Last week I wrote a bit about crowdsourcing and the way Nevermet Press operates behind the scenes; how our artists and writers all work collaboratively together as equals, and how the door is always open to new folks looking to join in the fun (just contact us!).
Another aspect of Nevermet Press is our focus on community developed content. It’s easy to bandy around buzz words like “crowdsourcing” or “community development”, it’s another thing entirely to actually do it effectively. Along these lines, Michael Brewer and I are always looking for ways to push the envelope and really explore all the ways crowdsourcing can be applied to game development.
Then an idea came to mind: a contest where the contestants decide who wins. We haven’t decided on the details just yet, but this post is aimed at getting your input and feedback about how such a contest might work out. Here’s the basic idea:
An artist comes up with an illustration for a “monster”. It’s entirely up to the artist to decide the context, look, feel, genre of the image – but no details other than the image are provided. The illustration is then posted to this blog and readers submit one paragraph descriptions of the creature in the image. Entries are gathered for a week or so. Once the contest closes, all of the entries are then posted to the blog (or a service like REDDIT) without the author’s name. Readers of Nevermet Press, and the contestants themselves, can then leave comments and suggestions for each entry, as well as vote on which ones they like best. Once the contest closes, Nevermet Press picks the winning entry selected by the crowd and invites the original author and the artist to work together to fully develop the creature further to be incorporated into one of our future products. And of course, as is the NMP way of doing things, royalties would be paid to both the author and the artist for any product that includes their work.
Prizes would probably need to be included as well, for the top three entries.
Here’s a (somewhat silly) schematic of how this might work:
Or something like that.
We’re talking with a few other companies about prizes for the contestants – but before any details are worked out we also wanted see what you, our readers, thought before we finalized anything.
And, we realize that in order for this to work – we would need lots of people to participate. What do you think would be the best way to encourage participation in the contest?
I this this is a pretty cool idea
What you need to encourage participation? That’s a toughie.
Prizes always work to stimulate, of course. “Celebrity” guests might also add fuel.
Of course, the main challenge is getting the contest known (and then making it enticing)… I know know how big of a network of qualified you reach to from here through twitter and your blog/mailing list.
Sometimes, you need to run it once with a prize in order for it to become real for more people on the second round.
Anyhow. I’d probably play just for kicks anyway
.-= Eric Maziade´s last blog ..PSN Store lacking features =-.
This sounds like a lot of fun, both for participation and judging. It’s always neat to see how people see different things in the same picture, and our lot is known for imagination. I’ll keep an eye open for this.
Thanks for stopping by guys!
I hadn’t thought of approach a celebrity in the “industry” to participate — that’s a interesting twist… hmmm… (open Rolodex.. finds it empty)… I’ll have to work on this a bit; but definitely a good idea.
The artwork for the first round of the contest is already ready to go. So, stay tuned!
Sounds awesome. I’m in.
Reminds me a little of the Get Published! thing that DungeonMastering did a few months back (that I have yet to hear anything about, follow-up wise). Does anyone have any idea of what happened with that?
If you still need some more prizes, Chaotic Shiny Productions can help you out. Just toss me an email with what you’re thinking.
A contest of this type would do well with the community that surrounds it. There is a lot of undiscovered talent out there waiting to found.
I’d never heard of Nevermet, but I just read about your contest in Roleplaying Tips Weekly and chased the link in. This sounds like fun. I’ll be sure to spread your link around and throw some flavor text at your contest.
Well ! The contest is underway! Please join in!
http://nevermetpress.com/the-monster-mashup-contest/
.-= jonathan´s last blog ..The Monster MashUp Contest! =-.