Background Blitz - 061015-26

[TheJBurger]

Idea - zyndikate
Atmosphere/Mood/Emotion - ildu
Storytelling/Authenticity - ildu

Design - zyndikate
Composition - ildu
Colours - ildu
Lighting - ildu

Camera Placement/Angle - zyndikate
Walkareas - ildu
Exits - ildu

[sportyjay]

These are all such great entries.

Idea - Mad
Atmosphere/Mood/Emotion - The JBurger
Storytelling/Authenticity - Ildu

Design - Ildu
Composition - Ildu
Colours - TheJBurger
Lighting - LimpingFish

Camera Placement/Angle - TheJBurger
Walkareas - Penguin
Exits - Ildu

I've got to say, i really liked many aspects of TheJBurger's entry (simple but so effective) and also Ildu's entry, but i have to agree with zyndikate, i can't see as much "Waterfall Valley" in it as some of the other entries. But still great entries.

[Mordalles]

my vote goes to ildu. (design)
ildu, make a game, or apply at autumn moon. 

[ildu]

Woah, thanks for the kind words!

I'll give my votes a bit later today when I have more time.

I'm looking forward to Bioshock too.

Totally wicked awsome Ildu, !
Looks brill, love the dusty? texture it has.
and yes, Bioshock is looking good as well :3

Yeah, as some of you might have guessed, the architecture and the backstory were inspired by the architecture in the upcoming game, Bioshock, as well as art deco in general (whenever I try to draw serious architecture, I almost always end up doing art deco ). Yes, I'm looking forward to the game very much, too .

Ildu's picture is awesome, and I dont think anyone would say anything else, but I got a little comment: I think it lacks the 'WaterFall Valley'-part.

I've got to say, i really liked many aspects of TheJBurger's entry (simple but so effective) and also Ildu's entry, but i have to agree with zyndikate, i can't see as much "Waterfall Valley" in it as some of the other entries. But still great entries.

I totally understand. Well, my initial idea was to advertise the waterfall part with various billboards and posters on the background, and also to include it to be seen through the window. It was supposed to be this mountain-top paradise for summertime vacationers. But I also wanted to convey that the place is abandoned and desolate, so I'd need some cold vs. dark coloring stuff going. So then I thought that if I make it all summery, I couldn't really show in any way that the cable car/gondola is actually frozen and has been out of use for a while. And this is the major carrier of the abandonment theme.

So I came up with a solution: I'd advertise it very positively, while from the window you could see that it's ironically far from what the advertisements once advertised. Well, as I had to drop some stuff due to time contraints, it didn't work out that well. But anyhow, I thought the billboard on the left and the sun on the logo on the front wall opposed to the frozen background would make somewhat of a theme. As for the name of the topic itself, Waterfall Valley, the billboards were supposed have pictures of waterfalls and gondolas, and a waterfall was supposed to be shown in the background, even if frozen . But some of the billboards went missing, and I ended up doing all of the exterior areas in less than an hour just before I posted the image here, so I didn't really have time to think about it. You can see that it's a valley, though .

[Babar]

Idea - zyndikate: Here I'm assuming you mean "idea" in addition to the theme of the contest. In that way, I like how zyndikate has interpreted it.
Atmosphere/Mood/Emotion - LimpingFish: I like how his BG portrays a cold, almost comercial feeling (almost like it's cargo being transported) like something I'd expect from "Transportation (Rental Services) in Waterfall Valley.
Storytelling/Authenticity - Penguin, with a close 2nd from ildu

Design - zyndikate
Composition - ildu
Colours - Penguin
Lighting - Mashpotato

Camera Placement/Angle - The JBurger. Shows very well what s/he's trying to show, and works technically
Walkareas - In terms of cleverly restricting movement/giving illusion of freedom/not confusing player, I'd say MashPotato
Exits - TheJBurger

[ildu]

Okay, I've got some spare minutes to vote. Forgive me if I sound a bit washed out, for I am very very tired:

Idea - MashPotato. I loved this one. Flying brooms and a lava waterfall never fail . When I saw this one, my first thought (after general amusement of course) was: there goes my idea votes .
Atmosphere/Mood/Emotion - TheJBurger. I was a big fan of this entry. The mood is great, the landscape is outstanding and I can almost feel and hear the wind whistling at me as I enter the cable car .
Storytelling/Authenticity - LimpingFish. I liked the premise to this one. Something very different, but still authentic.

Design - Penguin. I loved how the tracks were present in all depths of the image. A great way to frame it.
Composition - zyndikate. Great positioning of the different levels of the construction.
Colours - Penguin. I liked your colors in the previous blitz and I like them in this one too. Very nice variation to more natural colors.
Lighting - zyndikate. Great colors and lighting, especially on the waterfall.

