I saw Richard's post about disqualification of games using libraries released just before or during the competition. I've noticed some time ago that for some reason pyglet1.1 won't work ok with my video card (and have of course reported an issue, which Alex has promptly answered each time I add new information). So, I find myself in a situation in which I can't make the game work (because of pyglet1.1), so I'd go for rating anything, and clicking "game does not work" (which would turn the rating meaningless) *but* if I want to go and disqualify anyone using pyglet1.1, it says the rating still means anything.
So, what happens when I click both DNW and disqualify? Is the rating taken to account or not?

I created a new version of my game CQ Robot. This version includes the following new features (thx to claxo):
- A help screen!
- Levels are better ballanced than in my rushed final version :)
- Changed the level file line endings to unix, hoping that it will help the unix (linux/mac) guys to play my game. There were several errors with the pickle module that i used to store my level data.
- The performance fix that i also entered in the wiki.
- Switch fullscreen mode on/of.
- The ball probabilities are now nearly equal over time.

btw: if you cannot start the game, then open a console, change to the directory of run_game.py and start the game. It may help.

cqrobotv2.zip

I created a help screen for those who have problems with my entry. This screen will also be part of CQ Robot version 2 i'll release.

Capture the scores screen and publish it in the He Robot Flickr group!
 

This isn't an announcement, just a note to myself. I wasn't sure I would be revisiting this game, but now I think it would be a good learning experience. I shan't get to it until after judging, since I'm busy enjoying the other entries now! :-)

First, I need a much better grip on inheritance in python and also python containers. The class hierarchy for buildings in the game seems ideal for inheritance, but right now it's a total mess. So I'm going to try to find a good python tutorial. I also want to work on optimizing the cellular automaton. I think it could cause lag on slower computers. I'm also learning things like separating data from code by looking at the other entries. So I'm expecting to completely rewrite the code once.

I also hope for some good anonymous feedback from the judging. As for features I already want to add or change:

• Add the plot twist I didn't have time to put in. This will add some gameplay, specifically related to the warheads.
• Helpful in-game hints for getting started.
• Help screen showing controls.
• Ability to zoom out and see the whole map.
• Rewrite the ending. It's just embarrassing.
• Very simple music and sound effects. I need practice finding good free stuff.

I think I will not add more levels. I'm big on a game not having more levels than its variety of gameplay justifies. What I might possibly do, though, is have an Easy mode (which will pretty much bet what it is now) and a Normal mode (with the additional features).

I wish I could have spent more time on my entry, but I feel good that I at least got a working game that could be termed as 'complete', merely because there was a definite beginning and end of the game and a mechanic to power it.

Here are things that got left out:

• Enemies! Enemies were going to be soldiers, tanks, and perhaps jet bombers.
• Throwable things. This was originally going to be the game's selling point, because the idea of throwing buildings at things just appeals to me. ODE wasn't working out well, and I just ran out of time, so I just ran with the laser eyes stuff. The plan was to let you pick up buildings and vehicles and throw them at other buildings and vehicles, and have the laser eyes as only a secondary weapon. I also realized only days after that I could have done a half-assed version of this with Panda collision solids and/or physics, but the time probably still wouldn't have been there to implement it. You will notice various variables/methods like "raiseTheRoof" and "hasCheesburgar" sitting around which were going to facilitate this.
• "Music". I was planning to throw this together in the last two hours. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the.. "music"... to loop properly. Of course, I realized only a few days after how I could have easily done that. If you're wondering, when I say "music" I mean making "Dern der der der dern dern" noises into a microphone to fit with the rest of the theme.
• Endless city. I was thinking of a way to have a city which keeps generating based on where you go. I was also thinking of perhaps having levels, where of course you went to the next level after destroying everything. This was sort of pie-in-the-sky because it didn't have to do with getting the core game mechanics implemented.
• Mouse control: I wanted to let you control the robot head with the mouse, letting you point at where you wanted to shoot and having the head follow (within reason). I sort of already know how to do this (having the same style control in Yarr Wars) but I had difficulty getting it implemented in Panda with another project. Perhaps if I revisit it, I can get it done fairly quickly.

So ultimately, I wish I had a lot more time to provide to work on the project. Alas, being all grown up has its disadvantages. I have a feeling that I could have gotten more done with a teammate, perhaps one who could fill in the gaps when I didn't have time.

This was my team's first PyWeek, and I'm extremely proud with what we created. Our plans were ambitious, and the fact that we even finished at all was amazing to me. We did have to make a few sacrifices though, and the overall theme I had in mind was all but lost.

The plan was to play as a robot jumping through a level, but the level itself would be a much larger robot that you are trying to control. Once you reached the control terminal at the end of the level, the game would zoom out and you would be that much larger robot! You would then control this new robot through an even larger robot level to take it over, and once you have the 3rd gigantic robot under your control, you would find yourself in the final level. All of this leads up to the silly punchline of the final level being a toaster, which you take control of of course!

We got close. We had the transition effect, but there were a couple of problems. One, we only ended up with one robot character, mostly due to animation taking lots of time (it turned out awesome though!). And two, the levels themselves didn't really look that much like the insides of various robots. These two things combined just made the transition look like.. well.. a transition and nothing more :).

We had lots of other ideas that never happened as well. I really wish we had a timer, for one. There were plans for moving lasers and traps, and maybe even turrets that shot stuff at you while you were jumping around. But hey, a week is a really short amount of time!

I think we will continue to work on Robot Toast, as its been a blast developing it for PyWeek, and I really think its a fun game (maybe I'm biased here :D). My team and I have learned a lot, and look forward to the next PyWeek!

I've put together some ideas for a pyweek followup event:

http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/greg.ewing/python/pyggy/Proposal.html

Brief summary:

• Held 3 months after PyWeek
• Entries must be based on an entry from the previous PyWeek
• Rules and judging procedure similar to those of PyWeek (although not exactly identical)

Do you think this would be a good idea? If there's enough support, I may start to think seriously about organising it. (That is, if nobody else volunteers first! :-)

The README is slightly incorrect, instructing you to run the game with "./bin/python". It should read:

To run the game:

$ ./bin/python-local src/run_game.py

The README also mentions off-hand that the zc.buildout process installs Pygame and Numeric. This is incorrect. The dependencies listed in the Dependencies section are correct.

So it seems like some of the biggest comments I've been getting about my game is that its way way too difficult. I'm definitely understanding of that, and I made the game in the spirit of the Megaman style games, where each level took half an hour to even get to the damn boss! :)

Because I can understand some of the levels can be frustrating (oh god anti-gravity), I put videos of me beating each level streaming off of my other website.

Also, they are pretty choppy because hypercam 2 is kinda crappy, but its the best I've got for now :)

http://cthulhu32.kraln.com/pyweek6/tutorials.html