Title game competition 2017

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HvS
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Title game competition 2017

Post by HvS »

In 2016, there was no competition; either due to lack of willingness to organize one or because it was forgotten about. And then it was too late to remind about one.

Before that, it took place in the beginning of the year, around February or so.

So the question is: will there be such a competition this year?
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Re: Title game competition 2017

Post by Baldy's Boss »

HvS wrote:In 2016, there was no competition; either due to lack of willingness to organize one or because it was forgotten about. And then it was too late to remind about one.

Before that, it took place in the beginning of the year, around February or so.

So the question is: will there be such a competition this year?
This would appear to be a matter of the pace of development.
2015 and previous years saw several point-releases,but 2016 saw only one,and 1.6.1 is still the current version with nothing else yet in beta.

Unless we are at the point of a 1.7 release (and release numbers should be related to amount of change in the program rather than arbitrary time intervals) there is no occasion for a 1.7 title game competition.
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Re: Title game competition 2017

Post by kamnet »

Typically OpenTTD releases a new version around April 1. Depending on how much work there is in the pipeline, alpha, beta and release candidates (RCs) will be published 1-3 months in advance for public testing and feedback.

In recent years PlanetMaker has organized those competitions. I'm sure he'd appreciate some help. If you're interested, you should send him a PM.
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Re: Title game competition 2017

Post by planetmaker »

Well, we could just start it. The usual restrictions apply:

No NewGRFs
No AIs
No GameScripts
No Toyland
No giant map size (256^2 is best)

The list from last time looks more lengthy, but covers that, too:

* Think of it as first-impression of the game. Looking nice and appealing to many people is much more important than 'biggest station', 'most complex junction', or 'most successful company'.
* Map/file size: 256x256 or smaller, maximum of ~150 KiB. You don't need a very big savegame to show a lot, actually most screens can't even show such maps in full. Actually, 128x128 is more than sufficient for 1920x1200, but 64x64 is just a tad small.
* Show as much different things as possible, and try to show how they should be used. For example show the difference between presignals and path signals, standard road stops and drive through road stops. Show steam trains and maglevs, dualheads etc.
* Breakdowns will automatically be disabled, so try the game with breakdowns disabled.
* Cheating for money or making a money losing example isn't a big problem.
* Try to make it visually appealing, also for very big screens. However, put most interesting stuff that doesn't use much space in upper left part of the viewport as that piece is shown for all screen resolutions. The upper left part of the viewport is the anchor. Larger viewports will expand the view only to the bottom and to the right. Thus choose the upper left corner of what you show in the upper left part of the map.
* Try with different base sets; it should look appealing regardless of which is used; this might exclude toyland.
* Try to keep the number of simultaneous sound effects down. E.g. try to reduce the number of level crossings, but for example keep one or two to show the difference between block and path signals on level crossings.
* And of course the savegame MUST be compatible with clean trunk, so no savegames made with any patched version. Any official version is ok.
* Do not use AIs; they might be missing for clients. What you can do is make a multi-company game by means of multiplayer.
* Do not use any NewGRFs; NewGRFs can't be loaded in the intro game because that might crash OpenTTD when they are not found among with some coding reasons.
* Do not use a Game script

When adding a title game candidate to this thread, please add a screenshot too. Better create one excellent savegame than several mediocre ones :-).

Please also only one savegame per posting :-) and it'd be nice, if you could just remove old versions or edit the posting with the old savegame and making a completely new posting so that it becomes clear that it is deprecated now - it makes it easier for me to not add deprecated savegames nor miss any.
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Re: Title game competition 2017

Post by HvS »

planetmaker wrote:Well, we could just start it.
What about the timeframe? It doesn't sound official when there is no deadline planned, even approximately.
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Re: Title game competition 2017

Post by NekoMaster »

HvS wrote:
planetmaker wrote:Well, we could just start it.
What about the timeframe? It doesn't sound official when there is no deadline planned, even approximately.
How about before Summer or July 21st

EDIT : Summer might be a bit far away, could try for Spring (March 21st) so that we'll have most of the year to see the winner's title game.
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Re: Title game competition 2017

Post by supermop »

NekoMaster wrote:
HvS wrote:
planetmaker wrote:Well, we could just start it.
What about the timeframe? It doesn't sound official when there is no deadline planned, even approximately.
How about before Summer or July 21st

EDIT : Summer might be a bit far away, could try for Spring (March 21st) so that we'll have most of the year to see the winner's title game.

Well the title game would need to be selected before the next release so it can be in the release. That's usually April 1, and there seems to be enough small changes to warrant a release by then. There will need to be at least a week allowed for voting, and some extra overhead so that the winning game actually ships, so a deadline of early March would be the latest that seems practical.
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Re: Title game competition 2017

Post by NekoMaster »

supermop wrote:
NekoMaster wrote:
HvS wrote:
What about the timeframe? It doesn't sound official when there is no deadline planned, even approximately.
How about before Summer or July 21st

EDIT : Summer might be a bit far away, could try for Spring (March 21st) so that we'll have most of the year to see the winner's title game.

