I started thinking the other day about how there are always so many people who come on here who want to have portions of their stories and ideas critiqued, to see if their writing is at least half-decent in the eyes of others and just simply get a second opinion. Well I was thinking, “Why don’t we just hold a writing contest?” We'd pick a genre or a time period in which the story should take place (if any), give a few outlines as to what's expected in the story like how long it should be and the deadline for submissions, and then judge. I was also thinking that this would be a good idea just because I always see other contests out there mainly for the programmers and hardly any writing contests for us creative types. I don't know how many of you would be interested in this contest though... I have no means to which to reward any of you if I were to be the host or one of the judges of the contest. Sunandshadow, maybe you can pull some strings with the other admins and set it up so that the top three winners get a month's subscription to the GDNet+ deal, which is only a 5 dollar value, but it's better than nothing. Maybe their stories can be posted somewhere public for others to read too. I don't know, we’ll think of something. Anyhow, just basically wanted to see how many of you would be interested and to try and get this going. I'd supply further details about the contest if it gets the green light, or perhaps we can make it a collaborative effort on the contest outlines. But yeah, let me know what you all think.

I kinda tried something like this a while back, but the whole thing just tanked. I think that it could work, if we set some sort of 48 hour period (well, one week would probably be better), from when the plot outline is published to when the last story is sent/posted. I would be up for it.

What we could do is have all the entries sent as PM's to someone, who can then publish it on a secure web page for the other two or three judges to view as well (I know of a place that could do this). As much as I would like to enter the competition myself, I would be more than happy to put my hand up as one of the organizers (I can just hear the people waiting for the comic to be updated cleaning their guns….)

The staff say they are interested but you have to write up some objective criteria by which the stories will be judged, and name a judge or panel of judges.

I think this is an awesome idea. I would atleast try to enter this everytime i could. I have been wanting to join a team for writing quests and storylines and stuff so this would be great practice. Way to go for the idea Omega147!!!

If this sees any daylight, I'd be interested :)

I would submit an entry, absolutely.

great idea, but are you implying that programmers aren't "creative types"? i am trained as both a programmer and a designer, and have to be creative very often while programming. most problems you come up against when writing a game require a creative solution. if they didn't, everyone would be making games and there would be no money in it.
that said, make sure that when (if) you do this, you make it clear that any ip submitted is still owned by the writer, and that anyone who steals it is a bastard. i can see ten games being made all based on the winner of this thing now... :-D
anyway, hope this sees the light of day, could be very interesting...

Quote: The staff say they are interested but you have to write up some objective criteria by which the stories will be judged, and name a judge or panel of judges.

Alright, I'll work on this tomorrow after I've had some sleep. Just a quick note on the judges though, I think you, sunandshadow, would make an excellent judge, seeing as how you've shown a great sense and understanding of writing through your posts here in the writing forum. I also think Wavinator, who hangs out mostly in the Game Design forum, would make a fine judge as well. Then I imagined that I would be a judge too, although I haven't really taken the time to prove my judging abilities on stories... You folks would just have to trust me, or I could simply omit myself from the panel and select some other GameDev admin. Either way, I don't mind. The point of this contest is to allow everyone to express their creative abilities and just have fun, so let's keep it at that. We can decide on the judges as time allows, if the selected people are interested in the position, that is.

But anyway, moving onward...

Quote: great idea, but are you implying that programmers aren't "creative types"?

Well, I myself am a programmer (as well as a writer), and I agree with you that programmers do have to be quite creative at times when faced with challenging problems. So no, that wasn't quite my intention. What I was getting at is how writers are so neglected with gaming contests and, on a more subtle note, how writers aren't as acclaimed as they should be in the gaming industry. That's my opinion, anyway...

Oh yeah, one last item of business on the contest. We may want to make this opportunity available to the people in the game design forum as well, or if it's within the staff's best interest, have it available to everyone at GameDev.net by just announcing it in the news or something. Not sure though if they wanna take it that far... Anyhow, look for my post tomorrow. Goodbye for now.

