XNA 7 Day » Nick

Challenge #4 – Entries

Nick — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:46:51 +0000

Challenge #4 – Can’t stop me now has ended with a pretty low turn out. I guess the title could have been “Challenge #4 – Entry” but I like to keep things consistent. Anyway, here’s our one game:

Stock Surfer

Developer: Carl Erikson of Bog Turtle Games
Download: StockSurfer.zip

Trade the stock market to win or lose money.
You can go long or short as many units as you want.
All units will be closed at the end of the trading session.
All scores are on a percentage basis.

Challenge #4 – Can’t stop me now

Nick — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:27:41 +0000

Theme/Rules: The player in your game must be constantly moving in some fashion. The player is allowed to steer, jump, duck, or perform other actions, but the player’s character must be in constant motion.

Challenge Time: December 13, 2009 – December 21, 2009 (Entries due by 12:00pm PST (GMT-8) on December 21, 2009).

To Enter: Email your entry to contact@xna7day.com with the subject line “Challenge 4 Entry”.

Please see the About page for full rules/guidelines for the challenge.

Challenge #3 – Entries

Nick — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:23:18 +0000

Challenge #3 – 100k is finished and we have five little games for you to try out:

100kb

Developer: Alin Baciu
Download: 100kb.zip

As a space invader, you have been put in charge of guarding a planet and making sure the inhabitants build you a big statue. Shoot love or hate, and try to convince them to build your statue as big as possible.

Ariadne’s Thread

Developer: Red Mawashi Entertainment
Download: AriadnesThread.zip

In Ariadne’s Thread, you play the part of Theseus. You have been sent into the Labyrinth by King Minos to be fed to the Minotaur. Your plans are a little different, though; you hope to slay the beast and escape with your life.

King Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, has fallen in love with you and given you a ball of yarn so that you can find your way out of the Labyrinth and run away with her forever. However, you need to make it back before sunset, or else she will no longer be able to hold the thread and you’ll be lost in the Labyrinth forever!

Climber

Developer: Ben Baird
Download: Climber.zip

A game of timing with a single objective: jump until you reach the top! Your little character will run all by himself, but you’ll have to choose when he jumps. The obstacles can either help or hinder your progress.

Minefield

Developer: Carl Erikson
Download: Minefield.zip

Use arrow keys to move your ball to the target. Watch out for the mines.

The Soaring Game

Developer: Steven Hazen
Download: TheSoaringGame.zip (GamePad Required)

The Soaring Game is a 3D energy management game where you control a soaring bird. You start the game with 100 units of energy and 600 feet of altitude. The game is over when all your energy is used up or your altitude is zero. You can flap your wings to increase speed & altitude but that consumes energy. You can glide and thus not use energy but that looses altitude. There are blue thermal areas around where you can gain much altitude compared to energy use. Terrain turns red as energy is used or as altitude drops below 600 feet. Score is added to each frame by multiplying altitude by total flight time.

Challenge #3 – 100k

Nick — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:14 +0000

Theme/Rules: Your entire game (counting libraries and assets) must be no larger than 100KB (uncompressed, i.e. not the size of the CCGAME, ZIP, or RAR file you send me). The goal of the challenge is to see what type of game you’re able to create with such a limited amount of space.

Challenge Time: November 29, 2009 – December 6, 2009 (Entries due by 12:00pm PST (GMT-8) on December 7, 2009).

To Enter: Email your entry to contact@xna7day.com with the subject line “Challenge 3 Entry”.

Please see the About page for full rules/guidelines for the challenge.

Theme suggestions

Nick — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:50:14 +0000

Hello XNA developers. I’m looking to gather up some suggestions for future challenges. I have a couple I’ve thought of, but I want your feedback so that the challenges are more fun for you guys. So if you have any ideas for theme ideas or things you’d like to try, leave a comment below and let me know!

Taking a week off

Nick — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:00:11 +0000

Because next week is the week of Thanksgiving here in the United States, I’ve decided to move Challenge #3 to the following week (the week of November 29-December 6). Apologies for our foreign participants who were eagerly awaiting the next challenge, but since a lot of stateside developers will be busy with family and holiday things, I figured we’d see the best turn out if Challenge #3 waited an extra week.

Thanks, and we’ll see you next week!

