General Discussion

[Norbert]

This is sort of what I have in mind when it comes to displaying the winners.
It would be the background image of a div, in which the latest results and such will be displayed as regular text.
Not too much text, just four lines: the three winners with links to their files and forum threads, and a fourth line with a 'want to participate in the next contest, click here'-like text. Plus, at the top of the whole thing a header (how about "Prince of Persia Modding Competition"?).

[Norbert]

We could allow participants to create mods for the SNES version and for PoP2, if they wish to do so.

Should we only allow modding of the first Prince of Persia game, DOS, SNES, whatever?
Or also PoP2? And, if so, what about PoP3D? (Theoretically, graphics/sounds and even levels could be changed.)

Also, should contestants be able to enter a contest with more than one mod?
And, if so, should there be a maximum?

[mk1995]

I'd say only DOS PoP1.

Seconded. Some levels in PoP2 are flat-out uneditable (Levels 1, 2 and 14) because they use fullscreen images per room, and the ruins' background modifiers are impossible to figure out. PoP3D is even further out of the question, as you can't edit a lot of stuff there. The textures of the characters and the environment, maybe the sounds, but there has never been a level editor for that game. So yeah, stick to the PC version of PoP1 (and maybe also the SNES version).

[poirot]

I love that image!

[Norbert]

Okay, here is the first draft of the official contest rules.
Please let me know what you think.
- - - - -

Prince of Persia 1 Quarterly Modding Contest
Official Rules
as from <date>

= GENERAL =

We, the Prince of Persia modding community ("Community"), are not in any way associated with any of the official (current or past) publishers and developers of the games in the Prince of Persia video game franchise. Our Community is not making any profit from the Prince of Persia 1 Quarterly Modding Contest ("Contest(s)"). The Contest is designed to keep our Community vibrant and to encourage fans of the original Prince of Persia 1 game ("PoP1") to create the best fan-made modifications ("Mod(s)") they can. Anyone who enters the Contest ("Entrant(s)" or "You") should read these official rules ("Rules"). Entry in the Contest constitutes Your acceptance of and agreement to these Rules.

= CONTEST PERIOD =

The Contest takes place once every quarter year (three months). The Contest begins on the 1st of January, April, July and October at 0:00:00 A.M. Coordinated Universal Time ("Contest Start") and ends on respectively 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December at 11:59:59 P.M. Coordinated Universal Time ("Contest End"). During the first two months of the Contest, Entrants can submit their Mods ("Submission Period"). Judging begins on the 1st of March, June, September and December at 0:00:00 A.M. Coordinated Universal Time and ends at the Contest End ("Judging Period"). The Judging Period consists of three phases, which are described in the JUDGING section of these Rules.

= HOW TO ENTER =

Entrants can be citizens of any country. Entrants are allowed to collaborate with other Entrants and submit a Mod together ("Team(s)"), but Teams are limited to two (2) Entrants. Each Entrant or Team may submit one (1) Mod per Contest. Subsequent entries will be disqualified. Mods must be created of either the DOS or the SNES version of the original PoP1. Each Mod must be given a title and, optionally, a brief description, to identify that particular work. Mods must not be offensive, threatening, defamatory, disparaging, libelous or contain any content that is inappropriate, indecent, sexual, profane, tortuous, slanderous, discriminatory in any way, or that promotes hatred or harm against any group or person. Mods must not have been released prior to the Contest. However, as explained in the JUDGING section of these Rules, already released Mods may be added during the Judging Period. Mods must be posted in a designated thread on the Princed Forum at http://forum.princed.org/

= JUDGING =

We want to keep the process fair and scalable, and nobody should be required to play more than ten (10) Mods per Contest. Therefore, the Judging Period consists of three phases. During phases 2 and 3, a ranked (positional) voting method is being used. In the event of a tie in either of those phases, the tied Mods will be reevaluated and put up for a re-vote until the tie is broken. Decisions are final and binding. Mods are being evaluated and scored based on their playability, artistic merit, creativity and originality. The Community reserves the right to disqualify any Entrant from the Contest if it reasonably believes that the Entrant has attempted to undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest by cheating, deception, or other unfair practices. If less than six (6) Mods were submitted, Mods that have already been released but were never in a Contest will be added randomly until six (6) spots have been taken.

