News, Events & Updates

BlueJ Preview  2010-4-20   plcs

A new preview of BlueJ 3.0 has been released, containing a number of new features and fixes that in due course will appear in newer versions of Greenfoot. So if you want to take a look at the new features (but remember it is only a preview) then go to the site and download the latest preview and maybe provide some feedback to the team on your experiences with it.

SIGCSE  2010-2-18   plcs

The Greenfoot team will be attending SIGCSE 2010 and holding a number of talks and workshops, so if you are attending please feel free to come along to these events.

Codepoint Winners  2009-12-23   plcs

The competition finished over two weeks ago, and after some careful thinking we have come up with the list of our winners. The choices were made on how much the scenario related to the theme, the interaction with the users and how technical the final result was.

There were so many good scenarios it was hard to choose a top two from each group, but the judges felt these scenario really illustrated the key points we were looking for when we started this competition. Well done to everyone that entered and we hope you enjoyed creating the scenarios as much as we enjoyed playing them.

You can find the winners and runner-ups here.

Codepoint finished!  2009-12-5   davmac

The Codepoint competition has now finished and we will be announcing the winners soon. The judges have a lot of great entries to consider!

If you entered, you may keep updating your scenario but please be aware that scenarios will be judged on their state as at the 4th of December when the competition officially closed.

Weekly Winner  2009-12-3   nccb

There are less than two days to go until the end of the CodePoint competition (Dec 4, 23:59 GMT). Thus this Monday was the last weekly winner's prize. It was such a tough choice that we decided to award two prizes. Builderboy2005's scenario Water Works has rapidly become a favourite on the site, and resulted in a lost hour of two of work amongst the Greenfoot developers. But we also enjoyed Andres' straightforwardly titled Andres' Codepoint Scenario, a fun collection of visually appealing (and relevant) minigames. So both scenarios were weekly winners -- congratulations!

Hints for Keeping on Theme  2009-11-27   davmac

There have been a lot of great entries in the Codepoint competition so far, and we continue to see new ones which is great. A lot of entries though are still only loosely related to the theme of the environment, conservation and global warming. When it comes to judging the final winners, being related to the theme will be important, so please think about that when designing your scenarios!

Here are some ideas for keeping on theme:

• If your scenario is a game, have the object of the game be to help the environment.
• But remember, scenarios do not have to be games. Simulations are ok as well, as long as they are interesting and meet the other criteria.
• Try and educate the players (or viewers) about environmental issues, and real ways to address them.
• If you want to make an action game, try and relate the action directly to protecting or helping the environment. (Not just "stop the baddies who want to ruin the environment"!!)

Keep those entries coming in, and good luck!

Weekly Winner!  2009-11-25   plcs

Congratulations to Lilpowerdude whose Global Men is this weeks winner! The game is starting to take shape, heading in the right direction, and importantly is good fun! So if you haven't played it yet, take a look! To everyone else; keep updating and adding new scenarios, keeping in the mind the aim of the competition, to have the best chance of winning.

Weekly Winner!  2009-11-18   plcs

Congratulations to Dibo and their Waste Separation scenario for winning this weeks most interesting submission! Good luck to everyone else for next week, and remember to tell your friends, the more the merrier!

Codepoint  2009-11-17   plcs

We will be announcing this week's winner later today, but first a couple of new scenarios have appeared with good promise: Smog and SimuPark, the latter of which isn't new but is going in the right direction! Something we want to reiterate is the focus of this competition is; the environment, conservation and global warming, so do keep these in mind when developing your scenarios!

Codepoint Continues  2009-11-13   nccb

There are several more codepoint submissions appearing on the gallery now -- click the appropriate tags to see them. To pick one recent example, dibo's new scenario "waste separation" deals with recycling. Another weekly prize will be awarded on Monday, so keep your updates coming!

Second weekly winner!  2009-11-11   nccb

Apologies for the delay in announcing this, but we have decided a weekly winner for the prize on 9th November. Congratulations to kenshinakh for the Midori World scenario, which all the judges felt was last week's most interesting new scenario.

