MSX games since 2003
MSX games since 2003

MSXdev22

| Dates and Deadlines | Rules and guidelines | Jury Team | Rating | Donations | Sponsorship | Prizes | Enrollment | Games |

MSXdev is the name the international annual game competition for MSX computers that’s been running since 2003. The rules are simple, create an MSX compatible game. Anyone can participate and it is free to enter. Software submitted to MSXdev will be treated as freeware; free to download and free to play software. The games for this competition are in ROM format and can be used in any MSX emulator.

Welcome to MSXdev22, the 18th episode of this long running show.

The MSXdev22 ended with 32 games in total. The end results can be found here https://www.msxdev.org/2022/11/11/msxdev22-results/

DATES AND DEADLINES

MSXdev22 runs from January 1st 2022 until September 30st 2022.

EVENTFROMUntil
StartJanuary 1st 2022 
Registration periodJanuary 1st 2022September 30st 2022
Jury deliberationJanuary 1st 2022 *1 / October 1st 2022October 31th 2022
Final results made public November 2022
*1, the jury may start evaluation any game from the moment it is submitted. However, as the author is allowed to submit updates before the deadline, the final evaluation starts on October 1st 2022.

RULES AND GUIDELINES

As this year’s MSXdev edition is open for anything, the rules are simple; anything goes. As long as the game runs on an MSX machine. This can mean any MSX is possible. Be it MSX1 with just 16K or RAM or an MSX turbo R with 2MB of RAM and OPL4, it doesn’t matter. In MSXDEV context, it is called the Free Style category. A panel of expert jurors will judge the entry on gameplay, originality, creativity, polishment and overall look-n-feel.

No one likes strict rules, we don’t either. But we have to have some kind of frame work to accept game entries. If there’s a rule, it would be in the lines of “you MUST have fun participating”. But, really, the only prerequisite is that the game must run on an MSX platform. So, we don’t expect Amiga games here. For the rest, just use your common sense and play fair.

Here are some things to consider:

  • Games and content are original. They have never been published before on MSX, and are not copyrighted by anyone else than the creator. Clones and remakes of existing games are accepted.
  • After submitting an entry, it cannot be published outside MSXdev during the run of the contest.
  • The submitted entry is accepted as the full featured final versions. Updates during the contest are only accepted before the deadline.
  • The game is an MSX game and considered freeware (during the compo)
  • Hardware extensions are allowed
  • The game is submitted as a ROM, or a DSK file. There’s no limit on the size of it
  • Include clear instructions for the gameplay and expected hardware by means of a manual, at least in English. Games get rated on the whole package
  • The game entry can be played by one any, either on real MSX hardware or on emulated. If the game needs extra ordinary hardware to run, remember that this might prevent users (and the jury) to enjoy your creation. Take that as just an advice

The games will be tested and evaluated using the configuration specs given by the author before registration. The games should work on an MSX compliant machine. If it does, it is accepted for MSXdev. In any case, the MSXdev organization has the right to reject or redraw an (already accepted) game entry at any time before the official enrollment-deadline.

The selected format for the games is either an MSX ROM file, or an MSX DSK file. As long as the format is MSX compatible. Any ROM size will be accepted, as will any number of MSX formatted DISK files.

JURY TEAM

Members of the jury panel cannot take part in the contest with game entries.

The jury team consists of the following persons:

Micha Mulder (NL)Gameplay
Tadahiro Nitta (JP)Sound
Toni Gálvez (SP)Graphics

RATING

The rating of MSXdev entries is done by a juror panel of MSX experts. There is a maximum of 100 points per entry to be dealt out. The higher the score, the better. There is no public rating available for MSXdev22.

The panel will rate each game on its quality and provides a written motivation of the rating. The score list will be made public and the winner is announced when all games have been judged by the panel. Furthermore, the jurors scoring and motivations will be publically available as a .PDF file download from the official MSXdev website.

