Dates

Start Date
October 02, 2018 12:00 AM
End Date
November 30, 2018 11:59 PM
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Challengers

completed the challenge

Frogger

The votes have been case for your next GameDev Challenge and Frogger came out ahead as the winner.

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Your challenge is to create a game with the gameplay elements of Frogger. Frogger is considered a classic from the golden age of arcade games. It was originally released as an arcade game in 1981 by Konami. The object of the game is to move frogs to their homes one by one across a busy road and a river of hazards.

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The gameplay of Frogger is relatively simple. From Wikipedia:

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The game starts with three, five, or seven frogs, depending on the settings used by the operator. These are counted as the player's lives, and losing them results in the end of the game, or "game over." The only player control is the 4 direction joystick used to navigate the frog; each push in a direction causes the frog to hop once in that direction. The number of simultaneous players is one, and the game has a maximum of two players.

The objective of the game is to guide each frog to one of the designated spaces at the top of the screen, also known as "frog homes." The frog starts at the bottom of the screen, which contains a road with motor vehicles, which in various versions include cars, trucks, buses, dune buggies, bulldozers, vans, taxis, bicyclists and motorcycles, speeding along it horizontally. The player must guide the frog between opposing lanes of traffic to avoid becoming roadkill, which results in a loss of one life. After the road, this is a median strip where the player must prepare to navigate the river. The upper portion of the screen consists of a river with logs, alligators, and turtles, all moving horizontally across the screen. By jumping on swiftly moving logs and the backs of turtles and alligators the player can guide their frog to safety. While navigating the river, the player must also avoid the open mouths of alligators, snakes, and otters. The very top of the screen contains five "frog homes," which are the destinations for each frog. The player must avoid alligators sticking out of the five "frog homes," but may catch bugs or escort a lady frog which appear periodically for bonuses.

There are many different ways to lose a life (illustrated by a "skull and crossbones" symbol where the frog was), including: being hit by or running into a road vehicle, jumping into the river's water, running into snakes, otters or an alligator's jaws in the river, jumping into a home invaded by an alligator, staying on top of a diving turtle until it has completely submerged, riding a log, alligator, or turtle off the side of the screen, jumping into a home already occupied by a frog, jumping into the side of a home or the bush, or running out of time.

When all five frogs are directed home, the game progresses to the next level with increased difficulty. After five levels, the game gets briefly easier before yet again getting progressively harder after each level. The player has 30 seconds to guide each frog into one of the homes; this timer resets whenever a life is lost or a frog reaches home safely.

Every forward step scores 10 points, and every frog arriving safely home scores 50 points. 10 points are also awarded per each unused 1⁄2second of time. Guiding a lady frog home or eating a fly scores 200 points each, and when all 5 frogs reach home to end the level the player earns 1,000 points. A bonus frog is given at 10K or 20K, and none thereafter. 99,990 points is the maximum high score that can be achieved on an original arcade cabinet; players may exceed this score, but the game only keeps the last 5 digits

 

The gameplay has proven to be popular. Most recently, mobile hit Crossy Road brought Frogger-like gameplay via chicken.

 

Challenge Requirements

The game must have:

  • Menu menu and a way to return to the main menu
  • Frogger gameplay mechanics, including but not limited to:
    • At least one character
    • Must maneuver the character across obstacles, moving and stationary
    • The character must have a goal to achieve - location-based, point-based, or otherwise
  • Score system
  • Game over screen
  • Audio: 1 music track and/or sound effects (firing, enemies being hit, etc)
  • Game may be in 2D or 3D

Dates

The official Challenge period starts on October 2, 2018 and ends on November 30, 2018 at 11:59pm IDL.

Submission

Create a new topic in the GameDev Challenge Group Forum as a submission announcement and include:

  • Link to project posted for download in GameDev Projects (you can use itch.io too, but no award without it on GameDev Projects!)
    • Upload your files to the project so other members can download and play
    • Please contact me if your submission is a web-based game (GameDev Projects does support them!)
  • Screenshots should be included on the GameDev Project page and/or the Gallery Album for your project. Embedding screenshots in the topic announcement is encouraged.
    • Embedding YouTube or Vimeo trailers is also encouraged
  • A small post-mortem in a GameDev.net Blog associated with your GameDev Project (select Project when posting blog), where you can share what went right, what went wrong, or just share a nifty trick you learned
  • Source-code link is encouraged for educational purposes
    • Github link, zip download in GameDev Project, or otherwise

Challenge Award

Participants who complete the challenge will receive:

  • 1,000 Pixels
  • Mentions in the GameDev.net Direct weekly newsletter
  • Most important: the Frogger Award for your profile

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