Codepoint Update 5th Nov  2009-11-5   plcs

The Codepoint 2009 contest continues! We have a new submission today called Cyan Sphere of Doom: Galactic War and the Imperium Novum from limefortheworld which could really turn into a great scenario! Another scenario that looks to be heading in the right direction is Midori World from kenshinakh, so take a look at them both. The second weekly prize will be given out on Monday 9th November so be sure to get your scenario's and updates in before this date to be in with a chance to win a t-shirt!

First Weekly Winner!  2009-11-3   plcs

Congratulations to Bourne for the Earth day scenario which is this weeks winner of the most interesting new submission. The Codepoint 2009 competition continues this week, so keep submitting and don't forget to tag your codepoint entries as described on the contest page.

Codepoint Update 30th Oct  2009-10-30   nccb

The Codepoint 2009 competition continues, and the first weekly prize will be awarded at midnight (GMT) at the end of the day on Sunday 1st November. bourne's Earth Day scenario is developing nicely -- but make sure you scroll around and click on objects or you will miss it all. If you plan to add your entry this weekend, don't forget to tag it as described on the competition page or it won't be seen by the judges.

Codepoint Update  2009-10-28   plcs

The Codepoint 2009 contest is up and running! We have a new submission today called bulbs from dibo which is worth looking at. The first weekly prize for most interesting new submission will be awarded on Monday 2nd November -- but don't forget to tag your codepoint entries as described on the contest page. If it's not tagged when we come to judge, we won't see it!

Codepoint  2009-10-26   plcs

Codepoint 2009 has started. There is prize for the most interesting submission each week, so be sure to submit early and often! Visit Codepoint 2009 for more details.

Greenfoot 1.5.5 released  2009-10-1   davmac

A new Greenfoot version, 1.5.5, has been released.

This is a minor bug fix release. It resolves problems running on Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6. See the complete list of changes, or download it now!

Greenfoot 1.5.4 released  2009-8-13   davmac

A new Greenfoot version, 1.5.4, has been released.

This is a minor bug fix release. New projects now have the 'images' and 'sounds' directory created automatically. See the complete list of changes here.

Download it now!

Gallery Update  2009-6-12   mbread

As you may have noticed, the gallery has just been updated. If you spot any problems, please email them to gallery@greenfoot.org. One particular place where problems may exists are the scenario tags: some scenarios may have lost some tags, but we are working to restore any that were lost.

Among the new features are: collections are featured on the homepage, you can add images to collections, and you can see all tags that have been used.

Greenfoot Book  2009-5-30   mjrb4

It's been in progress for a while, but the Greenfoot book is almost here now! For more information, have a look here.

Jumping problems?  2009-5-24   mjrb4

Sinking into the ground after you've jumped in the air seems quite a common problem, so there's now a new worksheet you can download that explains how to sort it out!

You can find it here.

Hear ye, hear ye!  2009-4-8   mjrb4

Sounds can often give that extra bit of realism to a scenario if used properly, but they can be quite difficult to find. For those on the look out for good sounds or for those struggling to find the ones that they need, you might want to take a look at freesound, which has a very comprehensive collection of user submitted sound clips. You might need to do a bit of digging to find what you need, but it's definitely worth a look.

"There comes a time when all people break down and do the unthinkable - they read the manual..."  2009-3-28   davmac

...however, up until now this has been a bit difficult because it really hasn't been that complete. Those that did read it probably noticed it was also a bit out of date too.

But now, good news! The manual has been brought up to date, corrected, completed and extended!

It's a really good read if you're just starting out with Greenfoot, or you understand it to a basic extent but want to get to grips with it more. More experienced users may find some useful things in there as well.

If you want to have a read through, then you can find it here.

--Michael (mjrb4)

Open Sesame!  2009-3-12   davmac

Greenfoot has now gone open source! This means you can download the source code of Greenfoot and if you like you can play aroud with it too.

To get the source, just head over to the download page. For more detailed information, see the official news item.

