Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

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Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

After three months of construction and nearly a year of waiting, the Heart of the OHR Contest Archives are now ready for viewing.

What are the Heart of the OHR Contest Archives? They're the official home of all the Heart of the OHR contest results, statistics, historical markers, and retrospective articles, as well as media tie-ins, special downloads, and anything else relevant to the contest's development. The Archives will also be the home to any future Heart of the OHR contest results, should I do any more.

This is also the only place to read up on the complete 2020 results.

The Heart of the OHR Contest Archives are set up like a walking tour through history, beginning with a main page that brushes up your knowledge on what it's about, why I started it, and why people were so interested in participating in it originally. It also includes an interactive timeline that links to the original announcements for every occasion from every year.

Then it moves into each respective contest season, giving each original introduction and conclusion, as well as the original results, fuzzy descriptions, audience consensuses, and achievements you all have come to know and love. It's worth noting that all achievements have explanations now, not just the obscure ones. You just have to click the button to open the pop-up descriptions attached.

At the end of each contest breakdown by season is a new series of articles related to the trends of that year. These are called the "Contest Retrospective Articles," and they bring new light to an aging contest. It's worth going back through older years just to check them out.

Finally, there's a statistics page that houses all of the contest's records and stats throughout the years. It contains the most updated records for 2020 (of the stat types you may be used to seeing at the end of each contest report), as well as new charts for stats and records never-before-seen, including Top 10 Performers lists and voter trends. It also features two dynamic charts that you can adjust through selections for comparison viewing.

I hope you'll check it out. But bear in mind that it'll take a while to get through everything, so pace yourself. If you remember the old HamsterSpeak magazine, imagine it's like getting the latest issue of that, plus seven more all at once. There's enough content here to fill a novel (no exaggeration if my document word count is any indicator).

Articles by Year:

Even though the Heart of the OHR Contest Archives contain plenty of information you may have already seen in previous contest seasons, the following articles are all new.

Main Page:

Background Information
The Contest
The Prizes
The Window
The Release Categories
The Votes
The Participants
The Debate and the Rejected
The Timeline
The Tour

2010:

The Adventures of Powerstick Man: Extended Edition
Heart of the OHR Tribute
Motrya's HamsterSpeak #46 Cover

2012:

Preproduction Thread
OHR Legends: Vikings of Midgard
The Sophomore Slump
The Closing of HamsterSpeak and the Rising of The Hamster Burrow

2014:

The Two-thirds Rule: A New Way to Calculate Votes
In the Spirit of 1999
The Prestigious WTF Award
Joker's Breakout and The Re-release Flaw
A Former Results Host Returns

2016:

Defining the RPG: The Surfasaurus Controversy
Window Shopping: Recruiting the Unofficial Entries
The Summer Change-up
The End of the Bugfix Period
The Bug Bounty and the Feature Request Incentive

2018:

Video Streams and Playthroughs
Rescuing the Bug Bounty
Rejecting a Game
A Sexy New Look for Heart of the OHR
Commercializing the OHR

2020:

Official Trailers: Promoting the Heart of the OHR
Remaking a Classic
Spleen of the OHR and Other Unpopular Ideas
Retiring Heart of the OHR
It's Time to Play a Game

Statistics:

Contest Career Mode
Voting Spreadsheet Shared Template

And that's it for now. Again, you can check it out here. Please let me know what you think. I've spent months on this thing, and I'd like to know it was worth it.

For best results, view these pages on a desktop browser. Also note that the dynamic charts are viewable only on desktop at the moment.

Note: You can still read 99% of the content on your phone, but it won't look as nice.

Pages may take a few seconds to load. Be patient. There's a lot of content coming through.

Enjoy the walk through history! No running!
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by FnrrfYgmSchnish »

When I first checked this out, the page seemed slightly busted in a weird way. At the top is a collage of screenshots, and then below that is a dark blue background with a lot of empty-seeming spaces (like there should be an image there.) Further down there's spots where a caption suggests an image should be present, but it's just another blue void.

Attached a screenshot to show what it looked like on my end.

Reloading seems to have fixed it, though. Wonder what happened there...
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FYS:AHS -- Working on Yagziknian NPC walkabout sprites
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by FnrrfYgmSchnish »

Also, this is really neat to read through. I've read everything up to the 2016 pages so far. Haven't seen any missing-image weirdness again after that first time reloading the page.

Maybe a bit heavy on the graphical elements, but I think at this point it's finally safe to assume that nobody who'd be reading this is still using crappy dial-up (...does dial-up internet even still exist?), so that's probably no big deal.

