Going over contest feedback

Hi, just wanted to go over and respond to the feedback that I received for the contest held at the beginning of the month, and I'll then I'll talk about what I might do differently.

I think the choice of theme might have been a little restrictive. Cyberpunk is typically quite dark and it is very difficult to turn into something romantic or fun and sexy.

Also, a science fiction theme would have scared a lot writers away. Creating an imaginary world requires a lot of imagination and effort.

If you're going to run the competition again and still want a theme, I would suggest broader and abstract themes, such as "bubble," "winner," or "thirst," which just have to appear somewhere and may or may not be central to the story.

The only reason I didn't make a game for the competition is that I'm currently working a much larger game that would break many of the rules.

I think the author here has a point. "Cyberpunk" was little restrictive, and I know at least one author who didn't submit an entry on that basis alone.

I'd love to keep a theme going, but keeping them a lot vaguer and ephemeral might be key, if they are going to stay at all. The intention of the themes was to give people ideas, not restrict them, and I don't think they worked in that regard.

I like the idea of having more contests, so I am definitely in favor of this, but I think it's obvious that a vote between two games (albeit neither of them were anywhere near as awful as some entries to the minicomp) is only half a competition.

Sadly, I don't think I can really offer any constructive criticism on how to increase the number of entries.

I agree. I'm going to have find ways to promote the competition better if I'm going to run it again. Getting my ass sorted out with the AIF archive and investigating more websites is probably a good place to start.

 Fun contest.  This was just the right length to do something quick but still fun.  I hope to enter another Sneeze comp with what I've learned from this one.  Hope other people liked my game.  My suggestion for the next topic: Magical girl vs. Demon beast.

A sadly poor turnout, but hopefully it will continue and possibly gain some traction in the future. On the bright side, it is relatively easy to put together and got at least a couple games out there and who knows - maybe it sparked some interest!

I myself started with an idea - I had even tossed that general setting into the pot myself (though it could have been one of several). Sadly I didn't think I would get it done and went another direction. Then realized how little I knew about Twine and doing the many things that come naturally to me with Inform.

Even though I released nothing in the end, I did have fun. And though I see that a lot of polish could be applied to the games released, it is great to see the work they did put it in and hopefully they will feel the desire to put out more in the future.

A huge success or not, thanks very much for putting the SNEEZE together for us. It means a lot!

 That's very much appreciated, thanks. I still need to figure out ways to increase turnout.

 I swear it only took me a few seconds to realize that you meant the contest itself and hadn't accidentally left out a third entry in the archive.

CYOA is not necessarily my genre of choice, but any attempt to get a little blood flowing in the community is appreciated.

 Again, thanks!

I personally like the theme but maybe there would be more participants without one?

If feedback is anything to go on, yes, there would be more participants, which makes me rather sad. Making the theme vaguer, or getting rid of it, is really the choice I need to make.

Conclusions

SNEEZE COMP was a good experiment, and I think I will do it again next year, but with the benefit of wisdom and experience.

To me, the big issues were:

1. A lack of entries and votes.
2. A lack of public discussion about the games. 

While there was plenty feedback for the authors (especially considering the low votecount) none of it made it to the comments section, which I found unfortunate, because it made things seem a lot less active than it actually was.

As for 1), it's not just the theme, though that's a part of it. I think I really needed to do a better job of publicizing SNEEZE COMP. Put it on more boards and such. I think I can squeeze out more interest if I focus on that.