1 Week App Competition
Having finally formalised the approach to the 1 week app competition (sorry for the delay), this post is officially kicking things off. I did make an update to the previous post, but as pointed out, not having an official kickoff with the rules was confusing. I’m also going to extend the time period as well.
The rules are:
- If you are interested in taking part, send an email to mike@71squared.com to register your involvement. If you can also send email updates they can be placed on the blog to provide a running commentary of progress, which would be cool :o)
- The app has to take no longer than 56 hours that’s 8 hours per day for 7 days. You therefore don’t need to do everything in a calendar week, just within the hours stated above.
- You can use any frameworks you wish e.g. any of the code from the 71squared tutorials, cocos2d etc
- The game can be anything you like, but it has to be a game and not a utility application
- The game has to be complete and published to the app store by Friday 10th September. An email should be sent to mike@71squared.com when the app has been submitted which provides details of the app e.g. name and description etc
- The game does not need to be free, but having it free for a small period would I’m sure encourage others to download it and then vote ;o) you could then add a price once voting is over. I will of course be adding details of ALL the games submitted to the blog for people to see
- All voting must have taken place by 24th September (using a poll setup on the blog), which should have given Apple time to get the apps to the app store and for people to download and try them out
- I am hoping we get more than three entrants, in which case the top three games as voted by the readers of this blog will receive a copy of “Learning iOS Game Programming”
Let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to see what people come up with.
Good luck
Mike
16 Comments
axiostudio on August 4th, 2010
“The app has to take no longer than 56 hours that’s 8 hours per day for 7 days.”
How this is monitored ?
mike on August 4th, 2010
Hi axiostudio, this is a hard one to monitor and it’s going to be down to the honesty of the developer to be honest. I’m hoping that those who enter are also entering into the spirit of the competition and therefore are honest with their hours.
Hope that helps.
Mike
Ralph on August 4th, 2010
This sounds like a lot of fun. I’m trying to finish up a game engine of my own after which I would love to join. I hope the timing lines up. Is there a deadline on when you can enter?
mike on August 4th, 2010
Hi Ralph
There is no time limit to enter, as long as you give yourself enough time to finish :O)
Mike
Simon on August 4th, 2010
Mike,
When you submitted SLQ how long did it take to get in to the app store, and how long was it at the waiting for review and at the being reviewed stage?
mike on August 4th, 2010
Hi Simon
SLQ went into review within 1 day of submission and it was then ready for sale in 5 days.
Mike
Daniel on August 4th, 2010
Mike,
With regards to the voting. I understand, at the moment that the voting will take place via the app review system on the Iphone/ Ipods?
First is this accurate? And second, if so, why dont you let people vote via the blog exclusively (somehow). Seeing as though If I upload an app tomorrow, its likely to get more votes than someone in 3 weeks (Especially if its free?)
Daniel on August 4th, 2010
Scratch that… Question has been answered in the actual post.
Simon on August 5th, 2010
ignore that first question lol oh, you already did – I too clearly didn’t read your initial posting properly – either that or you’ve done some editing ;)
So basically what you are saying is, in order for the app to received votes from the wider public outside this blog, the app will need to include a link to 71squared (or at very least a mention of the competition and how people can vote if they like the game).
This to me raises far more questions than it answers of the accuracy of any voting that takes place and also the effort required to promoted 71squared versus the prize (a copy of your book lol, easier to buy it) so as they say in Dragons Den – I’m out! ;p
While I’m usually in full support of you guys, this sounds like it’s just a popularity contest and a promotional bit for the blog. At least if it was based on the iTunes votes you would have ensured that people had actually played the app. After all you can’t vote on something you haven’t bought, or downloaded, from the store.
I know, I’ve probably taken this all a little bit too seriously, but I think my comments are still valid.
Good luck with it
Simon
mike on August 5th, 2010
Hi Simon
I’m thinking you are taking it a little more seriously than was intended ;o)
I’m not expecting ANY publicity for the blog, Tom and I were simply thinking that it would be cool for the developers who currently read the blog to create something and vote on each others apps with the top three getting a copy of the book.
I’ve asked the publisher to provide some extra copies for me so that I can give them away to blog readers. It’s you guys that have really helped support the blog and therefore myself while I’ve been writing the book. I was not sure how to decide who should get a free copy of the book, hence the competition.
That was it really, not looking for any publicity or anything more complex than just those devs who have used and read the blog to show off their apps and hopefully get a copy of the book.
Maybe I didn’t make that clear enough, but I’m really not looking at getting extra publicity on the back of the efforts of the readers, I’m not that organised :o)
Hope that’s cleared things up but I of course respect your decision and appreciate all your input.
Mike
Simon on August 5th, 2010
Hi Mike,
yeah I know that, sorry if it came off as a bashing about promotion.
I was actually more disappointed with your chosen method of voting as, in my view, it’s open to abuse + it’s a very complicated way to go about it all. The promotion would just be a by product and that’s expected (planned or otherwise), I didn’t mean to sound like I was complaining about that.
You could have simply asked people to submit there votes, and then you’d only need to verify those who have the most, by looking on iTunes – hence my suggestion about agreeing the markets.
Am I giving the impression of the guy that likes rules lol it’s my OCD kicking in!
Tom on August 5th, 2010
Hi Simon,
The initial idea for this was a light-hearted challenge to see what people can come up with given a very short time frame.
Later, we thought this would be a great way to give away a few copies of Mike’s book to the community of developers that have helped with their contributions over the past year.
The voting mechanism is just a way to help us decide who should win a copy of the book.
Ultimately, myself and Mike have the final say but we will try and be as fair as possible. In the event of a draw, myself and Mike will review the apps and decide upon the winners.
We keep hearing about success stories where people write an app in a week or two (I think Trism was one) so I decided to do a couple myself “My 1 To 5″ and “1 Plus 2″ which can be found on the “Our Apps” page.
I chose to do 2 kids games, one for each of my daughters, Jessica aged 8 and Breanna aged 18 months. Jess helped with art and sound effects and we had a great time making them.
I think it will be really interesting to see just how much someone can achieve in a week.
Keep in mind though that this is just a bit of fun, a distraction if you like from the normal lengthy development cycle.
Jason on August 6th, 2010
Mike,
The competition sounds fun. Just a couple questions.
1. So we can use as a basis, any game engine we have already created?
2. What about artwork? Are we allowed to use artwork we have previously gathered/contracted, or do we need to get new artwork and count it in the 56 hours?
Mike on August 7th, 2010
Hi Jason
If you already have some base assets for art then that is fine to use as is any base game engine code. The actual game itself such as the logic should really be what is created in the 56 hours. Just putting a few final touches to a game that has already had 1 man year of investment is not really fare ;0)
Hope that helps
Mike
the start of a new journey on August 14th, 2010
[...] Today, I decided to start a new project for participating the competition organized by 71Square: “1 Week App Competition” [...]
Simon on August 4th, 2010
one final question – from which countries are you accepting votes, are you going to check them all? Might be worth specifying.
I know i know i’m a pain in the ass. But at the end of the day you might just want to specify english speaking nations purely to simplify things like USA, UK, NZ, AUS. It’l make it easier for you to check and level the field as someone doing it in Japanese may well get more votes ’cause Japan may get a lesser number of submissions so therefore you stay nearer the top for longer (maybe).