Phase 1 (Preparation)
---------------------
During the first week (1st - 7th), forum members can register themselves if they want to partake in the second phase ("Peer(s)"). Peers may be Entrants but must not be part of the jury. The Peers are being randomly divided into groups. The number of groups is the number of Mods for the Contest rounded up to the nearest 10, divided by 10. (Example: 12 Mods would mean 20 / 10 = 2 groups.)

Also during that period, three (3) jury members are being appointed for the third phase ("Juror(s)"). Three permanent Jurors have been nominated and appointed by the Community: <nick>, <nick> and <nick>. Jurors must not self-judge, thus Entrants cannot be Jurors. When a permanent Juror wishes to be an Entrant, a previous Contest winner must take his or her place during that Contest as a substitute Juror.

Phase 2 (Peers Vote)
---------------------
The next phase takes nine days (8th - 16th). The Mods are being randomly divided over the groups. Every Peer then plays and ranks all the Mods of his or her group. The Mods receive points from each Peer: the number of Mods + 1 - their rank. (Example: 2nd place out of 7 Mods would mean 7 + 1 - 2 = 6 points.) Of each group, the three (3) Mods that have the highest average Peer scores go to phase 3 ("Finalists").

Phase 3 (Jury Vote)
---------------------
The last phase takes approx. 2 weeks (17th - 30th/31st). Every Juror plays and ranks all the Mods that triumphed in phase 2. The Mod that has the highest average Juror score wins first place in the Contest, the Mod with the second highest score wins second place, and the Mod with the third highest score wins third place. These three Mods and their Entrants ("Winners") will receive the prizes as described in the PRICES section of these Rules.

Note that the forum nicks of the Peers and Jurors, and the points they have given the various Mods, are being published on the Princed Forum. This happens on the last days of phases 2 and 3.

= PRICES =

Prizes will be awarded in accordance with these Rules. The Finalists and Winners are being notified via the Princed Forum. There are only non-cash prizes and the prizes are non-transferable. For a period of three (3) months, the names and places of the winning Mods are being displayed on the front pages of the following three websites: http://www.princed.org, http://www.popuw.com and http://www.popot.org. The Mods can be downloaded directly from these front pages, and these front pages also contain links to the forum threads of the Mods at the Princed Forum. Furthermore, the Princed Forum contains a thread with information about the winning Mods and Entrants of all previous Contests, in honor of these works and their authors.

= ADVICE =

Entrants are advised to playtest their Mods thoroughly. In case You created one or more (very) difficult levels, You may want to use DOSBox to record playthroughs of these levels. Playthroughs can be uploaded to, for example, YouTube, and may be submitted along with the Mods.

Where to download level editors:
http://www.popuw.com/editors.html
http://www.popot.org/level_editors.php

Familiarize Yourself with the in-game events:
viewtopic.php?f=73&t=3151

How to change images and audio:
viewtopic.php?f=70&t=2937

Changing the executable:
http://www.popot.org/other_useful_tools.php?tool=CusPop

[yaqxsw]

January, April, July and October at 0:00:00 A.M ends on respectively 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December at 11:59:59 P.M.

January - March, April - June, July - September, Oktober - December. I ordered time

I not understand wery well with group system. 1 Group test 10 MOD? 1 Group 3 player?

= HOW TO ENTER =

Where reserv?

[Norbert]

I not understand [...]

Once we've got the final rules worked out, some people may be willing to translate the rules into other languages.
That should make it easier to understand.
For example, mk1995 may be willing to translate to German; I could translate to Dutch.

= HOW TO ENTER =

Where reserv?

It's not yet possible, we first need to work out the final rules.
It's just the first draft of the rules.

[Norbert]

I love that image!

Glad you like it.

