RESULTS!!!

[appel]

Results are here!!!

http://java4k.com/

Pleasantly surprising to see community voting nearly identical to the judging panel.

Judging scores are now normalized and then averaged.


Thank you all guys for participating, both in submitting great games and voting! See you next year


(Always a small chance of some errors, so I reserve the right to correct them without everyone whining about it .)

[SimonH]

Cool! I must say, the best game won - original idea, solid implementation, nice gameplay ramp... Top marks!

Edit: Forgot to say: many thanks to the judges - I'm much enjoying the reviews!

[bysse]

Yes, big thanks to the judges for the reviews!

Games published by our own members! Go get 'em!

[AIMMOTH]

Very nice indeed!

Gz to Burning Man, GTA4k, Fortressfall4k and VVVV!

I have really enjoyed the games in this competition and to be a part of it. Very impressive games have been made and I'm all ready up for a better version of my (our) own entry, Epic Inferno. And maybe a second entry, I have some good ideas

But I have a complain to make. My own entry, Epic Inferno, is only a multiplayer game and the judges couldn't play it against another player. Therefore I question how the rules for the competition are set up. There isn't any rules against multiplayer games and therefore the judges should be _able_ to play them with another player.

Of course, I accept the voting and judging.

[pjt33]

Thanks to the judges for your hard work (and for "getting" my game - I was aiming more for the "astounding number of words" reaction than a high score ).

It's interesting to see that some games you "got" and I didn't, and vice versa.

PS Appel, could you add links between the three results pages?

[Abuse]

But I have a complain to make. My own entry, Epic Inferno, is only a multiplayer game and the judges couldn't play it against another player. Therefore I question how the rules for the competition are set up. There isn't any rules against multiplayer games and therefore the judges should be _able_ to play them with another player.

I'd argue that if you supply a multiplayer game then you should also supply players against which the game can be played. 
.....which has just given me an idea as to how to partially circumvent (bend) one of the competition rules 

There is no way a client in a multiplayer game can know whether the opponents they are playing against are real players, or computer programs running on a remote server.
Ergo, you ensure all games have several artificial players in them; hosted remotely on your own machine and running private code that is not constrained by the 4kb limit.
Technically it shouldn't be too hard to achieve; your 4kb game would need to host & maintain a master server list (though only active when running on a hardcoded host address).

[appel]

I'm really pleased with the success of the community voting. The distribution of the points is what I expected, and shows that 25 points were sufficient, all games got their fair share of points. Also, the top 10 games and the bottom 10 games of the community vote and judging vote were really similar.

The bottom-most games seem to have one thing in common, difficult to play and co-op gameplay. While the top-most games seem to have something in common, that being easy to get started, easy to understand and control.

I allocate 5-15 minutes to each game when I judge. If I'm unable to get pleasure out of the game within that time, well, that pretty much determines my score. Normal users aren't so forgiving, going away from the game if the description and how-to-play text takes longer than drinking a cup of coffee. The community voting seems to agree.

Take Burning Man as an example (congrats btw!), it looks cool, the controls are simple (just arrow-keys), and it's very obvious what you need to do. As you get further into the game it becomes more difficult with wood, and the bombs, and then acid! The gameplay is really nicely balanced, each level gives you a challenge, but not an too easy one or difficult one. The game is also forgiving on mistakes, allowing you to restart on the failed level, instead of going back to start. I showed it to a co-worker of mine, and 2 hours later I checked in on him and he was still playing it, that's really when I knew for sure this game was going to win.

Maybe a lesson for us all. Keep it simple, intuitive, good looking and well-balanced.

[Markus_Persson]

Very nice! Congratulations to the winners! =D
Burning Man is a great game. The only thing that makes it stand out as a 4k game is the art, but even that works well.

So when does the next one start? :-D Is it winter yet?

[TheAnalogKid]

Yeah, thanks to appel, the judges and the participants.

This was my first entry and I think I did well. I'm satisfied. By the download count I didn't expect such a mark.

And thanks to the judges for the very useful comments! Next year I will reserve much more time to my entry. All the comments would have been solved if I had more time.

[davidc]

Well done SquashMonster, a convincing win.

Thanks also to the judges for their time and comments. I wasn't really surprised with my ranking in the community votes, it just goes to show that coming up with a good idea and making it fun enough for random people to play is not easy (well, some seem to make it look easy).

Looking forward to next year!

Games published by our own members! Go get 'em!

