Peregrination, Sessions

A journey or travel, especially on foot.

GiaD 2009 Results

I promised you results on Sunday, didn't I? According to BYOND standard time, I've still got about 3 hours to deliver that promise. What, you live in Australia, and it's Monday already? Hey, not my problem Kangaroos can't keep proper time. Besides, it's only been two weeks, this is the fastest any BYOND competition has every been judged!

Seriously, though, stop paging me.

The zip with the entries is still uploading, so it may be a couple minutes before it's available. Also, the prizes have yet to be determined or distributed. I'm expecting to hear back from our sponsors as soon as they see the results. So if you got a good place, just sit tight and I'll post the prize information as soon as I get it.

Congrats to well... I won't spoil it. Congratz to the winners. Now go read the document.

Edit: You can also view a list of all developers who were ranked "Complete" or higher, by viewing this hub page. If you are on that list and would like to proudly display your accomplishment on your members page, simply add that hub to your favorites and the medal will show up on your blog shortly thereafter.

Posted by IainPeregrine on Sunday, September 27, 2009 09:40PM - 37 comments / Members say: yea +6, nay -0
Keywords: game_in_a_day
(Edited on Sunday, September 27, 2009 10:46PM)

« Server 2 · Realization (Game Design) »

Login to post a comment.

#37 Jp:  

Damn straight we can't. That would be awful!

Thursday, October 01, 2009 08:27PM

#36 Tiberath:  

Ah, can't have Jp's score reset to zero now, can we? ;)

Thursday, October 01, 2009 07:37PM

#35 IainPeregrine:  

Tiberath wrote:
> Hey cool, I got a better review than I thought I would, kickass.
>
> Thanks for hosting GIAD again, it was great fun! (by the way, I competed in GIAD '07)

Yeah, the "Returning Participant" thing is only for consecutive years. It's done that way mostly to make sure that Jp enters something every year, else his score resets to Zero.

Thursday, October 01, 2009 07:13PM

#34 Tiberath:  

Hey cool, I got a better review than I thought I would, kickass.

Thanks for hosting GIAD again, it was great fun! (by the way, I competed in GIAD '07)

Thursday, October 01, 2009 06:25PM

#33 Jerico2day:  

Oasis was offered a 1 year BYOND membership extension and 30 days of free use of our BYOND hosting service.

It was a tough decision, but ultimately, his was our favorite entry.

Thursday, October 01, 2009 06:22AM

#32 Magicbeast20:  

Hmm. So Oasis got two years free membership?

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 06:09PM

#31 Farawayhost:  

Nice job on the games! We've handed out our prizes from Farawayhost.com. 3 thirty day memberships to BYOND hosting through Farawayhost.com, and 1 grand prize winner of 1 extra year BYOND membership. We've offered the prizes to the following:

Oasiscircle - Creator of our favorite entry!

For having a Polished rated games:
Gakumerasara
Techgamer
Oasiscircle

Nice job all who entered!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 06:07PM

#30 IainPeregrine:  

It turns out I had misunderstood this statement:

> Oasis was lucky to win by a fluke and not have anything in common with older entries.

Vic thought I had disqualified his game because it was similar to another game, something which would be very unfair. I sent him an email explaining that his game was disqualified for the same reason as the other game, that both games don't use the theme.

Edit: To avoid further confusion, I've changed the wording of that passage, and removed any mention of previous games.

Whatever the case, I've closed discussion of that topic in these comments. Feel free to discuss any of the other entries, etc.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 04:14AM
(Edited on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 04:59AM)

#29 Jp:  

Vic Rattlehead wrote:
> No, I haven't Zaole. Did you even enter one?
> And two Jp - a sandwich game (which was the joke last year) can be made - a theory-based game? No.
>
> Oasis didn't follow Flight or Mechanics, which still begs "Why did he win?" without following EITHER theme.

You can make a game about infinite regression pretty easily. You have something regress infinitely.

Regardless, I suspect Oasis won because Iain thought his game was the best and used the theme appropriately. Having played Oasis' game, I'd say it's a pretty fair call. If you don't like it then don't enter next year, or offer to help judge next year, or do something else constructive - don't just troll the comments on Iain's blog.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 01:52AM

#28 Zaole:  

Vic Rattlehead wrote:
> A game cannot be based around a theory - that's just idiocy. Especially something as trivial as turtles all the way down.

have you played my game?

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 09:47PM

#27 Jp:  

Vic, "Turtles all the way down" was a joke theme. "Mechanics" and "Flight" were the more serious ones. You could use any combination of the three - I focused on Mechanics, for example.

