This was talked about last time, but I figure if we open the dicussion early we can have a giid dialog on it.

I propose we change the 'Innovation' category to 'Use of Theme'.

Without a judged category on 'Use of Theme', there is no reward for a team to really deeply integrate the theme into their game. Giving their game a glancing / passing nod to the theme, just enough to avoid disqualification, will be enough. I'll give an fictional example. Let's say the theme is 'Robots'. Team A makes a platformer where you are a robot. Team B makes a game wher eyou design, build, and program robots to perform specific tasks. I would say that Team B followed the theme a lot better then Team A. I think Team B should be rewarded.

So, why get rid of Innovation? I don't think that you're going to get many well-polished, innovative games out of sort-term game compos like this. Games typically fall into 4 categories.

1. Rehashing an old format with updated mechanics. Generally resulting in a well-polished game with a sort of 'I've been here before' feel.
2. Innvoative games that don't really get completed. The game concept seems exciting, but the execution leaves something to be desired.
3. I'm trying this for the first time games. Which are fine, but arn't really in competition to win the vote, so can be dismissed for this discussion.
4. Games that break the dicotomy between #1 and #2 above. There's generally 1 or 2 of these in a given Compo.

The reason for 1 and 2, where more games end up, is that if you have an innovative concept, you're solving new problems, which takes longer and gives you less time to polish. If you revisit an old formula, a lot of the problems are already solved for you.

I'll leave it at that for now. Let me know what you guys think.

I have recently edited the rules to clean them up and clarify a point:

1. The list of game libraries has been moved to the python.org wiki as PythonGameLibraries.
2. The pygame.org cookbook is allowed as a resource.

I've written a very simple space invader game in VC++ years ago and that's about it. This will be an interesting challenge :)

I've set up a poll to see what system capabilities are out there. Hardware, operating system, etc. The last poll's results may be seen here.

Some of you may be familiar with NaNoWriMo. The idea behind that particular form of insanity is to write a novel in thirty days. Having started (and never finished) a rather loathsome number of novels in my life, I decided to try NaNo two years ago. I managed to write a 110,000-word novel. A first draft, but still.

Last year, I wrote two (shorter) novels.

In both cases, the feeling was ... almost indescribable. To be able to look at a finished work, unpolished (or crap) though it may be, and say, "Hey. I did this. This is from me." ... Something about the creative process, the completion of the creative process, makes something primal in my brain do the brainial equivalent of rockin' out. (I'd say that maybe it's just me, but looking at the list of repeat offenders in the entries both here and at NaNo I have to believe that at least a few others have experienced this.)

I've also been starting (and never finishing) videogames ever since I was 6 and received an Apple //c for Christmas.

Perhaps the pressure of PyWeek will be the motivation to get off my butt and finish one for real.

I've just uploaded QGL-7 to the cheeseshop.

http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/QGL/7

New features in this release:

* Light and Fog nodes
* Several howto.py files


What is QGL? QGL is a simple OpenGL scenegraph for Python. It lets you build a tree structure which represents the scene you wish to render, and render it using OpenGL.

Can't wait! This will take my mind off of the 11 hour work-days! At least it did for the pygame.draw competition :)

After placing last in last years PyWeek1 for submitting a very small demo :) this year looks MUCH more promising. I have a whole crap load more experience programming under my belt, A LOT more free time, and inspiration to see if I can get my game in the top 5 (whew, that'd be a miracle)

I am really liking a lot of the PyWeek2 entries, the boat on the water is very cool! The author even linked to the pixel-perfect piece of code used in the game, which means major plus for me (pixel-perfect collision has always been a sore spot.)

Good luck to everyone, I can't wait to see the list of possible themes!

A few weeks ago, I uploaded a graphics / game lib to the cheeseshop.

http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/QGL

It does OpenGL sprite stuff. It replaces my old SiGL lib, by attempting to be more focused, simple, and easy to learn. I'd like to improve the documentation somewhat, if anyone is willing to give QGL a go during pyweek, I'd appreciate feedback on any kind of extra documentation that might be useful, or is needed to get up and running.

-Sw.

I am wodering if I can use my PygLibs library? I posted it on Pygame but wanted to make sure that it isnt considered illegal in this competition.