Planning

Moderator: Moderators

tepples
Posts: 22705
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: Planning

Post by tepples »

I seem to remember mentioning something along similar lines earlier because more "value for size" means more fun games fitting on a multicart of a given size.
User avatar
Lazycow
Posts: 105
Joined: Tue Jun 11, 2013 1:04 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Planning

Post by Lazycow »

"Usually" in competitions, only the game itself will be rated (gameplay, replay value, graphics, etc.) and not technical achievements.
One exception: Sometimes, there's a size-restriction (e.g. 64k)
This may sound odd, but a size restriction actually helps finishing a game, because the developer has to focus on the essentials. Starting a project is easy... Finishing a project is hard... (maybe this sounds familiar to you) :D
User avatar
freem
Posts: 176
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:47 pm
Location: freemland (NTSC-U)
Contact:

Re: Planning

Post by freem »

Lazycow wrote:Starting a project is easy... Finishing a project is hard...
understatement of the year
User avatar
pubby
Posts: 583
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2016 11:15 am

Re: Planning

Post by pubby »

NESHomebrew wrote:Judging. This is something that needs to be looked at before we announce the official rules. I have posted below the 2014/2011 and Ludum Dare judging criteria. Honestly I'm leaning more towards a Ludum Dare format where each category is judged out of 5 stars, and if for some reason a category does not fit an entry, then it can be N/A and won't be counted towards the full marks for the entry. I figure this is a good way to even the playing field if someone submits something like a test rom. As for categories, this is something I would like some input on.
Overall should be a category on its own; it should not be the sum or average of the other categories.

Here is the category spread I recommend:
  • Overall
  • Innovation
  • Gameplay and Control
  • Graphics
  • Sound
  • Tone and Mood
  • Polish and Completeness
  • Community
User avatar
Guilty
Posts: 93
Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2016 5:58 pm
Location: California, USA

Re: Planning

Post by Guilty »

I question the inclusion of a Tone and Mood category, because I think that's something that a lot of entries aren't going to place in. I feel like that should instead be a consideration for the Overall category, since it's sort of a 'more than the sum of its parts' thing. Other than that I agree with Pubby's suggestion.
User avatar
NESHomebrew
Formerly WhatULive4
Posts: 418
Joined: Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:43 am
Contact:

Re: Planning

Post by NESHomebrew »

Are you guys thinking weighted categories like previously, or the 5-star system?
User avatar
pubby
Posts: 583
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2016 11:15 am

Re: Planning

Post by pubby »

question the inclusion of a Tone and Mood category, because I think that's something that a lot of entries aren't going to place in.
Well you're right; different games will go for different things, and I think that's something that should be
celebrated by having all of these different categories. Look at it this way: it's like the Academy Awards. Not every Oscar-worthy movie will be in the running for Makeup, or Special Effects, or whatever, and in the same vein, not every contest entry will be in the running for Tone and Mood. But for games that do focus on tone and mood, I think it's fair to acknowledge what they attempted with a category.

Honestly, the more categories the better. It allows more people to win that way.
NESHomebrew wrote:Are you guys thinking weighted categories like previously, or the 5-star system?
5-stars per category, with "overall" being the only category to have monetary prizes. That's simple enough.

I hope I'm not being too assertive on this whole judging thing. I just want to see the website updated soon :P
User avatar
NESHomebrew
Formerly WhatULive4
Posts: 418
Joined: Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:43 am
Contact:

Re: Planning

Post by NESHomebrew »

pubby wrote:I hope I'm not being too assertive on this whole judging thing. I just want to see the website updated soon :P
I was really hoping for a lot more input on the judging, as there is a rather large amount of prizes and I would like it to be fair. The judging was always the hardest part of this competition.
User avatar
darryl.revok
Posts: 520
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 1:22 pm

Re: Planning

Post by darryl.revok »

Here's a thought I had a little while ago.

How feasible would it be to reveal at a classic gaming convention, and get votes from the audience?
User avatar
NESHomebrew
Formerly WhatULive4
Posts: 418
Joined: Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:43 am
Contact:

Re: Planning

Post by NESHomebrew »

darryl.revok wrote:Here's a thought I had a little while ago.

How feasible would it be to reveal at a classic gaming convention, and get votes from the audience?
It's an interesting idea, and selecting 1st place might be plausible, but anything other than that would be more difficult. For the last competition the entrants were all judged by their fellow competitors, with the incentive being that if you judged, you would get a full score counted towards your entry. This seemed more fair than the panel of judges from previous competitions.

Also, depending on the amount of entries, an audience probably wouldn't have the time or patience to try every entry and compare them all.
User avatar
darryl.revok
Posts: 520
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 1:22 pm

Re: Planning

Post by darryl.revok »

All good points.

If judging is too much of a workload to expect at a convention, then convention exposure would still be great for the cart release.

What if we did judging first, and then at the convention, did a demo reel of all of the games, highlighting the winners?

No way to make PRGE this year, but next year wouldn't be hard if we don't push the end date all the way to next new year. (that still seems excessive to me, but delaying for half of that time to make the PRGE would make more sense to me)

On a side note, I'm going to be wrapping up the rough draft of my game engine over the next few days, and I plan to spend the next month doing graphics for myself and some others. Among those projects is doing a rough draft of the NESdev Compo 2016 t-shirt. So far the only suggestion I've read is the logo. The 3d text would be doable but I'm not convinced that it would look great on a shirt. I think the "NesDev" font in flat text would be workable with more pop on a shirt than 3d text.

If anybody has any more suggestions I'd be happy to hear them.

As for judging,

I don't know if community should be rated as part of the main category. I'd like to do a lot of stuff in the community category for my project, and that's great for the game and for the Compo, but I don't feel like it's particularly fair to group that in with judging of the quality of a game.

There was a suggestion at one point of a "best progress thread" or perhaps "best community involvement". I'm not sure what the prize would be. Something to increase exposure would probably be sufficient.
User avatar
rainwarrior
Posts: 8731
Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2012 12:03 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Planning

Post by rainwarrior »

Hosting a table at a convention is a pretty hefty burden to task someone with, IMO.

I think having entrants judge is the most fair way to do it.
User avatar
darryl.revok
Posts: 520
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2015 1:22 pm

Re: Planning

Post by darryl.revok »

rainwarrior wrote:Hosting a table at a convention is a pretty hefty burden to task someone with, IMO.
I think it sounds fun, personally. I'm in the country so I rarely meet new people in real life with the same interests. Plus I haven't been to Portland in years and I love that city.

I'm just saying, I wasn't trying to shoulder somebody with a burden because in my eyes the task would be anything but.
calima
Posts: 1745
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 10:16 am

Re: Planning

Post by calima »

Wouldn't judging at a convention be unfairly biased to those with great graphics, even if the gameplay was bad?
User avatar
infiniteneslives
Posts: 2104
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2011 11:49 am
Location: WhereverIparkIt, USA
Contact:

Re: Planning

Post by infiniteneslives »

If some portion of judging at a convention is able to happen that'd be fun. But the logistics of doing so sound like a challenge. If we plan to do it, I only suggest it be setup in a manner in which waiting around for the convention judging to occur doesn't delay announcing results of the compo.
If you're gonna play the Game Boy, you gotta learn to play it right. -Kenny Rogers
Post Reply