I created the idea of the
BOTB because the FPSC Showcase board was overcome with "look at my cool game" that consisted of dozens of objects that were thrown about the giant room without rhyme or reason. The few gems that were sprouting up here and there were constantly being pushed off the front page; so I wanted a place that was "untouchable" (meaning uncluttered) with which to showcase games and demos that were above-par and really showed what FPSC was capable of.
It had been mentioned that if it went well with the FPSC crowd (which it seems to have done), then it might move into the DB crowd. That would be up to someone else, I imagine.
The
BOTB was never meant to be for 1 or 2 people only; it was created for a
growing membership of above-par FPSC developers....there is no limit on the number of entries. It wasn't meant to create an "elitist award"; it was created to recognize and encourage FPSC developers to push the envelope with the software...and to show others that you
can build an enjoyable experience with it.
As far as criteria goes; there is no set-in-stone way of getting accepted. I encourage candidates to look at previous entries to see what I'm looking for. If I don't think your game/demo is up to snuff; I'll try to tell you where you can improve, and ask you to re-submit later. I also look for games that use FPSC in a "non run&gun" manner; such as
Umbra. I draw a great amount of input from comments on the developer's threads as well; sometimes I chime in myself.
Since the badges have come out, I've seen a number of people wanting to be recognized. The first thing I hear them say is not "I'm going to start submitting levels until I get something accepted"; but more along the lines of "I really need to improve my game design before I try to submit".
Having said all that; I agree with most here in that I don't think a
Programmer BOTB is possible, at least not in the manner that I have run the FPSC version. I think it would be entirely possible to have a
DB BOTB; only there would probably need to be a little more laid out as far as criteria, and one of the DB Mods would be better off running that one (as I have little experience with the language as of yet).
Of course, it's entirely up to the developers here; which is why this thread (and the resulting discussion) is a good idea.
-Keith
