Can I trust the theme vote again ?

milker on 2010/08/07 17:11

Or anther """"""""""'eleventh""""""""""""" ??

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Comments

Akake on 2010/08/07 18:32:

I would hope we don't have another 'eleventh'. It'd be nice to have 5 good themes to choose from this time. ^_^

Cosmologicon on 2010/08/07 21:25:

I'm just hoping for one that non-native English speakers understand a little better than "wibbly-wobbly". :) I know last time a couple people did their best to follow the theme but still got docked because it didn't match up with other people's conception of it.

Akake on 2010/08/08 00:07:

Definitely.

I really hope we don't have the issue that LD had a while back when "Twilight Fandom" snuck in as a proposed theme and lots of folks voted for it as a joke; I don't like the idea of everyone voting for a theme as a joke and, as some messages from the LD admins put it "Think it's funny until they find out everyone else did, too".

richard on 2010/08/08 01:04:

I've got a week to sort out how I'm going to do the theme voting this time around. I am aware the theme last comp was a bit too out there for some.

Akake on 2010/08/08 01:45:

What I'm concerned about are the actual themes. I actually like the theme voting system here. I just don't like themes like 'Eleventh' and 'Wibbly-Wobbly'.

Just my opinion. :)

JDruid on 2010/08/08 02:38:

Coming up with good themes is hard. But I do think that so far many themes have been more 'clever' or mysterious than useful in practice.

Falun on 2010/08/08 03:04:

Mrm. For what it's worth I rather liked both Eleventh and Wibbly-wobbly.

blakeohare on 2010/08/08 05:26:

I'd just like to throw in that about a month ago I start watching through Doctor Who for the first time on Netflix and finally realized where the 5 theme candidates came from. The lightbulb shot off in the weeping angels episode. Since the last PyWeek was my first, I was wondering if the 5 theme choices are usually subtly related like that?

adrwen on 2010/08/08 12:08:

Don't the rules say something like:
"How entrants interpret the theme (whether it be cosmetically or for deeper meaning) is completely open."

Oh wait, that's exactly what they say (you'd think I have super human memory, in reality I don't)!

Now it seems that some entrants have interpreted this rule cosmetically rather than seeing it's deeper meaning; in reality isn't it supposed to mean that the themes are supposed to be outrageously weird (to make things interesting) forcing people to either make a really weird game or to just do whatever they feel like if they can come up with a good explanation (which could possibly deserve an award).

Conclusion: Give us stranger themes, that way we can avoid Tetris, Pong, Mario, and Tennis for Two clones!

gizmo_thunder on 2010/08/08 15:21:

:)) well said adrwen

JDruid on 2010/08/08 16:22:

In my experience outrageously weird themes make it more like a puzzle to include the theme somehow instead of inspiring game ideas. I can understand some people like it that way.

Cosmologicon on 2010/08/08 17:58:

Do you feel like that happens in Pyweek, JDruid? I remember seeing some weird theme candidates, but none of the themes that actually won strike me as weird. And looking at the games that resulted each time, it seems that many people had no trouble finding inspiration in the theme.

@adrwen: the themes are supposed to be outrageously weird (to make things interesting) forcing people to either make a really weird game or to just do whatever they feel like if they can come up with a good explanation (which could possibly deserve an award).

Well, I don't feel that way. It doesn't matter if you use theme as part of your core game mechanic or as a "cosmetic" outer layer. Either way, some aspect of your game should be inspired by the theme. If you're "doing whatever you feel like" and only retconning a relation to the theme as an afterthought, I think you're doing it wrong.

adrwen on 2010/08/08 19:29:

Well, I didn't really mean like my previous "game" (that was just sad) but the "deeper meaning" part implies that a clever (not far-fetched) interpretation of the theme is perfectly welcome if it didn't come as an afterthought. It doesn't really cut it to say "Hey I'll name the character <insert theme here>, that way I'll have the theme sorted out!" which, in defense of my Pyweek 10 game, I knew beforehand.

If everybody had made a jelly simulator for last Pyweek, or if everybody would have made a robot centric RPG for Pyweek 6, then it wouldn't have been much fun.

alia on 2010/08/08 21:28:

Even better: A robot jelly simulator. Best kind. Mmm robot jelly....*drool*

I always find that the less I like the theme the more I like my idea when I finally find something that fits. I agree with Cos, at least for me personally its a challenge to be as much in theme as possible. I always enjoy an entry that is cleverly thematic in a way I hadn't considered.

:)