Community Contests & Events

[ShinGamix 1]

I notice that a lot of these are out of date or no longer even done? What can we do to help get these started back? As an example Project of the Month was last done in Aug 2011>?!

 

I see all the contests but I never see that anyone actually won any of them. Even the riddle topic didn't have the answers for it even though it was a year ago?

Edited September 13, 2012 by Marked

[Wyzrd 12]

Maybe find someone willing to run them again? I would be willing to enter into contests to help get the site active again.

[Arkbennett 16]

Project of the Month sounds TOO demanding, can't make a project every month. We should do Project of the Quarter/Season. At the beginning of every 3rd month, people get 2 weeks to make a project based on the criteria of the contest holder.

[rgangsta 43]

Sounds good. Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas are coming up. We can have some themes for those. I vote Halloween.

[Marked 197]

The contests forum is admittedly messy, the topics need to be archived. I also just noticed the dead "Project of the Month" forum.

 

The thing about contests are that you need members to get involved and right now there's not enough to hold major contests, certainly not any contest that involves a project being made.

 

I'm going to start doing Motm again since Pol isn't really around anymore (or is he? haven't seen much of him).

 

As activity increases then that opens up the opportunity for more contests, but until then there's not much point apart from small contests that don't require much dedication. Perhaps we could do a few mapping contests?

 

We had a contest coordinator lined up but that didn't work out. It's really challenging right now, I've got a million ideas but with uni and work it would take a million years to finish. It would be great to find someone passionate about the site who would organize contents. We have plans for prizes (eg a one month subscription which unlock a bunch of features) when GDU is expanded, and we could also be using facebook/twitter things to attract people and announcement winners/prizes, etc. Just plans for the future when the community grows.

[madanchi 18]

I think mapping contests would ease things to begin with, as Marked stated there's not much of us at the moment for majour comps. But the problem I always have when I want to host a competition, is the prizes... I never know what to give as a reward and this might possibly be the same issue for other members.

[Polraudio 122]

I completely forgot about MOTM to be honest. Im still here and will never go away. I missed 1 month of it due to work and forgot about it ever since. I need some way to send me a reminder PM or something every month on the 14th.

 

That would be a good idea for a feature. Custom member reminders. It would be personal and no one can see what other members have in their reminders. I bet other memebers have lots on there plate and would love to be reminded to finish a script or resource for someone.

[Marked 197]

But the problem I always have when I want to host a competition, is the prizes... I never know what to give as a reward and this might possibly be the same issue for other members.

Yeah at the moment we don't have the functionality to offer much in the way of prizes. The idea for the future is either a temporary subscription (ie for just a month, depending on how major the contest was), or points (or gems or crystals) which would be used to "purchase" actual features like unlocking customizations or a certain amount of impressions of advertising space for you stuff. Imagine this: you have a game in our projects section and you have a button in your own control panel that states (promote your game) and allows you to have your own banner in the allocated space to get you game more hits.

 

In the meantime, people have entered these things for bragging rights. What if we created a special usergroup for contest winners so everyone can see they've won. That might be an incentive? I was also thinking of having a contest hall of fame thing where we display all of our Motm winners and we could be GDU organized event winners in there too. Their name would be there forever, perhaps another incentive.

I completely forgot about MOTM to be honest. Im still here and will never go away. I missed 1 month of it due to work and forgot about it ever since. I need some way to send me a reminder PM or something every month on the 14th.

 

That would be a good idea for a feature. Custom member reminders. It would be personal and no one can see what other members have in their reminders. I bet other memebers have lots on there plate and would love to be reminded to finish a script or resource for someone.

I like that idea :) Well if you miss it then I can start the topics myself.

[Arkbennett 16]

I love the Project Advertisement space idea Marked, sounds awesome.

 

Definitely a Hall of Fame idea would be awesome. Instead of a usergroup, can you make Accolades or Badges show up in a users profile? One of them could be like, "Current X Contest Winner Champion" and we could have set contests that happen annually or seasonally.

[Marked 197]

Instead of a usergroup, can you make Accolades or Badges show up in a users profile? One of them could be like, "Current X Contest Winner Champion" and we could have set contests that happen annually or seasonally.

Well, that is also a planned feature, but for the new gdu profiles, which sadly arn't ready. The usergroup thing is a quick short-term solution and in terms of short-term fixes that will just be deleted anyway, the usergroup is definitely seen more (since this is all about participation incentives) and much easier to do. But I could probably find a mod that puts the awards on profiles. Just so long as I don't get caught up in a half a day's coding :P

[AgentPaper 1]

I'd love to enter a mapping contest. I don't think I'd win, but it'd be a good way to practice, get feedback, and see what other people are doing that I can borrow from.

[Marked 197]

I think we'll have a mapping contest up sometime during the weekend.

 

But there's one thing I've been pondering: mapping contests in the past have included rules like both RMXP and RMVX are allowed. Personally I think that's silly, I think mapping contests should be on even terms: same types of tiles.

 

I'm thinking about holding an RMVX Ace contest, even though very few users here actually use it. I would include a download link to the trial of vx ace. Thoughts? Just go get people using different engines. Perhaps a dual contest: xp maps will judged only against XP maps and similarly to VX. I really think that's needed to preserve the integrity of a "contest".

 

Also, (i need to amend the mission statement) a goal of GDU is to promote game making engines and get people using them. That's one of the fundamental goals. Our strength is RMXP but that's not what we're solely about anymore.

[Wyzrd 12]

I'm with the badges and accolades idea on profile and the hall of fame would be awesome too. Wouldn't mind seeing that. I always see entering contest just as bragging rights or just for the competitive nature. I don't feel there should have to be some other prize.

 

Well if you start a mapping contest this weekend I will enter even though I'm not the best mapper but I wanna help anyway possible.

 

Also, I agree Mark the engine needs to be limited. I don't think it's fair to pit 2 different ones against each other.

[Arkbennett 16]

Well, if you are aimed more at bragging rights. I'm sure you can make some type of icon pop up around a posters avatar to indicate s/he won a contest recently.

 

I'm down with doing an XP Mapping Contest.. Hopefully Lizzie might participate as well. I'm calling you out, bring it! >=)

[Wyzrd 12]

Lizzie's computer dead.