Custom Unit Competition Follow Up-Your Thoughts Count

[chief]

First off I must apologize. It has been a long time since I have been in the contest/competition game since I used to run the Speed Unit and Terrain Contests. It is noticeable that my attention to detail has slipped. Additionally, due to outside circumstances, the final results were delayed and the names of each entrant were lost, I made some mistakes and for that I am sorry.
With that said I will attribute this rough patch to being rusty and can only thank the community and Dr.Goomonkey for your support and understanding. Dr.Goomonkey and I were hoping to try a new format for the Custom Unit Contests and I think it went over well enough. But not great. So I want to open up a discussion to the participants.

- What went well and not so well with the May Competition?
- What are your thoughts on the new format?
- What other types of formats would you like to see in the future?
- How do you prefer your names to be displayed when announcing the winners?
- What types of themes interest you?
- How was the time frame?
- Do you have any other comments?

[CJofCourse]

The only real gripe I have about this last one was that I don't think it was clear as to how many votes each person gets, while it appears most people voted once, some voted more than that. We had 18 voters and 23 votes... Also, after the competition, perhaps display everybody's name with their respective card, so we can congratulate properly.

[Lazy Orang]

- What went well and not so well with the May Competition? - My only real issues would be the ones CJ mentioned - it wasn't really clear how many votes each person got. Now, I don't actually mind a 'vote for as many as you want' system, but if that's the intent I feel like it would be best if it were made clear. Apart from that nitpick, I think it went generally well - I have no issues!
- What are your thoughts on the new format? - I really liked it - working without a specific figure in mind but instead with a theme to work around was really interesting. What I would like to note, though, is that what made it interesting was how broad the theme was, and I would like to see that again in other contests with this format - one of the great joys of these contests for me is trying to think a bit outside the box, and this theme allowed that kind of creativity, but I would like any future themes to emphasise that as well.
- What other types of formats would you like to see in the future? - As much as I loved the theme-based rather than figure-based brief, I would still like to see the ones where you're given a figure to work with from time to time, maybe having them alternate? I would love to see more of both, and if you can think of any other ways to work a contest as well, that would be interesting to see too. What I would prefer not to see are any where both the figure and the theme are dictated - not enough room for creativity there.
- How do you prefer your names to be displayed when announcing the winners? I'm cool with just having my user name tagged above my design in the OP, regardless of how it did.
- What types of themes interest you? - I may get back to you, but I can't think of much yet - all I really have right now is to reiterate that I'd like to see themes that allow for/encourage creativity with the specific theme you create for your unit as well as the mechanics. Maybe Demons, Undead and Spirits are the sorts of things that, if listed loosely enough, could allow for some creativity? Maybe even themes that are more bizarre or more abstract, like artillery? Just throwing ideas out there.
- How was the time frame? - Felt fine to me - time enough to get a design together, time enough to vote, not long enough for interest to wane, at least for me.
- Do you have any other comments? - Not really, except that it was a really good contest that I greatly enjoyed taking part in!

[Dr.Goomonkey]

Very nice "first" contest, @chief ! Even with a couple speedbumps, we got 7 great submissions, and introduced a really cool new format!

I like the idea of alternating the formats a lot, though since we're usually going to be alternating hosts we'll have to figure out a way to both be able to host both formats... Hmm...

[Sam]

- What went well and not so well with the May Competition?
The vote thing. Maybe stick to either "you can vote for [x number of] entries" or "you can vote for one entry"?

- What are your thoughts on the new format?
Really interesting, having no fixed figure but a variety of possible concepts to run with opened up the possibilities for creative designing.

- What other types of formats would you like to see in the future?
The old format was good too. Maybe something where a specific power must be included, or a figure with a given name, personality etc and points cost and let entrants figure out the rest... I like the idea of keeping it changing, keeping it fresh.

- How do you prefer your names to be displayed when announcing the winners?
Just putting the username for each of the entrants seems good.

- What types of themes interest you?
I'm not a big fan of 'novelty' concepts, but otherwise it's all good.

- How was the time frame?
Seemed just right to me.

- Do you have any other comments?
I don't think so, other than to say thank you for running the contest, it was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to the next one