Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

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RMZ
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Post by RMZ »

<img src="https://www.redtrianglegames.com/img/he ... trophy.png">

It still feels nuts that we won. In my mind, Katja still won by a landslide. But everybody on Discord and here have been so supportive. When the trophy arrived Saturday it was kinda the first time it felt real. I've thanked you all already, and I'm gonna do it again. Winning is a huge honor. This is also the first trophy I got first place in for anything in my life. So thanks Spoon for that. It is a plastic trophy, but the laser engraving is legit. As you can see in the picture, it looks fantastic.

With all of that said, after I finish a small project I'm going to make a video talking about the contest and sharing my thoughts on the top 3 placing games. I have gotten the consent from Kyle, Feenick and Fenrir to showcase their works. It's not going to be anything crazy but I think more people should see the games that nearly booted Axe Cop! Bena told me before that we can't do anything alone, and if one of my followers or fans can get into one of you guys' games, then that's success.
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Post by Hedera »

When the final scores are posted, will they include the distribution of votes? I'm curious to see how many people (other than myself >_>) gave high scores to Christmas Stars and TutOHRial.
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

When the final scores are posted, will they include the distribution of votes? I'm curious to see how many people (other than myself >_>) gave high scores to Christmas Stars and TutOHRial.
I will publish the highest and lowest scores for each game, but I won't publish the distributions. Even with generic labels, I don't think I could keep things anonymous across the board. Maybe if we had a lot more voters, but we had 15. It wouldn't be hard to figure out who gave which scores to which games. For those who voted anonymously, that wouldn't be fair.

What I will tell you is that eight voters scored Christmas Stars with a five or higher and six voters gave TutOHRial a five or higher.

That said, here's what you can expect to see when I publish everything:

Game Rankings
Final Scores
Score Ranges (highs and lows)
Interesting Trends
Achievements
Total Votes
Contest Average
2020 Statistics vs Previous Years

I also have voter statistics if you want to know how nice or mean you are. I came in third (meaning two other voters were nicer overall). I won't publish those results, but I'm happy to tell you how you did if you wanted to know (by PM request only). I can also tell you your overall score if you wanted to know. That doesn't need to wait.
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Post by pjbebi »

Thanks everyone who played my game! For the next contest, I'm going to make sure I plan the time to check out everyone's work.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Post by Feenicks »

It's been nearly three months since you posted the results. Do you have any updates on the site you're going to put together for this?
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Feenicks wrote: Wed Jun 09, 2021 8:46 pm It's been nearly three months since you posted the results. Do you have any updates on the site you're going to put together for this?
I had a feeling this question would be popping up soon.

Yeah...

So, about that...

First of all, let me reiterate that I'm not building a site for this. I'm going to design a page for it on the reasonably complex site that I'm building for a completely different purpose. But all this work I'm doing isn't merely for OHR stuff. Just wanted to make that clear.

Now, with that out of the way, I have a story to tell you guys. It's one of frustration, heartbreak, and sorrow, but also, hopefully, one of triumph...

About mid-March, my website theme revealed a glitch I had not anticipated: It can just as easily erase content as it can save it when you hit the "save" button. In the middle of publishing changes to the site, the theme soft-locked on save, or did something that forced me to refresh the page. When I did that, half of my progress (as in months' of work) vanished. I accessed it on another browser to check whether it was a display error. But, nope. The other browser told the same tale. Literally half of my content, which equated to at least two months' worth of design work, just up and deleted itself. Fortunately, I had a site backup from the previous month. But unfortunately, the plugin I'm using would have charged me $70 for a full replacement. Because I didn't want to spend $70, and because I still would've lost a month's worth of work and potentially replaced the content in the surviving pages with older content, I decided to leave everything alone, preserve the surviving pages by saving the layouts to a JSON file, and carefully build the lost pages up again.

Then the stupid thing did it again, this time taking all but eight pages (almost fifty had survived the first purge). At this point I had to contact the theme's developers and tell them they had a save bug that "deleted my pages" (given the circumstances, I was as nice as I could be, but I still made it clear that I was upset). They told me their theme didn't delete pages. I had to record a video showing them that, yes, it totally deleted pages, meaning I had to deliberately let it eat whatever was left of my site to prove my point. After three days of back-and-forth, I was finally able to convince them of what it was doing, and they soon figured out what the bug was. They sort of patched it about two weeks ago (about a month after I'd shown them the bug), but it's still got issues, and they're aware it's still a problem.

DISCLAIMER: To be clear, we were both right. The theme didn't delete pages, which was what they were saying. Pages I defined in WordPress were safe. What was getting deleted were the layouts I used on the pages. That's where I was correct in my statement. That clarification helped them identify the problem.

