Great!
I've been lurking at the forum since before this contest existed.

Kelcin

As the scores were based on categories, could you also rank by these? i.e. show where people came in terms of "originality", "humor" etc.

Also, I have no objectives of my scores being shown (so I can see what people thought of my entries!!).

With the agetoons, will these be added to the agetoons section of the site?

I R WINNER! Awesome!!!!!!111oneone!!
I guess the pretty screenshot was a little bit dull, but it was made to work with the rocky environment outside the valley too...

Darky, I love the "spot the fisher" game you can play with your entry

Here, in case you guys want to know why I rated you the way I did for the pretty screen:

TDA and TS: Simple, but in a good way.
Rasteve: Good for an in-game thing, but as a screen too cluttered.
Killer: Too low quality to be able to tell
Frukt: Too bland, also purpleish bones don't really look too good.
Nacht: Also not very exciting, and the repetitive patches against the water are really ugly.

I was hoping that I'd get 1st place, but I didn't think I would because I won the MMC and people wouldn't want me to win two contests in a row so my score might have been lowered. I'm not making any accusations, it's what I'd do in the situation.

I thought Killer's entry was great from what I could see, but I couldn't see much since it was so small. Rasteve's was awesome from a technical aspect, I love the man falling off of the bridge, but other than that ot was only okay.

Here are my full reviews:

Agetoons:

Fruktfisk's “Attack Ground”
Funniness: 9.0
Creativity: 8.0
Overall: 17.0

I love Agetoons that make fun of the computer Ai and the game's little quirks! This one has both in a creative way. Also, even though map design is not anything I can add score for, it still looks nice.

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Da Killer/HMFSFM's “Restaurant”
Funniness: 4.0
Creativity: 5.0
Overall: 9.0

It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, there’s really no sort of punch line, just lots of people talking and saying weird stuff. I did, however, like the menu, referring to the lack of animal variety in AoE.

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Nacht Jaeger’s “Adam’s Rib”
Funniness: 7.5
Creativity: 9.5
Overall: 17.0

With both reference to the lack of female units in AoE I and the addition of female villagers in AoE II years later, I had to laugh. Poor Adam! It adds an amusing spin to the creation of the first woman in the Bible.

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Rasteve’s “Roman Empire”
Funniness: 6.8
Creativity: 7.6
Overall: 14.4

I like wordplay, and Rasteve delivered. The punch line about the “Caesars” was hilarious to me. It’s also historically accurate!

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TailSpray/Ninetails’s It’s A Trap!
I can’t rate my Agetoon, but I can’t say it’s all that great. I couldn’t think of anything really good, so I just threw it together. I’m not expecting a great score for it.


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Pretty Screenshots:

The Dark Archer’s Entry
Eyecandy: 5.0
Terrain Rendering: 8.5
General Neatness: 7.0
Overall: 20.5

Comments:
The terrain was great, TDA’s always been good at that, but it shines through here. The area is nice and realistic looking, bur it gets a little boring. There’s nothing really happening, nor is there anything of great interest. The overall effect is nice, but the picture needs a subject, something to draw in the viewer’s attention.

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Nacht Jaeger’s Entry
Eyecandy: 5.3
Terrain Rendering: 8.0
General Neatness: 6.8
Overall: 20.1

Comments:
One of the best rivers I’ve ever seen, the banks are a work of art and look very dirty. However, it doesn’t differ much from TDA’s pic, it needs a subject. The grass area could use a few more trees and the desert patches are placed a little too uniformly on the riverbank.

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Fruktfisk’s Entry
Eyecandy: 6.3
Terrain Rendering: 7.9
General Neatness: 7.0
Overall: 21.2

Comments:
When I first opened the pic up, my first thoughts were: “It’s so small!” I think it has to do with the player’s screen resolution. After looking for a while I came to the conclusion that most of the contestants seem to be depending on terrain rendering, myself included. The pine needles were very much in evidence and the ground was different from any type of terrain I’d seen before. Overall I like the feeling of the picture, the animals, the watering hole, and the nicely spaced trees. The only thing I missed was a little more variety of objects on the ground, but I understand that the tightly placed grass and desert patches would cover most things placed.

