In a thread regarding last year's DBP Dave Mitchell said the following:

"That said however, any other engine, tools, etc. based on 100% managed code output in C# will be accepted.  What we won't accept is native libraries wrapped in managed code."

and Mitch Walker said:

"Any code or library used for the game must be written in C#.  So compiling the SpeedTree library with the /CLR switch doesn't cover this requirement, as it is still (as far as I know) a native C/C++ library."

Although these "rules" were never laid out specifically in the Official Rules, do they still hold true for this year's DBP warmup?

Adam,

According to MSDN-- code compiled using /CLR pure is not native code (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/85344whh(VS.80).aspx):

Advantages of /clr:pure Better Performance: Because pure assemblies contain only MSIL, there are no native functions, and therefore no managed/unmanaged transitions are necessary. (Function calls made through P/Invoke are an exception to this rule.)

Hence, if you recompile a native C++ library using /CLR pure the resulting DLL is pure and verifiable MSIL code. I am not a judge; this is what I know from having converted C++ libraries to MSIL before. The competition was a fantastic success and I agree that it would be useful to hear whether the aforementioned requirements apply.

Yup, I'm not disagreeing with your interpretation of 'native code'...

This year source code needs to be submitted, so dodging the C# requirement by compiling C++ with the /CLR pure flag isn't going to fool anyone. I can understand the fact that the judges need to be able to read the source code and that if it's in the entrant's favourite obscure language that isn't going to help things, but I would expect Rare and Lionhead staff would have a harder time understanding C# than they would C++ given how they love it so. :)

I see nothing in the FAQ, the How to Play or the official rules which states that C# must be used ;-) It says you need a .ccgame and the source code!

Of course we must wait for an official reply rather than speculate...

I do hope that they allow all types of managed code that would run on both Win32 and Xbox 360.
Granted 99.99% of of entries will be C#, but at least there is scope for other languages to show their stuff.

We updated the FAQ. We allow C# source code only.

 

ThorsLightning, Microsoft Research Cambridge

 

Doh! So no VB.NET, Chrome or any other 100% managed .NET compiler that works with XNA? That is a pity.
It's not like the judges wouldn't understand the other bits of managed code.

ThorsLightning:

We updated the FAQ. We allow C# source code only.

 

ThorsLightning, Microsoft Research Cambridge

 

This is senseless.

Two months for developing a game AND convert a pre-existing tool for AI in C#... ridiculous.

Monkey Soft:

ThorsLightning:

We updated the FAQ. We allow C# source code only.

 

ThorsLightning, Microsoft Research Cambridge

 

This is senseless.

Two months for developing a game AND convert a pre-existing tool for AI in C#... ridiculous.

It makes perfect sense. The warmup content is about AI and requires source code. They need to be able to understand the code. If you give them a language they don't know, it will waste their time trying to figure it out as opposed to judging the actual content.

If you want a quick way to convert to C#, simply compile your game, open it in Reflector, and set the language to C#. It will disassemble your MSIL and put it into C#. Then you can snag the C# real quick.

So why cut down C++, a language I think judges will understand BETTER than C#?

Monkey Soft:

So why cut down C++, a language I think judges will understand BETTER than C#?

Possibly to make it so all games are the same language? I'm not a part of the decision making process, but it's possibly a mix of picking languages they know (that way someone doesn't give them something in Chrome, for example) and making sure everyone uses the same language so it's easier to judge from one to the next.

The Dream Build Play competition is marketing promotion for XNA Game Studio... XNA Game Studio officially only supports managed code and specifically C#. So it makes total sense for the competition to allow only those technologies its trying to promote. Imagine the situation where MS are saying 'XNA Game Studio and C# are the way to go' and one of the winners of their competition used C++

There are other competitions that don't have such a restriction http://www.garagegames.com/news/13960 and http://www.gamedev.net/community/contest/4e6/