Note that the open sourcing of Greenfoot doesn't alter the way you have to release your scenarios, you're not required to submit source code to the gallery or anything like that - everything on that front stays the same!

As always, feel free to post any queries relating to the open sourcing of Greenfoot on Greenfoot discuss and we'll try to answer them as best we can.

--Michael (mjrb4)

Collections  2009-3-1   davmac

The Gallery now has collections! Click on the collections tab above to create your own or view existing collections.

There's many things collections could be used for - running a class competition, trying to get a group of scenarios together, grouping scenarios made by a particular group of people and whatever else you like!

To get a scenario in a collection, you need permission from both the scenario author and the collcetion owner. After permission is granted from both sides, the scenario will appear!

If there's any questions or comments about collections, feel free to ask on the Greenfoot discussion group.

--Michael (mjrb4)

The wonders of 1.5.1  2009-2-17   davmac

This is a bit late coming, since version 1.5.1 of Greenfoot was released a while ago now - but if you've been putting it off or you're wondering what else it could add, here's a list! (Most of these features were introduced in 1.5, but there's been a few bug fixes since then.

• started() and stopped() methods have now been added to world - so if for example you're using something like Jlayer for mp3 support (not yet in greenfoot as standard) you can use these methods to ensure the sound doesn't carry on after you've reset your scenario.
• Collision now works whatever state of rotation your object is in, whereas before 1.5 the collision box used to work out if one actor was colliding with another wasn't rotating with the actor. So if collision seemed to be acting strangely prior to 1.5, this should now no longer be the case!
• If you're wondering where the with-source tag went in 1.5, don't worry! It's now added automatically if you publish your scenario with the source code.

That's just a selection - you can always see the full version history (all the way back to version 0.5 if you're that interested!) here.

There have also been a few API changes - if you're confused or affected by these, then have a look at this for more information on dealing with them.

--Michael (mjrb4)

CodePoint 2008 - The Winners  2008-12-9   davmac

First, thanks to everyone who participated in the CodePoint 2008. We, the judges, have had lots of fun with all the scenarios you have submitted, and hope that you have enjoyed this as much as we have. We are really surprised and impressed with the quality of the scenarios you have been able to create with Greenfoot.

It has been a really tough job to choose the winners among the 86 entries. But we have now found the best scenarios that were submitted during the 6 weeks of CodePoint 2008:

Winners of CodePoint 2008

Congratulations to the winners!

To the rest of you: thanks for making this an extremely interesting contest. And check back next year for the details about CodePoint 2009!

-- Contest judge Poul

CodePoint 2008 - The End  2008-12-1   davmac

The Codepoint 2008 Coding Contest is now closed for new submissions or updates.

Winners will be announced within 10 days from now.

Check back tomorrow for more comments by the judges.

-- Contest judge Poul

CodePoint 2008 - Running Commentary  2008-12-1   davmac

It was quite late last night when I wrote the end-of-contest message, so I forgot to say thanks to all of you who participated. Let me do that now: Thank you! You have made this a very interesting contest. By the end we had 89 scenarios submitted and many of them of extremely high quality. We are impressed. Well done!

During the next week the judges will have the difficult task of deciding between all these excellent scenarios. Hopefully we will be done with this next week at some point. In the meantime, feel free to improve your scenarios (or get some sleep). We have taken a copy of the scenarios when the contest ended so changes will not affect the judges' decision.

-- Contest judge Poul

CodePoint 2008 - Running Commentary  2008-11-27   davmac

It is almost the end of the CodePoint 2008 Coding Contest. The contest ends this Sunday the 30 November 2008 at midnight (UK time - GMT). That is less than 4 days from now! Make sure you get your last updates in before this time, as it will be a strict deadline. Be aware of the time zone difference if you are not living in the UK.

Since the last comment, only one new scenario has been submitted: Island Supply. A lot of scenarios have been updated. Too many to list here, so just have a look at the recently updated scenarios.

Every category has had many extremely good submissions during the last 6 weeks and the quality of the submitted scenarios is much higher than any of the judges would have expected. It will be difficult to choose the winners!

