Post
by infiniteneslives » Thu Apr 21, 2016 5:01 pm
Yeah it is about time we get going with this.
Been talking with some folks in private. Feel like we are reinventing the wheel every time we have a new one. But we learn something from each compo, so I guess that's to be expected to some degree.
Some of my thoughts and things I've heard from others which I agree with follow.
1- 3months isn't really enough time for most people to create something significant from scratch. 3months is better for something along the lines of a mini game. Mini games are great and all, but if we're hoping for more significant entries a longer timeline is needed.
2- would be nice to have some sort of annual timeline that can be relied upon. This would combat the time constraint above. If compo entries are expected to be due the same time every year, then people could start whenever they wanted and not have to question when the next compo will be, or if it will occur.
Being late April now, perhaps we can have details of this compo ironed out by late May. If we are providing more than 3 months, then perhaps having a submission date of New Year's makes sense..? That would give 7-8 months of development time.
3- anything we can do to attract entries should be considered. Cash prizes are good, but people new to the scene might be quick to assume they can't win with their first game ever. Last time we gave limited edition cartridges to all contributors which was nice. But it was more effective as a thank you, than an incentive to make an entry I feel. I think we should give out the contributor carts again, but perhaps there is something better to offer to attract new people to the hobby. I'd love to hear any ideas people have to provide more incentive.
One idea I had was to offer some peice of hardware, perhaps something along the lines of a NES flash cart that gave developers a means to test their games on actual hardware. I'd rather not self promote here, so I'll save suggesting my own products. But I'm open to providing them at cost or even donating them if people want to suggest something feel free. I'm guessing other hardware designers will be open to similar proposals. A full fledged $100+ flash cart might be a little on the high end though, but perhaps something like the FDStick..? Although the separate requirement of a RAM adapter an means to connect to a NES is a hurdle. It would be fun to have a FDS mini game submission category though.. I'm working on some new products of my own which I haven't announced yet which would be better fitting for something along these lines. Best to pick something that's already in production somewhere.
Some other things that I think are helpful for a healthy competition would be to promote people to share their progress with their competition entry. This certainly wouldn't be required, but maybe awarding some bonus points at judging for doing so. Or perhaps tying into the idea above of providing some hardware prize to all entries; all contestants who have been providing updates on their project via nesdev/NA thread at the half way point of the competition could be rewarded with the prize at that point. I think posting progress is very helpful for motivation to keep going on a project and see it to completion or at least something worth submitting. This would be true for myself at least, curious what others think.
4- multiple categories... I feel like having the separate categories didn't really work out too well last time based on only having 3 entires. Part of me thinks we're better off with just one defined category, and then an 'anything goes' to welcome any submission and give people an option to not have their work included on the cartridge. If we have a fun idea for a theme like we did for the category 3 mini game/app like last time that's fine, but perhaps we should just consider it part of category 1 entries/judging. Could give bonus judging points for meeting the 'compo's theme' perhaps.
5- cartridge. Last compo the consensus was we didn't have enough material to fill/complete the cartridge. Several other homebrew works were collected and added to the cartridge which was great. And I think we should continue that trend. But waiting for the final rom for the cartridge ended up making us figure we had to wait till the cartridge was released before we could start the next step of another compo. Thinking maybe the better option would be to somewhat remove the cartridge release from the compo. We could have the entries pile up until we had enough submissions to make the cartridge. Doing something like this might even make sense to have 2-4 competitions a year. Don't feel your entry is worthy of submission yet or wish you had more time? Use the next few months and submit then. Of course this wouldn't work so well if it left us only having a few submissions each compo..
If you're gonna play the Game Boy, you gotta learn to play it right. -Kenny Rogers