It's interesting to go back over all these contests and see which games I remember... and which ones completely slipped my mind... which turns out to be about half of them sometimes, but only one or two other times. I must have just not really followed 2016 at all because I barely remember any of those games (Surfasaurus yeah, and I vaguely remembered the title of Fruity Quest, but probably only because it was the "most recent uploaded" on Castle Paradox for a while so I'd see it every time I went on there.)

I'm glad we have an archive of all the Heart of the OHR stuff in one place. Along with HamsterSpeak and a couple other contests (the 8-bit one comes to mind), HotOHR is(/was?) one of the few OHR "community things" that I have almost entirely positive feelings toward. Which is something that's hard to say about many things on the internet.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

FnrrfYgmSchnish wrote:When I first checked this out, the page seemed slightly busted in a weird way. At the top is a collage of screenshots, and then below that is a dark blue background with a lot of empty-seeming spaces (like there should be an image there.) Further down there's spots where a caption suggests an image should be present, but it's just another blue void.
Thanks for pointing this out. Another user who tested the main page early on in development encountered the same problem. It's related to cookie settings. In short, you have to accept cookies to view the site as intended. Otherwise, stuff (meaning graphics and some text elements) may not load. It's one of the negatives to trying to make a thing look nice.
FnrrfYgmSchnish wrote:Maybe a bit heavy on the graphical elements, but I think at this point it's finally safe to assume that nobody who'd be reading this is still using crappy dial-up (...does dial-up internet even still exist?), so that's probably no big deal.
Yeah, some will even view it on their smartphones. Again, desktop is better, but mobile can do it, mostly.
FnrrfYgmSchnish wrote:It's interesting to go back over all these contests and see which games I remember... and which ones completely slipped my mind... which turns out to be about half of them sometimes, but only one or two other times. I must have just not really followed 2016 at all because I barely remember any of those games (Surfasaurus yeah, and I vaguely remembered the title of Fruity Quest, but probably only because it was the "most recent uploaded" on Castle Paradox for a while so I'd see it every time I went on there.)
When you get to the Statistics page, you'll find that most everyone else forgot about 2016, too.
FnrrfYgmSchnish wrote:I'm glad we have an archive of all the Heart of the OHR stuff in one place. Along with HamsterSpeak and a couple other contests (the 8-bit one comes to mind), HotOHR is(/was?) one of the few OHR "community things" that I have almost entirely positive feelings toward. Which is something that's hard to say about many things on the internet.
Thanks, yeah. I didn't want to scramble around the Internet for all things Heart of the OHR anymore, so this helps me as much as anyone else. The only thing I've left external to the site is the bug bounties, since that's James and TMC's thing. Each archive has a link to them, though.

In reference to the past tense, I have an idea for 2022 that may extend the legacy of Heart of the OHR into something actually memorable. Still not sure if I'm gonna do it, but I think it'll make for an interesting cap to a strong finale (which 2020 will still mark, even if 2022 happens--it'll make more sense once I share my ideas). So, if anyone has a game to release in 2022, you still might have a shot at participation this year. But even if you don't, you still might have a shot...
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

POST-LAUNCH UPDATE:

(Because it's not an OHR event if it doesn't launch broken!)

Even though the contest archives were designed to be viewed on desktop, and are best viewed when on desktop, I notice most everyone is viewing these pages on mobile (fine and functional, but not as recommended). I also notice most everyone is checking out the statistics page before most everything else, which is supposed to be last on the tour, but I guess I made it too enticing to visit by placing the access button near the top of the selection bank, so...

Because I wasn't expecting the majority of viewers to be on their phones, or visiting the statistics page before the 2020 page, I didn't put as much effort in making the statistics chart mobile responsive as I had everything else. But because you all are on your phones, I went ahead and fixed the charts to fit more naturally on your displays. The desktop version still displays them as intended, but the mobile version now displays in a way that's easier to read. So, you're welcome, phone users. ;)

P.S. If you're reading the archives on your phone, you won't be able to view all of the content (primarily the dynamic charts, which I spent three days trying to get right), and you certainly won't see the archives the way they're meant to be viewed. Just saying. But if that's the only way you can view these archives, then thank you for checking it out nonetheless. As I said, the phone works. It's just not as good.

Let me know if any of you are having trouble viewing the pages. That's been my number one fight with this site editor I'm using.

And thanks again for giving them a look. You've given my site a single day viewing spike of over 100 (across all pages). That's good for Google, I think.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Hedera »

The listing for Grapnes 2: Kepnalcide, in the 2016 results, lists the achievement "The Real Fruity Quest" twice.

outside of that, this retrospective is freaking amazing and I want to go play the games that got wtf awards
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Hedera Helix wrote:The listing for Grapnes 2: Kepnalcide, in the 2016 results, lists the achievement "The Real Fruity Quest" twice.
Thanks. You actually discovered a mobile bug. It's correct on desktop.

