2015 May 5k (Spring Semester)

A tiny code game/app competition!

Changes from past competitions: Different prize payouts, and players can now work in teams of two.

Welcome to the KTBYTE 5k Contest for U.S. Middle + High School Students! This regularly occuring contest aims to support pre-college computer science education. Furthermore, this competition aims to promote creativity and design.

5k competitions use Processing.js and Processing Java. Your application must work in both, and the application must max 5kb of code. Click on the pictures above to see past entrants.

Prizes

Due to popular demand, we are splitting the prize pool among more contestants. This will reduce the first and second prizes substantially, but it will give many more people a chance to win.

1. $100
2. $50
3. $40
4. $40
5. $30
6. $30
7. $20
8. $20
9. $10
10. $10
11. $10
12. $10
13. $10
14. $10
15. $10

Rules

• Contestants can work individually or in teams of two. If a team wins a prize, we will send payment to the name listed first in the submission. The team can then split the winnings however they want.
• All Entrants must currently be enrolled in middle or high school to enter.
• Deadline is 11:59:59PM on May 31st, server timestamp (Eastern Time). It is recommended to upload it well before the deadline.
• All code must be submitted as one processing.js project at or under 5kB of UTF-8 text (or 5120 ASCII characters). This includes whitespace. Use any character counter such as http://mothereff.in/byte-counter
• Canvas size should be under 1000 pixels wide and 1000 pixels tall. We recommend under 800×800 for best viewing on phones.
• All program code must execute both in Processing.js (latest chrome and firefox) and Processing Java (latest Processing).
• All programs must be self contained (no loading data from websites, etc).
• No external data files are allowed. Consequently, sprites must be stored as strings or arrays.
• No external libraries may be used besides the Processing API.
• Code may not be copied from the internet. If the code matches some 3rd party code on the internet by 50% or more, judges will consider it plagiarized.
• Judging panel has final say on all matters (rejecting programs that act as viruses, for example).

Submissions

• Submissions must be emailed to contest201505@ktbyte.com
• The email should contain:
  • The subject should be “SUBMISSION 2015 Spring Kapparate 5k Contest: [username] [optional second username]
  • Your project name. The project screenshot and description should already be uploaded
  • For each contestant, email text must contain: Applicant Name, Address, City, State, Zipcode, Parent Name, Parent Email, Parent Phone Number, School Name, School Address, A proof of school enrollment such as a recent report card or other verifiable school document. Students working in teams are not required to be enrolled in the same school.

Getting Started

Check out similar competitions such as the Java 4k competition or js1k javascript competition. You may even find the International Obfuscated C Code Contest useful for ideas on compressing code

Take a look at past projects at the showcase. Also take a look at projects done by the online community at openprocessing.org (includes college student and adults’ projects)

Judging

Judges will consider four measures when ranking projects:

1. The popularity of the submission according to votes (voting will begin after the submission deadline)
2. The technical complexity of the submission
3. The subjective appeal of the submission (including performance in the browser / other devices)
4. The uniqueness of the submission