Challenge #2 – Entries

Nick — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:24:47 +0000

Challenge #2 – Text Based has come and gone and we have eight little games for you to enjoy this week:

Alpha Blaster

Developer: Jutaris
Download: AlphaBlaster.zip (Game Pad Required)

A dual stick shooter where you control a Yen Ship. Your goal: To destroy the other monetary ships with reckless abandon. Points are earned for killing enemy ships, and a score multiplier increases for consecutive kills. Be warned, if you lose a life, you lose half of your multiplier!

ASCII Dungeon Shooter

Developer: Rabid Design Studios
Download: AsciiDungeonShooter.zip

The game is a simple 2d top down shooter. You are in a dungeon full of monsters and turrets. To exscape you must find the exit. The exit is marked with a E.

ASCII FPS

Developer: Louis Ingenthron
Download: AsciiFPS.zip (Game Pad Required)

This is a standard First Person Shooter that mimics a classic game… in ASCII Art! Shoot the guards and escape the complex through the gold elevator. Collect treasure and find secrets as you go.

ASCII Invaders

Developer: UberGeekGames
Download: AsciiInvaders.zip

ASCII Invaders is a classic alien shoot-em-up, using nothing but text characters.

electrogue

Developer: Brando
Download: electrogue.zip

Roguelikes like NetHack and DnD get an upgrade to realtime/rts control a la current-gen rpg’s. This game may be the closest thing I get to experiencing current-gen rpg gameplay at 60fps. The goal was for me to create a toolset in which I could place any set of rpg rules and construct modules/campaigns efficiently, rather than struggle with building side quests and mountains of story text this week. The fact the challenge was restricted to letters just allowed me to focus on the gameplay instead of the rendering. What novelty.

Letter Mash

Developer: Nick Gravelyn
Download: LetterMash.zip

Let your typing skills save the day! Gain points for watching letters cross the screen or typing them to destroy them, but don’t let them reach the right side of the screen or it’s game over!

LHC Bomber

Developer: Carl Erikson of Bog Turtle Games LLC
Download: LHCBomber.zip

You are a bird with bread and have been sent from the future. Your goal is to prevent the LHC from producing a Higgs boson. Drop the bread bombs onto the ventilation shafts to sabotage the LHC. Wind will affect falling bread.

RogueLikeXNA Basic

Developer: David Larrabee
Download: RogueLikeXNA.zip

RogueLikeXNA Basic is a pretty basic redneition of roguelike xna game. The dungeon floors are generated randomly, there are hidden traps to avoid, and potions you can locate and use to fill your hit points.

Challenge #2 – Complete!

Nick — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:27:37 +0000

Challenge #2 – Text Based is complete! Only eight entries this week, but some are pretty cool (e.g. the ones that aren’t mine). I’ll have the entries post up tonight or tomorrow for everyone to see.

Challenge #2 – Text Based

Nick — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:17 +0000

Theme/Rules: Your game is only allowed to render text characters for its display. Be creative as there are lots of things you can do just drawing text. Letters, numbers, and punctuation are all fair game.

Challenge Time: November 8, 2009 – November 15th, 2009 (Entries due by 12:00 PST (GMT-8) on November 16th, 2009).

To Enter: Email your entry to contact@xna7day.com with the subject line “Challenge 2 Entry”.

Note: The rules have changed since challenge #1. See the About page for full rules/guidelines for the challenge.

Challenge #1 Entries

Nick — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:15:11 +0000

Challenge #1 – Dual Buttons made developers come up with game ideas that only used two buttons to play. Here are the entries:

Autonomous Guy Who Likes to Ride Platforms and Go In Doors (PC) – Adam Harrier
DuoCave (PC with Xbox 360 Game Pad) – Louis Ingenthron
Hurdles (PC) – Jeff Brown
Jack and George (PC) – Garrett Hoofman
JetTrek (PC) – Ben Baird
Line of Kings (PC) – Anthony Ordon
Orbital (PC) – John Defenbaugh
PowerCell (Xbox 360) – DeadlyEvilRyu
QuantaBalls (PC) – Carl Erikson
Robo Run (PC with Xbox 360 Game Pad) – Matthew Randall
Runaway Tank (PC) – Brooks Bishop
Run Maria! A Dragon! (PC) – James Venezia
SevenBits (Xbox 360) – John Mueller
Tail Gun (Xbox 360) – Big Daddio
Tournament (PC) – Brando
Unnamed Game (PC – Xbox 360 Game Pad (A) or keys [A] and [K]) – Insidious Nine

If you’re not a developer and can’t get any of the PC games to run, make sure you install the XNA Game Studio 3.1 Redist.

Thanks to everyone who took part! Check back next Sunday for the start of the next XNA 7 Day Challenge.