2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

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infiniteneslives
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by infiniteneslives »

NESHomebrew wrote: if you compare these scores to last year, you will see that even last place this year would have gotten 8th place last year. Don't forget, everyone gets a cartridge for participating!
It is quite impressive to see the level of polish and completeness that was on ALL entries this year. Wasn't expecting ya'll to top last year's compo, but you folks really did. I couldn't choose my favorite game, there were just too many great ones that were all unique in their own way. Seeing the use of 3d by a couple games is exceptionally impressive. Only spent a short amount of time playing each game so far, really looking forward to going back and giving each game more play time. I'm blown away by the entries each year and never see it coming, gets me pumped for the future!

Honestly I'm thinking we may have to step up our rewards/prizes to do the entries justice. I have a few ideas in mind, but curious if anyone else has input. I think it's safe to say the compo budget can afford a quite a bit more.. I'm not sure how, but it would be nice if we could come up with a better reward system as I don't feel the rewards for the entries that ended up in the middle range matches the level of effort put in by entrants. Most of those games could have easily won the compo last year IMO.

Also just my 2cents, Inherent Smile is one of my favorites of all the entries. I really expected it to be one of the top scores. Disappointing to see that not many judges agreed with me, but I think I understand why.
If you're gonna play the Game Boy, you gotta learn to play it right. -Kenny Rogers
bngrybt
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by bngrybt »

I came in fourth. Not too bad considering how poor that demo looks compared to what I've added to the game since the end of the compo.
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by toggle switch »

man that's close!

congrats, guys.
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by calima »

infiniteneslives wrote:Also just my 2cents, Inherent Smile is one of my favorites of all the entries. I really expected it to be one of the top scores. Disappointing to see that not many judges agreed with me, but I think I understand why.
Thanks! Dungeon crawling does tend to be an acquired taste, and the balance wasn't as good as desired.
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FrankenGraphics
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Any chance (unless it adds a ton of work ofc) to get the voting surveys with the names crossed out? It'd be interesting to analyse something quantitative. Maybe there's some statistics webapp the results could be fed into.
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

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FrankenGraphics wrote:Any chance (unless it adds a ton of work ofc) to get the voting surveys with the names crossed out? It'd be interesting to analyse something quantitative. Maybe there's some statistics webapp the results could be fed into.
I think this would be good info to share or at least make available if possible. Something else I've brought up in the past, but not sure how to remember of next judging is if we could have a free form for each entry to make *constructive* comments to the specific developer. I realize these comments are probably best placed in the individual threads, but I think the info would be more likely to be given if a simple means to provide it while filling out the survey if possible.
If you're gonna play the Game Boy, you gotta learn to play it right. -Kenny Rogers
na_th_an
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by na_th_an »

Congrats everybody for the results. They are impressive. This year has been impressive, overall. The level of polish is ashtounding.

I'm up for individual comments. Knowing what people liked or disliked about the games surely will help in the future.

Now I'll try to implement several of the suggestions made regarding my entry, trying to make the cart version top notch!
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NESHomebrew
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by NESHomebrew »

FrankenGraphics wrote:Any chance (unless it adds a ton of work ofc) to get the voting surveys with the names crossed out? It'd be interesting to analyse something quantitative. Maybe there's some statistics webapp the results could be fed into.
Is this anything like what you were looking for?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by FrankenGraphics »

That's a great overview, thanks! Might help someone come to conclusions to up their game next year, + could serve as a discussion basis for future compos (you seemed to be looking for one in the podcast interview?)

I was more thinking that each game submission is a sheet, y is judgement category and x is all the marks that merit got sorted lowest to highest. This keeps the anonymity of the entrants/judges but gives all the data.

I was first thinking about the raw judgement entries, but even with the names crossed out they wouldn't be anonymous because of giving oneself top marks.
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MWK
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by MWK »

Congratulations to all competitors!
Although there are many impressive games this year, my favourite one is still JamminHoney 8-)
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by M_Tee »

Denine wrote:oh no, no, no.
Gruniozerca 2 is my, Mtee and Shirus entry :D
My best hope was to get a 3rd place, but somehow we got even higher, so Im not dissapointed(but shocked and surprised? yes!) ;d
Yeah, it caught me off guard as well. Honestly, just happy that the competition let us get exposure along with so many other great titles. It's good company to be in, for sure.

I'm super excited about what more Wolfling has to offer, and have added LightShields to my regular multiplayer rotation.
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by FrankenGraphics »

Honestly once i played Grunioźerca 2 i thought that this was the winner this year within minutes of playing.
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by FrankenGraphics »

infiniteneslives wrote:Honestly I'm thinking we may have to step up our rewards/prizes to do the entries justice. I have a few ideas in mind, but curious if anyone else has input.
There's a future NESmaker user who wants me to do a small commission, and i said that if he could donate $64 dollars to the competition fund i'll do it. He's asking where to.. do you have a paypal for this sort of thing, maybe? It's not that much but there could be more incoming eventually.
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by infiniteneslives »

FrankenGraphics wrote:
infiniteneslives wrote:Honestly I'm thinking we may have to step up our rewards/prizes to do the entries justice. I have a few ideas in mind, but curious if anyone else has input.
There's a future NESmaker user who wants me to do a small commission, and i said that if he could donate $64 dollars to the competition fund i'll do it. He's asking where to.. do you have a paypal for this sort of thing, maybe? It's not that much but there could be more incoming eventually.
Hmm, I'm not sure about donations.. The only financial support of the compo I can recommend is for them to purchase an action53 cartridge. There isn't a dedicated paypal account for the compo, I'm not sure I feel comfortable with someone donating cash. Additionally, nesdev isn't it's own financial/legal entity so I effectively have to maintain the funds as a portion of own my business. It then starts to look like people are donating money to my business which isn't something I want to support nor give the idea that I encourage it.

I'm not sure there's still a means of doing so, but I would rather recommend donations be made to web hosting costs of nesdev or NintendoAge. Additionally there are a number of legitimate charities that could better use donations than the compo, there's a few out there which are gaming related as well and help children in need.

Above all else I don't want to give any reason for people to think there's a suggested/required donation to compete. So it needs to be clear that this is an arrangement between you (the developer volunteering time) and them (game development manager?). Trying to prevent it from looking like an arrangement between them and the compo is part of my resistance towards accepting donations.
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Re: 2017 NESDev Compo - Rules/Guidelines

Post by FrankenGraphics »

I understand completely.
So it needs to be clear that this is an arrangement between you (the developer volunteering time) and them (game development manager?).
Oh yeah, definitely. But either way i'll refrain from going this route altogether if that's better. I could give him some donation alternatives (nesdev, na, shirus' charity) instead like you suggested.


As for other ideas, someone on that new nesmakers board mused that people would likely be willing to pay for an asm6 tutorial. Personally i wouldn't feel comfortable taking personal gain for anything like a plain tutorial when the knowledge is out there for free if you know where to look. Also almost everything i've learned is thanks to the efforts freeware culture. I do recognize that freeware has its limits at the same time - it requires a special effort and skillset seeking everything out as it is fractured and spread out, which is kind of out of scope for many nesmaker users or else they'd be using asm6/nesasm/ca65 already. So there might be a space for curated knowledge. Maybe a proper e-magazine (pdf, some 32 pages or something per issue) with illustrative figures and articles written with newcomers in mind would be a good way to help them. Maybe charge a suitable (ie low) fee per issue for the benefit of the community. I don't even know if it is feasible, but morals first: yay or boo? Also, let me know if you think ideas like these are a little too outside the scope of managing the compo economy.
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