tSRCompos & Activities

[Previous]

I've noticed and I assume many of you noticed it, too, that the participation has rather declined during the last competitions. Thus I set up the poll to give us an overview on the situation and what could be done to improve them. I'd appreciate it if you'd take the time to click some of the boxes. Comments elaborating on your view would be great, too, as well as suggestions of any kind. You can write about what you liked and didn't like about past tSRCompos, too.
The main purpose of these competitions is to get people to sprite more and have a fun time so it'd be cool if we could work something out that improves participation. We could alternate between compos and other events and activities, too.

This thread is here to discuss everyone's thoughts on events as well as ideas for future activities. See it as some kind of guideline and a means of getting feedback on ideas.

This topic stays open for further discussion. Compos and activities are a community subject so everyone is free to put in their two cents.

[Garamonde]

to be honest I can't decide on just one activity. I love having all of them but it also takes away from people doing things for any of them, so it's kind of a conundrum (the title screen compo for example was successful, but I think with the whole competition aspect being over, no one wants to make anything for it anymore). I'm also doing other stuff plus have not been in much of a creative mood, and while I love collaberative things, and are one of the things that attract people to try things (like Giant Pixel, especially when the submission is small and easy to do), I'm not much on that specific setup. things like Grow didn't grab me at all either. I feel we need something more interesting. maybe something like TUGS that isn't TUGS, idk. I think the difficulty tiers, themes and being grouped against others in a similar skill level set a really competitive mood for the whole thing and made it fun. we should definitely try something like that again, as long as it's organized properly. I would even join in on it again because I've improved since the last competition. we also need more people to critique our work, as that would probably drive people to continue what they're doing. maybe we could have some people take spots as critics but not competing? that doesn't mean other members couldn't critique, though.

[Baegal]

I really like the concept of competitions--I just haven't really had time (which is why I really only lurk for now)
I think smaller competitions would work, but I REALLY like the idea of having them focus on concepts with tutorials and what not.
We shouldn't scrap the compos--I just haven't had much time to do any pixel art stuff

[Garamonde]

yea I think a lot of the reason is people not having time cause of school etc., but even when school was going on we still had lots of entries, I think, so it kinda varies on the subject of the compo I think.
the occasional monthly activity is also nice, but I'd still like to try a TUGS-style big compo like I mentioned earlier but probably do it during the summer where everyone is off from school if we do it.

[Gors]

I for one, never was interested in the compo objectives, so this is why I never did much. We also know that it's not a great time for spriting too since many of us are busy with real life.

So, I would suggest either:

1-Doing simpler compos with plenty of time;
2-Doing activities instead of compos, which can be done any time.

Personally, I'm inclined to activities, but I can't guarantee I'll be participating on them too.

[DioShiba]

I never really bothered to enter into too much competitions here. Mostly because I've become more and more busy as time has moved on.

I haven't really bothered to enter competitions lately because I've become more absorbed into traditional art than I have with pixel art, that and I'm slightly interested into making digital art sooner or later. Point is my interests in art have changed over time and it's become kind of a hassle for me to jump between different mediums constantly while trying to take care of my school work.

I like the idea of having competitions in other mediums however. Which is something I'd be interested in entirely. Although I'd like it if there was a competition that didn't entirely center itself on fan art all of the time. And sure it's fun and all making a different interpretation of a video game character you like truth be told it gets really boring after awhile trying to recreate a character that is already in existence. So I personally think that more original ideas for a competition would be great.

Then again, I think the entire community should have input on what competitions there are. So perhaps if there was a way for the entire community to send in their ideas for competitions then honestly I think that some of the ideas members have might gain interest amongst the rest of the community.

[Vipershark]

More feedback, comments & criticism on submissions
Focus on special techniques (+ tutorials?)
Difficulty tiers like begginer, intermediate, advanced with increasing difficulty
I'm just too busy at the moment

tSR is an... aging community. Perhaps "mature" is a better word. Most of us are in high school and/or college now and have jobs and simply don't have time to sprite anymore.
Aside from being terrible at it in general, that's the biggest reason that I don't enter the compos or do much else art-wise around here.
...but I really want to. I just don't have the time.

I'd definitely like to see more C+C on submissions to help people improve.

I think difficulty tiers might be a good idea so that everyone can have something on their level.

I also really like the idea of focusing on special techniques and tutorials. Actually teaching people spriting skills and how to put them into practice instead of "this needs AA" or "this is banded" or "check the spriting dictionary" is a lot more helpful.
EDITS REALLY HELP A LOT TO SHOW PEOPLE HOW TO FIX THINGS.

Perhaps monthly objectives would be better than weekly ones.

[Garamonde]

edits help yes but if you always just show people how to fix things they won't know how to fix something going on feedback alone, they'll be expecting to see people show them without them having to figure anything out for themselves. juts my thoughts though, your other points are pretty agreeable imo.

[Gors]

I think that by 'edit', he means what I do sometimes: an image with edited sprites and text explaining why their aspects are bad and how to fix it. To be honest, I miss those; people used to do this more frequently. I still make it, but it's hard to do it while dealing with real life.

if anything, I encourage people to do such insightful edits, because those are a great way to improve not only the targeted person, but everyone who reads it.

[DioShiba]

Far as difficulty levels go in competitions, I feel like that would be a massive effort to create a ton of different competitions for the sake of catering to one's ability. Don't get me wrong, it is a good idea. But there's far more problems to sorting out the good artists from the beginners than the pluses that come out of it in a community as small as this.

Like Vipershark said, we're an aging community. Most of us are out in college or working to make some sort of living and that deters us from dedicating ourselves to make things out of our spare time. Even if you're going for an art major like I'm trying to, chances are you're not going to be able to make a ton of things because you'd have to focus on doing the stuff you'd have to do in your classes, and all of that is usually for the sake of getting a decent connection or two to find a good job.

