It was cool seeing the people I have been in and out of contact with over the years at Blizzard. Watch the video to find out who won.
Needless to say I was disappointed that none of our games got through, as I really wanted that Video Conference opportunity, but we can only hold on to that hope that everything was meant to be and it will all work out in the end. Congrats to those who won, hopefully there will be more comps in the future.
And no, neither Dryeyece nor I have any time to make games any more, we did our best with what we had but if I learnt one thing through the experience, cherish those around you and don't put too much into a career. Even though I was physically at my wedding, I was working on Tofu up until a minute before I had a shower to get ready and I missed that moment in my life because my mind was too busy chasing a dream, rather than living in the moment.
I was a bit confused however, Star party made first, and I assume ultimate boss battles made second and templar tv made third? It is not explicitly stated anywhere that I can find but the ordering of the images on the page gave the hint at what games made what place. Anyway, it is great to see some people make a bit of cash off their hobby, I do hope that this is not a one time event for blizzard and if or when they do the next competition they will take what they learned from this one and make the next competition better.
I don't know how this happened but for most people playing a game is entertainment that needs to generate some kind of positive emotion like enjoyment. I certainly would never want to sit through a complicated and frustrating to learn and play game. We devs can be too deep in complexity at times XD.
[...]
Designing a good game is challenging because you need to account for human psychology as well. That's partly why so many single player games (vs AI and not just on the sc2 arcade) favour the player so much. Literally, think about how op we are in games where we mow down zombies :P . No one complains about being op or empowered in games. Same with rpgs where we are one or a party that can beat endless amounts of enemies or monsters. If I were the AI I'd think this is extremely unfair :P .
Imo I think good/excellent games are 30-40% the vision of the devs and the rest are basic necessities like good UI, easy to learn or tutorial integrated into gameplay, fun, accessible, good feedback, good info, etc.
I think this needs to be emphasized. From watching the accompanying video and seeing the various games, production/execution was a pretty hefty deal.
And to show our gratitude to the Arcade community for participating, we’ve also made the following portraits available to everyone to commemorate our winners for our first ever “Rock the Cabinet” Arcade contest!
Hey, co-developer of Star Party here. I know the feeling that you have, Dogmai, about not having as much time as you'd like to devote to developing maps. Themusic and I had to cut a lot of features we had planned for the contest release and were spending almost all of our free time trying to perfect the features we could fit in before the deadline. With a full time job and a strained relationship during the contest, personally, it was pretty dang stressful.
Yes, Traysent mentioned that there is the possibility of more contests. He also asked themusic and I for our thoughts on the contest. I would say more, but I'm sure that Blizzard will announce something.
It is a win / win scenario that could be explored. Blizzard calculates that there is a current need in the Arcade for X type of map, for example, out-of-the-box TDs (Not a Standard TD) and creates a contest to foster that idea. This serves two purposes; 1) it fills a current gap in the Arcade, 2) it encourages new games to be created from scratch.
Of course there could always be those that were working on that type of map anyways and the contest came along; so you have a better starting hand. But for most, it would require a new project from off the ground.
Paid contests also help alleviate some of the financial burden from creating projects for the Arcade, and yeah, even though for say 4 months work $3,500 (split first prize) is 25% of minimum wage, if it was done in your spare time it would be a good incentive.
Yeah, I was surprised at how much the hype died down after the top 5 were chosen. I don't think it's because of the games that made it into the top 5, but I think Blizz just took so long to come up with the winners that people kind of forgot. It was an entire two and a half months since the contest ended before the winners were announced, I think that's just too long for those who are out of it to keep interest.
I'm really hoping they host more of these tournaments, you could see how much extra each mapmaker (including myself) put into their projects once the contest was announced and as a result the whole Arcade improved in quality. Themed contests sound like a great idea, too!
I've been advocating for a custom campaign contest...perhaps the winner gets his campaign accepted as canon and is released as a mini-campaign before LotV.
Also, I think pushing the envelope in the campaign maps could pull in other folks from the Arcade side. For example, build a base and kill their base is not an option for your campaign map.
For what it's worth (not much) I had a brief contact with a Blizzard employee who mentioned the possibility of another mapping contest and also dropped an idea of what it might be. But I don't want to say what the idea was because...
I don't know if it was just an idea that he had as an individual or a company idea.
If it IS a company idea I'm not sure I should spill the beans before they announce it.
Yea, I was thinking themed contests would be great too... as long as they're themes I like, haha. Would love to see a campaign theme. Maybe they could even do a LoTV theme and include the first place map in the expansion.
Themed contests seems very meh. If the goal of the contests is to improve the quality and quantity of arcade maps, then themes only serve to hinder that over just having freeform submissions.
Themed contests seems very meh. If the goal of the contests is to improve the quality and quantity of arcade maps, then themes only serve to hinder that over just having freeform submissions.
They would help develop underdeveloped genres on the Arcade and supress everyone just making mini-game themend maps to try to get a win in the contest.
