[CANCELLED] WA3 Editor Weekly Challenge Project

[Pawelec]

Project cancelled due to lack of interest.
What you read is left for other users as an example how NOT to host a competition.

There are a few reasons to set this project up. First of all, WA CC seems a quite interesting idea, but it has never got as much attention as we could expect. After my attempts to make a hub before WA3 Editor, I can also say it is much easier for a developer to make a short adventure based on one idea than a long adventure which keeps the player interested. Besides, I think I'm much better with level integration an decorating than with puzzle making, so I'd like to accompany those with good levels rather than with my self-made crap. Finally, I know that there are many great designers around and I'd also like to see if an idea of community-made hub is possible to realise.

So, welcome to...
WA3 Editor Weekly Challenge Project!

The main idea is that the designers get points for completing challenges, which are of course adventures to be made. Every week a new challenge appears and you have 2 weeks to complete it. There will be specified scoring method for each challenge and anyone who completes at least one challenge will appear on the scorelist. After a challenge period ends, the scores for that challenge are published. The best entries, called Creator's Picks, will be added to the hub which the Project Creator (me this time, the winner of this edition will choose the next Project Creator) makes after reaching the number of 50 Creator's Picks (adventures are used with full credits of course), while all the entries which don't make it to the final version will be published together with the scores.

Rules:
1. Weekly Challenge Project (WCP) entries have to be send to me via PM as a packed .zip archive, containing everything needed to play and modify an adventure.
2. By participating in WCP you agree your adventures to be modified by me for hub-suiting reasons if they become Creator's Picks. No adventures which are not chosen Creator's Picks will be modified.
3. Every week one challenge is opened. It's closed after 2 weeks and a day or two after it's closed the resluts are published and the scorelist is updated.
4. You may get the full score in every challenge only once. If you send multiple entries for one challenge, only the best one is given points.
5. You cannot decide to participate in a challenge that was closed.
6. Your adventures must meet the weekly challenge's criteria. If they don't they will get no points.
7. You must work on your entries alone. You can however ask other users about Editor functions.
8. There's no 'Eyecandy', 'Appearance' or any scoring category like that. Please don't use decorative objects in your levels, as this makes the decorating them while making a hub harder.
9. Use of custom stuff is (textures, models, icons, music) is forbidden.
10. In your entries, exploiting any game bugs should be avoided. If the jury finds them annoying in your entry that entry may not get any points.
11. You mustn't introduce new NPC characters in your entries.
12. You mustn't use model nor logic swapping, movement changing commands or any other stuff which makes the level derivated from base PotZ gameplay. If you think your idea for such modification is great, you can PM me and we'll see how to treat it.
13. Any rude, provocative or other improper behaviour may result in your disqualification. Please be aware of that!
14. If you have any questions about the project, please PM me. I'll try to reply as quick as possible.
15. The current project edition is meant to be closed after reaching the magic number of 50 Creator's Picks. After that I'll let the highscore table leader (considered a winner of 1st edition of WCP from then on) choose next Project Creator, who'll take care of the next WCP edition. Of course the winning person can choose themself.
16. All the rules stated above can be changed by Project Creator at any time. However, they shouldn't be changed without serious reason to prevent the project going unstable.

How is your entry scored?
Every entry is given points in following categories:
Gameplay: 30 p
This is for general playability of your adventure, it just says if it is fun to play.
Creativity & Invention: 6 p
Interesting use of elements, clever contraptions - they are all welcome! Combine those with Bonus Quests and you'll be the master.
Complexity: 8 p
Minimalistic adventures won't get many point here (although if the idea is clever and needs not many elements it will get high score here), so won't overcrowded ones. Just try to keep things nicely balanced.

You can also get additional points:
- Creator's Pick bonus: 10 p
- Bonus Quest completion: 2p (Easy), 5p (Medium), 8p (Hard).

How to prepare an entry?
As the use of custom stuff is not allowed, just send me a .wa3 of your adventure. Make sure your adventure is solvable with a Gold status!

