Use this thread to critique the March 2006 showdown entries, as shown here:
http://www.bgdf.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=31634
And yes, there are only 2 entries this month. Apparently I broke the showdown!
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
Thu, 03/23/2006 - 14:56
Thu, 03/23/2006 - 15:12
#1
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
doho broke the showdown! doho broke the showdown! la-la la-la-la!!
What's more amusing is that both entries are really actually the same game :-)
Thu, 03/23/2006 - 16:30
#2
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
Ah Dang - If I'd a known that - I'd have typed up my half-baked idea. I could at least have gotten a third place ribbon...
Thu, 03/23/2006 - 19:30
#3
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
Scurra wrote:
doho broke the showdown! doho broke the showdown! la-la la-la-la!!
Hey, he beat you, and he didn't even need the help of your hacker friends. ;-)
Scurra wrote:
What's more amusing is that both entries are really actually the same game :-)
In previous, more normal GDS editions, we have witnessed the presence of two similar entries (I remember the Academia one, in which I voted for two games that where quite similar to mine), but this edition sets a new record. Both games involve hex-based boards, lighthouses and boats trying to avoid the rocks in a stormy sea!
It's a bit sad, though, that there are just two entries. That complicates the voting, specially to the entrants that are forced to vote for their only rival entry, whether they like it or not. :-/ Though it would be strange that one doesn't like the other entry, given the similarities.
Maybe we could extend the deadline a few more days, if there are a few people with game ideas that weren't able to finish their entries? What happend to the regulars? Yogurt anounced his deflection in advance, and Kreitler seems to be missing lately. Doho managing the contest robbed us one more player. What about the others?
Seo
Thu, 03/23/2006 - 20:16
#4
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
seo wrote:
What happend to the regulars? Yogurt anounced his deflection in advance, and Kreitler seems to be missing lately. Doho managing the contest robbed us one more player. What about the others?
I'm not a "regular," just someone who wishes he was. Every month I check out the showdown; but some months it's not my cup of tea, and some months I'm too busy, and some months I try hard and get nowhere. (*sigh*) This month it was kind of all three.
Honest, I haven't lost interest! I'll keep trying, really I will!
Thu, 03/23/2006 - 20:45
#5
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
Strange, with 2 people not playing any more or not much and doho hosting we still should have had about 6 regulars plus any new people.
I really wanted to enter. I have 1/2 an idea but no time to finish it. I definitly will try in the future as often as I can.
This month was hard but I think it was celver and interesting. I think we should just let DOHO do another one soon if not next month.
- Dwight
Thu, 03/23/2006 - 21:02
#6
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
seo wrote:
What happend to the regulars? Yogurt anounced his deflection in advance, and Kreitler seems to be missing lately. Doho managing the contest robbed us one more player. What about the others?
Seo
I apologize for going AWOL the past two months. I should have voted even if I didn't enter. Unfortunately, we shipped a game at work this month, which meant a lot of overtime for everyone since about mid February to now.
I admit, though, that these last two contests were a bit too esoteric for me. This isn't a bad thing, but when schedules get tight I need a lot of time to think about potential designs. The difficulty of the restrictions and my work schedule kept me out of the loop.
I hope to be back next month.
K.
Thu, 03/23/2006 - 21:53
#7
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
Xaqery wrote:
This month was hard but I think it was celver and interesting. I think we should just let DOHO do another one soon if not next month.
I agree on both points. This challenge, as I already said to Doho in a PM, was the hardest ever, IMHO, but that same dificulty made it very interesting. But it might also have meant a few potential contestans giving up this month.
And I'm sure I'll enjoy another Doho-driven GDS. :-)
Seo
Fri, 03/24/2006 - 01:04
#9
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
I don't know if this helps or not, but if the contest deadline get extended or started over somehow, I'll definately enter. There was only about a day from the time I discovered the contest until the deadline. Given the (in my opinion hard, but very interesting) limitations, I didn't think that I could "throw" something together in that short a time and post it. The "dark" concept could be applied easy enough to an abstract game (glowing pieces and all that), but how you include controling the weather as well? I just couldn't get my head around it, as hard as I tried.
