Announcement: Be excellent to each other.


Caravel Forum : Caravel Boards : Contests : The Angry Man (Our *real* contest for April '06.)
Page 1 of 3
23
New Topic New Poll Post Reply
Poster Message
ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
icon The Angry Man (0)  
I've been playing around with these abstracted art puzzles for a few months now. I wanted to make a contest based on them, so here is one.

Unlike most of the abstracted art puzzles we've had, this puzzle will not be based on any previously made work. The puzzle depicts a somewhat complicated situation where a man is angry. You must tell me why the Angry Man is angry.

Clues for the puzzle will be gradually revealed in this submission topic. Submission topics, by the way, keep any replies made hidden to everyone except the person who posted the reply and the original creator of the topic. So you can post your guess as a reply to that topic and just you and I will be able to see it.

Rules

1. You can guess as many times as you wish, but only the last guess you make will be evaluated.

2. I strongly recommend that you don't edit any of your guess posts. If you do edit a post, I reserve the right to disqualify the entry--fair or not. Please just make a new post any time you want to correct a guess. Remember, that I will only look at the last guess post you make. If you want to delete old guess posts, that is fine.

3. Don't pose more than one explanation in your guess. Use more general language if you have to. Some examples:

WRONG: The angry man lost a hat or a scarf.
WRONG: The angry man lost a piece of clothing, perhaps a hat or scarf.
RIGHT: The angry man lost a piece of clothing.

WRONG: Either the angry man is angry at his wife or he is pretending to be.
RIGHT: The angry man is expressing anger at his wife.

4. Any questions about the contest should be asked publicly as reply posts to this topic. If I receive any questions privately, I'll just ask you to post them in this topic.

Winning

Sometime soon after the last clue has been given, the winner will be announced. Note that the winner may have supplied a correct guess much earlier, but the contest will continue after that time. I want to extend the drama a little bit, but also someone who posts a correct answer could end up losing if he posts a new answer which is not correct.

The winners are determined this way: from all the entrants who submitted one or more guesses, their latest guess is evaluated. From that group, all entrants who submitted incorrect latest guesses are removed from consideration. From the remaining group, the entrants are ranked by the sequence that their latest guesses were posted. The earliest guess wins first prize--100 rank points and an item of his choosing from the Prize Pile. Runners-up receive 50 and 25 rank points. Rookie bonuses of 10 rank points are given to contest newcomers. Participation credit requires a guess that shows a decent attempt to understand the puzzle. If you spend more than 5 minutes trying to figure out the puzzle, then your guess should be fine.

Strategy

You can guess as many times as you want. It makes sense to guess early, and be prepared to replace your guess with a better one as more information becomes available. It doesn't make sense to post a lot of guesses in case one happens to be right. Remember that only your last guess will be considered. So even if you accidentally hit upon the correct answer in a series of wild guesses, you are likely to replace the correct answer with a later one that is incorrect.

A more useful way to guess is to begin with something general, like for example:

  The Angry Man is angry because he forgot to do something.

...and then as more clues become available, refine your guess:

  The Angry Man is angry because he forgot to pick up a tuxedo.

...and maybe later a clue suggests more specifically why that would make him angry:

  The Angry Man is angry because he forgot to pick up a tuxedo to wear to his wedding.

A difficult problem is knowing when to stop refining guesses. Each time you post a new guess, your official entry time gets set to the time of the new guess. You want your last guess to be both correct and earlier than other people's correct guesses. So when you look at the puzzle, you want to be reasonably sure that your guess is being improved before updating it. How will you know when your guess is specific enough to be correct? Well, here are some clues about what the correct answer must reference:

* An activity the Angry Man himself performs.
* An activity that a different person performs.
* The relation between the two activities.

To give you an idea of complexity, a single sentence like the following could express the correct answer:

   The Angry Man is angry because... (20 more words)


I'm not saying your guess needs to be exactly 26 words. I'm just saying that when I wrote out the answer succinctly, that's how many words I used. You could use a little more a little less, but if you are writing a terse phrase or a verbose paragraph, then you're on the wrong track.

The puzzle is not made of airtight logic that demands a single solution. It requires for you to consider how things often work in the real world by convention and not just necessity. You'll also have to consider that some elements of the puzzle are present to suggest certain facets of the situation, and aren't just coincidental. Finally, not every puzzle clue is important, but most at least serve to establish a setting and define the scope of what will be expressed.

Latecomers, don't sweat it. My feeling is that the first correct answer could be determined anywhere from the second week of April to the time when the last clue is revealed. You can jump into this at any time and still have a chance of winning.

So why is the Angry Man angry?

