24-74Hr level building contest planing

So where do I start... A while back I saw 72h mapping contest held on Team Fortress 2 mapping forums. The idea of it was that from a set time (for example 27.june 1am till 1.july 1am a total of 72hrs) you had to make a level in 72hours. All maps had to be made and submitted during this time. After that they where rated by forum members and everyone tried to write at least short comment why they gave map a set score from 1-10. They even had a little prize pool for first places which included steam games and personalized digital things like forum avatars. Many people streamed their mapping on twitch and the whole event turned out pretty great for spectators too since they had testing hours where map, while being under development, could be tested in public server and map makers could receive direct feedback from players.

I have asked few people on skype if they would be interested in participating in such event and most said yes so as long as we can get 5 people or more I would be more than happy to organize such contest!

First thing we have to talk about is Timing. Should this be 24, 48 or 72 hour mapping contest, Ive heard stories of people spending more than 60 hours on a single MB level and Ive had maps of my own that have reached that time, then again most maps are done in less than total of 20 so choosing right lenght for contest is critical so that it wouldn't be too short nor so long that it would lack a challenge of making map in relativley short time. I personally vote for 48 hours just because it's a good time strain, not too long not too short.
Date: While it's a bit too early to talk about this I wouldn't mind hearing your thoughts. Should we do this on a weekend or a celebration like spring holidays or something.
Prizepool, while I was thinking about this and I would be happy to add it I wondered do we even need it or not. Judging by demographic of these forums I'm personally kinda scared of adding such thing because it would turn this event into lot of fighting over some virtual items instead of friendly competition where people would learn more about mapping and in general would have fun. Maybe we should leave it for future competition and just see how first one turns out, not shure atm?

Looking for everyones thoughts on this.

Also some videos from the original contest for refrence:
Example of contest : tf2maps.net/threads/72-hour-mapping-cont...tarting-27-06.17322/

heh, I'd probably join in on this just for fun. I have actually said a couple times in the past that I think a level building competition would be neat.

Date: A weekend I guess.

prizepool: Could just have a title or a flair, quick and easy

I would consider Spring Break the best time for a contest like this to be held, as that would give people more time to work around. Personally, I would prefer a 96-hour time-frame to allow for things like life/sleep. I agree with Kalle on the prize idea, since getting a flair or title is honorific but is not prone to causing any sort of fighting.

About the competition itself, it should probably be called a level building contest rather than a mapping contest because we are making levels. In addition, the community should be encouraged to rate the level based of of the 7 level building factors that were determined back when LotY was still a thing (creativity, originality, replayability, fun, editing, challenge, and presentation) to express what exactly they liked and didn't like about the level.

Technostar wrote: I would consider Spring Break the best time for a contest like this to be held, as that would give people more time to work around. Personally, I would prefer a 96-hour time-frame to allow for things like life/sleep.

Too long of a time frame would kinda ruin the point of this competition and would make it LotM in 4 days which made me ask myself: what is the target of competition? You can approach this in 2 ways:
Shorter time frame encourages you to be thoughtful of time that you have and think about how to make most use out of it, think of solutions to a problem quicker (eg tester says that that tramplaunch you just made is unpredictable so you quickly have to think of alternative to that, something doesn't export etc). It also should discourage people from making too long levels and focus on more shorter and more thought out levels.
Longer time frame gives creator freedom to polish his level to the max and make it less stressful to some people but may lack some of benefits of creative thinking above.
It really depends on what you get most fun from, is it a challenge to make most gameplay in a small box (example higuys 10x10x10 box level) or making level with coolest arches while drinking cold glass of coke. Of course I'm open to any of this and majority vote decides, if making this competition longer will benefit majority then sure why not

Technostar wrote: About the competition itself, it should probably be called a level building contest rather than a mapping contest because we are making levels. In addition, the community should be encouraged to rate the level based of of the 7 level building factors that were determined back when LotY was still a thing (creativity, originality, replayability, fun, editing, challenge, and presentation) to express what exactly they liked and didn't like about the level.

Yep agree since LE levels would also be allowed in this competition. *winks at pascal*

While the way you rate was always free of choice in LotY we should encourage people to follow similar pattern if possible. Would remove bias (effect of favoring person that's your friend and giving him higher score because of that) and also give something to learn from.

I'm totally in on this. I believe our time window should be 48 hours; not too short, not too long. I wouldn't mind having the competition next weekend, that would work for me and probably a lot of other people.