MaGL X2 Organiser - VOTE HERE!

[ano0maly]

wheres raocow

[Zygl]

The officially-sanctioned discussion thread's in the graveyard and therefore impossible to post in. I'm assuming that's intentional since we can just discuss in here, but if not, well, yeah.

[Willhart]

I liked some of the ideas.

My vote goes for Horikawa.
Having to design around different characters would really increase the overall variety of the final level pack. Also that scoring had a really good fun factor and it gives extra points for uniqueness. I also feel like the letter based gimmick on the other one with similar scoring does not give enough direction to start from.

[ano0maly]

Next time please don't make jokes about how raocow submitted an entry. I was actually considering it.

[Dragon Fogel]

Hmm.

I really like Ignoritus' gimmick. Strongly leaning that way right now, but I want to think about it. Sturg and Minus have ideas I find really interesting, too. Minus' Peer Review gimmick particularly resonates with me because there were a lot of levels last time around that I felt only had minor flaws... maybe they wouldn't have been top-tier with a little more polish, but they'd definitely be levels that would be cool to see in an actual Mario game.

I'm a bit unsure on character selection gimmicks. On the one hand, that is a challenge for the designers and can lead to interesting levels; on the other hand, being able to try a section with different characters is pretty fun as a player, and I'd like to encourage that.

I feel like general themes or rough descriptions aren't quite as good as names as far as constraints go, and I can't really see 8flight's gimmick being all that practical. Maybe it could work for a smaller contest.

I'm probably voting Ignoritus, but I'll see what I think tomorrow before making up my mind.

[Holy]

I voted for Horikawa. The gimmick was fun last year, and the proposed twist doesn't overcomplicate things too much. Also we saw last year that she can run the whole thing pretty well even with a thousand billion entrants.

Thoughts on some of the others:

8flight: Would be kinda interesting to see how different levels furnish the same "path", but it seems pretty limiting.

Ignoritus: Cool idea, although I'm wary of how good some of the names could turn out. Probs my second pick.

Minus: Would take some insane coordination to pull off well.

sedron: Seems much more limiting than the name gimmick. With a name, you've got a lot more to interpret for yourself than you do with a "theme". If you've got lava + carnival, you'll be making a lava carnival level and that's that.

Weird Goonie: Same as sedron's idea, the descriptions you get could be pretty limiting. Kind of a combo of Ignoritus and sedron.

Fluffimasta: I wouldn't mind one of these someday, but eh. For one thing, that means anyone can submit any level they've ever made, basically. Plus I like it better when there's something to work off of.

raekuul: Kinda the same thing, the gimmick isn't "limiting" enough.

Sturg: Interesting idea. One problem is that it's pretty easy to dust off an old level and just come up with a name for it that fits the guidelines, so again you can essentially submit any level you've ever made.

One thing I don't think anyone brought up that I'd like to see implemented: the judges shouldn't know who made which level.

Also, something for the winner to consider adding as a rule: I think it would be cool if we all staked our lives on this contest. Picture this: all entrants are brought in and shot with a deadly poison that activates a month or two from now. Only those in the top ten are given the antidote. I think it would really get people thinking and boost creativity.

[Leet]

Also, something for the winner to consider adding as a rule: I think it would be cool if we all staked our lives on this contest. Picture this: all entrants are brought in and shot with a deadly poison that activates a month or two from now. Only those in the top ten are given the antidote. I think it would really get people thinking and boost creativity.

i legitimately want to see what would happen if this happened???? is that bad

[Sorel]

So I'm the only one who didn't come up with a proper gimmick?

Interesting...

[Money]

I chose Sturg. It seemed really unique and had the potential for a lot of variety. Personally, even though I loved last years MaGLX, the reason I didn't vote for Horikawa was because it just kinda feels like more of the same, but with another layer placed on top.

[Heraga]

Well I voted for Stug so we could overthrough Horikawa becuase I like that idea mostly.....mostly.

[raekuul]

Oh wow.

I hope I win (though I probably won't given there are other ideas up there - one of which is like mine but better)

[raocow]

man I'm seriously not sure what to vote here. Hm.

[Kapus]

Kind of a tough choice, but I ended up going with Horikawa because I'm very interested in the random character idea and where that could go.

Everyone's got cool ideas, though! Shame there can only be one.

[Grounder]

I went with Ignoritus.

Thankfully, Sturg was my second choice.

And Horikawa's gimmick doesn't seem bad, I'm just wary after last year's drama.

[Sniggerb0bble]

Personally I voted for Horikawa. I enjoyed the previous contest massively and I'm more for iteration rather than reinvention this time around. A lot of the other ideas were similar, but either too simplified or complex for my tastes. Plus I'm thinking there'll be value in having the same organiser again. Last MAGLX was one of the best contests I've seen organised and I'm curious to see how things can be improved upon if Horikawa is the one to run it again.

[Hoeloe]

Personally I voted for Horikawa.

Your reasons seem mostly similar to mine. I'm quite excited to see how it would turn out with some more polish, and the gimmick sounds both fun and well thought-out. There were a lot of good ideas there, but I think the idea of a second iteration, having learned from the first, would make an even better contest.

Now I just have to remember to enter this one.

[sedron]

I don't expect to win this position, but it's nice to see some people voted for me regardless. I'd be fine with any level of involvement, whether that's running the whole thing or just submitting a level.

Quick rebuttal to Holy in spoilers.

sedron: Seems much more limiting than the name gimmick. With a name, you've got a lot more to interpret for yourself than you do with a "theme". If you've got lava + carnival, you'll be making a lava carnival level and that's that.

