PGD Annual 2009

**AthenaOfDelphi** · 03-07-2009, 01:55 PM

Due to one or two other commitments that have eaten my time, I've fallen behind with developing the competition site. Please don't panic as I am going to be releasing details of the theme and opening signups etc. on Sunday 5th July, and stage 1 will commence immediately, ending on 11th July as originally planned.

There will be some points for the design document.

We have (unless things change, at least four judges... two representatives from two of our sponsors and two others. I say at least, as I'm waiting to hear back from another sponsor). So, when I setup the questions to the judges forum later this weekend... please be courteous at all times as you could be talking to some of our sponsors. Please don't hassle the judges about machine specifications... that information will be available to you via the competition homepage on the competition site as soon as the judges have submitted it.

If you have any questsions/comments/concerns etc. about anything relating to the competition, please email me directly on athena at outer hyphen reaches dot com and make sure you put PGD2009 in the subject line... if you don't it may be filtered by my spam filter.

**dazappa** · 04-07-2009, 03:02 AM

Darn I was getting excited to hear the theme tomorrow -- well at least it's only one day more to wait (currently)... not like 2 weeks. Hate when that happens. Good luck finishing the compo site.

And what do you mean by "There will be some points for the design document."?

**AthenaOfDelphi** · 04-07-2009, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by dazappa

Darn I was getting excited to hear the theme tomorrow -- well at least it's only one day more to wait (currently)... not like 2 weeks. Hate when that happens. Good luck finishing the compo site.

And what do you mean by "There will be some points for the design document."?

Yes, apologies to everyone that was looking forward to the theme release, but I'd rather release the details with as much of the compo site in place as possible.

In terms of points awarded for the design document, its only going to be like 5pts per judge or something like that. It's not going to be a massive amount. But, it could make the difference at the end.

I will say that people do seem to get hung up on the design document when really there is no need. Once the theme is announced I'm pretty sure everyone will have an idea that they want to make a reality... so, this documents purpose is to help you make it a reality. There could be rough ideas about in-game mechanisms, scoring, what determines the end of the game, layouts of screens, controls, how the game progresses and if you want to go for it, even a roughed out project plan or a giant To-Do list. What you include is up to you. I will suggest that design documents are in a rich document format such as MS Word format (everyone can produce a Word document... if you don't have Word, you can get OpenOffice).

People have asked about whether we'll hold them to the design documents... the precedent was set in 2006 I think when at least one competitor completely changed their game because of difficulties with their original concept. That is not a problem, you won't be docked points.

From the other side of the fence, as a judge on the 2007 competition, I found it really interesting reading what people were going to try and do, and I'm sure other competitors did also.

**dazappa** · 04-07-2009, 12:18 PM

Oh yeah I definitely agree a design document is useful to both yourself and the judges, but I've never done a PGD (obviously) and didn't know that it was point based or that the design doc had any point worth

.

I won't get hung up on a design doc either.. although I can generally keep things slightly organized in my head and come out with an end result I'm happy with, it's still helpful to write one up. I'm a creative type of guy, won't be a problem. (And I have OpenOffice and MS Office so that's not a problem either.. there's also google docs)

On a random sidenote, will you be judging/competing? (I'm guessing not competing at least heh)

**AthenaOfDelphi** · 04-07-2009, 12:22 PM

You're absolutely correct... I won't be competing and I won't be judging, although it is traditional for the organiser to be the independent voice of reason for judges and competitors if there are any problems that arise.

**Ñuño Martínez** · 05-07-2009, 11:07 AM

Can't wait more!

**AthenaOfDelphi** · 05-07-2009, 11:30 AM

I'm just finishing up the basics of the competition site so that people can register for the competition. As soon as I'm happy we have a functional site, I'll take down the site and upload the development version of the competition system.

It isn't 100% feature complete, the rest of the features will be added as the competition progresses... for now, the important thing is signsup and information.

So, be patient... it is coming

**jdarling** · 05-07-2009, 04:22 PM

Any word on how much longer... Been waiting with baited breath, but my refresh button is getting warn out

**AthenaOfDelphi** · 05-07-2009, 05:23 PM

Originally Posted by jdarling

Any word on how much longer... Been waiting with baited breath, but my refresh button is getting warn out

I'm working as fast as I can guys... I've been at this since about 10am yesterday morning give or take about 6 hours sleep and a couple of hours for food.

I just have one more section of the competition home page to write, then it's upload and setup time. I have two more sponsor logos to organise and I'll be all set to release details and everything.

So, just bear with me.

**AthenaOfDelphi** · 05-07-2009, 06:13 PM

The new PGD Annual website at www.pgdannual.com is now open for signsups and setting up your teams.

I am currently setting up the competition and will provide a further announcement when it's all ready to go.