pouët.net

so, i just read the kindergarden webpage 'about' which contains some description that people should try to keep the deadline as stretching it will delay the compos. i am no organizer, but at trsac i discussed the following solution to the problem (i.e. some releases require more nursing at the party place than others):

1. set a fixed deadline, e.g. 13.00
2. set a fixed compo start time, e.g. 22.00
3. inform people that entries handed over after a certain threshold will not be tested on the compo machine, e.g. 19.00
4. run the compo :-)

at some parties it seems that people submitting their expect to be able to test their release on the actual machine running the demo (and many organisers are truly nice people who want to include as many releases as possible in the comops which compromises the audience as seen at several parties).

that being said, i have no idea if the kg crew kept the deadline or not :-)

they did indeed, it ran really well - and with a lot of flexibility from gargaj & lug00ber where it was appropriate (and possible) in relation to the schedule (and in relation to the seriousness of the late entries :))

Sort of, although I guess the harder deadline was at 16 or so..

I think the biggest delay we had was 15 minutes for the intro compo when one intro had to be recompiled.. Oh and 15 min for the prize giving as well..

But the excellent compo crew of kindergarden can probably answer stuff about this party better than i can :)

@macaw: that would be the exact system we used on KG this year, possibly with the exception actually telling people what the deadline for getting a test run.

That being said, the universal problem is that most of the time, the productions being finished way past deadline are typically the one you most want in the compo as an organizer (ASD demos are a notable and very comfortable exception from this rule).

The real question is what to do with prods that doesn't run the first time. Do you allow 15 minutes more of overtime hacking, or is it over then?
For KG, we typically allow the extra 15 minutes while stalling the audience with loud music, insulting the coders via the PA and having Darklite in the crowd.
For the Gathering, this is harder because we have other stuff going on as well. But I guess this is a problem mostly for us and ASM, both parties catering to audiences which are not exclusively there for the scene.

lug00ber, great that someone has had these ideas already :) it was just my two cents on how to reduce the chance of multi-hour delays as seen at solskogen 2008 (2009 was much better).

@macaw, i believe that that's kind of what we do at outline too.

in fact, i thought this was sort of an unwritten rule already - miss the deadline => we'l try but no warranties! isn't that just fair and square?

at outline, we typically tell people who stretched the deadline to submit an early version, no matter how ugly or unfinished, so that we could at least test that on the compomachine. this works really well, because typically people only add new content on the last hours before the deadline, and not any mindblowing new tech. that way we would typically be able to have tested each and every entry at least to some extent, even if one final version only comes in on a usb stick *during* the compo :-)

i don't think it's the compo organisers job to stress and do extra effort for deadline-stretchers. but it's very easy to come to a compromise that both parties (and the audience) are perfectly happy with.

*if* you allow partygoers to directly talk to the compocrew, that is (*cough*tum*cough).

skrebbel: great! organisers should be friendly but firm (i.e. keep the schedule but allow submissions after the deadline :)

everybody wins!

@macaw: well, compos at Solskogen 2009 were run by different people than those who ran compos at Solskogen 2008 ;)

uuh.... what lug00ber and skrebbel said, basically.

lug00ber: also, more people. :)

an observation i coined at kg: "deadlines are only important if the compo crew is out of hearing range from the place you are sitting at."

also, the solskogen2009 lateness (which was shifting every compo with a single hour) was unrelated to deadlines :)

gargaj: So, deadlines are only important at big parties? ;)

gloom: my point exactly :)

the worst thing that can happen at a party is that the schedule is shifted and no information is given. if you expect to 3 hours late due to <insert reason> please inform the audience :)

and btw, having the price ceremony the same night as the compos are shown is pretty much awesome (hej puryx). everyone should do that. in my experience many people start packing and leaving at the break of dawn - which does not coincide with the wake up of the organisers :)

^^ is not coined at solskogen, kg, etc. but just a general observation

macaw: actually you should only credit me from stealing that idea from Outline ;)

puryx: I'll credit Okkie when I steal it from you then. :)

we try to be very friendly to visitors in terms of deadlines at BP too. nobody has complained so far :)

ryg, in return you are not super delayed when showing the demos. i've tried a couple of times where organisers schedule the demo compo at 22:00 but due to late night hacking on releases the compo isnt started till 3:00 in the night. that sucks, especially in terms of coordinating the alcohol intake as a member of the audience :)

That's the good thing about having many releases in a compo and also having two identical PCs and separate people preparing and running the compos - you can start the compo even if you know there's still people hacking away. And if you allowed this to those people because they're, let's say, famous English guys whose release would probably be cool, you can schedule their entries almost to the end of the compo. So the last, actual "now or never" deadline can be extended to "the second to last demo in the compo" and if it isn't met - well, three clicks in Partymeister and the entry has never existed. Which is sad but, well, their goddamn fault.

Disclaimer: The above was my own, personal, "the other BP orgs will now hate me and in five minutes ryg will come over and strangle me" opinion. The official stance of Breakpoint Organizing is of course DON'T EVEN. Unless you've got a good reason. :)

kb_: in other words you're just like the most small parties - just bigger! Which is awesome!

Addendum:

Correction on behalf of ryg: "If the END OF COMPO slide is on the big screen, it's almost not too late for submitting" :)

i'm not sure how to parse kbs sentence, but the rule as far as i'm concerned is this: if there's no time to get the demo to the beam team before the "end of compo" slide shows, you're definitely too late.

with pc compos, we do require that all entries are added to the party system by the deadline (or around the time, anyway). we do need to know how many last-minute patches we'll be waiting for. :) we stop accepting updates and small tweaks 1 hour before the compo starts - we still need to test the demos at some point. if there's crashes you're trying to fix or major effects/screens that are missing, we'll even accept updates while the demo compo is already running. but only if you're really nice about it and promise never to do it again! (until next year...)