I just want to gauge what the current interest is in a large-scale contest. For those who are new to the Hearthpwn Fan Creations Forum, we typically have one, huge contest a year spanning a few months. Contestants who enter design an entire class or adventure. They can be somewhat grueling and time-consuming. Since these contests were so large, they'd be split into several phases, each phase halving the number of entries until the grand finale. Between each phase was a set amount of time that contestants used to create their cards. Sometimes, there would also be mini-challenges for each phase (Example: 5 cards have to be 2 lines long or less).
As the years have gone by, interest both within the Fan Creations forum and with the rest of Hearthpwn has declined, though there was a slight uptick in participation in the most recent class creation competition due to better organization, practices, and because it was slated to the final large competition.
So, now, with the new mod team, with a mix of both Fan Creation veterans but also some new faces, I turn this topic over to you.
Would you like to see the return of large contest? What features would you like to see return, or which ones would you like to not see happen? What sort of timeline would you like (the month-long gaps of the most recent contest, or the two weeks between each phase of all other previous contests?) Perhaps you have something entirely new that you'd like to share. Voice your concerns in a comment.
Or, perhaps you just simply want to vote in the poll and give your quick two cents on this matter. All opinions are welcome. This poll won't have an end date, I'll just simply close it when I notice it no longer attracts responses for an appropriate length of time.
I know many people hated them but I liked having challenges in the CCC. Sometimes it feels wrong to be bond to arbitrary limitations when making your own stuff but other times it really helped me getting a card right or even starting somewhere. Maybe give a bunch of challengers and let contestants choose 2 or 3 they will abide by. Also try to make them design challenges as much as possible, having to make a card based on a pun or with artwork restrictions isn't that fun and doesn't encourage you to find a clever solution on your own.
And for the time between phases, I don't think you want to put to much of a time pressure on contestants but for the audience, a month is a long time to wait for the next big poll. While many contestants will share their process in the discussion threads, I think for those who just want to enjoy the show it's hard to stay invested. Maybe each phase could be broken down into weekly releases of 2 or 3 cards, which would allow contestants to frontload their first ideas and then take some more time to think aboit the rest of their set. It would also make submissions shorter, allowing voters to go through more of them without it feeling like a chore.
Tying back both ideas together, let's say Phase II is about the basic set. Contestants would be given 6 to 8 challenges. Each week, they would have to submit 2 cards, fulfilling at least 1 of the challenges for the week (a different one each week), or maybe they would just get bonus points for fulfilling a challenge. Each week, contestants would get points for the phase based on the number of likes they get. Maybe the last submission can be a big one with all the set, including the 2 remaining cards. At the end of the phase, you see who gets to Phase III based on points accumulated through Phase II. This way you get weekly short submissions and mounthly phases that build up hype around classes. Hopefully this also reduce the impact of post timing which is a very frustrating thing to deal with as a contestant and make every like count, despite the fact that others already got many.
A small thing that I would also like to see is for contestants (and maybe mods) to get some kind of "super like" that they have to give to another designer that would give them something like 3 points for the phase. Contestants (and mods) are more invested in the competition and design in general so it seems fair. It also encourage them to pay attention to what their opponents are doing and gives them a way to save a class that was unpopular inspite of it's good design.
I hope this helps and I can't wait until the next big competion !
I've been watching the class creation competitions for the past two years now and, for the most part, I have enjoyed watching the contests progress and seeing what the creators have to offer. I have always wished to participate in one, but the scariest part for me PERSONALLY is finding the appropriate artwork to go with any card that I create. I can't draw and I can't create art from scratch, which leaves me searching one or two art-based websites hoping that I can stumble upon a piece of art that I can use in a card that I have already designed. I would feel at a disadvantage when competing against anyone who does have those benefits. This problem may only affect me, but it's the biggest reason why I don't participate.
Another aspect of the competitions that have worried me, in regards to the actual phases themselves, is the high amount of cards that you have to create. Five or so cards each phase doesn't seem like a lot, but over the course of the entire challenge, you could be making 70+ cards, which to me seems like an awful lot. This, in combination with the art issues I mentioned earlier, make it seem intimidating and even impossible for me to have a fair chance of going far, or even winning.
Like I mentioned earlier, these issues may only be effecting me, but they are big enough issues to prevent me from entering.
I've been watching the class creation competitions for the past two years now and, for the most part, I have enjoyed watching the contests progress and seeing what the creators have to offer. I have always wished to participate in one, but the scariest part for me PERSONALLY is finding the appropriate artwork to go with any card that I create. I can't draw and I can't create art from scratch, which leaves me searching one or two art-based websites hoping that I can stumble upon a piece of art that I can use in a card that I have already designed. I would feel at a disadvantage when competing against anyone who does have those benefits. This problem may only affect me, but it's the biggest reason why I don't participate.
