Contests, Contests, Contests

[MinisterJay]

As we are getting closer to the end of this year, I will be hosting a few contests myself. It has been over a half year since we had a literary themed one. I am thinking of contests that will appeal to more than those who make games. There are so many different areas of game design. A few of the contests, that I am thinking about include focusing on the artistic and literary skills. One of the best parts, is that these contests can be quick.

 

[Boy Who Codes]

Good luck on the contests and I hope it would be successful :)

 

[MinisterJay]

Last year, we had the 2015 CCE (Christmas Contest Event). Do we want to make it an annual event?

 

[Harmless]

I'm making a small 5-10 minute game in the hopes of an Xmas contest, so... Yes, please?

 

[Amysaurus]

Good luck, if you hold any!

I was planning to start some art contests here a few months ago, but I didn't see much point in it. Even game dev ones don't seem to get a lot of entries, so I felt like it would be a waste of effort.

 

[Harmless]

Yeah, I heard you guys had trouble with the worst RPG Contest. Maybe there is something we can do to incentive people to join like a prize badge or having their game shown/presented somewhere. Maybe have a game of the month thing or game of the trimester. I also think broadening the type of entry would help the participation rate. For example, instead of a game contest, it can be a resource contest.

 

[Amysaurus]

Well, I think it's less a problem of having prizes available, and more one of people being busy (school, holiday season, etc.). There are badges for pretty much any contest here, so I don't know if it's really a special incentive anymore lol. I'd say the game being presented would be a good idea, but uh... nobody has even kept up with updating the announcements bar on the main page.

I agree about broadening the type of entries, though. I, for example, couldn't dev my way out of a cardboard box. It's why I've never entered a game contest here. I could, however, make a piece of artwork or resource or something.

 

[Harmless]

Yeah, I agree. Maybe we can setup contests with a lower commitment demand? I know team projects usually don't work, but what about a sort of telephone style of game developing, where someone makes a room, then the next one makes another, and so on. I know, the game consistency and quality will plummet, but it automatically becomes a lot easier for people to join in.

Okay, so imagine this. A content with three different subtopics to pick from. Three different people start working on a rough outline, and others join in. The contest becomes more about which game wins and less about who did what.

I know it's an rough idea, but maybe our solution is in shifting our perspective on the way contests work.

 

[Amysaurus]

It could be interesting, but at the same time I think it'd be difficult to manage. What if someone takes too long to finish their part? What if someone messes up another member's contribution? I see a lot of potential problems.

I don't think it's a bad idea - I just think it runs a really high risk of getting disorganized from the start.

 

[MinisterJay]

I was planning to start some art contests here a few months ago, but I didn't see much point in it. Even game dev ones don't seem to get a lot of entries, so I felt like it would be a waste of effort.

I was thinking the same thing, regarding having an art contest. I was thinking about maybe a battlers making contest. When we did the writing prompt contest, we got six submissions.

. Maybe there is something we can do to incentive people to join like a prize badge or having their game shown/presented somewhere..

Badges must be pre-approved, by Xyphien, to be awarded. There are a few contests that some thought had badges, but if they were not approved by admin first, none were awarded.

 

[Amysaurus]

I think battlers are a bit too specific, but it's a start! Maybe just a monster or villain design contest? (Or something more holiday-ish - those are just what come to mind when I hear battler.) Also, I honestly can't decide if you mean 6 entries as a large or small number of entries. Because it's for sure a small number, but unfortunately that's a lot of entries compared to how some of the events have gone.

Ahh.. yeah, in the future I'd just be sure that whoever holds a contest is super clear about what the rewards are. It's no good if someone enters expecting a badge, then gets nothing.

 

[MinisterJay]

You hit it on the nail. I almost said that it would be a specific monster/villain/etc., but did not. Thanks for mentioning the specifics.

Six being large/small depends on the perspective. In the writing contest, we had three judges. If there were over ten submissions, that would have been a little challenging reading then ranking them. Only the head judge new who wrote each paper. I liked that contest.

There were a few contests that I intentionally did not submit to. I make a good number of short games. I have a prototype board game that I can modify, in a short time, so I do not use it for competitions, on this site. I have a lot of free time on my hand; I am on indefinite medical leave. These are some reasons why I do not participate in every single contest.

 

[A13XIS]

DireDime's Idea isn't that bad actually. A similar approach I found was called "house of memories". (roughly translated from german)
Originally, every participant gets some Keywords and has to use these to make something short. A playable cutscene ,a minigame if you have some non RPG code you want to show of etc.
The final product is something like a big hallway of these short "things".
And yeah. The best realization wins.

 

[Harmless]

Oh no, my brick of a post got deleted in the downtime! XD O.o"

So, basically what I had said was: How about dropping the team aspect? It only adds to the trouble. Here's an idea: A contest where you have to finish a story instead of start one. This way, contesters don't have to worry about making intros. Another idea is to limit the amount of Maps a game can use. This is to incentivize minimalism in contesting games.

I think the admins should go with the Christmas Monster Art contest, and game contests could wait till 2017. Hope some of the ideas present here can move the conversation forward and help find a solution to the low participation rate.

 

[MinisterJay]

Might start a new contest, in a week or so. More artists/game devs may be on break from school.

Here's an idea: A contest where you have to finish a story instead of start one. This way, contesters don't have to worry about making intros.

The One Day Left Contest a similar concept. We also had a writing contest that had an introduction prompt.