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)
04-02-2006 at 10:38 PM
View Profile Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
Ezlo
Level: Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 1214
Registered: 01-08-2006
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
So, for an abstract contest, can we give an abstract answer? For instance would, "The man is angry because something happend to make him angry." count?
04-02-2006 at 10:46 PM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Ezlo wrote:
So, for an abstract contest, can we give an abstract answer? For instance would, "The man is angry because something happend to make him angry." count?
That would be a valid guess, but based on what I said in the "Strategy" section above regarding specificness, you shouldn't expect it to win. Also, I wouldn't give participation credit for that kind of answer because it doesn't really show any analysis of the puzzle. Practically speaking, it won't be possible to give a potentially-winning answer until a week or two from now. You guys are gonna need more clues that are revealed in this topic.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)
04-02-2006 at 11:14 PM
View Profile Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Hmm. The second clue should have been revealed by now. It says it will be revealed in "negative 2 minutes". Do other people see the same thing?

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)
04-03-2006 at 12:02 AM
View Profile Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Yeah, I see it too. Perhaps an issue with daylight saving time starting today?

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams
04-03-2006 at 12:03 AM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Good hunch. Maybe the clue will be revealed in an hour.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)
04-03-2006 at 12:05 AM
View Profile Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
silver
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 915
Registered: 01-18-2005
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
The clue is thus revealed, yea (and yeah).

EDIT: my joke submissions done during that hour (which I've now retracted because - why make a joke only Eric can read?):

"The angry man is angry because daylight savings made him spend two hours alone in a picture instead of the one he was expecting."



____________________________
:yinyang

[Last edited by silver at 04-03-2006 05:53 AM]
04-03-2006 at 01:01 AM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
Tahnan
Level: Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2459
Registered: 11-14-2005
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Would it make sense to label the pieces as they appear? By picture three, I've already lost track of which square is the podium and which square is the standing man.
04-03-2006 at 07:36 AM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Show all user's posts High Scores This architect's holds Quote Reply
ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Tahnan wrote:
Would it make sense to label the pieces as they appear? By picture three, I've already lost track of which square is the podium and which square is the standing man.
Sure, but I didn't do that because it would have taken a lot more time to position the text so that all 76 clues are clearly labelled. You may wish to maintain your own working image with extra labels to show where things are.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)
04-03-2006 at 08:17 AM
View Profile Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
Mikko
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 276
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Does the puzzle depict a fictional situation (that might have coincidentally happened in reality) or a specific historical event?
04-03-2006 at 10:18 AM
View Profile Send Email to User Show all user's posts Quote Reply
ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Mikko wrote:
Does the puzzle depict a fictional situation (that might have coincidentally happened in reality) or a specific historical event?
Not saying. I will tell you that the puzzle itself is not based on any preexisting image.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)
04-03-2006 at 04:37 PM
View Profile Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
stigant
Level: Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 1182
Registered: 08-19-2004
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
For the fifth clue, I get "This message will appear in negative xxx minutes"



____________________________
Progress Quest Progress
04-03-2006 at 06:43 PM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Show all user's posts Quote Reply
ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
It's a bug related to daylight savings time. The image will get revealed at an hour past the unhide time.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)
04-03-2006 at 06:51 PM
View Profile Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
27 guesses at time of writing, and it's so early! A lot of people seem serious about winning.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)
04-04-2006 at 06:11 AM
View Profile Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3623
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Well, some of us *think* we have a good idea of the situation... but then some other thing comes up that confuses us. I have an inquiry about the location of one of the clues, but I guess I'll keep it to myself for the time being.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):
Click here to view the secret text

04-04-2006 at 11:54 AM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts High Scores This architect's holds Quote Reply
jbluestein
Level: Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 1670
Registered: 12-23-2005
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Cool contest! I thought I knew what was going on, but...well, the newest clues shed some darkness on the situation.

____________________________
"Rings and knots of joy and grief, all interlaced and locking." --William Buck
04-05-2006 at 06:37 PM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts High Scores This architect's holds Quote Reply
ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (+1)  
jbluestein wrote:
Cool contest! I thought I knew what was going on, but...well, the newest clues shed some darkness on the situation.
Thanks! I had some childish glee watching people go for my red herring. :lol

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)
04-05-2006 at 07:01 PM
View Profile Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3623
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Heh, darn. ;)

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):
Click here to view the secret text

04-05-2006 at 10:31 PM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts High Scores This architect's holds Quote Reply
Banjooie
Level: Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 1645
Registered: 12-12-2004
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what is going on. o_o
04-06-2006 at 09:51 PM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3623
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
I haven't guessed since Clue 8, and my guess is sort-of holding up. I hope I don't have to change it.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):
Click here to view the secret text

04-06-2006 at 10:06 PM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts High Scores This architect's holds Quote Reply
Pinnacle
Level: Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 1126
Registered: 06-10-2004
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Chaco wrote:
I haven't guessed since Clue 8, and my guess is sort-of holding up. I hope I don't have to change it.

