Due to significant interest, the contest is going to be hosted by our very own and is planned to start on the 8th of January. More details can be found here.
You read that right. There's been substantial demand for another Last Legacy contest, so depending how things go, we might just have one.
Wait a minute, you said "might". Why make the topic if there's a chance if might not happen?
Good question, audience member. First off, that's correct, we "might". What's happened lately is that a lot of people say they intend to enter LDCs, but then end up running out of time, or don't like the theme, or just forget about it. This wouldn't normally be a bad thing- life happens! But Last Legacy contests have traditionally not been as popular as Super Mario 63 contests, generally seeing only a handful of serious competitors. This is a lot of wasted time and effort on the part of contest hosts (setting aside a month or more of their time to answer questions, defuse arguments, and wrap the event up), the judges (who need to beat and then review every submission), other participants (it's not really a competition with only 3 other entrants, is it?) and even the larger community (as we generally try to avoid hosting more than one event at a time). That's why we've decided on a poll, to evaluate community interest and decide if it's something we all want to invest in before even deciding on a date or theme.
Alright, how does the poll work, then?
Glad you asked! This is a new way to judge interest, so this will probably set our benchmark for future interest polls. How it works is, you pick one of the three options. Yes, you really really want to enter; Maybe, it'd be something nice to see even if you can't participate; or No, we should not have a contest right now. It's important to answer honestly, because this is something like a contract- if you pick Yes, you're expected to see it through all the way to the end unless something really serious like a family emergency or surprise illness comes up. When the poll concludes, we'll see how many votes there are for each answer and evaluate whether it's worth actually hosting the contest. More votes for Yes means it is much more likely to happen, whereas more votes for No means it may not. A vote for Maybe will count toward No, although at a much lesser weight (1 Maybe might be equivalent to 1/3 or 1/2 of a No vote, for instance).
I'd like to reiterate that we are looking for honest answers. If we get a lot of Yes votes and almost nobody submits a level, we aren't going to be super keen to try another contest in a hurry. It's not the end of the world if No wins- if there's a lot of Yes votes, chances are we'll have the contest anyway, and if for some reason nobody can commit to a contest, it's no big deal- we'll just have another poll in a month or so.
You mentioned things like the theme and date aren't even decided yet! How do you expect us to vote honestly, when you can't even tell us when it will take place?
That's an excellent question. Obviously, releasing the theme weeks before the contest might start might give sneaky designers an advantage over the rest of the competition, so for security reasons we won't be releasing all that information at once. Instead, every so often, we'll leave updates here, so you can find out who the host would be, when it can be expected to start, and so on. The poll currently has no deadline (we'll let you know here well in advance if that changes, though) and you can change your vote as many times as you want, so even if you voted Maybe because you're busy right now, you can change your answer when we let everyone know that it won't start for a couple weeks yet. The theme will probably be the last thing to go public 3-4 days before the contest is due to start.
Okay. Is there anything else we should be aware of?
Just a couple things- first, I'd like to reiterate honest answers in the poll. We understand that life happens and you may need to drop out, but if half the people who said they were going to enter suddenly don't because they left things to the last minute, it's going to have consequences in the future. Speaking of consequences, this whole poll deal is pretty new and a major change to how contests have typically been run around here. If it goes well and turns out to be an accurate prediction of community interest, we might continue using it. If everyone hates it, let us know why and we'll see what we can do.
We think Last Legacy is a really nifty game with a lot of potential, and it's disheartening to see so few people take contests seriously. We understand that it's still a game in development, subject to change, and that this can be off putting when you decide to put it to work- what if all your beautiful levels are broken in the next update? What if the next update never comes? We don't have the answers to those questions, but a strong turnout for this contest would go a long way toward attracting new users to the game, and keep it in the spotlight until Runouw goes public with it.
Just one last question- if this is a Last Legacy LDC, why is the topic here and not on the LL forums?
The Last Legacy forums have been dormant for an extended period as of the time this was posted. We've decided that it's more accessible here on Runouw.com due to our larger and more active userbase, but will also be creating a topic over on the LL side of things for anyone there who isn't also registered here. If you'd like to advertise the contest over there (or anywhere else for that matter) feel free. A lot of participants makes it a better experience for everyone.
