Rapid Age Development contest feedback

[Grogyan]

I'd like to get everyones feedback on this contest, on all areas of it.

Is 2 weeks too long, too short?

Areas to improve on?

Should future contests be themed based ie Teamed, Shells for Ahra Pahts, based on more generalized concepts eg a garden?

If you didn't enter, would you enter on future contests?
If you did enter would you enter on future contests?

[Zander]

Well, for a start, we need to have worked out all the rules before we start the competition. Fortunately, that isn't a problem that we'll be having again.

I think that divisions such as Team/Solo, Shell/Age and such will only be workable if we get at least two entries in each category, but if possible I think they would be a very good idea. I'd go for divisions based on practical necessity such as the above rather than types of Age, unless the response becomes huge, for which we can always hope.

Two weeks is I think about optimum, long enough to do good work--as all of our Writers have shown--and short enough to impart a sense of urgency.

And yes, I definitely hope to be entering. One day. When I've learned the magic word that makes Blender do the same thing every time I ask it to.

[andylegate]

Some thoughts from me on the contest. Please note that these are my own personal thoughts and views, not those of the Zephyr Cove Team.

Setup:
All rules need to be set up and decided upon prior to any contest. Rules for both the contestants and judges. Rules should be available for both to see too. Nothing should be suddenly changed in the middle of the contest. Things should only be changed if without the change it would make still doing the contest impossible.

Time Limitation:
Pretty much I heard the same thing from many writers as to why they didn't join in and submit to the contest; "it's about quality, not quanity, that's too short of a time limit."
While I agree without a doubt that Ages have to be about quality in how they work/perform/sound/feel I think we did show people what is possible to do in a limited amount of time, given enough resources and team work.
However, if you want to attract more contestants in the future, I would recommend not making the time limit so short, or making it a different catagory for such a time span. See below for more on this.

Judging the entries:
One thing that I noted during this contest, was the fact that each submission was being judged the same. The problem with this is that you had 4 submissions. Two of which were whole Ages, while the other 2 were Shells. To me this is unfair for both sides.
It's not (IMO) really fair to base the work that went into developing an entire Age against a Shell. The person that has that Shell has a limited amount of space to work with, and only so much that they can do with that Shell, where as a whole Age, well the sky is the limit as they say.
This is like comparing Apples and Oranges, and I really believe that if you are going to have another RAD contest, the rules for judging should be adapted to take in the fact that one is a Shell and another is a Whole Age.

Make Different Contests:
I would suggest in the future that you have different types of contests. Have one that is just for the Shells. Have one that is just for Ages. Have one that is just for Ages for Progress, in that contestants submit what they've been working on for view by judges, then are given a time period, say 1 month, then at the end of the month the Ages are viewed again and judged on progress alone. Have smaller contests: Who can make the best sky box? Just a gound with lighting (which is not judged) so that the sky box can be viewed. Who can make the best flowing water? As you can see, there are many possibilites.

Rewards:
Okay, theres not a whole lot that can be done here. You can't offer a $50,000 grand prize or anything like that. Let's face it, anyone can take their Age and apply for a FCAL and share their age with people and the public, regardless of how well it did in a contest.
The only things I can think of are small: a special signiture tag for the winners, or something that goes in with the forum avatar.
The only reward really would be how the contestant(s) that won feel. If they are the competitive sort, then they will feel more on winning that are non-competitive in nature.
The Zephyr Cove Team is a good example of this. Our main goal in our entry was to produce something that people would really like, but we went in with the thought that there was no way we would win anything or have the highest score, mainly because we thought our Age was going to be thrown up against other Ages like the ones made by Boblishman, Kierra and Nadnerb to name a few Writers. We simply wanted to show what 4 noobs could do in 2 weeks. So we were really surprised and dissappointed to only see 3 other entries.

Okay those were my thoughts and suggestions.

[Trylon]

I Agree with Andy.

[Zander]

So do I up to a point. I still think the two-week time limit is a good starting point, but certainly there's scope for more leisurely competitions. I certainly wouldn't go below two weeks.

