UCC2016 Final Results!

Discuss Everything related to UCC, share progress of your game, ask questions, etc.
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uze6666
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UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by uze6666 »

All results for UCC2016 are finally in and compiled. Congrats, an awesome year, games greatly impressed the judges! And as you'll see, results were *very* close this year!!

And the winners are (drumroll):
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All scores were normalized, i.e: the voting scores from each judge has been divided by the total points given by that judge. The score breakdown per game and judge can be found here.

1st: Jubatian- Flight of a Dragon - Score: 100.7
Wins: 200$ + Uzebox Portable assembled

2nd: Nebososo- 65536-in-1 - Score: 76.7
Wins: 100$ + Uzebox(with Uzenet)/Euzebox starter kit (assembled on demand)

3rd: Grobian99- Stormforce - Score: 76.2
Wins: 50$ + Uzebox(with Uzenet)/Euzebox Kit

4th: CunningFellow- Chickens in Choppers - Score: 75.7
Wins: Uzebox t-shirt + Simon Says DIY kit

5th:Yllawwally - Roguze - Score: 71.3
Wins: Uzebox t-shirt

All games can be downloaded from the main Ucc2016 post.

To all prize winners, please send me a PM with your shipping address and/or paypal address depending on prize(s) received. For 2nd & 3rd prize, specify Uzebox or EUzebox kit (and red or black PCB if Uzebox). For t-Shirt prizes, specify the desired size.

For the grand prize, the Uzebox portable, the delivery will depend on when CunningFellow is able to complete it. Hopefully after the UzeboxDTV Kickstater is delivered. :)

Again, congratulations to all and hope you had fun! See you next year!! :mrgreen:
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D3thAdd3r
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by D3thAdd3r »

Great work all participants, all the entries were very good and competitive.

Jubatian's Flight of the Dragon really struck me as having a lot of thought put into it. A new video mode, with original and fitting graphics and sound. The control is pretty good, and in general I find this game quite special and am eagerly anticipating more levels. Also pretty rare for these games, a cool story that fits in with the original feel of the game, nice touch! From a technical stand point besides the artistry involved, this one must have taken a lot of work, and it shows. A game like this needs more levels to do itself justice. Epic, I want more.

Nebososo's 65536-in-1, the concept is quite amusing especially if you have tried one of those NES titles where is was 100-in-1, then 408-in-1, etc, mostly hacks of commercial games(or at least their graphics) and lots of the games being duplicated with different graphics used. One you actually step inside though, the menu is authentic to these cartridges;I like it! The graphics and sound are unique and pretty well done overall. The games are generally simple, but actually each one is completed nicely. I particularly like Trollen and would like to have some 2 player human matches in Array and Rain some time soon! Each of the games is enjoyable, but damn if that CPU cannot be defeated on a couple ;)

Grobian99's Stormforce is on the path to becoming the first complete 2d space shooter on Uzebox. The graphics are good and the sound is also nice. The controls are spot on, and there is really no one I can blame constant deaths on besides myself and those damn turrets! I did manage to find a safe spot on the screen to get further in the levels. I think with a few simple additions like more enemy variety and weaponry, this one is already the most complete/best 2d space shooter on the console. Good development, keep it up!

CunningFellow's Chickens in Choppers is a solid game, and the concept of it is quite novel. I found the control to be quite good, though better on an SNES controller(than emulator+keyboard) where there are shoulder buttons well placed for strafing. I think the formula is there, and with a few more gameplay concepts it is a great complete game. As is, it is already a good enjoyable game and I don't think there is much for the existing stuff that needs tweaking. For the amount of time it was put together in, it is extra impressive.

Yllwawally's Roguze is in my mind, a very daring project to start. More so than other genres, these really rely on a lot of details to fill out the game world and experience. I played this for a good bit, and the random level generation worked more or less pretty well. There is a lot of replay in that, and with some more development I think there would be a limitless number of adventures for Rogue-like loving gamers. The leveling/spells/prayers is neat, and of course the more the better. I think this one is nearing "critical mass", for this type of game, where it is very close to a large jump in the overall game experience when all the details are in place. Well done and interesting!
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Jubatian
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by Jubatian »

Huh, at last! :)

I also played most of the games quite a bit, sharing some personal opinions.