And calm down. This sort of thing is exactly why Iain didn't want to rank games.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 09:27PM

#26 Vexonater:  

not to mention the actual number of themes was some 200% higher than your estimate

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 08:54PM

#25 Zaole:  

well excuuuuse me, but my game was about the universe and the philosophical musings of how it's supported

i don't think your comment deserves a serious response, so i won't bother with one

edit: i got bored so here's a serious response...

iain himself has already stated that themes are not and were never intended to be restricted usage; just because one of the themes is "turtles all the way down" doesn't mean a game that utilizes that theme HAS TO be directly focused on that philosophy of the universe. they simply have to show that the game wasn't merely created beforehand and then painted over with that theme.

for example, an excerpt from one of Iain's reviews: "The reason for disqualification, and not simply "unplayable" is because of a lack of use of the theme; those robots could just as easily have been tea pots, or cars, or knights, or what have you. But, like I said, I'm just confused by this robot kissing game."

other games did use the theme without being DIRECTLY related, such as Oasiscircle's game-- while the "turtles all the way down" philosophy wasn't directly utilized, it does involve turtles and infinite regression, so it gets points for that

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 08:53PM
(Edited on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 09:10PM)

#24 IainPeregrine:  

Vic Rattlehead wrote:
> I would like to know why Iain still hasn't taken my name and game off the list even though I've requested him to do so (unless he doesn't check his email).

Your email was sent 17 hours ago. Unless I am in need of something I'm expecting in my inbox, I don't check my email more than once a day. This is how most non obsessive people operate.

> Turtles don't effect gameplay at all, but whatever.

You're right, in most cases they don't. That's why the theme was "Turtles All the Way Down". Oasiscircle's game got Zero theme points for the turtles, or the tower. The gameplay elements which scored him theme points were the "to the last man" and "infinite waves" interpretation of "all the way down". Oasiscircle did not score many theme points, certainly not as many as Jp, Gakumerasara, or Zaole.

What you may not realize is that a literal interpretation of the theme may not score you as many points as a creative interpretation. When I decide on a theme I first ask myself what sorts of games can be made with that theme; if I can't come up with very many different answers, I discard the theme. One of the "game scenarios" I came up with for the "Turtles All the Way Down" theme was a survival game where the player controlled tanks. Because tanks can take many hits (gameplay aspect) they qualified as an interpretation of "turtles", because it was until the last tank went down, it qualified for "all the way down". Similarly, a game where the player was actively fleeing something would have scored points for the "flight" theme.

> It's BS that my game got disqualified considering I've seen Iain himself say entries did NOT have to follow the themes.

If you take an honest look at the material provided to you, I don't think it's fair to suggest that I have said anything of the sort. If you did hear me say something to that effect, then you either misunderstood me or took what I was saying to someone else out of context. This should be clear from a cursory examination of either the rules or previous years' results. Maybe you didn't read that results document, but that's not my fault.

Finally, remember that each game is judged comparatively for the purpose of placement, but is judged individually for the purpose of categorization. What this means is that I only think of your game when I'm deciding if it's playable or polished, etc. I am willing to take action to correct myself where I am wrong, but you have to make some effort to sway me in that direction. Vagueness and hostility will not accomplish that.

I responded to your email before finding this comment, and in that email you will find the reason why I havn't edited the results. Unless you have something that's important for the BYOND community at large, please continue this conversation via email.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 06:25AM

#23 IainPeregrine:  

Zaole wrote:
> Jp wrote:
> > EDIT: Just played Turtle Towers. Great game - good job Oasiscircle. I'm also now at the top of the Turtle Towers standings. ;)
>
> you may want to revise that statement >:P

And now I have the top score, haha!
Look at that looser, Zaole, with a score of 1.2689e 006. He couldn't even score 2 points before he lost!

Monday, September 28, 2009 10:14PM

#22 Calus CoRPS:  

Congrats on another successful Game in a Day event, Iain. Hopefully, next year I will finally be able to participate and complete an entry.

Monday, September 28, 2009 06:45PM

#21 Jeff8500:  

Hehe, you consider turtles all the way down a terrible theme? How can cosmic turtles not be awesome? Ambrosia and fluid, on the other hand, yuck. I had a really hard time thinking of something! I really think it would make a good game on the iPhone, though, and I'll probably port it with new features after I get more time and knowledge of Objective-C.

Monday, September 28, 2009 06:42PM

#20 IainPeregrine:  

Two years ago. CaptFalcon33035's "Frost Fortress".

Monday, September 28, 2009 05:39PM

#19 Zaole:  

what game is it similar to, anyways? i looked at the '08 results page and tried all of the games, and turtle towers had nothing in common at all with any of them

Monday, September 28, 2009 05:36PM

#18 DarkCampainger:  

Vic Rattlehead wrote:
> Oasis was lucky to win by a fluke

A fluke? How do you figure? Turtle Towers had a great balance of gameplay, content, and polish for a game put together in a day. Just the title screen is in a league of its own :P

I'd say it was a clear winner compared with the other entries (no offense meant to the other participants, myself among them ;)


> and not have anything in common with older entries.

But Iain said it was similar to an entry he enjoyed from '08, so I don't understand where you're getting this (typo?)

Monday, September 28, 2009 05:24PM