[Eli Delventhal]

Very nice indeed!

Gz to Burning Man, GTA4k, Fortressfall4k and VVVV!

I have really enjoyed the games in this competition and to be a part of it. Very impressive games have been made and I'm all ready up for a better version of my (our) own entry, Epic Inferno. And maybe a second entry, I have some good ideas

But I have a complain to make. My own entry, Epic Inferno, is only a multiplayer game and the judges couldn't play it against another player. Therefore I question how the rules for the competition are set up. There isn't any rules against multiplayer games and therefore the judges should be _able_ to play them with another player.

Of course, I accept the voting and judging.

Yeah, I've thought about that too, and it's definitely something that's worth discussing for next year. Of course you can have multiplayer games, but I think as an entrant you always need to expect that your judges won't be playing with anyone else. In fact, you need to expect that your players won't either.

One of Epic Inferno's biggest barriers for success, I think, was that it has nothing really to draw anyone to try to find another player. It doesn't look very impressive and the gameplay is too complicated (or perhaps just too difficult to understand). Either way, to get anyone (a judge or otherwise) to want to bring over a friend to try multiplayer you need some kind of exciting hook. It's probably a good idea to stick with AI opponents for your 4k entry, then expand to allow co-op.

[appel]

Yeah, I've thought about that too, and it's definitely something that's worth discussing for next year. Of course you can have multiplayer games, but I think as an entrant you always need to expect that your judges won't be playing with anyone else. In fact, you need to expect that your players won't either.

One of Epic Inferno's biggest barriers for success, I think, was that it has nothing really to draw anyone to try to find another player. It doesn't look very impressive and the gameplay is too complicated (or perhaps just too difficult to understand). Either way, to get anyone (a judge or otherwise) to want to bring over a friend to try multiplayer you need some kind of exciting hook. It's probably a good idea to stick with AI opponents for your 4k entry, then expand to allow co-op.

Cooperative or multiplayer games CAN be fun. They are just much harder to do. Here are a few successful examples:

Red Baron in 2009, a straight-forward cooperative game that is simple to play and good looking.
http://java4k.com/index.php?action=games&method=reviews&cid=5#229

World Rally Driver 4k in 2009, not really a multiplayer game, but with the online highscore list it gives you the feeling of it being a multiplayer game because you're competing online against others for higher score.
http://java4k.com/index.php?action=games&method=reviews&cid=5#197

Scorcher, not really either cooperative or multiplayer, but can easily be implemented as one.
http://java4k.com/index.php?action=games&method=view&gid=123

[SquashMonster]

Thanks everyone!

Would it be possible or desirable for me to put up a "game of the year edition" of Burning Man?  I managed to make the game run a lot better and I'd like to go back and redo some of the levels.

[appel]

Thanks everyone!

Would it be possible or desirable for me to put up a "game of the year edition" of Burning Man?  I managed to make the game run a lot better and I'd like to go back and redo some of the levels.

Look forward to playing it!

[AIMMOTH]

Yeah, I've thought about that too, and it's definitely something that's worth discussing for next year. Of course you can have multiplayer games, but I think as an entrant you always need to expect that your judges won't be playing with anyone else. In fact, you need to expect that your players won't either.

One of Epic Inferno's biggest barriers for success, I think, was that it has nothing really to draw anyone to try to find another player. It doesn't look very impressive and the gameplay is too complicated (or perhaps just too difficult to understand). Either way, to get anyone (a judge or otherwise) to want to bring over a friend to try multiplayer you need some kind of exciting hook. It's probably a good idea to stick with AI opponents for your 4k entry, then expand to allow co-op.

Yeah I know. Epic Inferno has definitely some flaws that could be easy fixed. However in my case there was no time and if you play against another player it is lotz of fun

But the point is that if there isn't any restriction against multiplayer games and if there is a competitor with a multiplayer-only game, the judges must adopt to the game and play against another player.

To make a multiplayer game with good chances of being in top of this competition is, of course, very hard in any case.

[Alan_W]

Thanks everyone!

Would it be possible or desirable for me to put up a "game of the year edition" of Burning Man?  I managed to make the game run a lot better and I'd like to go back and redo some of the levels.

Yes please and congratulations on a well deserved win.

Also thanks to the judges for their time and partically to Arni for organising this years competition.  I've really enjoyed it.
It's been a pleasure playing all the games; so many beautiful and inventive entries.

