Setting the Stage

[Enthalpy]

The idea I had is slowly starting to take shape, and unfortunately, it doesn't fit the comp theme.

Good luck to the entrants!

[DJJ6800]

breathes sigh of relief because of less competition

[Southern Corn]

*breaths sigh of relief due to the fact that my comp is still leading in terms of number of entrants*

Also, shouldn’t clc and Spybreak be added to the entrants list now?

[Enthalpy]

But it's submissions that count.

[bigwins]

Whoops, added.

[clcman]

Whoops, added.

In return, I offer haipe:

Spoiler : haipe :

[Southern Corn]

How suspenseful. I wonder who could be behind this.

Probably a ninja.

[DWaM]

I'm interested in seeing how this turns out. Well, a part of it is worry -- since if the case isn't trial-only, custom content might just turn out to be an issue for quite a few people. I don't recall the custom background pack being that generous when it came to a wide variety of any particular settings...

On a slightly unrelated note, it might be worthwhile to consider shortening the deadlines of competitions. Not necessarily for this comp, but for the ones going from this point onward. I feel like a part of the reason the past comp got a slightly higher number of entrants is because -- theme aside -- the shorter timeframe had people thinking on how they could focus on truly keeping things simple enough to have a chance at finishing. Not only that, but with a shorter deadline, people would be able to decide fairly quickly whether or not they can truly manage their time well enough to put out something presentable.

The cases, as a result, would be shorter -- but I feel like that's a fair trade-off. I think it might be worth trying to push for shorter cases at this stage. It'd lessen the standard some people who just want to try it out would feel they need to live up to, and thus make the whole thing a bit more approachable.

It'd also trim down the amount of time between the start of the competition and its end -- and thus shortening the period where a tumbleweed just rolls through the topic. IE, help keep the activity bit more up, even slightly so. Higher activity helps in making people who stumble across this place believe there's a somewhat decent amount of activity, which in turn helps them stick around. They stick around, more chance of participating. More participation, more activity, etc. etc.

[Southern Corn]

Well now, this is a pleasant surprise! I guess I can add my own thoughts here as well. This might have turned into more of a ramble than I’d intended, but I think it’s still worth considering.

I’ll say that the time given for the previous comp was just because I thought New Year’s would be a fitting time to end the comp, being a distinct date and all. The fact that it also helped in theme relevance and such was purely coincidental, though it did help a lot. I think I appreciated the longer timeframe for previous comps because it gave a bigger time limit for getting things done, but I do think that it might have been too lenient. The shorter timeframe last time also helped create more activity in-thread which made it more lively and fun, generally. It’s a little weird/counterintuitive to me that lessening the time till the deadline actually helps gets more entrants, but I guess it can work out fine.

I’ll also add that the trial only restriction back then was indeed very deliberate. I didn’t want to make things feel too general and vague, hence the specification. I also think that trial cases are just kind of easier to make. They’re simple but effective and easy to write, whereas investigations/comedies/misc. cases are just too freeform and nonlinear and ultimately end up taking a long time to do. Programming investigations especially can take a lot of work too from what I’ve heard. I also don’t see many investigation only cases on AAO either, nor comedies or misc. cases.

Really, look through the trial section and you can easily notice that the majority of the trials shown there are, well...trials! They’re popular for a reason, being the core of AA and all. Making your fancase a non-trial case also requires a lot of custom assets and such, which as DWaM has said are not easy to make and the premade assets online are not particularly varied either. So it can be kind of a pain to make. I’ll admit I’ve never actually played a single investigations only case on this site in my life, but they can be quite hard to find as well. A majority of the cases which are even featured on the site are trials, which doesn’t help.

So what am I trying to say with all this, exactly? Well, basically I wouldn’t really mind if future comps were to also have the ‘trial only’ restriction for cases. They’re far more easy to do and with such a specification I think you can have more entrants as well. Not necessarily for this one, of course, seeing as investigations might actually suit the case by fully taking advantage of exploring the setting, but I think future comps might benefit by narrowing things down.

Really, that’s kind of a good thing to do with comp themes in general, I think. Try not to keep things too freeform or general. The more restrictions you have, the more people you can get to join. ...Though try not to restrict things too much either, I guess. It’s just something I’d like to see in future comps, though I’m not likely to participate in one anytime soon. That’s my two cents, really. Take it with a grain of salt if you will.

[bigwins]

Part of the reason I decided I'd go the full length this time was regarding the issue with finding custom art. I was also trying to switch it up from the last comp, though I'm in agreement that putting out tighter, leaner cases is more of a draw for new entrants, as well as more feasible.

Fact is, though, site activity is low here. I wasn't really expecting to draw in newcomers with this, even if that should be a goal going forward.

[SuperAj3]

If it helps, Ann-nna and I are thinking of entering this together. We're just working out ideas atm for a setting.
EDIT: Ann-nna and I are entering as a team

[clcman]

I strongly recommend against implementing a "trial only" requirement in most competitions. While there are a few themes where it might fit, there is really no downside to allowing entrants the option of making a different style of case/entry.

I may be saying that because I'm a rare breed who prefers investigations, and a disproportionate number of my cases are all- or mostly-investigation, with maybe one being completely trial-only. I think it's an underappreciated genre, though I completely understand why people might prefer trial stuff.

Just looking over the incredibly long list of things I've managed to start and not bring to a public release:
The BASEic Turnabout, The Turnabouts Grimm, The Ransomed Turnabout, And Then There Were Turnabouts, HTB! and my entry for this comp are 90+% investigation (though some of those have out-of-court cross-examinations).
A Pre-Emptive Turnabout, A Web of Turnabouts and especially The Book of Turnabouts are trial cases with long investigations.
That Turnabout Where The Defendant Is The Murderer and Circling The Turnabout are the closest things I have to "trial only," and TTWTDITM still has some investigation sections.

I guess the awards ceremonies all take place in court?

Mostly, this was just an opportunity for me to list my ludicrously long list of projects, and maybe convince myself to work on some of them. But I did legitimately think it was odd how many of them are not trials in the conventional sense. I guess I just really like hunting for clues.

[DWaM]

I also disagree with the notion of “trial only” approach. Not only because it throws out investigations but cuts out people who might want to use the engine to make something that goes with the theme but is its own thing. I think it could be another worthwile direction in attracting new people - showing the engine is open to more than just the more traditional AA stuff and support experimentation.

Oh, and it might also be good to make it so that any engine is acceptable for use.

(...I feel like we should open a separate topic for this at this stage. In regards not only comp rules but also how we could attract new members and revitilaze the community — if such a thing is even possible at this point.)

Also, in case bigwins hasn’t seen cuz it was an edit, SuperAj is joinin up with Ann-nna.

[SuperAj3]

Ahh yeah, to clarify, Ann-nna and I are entering.
I just had a question about assets, can we use things like custom sprites from the sprite resource threads? (With credit) or is it limited to canon/our own custom assets?

[Doodled]

Ahh yeah, to clarify, Ann-nna and I are entering.
I just had a question about assets, can we use things like custom sprites from the sprite resource threads? (With credit) or is it limited to canon/our own custom assets?

Judging from prior competitions, if a custom sprite is openly posted and available on these forums, then it's fine to be used in a case with credit.