Scoring

Every entry will be judged on different aspects of the game by the jury panel. Each game-aspect is assigned to one expert-juror. A juror will score two (2) points per game. One on the assigned game-aspect and one on the overall impression of the game. These are separate points to score. A score can be 1-100 points. The total score of a game is the average of all scores (6) from the panel.

The game aspects that are rated separately are:

  • Gameplay
  • Graphics
  • Sound

With a panel of three (3) members, each giving two (2) scores, a game entry is scored 6 times. Each score type is weighted equally. Whereas 1 point is the lowest score, and 100 point the highest, with a minimum of 6 points per game. A judge can only rate using whole integer numbers, so without fractional parts (e.g. half points).

Ties will not be accepted. To prevent those, we instated the resolution of 1-100. The chance of equal scores is lower than previous MSXdev editions that used a lower score resolution.

Nevertheless, in case of a tie (when multiple entries have an equal amount of scored points), the jury panel is required to vote for the better game. The game with the most votes wins and gets 1/10 extra points awarded. If that leads to another tie, the jurors are again asked to vote. This process continues until there are no more ties.

An eventual tie breaking process is transparently mentioned in the final jury report.

Ranking

In the end, there are four (4) ranking categories published, namely:

  1. Best overall game (average of all scores combined)
  2. Best gameplay
  3. Best graphics
  4. Best sound

From these ranking lists, only prizes are available for ranking list 1 (Best overall game). The other ranking lists are for pride and honor.

Remember, your entry gets rated on quality. And that includes external means like packaging and the manual as well. In order to have your creation judged completely, we advise to include means to access every area of the entry. Like cheat-codes, passwords, screenshots, emu save-states, in-game BGM player, easy/hard level selection and other things you can think of to make it easy for judges to score your entry. We will be discrete with this information, it is for the jury-panel’s eyes only.

DONATING

We will have a cash prize for the winner with the sum of your donations. If you love the MSXdev contest and want to be part of it by contributing to a prize, this is your opportunity!

Make you donation via PayPal

Please, when making your donation, be sure to specify the name/nick you want to appear as the donor, or tell us if you want to remain anonymous.

Every contribution, even the smallest amount, will be highly appreciated! 100% of the donations will go to the game developers – Thank you very much for considering to support the contest!

LIST OF DONORS

We have received the following donations for MSXdev22:

  • € 50,00 – by Robb Alvey
  • € 100,00 – by Robb Alvey
  • € 100,00 – by Roman van der Meulen
  • € 100,00 – by Anonymous
  • € 50,00 – by Robb Alvey
  • € 25,00 – by Bastiaan Verhage
  • € 70,00 – by Alastair Brown
  • € 100,00 – by Robb Alvey
  • € 30,00 – by Jose Muiño
  • € 100,00 – by Robb Alvey
  • € 25,00 – by Def Danny
  • € 20,00 – by M-A-D-M-A-X
  • € 50,00 – by Anonymous
  • € 5,00 – by Sergio Manzano Rios
  • € 10,00 – by Zoran Majcenic
  • € 14,21 – by Matthijs van der Veen
  • € 12,30 – by Tomita Kenji
  • € 5,00 – by Sergi Garcia Besora
  • € 10,00 – by Jordi Solis
  • € 30,00 – by Jan Kimpflinger
  • € 9,36 – by Matthijs van der Veen
  • € 4,41 – by Nelson Cadari
  • € 4,41 – by Fabio Augusto Carmelita Rodrigues dos Santos
  • € 120,00 – by Anonymous
  • € 50,00 – by Anne de Raad
  • € 25,00 – by Arnaud de Klerk
  • € 20,00 – by Fabrice Charpy
  • € 100,00 – by Anonymous
  • € 200,00 – by Associazione Culturale Airons di Vigevano
  • € 2,82 – by Tomita Kenji
  • € 23,92 – by Roland van Straaten
  • € 5,00 – by Sergio Manzano Rios
  • € 30.09 – by FRS
  • € 9,09 – by mvac7 (aka aorante)
  • € 50,00 – by Maksym Dudnyk
  • € 5,00 – by Anonymous
  • € 1,56 – by Tomita Kenji
  • € 2,84 – by Tomita Kenji
  • € 50,00 – by Santiago Ontanon
  • € 20,76 – by A. Correa (Punch)
  • € 20,00 – by Xavier Sancho Tena
  • € 10,00 – by Robert Gijsen
  • € 20,00 – by Miguel Colom Barco

