The Eleventh Annual People's Choice Awards
Welcome to the
Eleventh Annual People's Choice Awards (also known as
The Deadlies)!
2014 has been a particularly spectacular year for DROD. After significant amounts of blood, sweat, tears, and leaf juice, 2014 saw the release of DROD 5.0, The Second Sky! The largest and most ambitious official release to date, The Second Sky also brought with it a number of improvements and additions to the world of user-made DROD architecture. Despite only being released halfway through the year, the release of The Second Sky has seen a resurgence of content creation from the community, with 19 DROD holds and 4 RPG holds published in 2014, the latter of which is a new record! The Deadlies are the annual community awards to honour the community's efforts to keep the game going strong eleven years on.
What follows owes a great deal to gamer_extreme_101, RoboBob3000, CuriousShyRabbit, Trickster and RabidChild, all of whom put on this awards show in past years and helped to define the rules and categories.
This year brings with it some slight changes to the awards format. Gone are the Most Promising Hold and Most Promising RPG Level Set awards, and new to the ceremony is the Community Contributor Award which celebrates the unsung heroes of the community who improve it in ways that are not always purely architectural.
Before the voting stage begins, this thread is for nominations. Some award categories have a particularly large number of candidates available and so nominations will take place to reduce the number of candidates down to a more manageable level for the purposes of voting. After this stage is completed, the remaining candidates will enter a poll where you will all be able to vote for the winners!
The 14 award categories for the Eleventh Annual People's Choice Awards are:
1. Best Custom Game Element
DROD Script has continued to improve with each release of the DROD engine, and it has become flexible enough to allow innovative architects to create their own custom monsters, custom protagonists, or other custom elements. This award is for the best custom game element released in 2014. The game element should work predictably (and without errors), it should be interesting, and it should be showcased in excellent puzzles. Previous years have awarded the hold itself, but this year due to the number of custom elements produced we will be asking players to vote on their favourite single element.
The nominations stage will not be taking place for this category as voting will include every eligible element.
2. Design Excellence in a Modification or Addition
This award is for a modification to, or utility for, DROD or DROD RPG. It can be a whole new room style, a clock, or a “cheat” like transparent tar. It can be a modification for any DROD engine, or anything that works specifically in conjunction with DROD, like a separate program to organize DROD data. The most professional-looking and useful modification or utility wins this award.
Due to a lack of any modifications that were finalised during 2014, this award will not be taking place this year.
3. Technical Design Excellence in Scripting
This award is for a published hold where innovative and original scripting is a prominent feature. In contrast to the best custom game element award, where a constant script is used throughout a hold, this award is for a hold where different scripts are used in different rooms or levels, and these need not include custom characters or game elements. Scripting may be used for puzzle and/or storyline purposes.
4. Technical Design Excellence in Layout and Aesthetics
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this award is for a published hold that has a beautiful design. The rooms and levels must be attractive, and they must work together as a whole in an interesting way. Players can't just rush through this hold; they feel somehow compelled to stop and just admire the beautiful rooms and levels. Custom artwork is not a requirement to be eligible for this award.
5. Technical Design Excellence in Concept
This award is for a published hold that is the first (or only one) of its kind. It features unique puzzles that fit together in an equally innovative way. This hold is a leader, where others are followers. A player's reaction is, "
I wish I had been the one to think of this!"
6. Creative Design Excellence in Storyline
This award is for a published hold that has a detailed and engaging storyline. Characters are well-developed. The player is motivated to solve puzzles just to find out what happens next.
7. Creative Design Excellence in Difficulty
This award is for a published hold that is difficult, yet still fun. Solving these puzzles requires the player to think in new ways. While many players give up on other difficult holds, they persevere and struggle through this one, because it’s just such an amazing hold. Only holds or level sets with an average vote of 7 or more "
brains"
(at the time of this posting) are eligible for this award.
