How about a new Background Blitz - Workshop Edition?

[Calin Leafshade]

I only saw the previous one retrospectively but I think it was really cool. Would Zyndikate, Loominous, Misj and so on be willing to put on another one?

I recommend that it runs concurrently to the normal BGblitz tho since they tend to go on for a while.

[Dualnames]

Very much in favor of such notion.

[Andail]

Sure thing. There's an ordinary one currently running, but when it's finished the winner can start a workshop edition. Shouldn't be too much of a hassle.

Here's a link to the old one, if anyone's curious:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=34542.0

Here's another discussion by Loominous on how to alter/improve the concept a bit:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=27157.msg554968#msg554968

We could run a workshop edition parallel to the ordinary one, but I'm afraid people won't have time for both, resulting in some unnecessary competition.

[cat]

I like the idea of a workshop edition, but it should not replace the regular blitz. Last time it took several weeks (months?) to finish and it was not intended for people to join in later on. Let's keep the regular blitz as a short-term, fortnightly version and do the long workshop additionally.

[Calin Leafshade]

I agree with Cat.

[Darth Mandarb]

I remember that workshop... very cool.

I don't think it should be a problem to separate them because, IMO, the workshop doesn't belong in the competitions section anyway.  It's more like a multi-tasking Critics Lounge thread to me (don't think there should be a winner to the thing as it seems more useful as a "class" rather than a competition).

Just my $0.02 cents USD currency.

[Andail]

Darth speaketh the truth, contrary to what his custom title may lead anyone to believe.
However, the board in question is also named "activities", so housing the workshop there shouldn't automatically imply a winner.
So, now that we've established that there's an interest, let's see who's interested in administering it. I don't think the activity host has to be an established artist, as long as we get some artists partaking in the workshop. I can volunteer as a last option, if nobody else wants to.

[Calin Leafshade]

I think my girlfriend would like to take part so thats +1.

Loominous and Zyndikate are the obvious choices for hosts if they are so inclined. Loominous especially is an excellent teacher.

[Eric]

I would support a series of workshops separate from competitions. There's no reason there couldn't be a writing workshop, a programming workshop, a sprite-making workshop, etc. We just need to find folks who are willing to step in as instructors/moderators. I could see this being highly beneficial (to me).

[Baron]

This sounds like it would be really worthwhile to participate in.  Where do I sign up?

[Daniel Thomas]

Thanks for suggesting me, but how it looks now there is no chance I would have the time to dedicate running/moderate this.
I might participate though, depending on my time available.

[Theme]

If it happens, I'm in.

[Baron]

I sense this topic is slowly slipping off the radar.  Is there any progress on this front?  Has anyone asked permission of the C&A board moderators?  Ideally, yes, there would be an awesome artist running it, but I am of the opinion that running a BG drawing workshop without one would be better than no workshop at all.  Basically we just need some BG criteria and some rules, and off we go; worse case scenario we end up giving each other feedback/critiques instead of an "expert", but I'm sure we'll draw a lot of attention once we get up and running.  Calin, are you still taking the lead on this?

[Calin Leafshade]

Sure, I'll just flex my background drawing skillz and... no, I do not have the necessary skills.

I will PM loominous though because i am good like that.

[Snarky]

I don't think there's any opposition, and I highly doubt Ali or Iceboty would object. You should feel free to go ahead.

I would like to join in, but I very much doubt I'll have the time. If I could still make a suggestion, it would be to do an interior, since that would complement the last workshop. Plus my impression is that most BG Blitzes are for exteriors, while most actual in-game backgrounds are interiors (depending on the game, of course, but overall), so it would be a useful thing to practice.

I also think plenty of artists on the forums are qualified to moderate. Andail for sure, theo if he could spare the time, as well as the regular winners of the BG Blitz (Kastchey, Ilyich, Ben304, nihilyst, Misj', oraxon, etc.). Or how about Pinback? Or Ali? (Gosh, you're all so great! )

[loominous]

Hello all!