Well, we'll begin with a series of 3 Get all Gems challenges:
Weekly Challenge #1: Crimson Gems!
Cancelled
Make an adventure which has Get all Gems set as a goal, using 1 wlv not bigger than 60x60. You must use at least 1 Floing charger.
Allowed Elements:
Tile Logics: everything except lava.
Boxes: none.
Bridges: all Bridges, Conveyors, FlipBridges, Transporters, Springs.
Buttons: every visible button.
Gates: AutoDoors and ColourBlock.
Items: red gems, coins, keys.
Magic: normal or faint Floing chargers.
Monsters: FireFlowers (no IceFlowers!), Chompers, Water Chompers.
NPC: BabyBoomer, WeeStinker.
Outdoor: Tentacle.
Teleports: ColourTeleporter.
Bonus Quests:
Magic of the Forest (Easy: +2p): use only objects from Items, Magic, Monsters, NPC, Outdoor and Teleports categories.
Little Helpers (Medium: +5p): from Monsters, NPC and Outdoor categories, use exactly 2 WeeStinkers, 4 FireFlowers, 3 Chompers (normal or Water ones) and 5 Tentacles. No FlipBridges, colour changing buttons nor Teleporters allowed.
Engineer (Hard: +8p): use no objects from Monsters, NPC nor Outdoor categories.

19th Mar: As I supposed, due to lack of interest the Project is cancelled.

[Jutomi]

Oh, my!
Two contests!

I hope I can add a basic offering to at least one(hopefully both) of these.

[samuelthx]

Oh, my!
Two contests!

I hope I can add a basic offering to at least one(hopefully both) of these.

Lol I think you already have, with your last two adventures

[samuelthx]

10. In your entries, exploiting any game bugs should be avoided. If I find them annoying in your entry prepare yourself for a serious point penalty.

For clarity's sake could you specify the game bugs you are referring to? The scope is rather broad here. I don't consider the Spring Exploit, or the Flying Blink trick game bugs, for example. I do consider Quick Brr a bug though, and I will not use that glitch unless explicitly stated (such as in Garden Problems). However, monsters such as Chompers and Spikeyballs often perform that trick, so if the level requires them to use Quick Brr I wouldn't consider it a bug.

[Jutomi]

So, let me see if this right...

these are the maximum numbers to use, and you can use as many less as you want as long as the puzzle's interesting?

Because, I think I'd have a harder time using more than less, in all honesty.

[Pawelec]

10. In your entries, exploiting any game bugs should be avoided. If I find them annoying in your entry prepare yourself for a serious point penalty.

For clarity's sake could you specify the game bugs you are referring to? The scope is rather broad here. I don't consider the Spring Exploit, or the Flying Blink trick game bugs, for example. I do consider Quick Brr a bug though, and I will not use that glitch unless explicitly stated (such as in Garden Problems). However, monsters such as Chompers and Spikeyballs often perform that trick, so if the level requires them to use Quick Brr I wouldn't consider it a bug.

Well, given the fact there are many those in the engine, the list would be rather hard to make. I'll have to think a bit longer about that.

So, let me see if this right...

these are the maximum numbers to use, and you can use as many less as you want as long as the puzzle's interesting?

Because, I think I'd have a harder time using more than less, in all honesty. Razz

The main idea is to have quite many elements available to the makers to get nice entries. To avoid the levels being overcrowded with things there's EP. You can score quite many points in Element Usage - that's to motivate users to make smaller adventures. Personally I find using all the elements from the list impossible. However, the gain in Element Usage is limited to prevent people scoring incredibly many points for a nice level which uses only 3% of listed elements (such level if good enough would get 80p in Element Usage and probably 40p in C&I, besides the quite high Gameplay score, so it is a way to go).

However, after some calculations based on PotZ and my own adventures I can say the numbers for this challenge need reducing. They are almost no challenge.

EDIT: read the first post to see the changes to scoring method. I had to adjust those after some calculations. Also, Bonus Quests now present!

[Jutomi]

All right, I've got a submission!

It's nothing like what I would have expected, honestly.

I don't think I got any of the bonus challenges, and I did add a plant in one place, but I think it should be an okey addition to your collection.

If not, well, then I am just bad at this, then.

[Pawelec]

All right, I've got a submission!

It's nothing like what I would have expected, honestly.

I don't think I got any of the bonus challenges, and I did add a plant in one place, but I think it should be an okey addition to your collection.

If not, well, then I am just bad at this, then.

