Slasher ninja'd me. This is an answer to Cassiebsg
But neither Colouring Ball nor Sprite Jam were even close to dead before they just stopped.
Going back through the last 10 contests for both gives these numbers of entries (not entrants, sometimes someone posted more than one entry):
Colouring Ball: 4, 2, 9, 18, 5, 4, 8, 13, 7, 28
Sprite Jam: 0, 4, 4, 7, 0, 4, 4, 4, 15, 5
That looks pretty good.
As for Background Blitz, the numbers are:
0 (yet), 5, 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 7, 8, 8
That seems fairly constant as well. (Granted, I looked at the number of entries and you're talking about people participating, but I don't think that makes much of a difference.)
I don't think any of these numbers show that the forums themselves have less people around (or are "dying"). It's just the normal fluctuation we always have.
The FWC always has even fewer entries, but some regulars who enter nearly every time or come back at least semi-regular and so we managed to keep it alive with often just two entries.
While I'm on the topic, I really think we should have a Music Competition again as well. The Competition Forum, in a way, shows diefferent aspects of game design and music is a large part of this. But at the same time I would argue that the Music Competition really did not have enough entries / regulars the last time it was active, so maybe there's really not enough interest in that one.
