MSXdev21 Overview

Ever since the first announcement of MSXdev21, it was clear that this year's compo was going to be a record breaking one. First games rolled in soon, together with donations and sponsors. The MSXdev21 edition has just seen it's deadline for game submission with, indeed, a record amount of enrollments. It is now in the jurors' hands.

Starting with its first edition, back in 2003, MSXdev has received over 200 games. MSX software developers pounding their 8-bit keyboard to transform bits into gems. Pure MSX magic free for every one to enjoy. The MSXdev21 edition has expanded the games list even further. Much further.

The long running dev show reached its pinnacle with this edition and broke all records. Not only the amount of participants and games is bigger than ever, donations and sponsoring is just beyond expectations too. With 34 games in, MSXdev21 has a record of most games enrolled, ever! This is the top-5 of MSXdev editions game count: (edition, registered/approved)

2021 34/32
2006 26/19
2005 23/19
2020 21/21
2014 19/10

While we're listing records, MSXdev21 also broke the donations count; 35 donations with a sum of over a 1000 euro was collected as prize money. And it broke the record of amount of sponsors with 13 sponsors donating a grant total of 24 items in the winners loot box. Wow!

For a complete list of games, donations, and sponsored items, check out the dedicated MSXdev21 web page.

As the deadline for entering the dev jam has passed (31th of August), the enrollment is now closed and the jury team steps up. Their job is to rate all games at various categories and give score between 1-100 points to each one. Not an easy task with so many excellent games. Anyway, we're sure they can pull it off within 6 weeks.

Somewhere in October, the MSXdev21 should have a winner announced.

For now, visit the MSXdev21 web page, download the games and enjoy. And for all you developers,it's time to start coding for MSXdev22!

relevant link: MSXdev21

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Comments (27)

By Uninteresting

Champion (352)

06-09-2021, 19:21

Yup, I've already started working on the engine upgrade for my next adventure game, working title "Smith".

By Metalion

Paragon (1625)

06-09-2021, 21:06

I enjoyed developing "No Back Down": coding, working with a great team, and most of all, personally, being able (at last!) to finish a game and entering it in the MSXdev contest. Learned a lot too, and I think I'm even more ready for the next challenges.

This is indeed a great edition of the contest, and I'm amazed at all the entries, and the sheer quality and polish of some of the games.

As I read daily the the forum threads, I sometimes have the impression that there's really only a handful of active members around the world, and that our population is fast declining. But this contest makes me proud of the MSX community, of what is achieved here, and what lays ahead.

May the best game win !
:D

By santiontanon

Paragon (1805)

07-09-2021, 02:19

Those numbers are amazing! Best of luck to all participants!! I have only played a handful so far, but I need to set some time aside to start trying them one by one. So many to choose from this year! I tried to make it to the deadline, but my game wasn't sufficiently finished unfortunately, but oh well, next time

By Uninteresting

Champion (352)

07-09-2021, 20:40

I'm the negative nancy, then... if you count the number of different game developers, this year isn't that different from the last. ARC8, Robosoft, Ray2Day, Gamecast and maybe some more had more than one title. On the upside, there was a contest last year and there still were this many entries.

By AnsiStar

Master (141)

07-09-2021, 21:37

I see it like this: There is an competition for a system that was actual more than 30 years ago. 34 games!! That is simply amazing. Special if you think that this is every year!! I wish i could join but… I thank you all!!

By mzoran

Master (155)

08-09-2021, 10:42

@Uninteresting Very true. It will be interesting to see how many authors will submit an entry in the next year's competition. Though the number might not be representative since some might have something in development for a longer time and decide it is time to finish. Would be nice to know how many titles will be submitted that have started being developed after msxdev'22 was announced.

By ro

Scribe (4963)

08-09-2021, 12:42

Uninteresting raises an interesting observation. Well, here are the stats of Edition/UniqueParticipants
21 22
20 21
6 18
14 16
18 14
8 14
11 13
5 13
7 11
17 9
9 9
10 8
4 8
13 6
3 6
15 4
12 2

ordered from high to low. Dev21 still tops the list.

By sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3954)

08-09-2021, 18:09

Yeah it’s clear some things that happened in the year also had a very welcome and needed positive effect! So in a way I hope next year will be a little less productive (getting out there is important as well )
But ‘22 will be the year we see MSX2 (and up) enter the arena, so that might convince some dev’s to join the fun! I have a nice system lined up as next year’s donation

By Uninteresting

Champion (352)

09-09-2021, 19:33

... is my alias such a joke to you...

And yes, '21 is still at the top (albeit with a narrower margin), and in the prize pool donations the spot is indisputable.

By sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3954)

11-09-2021, 12:55

Joking is very important

By santiontanon

Paragon (1805)

12-09-2021, 02:13

I just spent some time playing all of them!! My favorites are Solo and PAC-01, but there are many other ones that play very nice: Alien Attack, Raven, Fantastic Football (even if I hate soccer, haha), No Back Down, Where Is It, Step and Tortilla Sunrise (which takes a while to get used to the jump!). But among the others there are many very nice puzzle games that I'm going to play again for sure!

And not to forget "make them fall", an insta favorite (even if it should be the same as "make them jump", the left/right confusion makes this one much more fun, love it!)

By Uninteresting

Champion (352)

12-09-2021, 09:41

Ten games out of 13-14 games I want to keep playing: Tortilla Sunrise, Where Is It? The Quest for the 10th Island, Square Ball, Raven, S.O.L.O., Logic Remastered, Alien Attack, PAC-01, Open Wide!, and No Back Down.

I expect Alien Attack, Raven, No Back Down, and PAC-01 to be the top 4 in some order. Following it would be Fantastic Football, S.O.L.O. and Blockbuster.

Make them fall indeed makes me think of Super Meat Boy.

By Briqunullus

Hero (665)

12-09-2021, 19:31

Just out of curiosity. Which two games failed to meet the requirements?

By ro

Scribe (4963)

12-09-2021, 20:49

number 5 and 6, according to this list https://www.msxdev.org/msxdev21/#games

By albs_br

Champion (473)

13-09-2021, 05:05

These games caught my attention:
PAC-01
Where Is It
Mahjong
Raven
SOLO
Do The Same
Arya (my baby)

By ToriHino

Paladin (856)

13-09-2021, 21:26

Just received the digital edition of Blast Annual 2020 volume 2, thanks

By Uninteresting

Champion (352)

13-09-2021, 22:18

I'll just say that I really appreciate these Annuals with their reviews of homebrew games; Retro Annual 2020, for example, had (short) reviews for all MSXdev'20 games.

By mzoran

Master (155)

14-09-2021, 12:30

ToriHino wrote:

Just received the digital edition of Blast Annual 2020 volume 2, thanks

You mean as a msxdev participant? How so?

By ToriHino

Paladin (856)

14-09-2021, 18:49

Yes as a particpant. From the MSXdev21 site:
For every participant, a digital copy of Blast Annual 2020 vol2 is available. And no less than three (3) printed editions are put in the Winners Loot Box as well

By mzoran

Master (155)

14-09-2021, 19:25

ToriHino wrote:

Then they forgot about me

By AnsiStar

Master (141)

14-09-2021, 19:27

Hi Folks!
My favorites : Fantastic Soccer (because there is no playable Sensible Soccer style for the MSX), Alien Attack (very good sound, graphics), Raven (just lovely), S.O.L.O ( very classic)….
Greetings!!

By albs_br

Champion (473)

15-09-2021, 00:52

mzoran wrote:

ToriHino wrote:

Then they forgot about me

Checked the Inbox and Spam folders, I didn't receive either.

By roolandoo

Resident (52)

15-09-2021, 10:11

albs_br wrote:

mzoran wrote:

ToriHino wrote:

Then they forgot about me

Checked the Inbox and Spam folders, I didn't receive either.

I have not received it either.

By ro

Scribe (4963)

16-09-2021, 09:41

ToriHino wrote:

Correct. Editions are send as we speak, by hand, in batches. The author has just confirmed that at least half of the participants have received it. Every one gets a copy, some earlier than others though :)

if somewhere next week, you still havent' had yours.. let the msxdev know.

Meanwhile, the sponsored items list got updated as well with new items.
https://www.msxdev.org/msxdev21

By Code Witcher

Resident (43)

17-09-2021, 20:25

Hi devs.
I've been trying some of the games, just 5 so far, and I'm impressed. I started learning Z80 machine code a few days ago, it's something I always wanted to do as a kid 30 years ago but there was no where to the info from.

We are now playing all this year's games with my kid, he loves the MSX (I still have my Talent DPC-200) so it's in the genes apparently, unbelievable. We plan on learning together and if we don't fall before making it, we'd love to enter the competition.
I'm a programmer, I do something different now, though it's not so different sometimes, web programming.

What are your recommendations? What are some good resources and books? So far I was able to get my hands on a couple of 1985's assembler books.

Nice reading you all.

By ro

Scribe (4963)

18-09-2021, 15:13

attention Participants who want to receive Blast Annual 2020 vol 2 magazine:

The author has send out an e-mail to all participants, with a link to download the .PDF file. If you haven't downloaded it yet, do so because the URL is only valid for one week. If you haven't seen the mentioned e-mail, check your spam box.

The URL is send only once, get it while it is still fresh gents!

By Timmy

Master (200)

21-09-2021, 01:29

I was busy last weekend so I missed the announcement, but I found it in my mailbox today and I've downloaded it.

Thanks!

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