For me Nebososo's 65536-in-1 felt quite special for the thought put in certain games, quite original concepts, and by the few bits he told on the UCC topic, there is a lot of twiddling with math and logic involved. It would probably have deserved better scores for "Technical Prowess" even, he just didn't invest that in kernel stuff, rather gameplay. The Monster game is especially entertaining (I see that this variant actually exists by concept, so not entirely original, still a very nice game, I played this a lot, it is very enjoyable as long as the level generator is able to come up with new levels), while Trollen's level designs are well done (sadly it doesn't save progress on EEPROM, and there are lots of levels). Array was also fun, lets see if I can sort it faster than the CPU opponent (I could), it is more than just controller bashing :) (you need to devise some tactic on the fly, keeping positions of all the numbers in mind to be able to win), could be a very simple but fun two player game. Rain is also nice, but comparatively to the above, it is a quite simple game.

Stormforce for me is a quite impressive demonstration on how Mode 2 or a variant of this concept could be used "right", a vertical scroller is just the right game for these where it is possible to time the sprites so they don't exhaust the horizontal sprite limit. I guess the parallaxing stars are some sort of tricky tile design, the effect achieved with tile cycling. It should be more forgiving, though (a shield, maybe?), I could only reach the large platform a few times of all my attempts where I think the graphics should be altered to make the bullets from the turrets more discernible (what the heck shot me again??).

Chicken in Coppers is quite entertaining, the random generated levels give decent replay value as well. Nice high-resolution and colourful vector game, fairly complete even, with well thought-out difficulty curve (apart from that some incentive should be in place to hurry the player to finish levels), it is fun to play, and exploits the SNES controller's geometry well (maybe the only other game doing especially so is Zombienator).

Roguze feels interesting (for me even more so as I designed the video mode for it derived from Mode 9), but needs work, Yllawally even published some screenshots (battle scene) which didn't get in the UCC entry at the end. Possibly with some time it will become a neat game of the genre, the progress is promising!

Of course just personal opinions after playing all the games, nice work all around!
neslou
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by neslou »

Hi All,
Congratulations for all the winners and participants!!! You have done a excellent job.
You should put a video on youtube I think in order to show to other people this challenge..and why not in order to convince more people to have a try next year :D .
I regret not to be able to program some games (even little) right now.. but maybe in 2017, i will try to do by myself a demo..
Again, I am really impressed by the work you are able to do with the Uzebox..
Let's continue, next year!!!
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by Artcfox »

Jubatian's Flight of a Dragon is just simply amazing. From the new video mode, to the excellent graphics, animations, sounds and music, to the way the camera follows, but leads the dragon, everything is well done. The story behind it fits the action well, though I have to admit it is fun burninating the archers, even though you're not supposed to. It definitely leaves me wanting more levels, but it's a very fun demo.

Nebososo's 65536-in-1 is awesome. It very much reminds me of the old Beagle Bros. Software release called Beagle Bag for the Apple //e. Monster is great with its procedurally generated levels. When I was playing Trollen, an entire group of people gathered around me to help. My daughter quickly figured out how to navigate among the games and even how to exit them, and she loves the ones that are more simple in nature.

Grobian99's Stormforce is a great space shooter. I love the graphics, and the varied weapons, but embarassingly I haven't been able to beat level 2 yet. I wish there was a secret button combo that I could use to freely skip through the levels, or maybe a shield so I wouldn't have to start so far back after dying. I've played it quite a bit, and my skills have improved, but I fear that I might need to use emulator save states (once they are implemented) in order to play through all the levels.

CunningFellow's Chickens in Choppers is really fun to play, and I'm amazed at how smooth the framerate is even when there are 15 tanks on screen shooting at me, while I'm zipping around and shooting as well. The vector graphics are just so buttery smooth! I just wish I could see the M's through the tanks, because often I end up dying because of an obscured M. I'm not sure how many free cycles are left, but I think the game would go great with a midi version of the Airwolf theme song.