OK, so please send me a PM with all things needed to play an adventure packed in a .zip file as soon as everything is ready and polished. Don't tell me the details here in the topic, just specify that in your PM in which you send me the .zip file.

Seems there will be at least few people interested with the project

[Jutomi]

Hmm... I think I may have actually forgotten to put the adventure in the first private message I gave you....

Oops ,_,

[Wonderland King]

Hmm... I think I may have actually forgotten to put the adventure in the first private message I gave you....

Oops ,_,

You can edit PMs if the person you sent it to hasn't seen it yet.

[Pawelec]

Hmm... I think I may have actually forgotten to put the adventure in the first private message I gave you....

You can edit PMs if the person you sent it to hasn't seen it yet.

Too bad, I've already read it. But I've just got your entry in another one, so don't worry

Ladies and Gentlemen, this means we've got a first participant, who's Jutomi!

[Jutomi]

Yay!

I'm addicted to this game!

[Sammy_P]

this looks like a "make levels for my hub pls" thing
[size=0](credits to the person who pointed this out last night on the chat)[/size]

[Wonderland King]

this looks like a "make levels for my hub pls" thing
(credits to the person who pointed this out last night on the chat)

And your point is...

[Pawelec]

this looks like a "make levels for my hub pls" thing
[size=0](credits to the person who pointed this out last night on the chat)[/size]

Not really. The idea is to get a number of high-quality levels and present them in one place to make a community-sourced hub. And all the level authors will get full credits - I'm definitely not going to claim that I made those levels myself. Besides, after reaching a certain point a new Project Creator is chosen by the winner and the new hub will be made by someone else. If you think you are creative enough to make a whole hub yourself, then just make it. The WCP hub will definitely not be labeled as mine - most of it will be made by challenge participants and they will be the main authors. I'm only a decorator and storyteller, but they are the participants who really increase the tension with their adventures.

Your post Sammy sounds quite offensive. I'm just trying to coordinate making of a nice hub for users and by users, not to steal anyone's work.

If there aren't many users interested the idea of WCP will fail and authors of the entries will be able to do whatever they want with their adventures.

[Sammy_P]

Your post Sammy sounds quite offensive. I'm just trying to coordinate making of a nice hub for users and by users, not to steal anyone's work.

sorry aboat that

anyways, i MIGHT do some stuff with this if i feel like it

[Master Wonder Mage]

The problem for me is that I'm also primarily a storyteller and action-level designer. I tend not to make puzzles unless I find a way to make them serve the story. I probably won't be stuffing here.

[Emerald141]

‎

[Pawelec]

The problem for me is that I'm also primarily a storyteller and action-level designer. I tend not to make puzzles unless I find a way to make them serve the story. I probably won't be stuffing here.

I understand that and I don't force anyone to participate
The risk was calculated. I'll decide if WCP will continue after the first or second challenge ends.

[Wonderland King]

Happy 400th post! So, I'm finished with mine for now, but I'm going to keep editing it, looking for alternate solution, etc. before the deadline.

[Wonderman109]

I might try this, but the rules seem really complicated.

[Pawelec]

I might try this, but the rules seem really complicated.

To be honest: if you make an adventure keeping the limits you'll have everything scored by me and nothing to worry about. Yeah, I know those rules seem quite extensive, but they're really easy to obey.

[Lucky-Luc]

So, just read this. Let me get this straight: All scoring is done by you? Don't get me wrong, I think having a high quality "community hub" would be cool, but shouldn't the community have a chance to decide what's high quality and what's not?

Why not publish a small hab that contains all the entries after a challenge is done and start a voting period? I realize this would be even more work and would need even more community participation, but considering that about 75 % of the points are given for completely subjective criteria, it doesn't seem fair to give one person so much power.

Apart from that, I think your element presence scoring system is kind of limited. It seems like minimalistic adventures generally get a higher score in that category than complex ones. I think it would be fun to do some minimalist challenges, but it seems to me like doing nothing different for weeks will get boring after a while.

Just my 2 cents. Generally I like the idea, but I would like some more tweaking before I consider taking part in this.

[Blazeknight]

...
...
...

All this things suddenly is a surprise. It's a great idea about making a community hub with lots of challenging designs. It will be nice to play the best adventures in business. I'm sure if everyone puts their efforts in, we can create the best hub.