However, I am really glad to have found this forum and the monthly design challenge. In college, my graphic design ideas really flourished, thanks to the limitations of the assignments I was given. But once in the "real world" where you could do basically anything you wanted, my ideas went nowhere. Why? Because with NO limitations ideas go everywhere at once, and the net result is that you get NOWHERE. This contest does the same thing for me. I would NEVER in a million years thought up the dark & stormy limitations.
So whatever the result of this months contest, you'll see me entering ones in the near future. I can't promise that the entries will be good, but that's another story.
Fri, 03/24/2006 - 11:07
#10
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
I didn't enter this challenge because it was too much of a challenge for me to come up with a game that fit the requirements in my spare time. The weather restriction could have been handled, but the darkness requirement threw me for a loop. I figured I'd sit this one out and see what everyone else came up with.
Fri, 03/24/2006 - 11:54
#11
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
Quote:
I'm not a "regular," just someone who wishes he was. Every month I check out the showdown; but some months it's not my cup of tea, and some months I'm too busy, and some months I try hard and get nowhere.
This is pretty much me too (I've only actually ever entered the Showdown once, now that I think back), except that "too busy" is often the main reason. I love the spirit and constrained creativity of the GDS though, and will try to be more active in the future. Every month I check out the Showdown and every month I have ideas and think... okay, here's some good directions, I'll put something together later... and then before you know it I've missed the deadline. Next month I'll jump on it right away and hopefully get something in.
~Josh
PS - Part of the problem, actually seems to be that I get an idea inspired by the Showdown criteria, and then decide to push it further than a Showdown entry need be... I have more than one project on the burners that started as a GDS entry and never got submitted. Is it creatively selfish of me to start working on something for the GDS, realize "woops, this is pretty damn good, I think I'll develop it further", and back down from that month's competition? ..... ?
Fri, 03/24/2006 - 13:15
#12
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
OutsideLime wrote:
Goodness no, that's kind of the point of the exercise. The word-limit constraint was partly to try and invite more sketchily-designed ideas to be submitted (although I always seem to fail on that part and try to cram the whole ruleset in!) I have subsequently worked on at least three of my previous GDS entries although usually to satisfy myself that they were as broken as I thought they were, or taking various bits of them and going in different directions (the Ice Skating judges game is being used elsewhere now, although obviously the stacking dice bit isn't!)Is it creatively selfish of me to start working on something for the GDS, realize "woops, this is pretty damn good, I think I'll develop it further", and back down from that month's competition? ..... ?
And ISTR that at least of couple of the entries from the first contest eventually got submitted to Hippodice last year.
Fri, 03/24/2006 - 14:01
#13
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
I thought Doho's challenge was provoking and original, and I hope he'll do another challenge, even if it deprives us of a designer.
I decided to slip away from the competition before I read the current challenge, so my lack of entry wasn't a vote against this month's challenge.
Looking forward to reading our two "Birdhouse in your Soul" entries.
Yogurt
Sun, 03/26/2006 - 01:29
#14
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
I fell into the too busy category. Is the starting date of the challenge the same each month? I don't check the BGDF every day, and often notice the challenge just before the deadline to turn in entries. It would help if I was able to schedule the challenge into my calendar.
Sun, 03/26/2006 - 08:09
#15
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
The challenge is usually posted the second thursday of the month, with one week for submission of entries and then one week for judging the entries and voting. Depending on each month's challenge director's schedule, sometimes this might vary a few days.
Seo
Sun, 03/26/2006 - 12:12
#16
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
I looked over both of the entries. Both, if I may say, use the light/dark element very well. And, although both have there similarties, they have a fair amount of differences. The major one is that while Divers Alarums is played in both light and dark conditions, Turbulent Waters is always played in the dark.
