ATC, info and development *Competition over! Thanks for your participation!

Ginny · Sun 08/08/2004 05:19:27

Damn forgetfullness.

Final Status Report for File Trap:

* Progression in all areas, in percent
Ã,Â Ã,Â Ã,Â Story/Plot/etc - 80%
Ã,Â Ã,Â Ã,Â Art/animation - 60%
Ã,Â Ã,Â Ã,Â Music/sounds - 90%
Ã,Â Ã,Â Ã,Â Programming - 50%

* Any obstacles that may have arisen lately

Mainly real life butting into our plans. We got a puppy, which I do not regret for 1 second, he is wonderful, and about the same time my windows installation CD-ROM went FUBAR until I got a new one in 10 days

. Minimi went on vacation this week, and I'm going to camp this morning for 5 days.

* An evaluation of the team work so far, and if your project is likely do be finished in time

The team work has become a bit slower near the end, and we have attempted to shorten our idea somewhat, but because I'll be gone for the next 5 days, I'm afraid we won't finish the game. I'd still like to say that we enjoyed this competition very much and hopefully next time arpund will be more productive in my case.

All the best of luck to all teams entering!!

Chicky · Sun 08/08/2004 12:51:56

Final Status Report for The Despicable Dr. Zoidenburg :

Progression in all areas, in percent

Art/animation: 50%
Story/puzzles ect: 99%
Programming: 30%
Music/sound: 10%

Problems that have arisen

Unfortunatly our team has really been feeling the strain recently. I think because we have been working to our highest standard and have chosen quite a hard style to perfect, we have not been progressing as much as we would like. This has resulted in the unfortunate team decision that we will be pulling out of the competition. This does not mean the game will not continue its production, the game will still be finished. But it will not be in time for the deadline.

Best of luck to all the other teams, i look forward to playing the games

Andail · Sat 14/08/2004 17:00:06

All right, it's over, folks.

Two teams made the deadline, and in the spirit of egality and brotherhood, I decided to announce both of them winners.

So the winning teams are:

Epileptic Fish
and
Creative Minds.

If more teams would have finished, I had planned a live ceremony on the irc-channel, to make the jury's decision more exciting. Now it just feels awkward to elect the better of the two.
Their games will be presented on the forums shortly.
Their reward is yet to be determined.

I think now is the time to evaluate this competition, and discuss what could be altered until next time. Obviously, two finishing teams out of seven is not a splendid record (even though their games are impressive). What can be changed?

Vel · Sat 14/08/2004 17:05:00

Andail, can we wait for a day or so to polish the game? We're currently making the backgrounds prettier and adding a final puzzle that was planned but the deadline was too short for it to be implemented.
Congratulations to Epileptic fish and us!

BerserkerTails · Sat 14/08/2004 17:25:04

Yeah Vel, that's a great idea. During our mad scramble to finish the game, we had to leave out the opening (Even though we drew all the pictures for it, we just didn't have time to code it).

That'd be awesome.

Renal Shutdown · Sun 15/08/2004 21:05:31

Damn you, Vel.. you've already won.
Don't rub the rest of the team's noses in their down falls.

..and in other news:
We may have missed the deadline, but the Big Eye team still plan to finish. If only to satisfy our own needs.

Also, Andail.
Is that a diplomatic move? or did you just forget to assemble a panel of judges?

And..
For the "What can be changed?"..
At the start of the competition, there were suggestions of an application form type thing, where people would be judged if they were competent enough to enter. Thankfully, this wasn't a problem our team faced, but I knew some people were worried that their teams were too inexperienced (or talentless) in their chosen fields to give their teams a fighting chance.
For instance, LGM as a writer? I mean, come on.. we've all read Vincent's Night..
(..and me as a Musician? All those poor people who bought my band's CD..).

Andail · Sun 15/08/2004 21:16:27

Iqu, it gladdens me that you still intend to finish your game.

Yes, it was a completely diplomatic move. It's one thing electing a winner out of six-seven contestors, but out of two, the other will be a bigger loser...well you get it.

And trust me, I could have a jury assembled within the hour if it was necessary, and a darn fine one too!

Applications might not be such a bad idea. As I wasn't a part of a team, I don't know how well each member managed to pick up their burden, but I do know that some lost interest and gave in rather hastily.

One clear problem was that many teams (just like in last year's event, as well as general team projects) simply aimed too high.
A solution would be to set up more restrictions, such as number of rooms, characters and inventory items.

What is your take on this? And is application forms a good solution? Who would look at and approve on these?

Give me more opinions.