-- Contest judge Poul

CodePoint 2008 - Weekly winner  2008-11-24   davmac

Another week has passed in the CodePoint 2008 Coding Contest. There is only one week left, and it is now time to award the last Greenfoot mug. The quality of the submissions are increasing and the judges are very impressed with the great work that you have all put into the creation of your Greenfoot scenarios. We are a bit displeased that you make it so hard for us to choose a winner though...

This week's winner has been on the Gallery for a few weeks now, and was interesting from the very first version. It has been improved many times since then, and it has now turned into a very playable game. Congratulations to Zerg for winning most-interesting-new-submission-this-week with the scenario Realm of Battle - a Real Time Strategy game. The judges were impressed with the complexity of the implementation and the attention to detail (the battle in the background of the start-menu, the AI, the graphics, music, and sound-effects).

Quest is another scenario that really impressed the judges this week. It is the beginning of a computer role playing game where you play a young adventurer which has to go look for his dad who went missing.

-- Contest judge Poul

CodePoint 2008 - Commentary  2008-11-22   davmac

A few new games have been submitted over the last week. They are all re-implementations of popular games: SnakeAnts is Snake with ants and babies. Battleship is a computer version of the guessing game of the same name. Scribbles is a new take on the popular tower defense game genre. You can also play the classic Connect Four in viewGewinnt.

We have also seen a lot of updates the last week. Some of the more interesting are: JetPack which has been improved a lot and is quite fun to play now. TankBattle has a few new features added. You can repair your tank now! abc123 has more levels. i++ is a strange game (with retro graphics) which I don't know how to describe so you will have to go look for yourself.

Remember, it is soon time to award the most-interesting-new-submission-this-week.

-- Contest judge Poul

Where did the objects go?  2008-11-22   davmac

If you are one of the many new Greenfoot users you will probably find the following tip from mjrb4 very useful: Why can't I add any objects when I upload my scenario to the gallery?

-- Poul

CodePoint 2008 - Weekly winners  2008-11-18   davmac

We have had another interesting week in CodePoint 2008 and it is time for the weekly award. But first, lets look at some of the new entries this week.

In the quite original game/simulation Humanity you get a chance to control a population of humans by both helping them and destroying them. The goal is to get the balance right, and not let them die out completely or over-populate. Blimps is a nice start of a side scrolling shooter game. In TankBattle you control a tank, that shoots ... tanks! If you don't want to shoot stuff, and have kids that you would like to teach how to count, try out: abc123. Another game that could be used for teaching is the fireworks spewing piano in Doremi Blast. Although exa lets you play Arkanoid with a guitar, it does not really teach you to play the guitar. Balls is a ping pong game, but with 4 paddles and an increasing number of balls (I only got to two balls, but I guess more will appear if you are better at the game than me).

This week we have had a few 2-player games submitted. Grab a friend and try out the space shooter Space Domination, paintball or some fishing in Feeding Frenzy.

A lot of games have been updated considerably this week. Take a look at: Jetpack, Biomekanoid Chicken, greepWars, Hopper, and Escondite de Nemus.

Realm of Battle is really getting interesting with the latest updates where the AI has been improved, and it was among the top contestants for this week's price. Ray Caster, the first and only, Greenfoot 3D shooter has been improved so much, and is now of such a high technical difficulty level that we have decided to award it with this week's Greenfoot coffee mug. Congratulations to BuilderBoy2005.

-- Contest judge Poul

CodePoint 2008 - Weekly winners  2008-11-11   davmac

The judges have now decided who will get to drink their favourite beverages out of a Greenfoot coffee mug. This week has, without a doubt, been the most difficult week to choose a winner. I think most of the judges would have liked to give out at least 5 mugs this week, but that would be bending the rules a bit too much, so we settled on two winners week: MirrorPhase and SonarWay. Congratulations to havoc_ and qnanqing@yahoo.co.id as the winners of this week's Greenfoot mugs!

Both scenarios are implementations of unique game ideas and have been continuously improved over the last few weeks. SonarWay has very nice visual effects and sound effects which adds a nice feel to an interesting game idea. MirrorPhase can be quite difficult and confusing at first, but to make up for that it has a nice progression of levels, and good instructions.