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Da Killer/HMFSFM's Entry
Eyecandy: 7.0
Terrain Rendering: 7.5
General Neatness: 9.0
Overall: 23.5

I wish that a larger pic had been submitted, because from what I can see it would be awesome. The water, cliffs, and jungle work perfectly. The Gaia trees are great, and the stone mines are beautifully placed for effect. Cacti are well placed to give an overgrown feel, and the muddy paths on the ground look good too. All this adds up to a great screenshot that, while not having all sorts of great design tricks, is still the nicest looking screenshot overall. (I may be wrong about my descriptions of the various parts of the pic, it’s a bit small and blurry.)

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Rasteve’s Entry
Eyecandy: 8.5
Terrain Rendering: 6.0
General Neatness: 8.0
Overall: 22.5

A man falling off of a bridge, I’ve never seen the like. In fact, this screenshot is full of technical surprises, a narrow bridge, a walkway up a mountain, a trireme in a small, muddy docking channel. Even though the terrain is a little dull, the tricks are really cool and the whole pic seems to come together nicely. One thing that got me though, the buildings were not very well placed, they’re piled on top of each other without much thought. Also the villagers could be performing actions, not just standing there.

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TailSpray/Ninetails’s Shina Village
Once again I can’t rate it, but I’ll describe it the way I think of it.

Even though there are no great eyecandy tricks shown here, I tried to create new terrains that had never been seen before. I started with a village located at the base of a mountain where the waterfalls create a stream, that stream then flows off into a pine forest with a super thick floor of pine needles. Overall I tried for a natural look and feel, with dark, thick forests and wildlife evident in the surrounding area. I also tried to capture the villagers in a way that made them look like they’re moving.




So, what did the other judges think of my entry? (Details please)

Also, now that the judging is complete, what do the rest of you think of the entries and which did you like best?

[This message has been edited by Ninetails (edited 11-21-2008 @ 07:02 PM).]

The subject of mine was the old fisherman's home.

I judged the agetoons:

Nacht Jaeger’s “Adam’s Rib”
Humor: 8
Originality: 7
Overall: 15

A clever comparison between AoE and AoK from a Bible story point of view. I would say the originality was restricted due to a number of other AoE vs AoK agetoons, and a couple of bible specific examples.

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Fruktfisk's “Attack Ground”
Humor: 9
Originality: 8
Overall: 17

Nice joke regarding AoE terminology, and probably what the computer unit is thinking before it is replaced by a dead unit graphic lol. There are obviously other jokes regarding little quirks but not executed as good as this (in my opinion).

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Ninetails’s "It’s A Trap!"
Humor: 7
Originality: 8
Overall: 15

For me the humor is in Scenario_T_C's comment! Kind of reminds me of what he would say. Also, a comic book style is quite unique.

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Da Killer/HMFSFM's “Restaurant”
Humor: 6
Originality: 7
Overall: 13

Too many speech bubbles for my liking! A little humor bouncing around the restaurant, but nothing to make me grin

Can I make bigger screenshots?
The pretty screenshot is a protected walley in my Ice Age Hunting Day, it is actually based on a swedish autumn forest. The elephant is supposed to be a woolly rhino and the gazelles are caribous.

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk290/HG_NJ/AoEH SSC 2/ShinaVillage-TailSpray.jpg?t=1227352869

It is a nice screenshot, with the stream, forest and house with fence done very well.

2 things which stand out (for me) is the watch tower ladder (placed on the cliff edge!!!) and the eagle shadow over the camp fire.

I liked the shadow there for whatever reason, the tower is just there, I didn't think about the ladder.

Man, you have no idea how long it took to upload your screenshot to an email or photobucket, TS! Next contest I run, no more really huge shots Anyway, what with prizes, does anyone have any ideas?

I have no ideas but good to see how this contests use community's creativity in a constructive way.

Sorry about that, NJ, it's not because it was so big, it's because I didn't use any compression for the jpg. If I'd used greater compression it would've uploaded faster but the quality would suffer.

cool, I got 4th place at the pretty screenshot. I was expecting it

[This message has been edited by HMFSFM (edited 11-25-2008 @ 03:54 PM).]