As is mine.

____________________________
Once (adv.): Enough.
Twice (adv.): Once too often.
~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
04-07-2006 at 02:26 AM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts High Scores This architect's holds Quote Reply
Bombadil
Level: Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 509
Registered: 06-01-2005
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Cool contest. I have had no time to relax a bit and start watching the images till now.

I think I'll give it a shot if get any ideas of what is going on...

Good luck to everyone!
04-07-2006 at 10:28 AM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Show all user's posts Quote Reply
Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3623
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
I had my doubts when the previous clue was revealed (a window) but this new one... it seals the deal. My new guess is completely different. (and, I hope, correct)

EDIT:

Darn it! Now there's a person where my wall's supposed to be :P

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):
Click here to view the secret text


[Last edited by Chaco at 04-07-2006 10:31 PM]
04-07-2006 at 11:59 AM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts High Scores This architect's holds Quote Reply
techant
Level: Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 854
Registered: 06-08-2004
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Well that last clue made me hungry and confirmed I was on track with what I thought was going on. I hope my answer is not too vague.

Great puzzle keeps me coming back waiting for the next clue to be revealed. :D

____________________________
DROD RPG Released!! You must try it out it is Great!!
Click here to view the secret text


[Last edited by techant at 04-09-2006 01:06 AM]
04-09-2006 at 01:03 AM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts Quote Reply
ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 2794
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
Right now we have about 70 guesses, many of them re-guesses. There have been some joke posts and far-fetched ideas about what is going on in the picture. It does seem like a good approach to make a guess beyond what you know, since the clues may later align with your posted guess, and you'll have hit upon the answer by luck quite early. Many people are sticking with their early guess until it's shown wrong--sensible, I think. Has anyone found the real reason why the Angry Man is angry yet? I can't say, of course.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)
04-09-2006 at 02:01 AM
View Profile Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3623
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
I think that, by now, the setting is definitely clear, but the events taking place still aren't.

____________________________
Quick links to my stuff (in case you forgot where it was):
Click here to view the secret text

04-10-2006 at 08:03 PM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts High Scores This architect's holds Quote Reply
roach strangler
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 57
Registered: 01-07-2006
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
I don't really get what the clues do to help you... :blush
04-11-2006 at 02:57 AM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts This architect's holds Quote Reply
Pinnacle
Level: Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 1126
Registered: 06-10-2004
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
roach strangler wrote:
I don't really get what the clues do to help you... :blush

The puzzle is similar to these.
Each clue is a description of something in the picture.

____________________________
Once (adv.): Enough.
Twice (adv.): Once too often.
~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
04-11-2006 at 03:20 AM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts High Scores This architect's holds Quote Reply
Doom
Level: Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 3226
Registered: 07-05-2004
IP: Logged
icon Re: The Angry Man (0)  
ErikH2000 wrote:
Tahnan wrote:
Would it make sense to label the pieces as they appear? By picture three, I've already lost track of which square is the podium and which square is the standing man.
Sure, but I didn't do that because it would have taken a lot more time to position the text so that all 76 clues are clearly labelled. You may wish to maintain your own working image with extra labels to show where things are.

-Erik
Does anyone happen to have something like this, and would like to share? Last time I checked the clues, they were at like 25 or so. Now I could try to get some sense into the situation, but it's an awfully tedious job to collect all that information first into an understandable format.
04-16-2006 at 09:32 PM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts High Scores This architect's holds Quote Reply
Znirk
Level: Smitemaster
Avatar
Rank Points: 613
Registered: 07-28-2005
IP: Logged

File: angryman_76.jpg (98 KB)
Downloaded 53 times.
License: Other
icon Re: The Angry Man (+6)  
The attached image has everything up to Clue 61 labeled (with numbers only -- refer to the Submission Topic for text).

(Erik, the way I read your comment above you did give permission to modify your Angry Man images; hope you don't mind my posting a modified version.)

[Edit: complete]

[Last edited by Znirk at 04-21-2006 06:29 PM : attachment update]
04-17-2006 at 09:14 PM
View Profile Send Private Message to User Send Email to User Show all user's posts Quote Reply
Page 1 of 3
23
New Topic New Poll Post Reply
Caravel Forum : Caravel Boards : Contests : The Angry Man (Our *real* contest for April '06.)
Surf To:


Forum Rules:
Can I post a new topic? No
Can I reply? No
Can I read? Yes
HTML Enabled? No
UBBC Enabled? Yes
Words Filter Enable? No

Contact Us | CaravelGames.com

Powered by: tForum tForumHacks Edition b0.98.8
Originally created by Toan Huynh (Copyright © 2000)
Enhanced by the tForumHacks team and the Caravel team.