The Spirit Of Disaster (Competition 2012)
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:24 pm
Welcome to the official competition discussion thread! If you haven't been following this event, all authors have been given the same set of resources and the same prompt, and gone on to write their own stories based on those restrictions.
At the moment, we have 29 separate stories available for reading, all in the same 'game'. You can download this at:
http://www.hanakogames.com/test/AdversityComp-all.zip - Latest Update October 13 2:15 PM PST
(This is a combined Windows/Mac/Linux build. If you downloaded the preview build earlier, please re-download as there have been important changes!)
When you launch the game, it will randomly arrange the titles selected for you. Stories you haven't read yet are in white text with a star, stories you have launched at least one are darkened. If for whatever reason the display order is a problem for you (bad luck causing all the long titles to clump together) you can get a new list by deleting your persistent data.
The discussion period is expected to take about a month, but I may extend it if either there hasn't been enough discussion or people are clearly still going strong with their debating. When the discussion closes, anyone who has taken part in the discussion can cast a vote for the winner by PMing me with their ranked top three choices.
I don't want to lay down strict rules for what constitutes "taking part in the discussion" as that tempts people to game the system. As a general guideline, though, you should have played at LEAST ten of the games, posted some reviews, compared some games to each other, and replied to other people's posts.
While discussing the games, please try to keep track of which story you're talking about (posting the name in bold will help) and try to avoid spoiler tags as much as possible. As long as you clearly mark what game you're talking about people can skip past it if they haven't played it yet and don't want to see the comments.
Some things to consider when reviewing entries: (You don't need to use these exact questions, these are just some starting points to ensure you cover multiple aspects of an entry.)
How well is the story fleshed out? Do you have a clear sense of the setting and characters? How was that accomplished? (Specifics are good here!)
What sticks in your mind? What affects your emotions? Why and how?
How does the technical presentation (code, music, transition effects, layout, so on) affect your experience of the story? For instance, slow text at dramatic points - effective? annoying?
How well does the author make use of the limitations they were presented with in this competition - the prompt, the limited resources, etc?
What similarities and differences do you see between entries?
Please be as specific as possible when making comments. Use screenshots and/or exact quotes to make your points when needed. Saying "this is great" or "this sucks" is not useful - explain why it works or why it's terrible.
Also feel free to ask for help with individual entries and finding all the endings! (If authors contact me with walkthroughs or requests for fixes, I will update things as we go. Please do contact me privately if you discover problems with your entry!)
At the moment, we have 29 separate stories available for reading, all in the same 'game'. You can download this at:
http://www.hanakogames.com/test/AdversityComp-all.zip - Latest Update October 13 2:15 PM PST
(This is a combined Windows/Mac/Linux build. If you downloaded the preview build earlier, please re-download as there have been important changes!)
When you launch the game, it will randomly arrange the titles selected for you. Stories you haven't read yet are in white text with a star, stories you have launched at least one are darkened. If for whatever reason the display order is a problem for you (bad luck causing all the long titles to clump together) you can get a new list by deleting your persistent data.
The discussion period is expected to take about a month, but I may extend it if either there hasn't been enough discussion or people are clearly still going strong with their debating. When the discussion closes, anyone who has taken part in the discussion can cast a vote for the winner by PMing me with their ranked top three choices.
I don't want to lay down strict rules for what constitutes "taking part in the discussion" as that tempts people to game the system. As a general guideline, though, you should have played at LEAST ten of the games, posted some reviews, compared some games to each other, and replied to other people's posts.
While discussing the games, please try to keep track of which story you're talking about (posting the name in bold will help) and try to avoid spoiler tags as much as possible. As long as you clearly mark what game you're talking about people can skip past it if they haven't played it yet and don't want to see the comments.
Some things to consider when reviewing entries: (You don't need to use these exact questions, these are just some starting points to ensure you cover multiple aspects of an entry.)
How well is the story fleshed out? Do you have a clear sense of the setting and characters? How was that accomplished? (Specifics are good here!)
What sticks in your mind? What affects your emotions? Why and how?
How does the technical presentation (code, music, transition effects, layout, so on) affect your experience of the story? For instance, slow text at dramatic points - effective? annoying?
How well does the author make use of the limitations they were presented with in this competition - the prompt, the limited resources, etc?
What similarities and differences do you see between entries?
Please be as specific as possible when making comments. Use screenshots and/or exact quotes to make your points when needed. Saying "this is great" or "this sucks" is not useful - explain why it works or why it's terrible.
Also feel free to ask for help with individual entries and finding all the endings! (If authors contact me with walkthroughs or requests for fixes, I will update things as we go. Please do contact me privately if you discover problems with your entry!)