card. To clarify, that's $100 PER WEEK during June.

See the opening post for more info.

lazerbeard

Ach, I'd love to submit, but we won't be finished by August : (

agoaj

Divebommah wrote: »

xzzy wrote: »

Any i7 or quad core processor certainly qualifies as top of the line for me.

I'm not slamming on the contest, I think it's a neat thing, it just seems like anyone not already geared up to work with Intel's hardware and development tools are going to be at a disadvantage.

Xzzy, sorry man, not seeing the i7/quad-core requirement in the rules. Are you inferring that?

Argh, you know what I forgot to mention in the OP Xzzy? The period between now and July 1 asks that you just submit a registration form with the details, screenshots, and movies of your game -- not the whole game. You will then get access to these tools:

• Intel® C++ Compiler 11.0
• Intel® VTuneâ„¢ Performance Analyzer 9.1
• Intel® Thread Checker 3.1
• Intel® Thread Profiler 3.1
• Intel® Threading Building Blocks 2.1
• Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives 6.0

You won't actually have to submit the game itself until August 10. OP updated!

Do you have to use these tools to finish the game?

Divebommah

lazerbeard wrote: »

Ach, I'd love to submit, but we won't be finished by August : (

I know it is difficult to discern amidst all that copy, but what we're looking for here are game demos. Think quick and easy little games built around a specific concept -- like Minotaur China Shop, or Tower of Goo. Or Tetris. Nothing huge!

Divebommah

agoaj wrote: »

Divebommah wrote: »

xzzy wrote: »

Any i7 or quad core processor certainly qualifies as top of the line for me.

I'm not slamming on the contest, I think it's a neat thing, it just seems like anyone not already geared up to work with Intel's hardware and development tools are going to be at a disadvantage.

Xzzy, sorry man, not seeing the i7/quad-core requirement in the rules. Are you inferring that?

Argh, you know what I forgot to mention in the OP Xzzy? The period between now and July 1 asks that you just submit a registration form with the details, screenshots, and movies of your game -- not the whole game. You will then get access to these tools:

• Intel® C++ Compiler 11.0
• Intel® VTuneâ„¢ Performance Analyzer 9.1
• Intel® Thread Checker 3.1
• Intel® Thread Profiler 3.1
• Intel® Threading Building Blocks 2.1
• Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives 6.0

You won't actually have to submit the game itself until August 10. OP updated!

Do you have to use these tools to finish the game?

You do not -- access to these tools are purely a perk of participating. Check out the rules page for more details -- I'm pretty sure we won't accept Flash-based games, for example...

Divebommah

Hey all, minor updates:

We've awarded two $100 gift cards to game concepts that have been submitted so far. You can see the full list of submissions here, and I encourage you to rate the ones you find most interesting. Help a developer win $100

Here are the winners so far:

Air Heroes : Battle Of Britain by Roland
Looks like a flight sim of some sort set in an alternate reality where Germany won the skies above England. Only screenshot so far:

Description here:
http://software.intel.com/en-us/contests/levelup2009/entry_detail.php?entryid=132324

And

Body Assault by Otakun
Looks like a SHMUP meets Fantastic Voyage He's got a flash based demo here
Concept art:

Zetx

Gotta say I definitely missed this thread the first time around. I'll throw a concept into the bucket in a bit.

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to limit the rating to registered users... I understand that it's a good way to prevent someone from rigging the system, but there are alot of people who don't want to register for something just to vote.

Divebommah

Zetx wrote: »

Gotta say I definitely missed this thread the first time around. I'll throw a concept into the bucket in a bit.

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to limit the rating to registered users... I understand that it's a good way to prevent someone from rigging the system, but there are alot of people who don't want to register for something just to vote.

Great to hear Zetx, welcome aboard. If you're on Facebook, please join our page to get more regular updates (I try not to update this thread too often since most folks here aren't devs): Facebook Link

Regarding having to log in -- amen dude. Unfortunately that was a decision made at a much higher plane of existence.

And to those of you just coming into the thread: If you are a game developer or know one, join our competition for a chance to have Sid Meier, Will Wright, Brad Wardell and others judge your game. You only have to submit a game concept for now (due July 1). You can win a gaming rig worth $4,000, $4,000 worth of software from Autodesk and Cakewalk and Adobe, and a chance to demo your game at Austin GDC 2009. Make click!

Divebommah

OK, resurrecting this thread because FREE GAMES PEOPLE!!1!!

Intel just announced the winners of the Level Up game demo development competition. You can check out and download the winning games here: http://software.intel.com/en-us/contests/levelup2009/contests.php