And picking up on his idea about the work in progress contest, maybe some of our more accomplished Writers would be willing to run this as a kind of masterclass? Novices submit their unfinished Ages for guidance and criticism, and then are given a set time to implement what they've been taught? Kind of a Writer's workshop.

The more we do, the more we can do. This was a valuable exercise even though it was by no means perfectly handled at our end.

[boblishman]

... mainly because we thought our Age was going to be thrown up against other Ages like the ones made by Boblishman, Kierra and Nadnerb to name a few Writers. We simply wanted to show what 4 noobs could do in 2 weeks...

Well, I'm still a "noob" too ... I only opened Blender for the first time last October ... ... but this was one of the reasons that I did not enter ...

I really like the idea of "progress" rather than Rapid Age Development. Now that we have had this RAD competition, it has been shown what can be acheived in a (relatively) short time span and so I see no need to repeat it again.

However, the idea of submitting an Age that has been written up to a certain point, then receiving critique/suggestion/advice ... and then re-submitting a month later, and the improvement being judged really appeals to me as a writer ...

If the next competition involved this process then ALL age writers, no matter how experienced or "noob" could submit an Age they are currently working on (no matter how long - or short - it has already been in progress) and then re-submit it a month later ... and then be judged on "improvement" ... this puts everyone, from noobie to pro, on a even playing field ... What would be being judged here is not how technically clever the age is, but how someone had adapted, improved and bettered their skills. It means that you are not being judged against other writers experience ... but against yourself and your own personal development ... something that I think would encourage more entries.

I think a lot of writers were "put off" entering the RAD because they felt they were not experienced enough. The next competition should stress that we are not judging the experience of the writer, but their ability, enthusiasm and willingness to learn "the art"

My congratulaions go to your Team Andy, and indeed to all the entrants ... let's hope that future "competitons" will learn from this one.

[Aloys]

Bob makes an important point. What I liked the most in this contest is the simple fact that it brought us Ages that we might not have seen without this, and it pushed some Writers to release Ages that they might not have release otherwise.
As creators it is very tempting to just keep an Age for yourself and keep working on it until it is 'perfect' and worthy of being released; or until you get tired of it. (I am certainly guilty of that). Having a set deadline and a panel of people whiling to have a constructive look at your work is very valuable and pushes us to work, and in the end it helps us perfect our work.

Maybe we could have a global schedule for Work-In-Progress Ages releases? Every two weeks we could ask all people interested to release their Ages (in the middle and at the end of each month?) then we all get a look at each other's work and gives constructive criticism.. This way we may see Ages progress and get better with time.

[ametist]

As one of the judges I also thought of different categories. It was, as Andy says, two ages and two shells, one team and three single entries. Our judging categories though, made us capable of 'judging' this time, since we didn't compare the entries, just looked at them with 'category-eyes', one by one. But of course, one can't be objective to 100 %, for that the criterias must be a lot more detailed. But, as I said before, I was astonished by the quality and creativity the competitors showed, and I'm ever so grateful to all of you!
And we all learn by experience

I would really like to see more ages opened up for 'testing' and I think that in that way, more of the writers could see that they indeed are very skilled in 'writing ages'!

[Chacal]

- Time limitation: keep it long enough so technical problems and plug-in problems can't ruin an entire project, but short enough so contestants don't try to do Riven.
- Different contests: Agree with Andy. Keep contests short and centered on a simple concept. Impose size limitations, etc.
- Iron out bugs in the submission process (FTP, ULM, etc)
- Have the public submit votes (a "public choice" category?)
- Keep everything simple, as this is for fun. The amount of work required tends to make some contestants take it a little too seriously. Contestants shouldn't forget that although the devs have made tremendous progress in the last weeks, there is much to learn about Uru yet.

[Aloys]

Contest and fun and all but they're not really contests, if there isn't some form of reward.. Heck, we (RAD judges) even agreed not to announce a real winner. So anything we can do would I like be more a workshop than a contest. And to me that really sound like what we should do..

(But for now I need to proof-read my reviews of the RAD ages and post them..)