Q: What is a Smitemaster's Selection?
A: Each year, Caravel releases special Smitemaster's Selection holds. These holds meet a high quality level set by the Caravel team, and the story will adhere to and expand the Eighth canon.
Q: How do I get Smitemaster's Selections?
A: See
http://caravelgames.com for ordering information. You may order them on CD when released and also receive them by download. Also, if you have a CaravelNet membership, then all of the Smitemaster's Selections you have ordered will appear in the "
Change Location"
dialogue inside of DROD for instant in-game download.
Q: Can I make a Smitemaster's Selection?
A: If you've previously published a hold on CaravelNet that received an average rating of 8 or higher after at least 10 votes, then you are eligible to submit a hold for Smitemaster's Selection. These requirements may change over time. You don't need to have purchased a CaravelNet membership or full version of DROD.
Q: But I don't have any holds that are rated high enough, so that leaves me out!
A: The authoring community has evolved to a point where you need a great deal of talent and skill to make holds that receive high ratings. It's rare that somebody can make a high-rated hold on their first attempt. The Caravel Team has a limited amount of time to review holds, so we need some filtering criteria to keep us from being overwhelmed with submissions. We also want to encourage holds to be created outside of Smitemaster's Selection; if all holds were developed privately as submissions, it would stifle creativity. So if you don't yet have that high-rated hold under your belt, you'll be doing everyone a favor by putting some effort into a publicly-released hold.
Q: How do I submit my hold for Smitemaster's Selection?
A: If your hold has been publicly released, we can't use it. So if you intend to submit a hold, don't release it in any public place, including the "
Architecture"
board. Make sure the puzzle-solving and cosmetic aspects of your hold are completely finished and tested before submitting. Story aspects should be minimal or left out entirely--see "
How do I handle story for my submission?"
. All levels and rooms of your hold should be present, solvable, and tuned for difficulty and enjoyability. You should use private testers to get to this state--see "
How do I handle private testing for my submission?"
. When your hold is ready, you can use the "
promote"
button found in the UI of the private beta. If your hold is not on one of the private beta boards, you can e-mail it to one of the hold administrators.
Q: How do I handle story for my submission?
A: The easiest thing is to not include any story at all. We are likely to replace your story with something that fits the overall DROD storyline we're developing. It would be quite reasonable for you to think that you could just ask us ahead of time what that DROD storyline was and work within it. Quite reasonable, but we've tried that, and it tends to waste a lot of time. The one type of story content that you may want to include are events that
affect gameplay. Some examples:
* The player is chased through several rooms.
* The player has to sneak into a complex.
* The player is imprisoned and must escape.
* A friend of the player must be rescued.
Note that I didn't say "
Beethro's brother, Toddthro, has been captured by goblins under the control of the DAA and must be rescued."
Those extra details wouldn't affect the gameplay involved in the rescue attempt, so we don't want them.
After your hold is accepted, there will be opportunities to work together on story, but then again you have to stay flexible and let us direct the story.
Q: How should I write dialogue for characters in my submission?
A: If you are writing dialogue, then it should be minimal and aimed at communicating story events that affect gameplay. I.e. "
Now that I've released you from prison, I need your help in the room east of here,"
but not, "
Toddthro! My long lost brother! What have they been feeding you?"
It's not that it hurts anything to add extra color to the dialogue; it's just that we're likely to rip it out and waste your effort. If we end up keeping the gist of your intended story, there may be some opportunities for you to come back and work on the style of the dialogue, adding jokes, witticisms, and consistent character voices. I just don't advise putting in that effort upfront. Whatever you do, be prepared for all or some of your writing to be changed without warning or consensus. As far as editing goes, there won't be much discussion about changes--the changes will just get made quickly.
Q: Should I include audio recordings in my submission?
A: No, we prefer to manage all the recording ourselves. It's also impractical to work with audio files in a hold file until the written dialogue is finalized. If you want to audition for a part, we can talk about that.
Q: How do I handle private testing for my submission?
A: If you have a CaravelNet membership, you can create a private beta-testing board for your work-in-progress, and invite people of your choosing onto the board to help you. If you don't have a CaravelNet membership, you can coordinate with people through e-mail or private messages. I have to warn you that if your hold is publicly released anywhere, then we probably can't use it. The circumstances won't matter (i.e. you misunderstood the rules or somebody on your testing team leaked the hold without your knowledge) because if the hold has been publicly released it can no longer be a CaravelNet exclusive.
Q: What happens after I submit my hold?
A: The hold administrators will review your hold and decide if it should be nominated. If it is nominated, then people will contact you and ask if you want to do a Smitemaster's Selection. If it is not nominated, you'll just see it appear in the list of published holds. Every hold that meets the objective qualifications for a Smitemaster's Selection will be considered for nomination before being published, even if the author did not specifically ask to have his hold considered. So if you see your hold published, it either means that you didn't meet the objective qualifications or that your hold subjectively didn't seem like a good fit. If you don't want your hold to be published in the event it is not nominated for a Smitemaster's Selection, then be sure to contact one of the hold administrators about it and receive a reply from them that this is understood.
Q: After my hold is accepted, when will it be published?
A: We will typically aim for the next Smitemaster's Selection, but because nobody is making a full-time job of this, we don't want to push deadlines on people. It is possible there are multiple accepted submissions being worked on, and we end up first publishing somebody else's and then waiting a quarter to publish yours. Maybe you really want yours to be published sooner instead of later. The best thing you can do is to be patient and flexible. If you finish the changes we need for release sooner that will help, but there will always be factors outside our control, like the voice actor we need for one part can't record until he gets back from vacation.
Q: What do I get for my Smitemaster's Selection?
A: If your submission is published, you get a number of things. Here is what we currently offer:
- $50 USD
- 100 rank points
- A CD of the Smitemaster's Selection that includes your hold (this will be a nice-looking product with illustrated cover)
- A certificate of appreciation
- A professional reference you could use on resumes and freelance submissions
Some less-tangible benefits include:
- Respect and admiration of your peers
- Your hold will be more impressive with extra art, sound, and writing resources added to it
- Experience working on a software product
- Consideration for inclusion in other Caravel projects, like level design on future releases of DROD
Q: What kinds of holds are you guys looking for? Short or long? Easy or hard? Story-based or puzzle-oriented?
A: This will change as time goes by. Generally, there is room for all types of holds as long as they meet basic requirements. Some submissions may be postponed so that they'll work better for one type of Smitemaster's Selection, i.e. if we have a smaller submission, we may wait to combine it with another hold. Look for descriptions of what is currently wanted in the monthly news posts.
____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
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[Last edited by ErikH2000 at 11-11-2007 11:19 PM]