I've converted it into an animated GIF and the potions now have animated bubbles.


Next up are download/thread icons and the header text.

[Norbert]

I've put together a(n alphabetically ordered) list of people (developers/mod creators who have been here for years, some still are) that I would like to nominate as jurors: Andrew, Brendon James, David, dspprince, Eagle-Head Priest 97, ecco, Jalal, John Wain, mk1995, Moscow Tracer, musicmaker, peter_k, poirot, programmer, starwindz, Tamas, tammojan, tV2, Veke.
I would like to contact them via PM/e-mail and ask if one or more of them actually want to be in the jury.
I've talked with poirot and we think semi-permanent jurors instead of permanent could be interesting, so 6 semi-permanent jurors in total who would alternate between contests instead of 3 permanent jurors.
Anyways, my question to all: what do you think of the people I mentioned above?
Anyone missing I need to also contact or anyone I probably shouldn't contact?

[mk1995]

I'm alright with the first draft. But the contests should only take two months each. It'd suck if we barely got any sort of break.

I've talked with poirot and we think semi-permanent jurors instead of permanent could be interesting, so 6 semi-permanent jurors in total who would alternate between contests instead of 3 permanent jurors.

Frankly, I don't see anything wrong with either. But if we're gonna have those six semi-permanent jurors we better not have them always alternate like 1,2,3/4,5,6, but mix it up a little. Though we'd need to make sure that an individual juror never gets to judge more than 2-3 contests in a row.

Anyways, my question to all: what do you think of the people I mentioned above? Anyone missing I need to also contact or anyone I probably shouldn't contact?

I haven't seen several of those people around in ages. You should probably pick the juror nominations depending on how active they are around here. And then some more people have gotten largely disinterested in PoP because of how the forums have been dying for the longest time.

[Norbert]

I'm alright with the first draft.

Good to read.
The draft currently mentions periods of 3 months (2 to submit mods, 1 for the judging). It could be changed to 2 months, to add a 1 month break. However, judging should probably still take 1 month (to give everyone time to play the mods), so then there would be 1 month to submit mods. So, I'm not sure how different it would be, except authors wouldn't be allowed to submit their mods the first month. I hope you know what I mean.

But if we're gonna have those six semi-permanent jurors we better not have them always alternate like 1,2,3/4,5,6, but mix it up a little.

I like that idea.
We could (use a computer to) randomly pick the jurors for the contest out of the semi-permanent jurors.

I haven't seen several of those people around in ages.

That's true, but who knows, maybe if they get contacted about this and read up on some recent developments (like poirot working on new CusAsm and CusPop versions, and some new mods that were created), that may spark new enthusiasm in them about PoP and modding it. Most of them may not want to be jurors, but then at least they've heard about the contest and it's possible that after a few contests they'll submit mods or something.

By the way, so... do you want to be a juror?
Would be nice, because you've created mods yourself and are active on the forum.
Andrew, David, dspprince, Moscow Tracer, poirot, programmer, how about you guys?
Obviously we don't need everyone on the list or we'd have far too many jurors (especially compared to entrants, probably).

[mk1995]

]By the way, so... do you want to be a juror?

Eh, why not? I haven't been very active when it comes to making new levels, but as a juror, I need only play others' mods as opposed to making any myself, so that's no issue.

[Eagle-Head Priest 97]

You were right Norbert, the email did spark some interest back in me. Its so cool coming back and seeing the community still alive. I may consider jurying or making some new mods!

[Norbert]

]By the way, so... do you want to be a juror?

Eh, why not?

Great.

You were right Norbert, the email did spark some interest back in me. Its so cool coming back and seeing the community still alive. I may consider jurying or making some new mods!

That's awesome...
The more 'old' folks that return, and the more newcomers that arrive, the better.
Welcome back!

[Veke]

Hey all. I had no idea this site was still alive! When it got hacked after being half dead for a while, I thought that was the end of it.

This contest seems like a neat idea. I'll look to participating in some way once I get back home on next Wednesday from visiting Ukraine, Hungary and Poland.