8. Creative Design Excellence in Entertainment
This award is for a published hold of easy to medium difficulty that is the most fun to play. Playing through this hold is the perfect way to relax on a Sunday afternoon. Only holds or level sets with an average vote of 6.5 or fewer "
brains"
(at the time of this posting) are eligible for this award.
9. DROD Hold of the Year
This award is for the best DROD hold published in 2014. This beautifully polished and balanced hold features an excellent overall concept, creative and fun puzzles with just the right level of challenge, great level design, an engaging story, and perhaps just the right extra goodies (such as custom artwork or voice acting) to set it apart from the rest. If only one of this year’s holds could be preserved for future generations of DRODers to enjoy, this would be it.
The nominations stage will not be taking place for this category as voting will include every eligible hold.
10. DROD RPG Level Set of the Year
This award is for the best DROD RPG level set published in 2014. This terrific level set is fun to explore, aesthetically pleasing, and the player encounters a variety of unique and interesting challenges. If you could take only one RPG level set to play and play again while stranded on a desert island, this would be it.
The nominations stage will not be taking place for this category as voting will include every eligible hold.
11. Best Voice Artist in a Distinct Role
This award is for excellent voice artistry in a published DROD or DROD RPG hold. Good voice artistry sounds professional and adds another dimension to the character being played. When nominating an artist, please specify both the hold or level set, and the specific role played (each role is a separate nomination).
12. Novice Architect Award
This is the Rookie of the Year award for architects. This award is for an architect whose first stand-alone hold or level set was published in 2014. Excellent puzzles, well-designed levels, and possibly other architectural virtues such as well executed scripting, engaging storyline, and/or beautiful custom artwork show promise of great things to come from this architect.
The nominations stage will not be taking place for this category as voting will include every eligible architect.
13. Erik Hermansen Award for Lifetime Architectural Achievement
This award is for architects who have been creating great holds for years. To create one good hold requires creativity and skill. But to keep on creating good holds, year after year, requires special dedication and inspiration, well worthy of an award. This award is so prestigious, it can only be won once in a lifetime. Previous winners of the Erik Hermansen Award are:
*Doom (2006)
*LarryMurk (2007)
*Jacob (2008)
*BoyBlue (2009)
*Rheb (2010)
*Chaco (2011)
*Dischorran (2012)
*mxvladi (2013)
Architects who have not previously won this award, published their first stand-alone (non-compilation) hold or level set in 2012 or earlier, have published at least one stand-alone hold or level set in 2014, and have created at least four stand-alone holds or level sets with an average vote of 7.0 or higher "
fun"
(at the time of this posting) are eligible for this award.
The nominations stage will not be taking place for this category as voting will include every eligible architect.
14. Best Community Contributor
The DROD community receives a number of excellent contributions from the community that are not necessarily directly related to architecture. This award is here to celebrate and honour those who make the DROD community a better place in their own ways. This award is entirely nomination driven and members are eligible for any reason provided somebody else nominates them.
The rules for nominations will be in the following post:
Links
History of the People's Choice Awards
The First Annual People's Choice Awards |
Voting |
Tiebreaker
The Second Annual People’s Choice Awards |
Voting
The Third Annual People’s Choice Awards |
Voting |
Final Round |
Tiebreaker
The Fourth Annual People’s Choice Awards |
Voting |
Tiebreaker |
Winners
The Fifth Annual People's Choice Awards |
Voting |
Tiebreaker |
Winners
The Sixth Annual People's Choice Awards |
Voting |
Tiebreaker |
Winners
The Seventh Annual People's Choice Awards |
Voting |
Winners
The Eighth Annual People's Choice Awards |
Voting |
Winners
The Ninth Annual People's Choice Awards |
Voting |
Winners
The Tenth Annual People's Choice Awards |
Voting |
Winners
[Last edited by kieranmillar at 04-04-2015 06:23 PM]
Yes, even the Best RPG level set award. 
