Deputy Captains Wanted!

hengineer

Hello spacefriends,
I'm looking for volunteers to organize local Spaceteam tournaments to be held during the Admiral's Club campaign relaunch. I'll host one in Montréal, and I'd like to have a few more in other cities.

There will be in-game rewards to unlock during the event, participants will get Spaceteam badges, and there will be real medals for the winning teams!

As a Deputy Captain, you will get:
- A Commander-level* Admiral's Club membership with all the benefits
- A Spaceteam T-shirt

What I will need from you:
- Find a good time & space for the tournament in your area (ideally the tournaments will be in early June)
- Promote it locally
- I'll send you a package with the buttons and medals and a poster template
- You'll be responsible for running the tournament, handing out buttons, awarding medals, etc.
- It would also be nice for someone to take pictures and/or video at the event!

If you're interested in being a Deputy Captain for your city, please get in touch at: henry@sleepingbeastgames.com

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* You can see the details of the Commander package on the old campaign page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hengineer/spaceteam-admirals-club

hengineer

Ok here's what I have so far:

The collection of events as a whole will be called the "Admiral's Challenge".
It will consist of three main parts:
1. Local Tournaments
2. Global Challenges
3. Special Achievements

1. Local Tournaments
This is what I'm organizing right now, with you guys.
The timing will depend on when venues/organizers are available, but it's looking like mid-to-late June will be a good time, perhaps the weekends of June 14th or June 21st? They don't have to all be on the same day, but within a week of each other would be nice. I'll also plan the Kickstarter campaign dates around the tournaments. I might make sense to just run it for the month of June.

I've already had volunteers from 30 different cities and I have a limited budget (especially since the new campaign may not even succeed!) so I can't afford to send buttons/medals to every venue. I'll have to pick 10 or so "official" venues which will receive the tournament packages. But if you don't make the list it doesn't mean you can't host a tournament! Players can still compete for the Global Challenges, the Special Achievements (see below), and bragging rights. And it will help tremendously with the outreach for my campaign.

The basic structure of the tournaments will be 4-player teams all trying to reach the highest sector in a series of elimination rounds. For example:
- Round 1: All teams play, submit their scores, and the best 8 teams go forward
- Round 2: These 8 teams play, the best 3 go forward
- Round 3: The top 3 teams compete for Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals!

To ensure fairness, we'll use a new Deterministic Mode seed for each round. I'll privately distribute seeds to the organizers and they will announce them at the start of each round.

2. Global Challenges
Everyone around the world will be able to compete for the global challenges. Your team can submit high-scores in various predetermined categories, e.g.: 6-player Symbols, 4-player Acknowledged Mode, etc.
At the end of the campaign I'll award prizes to the best teams (prizes TBD).

3. Special Achievements
Everyone who plays during the approximate timeframe of the tournaments (eg. during the month of June, say) will unlock special awards for reaching certain goals.
I don't know exactly what these will be yet, but for example:
- Reach Sector 20 with 4 players and unlock a new beam signal effect for the Waiting Room
- Get 10 Near-Death Saves and unlock a totally new Waiting Room skin
- ...you get the idea

Please post your questions in this thread and I will add more info as I invent it!

hengineer

Note: please don't start officially promoting your tournament until we've worked out all the details. I'd like to present a consistent message and avoid confusion. I'll also make a central website with links to all the local dates/venues.

hengineer

I'll also compile all of this information and more into a "handbook" that I'll distribute to the Deputies. It will have tips on how to get people connected when there are 50 people all in the same room, a reminder to mention the Admiral's Club campaign to participants and encourage people to contribute, etc.

hengineer

I've been asked if it's appropriate to charge a fee for participation. If the venue normally charges something (eg. a board game cafe with $5 cover) then yeah that's ok, but otherwise I'd like to keep it as accessible as possible. If you have a perfect place but it needs to be rented and you'd like to cover the cost somehow then send me a message and we'll work something out.

werewulf

At events you've run in the past, did you find that you had to have wifi, or could you get by with bluetooth? The venue I'm thinking of has free wifi for folks at the convention, but it's spotty and of course everyone and his brother is hanging around that corner of the convention hall frantically pulling down facebook feeds and the like.

Can we do the initial teams per type of phone… idevice or android and then just need the wifi for when folks move up into mixed teams, or should it be mixed from the beginning?