Again, the trouble with viewing on mobile is that I use a responsive tool to ensure mobile displays properly, but it has a habit of exposing the template text if it "unlocks" responsiveness without me knowing it.

You all really should be reading this on desktop.

Anyway...

I'll fix it. Thanks. Let me know if you spot any other errors or weirdness along the way.
Hedera Helix wrote:outside of that, this retrospective is freaking amazing and I want to go play the games that got wtf awards
Thanks. There have been others eligible, but the WTFs went to those that best earned it that year. (It's also my favorite award.)

EDIT: Fixed the double achievement. It's the proper one now, "The Forgettable Unforgettable Title Award." Looks like I have to reset all of my images on mobile, too. They all got shoved to the side. That'll have to be an ongoing project, though, as other pages on my site seem to have the same problem all of a sudden. (I don't remember them doing that before.) You should still be able to click them though. Most of them. Some of them. The banners may be unreadable, though. I hate mobile...sigh. You all should REALLY be reading this on desktop.

EDIT 2: Never mind. It's a display glitch. Nothing I can do to fix it. I reloaded the page and it displayed properly. I guess if images look weird, just reload.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Note: I was in the process of writing a detailed response to some of the criticisms that were leveled at these contest archives on a different forum (Discord) for the benefit of future viewers and justifying choices that I think were misunderstood, but in the process of me trying to copy and paste the content I had so far into a separate document so that I WOULDN'T LOSE IT TO A SITE GLITCH, the page assumed I was ready to post, but because it had forgotten my login credentials AS IT ALWAYS DOES, it prompted me to log in. And when I tried to go back to my post, IT HAD FORGOTTEN THAT, TOO.

So I lost it all in the process of trying to save it all.

Grrrr!

What I had to say was important, but because I can't get it back, I'm just going to summarize the key points here. Hopefully the point of the message isn't lost:

1. The site is slow because too many people are accessing too many pages in a short amount of time. As the buzz dies, the pages should load a little faster.
2. The pages can be viewed on mobile, but they weren't designed for it.
3. The retrospectives...

You know what? Screw it. I don't have the patience to recount this stuff again.

Short answer, the contest archives are hosted on my site because I don't want to pay for a second domain name. My site is for my author business. OHR content merely rents a room on it. I didn't create my site for the OHR. If I happen to post OHR content on it, it's a bonus, not a rule. I said at the start that I'd be building Heart of the OHR reports on my site after I finished building the pages my site is designed for (again, that would be my author business, for books, not games, even if games may make an appearance at some point). The content itself was to account for all interested parties, including those who like to recount history and trends, not just those interested in only the scores. To suggest the retrospective should focus only on the scores is to forget that no Heart of the OHR contest had ever been about just the scores. 2020 changed a lot of things, but it didn't change that.

Also, I'm a writer. I write. Get over it.

Stock images are designed to break up content and communicate theme or expression. Every successful online content creator knows this. Why would I do differently?

I had more to say, but losing my original post while trying to copy and paste it to a Word document--seriously, how does that even happen?--pushes my patience beyond its limit. And having a mostly negative response to a nice thing I DIDN'T HAVE TO DO sours my mood enough that I don't want to do this anymore.

So, thanks for visiting the archives. For those who appreciate it, thank you. For those who don't, I hope you'll take another look and try to understand why I built it the way I did. Your opinions are your opinions, and I don't need to change them. But because most of the discussion about it is on another forum (DISCORD, #hotohr_2020) where just about every comment is negative, it brings me to question whether any of this has been worth my time. I'm not sure it was.

"But Pepsi, if you'd just made it about the scores..."

This is why we can't have nice things.

Either way, it's driven me away from doing another Heart of the OHR. These archives follow the same format I've been using since 2010. Once upon a time, the community largely appreciated this. If that's not to your liking anymore, then maybe Heart of the OHR isn't to your liking anymore. And if I were to bring it back, I don't know what 2022 would do differently that would also be better because I'd never intended for this to be just another forgettable contest.

The response this got on the other forum convinces me that "just another contest" is what the majority wants. I'll tell you now, as long as I'm host, that's never going to happen.

But I respect the changing of trends and interests. Hopefully you do, too.

So, that's it. Heart of the OHR is officially closed. Plans for the encore season have been canceled. Thanks for playing.

It's never coming back.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Bob the Hamster »

Don't worry too much about complaints. You can't please everyone. You made a good thing, and I am glad. Thank you!
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by SwordPlay »

it was really interesting to read the motivation behind HOTOHR.

