The contest results are bullshit

Alright, let's see...
First things first: I'm not mad that I'm not in the top five. I'm just utterly disappointed and angry for these winners. I'll probably offend most of the winners in this post. I don't give a single shit.

First of all...

We are kind of looking for something created for this contest. Stuff you already work on is fine but projects created just for this competition will be looked upon more favourably.
EhytFA.gif

Yeah, sure. Four of the winners aren't bounty projects.
And you know, what's even better?

In previous GBAtemp bounties, we have called upon our members to code projects for various devices. This however, left a lot of our fellow Tempers out in the dark, as not everyone has the knowledge or skill to code apps and games.
[...]
Projects can literally be anything; are you good with art? Draw, paint or craft something for us to see! Maybe you are creative with woodwork, an avid gardener or like photography? You can also enter!
The usual coding entries will still be accepted, but this time we wanted to make it possible for as many members to take part as possible!

Anything, you say? Really? Yeah. Anything's accepted. Too bad not anything's appreciated. Four of the winning projects are coding projects. Makes you think, ey?


Alright. Now, I'm gonna comment on all the winners, and why they should or shouldn't be on the list. The first place is pretty rant-y, I know, but I'm pretty angry about it as well, and you'll see, why.

#5 newo: NewoSky - $25 Amazon Gift Card
NOT a Bounty project
This has been in the making for around two years.
Interesting idea, but still not made for the contest.

#4 Asia81: HackingToolkit9DS - $25 Amazon Gift Card
NOT a Bounty project
This is an around 1 year old project, that is already well-known and widely used piece of software. This feels like as if someone entered FBI or freeShop. It's just not right. Software like this basically gets a head start, which is really not fair.

#3 Dr.Hacknik: SimpliiU - $50 Amazon Gift Card
NOT a Bounty project
This tool, while useful, presents nothing original, and is just a programme that copies stuff to your SD card if you're too lazy to do it yourself.
This should not be on the list of winners.

#2 cracker: DIY PCB etching / Arduino controller shield - $100 Amazon Gift Card
Bounty project
The only project that was made for the Bounty. Are you fucking kidding me?!
This one's pretty good. It should honestly be first place out of these five. It's really creative and has a lot of work put into it.

#1 Voxel: Stick Magician - GBAtemp Bounty Demo - GPD Pocket
NOT a Bounty project
Oh, boy. OH, BOY! This should NOT be first place!
This is also a VERY old project. And you know, what's the worst thing about it? It has nothing to do with the Bounty! What's this? A test level made for his game, that he's already been working on for quite some time. The Bounty might've motivated him to make said test level, but this is something he would've done anyway in some time. Not only that, but (according to unnamed sources) it mostly just uses Unity's built in stuff, and excluding the art assets, this can be made in a couple of hours. Also, according to my experience, said art assets can be made in ~30 minutes!


Now, what can we do to avoid this in the future?
More attention to stuff other than programming
If you're gonna advertise this "anything, not just programming" shit so much and then ignore it for most of the list, we need a different system. There shouldn't be five winners from any category. There should be a couple of fixed categories, and there should be one winner per category. This would not only encourage people to make more varied submissions, but would also prevent shit like THIS.

Fuck the mods and Patrons-only system
It should either be
Just mods: so we can have some responsible adults thinking about the distribution of basically 700 US Dollars,
or everyone: if we're gonna have normal people voting basically just for stuff they like, it shouldn't be just a couple of them.


I'm actually angry at this contest. Even by just looking at the first two places you can see the problems. One is clearly much better and more creative than the other one, yet it didn't win. What the fuck?!
I'm so furious, I could literally flip my table with my laptop, phone and Wacom tablet on it. Fuck this shit!

Also, wow. I've apparently taken more than an hour to write this shit. Phew.
View attachment 103426 View attachment 103427
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Comments

@The Real Jdbye Only 4 patrons voted. More staff members voted than patrons if i understood it right. I do agree with your post as a whole though.
 
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i'm happy the prize went to a child/young guy i guess, and not someone with a job?
for example, it would be nice if i won it - but i have a job and i can buy it myself. (not that this is a charity)

just an idea.

at least all the prizes didn't go to p0keac0r and his multiple accounts
 
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@dimmidice I didn't actually vote either, I completely missed the vote thread. I was busy packing to leave for vacation the day it was posted and left the next day and haven't really been browsing GBAtemp actively while I've been here so...
Next time I'll pay better attention, I guess.
 
@The Real Jdbye People will vote for what impress them the most. We don't exclude any project from entering, but we can't control what people vote for. If programming entries is what most people is the most impressed by: then that's how it is. Then again, there are always ways to make the work of the project more impressive: by showing the process. Instead of just submitting a photo, submit several versions of the photo, describe lighting and composition, and why certain decisions were made, to explain why the final photo looks the way it looks. The same with art (one dude submitting some art did show several stages of the drawing, which was nice). Or knitted hats: Show the process, or maybe include a pattern so that others can enjoy making their own, instead of just a photo of a hat that you already sell for money.

And as for patrons voting: It was a point in the patreon announcement, it is one of three bullet points in the patreon $2+ backer information, and is in the name of the patron sub-forum.
 
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Yes, because every patron frequents the patron sub.. Not to mention the point in the patron amount. Again. Low number of patron votes. Really should have done more to push involvement.

Signed up to be a patron after the announcement. Sure as hell don't remember what it entails..
 
I mostly agree with the content of this blog, but not so much the tone. Maybe have a few different categories next time like music/art, programming and maybe like hardware/diy/electronics shit.
 
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This is why I never enter in any contests or competitions, it's just easier not to, see that way, you don't end up being disappointed
 
The contest is nothing to create bad blood over. I'm good with the results and am grateful I placed second. I think it is grey to have a community that even has competitions like this and thankful to the sponsors who have donated to it!
 
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I don't have a problem with the way the voting was done, but I was honestly surprised I didn't make the top 5. To be completely honest I thought I was a shoe-in for at least a top 3 spot. I think my shortcomings were that I didn't create enough demonstration material or raise any hype, and I don't think anyone actually even played my game xD

That being said, since I was a contestant I wasn't able to vote, there was another staff member besides me that had more knowledge about the entries who was unable to participate in voting as well because of personal reasons, but we could have possibly cleared up some of the stigma around a few of the entries for other staff members if we had been part of the process, and the winners list probably wouldn't look like it does now.

I think for next time I'll try to create more consumable media that doesn't require you to actually download the game, I think that's how Voxel did so well, and I should probably get on Discord so I can get some hype going next time, too. :D
 
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@the_randomizer thats kind of pessimistic though, if you dont try it, how do you know youll be dissapointed?
 
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