Ironmaus

Werewulf has an interesting question. I was under the impression it would be pre-formed teams competing. Henry, do you prefer pre-formed teams, pickup groups, both? If we have both, we should probably have a system in place for assembling pick-up groups, so they feel welcome and that the sign-ups go easily.

iisjreg

Hey! I'm really looking forward to this. Could be a cool little series of events.

I'll just introduce myself quick. My name's Jarryd and I'm an alc..... from Norwich in the UK and also a member of our local indie gamedev group!

I have such a perfect venue for an event but will need to investigate rental - it has a giant, 24m wide screen! We recently organised a 10-day large-scale gaming festival there, which went down really well (https://www.facebook.com/NorwichGamingFestival), so could get a few people interested, although if there are only 10 'official' venues, I doubt that we could compete with London or Cambridge... I'd still like to host a tournament, either way.

@werewulf, you could use your own router, particularly as there wouldn't be that many people connected at once (and you can give it a spaceteamish name). You'd just need to adjust the channel to avoid interference, or go to 5MHz, if possible, as venues are unlikely to use it.

mjamus

Could digital files be given to locations not chosen to receive tournament packages? This would allow them to print out patches, awards, etc

werewulf

I like the way you think @mjamus.

Henry, I have a badge maker from the Badge-a-Minit folks, if I bought the lanyard parts from them, I could picture making medals myself if artwork could be provided.

@iisjreg, pretend I'm not the most amazingly tech savvy wulf of all time... Would something like the Asus pocket router, which I've been eyeing for some time, work the way you describe? Trying to figure out how to hook up a router to convention provided wifi.

hengineer

Of course I can send digital files to everyone who doesn't get the physical packages, and if you can make your own buttons or medals somehow then that's fantastic!

For networking, you should be able to set up a laptop (or router) as a Wifi hotspot and here's the thing: it doesn't even need to be connected to the internet! As long as you have a local Wifi network, people should be able to connect and play. You'll still get interference from other networks if it's at a conference though.

Even in the best conditions, getting this many people connected is a challenge. You probably won't be able to have everyone playing simultaneously. The way it has worked in the past is to have each team connect and play however/whenever they can, and submit their score to the organizer when they finish. At the first PAX tournament some teams had to run out into the hallway (or in one case the bathroom!) to avoid interference and get connected, but once the initial connection is made it usually sticks for the rest of the game (once they made it to the Waiting Room they would come back into the room, usually huddled together in fear that their connection would get broken!). This was before I create the Private Team option though, so people were connecting to random other people in the room...

At previous tournaments it has been a mix of pre-formed teams and pick-ups. Pick-ups are great because you get to meet new people in the context of being a Spaceteam together

Ironmaus

Henry, have you already done any forum polls or other unofficial interest-gathering reconnaissance that may give you a rough idea of potential attendance anywhere? I ask because of narrowing down venue capacity options: Is 40-50 too small? Is 350-400 too big?

hengineer

I think 40-50 is about right, I think if it got above 100 it would become too hard to manage. But if you think you can get 400 people to participate, then let's talk

hengineer

Please fill out this short survey if you are planning to host a tournament! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15pT8zUQFEpgx-6gQ_UPjz2cVm_rQYOdCxzMGZ4uzJbI/viewform?usp=send_form

werewulf

I went ahead and ordered the lanyard button blanks anyway. Even if I don't end up hosting one of the events, I can see using them for something similar in the future.

MrMistery

I"m really interested in hosting an event here in LA. There is a local board game store that would be the perfect venue. People who are no longer in the tournament can play games and people who haven't even heard of it but are there to play games can sign up.

I like the idea of having a mix of teams and walk-ins. Teams can come already registered and play and there can be a waiting list for those who want to join a team.

There should be qualifying rounds, as well I think. You have to get beyond a certain level to even be allowed to compete. For example, level 13 or 15. Screen shots need to be taken for proof, of course.

I'm excited for this! The dates are going to come up fast though so Henry if you have any ideas or further tips like you suggested that will help us narrow things down and start booking venues and gathering supplies.

werewulf

I"d love to see the rules they used for the Pax East tournament. I also think that you'd have to have some sort of qualifying rounds. The game is fun, but since it doesn't take all that much time to play, you should have a couple of chances to get to the qualifying level.

Of course, saying that, I have never made it past level 10 in my life. I'm waiting and hoping that someday I'll have the Spaceteam that WORKS TOGETHER so that I can beat that milestone!

