RESULTS ARE IN
Results are in, and heres my thoughts. For most part it went about as I expected, and I am basically happy for the end result. Of course it had been nice to be number 1, but I figured fight would be between me, Shine On and Radiant Evil, where any of us three could win, and if you look at results, it was quite tight competition'
rank of games I almost agree with, in my mind, situation was that there were three groups.
First was me, Shine On, Radiant Evil, and these could end up in any order.
Second was Widget World alone, which would become fourth
And then there was this third group that I felt all were too incomplete, being Super Christian, #TheApostle and Dry Place, and their placing would be in this same order.
However, Super Christian did better than i expected, and surprisingly well in some categories, like being number 3 on best representation of biblical truths. But, I guess that had more to do with low scoring on most entries in this category rather than people actually thinking it was that good a presentation. Another thing I was amazed was winning the best stability. Either others didnt encounter any stability issues or they thought it different than me, for after all, I got stuck to a building for good, and it wasnt that rare to be more or less stuck on buildings or your main character jumping bit unctorollably when getting into rough. So I didnt expect this high stability rating for this, although all in all, it wasnt that bad either. Also, Best fun in playing Super Christian getting 3.5 average score is pretty surprising, especially when considering I gave only 2, making other two giving him either 3 and 5, or both 4s. That is surprising when considering how incomplete the game is and therefore game just ending up in collecting 50 bibles which I personally didnt find very fun due to repetitive nature. This game sure had potential to become a 5 star game. Had it been more complete, It might well have ended being fun enough that I would have given it 5 stars myself too, for sure thing is, it did have that potential, which is proven even more by others giving it already in its current state this high a rating, but in its current state it wasnt very good in my opinion. But that jumping and climbing on buildings, it was very fun concept indeed, but strange is if that alone was enough for people to rate it so high, truly surprises me.
Widget Worlds graphics I was expecting a bit better end result, for after all, they were only hand drawn graphics. I myself gave it only 3 stars, since they werent very good this time, usually Scott42 does better graphics, but they were still fine. When pretty much all other games were using ready graphics, it was sad to see widget world performing so bad compared to these becoming only number 4.
But then again, if we take for example before mentioned Super Christian, yes, it is using ready graphics I suppose, but then again, he is putting them in very nice use. Same with Shine On, they mentioned they put placeholder graphics and they stayed until the end, but then again, all that extra animation they have is part of graphics. So maybe Widget World is exactly where it should be.
#TheApostle becoming number 2 in Christian Teaching category was very much a surprise too, but maybe this was again due to low points in general in this category, for basically I think he had a great way there coming on showing christian teaching, but due to incompleteness, it didnt come out yet. I would say that this was probably second or third best idea in whole competition (with Radiant Evil being first and then Shine On either second or third), but in its current form the idea didnt come out.
Radiant Evil getting over 4 seems that at least someone didnt either feel there was lack of presenting one of the competition verses, or didnt punish him from it. Personally I thought Radiant Evil was otherwise worth 5 stars, but since I felt he failed on presenting one of the competition verses properly, I felt he had to be punished 1 star away. Basically I felt bit sad doing that, since it absolutely deserved the 5 stars, but then again, if we let people freely make their game without using the verses, then that makes the competition unfair, so therefore from having a glued on top feeling on compeition verse, I decided it had to reflect on the rating. But anyway, Radiant Evil well deserved its first spot on christian teaching, such a brilliant way of showing it.
ABOUT MY OWN RESULTS
Mainly I am happy about the end result. Especially since at point I submitted the game, I was expecting lower end result for my entry, but basically my better end result is for a sad reason, because this years entries in my opinion werent as good this year as they usually have been. You can see this for example from that there was not a single complete seeming game, but they all seemed like they ran out of time. In previous years there is usually at least one small actually complete game that didnt run out of time but aimed at small, and then there are couple of games that while they ran out of time, they still feel complete. Closest to this complete feeling got Shine On, but even it shows some signs of running out of time.
Anyway, While I am basically happy for the results, of course I am sad about some issues, which have nothing to do with voters, but with the product itself.
Christian Teaching #5 - 2.33
For example, ending at spot number 5 on christian teaching was a bummer, but nothing unexpected however. I was afraid this would happen that people wouldnt get the message. This had in great part to do with the video not ending up as I planned. And dont get me wrong, I am very happy for the video, but it does have one problem, it doesnt quite convey the message I was after. I could have told the video guy to change it a bit to get the message out better, but then again, I wanted to give the video guy some freedom too and let him get his vision of the video out. And while that Video is great in my opinion, the message doesnt come out very well, which probably resulted in the christian message rating, since ultimately, if you didnt get the beginning, you wouldnt get the end either.
For basically I was interpreting the verse. Interpretation was that it is talking of Robots attacking Jerusalem, that those robots are what will later become these like mighty men that will be Attacking against Jerusalem.
And then I did a small twist to the end of game. While you think this game is about that single bible verse, I actually added another verse to the game too, which wouldnt be reelased until you first complete the game. For game is giving dark vision of Robots attacking Jerusalem and killing all the people they can, but as the game is only AI simulations, and in the end you click the "Execute Plan" button, which is the point when all those things from before become real, then at that point comes the message which tells that what ever was written beforfe, including these Joel verses, were written for our learning, so that by reading scriptures patiently, we could both have comfort as well as hope, since we notice that despite all these Robots attacking, God takes care of us, and in the end, all will be good. So dont worry, be happy, despite them developing these horse looking robots for US army right now.