Renal Shutdown · Sun 15/08/2004 21:27:59

Who would look at and approve on these?

..My suggestion would be this damn fine, one hour notice jury you have hidden away.

Also, luckily or not for us, our team's problems were actual, physical, real life problems and not just a lack of enthusiasm. Not that I'm trying to excuse our inabilty to succeed, just bitter about the amount of holidays and computer crashes inflicted upon our teams by parents and/or Bill Gates.

Ghormak · Sun 15/08/2004 21:29:06

I think more restrictions would be a good thing. Maybe especially the number of rooms, because games with more rooms tend to be longer, and thus take more time to write. And more rooms = more backgrounds to draw. I think these two things (writing & planning the game and drawing the backgrounds) are generally the most time-consuming parts of making a game.

edit: By rooms I mean room files in AGS. If someone thinks they absolutely need more than the allowed amount of rooms, they can always stretch the rules and use scrolling rooms.

Privateer Puddin' · Sun 15/08/2004 21:39:22

Personally, I think rules similar to MAGS ones, with several key things that must be included, maybe.

And restrictions.

Esseb · Sun 15/08/2004 22:09:49

I agree, but closer to the real MAGS than the current batch.

Redwall · Sun 15/08/2004 22:40:31

Well, in MAGS you aren't limited to a certain number of rooms (generally), people just know by now that you can't have very many to make it in a month. Maybe a restriction is neccessary in the first few, but I'd hope that after a couple tries people would realize they have to think small.

Privateer Puddin' · Sun 15/08/2004 22:42:41

Eh, iirc, there was a MAGS where it had to take place in one room?

Vel · Sun 15/08/2004 23:03:21

I dont think there should be more restrictions, since it would restrict the ideas mainly of the writer. I consider the application a nice way of allowing only the determined participants to compete. I also consider a theme, as was in this one, to be the best type of restriction.

Tiki · Sun 15/08/2004 23:07:54

I believe that the competition would turn out better every time we have one, assuming that they aren't done as far apart as the last two.Ã,Â The new users in the competition will learn from past ATCs, and the veterans will know exactly what they are doing.Ã,Â Ã,Â We can't expect the first few ATC's to have all teams finish, or even the majority.Ã,Â We need to give it time...

As for my team, we most certainly will finish the game, hopefully before the AGS Awards, and many other teams have said the same, so by no means was this ATC a waste. We (hopefully) will get more than 2 games out of it, games that would never have happened under other circumstances.

Eigen · Mon 16/08/2004 08:36:52

I wondered what happened to our team. I was pretty much ready with my music. After LGM decided not to write the story anymore or "leave", we had to start from scratch, with a shorter game. I even wrote new music for that game. But then none started to be in the team chat anymore and well. $:-\$

Hope we can finish it up too, someday.

-Eigen

BerserkerTails · Mon 16/08/2004 17:54:43

Yeah, I can see how not having a dedicated team crushed almost all entries into the contest. I mean, we (Team 6) just BARELY got our game in, but we had to work on it non-stop for about three days, actually working through ther night on Friday, to hand it in.

Privateer Puddin' · Mon 16/08/2004 17:57:41

Yeh, sorry about that Eigen.

It all fell apart, i checked with RTF and LGM had told him we were stopping, i (rather foolishly) presumed he had also told you, being team leader and all.

m0ds · Mon 16/08/2004 23:20:21

Where's my special thanks for inventing the ATC? ><

Only kidding...Anyway,

Finished Games listing
All games that are completed will be included on a special "AGS Team Challenge" page on the Screen 7 website, which will hopefully become a central point for downloading and playing games made for the ATC.

When your game is ready, and finished, and pollished! Please send me;
- A link to your game. A copy will be stored on the S7 server.
- A screenshot of your game, 150x94.
- Any special or general information on the game that you want included on the page/site.

If you don't do this, then I probably will - but not for another year or so.

Thanks!

m0ds

lightman · Wed 18/08/2004 23:53:32

How long did the teams have to finish? For the next competition, maybe they should have a little more time.

The application idea might work, in some form or other, to improve team strength.

I'd suggest some kind of evaluation system for the games. For example, the organizer and/or the judges would receive a full game plan from each team. This would include # of rooms, characters, etc. The judges should be people that know what is reasonable and what is not. They would evaluate the plans and the organizer would give feedback to the teams, requiring them to limit themselves if they are shooting too high. The teams would have a week to finalize their plans.

At the end of the evaluation week, everyone would hopefully have a good plan for a game that could be made in the given time frame.

I am not necessarily against restrictions, but I think this kind of system might work better.