Another aspect of the competitions that have worried me, in regards to the actual phases themselves, is the high amount of cards that you have to create. Five or so cards each phase doesn't seem like a lot, but over the course of the entire challenge, you could be making 70+ cards, which to me seems like an awful lot. This, in combination with the art issues I mentioned earlier, make it seem intimidating and even impossible for me to have a fair chance of going far, or even winning.
Like I mentioned earlier, these issues may only be effecting me, but they are big enough issues to prevent me from entering.
EDIT: Please ignore my grammar issues.
Yeah I understand this can be a very daunting task. When it comes to art... I can and have spent *hours* finding art. Just doing nothing but listening to music and scouring the internet.
If you have not heard of artstation, you can try that. Furthermore, you can "cheat" and not use warcraft art. Simply typing in something along the lines of [fantasy knight] will give you tons upon tons of art.
If you *still* think this is too daunting, you can try teaming up with someone. I know Zanywoop is against this, but I personally don't mind it and I'll continue to discuss with him on this matter.
Given the current situation of both hearthstone and hearthpwn, I'm afraid that there won't be enough active users that are willing to participate in a large-scale competition.
Given the current situation of both hearthstone and hearthpwn, I'm afraid that there won't be enough active users that are willing to participate in a large-scale competition.
Yeah, you do raise a fair point. As it stands, there is no plan to make a large contest, this is mostly just for going forward.
I really enjoy the big competitions and I honestly only really come on here a couple of times a month to check if there's a new one coming up. I guess the weekly comps just don't interest me as much as they're a one and done kinda thing and I just don't get too invested in them. In short, I would become active again for a big comp :P
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Check out my Custom Classes(Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
I really enjoy the big competitions and I honestly only really come on here a couple of times a month to check if there's a new one coming up. I guess the weekly comps just don't interest me as much as they're a one and done kinda thing and I just don't get too invested in them. In short, I would become active again for a big comp :P
Fair enough. We're holding off on anything super large for now. We do have contests with real-life prizes being planned for Halloween and Christmas, so you should at least check for those.
Maybe a special reward for big comp is more attractive? Just like a different avatar and border of the champion or something.
And a special reward for season champion cause I got one
The main reward is an interview. We could also bring back a few other borders, yes. There is also a weekly competition that is dedicated to their class, but that was not well received in recent years, so I don't know about that one.
personally I really liked them, but I feel like it burns people out the further it progresses. They are fun to think of and make, but maybe what if we made the contests a little smaller and had 2 during the year, instead of one giant one?
personally I really liked them, but I feel like it burns people out the further it progresses. They are fun to think of and make, but maybe what if we made the contests a little smaller and had 2 during the year, instead of one giant one?
Interesting. How would you, if you were doing it, split up a class contest and an adventure/expansion contest?
If it was a class, if you make a class contest smaller, that probably means less expansions per half. We could... split the contest into two halves. That might be an interesting twist. One half has a winner, second half has another winner. Then those two could go in a grand finals.
As for adventures/singleplayer/expac, I'm not as sure. Got any ideas for that?
Zany and I took some time to brainstorm a couple of ideas (this is in regards to a class competition, which is slightly more popular):
We have a few options and a some twists.
Everyone who enters will have one week to make their Basic set. Everyone moves on from this stage. The next stage is the Classic Set. We start culling here. We then can either do any one Wild set of your choice OR the earliest two Standard sets. (Therefore, either a total of either 3 or 4 sets) This would mark the end of the first half. Whoever wins this will receive a massive boost going into the second half.
After a few months, we go ahead with the second half. All who participated in the first half can re-join with their old concept. Here, we would either do three or four Standard expansions. Again, this boils down to either a choice of 3 or 4 sets.
As for twists, I plan to add "super-likes" and Jeopardy-style lifelines. They would be a 50/50 or Phone a Mod.
50/50 is when you PM a Mod two cards (either two versions of the same card or two entirely different ones) and you ask them to pick which one they like more.
Phone a Mod allows you to PM a Mod. They will give feedback on a single card.
Each can be used once across BOTH halves.
A super-like is when you vote and then comment in the voting thread who you give a super-like to. That will add two extra points. Again, you can only do this once across both halves.
Zany's ideas are:
Each phase, you are allowed a single "preview" card. During your Basic set, you may showcase a Classic card, during the Classic phase, a Wild card, etc.
Furthermore, at the Grand Final during the second half, three of your cards will not be made by you. Each of the other finalists (there are always four) will make 1 card for each of their competitor's classes.
personally I really liked them, but I feel like it burns people out the further it progresses. They are fun to think of and make, but maybe what if we made the contests a little smaller and had 2 during the year, instead of one giant one?
Interesting. How would you, if you were doing it, split up a class contest and an adventure/expansion contest?
If it was a class, if you make a class contest smaller, that probably means less expansions per half. We could... split the contest into two halves. That might be an interesting twist. One half has a winner, second half has another winner. Then those two could go in a grand finals.