It's interesting that as a writer, you pitched a contest to encourage games with more writing.

I would have entered if I had known that was its purpose (I like writing too)

Also the site looks great. Very snazzy :P
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Feenicks »

I ragged on the site a bit in Discord, but for an actual complaint:

The site's not very reader view-friendly. Most of the text on the front page doesn't appear at all while using it, and I don't think any of the images on any of the pages are visible through it.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by msw188 »

Well this was fun. I haven't read everything, and probably won't since the later years I was not really present for. But boy was this a beautiful send-off for a really great contest that lasted a remarkable number of years!

I look back on that 2010 contest pretty fondly. Man, including free tee-shirts for everybody just for participating was all kinds of rad. I still occasionally daydream about further work on Tales 2 and/or starting a project, but it's not really where I am any more.

It's a bummer that there has been some negativity at the start. I don't think the website is perfect. That doesn't mean it isn't awesome, or that I'm not thrilled at the chance to go down memory lane. Thanks Pepsi, for the HOTR and for all of this now.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by RMZ »

I don't think anybody is trying to say the work isn't remarkable. I think we all had different expectations for how we wanted the legacy of the contest preserved. Navigating the lists of games is a bit goofy and the stock images soured some people when it felt like there wasn't a ton of coverage of the actual games themselves. Personally, I do most of my web browsing these days on mobile as I think the rest of the channel did the day the site launched and that unfortunately gave us a sour first impression because of load screens. I was made aware of the site from a link dropped in the channel, so I didn't see the disclaimer. I would encourage you to optimize the site as much as possible for mobile friendly layouts as that is the future of web design. A lot of sites nowadays adopt a fluid layout, which yours does for the most part. The key thing that bogged down load times was all of the effects it seemed. I would also question the file size of your images as I'm not sure if the site auto-rezzes them down or not, some scripts do that on the fly but most templates probably don't and that'll effect things. It does look much more impressive on the desktop, but then again, all sites kinda do, they're bigger and usually more powerful.

It does look like you are using a wordpress template perhaps, and I know there are a lot of constraints to those even though they are quite helpful and powerful. I helped on Sharkberg a long time ago and was a bit lost just writing nerdy articles. There is a whole other learning curve with Wordpress.

I'm happy the site was made, as you said, you didn't have to do it. We don't always preserve OHR history and it's admiral you took on this task, documenting six contests was definitely work. You have definitely shifted away from game dev to a more writing focused use of time, so it's nice that the OHR side of your life can show off more of your talents.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Hedera »

Pepsi Ranger wrote: Sun Jan 30, 2022 8:49 pm EDIT: Fixed the double achievement. It's the proper one now, "The Forgettable Unforgettable Title Award." Looks like I have to reset all of my images on mobile, too. They all got shoved to the side. That'll have to be an ongoing project, though, as other pages on my site seem to have the same problem all of a sudden. (I don't remember them doing that before.) You should still be able to click them though. Most of them. Some of them. The banners may be unreadable, though. I hate mobile...sigh. You all should REALLY be reading this on desktop.

EDIT 2: Never mind. It's a display glitch. Nothing I can do to fix it. I reloaded the page and it displayed properly. I guess if images look weird, just reload.
it's fixed for me, thanks!
Pepsi Ranger wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 6:14 am This is why we can't have nice things.
:(

you've done a lot of work, thank you for the site with lots of cool stuff on it

edit: when looking for the games, I'm seeing a ton of link rot, including 2014's entry Dragons! which apparently leads to malware? :zombie:
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by TMC »

Congrats on finally releasing it! Now I can see why it took so long... this is so over-the-top I can't describe it. There's so much, it can't even be intended that someone would read through all of it. Ah, there's a word: encyclopaedic. Well, I appreciate having a tour through the history of HotOHR (including the peripheral things that flesh out a history, like Barnabus's Tribute) because I feel there's a lot I missed.

Splitting out some of the details about individual contests, such as voting rules, to popups was a solid idea. Also, ha, the achievements finally explained! Did you actually still remember what they all meant?
The CSS animations are a bit annoying though; less is more.

Oh, and I still owe prizes. Not forgotten.
Hedera Helix wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 2:14 am edit: when looking for the games, I'm seeing a ton of link rot, including 2014's entry Dragons! which apparently leads to malware? :zombie:
Back in 2015 I uploaded a backup copy of Dragons! here (112MB). (Turns out I wrote a review for that game for 2014 In Review; I didn't remember that I'd ever reviewed any game.) However CP is a very unreliable host now. Try again later if it doesn't work.

What other games have dead links?
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