Either people didnt think this was clever thing at all, or as I think, they probably didnt understand it since presentation failed to present it, which is unfortunate, since had they got it, I guess I could have ended maybe number 3 in that category.
Best Build (most stable) - #3 - 3.667
This was category I was most afraid with other category that had to do with this stability. In the end, it seems people didnt really encounter the unstability issues that I was afraid they might. This might be due to lack of voters actually. Had there been more voters, perhaps more had encountered stability issues, but now with just three ratings, maybe I was just lucky with them all.
Best Original Concept (New Ideas) #1 - 5.0
This category I just clearly dont get. Last year I made a game I thought would have ended up first or second in that category, and I dont get why lst years first one was ranked first when I didnt feel it was very original.
This year, I am getting full 5. I just dont get it. I didnt think this was that original. 4 I would understand, since there are new ideas and concepts, but in the end, I didnt think this was so original. But if people think this is worth 5, well, Im not complaining. I just dont get it.
Best Graphics (preference given to hand drawn graphics) - #4 - 2.666
This was one that I was wondering how would I end up in this. And while I am quite happy for the ranking of number #4, I am at same time slightly unhappy for the 2.666 only. But then again, It does make sense, mostly.
For basically I was wondering what would people think about just using rectangles basically, but then again, it was supposed to be a radar picture, so they were somewhat suitable. But then again, Those command buttons I never had time to enchance them in any way , so they are quite ugly. In addition to that, the information given about levels contain extra information that dont have any relevance, making it bit messy, and text arent that good looking either, basically put once in place "temporarily" and there they stayed like they were with only very little change, didnt even look for some special font to use for them, so indeed, it is bit ugly.
But then again, I think graphics were clear and they did do good job in bringing out the feeling I meant. And takin from google maps those places and then recoloring them to more radar looking way, I think it worked quite nice in the end.
On top of that, when considering hand drawn graphics should be valued more than the rest, I thought this could have done better, when almost all were using ready graphics. Sure, I was also taking from google maps, but that is still somewhat making the graphics yourself, especially when I recolored them, so at least I made graphics myself, hence was hoping bit higher. I was afraid people might not like them much, especially thanks to confusion in command buttons, text etc. But then again, I was hoping the Robot video at beginning would look so good that even if they would think my graphics are worth even just 2 (i was hoping them think 3 or even 4 if lucky), they would think video worth 5 and make the end graphics 3 or 4 stars, as in giving one more star on top of in game graphics. But seems video didnt persuade people enough to give better graphics, nor did they value "hand drawn" graphics or the general concept at all. But, still ending number #4 is not bad at all.
Best Fun Game #1 - 3.666
This I am very happy, since along with stability, this was an issue I was very much afraid how it would end. Basically I believe the game concept was fun, but there were so many issues that could have hindered this.
First of course the stability, if game had kept crashing, people wouldnt have felt very fun playing it.
Levels was another thing I was worried. I had made first two levels by purpose very easy, so that people could try out them pretty much any way they want and still get through them (although strangely,#TheApostle maker reported he had difficulty passing them, so obviously they werent that easy then). Idea was that 3rd level would be first level that you would actually need to actually concentrate and have some idea to get through. Although in third level there was this idea still, that as long as you are willing to sacrifice some robots, it would be easy to pass, but that means less robots in future levels left.
When in the end I practically had only levels 1 and 2 as time ran out and 3, 4, and 5 were giving that bug problem with slower machines, I was worried that it wouldnt be fun playing just levels 1 and 2, them being too easy.
Also, Im not sure, but might be that you can never get to play levels 4 and 5 properly, since it might be I am having bug with those Coders, that it puts one too less a coderf in a level, than you have to kill to pass it, making it impossible to ever complete even level 3 and therefore got proper amount of robots to level 4 and 5, so you might be stuck with only 10 robots on levels 4 and 5.
Then I was also afraid of the general confusion since I didnt have time and strengh left to think and make proper instructions. It had helped a lot had I after level 2 just displayed a message "Due to bug with slower machines, levels 3,4 and 5 plus game complete are now all open. Feel fre to try levels 3 - 5, but you can also just complete the game by clicking execute plan". THat had helped a lot with confusion I believe, since I was very much afraid people would wonder what happened, why are all these places open, and then they click "execute plan" and suddenly its all over. What happened? Hu?
This was one of my biggest fears that people would punish me from that, as there was no explanation why that happened. But if they did, then either game was really so much fun it still did fine, or they didnt punish me. Either way, I am happy.
My placing #3 - 3.389
Sure I was hoping for higher spot, but I knew it would be tough fight between top 3. Each had their strong points and failings. Radiant Evil had been a clear winner, had he been able to polish all the bugs and small things out, which really affected the game a lot. Shine On on the other hand was very much in shape and felt mostly complete and professional, however, while the concept was very interesting, it didnt have much replayability value in the end, or to put it otherwords, it didnt work out as fun is it seemed. On top of that, they had made it too difficult and some things that would tell what was happening (and to be able to figure out why) were missing.
My problem was the general confusion, bad bugs, having failed making levels 3-5 with no time to fix them properly or even test them, lack of features like save game (took me maybe 15 minutes to implement when i did afterwards making me feel very unhappy not giving a thought to it during competition time), overall, while it was strong in many ways, there was lots of shortcomings still in the game at time i submitted it. Basically one more day of time, and I might have won the whole competition.
Anyway, I am happy for this years result, While it could have won, it on the other hand could have went much much worse due to all the problems I still had in that game. So not bad at all ending #3.