No, this isn't September's official contest, but it has become a welcome staple of the DROD community. With that spirit, put on your best dress attire, and let's take a more detailed look into this ceremony. For past winners and a brief history of the award show in general, be sure to read
The History of the People's Choice Hold Awards.
2006 has been a relatively slow year in comparison to 2005. TCB is still in progress, and is seemingly going to be released sometime in the first quarter of 2007. The Smitemaster's Selections keep on coming, with the summer one shortly on the way. But all in all, a bit uneventful in the way of commercial sucess.
But that doesn't stop the community from slowing down at all. We have had a number of new architects come out, and we've had veteran architects continue to create outstanding holds. I've only played a small fraction of the holds, but I'm been blown away at what some people have managed to do. I only wish I had such talents...
I also want to emphasise that this award show isn't about popularity or the awards, it's about acknowledging all the people who keep this community alive and to bring awareness to all of the amazing creations that are out there. Just because your hold doesn't win an award or get nominated, it doesn't mean that no one enjoyed it. As far as I'm concerned, if only one person enjoyed your hold, than all of the hassle that you went through was justified and well worth it. Be proud of your creations!
Now then, let's move onto the aspects of this show, shall we?
The Main Section:
The steak and potatoes of the award show are the awards themselves. Once I finish posting this topic, I'll be creating a separate submission topic allowing people to make their nominations. They will be accepted until
Local Time:10-01-2006 at 12:59 AM. You are able to edit/delete/modify your submissions until that date, but all entries created or edited after that date will not be accepted. C'mon, you'll have a month! You should be able to make up your mind before then!
Categories open for nomination this year (Note: Published holds constitute any hold published to the Holds board from December 11th, 2005 to September 28th, 2006):
1. Most Promising Hold
This category is open to any hold made in any version that has been in a public beta test for at maximum of two hundred (200) days. You are looking for a hold that, while still a work in progress, shows promise in puzzle design, storyline, concept, and/or aesthetic design
2. Storyline Excellence
This category is open to any published hold that shows an excellent and engrossing storyline through detailed character development, careful planning of an indepth plot, and an interesting style. These holds are the ones that give you incentive to solve the current room just to find out what will happen next.
3. Technical Design Excellence for Scripting
This category is open to any published hold that exhibits both innovative and unexpected uses for scripting, whether they affect the storyline or actual gameplay. A hold like this doesn't just use previous scripting techniques, it
creates them.
4. Technical Design Excellence for Layout and Aesthetics
This category is open to any published hold that is both visually appealing and/or uses a clever and unexpected layout. A hold like this would have a very accessible layout, and would look visually pleasing, possibly in an attempt to create a distinct environment outside of the typical dungeon. Custom floor designs in a hold fall under this category.
5. Technical Design Excellence for Concept
This category is open to any hold that uses DROD's engine in ways never imagined before. This can be done via interesting puzzles, or an interesting way to tie in normal puzzles. Holds that are nominated for this category are the only kind out there like it.
6. Creative Design for Difficulty
This category is open to any published hold that manages to create puzzles that are diffucult and require new ways of thinking without being tedious. These holds push your mental limit to the edge, while still managing to maintain an element of fun.
7. Creative Design for Entertainment
This category is open to any published hold that you feel was the most fun to play. A hold eligible for this category would be of medium to low difficulty range, and while it wasn't overly difficult, was entertaining enough to make you want to complete it.
8. Graphics Design Excellence for a Modification
This category is open to any modification made for any version of DROD that looks the most professional and the most useable. This can be in the form of either clock, generaltiles, or styletiles availible freely on the forum. Any custom floors included in a hold are to be nominated for the fourth category.
9. Best Actor/Actress in a Leading Role
The category is open to any voice acting in any hold that sounds the most professional and entertaining. When nominating an actor or actress, please nominate both the hold, and the character that the person played.
10. Novice Architect Excellence
This category is open to any architect who's first
publically released hold, either still in progress
or released in the last year, showed promise in design of puzzles and other architecting skills. This person can not have released a published hold by the time of nomination close. The hold may be either privately tested or publically tested, but the name of the hold must also be included with the nomination.
11. Lifetime Architectural Achievement Award
This category is in special recognition of architects who have dedicated years to this game. Specific criteria will be released below.
12. Hold of the Year
This category is open to any published hold that combines both difficulty, creativity of puzzles, professionalism, concept, entertainment, and story into a hold that you feel shows exactly the kind of quality we should expect from holds. This hold is the best that we have seen in the past year, and would be the one hold that you would want to show future generations to show how talented builders from this time period can be.
The Lifetime Architectural Achievement Award
This one's going to be handled a bit differently. I had to bump the requirements up a bit so that the emphasis on "
Lifetime"
was kept. So, when nominating a person for this hold, keep in mind all of these points:
1) The authour's first hold must have been published before October 15th, 2004. In other words, they've been around since the first award show.
2) This authour must have created and published at least two holds, both of which have been rated higher than 7.
3) The authour must be in good standing with the community. (
I know that everyone fits this category, but I figured that it's a nice way to round the number of point to three.)
The other stipulation of this category is that you must nominate a person for this category before
Local Time:09-15-2006 at 12:59 AM. Why? Well, if I'm gonna prepare a tribute for this person, I'm gonna need some time to make it grand, dang it!
The Pre-Show Festivities
I also want this ceremony to be a time of reflecting on all of the good times that we've had both in the past year, and throughout your entire time playing DROD. Have a special memory of DROD that you'd like to share? Well, be sure to share it with us! Remember the first user made hold you'd ever played? Remind us of it! Have any funny or memorable converations from the forums? Tell us of them! Everyone, whether they want to admit it or not, have some kind of great memories of DROD that they won't forget.
I'm officially out of writing ideas, so start scoping out the list of holds and getting your nominations ready! You have a bit less than a month, so time shouldn't be a factor at all. Have fun!
-Patrick Fisher
____________________________
--That guy with a million different aliases since he doesn't like this name anymore.
[Last edited by gamer_extreme_101 at 09-04-2006 05:14 PM : Revised Category 10]
