Dude! This is my first challenge I’ve placed in at all, totally stoked! I really enjoyed the general vibe on here of good feedback as well. Feels good. Nice job everyone
@TheRacingTurtle Thanks again for putting this competition on, it was a blast! And I look forward to more from you. If you wouldn’t mind just taking a look through this set https://mtgcardsmith.com/user/Rayne-Lord/sets/57959 and choosing some favorites from it that’d be awesome!
Hey! It's too bad I couldn't finish the challenge but congratulations everyone who participated and TheRacingTurtle for hosting, it was a really interesting concept for a challenge! =D
As for feedback on the challenge itself, here are my suggestions: 1) I've mentioned that already, but giving comments about everyone's work is important to make sure no one feels like they're designing for nothing. You've really improved that aspect around the third week, but because the same people always tend to go on the podium in this kind of competition, if you only give feedback to the top 3 people then the bottom of the rankings still won't get much interaction at all. 2) That was a lot of prompts xD In a way I really enjoyed the variety of challenges that were offered and they were really well presented, but I feel like it got overly complicated some weeks. A consequence of that is that some prompts from week to week might have felt a bit repetitive, especially when we don't know in advance what the next prompts will be. I'm thinking "Your enlightened plan/insidious scheme" on week 3 and "The results of your cult succeeding their plans" on week 4 as an example. 3) The prompts were very flavour oriented, I'd love to see some more mechanic-oriented prompts in the future. I was surprised to not see "Design a custom mechanic for your cult" as a prompt for instance. (By the way, this is a very specific point but the prompt that asked us to use your custom mechanics should probably be avoided in the future. I've seen a lot of participants just skipping it because the mechanics were too shaky.)
Overall, it was a fresh experience and you've presented the contest in a very clean and enjoyable way. I especially enjoyed the time you spent in the description of each prompt, it was super funny to read ^^ For your first challenge hosting ever, you went for a very difficult format and I think you managed it super well!
Adding on to the bit about the prompts, there were times where I definitely thought we'd have one prompt that didn't show up, or didn't expect a prompt that did. Like one of our prompts was to name our main rival, but then we never had to make a card for them or anything. Might just be a good idea to have a plan for what prompts your going to do and have them not butt heads/lead to people making cards early or avoiding cards that they might want to make.
And yeah, feedback for people outside of the top spots is really important, in fact maybe more important, because knowing where improvements can be made in the designs that don't make it can be a lot more meaningful than complementing the designs that are at the top. Not that the cards that do well shouldn't be acknowledged for their success and the things they did well, but part of that acknowledgement is already happening when they place in the top.
Thanks all, you’re right, that is some really important stuff to take into account. If I was to do a similarly style challenge as this one, do you feel it would work better to let the key prompts for each week be laid out from the start, with additional bonuses and such filled in each week? So you would have always known you’re building up to certain elements?
I see the feedback on everyone’s work is the biggest thing to bring, that’s totally understandable. Do you feel this would be best done publicly or in private messages? Or allow participants to opt into the choice at the start.
@TheRacingTurtle I think that, if there were to be a similar contest to this, I think it would be nice to be nice to have the main prompts talked about up front, or at least a vague outline of them. It would be good to at least have an idea of what's to come. That's just my thought, though.
Regarding feedback, generally for an ongoing challenge like this I think public feedback is best, because it allows other contestants to see the strengths and weaknesses of other peoples designs and not only learn from their own mistakes, but others as well.
That's my opinion though, and I know some people may not be as enthusiastic to have their designs critiqued in a public manner.
As for an outline from the start, I do think something like that would be good. It's obviously just kind of important to have some way to make sure people aren't going to just make all their cards at once.
I might return to this thread or message those or you who had thoughts on offer to run a proposal of the next challenge past you before I put it up, if I do such an extensive one again. Won’t be anytime soon though, I realised quickly this style requires more commitment than I had thought it might. Life has gotten a tad busy of late. Thanks again all.
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@TheRacingTurtle Thanks again for putting this competition on, it was a blast! And I look forward to more from you. If you wouldn’t mind just taking a look through this set https://mtgcardsmith.com/user/Rayne-Lord/sets/57959 and choosing some favorites from it that’d be awesome!
I've favourited the following from that set:
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/arox-storm-betwixt-worlds
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/morgoth-primal-hatred?list=set&set=57959
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/carcharoth-jaws-of-thirst?list=set&set=57959
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/melians-foresight-1?list=set&set=57959
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/shatterkeep-incantor?list=set&set=57959
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/abyssal-inquisition-2?list=set&set=57959
Some cool concepts in there, I haven't delved into Lord of the Rings lore. Wheel of Time was my epic-fantasy world of choice.
As for feedback on the challenge itself, here are my suggestions:
1) I've mentioned that already, but giving comments about everyone's work is important to make sure no one feels like they're designing for nothing. You've really improved that aspect around the third week, but because the same people always tend to go on the podium in this kind of competition, if you only give feedback to the top 3 people then the bottom of the rankings still won't get much interaction at all.
2) That was a lot of prompts xD In a way I really enjoyed the variety of challenges that were offered and they were really well presented, but I feel like it got overly complicated some weeks. A consequence of that is that some prompts from week to week might have felt a bit repetitive, especially when we don't know in advance what the next prompts will be. I'm thinking "Your enlightened plan/insidious scheme" on week 3 and "The results of your cult succeeding their plans" on week 4 as an example.
3) The prompts were very flavour oriented, I'd love to see some more mechanic-oriented prompts in the future. I was surprised to not see "Design a custom mechanic for your cult" as a prompt for instance. (By the way, this is a very specific point but the prompt that asked us to use your custom mechanics should probably be avoided in the future. I've seen a lot of participants just skipping it because the mechanics were too shaky.)
Overall, it was a fresh experience and you've presented the contest in a very clean and enjoyable way. I especially enjoyed the time you spent in the description of each prompt, it was super funny to read ^^ For your first challenge hosting ever, you went for a very difficult format and I think you managed it super well!
And yeah, feedback for people outside of the top spots is really important, in fact maybe more important, because knowing where improvements can be made in the designs that don't make it can be a lot more meaningful than complementing the designs that are at the top. Not that the cards that do well shouldn't be acknowledged for their success and the things they did well, but part of that acknowledgement is already happening when they place in the top.
I see the feedback on everyone’s work is the biggest thing to bring, that’s totally understandable. Do you feel this would be best done publicly or in private messages? Or allow participants to opt into the choice at the start.
That's my opinion though, and I know some people may not be as enthusiastic to have their designs critiqued in a public manner.
As for an outline from the start, I do think something like that would be good. It's obviously just kind of important to have some way to make sure people aren't going to just make all their cards at once.