NEO Compo 2012 Roundup Highlights

[Another World]

As of 8/20/12 the NeoFlash Coding Competition 2012 has drawn to a close. This summer's competition was surprisingly successful considering that submissions were only accepted for just over a month. As Homebrew entries flooded their official forums, news of those releases did not make their way to GBAtemp. Instead of posting about each project now, we will present for you a brief roundup which aims to highlight a few of the projects. For more information on the competition or to read actual release threads, navigate to the compo forum via the links below.

Of the 21 game submissions, not all were newly coded and/or updated for this competition. Among those that were, we see a significant effort to bring exciting experiences to many "retro" video game systems.

Island Adventure, designed by sarang and cabbage, is an adventure RPG for the PC-Engine (TurboGrafx-16). The entire game was coded in only a few weeks and is completely playable from beginning to end. The game does not offer the ability to save, but the author stresses that the game can be beat in a very short amount of time. The developer admits that there is more that could be done to the project, so here's hoping it receives future updates.

Download

I Wanna Flip The Sky is a NES Homebrew platformer based on the physics of gravity. The goal of the game is to reach the exit of each level using a limited number of gravity flips. The game is intended to be difficult while being a test of precision and timing.

Download

Spirits DS is a remake of the 1987 classic adventure game Spirits. While many of you are already aware of this project, some may not be aware how many updates were incorporated just for this competition. Many graphics were remade, a pause feature was added, more background music was added, even cheats and in-game easter eggs were added. If you have not checked out this project before, be sure to do so now.

Download

Homebrew developer Alekmaul has shifted coding efforts towards a SNES development library. MazezaM Challenge (pronounced "may-zam"), is a SNES puzzle game made with his new coding library, PVSnesLib. The game is played by moving blocks in an effort to clear a path to the exit. Alekmaul has made it a point to stress that the project functions on actual hardware!

Download

News of Genecyst's A Werewolf Tale for the GBA has been around for awhile. It was nice to finally see a compiled and playable version of the game. The game is described as being a "chaotic puzzle action game" where the player controls a werewolf capable of punching, dashing, and jumping his way around Dracula's castle. While still considered a Work In Progress (WIP), the current build shows much promise and is worth checking out.

Download

Of the 11 submitted applications, not all are newly coded not all were newly coded and/or updated for this competition. Among those that were entered, a few unique projects stood out.

FPS Maker by smealum is a level designer application for his newly coded 3D engine. The root of the project was to challenge the developer to try things he has not yet attempted on the DS. The result is a FPS game engine and a functional, yet not complete, level editor. Smealum used this project to design A Cup of Tea - Super Yeti Edition (ACOTSYE), his NeoFlash compo game entry.

Download

ControllerTest is a n64 application that can test the accuracy of the analog stick. Some rather interesting results were found thanks to this little application. Among the worst controllers are GameCube style replacement sticks from various online auction sites.

Download

AnimEDS, for how well known it is, seems to have been missed by a few artists. This application allows artists to create and animate pixel art graphics on their DS. The rendered art is fully compatible with the open-source "GEDS" game engine, but can also be exported to PNG format or animation instruction list for use in Web games.

Download

As stated at the beginning of this article, this roundup highlights only a small amount of submitted projects. The competition saw entries for Wii, PSP, n64, GBA, SNES, NES, PC Engine, SCDS, and Atari 2600 games and applications. Among them were a WIFI hacking application, puzzle games, coding languages, first person shooters, arcade classics, RPGs, and even a withdrawn entry for a full motion video NES port of Dragon's Lair. Please make sure you spend a little time enjoying Homebrew this summer, and be sure to stop by the NeoFlash forum to discuss the entries. The more interest the community shows the better chance we have for developers to finalize their projects.

NeoFlash 2012 The Game Zone

NeoFlash 2012 The APP Zone

NeoFlash 2012 Compo Reviews

 

[Another World]

i'm curious who voted down the post, and if you would man up and publicly let us know what you disliked about the post, homebrew, or this coding compo?

-another world

 

[leinad]

I'm just curious, what do ppl have against my entry ? Not a single (feedback-)comment on neoflash, thread view count amongst the lowest, download counter even lower, the screenshot itself has only been viewed a few times there (so I think most views are from random clicking/search-indexers lol). Is it the name, sure SyobonAction sounds weird, but I wanted to keep the original name ? Weirdly it got over 15 comments here on just USN ( http://gbatemp.net/topic/332959-syobonactionds-catmario/ ), but no idea what I made wrong that it didnt reach frontpage :/

 

[Another World]

you'll have to ask the active news staff why they did not cover the competition. my love of homebrew compelled me to bring more attention to the competition, and so i wrote the roundup highlight post. i did not cover everything on purpose, nor did i pick certain projects for any one reason. my attempt was only to highlight some genres, which is why i mentioned at the beginning and end of the article about what else was released and that more information can be found on the competition homepage.

this thread has been up for for 24 hours and received no comments about the competition, how great it was, what fun entries were released, what they liked or didn't like, bug reports, etc. in fact, the post was voted down by 1 anonymous person and only voted up by 7. keep in mind that we have 294,742 registered members, something about this ratio just isn't right.

homebrew started to become more common place after the release of gba flash kits. that transitioned rather quickly into the ds, and thanks to things like palib, ds homebrew thrived for a few years. during that time many homebrew enabled devices were released (dingoo, gemei, caanoo, pandora, some clones of systems, the psp was hacked, flash kits of all kinds boomed with popularity, etc) and smart phones capable of playing homebrew became readily available. homebrew is no longer the underground obscure movement it once was. it has become so common and accepted by gamers that it seems those less passionate about it feel less of a need to get involved. if you feel like taking my opinion on the subject, then do not get upset over the lack of comments. do not feel discouraged. gamers are playing your game, even if they no longer feel the need to publicly comment on their enjoyment of your homebrew.

perhaps we have reached a point that we need to remind users what homebrew is, how it is developed, why programmers feel compelled to write games and applications and then release them. maybe there are many who do not realize what iOS and Android would be like if all homebrew development (including small 2-4 person studios, yes that is Homebrew developed by a "team") stopped tomorrow.

every day that i boot up any number of 8 gb microsd cards packed full of homebrew and emulation i am reminded of what i love about homebrew. i am compelled to debug it, report my findings, and to make the projects better through my interaction with its developer. i once knew many people who were like this, and now, i do not know as many.

-another world

 

[BassAceGold]

"Negative feedback is silence. Anything else is usually constructive!" - theloon

Just thought I'd post this here.

 

[shengtian]

I follow you.