Quote:
I'm not a "regular," just someone who wishes he was. Every month I check out the showdown; but some months it's not my cup of tea, and some months I'm too busy, and some months I try hard and get nowhere.
I also fall into the "too busy" category. Like most, it just seems hard to fit game designing into my everyday life. That shouldn't be my excuse though. I should really try to enter a Showdown one time. Just to get the creative juices flowing. Who knows, maybe I'll come up with something good!
By the way, I'm actually going to vote this time around. So as always, good luck!
Justin
Mon, 03/27/2006 - 12:20
#17
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
I have decided to not accept votes from the creators of the two game this month. Since, obviously, there's a slight problem with the required voting mechanisms, and they have both made some comment about it (not complaining, mind you, but more of the awkwardness of the situation). So, I have decided that the fairest way to do this is just to dis-allow their votes in this case.
I hope that everyone feels that this is the best way to handle these circumstances.
Thu, 03/30/2006 - 07:08
#18
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
I entered for the first time last month (Feb). I have been too busy this month to enter, although I did give it some thought for a night or two. It could be that the GDS is just at low tide right now. I'm sure I'll enter again soon, but in the mean time I will try to vote either way.
Also, I think that it is reasonable to excuse the entrants from voting. It is hard enough for non-entrants to decide between the only two entries.
Thu, 03/30/2006 - 16:22
#19
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
Thank you to everyone who voted: I was genuinely surprised to see that we did end up so close together. I have to confess that, had I not been one of the entrants, I would have voted for the other game since it had clearly actually been thought-through! I also assumed that I'd given myself away with the stupidly obscure pun title...
I wasn't hugely surprised to see that we'd both taken a similar approach, but I spent too much time trying to figure out how to do a weather changing thing that would still work in the dark. The result was that I ended up skimping on the game write-up. although I think there's a workable game in there somewhere.
But the Lighthouse still seems like a cool concept (various people have suggested ways it could be utilised better) and the Weatherbox™ still makes me smile just thinking about it.
See you all again next month.
Thu, 03/30/2006 - 17:23
#20
Critique the 2006 March Showdown Entries
Congratulations to David, a really worthy rival. I think your only mistake was to make fun out od Doho braking the GDS. I'm sure hte result was originally a tie, but he touched up the votes to punish you. ;-)
Seriously speaking, I really liked your game, and while it's true that mine was thought about a lot, I would had given you extra points for the clever use of the lighthouse.
In short, even though there were just two entries, I'll cherish this victory a lot, given how hard the requirements were. And I'll try to keep the streak going next month! ;-)
Seo
Man, and I thought I picked an easy set of limitations (only 2!); granted I think they are both fairly unique with few precedents to build on, thereby probably making it harder than normal. Obviously, there are a lot more examples of "pick up and deliver" than "in the dark" to look for inspiration.
And yes, voting between two entries while not pointless, does cause some issues.
I have no problem waiting a few extra days if people want that. However, it does seem somewhat unfair to those who thought they were entering a full slate AND didn't have hindsight of the now published game ideas.
I don't mind "breaking" the GDS again. Next month I'll be quite busy and I wouldn't be able to do it April. I could set up a new one for Monday quickly enough (I discarded enough ideas before I went to Dark and Stormy), if enough people wanted to do it. Voting for these two games could still go on.
However, I can't promise those who come in and decide if the want to do it based on the premise if they want to do it or not, that it won't be sort of esoteric. I think that part of the GDS is to challenge people a little bit, and have them be surprised with what they can come up with given a weird set of limitations. If I were to do this, the challenge I'm thinking of would only have a single limitation. But it wouldn't be from your standard list of the"advanced search" options on BoardGameGeek, and not a theme limitation either.
And, well, I can't help the people who don't have the time to participate. But if I could...!
So, discuss, and let your voice be known!