-- Contest judge Poul

End of week decision time  2008-11-10   davmac

Just a short note to let everyone know that we haven't forgotten about the end-of-week Greenfoot coffee mug prize. The judges are currently in animated discussions to decide the winner. They have been locked into a small room without food or coffee and have been told that they will not be allowed out until they have made a decision. (Well, almost.)

Seriously, there were so many candidates for the winning prize this week that we haven't finalised our decision: SonarWay, Ray Caster, Crazy Boxes, Puzzle Engine, Realm of Battle, Mirror Phase, DownMan, Smess and lifeSim are all in contention. So you see our problem.

Judges are actually located in Australia and the UK, so sometimes we need a little time to synchronise across time zones. We'll be back with a result shortly.

-- Contest judge Michael

CodePoint 2008 - Commentary  2008-11-6   davmac

We've seen a number of interesting developments in the last few days. Several scenarios are in fairly early stages. ZonaGuerra is starting to become almost playable (maybe a little too hard at the moment), Carrera acuatica got some initial objects that make us wonder what might come next, Escondite de Nemus is getting an interesting theme, MirrorPhase shows a very interesting concept, and Big Fish is startying to get some action. SandBox is a little rudimentary, but already intriguing.

Even more interesting are several details of scenarios that are progressing a little further down the development path. Blitzwelt is getting several levels and is slowly turning into a real game. We still think the scream is fantastic. SonarWay has a good game idea, nicely designed visual effects (sonar and bubbles) and good sound effects. RefleX got a visual makeover. DownMan popped onto the scene with a very well developed look and game play. A classic example of a cotinuous scroller (vertical, rather then the more common horizontal, but technically that's the same, of course). And SpaceTug has smooth movement, good playability, and well designed buttons and controls on the front screen (even though it still is fairly hard to play - at least for amateurs like us...).

All in all: A lot of interesting stuff to look at, get ideas, and play!

-- Contest judge Michael

CodePoint 2008 - Weekly winner  2008-11-3   davmac

The third week of CodePoint 2008 is now over. This means that it's time to award the weekly most-interesting-new-submission-this-week prize. Again, we had a very had time to choose, since this week has been particular active in submissions of new scenarios and updates of existing scenarios. However, one scenario is particularly well done: Biomekanoid Chicken. In this classic platformer you have to control a cute (Biomekanoid?) chicken. In order to complete a level you first have to find a key, navigating through various obstacles, and then get to the door. Maybe not the most original scenario, but in terms quality of gameplay, graphics, sound effects, and attention to detail and implementation this scenario is excellent. So, congratulations to mutantleg as the winner of this week's Greenfoot mug.

Other interesting games that have been created or improved the last few days: MirrorPhase, Jetpack, Vector Ball, Curve.

To the rest of you: keep up the good work - we still have Greenfoot mugs to give away, and nothing is decided yet for the final big prizes!

-- Contest judge Poul

New extended profile  2008-11-3   davmac

We have extended the information that you can provide about yourself in your personal profile. You can - among other things - add an image now. To do this, go to My Profile, and then to Edit account settings.

CodePoint 2008 - Running Commentary  2008-10-29   davmac

As the CodePoint contest enters its third week, we see activity picking up. Now it's really starting to get interesting. In the last few days, we have seen a good number of new submissions of what look like starts of games. Jetpack, ZonaGuerra, Frosty Dummy, apedrealos, Escondite de Nemus and Carrera acuatica all look like interesting beginnings of various games, some already with a bit of interesting functionality, and some very much at a starting point. I am really looking forward to seeing what they will grow into! Flying with my personal jet pack, shooting at strangely howling penguins, freezing monsters in snowballs -- everything seems possible and looks quite exciting.

We are also seeing a few scenarios that don't really do very much yet, but attract attention just by using quite impressive background images - Hopper and Big Fish are examples of this. (Makes me wonder where the images come from. Make sure you have permission to use them if you have not made them yourself!) This sets a mood very nicely. I wonder whether we will see functionality to match these beautiful pictures.