Themes could be something other than genres, though for example, Protoss, Civil War, Fantasy, Randomized (map with randomization elements), etc. It's more likely the next contest will be "Make anything you want!" or "Make a map (at least vaguely) around this genre!", but I'd still like to see themed contests, official or not. :P
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I am kinda surprised as this was posted 16 hours ago and no one has posted it here.
http://us.battle.net/arcade/en/blog/15199276/and-the-cabinet-will-rock-winners-announced-8-14-2014
It was cool seeing the people I have been in and out of contact with over the years at Blizzard. Watch the video to find out who won.
Needless to say I was disappointed that none of our games got through, as I really wanted that Video Conference opportunity, but we can only hold on to that hope that everything was meant to be and it will all work out in the end. Congrats to those who won, hopefully there will be more comps in the future.
And no, neither Dryeyece nor I have any time to make games any more, we did our best with what we had but if I learnt one thing through the experience, cherish those around you and don't put too much into a career. Even though I was physically at my wedding, I was working on Tofu up until a minute before I had a shower to get ready and I missed that moment in my life because my mind was too busy chasing a dream, rather than living in the moment.
wow I completely missed this, Good spotting :D
I was a bit confused however, Star party made first, and I assume ultimate boss battles made second and templar tv made third? It is not explicitly stated anywhere that I can find but the ordering of the images on the page gave the hint at what games made what place. Anyway, it is great to see some people make a bit of cash off their hobby, I do hope that this is not a one time event for blizzard and if or when they do the next competition they will take what they learned from this one and make the next competition better.
I think this needs to be emphasized. From watching the accompanying video and seeing the various games, production/execution was a pretty hefty deal.
HYPE.
That star party portrait really suits my fancy. The contest was already worth it for that alone.
Also, what Tya said.
Hey, co-developer of Star Party here. I know the feeling that you have, Dogmai, about not having as much time as you'd like to devote to developing maps. Themusic and I had to cut a lot of features we had planned for the contest release and were spending almost all of our free time trying to perfect the features we could fit in before the deadline. With a full time job and a strained relationship during the contest, personally, it was pretty dang stressful.
Yes, Traysent mentioned that there is the possibility of more contests. He also asked themusic and I for our thoughts on the contest. I would say more, but I'm sure that Blizzard will announce something.
Themed Contests would be the way to go IMO.
It is a win / win scenario that could be explored. Blizzard calculates that there is a current need in the Arcade for X type of map, for example, out-of-the-box TDs (Not a Standard TD) and creates a contest to foster that idea. This serves two purposes; 1) it fills a current gap in the Arcade, 2) it encourages new games to be created from scratch.
Of course there could always be those that were working on that type of map anyways and the contest came along; so you have a better starting hand. But for most, it would require a new project from off the ground.
Paid contests also help alleviate some of the financial burden from creating projects for the Arcade, and yeah, even though for say 4 months work $3,500 (split first prize) is 25% of minimum wage, if it was done in your spare time it would be a good incentive.
Yeah, I was surprised at how much the hype died down after the top 5 were chosen. I don't think it's because of the games that made it into the top 5, but I think Blizz just took so long to come up with the winners that people kind of forgot. It was an entire two and a half months since the contest ended before the winners were announced, I think that's just too long for those who are out of it to keep interest.
I'm really hoping they host more of these tournaments, you could see how much extra each mapmaker (including myself) put into their projects once the contest was announced and as a result the whole Arcade improved in quality. Themed contests sound like a great idea, too!
Anyway, gg and congrats to the winners!
rut
Love the idea of themed contests! This could really help filling some gaps!
Im wondering how much impact it would have on the number of participants though.
I've been advocating for a custom campaign contest...perhaps the winner gets his campaign accepted as canon and is released as a mini-campaign before LotV.
Also, I think pushing the envelope in the campaign maps could pull in other folks from the Arcade side. For example, build a base and kill their base is not an option for your campaign map.
For what it's worth (not much) I had a brief contact with a Blizzard employee who mentioned the possibility of another mapping contest and also dropped an idea of what it might be. But I don't want to say what the idea was because...
@DogmaiSEA: Go
Yea, I was thinking themed contests would be great too... as long as they're themes I like, haha. Would love to see a campaign theme. Maybe they could even do a LoTV theme and include the first place map in the expansion.
@finiteturtles: Go
You're lucky you're a turtle! :P
Themed contests seems very meh. If the goal of the contests is to improve the quality and quantity of arcade maps, then themes only serve to hinder that over just having freeform submissions.
They would help develop underdeveloped genres on the Arcade and supress everyone just making mini-game themend maps to try to get a win in the contest.
@Crainy: Go
I am afraid a lot of people would simply refrain from participating if they dislike the chosen genre.
Themes could be something other than genres, though for example, Protoss, Civil War, Fantasy, Randomized (map with randomization elements), etc. It's more likely the next contest will be "Make anything you want!" or "Make a map (at least vaguely) around this genre!", but I'd still like to see themed contests, official or not. :P