BUT, the good news is that because I'm using WordPress, I've figured out a way to preserve all content moving forward while still using the theme. The tricky part is with using the theme builder to combine custom headers with the page layouts that are now secured by WordPress, not the theme. This means I've been making progress again, and with a few exceptions, I'm now ahead of the point where I was in mid-March when the first purge happened.

And as long as I stay out of the theme builder as much as possible, I shouldn't encounter any more stupid errors. The only reason I need it is to design headers, which I can technically do without saving to the page itself (just have to save directly to the JSON file), and to fix the headers to the pages, which can also be done without having to load the page. Good news is that most of my headers have already been built. So, as long as the theme builder will save my changes, I shouldn't have any more problems.

This means if nothing stupid or glitchy happens again, I expect to open the site by mid to late July.

However, I do not necessarily expect to have my game-related pages ready by the opening. Because my site is built primarily for my author business, my authorial content will take priority over everything else. But, once that's all ready for the public, I don't expect it'll take me long to get the Heart of the OHR content online. Most of my templates are ready to go. Even though I'll have to tweak a few things, most of what I'll need to do is paste in the content. That's just an evening's worth of work.

If I had a reasonable guess, I'd say the Heart of the OHR page should be available by the end of July. As long as nothing goes sideways again, I think that's realistic.

And if for any reason the site goes screwy on me again, I'll just post the scores here. I don't want to, but I will. I think you guys have waited long enough for them.

Here, just because this whole thing has gone out of control, I'll give you a teaser to whet your appetite until I can put everything in its proper place.

I'll give you three scores now. They will be from the lowest scores of the low, middle, and top tiers. They should help you to see what the ranges actually are:

#15: Alliterative Abbreviated Adventure - 2.53
#10: Blood Ledger - 5.71
#5: Walthros Renewal - 7.73

Okay, that's your teaser. The rest will come hopefully next month.

Also, I still owe a couple of prizes. But I'm not yet ready to fill them. Hopefully that'll change closer to fall.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Post by Feenicks »

...I won't comment on this, other than it reminded me to make another backup of FS.

Good to hear that it'll hopefully be ready by July, though.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Post by Baconlabs »

Hello all. I have an update.
For reasons I won't go into detail about, my internet connection has been getting worse and worse all year and I really don't have any authority to do anything about it, so the future of my Twitch channel is uncertain. I will have to abandon all plans for livestreaming the entirety of the Top 5 HotOHR winners like I promised. I'm quite upset that this is because of something beyond my control, but the least I can do is shift gears and record some longplays instead. Given how barren my livestream audience is, there really shouldn't be much of a difference as far as what goes into the videos themselves. I should be able to start on these videos early into July, and I'll post links to them here as they are uploaded. I'll also be starting with Axe Cop.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Just a quick update since we're nearing the end of July...

My site is almost ready for prime time. Almost. I don't think it'll be done before August. But I do think it'll be done sometime in August.

So that you know what's holding things up, here's a list of tasks I still need to complete before I can open the site and finalize the parts you all have been waiting months for (again, sorry for the long delay).

And remember that I'm not building the site for OHR related things, but things related to my author career, so I've been cautious about opening at the right time and with the right content. That's why I didn't just churn out a contest page months ago. Not trying to be mysterious or anything here. Just want to put my best foot forward right out the gate (and honestly, I still won't have everything I want or need in place, as I'd need another couple of months behind the scenes to be truly ready, but this has already taken far longer than I'd ever expected, so at some point I need to just add things after the fact).

So, here's what I still have to do before the site goes live:

1. I need to finish uploading my sample chapters for the eight books I'll be actively promoting. Seven of them are finished. The last one will take maybe an hour to copy over and format.
2. I need to create and upload headers for five of the eight books. Creating them will be quick and easy. Attaching them to the appropriate pages is what caused me all that trouble back in March, so as long as the builder's SAVE button works this time, I should be fine.
3. I need to build pages for my "Available Now," "Coming Soon," "Featured," "Triage," and "Archived" book sections. These will essentially be versions of a template I've already created, using text I've already written. So, this is probably a weekend's worth of work. If that. Well, no, the archives may take longer since I'll need to upload new assets. A few days.
4. I need to finish building roadmaps for my "coming soon" and "triage" books. Again, this will take a few days to finish to my standard, but the templates are done. Just have to fill in the remaining content.
5. I need to verify that everything works and is mobile responsive. I may also need to recast some links, as I'm going to forgo affiliate marketing until I know I've got a visitor base worth marketing to. That probably won't happen for a while.
6. I need to build my "Other Media" section. This will include my photo gallery, templates and tools pages, and the placeholders for my games. I have no fancy plans here, and most of this area will be built up more after I open, so I don't expect to spend much time on this beforehand.
7. At this point I'll likely build the Heart of the OHR section, as this will fall under the "Other Media" banner. I'll be developing it with a main page and individual pages for each year. Because I have no template yet, this process will take a few days. I'll also have to write up the contest blurbs for 2020, as I still haven't had the time to put them together yet.
8. I need to implement a landing page for my newsletter. The whole point for having a website is to capture leads, so I can't open without that mechanism in place. This is also the element that in any other situation would keep me closed another couple of months, as I'm still writing the story I plan to use with newsletter signup, and normally I wouldn't open until that story is finished and ready to share. Heart of the OHR is the only reason I'm willing to jump the timeline. But I don't want to. I want to launch properly, with a book to offer my subscribers. For that to happen, though, I'd probably have to stay closed until September or October. I don't have a problem with that. But you might, given that you've been waiting since March for the contest results details.
9. I have to fix my homepage. I've left it in testing mode since November because I still don't know which elements I want front and center, and probably won't until I have my pages fully built.
10. I need to add text-to-speech options to my static pages. I've already started this process, but there's more to do.
11. I need to clean up my blog posts and make sure everything is working properly. This includes making sure I'm synced with my existing blog.
12. I need to add my privacy policy, cookie policy, and all the legal stuff that bureaucrats expect a site to have, including opt-out options. Not sure how long this will take. I've got a service for this, but I haven't used it yet. I hear it's extensive and boring and takes a while but is also super important. I'm doing this last so that I have a clear picture on which analytics and marketing tools I'll be using at launch.

