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techumseh
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of the frozen North.
Apr 1999
time: 22:13
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Two entries were recieved: "The Quest for the Golden Fleece", by Poseidon, and "The Odyssey", by Athena. Both were well made, clearly the result of lots of work by both contestants. Drawing on two separate but similar Greek myths, both entries had the same overall theme and feel.
Poseidon's entry had a "not quite finished" feel, as evidenced by the need to debug the events files before playing. Nevertheless, once that was done, it provided an interesting and challenging quest. The quest can be undertaken from the point of view of three different civs, each with its own set of events. There some interesting techniques used to create difficult problems to solve. On balance, it is a very good scenario and one definitely worth playing.
Athena's entry was excellent. It combined challenging gameplay with a strict adherence to the original myth. All aspects were carefully done. The use of events, in particular, was sophisticated and interesting. An effort was made to provide atmosphere through music and text. Good background information was included as well.
The use of impassible units, etc., made for a very linear game. The player isn't "wandering", or really lost, but are following a very defined path. I think this was justified in a quest scenario, given Athena's desire to follow the myth closely.
While "The Odyssey" also included technical "bells and whistles" such as bat. files to change events and so on, I did not take these into account in the judging.
The winner of the Scenario Design Contest #3, for Fantastic Worlds, is Athena for his/her entry "The Odyssey." In all aspects, it is a superb scenario. Congratulations!
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Athena
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Thank You! An award like this was just the stuff of dreams when I first began to create scenarios a few years ago. Scenario design contests in the past have produced some memorable works by some of the masters of the genre, so the bar was set quite high. An SDC winning design had better push the technical limits, and be fun to play too!
The Odyssey was very enjoyable to make, especially the decision to create an adventure scenario based closely upon the actual Bronze Age tale. To retain the interest of the player events had to be many and varied, new art was needed, and the tale would have to be compelling. It's also probable that most people have only a passing knowledge of Homer's epic ("it has a Cyclops in it?"), so lots of text would be required to keep the storyline alive. The decision to "go the last mile" by adding the island of Ithaca, the Odyssean palace, and the battle with the suitors was actually a last minute one. Thank heavens for Dusty's newly released Mapcopy utility, because that whole corner of the map was originally the Bulgarian/Romanian basin! Being forced to change it via the cheat menu, one square at a time, would certainly have proven impossible. The scenario itself seemed to be well received once released, and that's always gratifying to the designer....awards be damned!
That said, it was very disappointing to see only two entries in this contest. Hopefully it's just the theme which failed to inspire, or perhaps the way in which the original organizers bailed out. But the Design Community was VERY silent during the creation phase of this event, something which will have to change it's to be successfully resurrected. Many people NEED the feed back which comes from having their efforts discussed in public. Perhaps that's something which could be formalized in the future, some kind of ongoing thread in the Sleeg and/or Creation forums.
A final comment to Tecumseh and Cam. This contest was DOA until you two resurrected it. Win or lose, you guys were going to get a sincere "thank you" from me!
(Edit for typos)
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by Athena (edited January 14, 2001).]</font>
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MagyarCrusader
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Congratulations Athena!
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Cam
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Australia
Jan 1970
time: 14:43
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<center><table width=80%><tr><td><font color=000080 face="Verdana" size=2><font size="1">quote:
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1>
</font><font size=1>Originally posted by Athena on 01-14-2001 12:18 PM</font>
That said, it was very disappointing to see only two entries in this contest...
A final comment to Tecumseh and Cam. This contest was DOA until you two resurrected it. Win or lose, you guys were going to get a sincere "thank you" from me!
<img src="/images/blue1.gif" width=100% height=1></font></td></tr></table></center>
Firstly, congratulations! Some day soon we'll drop the psudonyms, and you will be hailed as a great designer! (All a bit melodramatic - but nonetheless, well done!)
I was very pleased with both scenarios in terms of the care and quality that clearly went into the contest. You're right - two is a disappointing number however, and this I presume is partly attributable to running two contests simultaneously. I'm curious how things will go with Dracula.
I'm not quite sure what the deal was with the original organising group. It was not my intention to play such an administrative role, but leaving the whole thing to Techumseh was clearly both impractical and unhelpful. Thanks for your acknowledgement.
Congratulations again!
To anyone who's played both, People's Choice voting shall take place on this thread. Please nominate your preferred scenario...
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by Cam (edited January 14, 2001).]</font>
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