The unOfficial ArmA 2 modding competition

[JdB]

I agree regarding the time issue. In lots of 2D/3D artist sites/forums, these kinds of competitions only run for 1-2-4 weeks tops, but you have to take into account that many of the people on that kind of site/forum are either doing this professionally, or are studying to become professionals, so are much more proficient.

The main issue I see with this idea is that imo established addonmakers would be tempted to enter, but that starting/lesser skilled people (the target audience) would think that they aren't good enough anyway, so why bother (I've also noticed this when recruiting, people saying stuff like "I'm not good enough to join such a high quality mod" quite wrongly). Thinking of the possibility of failure more (or valuing it higher) than the possibilities to learn.

Because of this, it would seem to me more as time spent on things outside of people's main areas of interest (addon projects, mods etc), slowing progress rather than speeding it up (by getting more people good at making addons). People can of course work on whatever they want, but on the point of making people better addonmakers, I don't see it happening.

Also how are you going to minimize the chance of someone entering with stolen content? (after all, you can't track check every 3D forum just to be sure)

[Soul_Assassin]

It is actualy very surprising how proficient the community is at rooting out frauds But on your main point: The main idea of this is to actually get the people that are less experienced but want to experiment on their own time without mod team pressure at the cost of gaining some recognition. I have participated a couple of times in 3dtotal competitions where most of the guys there are waaaaay beyond my reach, the kind of guys who get interviewed but it was still a fun experience and a learning one for sure. If the community is positive about the whole idea then there should be no problem.

[Murklor]

I think the amount of time (ie 1 month or 3 month) need to be judged after the actual competition.

I mean, what kind of quality are you expecting if you say "make the most awesome car you can imagine!" to your average noob modder? Hardly 3 months worth of effort. I'm sure someone will want to make a 30,000 polygon Koenigsegg with 4096x4096 textures, but I really dont see the fun in that if we're looking at just a contest to get people interested into modding. By the time the competition ends people will have forgotten why it started and long since moved on to more interesting things to make.

How about making a multi-stepped competition? For example, lets take the forklift. Set the time to 1 month. Then one have parts as follows:
+10 days - Quick-n-dirty forklifts, light rules.
+20 days - "Advanced" forklifts. Must function, possible quality demands, will be judged more critically. Improved forklifts from the first stage may be submitted if they want.
+30 days - The "Make Something Real" forklifts. Realism, functionality, handling, texture and model quality, etc should be judged with extreme prejudice. As with +20, improved forklifts should be able to be submitted again.

Now, why such a setup? Well mostly because it will get ALL people on board... And it will keep all skill levels interested throughout the competition. Are you a noob that made a quick forklift that ended up top 3 in its class? Well keep working and maybe it'll win in the second stage too! Or are you the type that think you can make turn a forklift into a realistic work of art? You got 30 days to meet the criteria.

At the end, all winners would be presented: Best quickjob, best advanced and best realistic.

What stops a "realistic" class modeller/coder from putting up a cool quickjob and make it unfair for the rest? Well, nothing really. But its about as unfair as a noob trying to compete with veterans that got a month to make the perfect forklift.

[raedor]

You should add Rule #1: Everything has to be self-made or at least credited properly (we don't want to re-invent the ...).

I don't know if BI has the time to do something here, basically all we need is some artwork and some text for the guidelines, everything else can be done with new threads here + some PR work with the news pages. Of course, if the winner is announced on the BI pages or something like this, it will be more attractive. I'll go and ask.

[MehMan]

We just need something to encourage creativity, otherwise we'll just end up with 5 models of slightly different forklifts based on the same concept.

[Provac]

Also remember that not all modelers has the skills to get things put ingame. I could make some good looking models but I have no clue about putting it ingame and let it have cool features.

How about a compo forum section.

You have modeling comps, that would add to a general pool of models.

Texturing comps, that would put textures on the better models in the pool from the modeling comp.

Scripting comps, that would add to the features you see in the fully modeled and textured models from modeling and texturing.

In the end you have a really awesome pool of awesome models, with awesome textures with awesome features.

There is a reason game development studios have different departments.

At the end all the best models from the final pool gets put into the yearly Choice Awards Mod package released to the community.

Its the unrestricted, choice of participation modding group of ARMA 2. Not a specific group for one goal but a free environment where you take part in what you want and have time for to create new material for the whole community. All based around the fun of competition

You can be a great modeler and a average texture artist, you can be a great scripter but have no clue about either modeling or texturing. This will bring the community together.


EDIT

I have to put in a good example


MODELING COMPETITION #1
Create a new rifle for ARMA 2

Rules: No more than ????? polygons, model has to be unwrapped.

Top 3 models gets gold, silver and bronze award.
Top 3 models gets packaged and hosted on a site

TEXTURING COMPETITION #1
Choose one of the models from MODELING COMP #1

Rules: No more than ????x???? texture size. You cannot change the model but can edit the unwrap.

Top 3 textures gets gold, silver and bronze award.
Top 3 textures gets packaged and hosted on a site.

SCRIPTING AND FEATURES COMPETITION #1
Make cool features to the assigned model/models of your choice from TEXTURING COMP #1

Rules: blablabla I have no clue really

Top 3 finished assets gets gold, silver bronze award.

end of the year.

All winners gets their assets in a complete ARMA2 COMPO ADDON PACK with recognition and their names on the list of top workers.

[.kju [PvPscene]]

So the actual review (comment(s)), the result made and shared are the key interest here?

[Takko]

The question is when do we start and who sets the topic

[Soul_Assassin]

I think we're getting too complicated with the prize system for now, I think we should give one competition a test run with just a simple set of places:

1. Best overall technically
2. Best visual
3. Best functional
4. Most innovative

If from the first few tries it is apparent that alot more prize devision is needed then so be it. For now lets keep it simple.

As for topic a system like this would be most fair (so that no addonmakers know in advance what topic is finally chosen):

- there are 2 threads running alongside each other in the forums: the current comp thread where people ask questions, post progress etc. and this thread where the general discussion on future comps takes place. Here we also gather the ideas, from everybody. Then the winners of the previous comp choose the best 5 and the day before the start of the competition pass them on to a forum official, raedor for example. that day he/she runs a randomization algorithm to pick the new topic. Some little banner is made, rules typed up and posted the next day.

When to start? in a while, lots of things still to discuss + most people dont even have A2 yet, let alone noone having new toolset. I think start/mid july would be a good time to start.

[raedor]

So what I found out at BI: BIS are monitoring the progress of the competition with keen interest and look forward to seeing how the first couple of rounds turn out.