Lastly, Mandelbrot shows a nice example of another idea of what can be done in a two-dimensional graphical plane. A classic of a scenario, nicely done.

-- Contest judge Michael

CodePoint 2008 - Weekly winners  2008-10-27   davmac

Okay, it's time again to award the weekly most-interesting-new-submission-this-week prize. Again, we had a very had time to choose, and again, we couldn't quite decide. So we decided to award two prizes again this week, instead of the one we had originally intended.

The first prize goes to an entry from the under-16 catergory, Pigworld by freddy. Pigworld receives this prize for the improvements made over the last week. We especially liked the fact that the author listened to user feedback and made improvements accordingly, and the addition of the opening sequence. Technically, the implementation is very competent.

The second winner is logik by W.Reinfeldt. This scenario easily wins the 'most original new scenario idea' category. We really like the fact that this is doing something quite radically different from most scenarios.

Great entries from both the winners - Greenfoot coffee mugs will be on their way shortly. There were several other interesting submissions. For those who did not win this week: keep working, and - who knows - next time it could be you!

-- Contest judge Michael

CodePoint 2008 - Running commentary  2008-10-26   davmac

We're getting close to awarding the weekly prize again. At the end of Sunday (GMT), we will again choose the most-interesting-new-submission-this-week candidate. And a hard choice it will be!

In the past few days, we have seen a number of interesting developments. Several games have made good improvements since last week. GreepWars continues to get better, and a new scenario in the competition, Greeps In Space, picks up the theme, with a nice background graphic and good game play. I really like the idea of combining these two existing scenarios (Greeps and Asteroids) into an extended storyline. This seems to grow into a category of its own.

A really fascinating and different idea is logik by W.Reinfeldt. You can interactively build logical circuits - a great idea, already very interesting and with great potential for polishing and other improvements.

I can see interesting discussions coming up when the judges meet tomorrow morning to play through all the submissions that were made by the end of Sunday to see what we like best. It will not be an easy choice.

-- Contest judge Michael

CodePoint 2008 - Running commentary  2008-10-24   davmac

As well as updates to existing entries, a few more new entries have been made and the contest is really starting to heat up. In the under-16 category, check out Shooter and TerrorCar. In the same category, Pigworld now has three levels of difficulty - a great improvement since certain contest judges found it too difficult previously!

-- Contest judge Davin

Greenfoot 1.4.6 released  2008-10-23   davmac

Greenfoot version 1.4.6 has been released. This version provides some bug fixes, as well as translations of the software into Italian, French and Greek. You can download it from the Greenfoot web site.

CodePoint 2008 - Running commentary  2008-10-22   davmac

Quite a bit of activity in the Under-16 category over the last few days. The first submissions, Pigworld and Target Practice, continue to be updated and improved, while a few new ones have come on the scene lately.

Blitzwelt is a classic platform runner. Only the first version submission so far, but you can already clearly see where this is going. Already has sound, several levels and a hair raising scream. Great start.

I also like population - an interesting predetor/prey simulation. It's got a very clever solution for showing the world with the simulation actors and the population graph: the graph is overlayed over the world (with a slightly transparanet background). A nice idea. I liked playing with this for a while.

-- Contest judge Michael

CodePoint 2008 - Running commentary  2008-10-20   davmac

It's time for the first of our weekly prizes! If you read the contest rules carefully, you will have noticed that we award a most-interesting-new-entry prize each week - a Greenfoot coffee mug. This is the first week, and the choice was hard. Some entries are already much better than what we had expected after so few days. After much deliberation we have decided to award two of the prizes this week: for greepWars and for Castle.

The greepWars scenario got recognition for already very extensive and varied gameplay. Clearly, a lot of work has gone into it already. Most mpressive was the level of attention to detail: The mouse roll-over effects on the Easy/Hard buttons, for example, are very nicely done. The Castle scenario, similarly, has good gameplay, and a nicely balanced challenge. Both authors deserve credit for listening to user feedback and improving their games following suggestions from players. Congratulations to kenshinakh and nervsam!

