GodlyPerfection
07-30-2009, 06:55 AM
So, some of you may know of my Blog site AZN Theory (http://azntheory.wordpress.com) where I cover
Forging Theories - like spawn placement, path manipulation, design approaches, and other level design theories that I have
Forge Contracts - maps made on Sketchup for others to build then I proceed with working with them to do spawn placement and weapon placement and minor details to serve as a teaching session for level design
Now I wanted to host a little competition over there to give the site a little bit more attention as I push out more forging theories and contracts. I have had this idea for a competition for a while now and offered it as a suggestion as a competition here.
The competition is called "Quick Forge". The objective is that you have a given time limit to create a map, spawns/weapons/EVERYTHING. This time limit could range from 1 hour to several hours and could have certain restrictions on the map (canvas, location, gametype, etc.) And people would vote on which they enjoyed playing the best.
So what are the advantages/disadvantages to this competition:
Requires less time out of your standard forge time than most competitions in game as it has to be done in a time limit and not over the course of several weeks like most competitions. So it would be easier to find the time to compete.
Requires planning out your map. Jumping into forge and building for an hour or so isn't going to get you anywhere in this competition. To achieve maximum potential you have to plan out the map in some way either in your head, on paper, or on sketchup.
Reduces the focus on Aesthetics greatly. This has a two-fold effect. The first is that this shows who can use gameplay to win over attention rather than aesthetics that you spent weeks on. So these maps may be sloppy, but they could play loads better than most maps that you have played with great aesthetics... in theory.
The second effect with reduced focus on Aesthetics is the vote. When votes go up for feature or anything like that people like to vote based on looks. This will reduce the chance that happens because maps will not be uberly beautiful so it encourages playing them instead.
It will hone your planning skills and your speed forging. You will learn cool tricks and shortcuts when trying to participate in these challenges.
It disables the use of Save and Quit techniques since all of the map has to be built in one film. Saving and quiting would split up the forging of the map into different films. You will have to eliminate this technique from your toolbox.
You will not be able to interlock too much. There are only 32 rounds before the game ends... (if you restart round too many times - over 31 - then it will automatically end the game. You will have to do multiple interlocks and geomerges in one round (if you even have time to do either... lol)
For submission all it requires is the film clip to show you building the map in the alloted time, (to make sure it's the same as the final version) and the map that you are submitting.
So what do you guys think? Would you participate in a competition like this? What kind of things would you suggest to make the competition better? I want to make this a regular thing at AZN Theory so your feedback will be great. Also I could get with the winners and we could build a full tweaked forge contract out of the winning map based on the path map and other defining features of the winning map (Path Manipulation (http://azntheory.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/path-manipulation/) is a defining feature in most maps; Main Paths (http://azntheory.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/main-paths/) and Divergent Paths (http://azntheory.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/divergent-paths/) are important in having an identity)
Oh and also, if Null doesn't mind I would like to host the voting here if the Wordpress blog doesn't allow me to setup a poll in a post... lol.
Forging Theories - like spawn placement, path manipulation, design approaches, and other level design theories that I have
Forge Contracts - maps made on Sketchup for others to build then I proceed with working with them to do spawn placement and weapon placement and minor details to serve as a teaching session for level design
Now I wanted to host a little competition over there to give the site a little bit more attention as I push out more forging theories and contracts. I have had this idea for a competition for a while now and offered it as a suggestion as a competition here.
The competition is called "Quick Forge". The objective is that you have a given time limit to create a map, spawns/weapons/EVERYTHING. This time limit could range from 1 hour to several hours and could have certain restrictions on the map (canvas, location, gametype, etc.) And people would vote on which they enjoyed playing the best.
So what are the advantages/disadvantages to this competition:
Requires less time out of your standard forge time than most competitions in game as it has to be done in a time limit and not over the course of several weeks like most competitions. So it would be easier to find the time to compete.
Requires planning out your map. Jumping into forge and building for an hour or so isn't going to get you anywhere in this competition. To achieve maximum potential you have to plan out the map in some way either in your head, on paper, or on sketchup.
Reduces the focus on Aesthetics greatly. This has a two-fold effect. The first is that this shows who can use gameplay to win over attention rather than aesthetics that you spent weeks on. So these maps may be sloppy, but they could play loads better than most maps that you have played with great aesthetics... in theory.
The second effect with reduced focus on Aesthetics is the vote. When votes go up for feature or anything like that people like to vote based on looks. This will reduce the chance that happens because maps will not be uberly beautiful so it encourages playing them instead.
It will hone your planning skills and your speed forging. You will learn cool tricks and shortcuts when trying to participate in these challenges.
It disables the use of Save and Quit techniques since all of the map has to be built in one film. Saving and quiting would split up the forging of the map into different films. You will have to eliminate this technique from your toolbox.
You will not be able to interlock too much. There are only 32 rounds before the game ends... (if you restart round too many times - over 31 - then it will automatically end the game. You will have to do multiple interlocks and geomerges in one round (if you even have time to do either... lol)
For submission all it requires is the film clip to show you building the map in the alloted time, (to make sure it's the same as the final version) and the map that you are submitting.
So what do you guys think? Would you participate in a competition like this? What kind of things would you suggest to make the competition better? I want to make this a regular thing at AZN Theory so your feedback will be great. Also I could get with the winners and we could build a full tweaked forge contract out of the winning map based on the path map and other defining features of the winning map (Path Manipulation (http://azntheory.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/path-manipulation/) is a defining feature in most maps; Main Paths (http://azntheory.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/main-paths/) and Divergent Paths (http://azntheory.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/divergent-paths/) are important in having an identity)
Oh and also, if Null doesn't mind I would like to host the voting here if the Wordpress blog doesn't allow me to setup a poll in a post... lol.