The Fourteenth Annual People's Choice Awards
Welcome to the
Fourteenth Annual People's Choice Awards (also known as
The Deadlies)!
This year a big round of applause needs to go to Insoluble. In addition to being a massive help compiling the entries at the start of this year's Deadlies, he also wrote the majority of what you will see below (with the modification, RPG and Community Collaborator awards being written by myself).
Best Custom Game Element
MG Balls and MG Gates in Beethro's Dream by disoriented
This year Disoriented brought us a refined version of the orbs that proved to be so popular in his previous hold along with some devious puzzles involving them. The colored gates and Balls that let you pass through them have been spiced up with positive and negative versions of each color. You might think that it would all be too much to keep track of, but disoriented scripted a terrific streamlined interface that makes keeping track of your current status a breeze. The resulting puzzles are delightfully tricky and have earned this element the top spot in this year's deadlies.
(Runners up... The girkle gun in
Take 5 by mauvebutterfly and Duplicators in
Take 5 by doom)
Design Excellence in a Modification or Addition
Custom Construct Voice Clips by Jeff_Ray...
Tired of hearing "
Exterminate"
over and over again? Jeff provides 10 new voice clips (plus a new Exterminate) to add some variety to your construct revivials. And only just now I realised this probably should also have been nominated for the voice acting award, whoops!
Technical Design Excellence in Scripting
Beethro's Dream by disoriented
Colored gate mazes aren't the only scripted element in "
Beethro's Dream"
. The hold is a scripting tour de force with each level containing unique scripted elements that transform the game of DROD into something else entirely. The scripted elements are both fun and extremely well polished, earning Beethro's Dream its second Deadly award this year.
(Runner up...
This &
That by Skell)
Technical Design Excellence in Layout and Aesthetics
Trek to "No Air" by Garlonuss
To say that Trek to "
No Air"
does amazing things with custom graphics is a gross understatement. The graphics and animations (yes, animations!) in this hold are professional quality and rival those in the official holds. The cut scene prior to reaching "
No Air"
must be experienced to be believed!
(Runner up...
Island of Adventure by Nuntar and Skell)
Technical Design Excellence in Concept
This & That by Skell
The mere fact that these two separate holds have been counted as one for the Deadlies tells you something special and interesting is going on in "
This"
and "
That"
. Skell has taken meta puzzles to a whole new level for the DROD community. The traditional DROD puzzles in these two holds are fun, but they are only the start of the deep intertwined web of clues and puzzles skell has brought us. The deepest depths of This and That took the whole community to solve and pushed the boundary of what we consider a DROD hold to be.
(Runner up...
Roaches and Walls by Dragon Fogel)
Creative Design Excellence in Storyline
For the Sake of Succulent Burgers by navithmastero
Navithmastero serves up a delightful culinary romp that had me laughing through to the end. The wacky tale has you delving though the Eighth in search of the secret to the titular succulent burgers. The silly but enjoyable story line really adds to the already excellent hold, and make "
Burgers"
a hold that is definitely worth checking out.
(Runners up...
The Adventure of John by Resert On and
Trek to "No Air" by Garlonuss)
Creative Design Excellence in Difficulty
Tarstuff Horticulture Facility by larrymurk
That Larrymurk's newest hold is fiendishly difficult is no surprise to those that know him. But Tarstuff Horticulture Facility manages to achieve the impressive feat of being "
clearly impossible"
in Larrymurkiest of ways while being so enjoyable and fascinating that you just can't put it down. The first level especially will have you looking at tar and mud in ways that you never dreamed possible. While this is truly a mind-bending hold, it's well worth the effort to push through if only to see the ingenious ways in which familiar elements are put to new uses.
(Runner up...
For the Sake of Succulent Burgers by navithmastero)
Creative Design Excellence in Entertainment
Take Five by various architects
Contest compilations don't usually fare too well in the Deadlies. But the architects who participated in this contest brought their A game, resulting in a compilation that's a real pleasure to play through. Most of the entries keep true to the spirit of the contest and hover close to a 5-brain rating, making this a very approachable hold as well. A big congratulations to bomber50, Chaco, disoriented, Lucky Luc, mauvebutterfly, Nuntar, Pekka, and Xindaris for making a thoroughly enjoyable hold!