Special mention must also go to the Pigworld scenario. It didn't win this time, but it came very close. Especially considering that it is in the under-16 category, it is excellent work. Maybe next time... We would also like to point out that the strength of all scenarios so far is in technical execution, but none would score very high on originality. They are all well-known game ideas (nothing wrong with that) -- you could also create considerable excitement among the judges by coming up with new, more unusual ideas.

So keep on working, improve your scenarios, make new ones, and we'll see how you go!

-- Contest judge Michael

CodePoint 2008 - Running commentary  2008-10-18   davmac

Today has been low on new entries. It is, however, nice to see one of my own scenarios improved in the BALLONS RELOADED scenario. Unfortunately it is not yet submitted to CodePoint 2008. The only other scenario submitted since last time is Gravitation which is not part of the contest either, but might be a good foundation for a new scenario. It is a framework that simulates gravity in space.

As my fellow judge Davin reminded you yesterday: the weekly contest ends tomorrow. Now is the time to put in that extra bit of effort to improve your scenario, and be the first one to win a Greenfoot mug; a favourite among the Greenfoot developers!

-- Contest judge Poul

CodePoint 2008 - Running commentary  2008-10-17   davmac

Since the last commentary by Michael, there have been some new entries in CodePoint 2008, the Greenfoot coding contest - including the first entry in the general category: Castle, where you control the defense of a castle against an invading army (with somewhat superior technology!)

In the school-16+ category, we have Cou-Bee as a new entry, and in the under 16 category we have Dog Food Dash and Pigworld. All early entries have received suggestions on how to improve their games further and some of them have already undergone several updates by the authors.

Don't forget that it will soon be time for the judges to select the most-interesting-new-submission prize winner for the first week of the contest, so if you are considering making an entry do it soon to increase your chances of winning a prize! (It also means you get helpful advice on how to improve your scenario!)

-- Contest judge Davin

CodePoint 2008 - Running commentary  2008-10-15   davmac

The starting gun has fired, and they're off! CodePoint 2008, the Greenfoot coding contest, has begun, and we have the first entries. Currently, there are two entries in the 16-and-over group and one in the under-16s. (None in the beyond-school group yet.)

At the moment, the entries are in quite different stages of development. greepWars, for instance, has clearly received a good amount of developer time, has already been submitted to the Gallery for a few days, and was able to pick up a lot of good ideas from the user comments there. AntiSub and Target Practice, on the other hand, are brand new and have some way to go yet. But getting started is the hardest step, and they have managed to take it. It should get easier from here on.

In terms of ideas, all are variations of fairly well known game types. Nothing too original in terms of storyline or gameplay, but can still provide good fun if executed well. A lot of shooting, though. I'm generally happier with other, more unique, storylines. Sometimes more unusual ideas are a lot more fun. For example, I like Yetis throwing penguins much better than firing rifles at things.

-- Contest judge Michael

More about the CodePoint 2008 contest.

CodePoint 2008 starting tomorrow  2008-10-14   davmac

CodePoint 2008, the Greenfoot coding contest, is starting tomorrow. The Greenfoot 'Export' dialogue should now show the three contest tags at the top of the list of scenario tags. Please use one of these tags if you want to enter your scenario into the contest. Read more...

Greenfoot Gallery Re-design  2008-10-3   davmac

As you will have noticed, the Greenfoot Gallery has received a make-over.We are working on improving both the presentation and the content of this site. The design was created by Chris Merkel from Spikesource, who volunteered his time to the Greenfoot project.

This work is not finished yet - please bear with us while we finalise the change-over. This will take a little while longer. In the meantime, if you have suggestions for further improvements or additional funtionality you would like to see, tell us in the Greenfoot Discuss forum.

Resources: 55 Free High Quality Icon Sets  2008-10-2   davmac

In this post, we present 55 more excellent, free and professional icons for desktop and web design, courtesy of Smashing Magazine: www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/02/55-free-high-quality-icon-sets/