[gabesz]

Thanks to the judges for the very useful and instructive comments and thanks to the community for voting on my games.
My games haven't performed very well... I was too lazy and not so creative and this is corretly reflected in my rankings. 
Anyway, it was fun to create such games and in my opinion this is the most important thing.

Congratulation to everybody for the great games!

Cheers,
Gabor

[DzzD]

BurningMan !!! my favorite ! it is a really great game and sure that if it was made in 90's years it would have probably become a "must/classical" game that everyone would now know here.

a litte deceived by tr4cks results, I really enjoyed it but it get a very bad score

[Ranger]

Congratulations Burning Man!  Very well deserved win!  Red hot game! 

Big thanks to all the judges for the excellent reviews.  And to Appel for holding the comp!

Pleasantly surprising to see community voting nearly identical to the judging panel.

Drive4K:  Community: 6th.  Judges: 19th.  Average it out at 12th.  Happy with that! 

[StephR]

Congratulations to SquashMonster and his awesome and original Burning Man - you really deserved your first place -, and to all those who succeeded in submitting a game, which is an accomplishment in itself. Concerning the results, they reflect well my own appreciation, at least for the first half. However, I find it a bit harsh for the second half...

For next year, I suggest that only the accurate rating of the best third of the games should be published, with a A grade. Then, the second and the last third would only receive respectively B and C grades, without any accurate rating...

[CommanderKeith]

Big congratulations to everyone, loved all of the 4k games and so did my little brothers.

Everytime a new one was posted i played it and thought 'this is definitely going to win, i mean how on earth did the programmer make that!'

The judging, hosting, applet setup and everything was perfect, keep it up

[soothsayer]

Every participants has proven that less is more when submitted a game. I have to admit it was a brilliant competition.

Thanks for everone who supported my game during voting procedure, judges and community too!!

I hoped that somebody would use my code to create another physics game. I took Chipmunk rigid body engine what I could simplify enough for the contest.

I would like to release C++ and/or Delphi source soon, because Java code really hard to understand.

[Ranger]

I would like to release C++ and/or Delphi source soon, because Java code really hard to understand.

I usually find the opposite. 
FYI: I open sourced my Java Verlet code (which was just a conversion from some existing C++ ...to make it easier to understand  ).  Feel free to compare:  http://verlet.googlecode.com/

[SquashMonster]

So I promised a "Game of the year edition" version of Burning Man.  Here it is.

http://sites.google.com/site/squashmonster/BurningManGOTYE.zip

This includes both the packed version and the regular jar.  If it can get published on the site somehow, that'd be absolutely amazing.  Otherwise (well, either way, really), I hope you all enjoy it.

[DzzD]

So I promised a "Game of the year edition" version of Burning Man.  Here it is.

http://sites.google.com/site/squashmonster/BurningManGOTYE.zip

This includes both the packed version and the regular jar.  If it can get published on the site somehow, that'd be absolutely amazing.  Otherwise (well, either way, really), I hope you all enjoy it.

cool, no time right now to fully test it but.... you should put it on a webserver ASAP ! (if you cant let me know I will put it somewhere on mine), once done you should post it to some java game website : javagametome / http://games4j.com/ (gamejolt ?)

[appel]

So I promised a "Game of the year edition" version of Burning Man.  Here it is.

http://sites.google.com/site/squashmonster/BurningManGOTYE.zip

This includes both the packed version and the regular jar.  If it can get published on the site somehow, that'd be absolutely amazing.  Otherwise (well, either way, really), I hope you all enjoy it.

You can add a link in the game description, or add it to the URL field.

Put up an applet on games4j, I'd like to keep java4k.com free of any non-4k games

[SquashMonster]

You can add a link in the game description, or add it to the URL field.

Put up an applet on games4j, I'd like to keep java4k.com free of any non-4k games

That's still 4k.

[Riven]

That's still 4k.

Indeed, please appel, follow the spec and serve the JAR when the browser doesn't send the 'accept-encoding: pack200-gzip' header

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/deployment/deployment-guide/pack200.html

Besides, maybe you can simply run unpack200 on the pack.gz files, and create the classes/JARs again? That way nobody has to resubmit their JAR, to make their game work, for just about everybody.

[SimonH]

The Java4K site is still showing the winners from 2009! Weren't we good enough this year? 

[SquashMonster]

I just found a pretty nasty bug in that GameOfTheYear version; please ignore it until I get a chance to fix it.

Oy.