What do people want for contest levels?

General discussions pertaining to the Armadillo Run Forum Contests should go here. Also contains the classic contest threads.

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Postby Running-Armadillo » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:11 am

I also ehink they should have level of difficulty. Like:

Very Easy.
Easy.
Moderate.
Hard.
Very Hard.

That would be helpful for some new members of the forum I think.
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Postby BFC » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:17 am

B guidelines:

No continuous rubber borders/barriers to minimize flakiness.

No multiple Armadillos until things change engine wise or it's fixed.

No precise timing "required" to finish level.

No custom rules, same set of rules used for all levels thus far.

Test solutions to take no longer than 30-45 seconds to finish level? (this could change)

All I could come up with. This is of course for level creation only. The only rules applied to actually playing a B Type contest level are the same ones we have been playing with.

Feel free to add/remove rules from this list.

edit: Can't really set difficulty levels due to a "easy" level to one person may be incredibly "hard" to another person. Case in point, I find this weeks contest level not hard at all. It's a matter of perspective setting a difficulty level so we can't really do that I don't "think". Perhaps you could argue that point more however.

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Postby dudiobugtron » Thu Jul 27, 2006 6:00 am

kingofthespill wrote:A could be only void levels, too. That would keep things clearly separated.


Void levels are fun to compete in, but designing them is boring :P
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Postby kingofthespill » Thu Jul 27, 2006 8:08 am

I think that is a good B guideline list :) . And I am glad to hear the differing opinions-it's clear that many folks have different views. I still see barriers fundamentally as something I need to go around, making space other than completely free-flow.

The point of level guidelines is to make the contests broadly interesting and not to turn people away. I don't see how guidelines hurt. From the feedback from frustrated people in the past it is clear that not everything works well as a contest level. Levels that exclude people or just weird experimental level creation can be great fun for the designer, but not everyone will enjoy solving those. I think that the custom level forum is the place for that.

Anyone else want specific changes in the A or B guidelines? Speak up! In the future, if multiple people want changes they will be amended.

Lastly, I believe contests have become a forum where folks work on something concurrently without it being downloaded, tweaked, and then re-posted as if the original author never existed.
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Postby ?rjan Flatseth » Thu Jul 27, 2006 12:11 pm

Ehr.. what is A and B guidlines? :oops: - -

Edit:
Sorry, I now saw the "history" of the discussion. Me now understand A and B concept. Ugh. If there are enough players to split it up like that it would be OK, but if not - it will, ehr... be no good.
Last edited by ?rjan Flatseth on Thu Jul 27, 2006 7:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby BioDroid » Thu Jul 27, 2006 4:01 pm

Omg, just use simple void type levels, this discussion is useless.
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Postby dudiobugtron » Thu Jul 27, 2006 11:06 pm

BioDroid wrote:Omg, just use simple void type levels, this discussion is useless.


Ah yes, the perils of decision making by popular opinion :D
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Postby PeterT » Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:28 pm

Oh Noes! I fear we have some design by committee! Time I came back and put the gentle touch of dictatorship on the contest :D

But seriously, I think that the A/B concept is not bad theoretically, but it could fragment the player base too much at this point in time. I'd say we stick to the current format for now, with these simple guidelines (mostly taken from BFCs and kings posts):

Contest level rule proposal:

- Avoid designs that could result in the starting and ending areas effect each other. This means: seperate walls by small free spaces and use rubber walls sparingly - if at all.

- Try to support alternate solutions. Ideally you do not want to know the cheapest solution in advance.

- Remember that a contest level is meant for lots of people to enjoy.

- No multiple Armadillos until things change engine wise or it's fixed.

- Custom rules are OK, but only if the are both very simple to understand and add a factor of enjoyment that would be impossible otherwise. So, "Do not break that piece of cloth" is ok, while "Multiply your score by the length in furlongs of your shortest piece of elastic" is not ;)


Any additions/corrections?
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Postby dudiobugtron » Wed Aug 02, 2006 12:12 am

PeterT wrote:Contest level rule proposal:

- Avoid designs that could result in the starting and ending areas effect each other. This means: seperate walls by small free spaces and use rubber walls sparingly - if at all.

- Try to support alternate solutions. Ideally you do not want to know the cheapest solution in advance.

- Remember that a contest level is meant for lots of people to enjoy.

- No multiple Armadillos until things change engine wise or it's fixed.

- Custom rules are OK, but only if the are both very simple to understand and add a factor of enjoyment that would be impossible otherwise. So, "Do not break that piece of cloth" is ok, while "Multiply your score by the length in furlongs of your shortest piece of elastic" is not ;)


Any additions/corrections?

Alright these seem easy to abide by!
I've got the next contest level ready to send (just need to put the finishing touches on the end movie :D ) once I get home from work, so you can expect them in approx 7-8hours from the time of this post - hope this is OK!

Peter will probably still be asleep at this time anyway! ;)
Where do I send the level?

PS: I think a cool idea for a B-contest would be a set of levels, where the winner is the cheapest overall score! :twisted:
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Postby PeterT » Wed Aug 02, 2006 12:36 am

dudiobugtron wrote:Where do I send the level?

PS: I think a cool idea for a B-contest would be a set of levels, where the winner is the cheapest overall score! :twisted:

Send the level to me at peter@metaclassofnil.com
I will post it as soon as I wake up tomorrow!

I actually had the level set contest idea back around contest 3, but then I was happy with just the very few registered forum members and didn't want to scare them away ;). Perhaps a multiple/hard level contest - in parallel with the traditional one - could be quite successful now.
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Postby kingofthespill » Wed Aug 02, 2006 12:58 am

Sounds great Peter.

I was thinking A (void and minimalist) type levels are faster for most of us, so maybe that would be a short contest happen twice a week and B could go a full week.
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Postby BFC » Wed Aug 02, 2006 5:48 am

Kings latest idea is pretty good too if you want to consider that route Peter.

I'm happy with whatever so it's all good for me. Looking forward to "AR#9" (haha, a song just popped into my head)


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Postby dudiobugtron » Wed Aug 02, 2006 8:00 am

Sorry no armadillo love potion for you this time BFC :D

You'll have to wow us with your 'Legendary' skills instead!! (The contest level has been submitted btw)
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Postby PeterT » Wed Aug 02, 2006 1:44 pm

BFC, I'll have to inform you that due to reasons beyond human control - my laziness - it won't be possible for you to earn a higher rank in the forum. I hope the IMHO very nice medal makes up for it. I'd say that after anyone earns 3 medals of any type they just reach "Legendary" rank.

I will also make a thread that keeps track of all the winners/medals later. Then I can also add my own! ;)

The new level will be posted in a matter of minutes.
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Postby BFC » Thu Aug 03, 2006 5:48 pm

Ah no worries Peter :) I play to have fun and I hope we continue to grow with more new folks participating each week.

Thanks for your efforts!

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