(Runner up...
Island of Adventure by Nuntar and Skell)
DROD Hold of the Year
Outings with a Delver by ThemsAllTook
It's not often that a début hold manages to showcase such a solid understanding of DROD mechanics while simultaneously exploring new tricks with often overlooked game elements. But ThemsAllTook, well known for his DROD LPs has managed to show that he is just as skillful an architect as he is a player. Each of the levels in "
Outings"
manages to showcase interesting and unique puzzles while also managing to be ridiculously fun. It's also safe to say that this hold contains the definitive "
player role"
level, delving into that game mechanic in ways that have never been done before and sharing the delightful results. This is a must-play hold!
(Runners up...
This &
That by Skell and
Take Five by Insoluble (Collaboration))
DROD RPG Level Set of the Year
Get Your Stuff Back by hyperme
Get Your Stuff Back has the four F's of good RPG gameplay. Fun, Flexibility, Forgiveness, and a Framing story. It's a traditional RPG level set along the lines of the second half of Tendry's Tale, following the story of Hera Win as she gets her stuff back from the nefarious Harold Q. Thievings. It's a lot of fun, give it a go! As hyperme's first solo RPG release, it's left us all waiting for more!
(Runner up...
Rock Island by kieranmillar)
Best Voice Artist in a Distinct Role
Xindaris for the narration in Hold Title Mixup Contest Compilation
This bit of voice acting may have been a silly gag for a contest, but I'll go ahead and say it: Xindaris intoning "
Beethro's Foot!"
in the middle of a room was one of my top DROD moments of the year. I'm still laughing about it all these months later. This award is definitely well deserved.
Novice Architect Award
ThemsAllTook
His début hold demonstrated some serious architectural skills. His follow up with the Mega Micropuzzle$ level in
Blind Race #4 drove the point home: ThemsAllTook is an awesome architect! We definitely look forward to seeing what else he has in store for us as he continues to bring his own brand of creative and thoughtful puzzles to the community.
(Runner up... Dragon Fogel)
Erik Hermansen Award for Lifetime Architectural Achievement
kieranmillar
In the few short years since Kieran published his début hold he has established himself as an architect to reckon with. His holds are creative masterpieces that explore unique ideas in novel ways. From the delightful DRO which imagines the game with only one dimension of movement to the groundbreaking 3 in 1 which redefined how we think of challenges, his holds never fail to be amazing and fun. Congrats Kieran! We're all looking forward to more of your amazing architecture!
Best Community Contributor
Insoluble
We talk a lot about architecture and the architects here at the Deadlies, but behind every great architect are the unsung heroes, the testers. With the help of this squad of volunteer soldiers, willingly playing worse versions of holds to ensure bugs are quashed and rooms are improved, everybody else gets to have a much better time. And when it comes to superstar testers, none are quite as superstar as Insoluble, who dedicates an awful lot of time not only playing and providing high quality feedback, but also helping to organise other testers and ensure that no hold goes forgotten. With Insoluble's help, holds get improved and architects stay motivated, and the community is extremely grateful for all his hard work. And hey, he helps out with other stuff too, you might have noticed this year's Deadlies are in large part his work too! With Insoluble, the Amazing never ends!
Best DROD Video Presentation
ThemsAllTook (a.k.a. Alex Diener)
Two time award winner Alex Diener comes back to take this one for a third year in a row. This year he turned his thoughtful and entertaining commentary to some outstanding user made holds. Bringing us a mix of LPs of both well known favorites and some less well known and newer holds, Alex has done a great job showcasing the variety that DROD has to offer along with the reasoned logical thinking required to maser the game.
(Runner up...
Chaco (a.k.a. Leylite))
Unfortunately that is all for this year. A big congratulations to all this year's winners and runners up. 2018 is already shaping up to be an incredible year for DROD, so next year should continue the trend of being another incredible year for DROD!
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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
The Eleventh Annual People's Choice Awards |
Voting |
Winners
The Twelfth Annual People's Choice Awards |
Voting |
Winners
The Thirteenth Annual People's Choice Awards |
Voting |
Tiebreaker |
Winners