Once these elements are in place, I'll be able to open to the public. It still won't be at the level I'm planning for, but because I don't expect a rush of visitors for a while, I think it'll be okay to finish parts of the site post-launch. As long as I don't ruin my SEO at the start, I should be fine to dole out live updates as they're ready.

So, in all, provided the theme continues to play nicely, I don't think I need much more time. I know it looks like a long list, but most of the work ahead is based on templates I've already made, using text I've already written. The slowdown is with the site itself. The theme I'm using takes a little while to load and save. And, well, I've got a lot of pages to add or update. But we're getting there. Slowly.

That said, if you all could stand to wait a little longer, I'd really like to have a proper launch, which would mean having that book ready. But that would extend the opening date into the fall. So, let me know what your level of patience is. Either way, my next post will likely contain a teaser screenshot.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Just a quick update:

I'm wrapping up my preliminary work for the main site. I've decided to work on "Other Media" after launch, so that just leaves me with prepping my newsletter auto-sequence, creating my privacy and cookie policies, as well as my terms and conditions (all legal requirements), and finalizing the look of my current pages. So, I'm about to open, which means I'm about to start working on the Heart of the OHR section pages.

This means I'm ready for you guys to help me populate it with your favorite extras. If you have the time between now and mid-October, could you PM me photos of your prizes, videos links to your unboxings, videos of your playthroughs, and any comments you want to share with visitors about the contest, or your experience participating in it? Or, if there's anything else you can think of that you'd like to share (pictures of pine cones, perhaps?), please send me a PM with that, as well.

(And while we're at it, maybe tell me what you like about the OHR so that random visitors who click on that page might be interested in the engine.)

If you want to contribute media or testimonies to the Heart main page, please message me by October 15. You can also message me after this time, but I want to have something to show at the unveiling, so the sooner you get your media together, the better.

Thanks. Glad I'm almost ready to share this thing!
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

After eleven months of building my site, watching pages go up in smoke, rebuilding, sweating, and all of the awful stuff that goes with website construction, I've finally reached the point where I can start creating this thing:


Heart of the OHR Title Cards (Overview).jpg
Heart of the OHR Title Cards (Overview).jpg (680.81 KiB) Viewed 2941 times

Heart of the OHR Title Cards Years (2010 w screenshot wall).jpg
Heart of the OHR Title Cards Years (2010 w screenshot wall).jpg (285.46 KiB) Viewed 2941 times


And these are just the page title cards.

We're almost ready to finalize Heart of the OHR's official contest archives (and the 2020 complete results). Just a little longer...
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Post by guo »

Looking forward to revisiting OHR history, great job.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

We have an official archive page banner.

Heart of the OHR Contest Archives Backdrop V3a.jpg
Heart of the OHR Contest Archives Backdrop V3a.jpg (414.53 KiB) Viewed 2901 times

Hope to have all of this live and ready for viewing in a couple of weeks.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Hey guys, here's one final teaser for you...

From the way-back machine, welcome back to the stage Heart of the OHR 2010, as you've never seen it before...

Heart of the OHR Archive Teaser.jpg
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Most of my text and templates are in place. I just have a few more paragraphs to write, gather up my final statistics, write up a few unwritten achievement explanations, put together the content you all actually care about (*cough*2020*cough*), and finish putting it all together.

If the pace continues, I expect to have this thing live and ready for viewing by late next week.

Fingers crossed!

Almost time to put this thing to bed.

Hopefully you all still care... :hurr:
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest 2020

Post by SwordPlay »

Jaw dropping! It looks all fantastic!
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