I thought of this gimmick in an attempt to be less restricting, though I can see why you'd take it in the opposite direction. Still, there's a good amount of let in terms of interpretation.

Just using the same example, lava+carnival is a hard mode option, but neither part of that combination is really that limiting. Lava can come into play in a lot of ways. Is it an obstacle that the carnival makes use of? Is the carnival itself fire and lava-themed? Is the carnival situated, say, inside of an active volcano? If it's the last one, you could make a cool "grand finale," type of thing involving the volcano erupting. The carnival itself lends to different implementations as well. Is it a happy, fun place, or something more akin to a nightmare (think Insane Clown Posse, juggalos and stuff.) Is the player just traversing the carnival, or playing games in the carnival?

There really aren't any mechanical limitations in the themes, either. Creativity just comes from how the designer makes use of the themes. Maybe the lava carnival freezes over/cools down partway through. Maybe it holds some kind of dark secret leading to a boss fight. There are plenty of more generic ways to make such a level as well, like using rafts, moving lava layers, the fairy pendant...

Plus you get multiple choices, like how you got multiple names last contest.

[Zygl]

Voted Horikawa, by the way, since I didn't mention it earlier. 8flight's gimmick seems like it'd be a little weird to execute, Ignoritus', Minus', and Weird Goonie's gimmicks all have a participant-driven element to them which seems to me like it'd have the potential to be a total crapshoot, and Fluffi and raekuul's scoring rubrics both explicitly promote casual romps which is practically a cardinal sin in my book.
And between the other three, while I don't have any particular complaints about sedron's or Sturg's, I prefer Horikawa's. The level name gimmick was fun last time (and by the sound of it she's added patterns to the name generator, which is an exciting thought), the added wrinkle of using specific characters means statistically speaking there'd be a minimum of like 40% of the levels being built around non-Mario characters for once, and providing reactions like Horikawa did in the first MaGL X gave a lot more insight into what she thought of any given level than just a numerical score and I like that that'd be required of all the judges under her management. Plus it's Horikawa, we've already established she knows very well how to run a contest.

Well I voted for Stug so we could overthrough Horikawa

*adds Ningamer to the list*

[QuietProtag]

Ooohh, this was a hard choice, but I think I know who to vote for.

And I'm probably going to participate again this year.

[Heraga]

Well I voted for Stug so we could overthrough Horikawa

*adds Ningamer to the list*

I voted for Ningamer.

Then it's settled! 1 vote to all the others. I win!

Horikawa, I have a cool suggestion for your idea:

The hub will be grouped by the playable character. Like All the levels where Demo is ment to be used will be grouped together. Same with the others. There are also additional groups for levels where more then one character is used (let's use Demo and Iris as an example.) Those are also grouped together.

I hope the gimmick idea was written in 50 words or less.

[spitznagl]

I was hoping that SMW levels would be accepted this time, but it doesn't seem so. :­(

[raekuul]

and Fluffi and raekuul's scoring rubrics both explicitly promote casual romps which is practically a cardinal sin in my book.

I like casual romps. I like making casual romps. I like playing casual romps.

What's so wrong with casual romps?

[Septentrion Pleiades]

I don't like the random letter idea. It seems like much of the skill would be title inventing. If you are good at that, then it's not much of a gimmick, but another person would struggle greatly even if they can make a super good level.

[Sturg]

I don't like the random letter idea. It seems like much of the skill would be title inventing. If you are good at that, then it's not much of a gimmick, but another person would struggle greatly even if they can make a super good level.

I feel like you're making the gimmick, which is in fact a gimmick, whether you're "good" at it or not, a lot harder than what it actually is. You make a title out of letters, not the hardest thing to do. The hardest part would be that you actually have to apply it to a level that you may want to make, whether you make the title before or after.

There's probably too many points centered into the gimmick that it makes it kind of menacing.

Sturg: Interesting idea. One problem is that it's pretty easy to dust off an old level and just come up with a name for it that fits the guidelines, so again you can essentially submit any level you've ever made.

I'm pretty sure that's an argument you can make for just about every gimmick except 8flight's to an extent. Not much you can do about it though, even though I'm pretty sure you can do it anyway.

I also feel like the letter based gimmick on the other one with similar scoring does not give enough direction to start from.

Start from what? I'm a little confused by your critique.

Just a minor venting, but I like how because Horikawa hosted already and had done well automatically puts her up above everyone else to some folks. I''m pretty sure she volunteered for MaGLX with people not really knowing how well it would do. It's just seems unfair to me in a sense but ok sure.

[Zygl]

and Fluffi and raekuul's scoring rubrics both explicitly promote casual romps which is practically a cardinal sin in my book.

I like casual romps. I like making casual romps. I like playing casual romps.

What's so wrong with casual romps?

There's nothing wrong with casual romps, really, it's just that whereas you enjoy making and playing casual romps my preferences are the diametric opposite of yours. (Last time I entered a contest the SMBX community added a clause to their rules telling people not to submit kaizo levels, in a particularly extreme instance.) Having 10 points for the level of rompiness/playability discourages anything more difficult than a casual romp, which of course alienates people like myself.

tl;dr don't promote a specific level of difficulty in a general level design contest.

Just a minor venting, but I like how because Horikawa hosted already and had done well automatically puts her up above everyone else to some folks. I''m pretty sure she volunteered for MaGLX with people not really knowing how well it would do. It's just seems unfair to me in a sense but ok sure.

She has a proven track record as a person who can run a contest, naturally some people are going to lean in favor of having her do it again for that reason. That in mind, perhaps the gimmicks should've been presented independently of the entrants, but that could be argued either way and in any case there's not much to be done about it now.