Camera Placement/Angle - TheJBurger. The absolute perfect place to put the camera in a scene like this. Greatness .
Walkareas - MashPotato. Walkareas was something that was kinda lacking in this blitz, but MashPotato got that covered.
Exits - TheJBurger. What can I say? One clear exit (unless you want to exit to the bottom of the valley . And the exit kinda struck me as something quite original.

[loominous]

Man, compiling those votes takes ages.

Anyway, here's the roundup:

Idea - zyndikate, followed by Mash
Atmosphere/Mood/Emotion - TheJBurger, followed by Ildu
Storytelling/Authenticity - Ildu

Design - Ildu
Composition - Ildu
Colours - Ildu
Lighting - Ildu

Camera Placement/Angle - TheJBurger
Walkareas - Mash, followed by Ildu
Exits - Ildu

Ildu, as the list suggests, got the most amount of votes, so congrats!

[BunnyMilk]

CONGRATS!

[ildu]

Thanks a lot . The new blitz will be up soon.

Btw, this is ample time to discuss the new voting system:

How did everyone like it?
Should I retain it in the next blitz?
To me, there were clearly less outsider voters in contrast to the participants themselves, is this positive/negative?

[vict0r]

I thought the new system was a wee to complex, and actually got scared off from using it:P

[loominous]

The time I introduced the former categories, we got about three votes in total, and would've probably gotten similar reasons for the lack participance.

Doesn't mean that this system will catch on of course, just that drawing conclusions from a single or few instances isn't a very accurate or safe method.

Since you don't like the system, I see no reason why you should use it though, so I'll just continue my experimentations the next time around. No hard feelings.

To me, there were clearly less outsider voters in contrast to the participants themselves, is this positive/negative?

While we're asking tough questions: puppies - cute or monstrous?

-

Edit: I'm still very interested in hearing ideas about the system - I just have a problem when new/innovative ideas get discarded quickly, since I see it as one of the prime reasons to cultural conformity.

[Traveler]

I, too, think that the many categories were a bit overboard - having a few may be good, but 10?!  :o  I wanted to vote but then I changed my mind, because I didn't have time to write down all the reasoning for my votes; I also didn't want to write that much.

In my opinion, a single vote per voter would be enough, since there is only a single winner. Having comments in the categories you set up is a good idea, but all the voting still results in a single winner.

As an alternative, images that did not win should probably be posted all together in Crits Lounge to see why they got less votes, how to make them better - that way voting would be about voting and people could still write longer comments about the images, maybe in all the 10 categories that you set up.

[scotch]

I don't think the voting system is better or worse than the last one. Personally I'd rather put in one vote saying which I think it the best background, the category systems seem to suggest I can't make up my own mind when it comes to what priorities I place on a good adventure game background, and actually artificially place some things I'd consider less important in most backgrounds on an equal footing with fundementals like ideas and mood. It's quite possible I'd give most of my votes to one background and still consider another one the best.

One thing that's good about the many categories is that it tends to ensure most entries get a vote for something that they did well, but I can give an honourable mention in words if I think another background is especially deserving in some aspect.

Well done Idlu, nice background.

[ildu]

Thanks, scotch .

Oh, I'm not discarding or denouncing anything, nor do I not like the new system. I'm just on the fence with the issue, because I see positives and negatives in both systems:

4-category system:

Pros: Simple. Clearly balanced. Easy and quick. Basically more attractive to wider audiences. More prone to make voters offer reasons to their evaluations.

Cons: Perhaps not descriptive enough. Doesn't give the artist too much feedback on his/her piece. Restricts longer and wider analyses.

10-category system:

Pros: Way more descriptive. Proper artistic evaluations on different important areas. Great feedback to the artist. Attracts more experienced artists.

Cons: May alienate voters who are too busy/tired/uninterested/inexperienced to vote. General confusion for voters who aren't experienced in evaluating the categories. Less prone to make voters offer reasons to their evaluations.

I kinda want for the blitz to become a little more professional, so I would support a more complicated voting system. But on the other hand, I don't want people to come here, see the artwork, begin to vote, and then get frustrated/confused/bored and just quit. I think what we really need to remember is that this is an adventure game forum, and not particularly an art forum, so we should live by the majority. It's likely that most people who visit the forums here do have a good visual sense by having a liking for adventure games (where the graphical element is a major one), but they may not be that interested in extending that to art analysis.

Maybe we can come up with some middleground. Perhaps some 6-8 categories, divided somewhat clearly into artistic and functional categories?

[Snarky]

The 10 categories was a contributing factor to me not voting. Also lack of time, so I might not have voted anyway, but I saw that list and just moved straight on.