I'd be up for a new one, have a bit of an uneven schedule, which I'm guessing applies to many other, so it would be nice if we could mold the format to allow people a bit tight on time to participate, without dragging it out too much - think the last one showed that maintaining a momentum is pretty crucial.

Not sure how this would be achieved, but it should be doable. I suppose we could simply keep it more casual, where people could simply spend as much time they have on the various stages and be encouraged to not worry so much about the final result - perhaps someone will have plenty of time during the composition stage, but not much on the rendering, or vice versa - but should still be able to get something out of it.

Just throwing out some ideas, thoughts?

[Snarky]

Sweet! I recently went back to study the last workshop. There's so much to learn there, and it will be great to have you do another one.

As you say, I think keeping up momentum is quite important, so maybe some way to encourage people to keep pace? (Not sure what that might be. The two possibilities I could think of was voting a winner after each stage, or actually working as a team towards a collaborative background, so that at each stage we pick two or three favorites, and everyone uses one of those as the basis for the next stage. I'm not really sold on either idea, though.)

Another possibility to consider would be to not define the content of the background in so much detail, but just describe the setting in general, and the role of the screen in the game, so that different artists would be a bit freer to interpret it in different ways and decide on the elements they'd like to include.

[loominous]

The two possibilities I could think of was voting a winner after each stage, or actually working as a team towards a collaborative background, so that at each stage we pick two or three favorites, and everyone uses one of those as the basis for the next stage. I'm not really sold on either idea, though.)

I think a combination of these might work nicely, where it wouldn't be too dissimilar to how it works in the CL.

So at each stage people would branch out, some going for their own ideas, while others might simply modify/comment on other's. Then at the end of each stage, we'd pick let's say three versions (or one, dunno what would be best), and use these for the basis of the next stage. This would allow people with limited time to either just participate with some occasional branching, some modifications, or simply some commments. Think the fact that things kinda reset at the beginning of each stage might make it more encouraging, as we'd start anew, almost like a new activity, instead of demanding a longer commitment.

Course, there would be drawbacks, we'd be killing quite a few darlings, and people might feel intimidated or reluctant to contribute, which would really suck.

The last part really worries me, so some feedback would be appreciated, perhaps there would be some way around it (perhaps by picking entries from different skill levels at each stage, so that newbies feel like they have their place in the activity?).

The former format allowed people to tinker along with their babies in peace with friendly input, and perhaps this is what people would feel most comfortable with. In a way this new format might prove more valuable, as we'd be molding the same entry/s, trying to figure out what could be improved, which is usually an eye opener, though on the other hand there's a risk that only people with more developed eyes/skills would feel comfortable contributing, which would kinda suck.

Would be interesting to hear the opinions on this, particularly from painting newbies.

[cat]

What about a combination? If people want to continue working on their own drawings they can do that, but other people are allowed to pick any result of last round to continue. This way noone has to worry that his work was useless and he's not allowed to continue with it, but others can join in later on or skip a round and continue later with a BG another person has started.

[loominous]

What about a combination? If people want to continue working on their own drawings they can do that, but other people are allowed to pick any result of last round to continue. This way noone has to worry that his work was useless and he's not allowed to continue with it, but others can join in later on or skip a round and continue later with a BG another person has started.

Sounds like a nice compromise, I'd be up for that version. The only drawback I suppose would be some potential confusion for new participants stumbling into the activity, as the format might appear a bit confusing, but some clear introduction text should take care of that, and would be a relatively minor con.

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Forgot to touch on the potential for hosting adjoining activities, like a writing/concept activity to create 'the script' (for those that didn't participate in last one, a small script was provided with details about the scene. (Could be more of them, such as sprite creation, world creation, character (writing) creation).

As a non-writer, I don't feel very qualified discussing the writing parts, so perhaps someone else could pick up the ball on this one?

Edit: Oh, and the same goes for the Sprite/Character design part, any interest in this? Do feel more comfortable hosting one of those, though someone else hosting should provide some nice new take on the whole concept/s.