Yllawwally's Roguze is very impressive. I had never played a rogue-like before, so I had to do a bit of research before I could play this game properly. I love the procedurally generated maps, and I was able to level up my character pretty good. I was 3 hours into a game on real hardware when I got surrounded by really powerful monsters that took me down to 1 HP. Just when I thought I had escaped, I ran into (of all things!) an ant that finished me off. It was about as soul crushing as playing Minecraft in hardcore mode. It was lots of fun though, and I think that having a game from this genre available for the Uzebox will definitely bring more people to the community.

This year's code contest brought an impressive group of games to the Uzebox, and it has definitely raised the bar for what's possible on such limited hardware! Thank you to all of the contestants, great job! :D
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Kerby
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by Kerby »

I, too, join in congratulating the finalists! For I am not yet finished my project, but I will continue to work on it when I have more time and knowledge ...

Nebososo's 65536-in-1 : I liked the project as a lover of logic games. An interesting solution to make a collection with a large menu list, nostalgia for the NES console with a cartridge with a bunch of simple games from pirate publishers. Every game a little and I think the source code can help many novice builders in the development of algorithms!

Jubatian's Flight of a Dragon : It's cool! Especially the appearance of the new video mode. Underground maze is quite confusing. I remembered how to draw a pencil on paper card maze game for 8-bit games of the early 90s. Artcfox, but I do not understand why the dragon does not burn archers?

Grobian99's Stormforce : But this game I liked especially! I really liked the game Star Force (very cool music) on NES console, and then I see a lot in common, well, almost like it! Nice background, scrolling stars, beautiful explosions opponents. I still managed to reach only 3 levels, but the complexity of the game is correct. Remember, all vertical shooters are quite complex and on the screen sometimes there is no place where to hide. Good dynamics of the game and the no opportunity to stop to rest, the ship all the time flies forward to meet new enemies. For this we love these games!

I hope soon to see these games on a common page in the list, and source code projects.
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by CunningFellow »

Awesome work all,

FoaD looks fantastic. I am terrible at platform games and I could not make it out of the underground section until I read some tips. Then I went back and tried again and made it to the end of the level. I love the archers and how the arrows are very analog. Not something I expected in a tile/sprite based platform game.

Most of 65536-in-1 confused me. The minesweeper and troll games being the only ones I could work out well enough to play for extended period and they were very good. That's more to say about me being stupid and not knowing how to work puzzle games more than anything though.

Stormforce was just too hard for me. Sorry, but I tried and tried again and could not even make it to the "large platform" to know what Jubatian was talking about. Nice graphics and I like the parallax star field.

Roguze was probably the one I got the most from. Probably nothing I can add to what others have said. It will be even better when it has the extra graphical touches added.

Bear in mind, these comments come from someone that has never been able to complete level 2 of the original NES Mario game, but thinks Zarch/Virus is a nice easy shooter to relax with.
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Kerby
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by Kerby »

Hello!
A month has passed after the end of the competition, and on the main page of the site there is no news updates !!!
Not all the guests read the forum, it is necessary to frequently post news on the home page to make it clear that the project is alive and growing!
And the list of Games and Demos are no projects to the winners! I saw only Flight of a Dragon on the list for wiki ...
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Jubatian
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by Jubatian »

I added FoaD myself just for completing it proper, along with its sources. Does anyone else have Wiki access from the winners? If not, you could possibly write some descriptions for your games, that is, what would you like to see on the wiki, and we may create the pages. I was particularly interested in 65536 in 1 as a forum topic to discuss some on the maths etc. involved in some of its games.

(Burninating... - yes, I remember that, and it was fun to program their simple AI, you can chase them around :) Kerby: You can kill them by excessive burnination, but it will reduce your score, it makes the game a bit more challenging trying to get through the level without kills. On later levels and enemy types I will exploit this more, making higher scores more challenging to achieve)
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uze6666
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Re: UCC2016 Final Results!

Post by uze6666 »

Hello!
A month has passed after the end of the competition, and on the main page of the site there is no news updates !!!
Shoot! I forgot! :oops: I created Facebook and Twitter entries, but forgot the main site. Ok I will add one asap tomorrow. And I will also make entries on the wiki for the remaining UCC2016 games.

Thanks for flagging this!
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