All sponsor amounts are net (excl Paypal fees) Thank you all!

SPONSORSHIP

You can also become an sponsor by adding any item to the winners loot box.

Anything goes, from a sticker to a piece of hardware, a gift certificate or a subscription to any service. If you’re interested in initiating a sponsorship, please contact us by esmail.

The following sponsored items have already been confirmed:

PRIZES

Prizes will consist of money that comes from donations and of sponsored items. The total amount of donated money will be divided amongst winners. This year’s total prize money adds up to € 1660! That is an incredible amount of donations we had this year, a record even!

This prize money will be divided over the top-4 winners as follows:

1st place winner 40% € 640,00
2nd place winner 30% € 480,00
3rd place winner 20% € 320,00
4th place winner 10% € 160,00
5th place winner left over € 60,00

Sponsored items will end up in the loot box where every contestant has a change to dive in and grab an item of choice, starting with the first place winner followed by the next winners.

ENROLLMENT

Participating in the MSXdev22 contest is easy, just e-mail your final version of the game together with the required information to the MSXdev team. Every entry that complies with the requirements will be approved to enter the contest and gets a change to shine.

To register your entry, send an email to info@msxdev.org with the following attachments and information:

  • Name of the game and its version
  • Name of the group or author
  • Game genre
  • Hardware options or requirements
  • Screenshots and/or other artwork of the game
  • A game manual (at least in English) – any format will do
  • Full name and contact e-mail address of the author (provide as much contact information as you like)
  • Attach the game in .ROM or .DSK format (whether zipped or not)
  • Any other information or related media that you’d like to share.

On entering the contest, a registration conformation e-mail will be returned. The entry will then be examined by the organizing party for compliancy and followed by an another e-mail to either approve or decline the submitted entry. When the entry is compliant, it will be announced and published on the msxdev.org web site. From that moment on, the game is considered “published” and ready for judgement.

If we have any more questions on your submitted entry, we will contact you by e-mail.

Keep in mind that:

  • Only the last received version of the game is the one valid for the contest. Updates are accepted during the contest. Updates are posted on the MSXdev.org website as well.
  • State in the instructions or in attached text file the freeware status of any game participating in MSXdev contest. Any freeware license can be used, as long as the full game can be freely obtained by the users.
  • During the compo, the game is considered MSXdev exclusive. It is, however, allowed to redistribute or sell the game when the deadline has passed.
  • All participants will accept the final results

Remember that all official information about the contest will always be available at the MSXdev.org website. If you have any questions, contact us at info@msxdev-team

* The MSXdev requires a minimum of 9 submitted game entries to commence. When the deadline has passed with less than that, the compo is cancelled.

SUBMITTED GAMES

This year’s entries are:

All listed games are MSXdev exclusives, and not to be published elsewhere during the compo. MSXdev22 runs from January 1st until Friday September the 30th. Games are freeware, that means free to download and play. The author remains the owner of the submitted game.

THANK YOU

The MSXdev would not be possible if it wasn’t for

  • Konamito – for setting up this web-site and doing system administration
  • MSXall – for hosting this web-site
  • MRC – for the support
  • Donators and sponsors – for the never ending commitment
  • MSX game developers – for making this compo for what it is; awesome
  • The MSX scene – for all your love and support

Awesome!