Maybe I should space my cat… she doesn't help much in the midst of the hysteria. Always messing with my panels!

hengineer

Based on the survey responses so far it looks like late June is going to better for most people. Late June also gives us all more time to prepare.
So unless you have a specific event happening earlier in June (eg. E3 or Origins Game Fair), let's try to cluster the tournaments around the last two weekends of June (between June 21-29). Pick whichever date is best for you.
I'll probably end the campaign at the end of June so the earlier weekend will give people more time to spread the word (and show off their buttons), but the later weekend will be the climax of the campaign so people might feel more motivated to join the club... not sure which is better.
I'm still waiting to hear back from my own venue.

hengineer

The rules used at the first PAX East tournament (2013) were the ones I described in my first comment above (with three elimination rounds). Not sure if they were different this year since I couldn't make it.

I'd rather not prevent people from competing. If they show up for the tournament then they should be allowed to participate. There will be time for people to practice as everyone shows up and signs in, and having a few practice games is probably wise to test all the connections. The first round is basically like a qualifying round anyway since it will eliminate teams that would otherwise fail to qualify.

MrMistery

Perhaps there should be two different categories.

Normal Space Team Adventure play, with no additions and no extra rules.
And Special Space Team. With adjustments like symbols only or acknowledgement mode.

Teams can choose which they want to sign up for - or - if theres enough time maybe they can happen one after the other? The first is the ACTUAL tournament, which gives prizes and buttons and the like.. and the second is just a fun tournament with nothing more than special praise?

hengineer

The official tournament will definitely be a standard game with no special modes turned on. That's the game that most people are familiar with, and I don't want people to have to pay to compete (since the special modes need to be unlocked with an in-app purchase)

Some of the Global Challenges and Special Achievements might involve different modes, however, for variety.

But if you want to have an additional friendly tournaments as part of your local event then please feel free! I don't think I'll include them as part of the official schedule though.

iisjreg

@werewulf That's definitely an interesting device. It should be ok for a team. I wouldn't want more than a dozen connected though - maybe it can be used as the 'official' competition connection for the current team, then everybody else could connect to the venue wifi while waiting.

Interruption can be minimised with some wireless ninja action! inSSIDer is good software for scanning wireless signals to workout which channel is best to use: http://www.metageek.net/support/downloads/

sekongur

@hengineer I think that all the local tournament that don't have medals to the prices could make some keyrings with hama beads, that are very cheap to craft, your designs are great in this format, we only need the images to build the hama medals

Edit:
With one or two of these
https://www.tiendadehamabeads.com/es/mini-beads/570-hama-mini-mix-2000-piezas-48-colores-028178501006.html
we have over 40-80 pieces of each color. I think that your designs can fit perfectly with this if you choose models from distinct colors

hengineer

@sekongur do you have an example of what a medal might look like made out of these beads? It sounds like a lot of work but if you want to take on this task I'll certainly send you some images!

AbeFM

What could you reasonably sell a 'awards package' for, at cost? In case we're doing a tournament and think it'd be spiffy to have medals?

hengineer

@AbeFM interesting question My current calculations say $100 + shipping (probably another ~$50) which will get you 50 buttons, 12 medals, and 2 t-shirts.

hengineer

@AbeFM I found a cheaper medal supplier, so the package price has gone down to $80 + shipping

hengineer

I sent out invitations to a shared folder on Google Docs with more info, please let me know if you expressed interest in being a Deputy and you haven't received it.

Ironmaus

A thought to prevent screenshot cheating: The score page could have the deterministic seed printed on it. Since no one would know which seed the venue was using ahead of time (or even necessarily that we were using deterministic mode), they couldn't come with pre-shot screens.

sekongur

@hengineer the work of hama braft depends of the number of pixels, but is veary easy, one medal it's over 10-15 minutes. I have a hugh amount of minions working for me

Samples
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/b8/5a/2b/b85a2bc8b607c8fe3ad4a4e355bb4026.jpg
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/273/5/7/pokemon_gym_badges_in_perler_bead_form_by_imprialmog-d5gcmdx.jpg

Can you share us the design of the medals? If these are HD, we could craft some characters to work as medals instead
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/7a/6d/7f/7a6d7f2a4bdeddd58cd31ace23e25ade.jpg

About the docs for the public, when you have it, could you send us the editable version to translate it?

hengineer

@Ironmaus That's a good idea. I was also thinking of generating some kind of validation code just in case. But I'm not really worried about cheating, it's not like you can win money or anything