But at the same time, I feel there might be some people (underline "Might", not "will") who will make adventures only for competing. They "might" not have fun sometimes while doing that (IMO). Don't get me wrong but... still I'm curious to know; why all these ideas all of a sudden?

Also at first, there will be an initial surplus of submitted adventures and later in 3-4 weeks, the no of people participating will decrease and the hub might become unstable. It's tough to keep interest in something that's that strict, precise, limited and controlled; and requires every participant to keep interest. I'm not saying that its gonna be imminent but just feel that it might be possible.

Some people design adventures to become the top designer or good designers. They'll be the ones who are most likely to participate. But, there are some users like me here who design adventures to seek a temporary refuge from their reality, schedule, workload and daily life. They see wonderland as relaxing and something to feel calmly and smoothly rather than "becoming good at it and improving day by day" in terms of talent and style (IMO). What I'm saying is just the way I feel about game designing... I'm not trying to discourage... D

Finally, I don't know how this is going to turn out but I just wish no body gets addicted or hasty to make good adventures at the cost of fun..

[Jutomi]

Don't worry about me, I found the competition to be my excuse to make an adventure.

Though, having a voting system would actually be pretty neat - if any body else was entering.

[Pawelec]

Though, having a voting system would actually be pretty neat - if any body else was entering.

Yeah, that's right, we need entries first...

@voting idea: I thought of something like that, but it seems to need much more effort than I have time for.

On the other hand, having a jury formed of several (like 5 or so) users could do the trick. The final score for one's entry would be an average of scores given by all the judges. As for Creator's Pick, every judge would have to choose if they'd like the entry to be the Creator's Pick and if most of the jury says YES then the adventure will be included in the hub. I find the fact that I give all the scores not too much power, but too heavy resopnsibility. That's why I'd like to share my jury sofa with few other people. But who'd they be? That would be another question to answer...

After playing and trying to give score for the first entry I see that the Element Presence scoring is a pain for both adventure makers and judges. I'm seriously thinking about dropping that scoring section and making a separate Complexity score instead of the whole EP/RB list, while still keeping the Object List and Bonus Quests present (also, I'd like to have same points for BQ in every challenge, like 20/50/80p quests with different levels of difficulty). This would give more freedom to the makers and make judges' lives easier. Also, I have no will to count all the textures people use, so I think custom stuff will be generally forbidden instead of applying those strange score penalties.

After suggested changes the scoring would be simplified to something like this (I divided all the numbers by 10 not to use big numbers where they are not needed):

Gameplay: 30 p
Creativity & Invention: 6 p
Complexity: 8 p

Creator's Pick bonus: 10 p
Bonus Quest completion: 2 p (easy), 5 p (medium), 8 p (hard).

Object list would be much simplified.

Also, as of now, due to the fact that scoring method is not completely developed yet, the Weekly Challenge #1 is postponed. Once the scoring rules are ready and the jury is chosen (if we choose to have one), then the updated rules for the challenge will be posted and two week working period will start.

Jutomi: if scoring method changes, you'll of course be able to remake your adventure.

So please tell me if you'd like the Project to have a jury (if so, then would the judges be allowed to participate - I think that would be very unfair) and would you like the entries to be scored using the new method.

[Pawelec]

D-P, but no more comments in this topic make me think about cancelling the whole project. I think the fact that no people are commenting the changes makes it have little sense to continue the contest.

Also, I have more and more will to start my own hub. This would definitely mean that the project is closed. So please comment - if you don't then I'll start working on my own hub.

[Jutomi]

I'll gladly comment, but, like, I don't want you to feel forced into doing one or the other.

Though, I am kind of surprised...

I see the point of players mentioning that 4-5 contestants would join, and then it'd dwindle mid-project, but you noticed that we've not even gotten to the part where we get to dwindle yet.

[Pawelec]

This whole thing is getting more and more strange. I'm sorry to announce that, but if no one else shows their interest the project will be closed on Wednesday. There's no sense to hold the competition for less than 3 people. Besides it would take many years to get enough levels for a community-based hub this way.

[Pawelec]

DP, but...
dum-Dum-DUUUUUUUUM!

I'll close this project tommorow at 12 AM (I live in GMT +1) if no more poeple show their interest.

I'd rather say goodbye to it now, as it seems impossible to suddenly get community's attention...