Cramchakle wrote:

Ozyman wrote:

Cramchakle wrote:

Just to be a complete jerk about the de facto extension, I just got a map into a round of Dev games. I don't expect anyone who has already voted to change just for me, but seeing as there are only two entries, I figured a third really can't hurt. With some help from the Dev/Rev team, hopefully I can get this out there relatively quickly just to add a little variety to the game.

Hey Cram are you thinking about the themed competition?  I'm ok pushing things a bit longer to get it started. 

Yes, themed. So I'm both a jerk and incapable of reading.

Yeah. We definitely need extensions on the unthemed contests. ;)

Personally I agree - it takes me about 6 months just to figure out what I want to do with a theme, then if I want to anything at all innovative, I really need several months of play testing.

Speaking of which. What's the 2016 theme?

Korrun wrote:

Speaking of which. What's the 2016 theme?

I have not bugged Tom about it yet.  Considering all the stragglers with the 2015 theme, I thought maybe we should just wait and/or skip the 2016 year?  Any thoughts on this? Should I start getting the next theme figured out even though we're still wrapping up the last theme?

It seems like it would be more useful to know what the next 2 themes are to start mentally masticating.

To get this back on topic:

1. Dungeon Quest

2. Perilous Swamps of Kjeldor

This is a tough decision but here are some of my thoughts. Both have a nice theme. Both have excellent graphics. Neither were quite as enjoyable for me as I was expecting.

Dungeon has a lot of cool unique ideas in it. I think the elimination process is just fine (although it would be reasonable to mention it on the board image). But the gameplay feels a little grindy after a while. Also winning or losing (especially with fog) feels more like holding my breath to find out the result of a coin toss I can't even see than going on an adventure. It's still fun though. Also I thought I remembered there being a dice advantage from your character to the square in front of them?

Swamps is a nice sequel to its predecessor. Its a lot more of a 'normal' map than Dungeon, but still some nice twists. Using the territory selection phase makes an interesting meta game at the beginning (although it would be nice if the site supported it better). The new parts for it the witch huts and the towers don't seem to come into play as often as would be nice. I also don't think I have the slightest idea how to win on this map.

I'll throw out that I dislike both maps, but have played them both a few times including Dev games so I should vote. Dungeon Quest is clearly more adventurous in its design, so it wins out, even though the actual gameplay I think suffers as Korrun noted above.

1. Dungeon Quest

2. Swamps

1.Dungeon Quest
2. Swamps of Kjeldor

Dungeon Quest is very original, and though it does take much time patrolling around every turn, it is still fun to play.

Swamps has a nice graphic but is not my taste.

Ok - just took me a few extra months to get around with tallying the voting.  Looks like closest vote ever (thank you Yclee0206 for not making us figure out what to do with a tie).  Also most voting participation ever (maybe?)

Anyway - congrats Kjeld on your unprecedented 1st and 2nd place finishes.  ;)  As always, PM Tom to collect your winnings.

For the record I did not vote, but basically agreed with Korrun. 

I will try to post the next round of competition soon and get this contest thing back on track.  WeatherTop - feel free to PM me to discuss if you want to handle the posts.

Well, thanks for running it in any case, Ozy. I think the next round of boards will have some lively competition, at least!

For the record, I liked both maps, though I prefer the Perilous Swamps more.  Both maps look great.

With Dungeonquest, it just seems like there is something missing which might improve the fun factor. I think you should take a stab at updating it in future Kjeld.

Are we still doing these?

I think we should do one for 2017, with a horror theme (I'm partial since I'm working on Ravenloft, heh), what with all these zombie shows and with Trump taking office.  Maybe Comrogue will come out of retirement and update his USA map to a Trumpland horror theme.

Edward Nygma wrote:

Are we still doing these?

Yes.  Whenever I have time, I don't think about it, and then when I think about it - I'm too busy.  I'll post the next contest(s) soon.  If nothing else, I've got some vacation time next week.

In the meantime, want to think about other theme ideas?  I like Thingol's idea of a "horror" theme.

Horror sounds like fun. Did we ever do the voting for the underwater theme?

>Did we ever do the voting for the underwater theme?

I was kind of giving people time to finish, but then I forgot about it, remembered it, got busy, forgot again, got super busy, repeat, etc.  I *promise* I will get it done before Thanksgiving, as I should have time this weekend or next week.  I will also get the next unthemed contest voting started.

If anyone feels like helping, you can help get the wiki pages in shape - that's where most of the work is.  I need to:

Add Reef (any others?) to here:

http://www.wargear.net/wiki/doku.php?id=designer_workshop:map_making_contest:themecontest2016

Make a new winter/spring 2016 page based on the way the other ones are done (for example:

http://www.wargear.net/wiki/doku.php?id=designer_workshop:map_making_contest:summerfall15_contest)

Update that last page to show voting is closed & post winners.

And then update links to those pages on the parent page:

http://www.wargear.net/wiki/doku.php?id=designer_workshop:map_making_contest