Anything more than four-five categories is just way too much. If the ones we have been using recently need tweaking, why not modify them instead of piling on more? In the 10-category list, it seems like the first group could easily be combined (it essentially boils down to what we think of the choice of subject matter and its effectiveness), and so could walkareas/exits. And then there are a lot of technical categories (the four in the middle and arguably the camera placement one), but nothing explicitly about how well we think it is executed, how nicely it is drawn. So, from these categories, I feel I would have to rate a sketch of a background the same as the finished, polished article. That maybe makes sense from an analytical point of view, and to encourage artists to consider the fundamentals and the structure of their backgrounds rather than focusing on the superficial, but it makes it more difficult for voting.

Actually, I think rather than extending the categories, it would be better to ask voters to comment on all entries. It could be very brief: "sucks"; "stay away from Photoshop blur"; "great composition, but the colors and shadows are wrong"; "Good: walkareas, colors, pixel art - Bad: idea, gradients, composition"; etc. For one thing, I think it would be more encouraging and inspiring for most of the contestants. If there were ten people voting, you would get ten short evaluations, while with the categories you get no feedback at all unless someone thinks you are the best (or one of the top two) in one of the categories, and even then with very little explanation (although voters are asked to give reasons, it seems that most don't). But also, I think it would be easier for the voters. Currently, for each category I have to go through all of the entries and decide which one I think is best. If there are ten categories and nine entries (like this time), that's ninety times I have to look at images to complete the voting. (I tend to cheat and not actually do this, though.) It would be much easier to just go through the entries a single time, and comment on each image individually.

More categories, it seems to me, encourages the high-end of the Background Blitz: the most accomplished artists and the most analytical voters. Asking for comments on the whole spectrum of entries, on the other hand, will (I believe) encourage the mid- and low-end: the contributors who still have a lot of room for improvement. We should try to strike a balance: the awesome quality of the entries provided by loominous, ildu and other frequent winners confer a level of prestige on the Blitz (not to mention they make it an enjoyable thread to browse), while helping less accomplished artists to improve is a valuable function to the community. This new proposed category system puts, in my opinion, too much emphasis on the former group while not doing enough for the latter.

[MashPotato]

Sorry I missed the vote (I think it's a good idea that all participants vote), but it looks like there was a clear-cut winner this time so luckily no harm done.  Congrats on the lovely bg, Ildu 

As for the categories, I tend to agree that 10 is too much, and some of them were very close in content.  I think about 6 categories would be more attractive to voters.
Snarky's suggestion of commenting on each entry is an interesting one, but I worry that this would drive away voters, as commenting on entries (especially ones that may be sub-par) takes a lot of effort.  Saying a brief sentence like "sucks" is terribly deflating to the person on the receiving end of it, and giving constructive crit isn't always easy. A system like that has a lot of potential benefits, but I'm not sure if it would work too well.

[LimpingFish]

Everybodies entries were great. Here's to the next one

[loominous]

Seems like ten categories were a bit overkill then.

I like Snarkys idea about comments, since the categories only mentions the "best" ones. I'd hate to see brief "that sucks" comments, but they could be discouraged in the rules. I think the form of "Pros: , Cons:" would work well, since it would encourage finding flaws even in "amazing" entries, and bright spots in less than great entries.

The comment system doesn't have any host picking aspect yet though. I suppose the comments could be followed by a single vote, though I'm not a fan of this method, for reasons I've mentioned before.

I think it's worth to try out though, since we've already tried lesser n bigger number category systems.

-

I'm not sure if this breaks any sub forum rules or anything, but it would be nice if this thread was to remain open for a bit longer, while the new one gets started (though perhaps without a set voting system for now).

[Obi]

Having voted in the past I liked the 4-category system, it seemed easy to use and sensible to me, I could easily and gracefully give my views of each of the background which I had voted for. This other system however just by looking at it makes me not want to vote. This system seems to swamp me with too many categories, too much information. I am not an art critic but I do know what I like and and to a certain extent why. But to catagorise it all is hard work, other competitions on the other hand when using a voting system normally just vote for one and explain why they chose it and such. I rather like this system although it does have certain negative drawbacks, the voter does not mention other backgrounds they may have liked or have been interested in.

This can leave some entrants feeling left out, perhaps sad that their entry has been overlooked and may not want to enter again. Perhaps if everyone commented on every ones entries they could feel equal and rejoice in the new found criticisms and praises of their work, it would surely make them enter once again and maybe even one day win. With these comments they would have the determination to win and with this a greater amount of entries would come in and of a better quality. It would also give the voters a more free form way of expressing their views of the work what they like and dislike about them. With this everyone would be happy and the world would be full of joy.

[Gilbert]

I'm not sure if this breaks any sub forum rules or anything, but it would be nice if this thread was to remain open for a bit longer, while the new one gets started (though perhaps without a set voting system for now).

Well, alright I think it's okay to let it stay open then, do report when you think it's enough and can be locked.

Anyway, congratulations ildu for becoming a Grand Slam Winner!