Now aside from that lets imagine ourselves in high school, we would probably have more free time to do these things granted we got all of our homework, sports practices, or clubs out of the way. We just aren't like that anymore though, but that doesn't mean there are kids who aren't at that stage of life where they need to grow up.

I think personally before we go ahead and make difficulty levels in competitions, we're going to have to start building up and work towards to a bigger community of artists within the TSR community, and I know for a fact that we don't exactly have a lot of spriters like we used to, and for the most part whenever we get a newbie or two they don't exactly take criticism well and that leads to a shit fest of things.

Although it's almost another thing entirely, I don't think we'll be seeing a lot more participation in competitions unless we do otherwise.

On another note though, I'm still highly interested in the idea of having a board where everyone could make their own competitions, Kind of like what Pixeltendo used to do with sprite duels and stuff like that but hopefully more organized than what it was.

[Garamonde]

oh yes, also one on one sprite duels. that sounded really fun and I would so go for that too.

[Gors]

I agree with diog. tSR needs quality new members in order to give these compos a meaning. After all, let's face it: all the top spriters are either 1: busy with stuff and 2: not here anymore. That's ok, it's natural for a community to experience such stuff: people come and go all the time.

Instead of compos, what if we halt them for a while and focus on deep C+C a little more? Without wise and experienced spriters, there will not be exciting compos.

[Previous]

Thanks to everyone for their input.

I decided to split this from Compo17 so we can keep it as a general tsrCompo / Activity discussion thread. You can also post ideas for activities or events here. So if you've got an idea and aren't sure if anyone would be interested, you may be able to get an answer in this thread.

As it seems, the general response is that most people are too busy and would prefer smaller tasks over longer timespans. It is also quite obvious that a stronger focus on the learning effect would be appreciated - through more comments and criticism as well as tasks centering around specific subjects with tutorials to top them off.

I agree that the the (semi-) weekly compos should probably better be put aside, at least for a while. This doesn't mean that competitions or activities shouldn't be started at all - I just think it'd be better to discuss ideas here instead and only start an even when there is actual interest. The tsrCompos may have suffered from forced themes because the winner had to come up with one out of nowhere, without knowing if it was a good one.

That said, carry on, this topic stays open for further discussion. Compos and activities are a community subject so everyone is free to put in their two cents.

[Gaia]

I haven't really bothered to enter competitions lately because I've become more absorbed into traditional art than I have with pixel art, that and I'm slightly interested into making digital art sooner or later.

Interestingly enough, that has happened with me not at another medium (since I use a dinky laptop), but to write stories more and more. Yes, I had that problem before, but it was due to my lack of time and not being able to find time for myself anymore to FIND a creative part of myself and flush it out.

That and since I'm out of highschool and on the hunt for a good-paying job I might not have time for this anymore. that and this community's aging temperment might need work too. So far it seems to have developed a "get off mah lawn whippersnapper!" attitude towards the younger memberbase.. hmm..

I must be out of practice by now in the larger pixel department due to this...

[DioShiba]

because I pretty much ended up writing a book here, herp.

I haven't really bothered to enter competitions lately because I've become more absorbed into traditional art than I have with pixel art, that and I'm slightly interested into making digital art sooner or later.

Interestingly enough, that has happened with me not at another medium (since I use a dinky laptop), but to write stories more and more. Yes, I had that problem before, but it was due to my lack of time and not being able to find time for myself anymore to FIND a creative part of myself and flush it out.

That and since I'm out of highschool and on the hunt for a good-paying job I might not have time for this anymore. That and this community's aging temperment might need work too. So far it seems to have developed a "get off mah lawn whippersnapper!" attitude towards the younger memberbase.. hmm..

I must be out of practice by now in the larger pixel department due to this...

Exactly, when you wind up going with another medium of art it's almost hard to go back to the other. Not because you can't do it or anything, its really more or less because you want to get better at the other medium.

Far as that goes I wouldn't mind going back to doing sprites again, but far as I am concerned my interests in art have become bigger. If I were to go back into spriting I would much rather be doing animations than still work and nothing more.

Now for the other thing I kind of want to point out.

Honestly, far as that part you scratched out about the older user base vs. the younger user base. I'm actually kind of inclined to agree, but I don't really see much of the hostility that would go around (unless we're referring to people who can't seem to handle criticism we give and all the sudden they have to spread rumors about us, then that's something we just have to deal with. We're not going to get a new member that's willing to accept how we do things around here 24/7). Maybe it's because I don't lurk as much as I used to, but honestly I have my own things to do and generally I go to the general discussion, game discussion, or the creativity boards. I very rarely come here unless I'm really bored to do so.

I won't lie, I actually care about where this community goes. And so far as time went on I've seen a lot of improvement since 4 and a half - 5 years ago when the split between TSR and PT was made. We've all come a long way from where we were back then. And if you looked back at some of the things that happened here late PT and early TSR, there was a lot more hostility here than there is now, and actually, it's kind of heartwarming and great that it's lowered down where most of us have become more and more mature and there's been less bullshit. I'm not the perfect member to say much about it or actually be in the position where I can actually make a massive contribution here (or have a sense of maturity to actually deal with certain social situations, which I admit from deep down), but from and observational point of view it's something I think we as a community can be happy about that.

That said, I think we need to start opening the doors to newcomers here. Sure, it won't be easy and chances are it will mean that we'd have to make more changes to that, but in the end who's to say it won't work in the long run? We've already got the point where the community has aged, but if we want to keep this place alive in general we'd have to start getting our mindset changed with newer members, then we might see participation in more activities that we hold here.

That's just another two cents I have about this, but I think that's just somewhere that I would stand at this point.