Anyone who's looked me up on the highscore table will know that I'm not a hardcore DROD player. I like the puzzles, sure, but it's only rarely that I like to knuckle down and step through hundreds of possibilities and trial-and-error my way to the end of the room. No, for me the enjoyment of looking at a puzzle and intuiting the solution, trying to work out where the solution lies, working out the steps involved. I like my puzzle solving like I like my pasta, in bite-sized chunks with meaty goodness wrapped inside. And that's what this contest is all about.
This Is What We'll Do
For this contest, I want you to make a DROD hold that can be completed in one hour or less.
The Rules
1. To enter, post between one and three holds to
this topic before:
Local Time:10-23-2006 at 01:00 AM
2. If you submit more than three, only the first three will be counted. You can edit your post(s) to change your entry (or entries), or you can post new versions and delete the posts containing the old ones, up until the closing time.
3. Any DROD element is fair game, including characters and spiders. Keep in mind that your hold should be able to be finished by a not-very-good-player in an hour, so think carefully before you put those guards in.
4. When the deadline has passed, I'll lock the submision thread, and all entries in it at that point will be considered.
5. Entries will be voted on and judged in the usual way (out of ten in a gigantic poll). Voters will be asked to vote on simply how 'fun' your hold is. Players can only vote on their experience in the
first hour of play. If you have this really clever puzzle that no-one manages to solve in an hour, people have to vote on the hour they spent banging against it and not the feeling of satisfaction they get when they crack it.
6. Your hold can be as long or as short as you like. You probably don't want to put content in the hold that players aren't ever going to see, however you can (and probably should) put in content that some players may want to see while others may not.
7. Any materials that aren't included with the game must be completely your own work, or you must be able to prove to me that you have permission. (Getting the permission-holder to PM or
e-mail me is okay. You'll need to remove the spam from that e-mail address.)
8. We might compile the best ones into a 'Lunchbreak Special' hold, especially if they're only a few rooms. Please mention in your entry post if you're happy for your hold to be used in this way.
The Sweet Smell of Success
After everyone's voted, each entry will have an average score. The author of the highest scoring entry will win
one hundred rank points and
a copy of DROD: The City Beneath an item of their choice from the
Prize Pile. The second and third placers will win 50 and 25 rank points, respectively.
You can only win one prize, no matter how many entries you have. If you get first place, you can't win third as well - the third prize will go to the fourth-best entry.
Also, everyone who participates in this contest as their first will receive 10 rank points. Contests are fun! Really!
Thoughts
If you were really keen on winning this one, you might want to go back and have a look at what sorts of rooms people complain about. For instance, making a giant labyrinth is not the best way to endear your hold to people.
It's been remarked on in the past that it's a lot easier to make a hold that's terribly hard than it is to make one that's easy but interesting. Making a hold that's hard will ensure that you'll get a couple of really high votes and a bunch of really low ones because people simply aren't able to finish it in the hour.
It's easy to drop a whole bunch of monsters in a room, but that's not all that satisfying. It's not so tough to make a tricky trial-and-error room, but it might take the player too long. The best way to make a room that's satisfying but can still be solved is to give it a lynchpin - something you can do to the puzzle that makes the rest of the steps you need to take to solve it obvious. A good example of a lynchpin is the Master Intellect Room on level
7 of King Dugan's - the lynchpin, for those that have played it, is what you do with the queen. Once you work that out, the rest of the room isn't that hard.
Adding characters, story and context is a good way to make the hold 'more fun' without slowing the player down.
So, that's the contest. Who's going to step up and give us some DROD ravioli?
____________________________
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×Lost.
[Last edited by Mattcrampy at 10-11-2006 09:28 AM]
