Video judging

[Fergal Reid]

Hi,

The e-mail sent around today, seemed to imply that judging will be
done based on a minute long video of the game.

What if someone makes a game that looks really bad, isn't much fun to
watch, but is a lot of fun to play?
Games are supposed to be about interactivity, and the experience of
playing the game, right?

I guess if there are going to be a lot of submissions, maybe its hard
to arrange it so that judges get to play games.
Maybe some sort of peer review system - like happens in ludum dare -
could produce a shortlist?

I don't want to come across critical here, I'm really grateful for the
organisers taking the time to put this together; just wondering if
videos are really the way to go..? Or maybe I've misunderstood how
the day will work?

Thanks,
Fergal

[BraveSirAndrew]

Hi Fergal

You're absolutely right. The games will be judged on a 1 minute video,
and while it's not the ideal way to do it, it's down to those damn
practicalities of real life I'm afraid. I thought I'd left reality
behind years ago, but here it is again, rearing its ugly head. Damn
you reality. Take a hike!

There's two reasons it's impractical for the judges to play every
game. With 200+ people coming, there's no way they'd be able to play
each and every one and have their results in by 8 o'clock for the
awardments. The second reason is because we haven't restricted what
platform your game has to run on, and there's no way for the judges to
have access to all of the necessary hardware, short of people handing
over their laptops/tablets/smart phones. And even if they did, goto
point one.

But don't worry. We've devised a cunning and fool-proof criteria based
points system that should give all games a fair chance. We also have
five exceptionally unbiased and impartial judges on hand to make sure
every game gets its due.

And lets not forget. In one way, you're all winners. In another, more
accurate way, the team going home with the Xbox is the winner. But
have some fun, make a new buddy or two, and the day won't have been
for naught.

Cheers
Andrew