Well the title game would need to be selected before the next release so it can be in the release. That's usually April 1, and there seems to be enough small changes to warrant a release by then. There will need to be at least a week allowed for voting, and some extra overhead so that the winning game actually ships, so a deadline of early March would be the latest that seems practical.
Well then I'd say you guys ought to start this up before its too late, as this month is halfway done and then theres february and maybe a week or two of march. That gives people about 2 months to get something together.
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Re: Title game competition 2017

Post by HvS »

This is my submission. It is a 128x128 map, 66 kb.

Image

The general idea for this design is that, since the viewport extends only leftwards and downwards, the image should have its top-left to bottom-right diagonal as the center of composition. And, obviously, the content should be situated along the diagonal starting from most important at its left part. I also assume the player can be reasonably expected to move the menu around to get a better view of the picture. Otherwise, especially at lower resolutions, not much can be shown on the remaining margins.

The theme for this submission is a busy port: a place where all environments and all modes of transportation meet. Ships arrive and unload, and their cargo is being loaded on trains. Some is immediately processed at the nearby steel mill. From time to time, a passenger airliner passes in the sky above, or a passenger hovercraft slides along the piers. A road crosses the port complex, and we can see various vehicles, some having the port as their destination, and some merely passing through it. A city is seen standing above the port on a hill.

Even at 640x480, an attentive viewer would notice different train lengths, various engine and train car configurations, signals, different types of road stops, a blocked piece of road. There are path signals and pre-signals. An HQ and a helipad can be noticed at the station's entrance, and a helicopter would appear from time to time. We can see a train depot, a garage and a maritime hangar. We see that the platforms may have different length.

At 800x600, one can even catch a glimpse of a monorail line. A transfer mechanism is demonstrated by small trains servicing the port's separate piers.

At 1024x768, the player can see the destination of the helicopter: an oil-rig, where a tanker patiently waits for its loading to be complete. The player also sees a more clear example of how pre-signals are used. We meet the locks where a river meets the sea, and see how the hovercrafts pass through it. We also see the monorail station in its entirety. We can also see a maglev passenger station adjacent to an airport. A simple priority mechanism can be seen where two maglev tracks merge.

At 1366x768, we can also see a DMU servicing a suburban railway. We can observe a factory situated between the tracks receiving deliveries of goods by small road vehicles. Path signals near it We also see a buoy placed in the waters of a river.

At 1920x1080, a much richer picture is revealed. We can see a steam train delivering wood to a sawmill, we can see the monorail line finally leave the constraints of the tunnels and run freely on the ground. We can see a bank doing its shady transportation of valuables. A set of double tunnels can be found in the lower right corner, and it becomes clear how it is used once the long freight trains approach the tunnels. The large airport at the seafront of the city is now in plain view. One-way roads are showcased as a highway in the top right corner.

At 2560x1444, we can see a full coal delivery chain. Semaphores appear, framing a simple bypass solution. A pier on a lake is revealed to be the destination of hovercraft vehicles.

At higher resolutions, there are hardly any groundbreaking revelations, but the screen is intended to present an interesting picture without major gaps throughout the entirety of its surface.

An example of the title card use is attached (screenshot). So is an image with different screen sized superimposed and marked in red (scheme).
Attachments
scheme-small-optimized.png
Layout scheme for different screen resolutions
(3.22 MiB) Not downloaded yet
screenshot-optimized.png
Screenshot (1920x1080 screen, game not maximized)
(1.09 MiB) Not downloaded yet
hvs-title-card.sav
Title card savegame file
(63.84 KiB) Downloaded 272 times
Last edited by HvS on 05 Feb 2017 18:55, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Title game competition 2017

Post by Alberth »

I also assume the player can be reasonably expected to move the menu around to get a better view of the picture.
Ha, that's actually a new feature I inadvertently added while rewriting the entire gui system around 2009/2010. Before, you couldn't move the main menu at all.
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Re: Title game competition 2017

Post by RAMMAR »

Long time ago, I've said that I won't make another participation in the Tittle competition (mostly due to the fact that I was out of ideas, not only because of the fact that I wasn't even getting into the finals), but as time flows, I got one idea just for the lulz (+ to the fact that you can finally move that now unpinned menu), also it makes those people that loves emptiness in the tittle extremely happy (yes, there are a lot of things that you can do)...

Anyway, here it is...
Attachments
onptitle.png
(2.41 MiB) Not downloaded yet
opntitle.dat
(40.58 KiB) Downloaded 148 times
Life is the moving train on the tracks...
(Transport Tycoon Deluxe for the real)
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Re: Title game competition 2017

Post by RAMMAR »

Heh, as I see now people likes titles with a lots of things (due to the poll results)... So, I'll bring my old one here again (of course it will be off from this competition anyway, so it will be just for those who wants it).

P.S. note to myself, if I knew that it will be lack of submissions, then this one should be here already. Anyway, have fun with it.
Attachments
opntitle1.png
(3.7 MiB) Not downloaded yet
opntitle1.dat
(162.83 KiB) Downloaded 129 times
Life is the moving train on the tracks...
(Transport Tycoon Deluxe for the real)
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