Awwww, I wasn't chosen as a judge, nobody likes me [wink] I understand you only want moderators to do this. This would mean I could enter the comp now! Of course, I could still help you organize the competition without judging it, but this is up to you.

Cheers!

Quote: Original post by boolean
Awwww, I wasn't chosen as a judge, nobody likes me [wink] I understand you only want moderators to do this

We all love you boolean. I mean: 'bool loveForBoolean = true;' :) And yes, keeping the judging to mostly or only moderators here on GameDev.net would probably be more fair to everyone rather than if I were to tell you all that my brother, my uncle and I would be doing the judging. :P

Anyway, as for the objective criteria the staff is requiring, I sat down today and took the time to come up with all of that below, which for the most part is just a rough draft in need of a few changes.


Objective Criteria:
Submissions for the GameDev.net writing contest should be of the participants' own creation and must contain at least 2000 words, not exceeding a length of 3000 words (3000 may be too much... that's roughly 12 pages double-spaced). Every story submitted will be judged using these criteria:

- Presentation -
Have the rules on formatting been followed? Does the story use correct spelling, punctuation and grammar? The formatting part is just your basic outline stuff. No more and no less than 1 inch margins, having a title page with your name and the story's name on it, the font & font size the story should be submitted in, etc. Correct spelling, punctuation and grammar is a given. It's difficult to enjoy a story when there are a lot of mistakes and errors that detract the reader's attention from the plot. Just make sure you proofread. :)

- Suitability -
Does the story fit within the selected theme/genre of the contest? Is the story appropriate for both teens and adults (i.e., no erotica-type elements, no heavy use of profanity and no excessive gore and/or drug-use)? With the theme/genre, if the selected theme is 80's disco and someone submits something on Adolph Hitler, then that story probably won't score well. Then the appropriateness, that definitely needs to be followed. Since these stories may become available to the entire GameDev.net community, the submissions have to be kept within at least some sort of boundaries. Anything within a PG-13 rating should be fine.

- Originality -
Does the story have a unique and creative approach/plot? Does the plot develop in a natural and meaningful manner? Does the story keep the reader’s attention and push them to want to read more? Originality is crucial for any writer if they want to be successful. You can't steal ideas and exploit them if you ever expect to get anywhere with your own writing. Just be creative and develop your own ideas. The story in this criteria will be judged on its plot (i.e., if it makes sense, if it’s ‘good’, etc.) and on how well it maintains the reader’s interest. Be certain to be unique!

- Characterization -
Do the characters have unique personalities? Are the characters realistic in the context of the story? Are the characters' goals and motivations illustrated either directly or indirectly? Do each of the characters serve a purpose in the story (i.e., their existence affects the plot)? I once read somewhere that even terrible stories can have terrific characters and still make for an excellent read. I've noticed this a lot in games where any sort of sensible plot has been thrown out the window, yet there are some great characters that make you want to continue playing. But anyway, having well-portrayed and interesting characters in a story is vital, which will mostly effect the scoring in this section of the criteria.

- Word Choice -
Is language used effectively? Does the story have good sentence variety? Does the story make use of descriptive expressions? Is the dialog natural to the character speaking it? For language, I’m referring to whether or not a sentence makes sense with the words it contains. Trying to always use the longest, most sophisticated words in the English dictionary or having sentences that mimic phrases spoken by cavemen isn’t fun on the reader’s brain; the right words make all the difference. Then with sentence variety and descriptive expressions, you should all know what I mean there.

Then, after reading the story and these criteria, the judges would assign a score between zero and ten to each of the five fields above. This would allow for a maximum score of 50 points per judge. Then after all the submissions are graded, you simply take the three that scored the highest and you're done.

One last thing... As I said, the criteria above are probably in need of a bit of change. Some of the ideas may need modifications or clarifications, and we may need to even add a few more. If you think something else should be included in any of the five criteria fields, just post it and we can discuss it. Then once that’s been solidified, the contest can begin! :)