Building a Contest management web app

Some of you may have seen or perhaps used the RPG Storyboard web app which I just released into beta. If not, head to the "Game Discussion" forum and check it out now.

I plan on building a bunch of web apps which centralize on the OHR Community. Partly for a web app portfolio and partly as I would like to add my talent where I can to this community. My main talent is in backend web development(not the pretty stuff users see). My next project alongside of maintaining and further developing the Storyboard app is to build a website which allows easier management of Game Contests. Since game contests are a large part of this community and usually get many designers on board, having a specialized web-based system specifically for managing contests would go along way. I noticed that the previous site which kept track of older contests was gone too, which is sort of a shame.

The Contest website would keep track of many aspects of a contest. The contest description, which is usually includes the set of rules to follow. It will also include a system to keep track of which games are entered into which contests, as well as how many votes a specific game has in a specific contest. Furthermore, it will keep track of which user made the individual vote. Users can always take their vote back and perhaps vote on multiple games in a single contest.

The games are linked to a download and a description as to why the game was entered into the contest. The link can easily point to the download page here on slime salad so that the download count can be kept track of. It will link to the game's info page, not a direct download to the game itself.

As with the RPG Storyboard web app, I plan on having this live very soon. I will begin prototyping the application tonight and putting it all together throughout the morning hours. I hope to have something up by roughly noon today. This app is much simpler than the RPG Storyboard, so it won't need as much time to prototype and put together.

If you already have an account for the RPG Storyboard app, this new app will share the same credentials. No need to sign-up again for each new app I build.

One last thing: Once the contest app is live, I will be putting up a contest of my own to make sure everything works. The contest will also be posted on the "Game Discussions" forum like every other contest, but will have a link to the web app to manage the submissions and votes.

It was a huge shame that TheHamsterWheel went down. It's way too hard to find old contests without it.

But I'm not totally clear on what you're proposing: a site with data about contests, or a site only for new contests which are hosted on it? You'll have far, far more success if you do the former -- that is, the site would be used in parallel to threads here and/or CP, and we could archive all the old contests on it then, which would be great. Also note that some contests allow private votes, so you can't collect them (from previous contests) anyway.

Speaking of which, because HamsterWheel is gone, I'd like to put up any information find about old contests on the wiki, unless this site would be a better place for it.

I know, it was a really good resource.


Currently I'm about 50%-75% done the app and am on schedule to deploy a open-beta for it by noon CST today. It currently supports contest start dates and end dates, so it can definitely archive older contests, if one chooses. I can enable functionality for private voting before it goes live.


This site would be a good fit for them. You can also have information on the wiki as well. I'll let the community decide once the app goes live and people can see it in action.

OK, nice. Once you implement more data fields for contests (links to threads, descriptions, and game lists), I'll be happy to fill it out with everything I can find. Just the sort of thing I like to obsess over.

The beta is ready for your viewing pleasure.

If you do not have an account for the RPG Storyboard, you will need one to create and manage contests and entries to those contests:

http://rpg.chronoboy.com/accounts/register/

Any feedback or any fields that you think should be added speak-up, I will add as many suggestions as I can before the beta period closes.

http://rpg.chronoboy.com/contests/

It is not entirely done, but most of the core functionality is all intact and working.

Could it support Condorcet voting? That would be so wonderful if it could!

I absolutely love that idea! I will work it into the next beta version and put up a Test Contest with fake entries so that everyone can try it out and make sure it's easy enough to use.