[EDIT: Submissions have closed for this contest.]
I realize that this would be an appropriate place for some clever flavor text, in which I detailed a new, hitherto-undiscovered realm of the Eighth which somehow prized the attributes we're hoping to bring forth in this contest.
Let's just pretend I did that and move on, shall we? We have serious matters to discuss.
The Forum needs to revitalize. One of the things that helps keep it alive is the parade of new and interesting contests. It keeps people thinking about DROD, keeps people playing DROD, and also a good contest is lots of fun. So, we're going to have another contest, which I have named: Reflectorations! (OK, well, Reflections was already taken, and Zch and Kallor used the Mirror theme in GJL, so I was out of real words that I could think of to use.)
The rules: Each contest participant will create a small hold, containing at least one but no more than six pairs of puzzle rooms. Each pair of rooms must contain exactly the same working space and elements, but the rooms must differ in orientation -- horizontal reflection, vertical reflection, diagonal reflection, rotation -- you get to choose how you're going to do it. The goal is to present two rooms that are identical save orientation but that present two entirely different solutions.
I will set up a submission topic for this contest sometime in April. The submission topic will remain open until April 16th, after which there will commence a two-week judging period. All holds submitted
must be Anyone-readable -- any holds submitted that aren't won't be eligible.
[EDIT: The submission topic may be found
here.]
Judging criteria: As this is an architecture contest, holds will be judged on quality. This needn't mean difficulty. I would expect an entertaining but easy hold to do better than a boring but incredibly hard hold (but that's personal bias -- everyone is free to vote as they see fit). The main thing people should be looking at is the effect of the differing orientations of the rooms. If two rooms are solvable in the same way regardless of the orientation, this should be ranked lower than two rooms with markedly different solutions.
At the end of the judging period, the architect with the highest-ranked submission will receive 100 rank points and a pick from the prize pile.
The architect with the second highest-ranked submission will receive 50 rank points.
The architect with the third highest-ranked submission will receive 25 rank points.
In addition, any new contest participants (if you have never entered a Forum contest before) will automatically receive a 10 rank point bonus, independent of the outcome of the voting. (This does, however, require a valid submission...)
But wait!!! That's not all!
In the interest of promoting contest participation, I will be personally guaranteeing every architect who submits a valid entry to this contest a bonus of five (5) rank points. It needs to be a legitimate entry, where 'legitimate' means that it should be obvious that you actually put some effort into the submission rather than slapping together two rooms for the purpose of getting five easy rank points. But I don't think anyone would actually do that, would they?
Obvious questions:
Q) Suppose I want to present a single room that I manipulate in more than one way? (Basic room, horizontal reflection, vertical reflection)
A) This is allowed. The primary limitation you should observe is that the entire hold should not consist of more than twelve puzzle rooms -- I want to give everyone enough time to play through all of the contest holds. So if you want to do three quads instead of six pairs, that's fine as well.
Q) I don't think I really understand the premise of this contest.
A) Take a look at Jacob's
Reflections hold, and also at the level Rorrim Rorrim in Zch & Kallor's
Gigantic Jewel Lost hold.
Q) What about movement order? Do reflected rooms have to preserve movement order of monsters/characters/mimics?
A) Absolutely. If your priority 1 creature is in a particular square in a given room, then the reflection of that room needs to have the priority 1 creature in the analogous space. If you have a room and its reflection, then you should be able to (theoretically) reflect the original room along its axis (or rotate it, or whatever) and generate what is PRECISELY its reflection/rotation.
Obviously, screen dimension issues mean you can't just rotate any room 90 degrees and have something that fits, but the space in which the puzzle exists is what we're really concerned about here. Common sense rules should apply, and if you have a question, ask!
Q) Is this a DROD or DROD: RPG contest?
A) This is a DROD contest. Contest entries must be playable in the latest released version of DROD: TCB and should be judged in that context.
I think that about covers it.
Ready? Set? Pause! Reflect!
____________________________
"
Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking."
--William Buck
[Last edited by jbluestein at 04-17-2010 09:52 AM]
And I like that it is all the various reflection possibilities.
Wow. Guess I inferred too much based on the contest name. I need to be more careful.