As for adventures/singleplayer/expac, I'm not as sure. Got any ideas for that?
For the class contest, do you mean like one class contest consists of so and so expansions, and the other one consists of so and so expansions? (Ex. The first contests class expansions are Year of the Kraken and Year of the Mammoth, and the second are Year of the Raven and Year of the Dragon) because that was exactly what I was thinking.
For singleplayer expansions, the only real possible way is making the card amounts less than what is already in standard so that phases can be condensed. For example, instead of 7 cards per class, there could be 5 cards, 1 legendary, 1 epic, 1 rare and 2 commons to get the theme across, and for the neutral cards there could be 6 commons, 4 rares, 3 epics, 3 legendaries for a total of 16 neutral cards.
The reason why I think it could be a good idea to thin the number of cards showcased is that it really gives people longer opportunity to really showcase their creative skills, and instead of worrying about mass producing cards with not really "out-of-the-box" ideas, It helps competitors think of uniqueness.
Zany and I took some time to brainstorm a couple of ideas (this is in regards to a class competition, which is slightly more popular):
We have a few options and a some twists.
Everyone who enters will have one week to make their Basic set. Everyone moves on from this stage. The next stage is the Classic Set. We start culling here. We then can either do any one Wild set of your choice OR the earliest two Standard sets. (Therefore, either a total of either 3 or 4 sets) This would mark the end of the first half. Whoever wins this will receive a massive boost going into the second half.
After a few months, we go ahead with the second half. All who participated in the first half can re-join with their old concept. Here, we would either do three or four Standard expansions. Again, this boils down to either a choice of 3 or 4 sets.
As for twists, I plan to add "super-likes" and Jeopardy-style lifelines. They would be a 50/50 or Phone a Mod.
50/50 is when you PM a Mod two cards (either two versions of the same card or two entirely different ones) and you ask them to pick which one they like more.
Phone a Mod allows you to PM a Mod. They will give feedback on a single card.
Each can be used once across BOTH halves.
A super-like is when you vote and then comment in the voting thread who you give a super-like to. That will add two extra points. Again, you can only do this once across both halves.
Zany's ideas are:
Each phase, you are allowed a single "preview" card. During your Basic set, you may showcase a Classic card, during the Classic phase, a Wild card, etc.
Furthermore, at the Grand Final during the second half, three of your cards will not be made by you. Each of the other finalists (there are always four) will make 1 card for each of their competitor's classes.
Looks like you are looking to condense the big comps with 1 set/week. That will certainly keep the pace up and the audience focused but I fear it would be overwelming for inexperienced or busy creators. Basic set is 10 cards. If you want to get feedback on your first draft and itterate, you basicaly have to make them in 1 or 2 days which makes it hard to be creative for all of them and find appropriated names, flavor and artworks. And what about sets that are 15 cards ? It's just too much. I know I would get burned out really fast at that pace. Maybe it could work if you only asked for 5 to 7 cards each set.
As for the twists, I like all of them, especially the challenge of making cards for your opponent's classes. I'd like to know how you make sure people make good cards in this context but it's probably not that hard. Maybe add a "get out of jail" option that let's you ingnore one rule once in the contest.
I still think you should consider breaking up sets into weekly posts to keep frequent contributions while giving contestants time to work on their class. I get that you don't want a cpntest that lasts too long so here are some adjustments to this proposal that would make it go fast :
1. Contestants build several sets at the same time. Let's say each week, they have to post 2 cards from the Basic set, 3 cards from the Classic set and 2 cards from any (standard) expension. After 5 weeks, you can end the competition or finish up each expansion (maybe 1 expansion/week). Note that the finishing expansions part can take place right after the fist part or a few month later. I'd start the eliminations during this part. I'd also add a "week 0" for portrait, Hero Power and theming. The goal here is to increase the cards/week ratio while offering diversity in the design so that contestants don't get burned out. This is 6 weeks for the first part then 6 weeks for the second part.
2. Week 1 : Hero Power and 4 Basic cards. Week 2 : 6 Basic cards (rest of the set). Week 3, 4 and 5 : 5 Classic cards each. You can start eliminations right before, during or right after these 3 weeks. You can make a short break before the rest of the competition here. Week 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 : Standard sets (one by one). Start slow then, when contestants start getting a fell for their class, ramp up the pace. I also think Basic and Classic should go as slowly as possible since they require more precise design while also being less creativity-inducing.
I hope this is helpful. I'm happy to see mods thinking about big contests since I can't wait for the next one. If you have specific goals (i.e. a certain length) you want to meet, please disclose them, it would make sugesting solutions much easier.
Essentially, yes, each half will be a year of expansions. Though I thought maybe making one wild set would spice things up a bit. For an expansion, I agree. We can cut out a fair chunk of the commons so you aren't stuck with making a bunch of pack fillers. I don't know how well that would sit with people though.
We're still trying to work out how much time will be allocated to each set. 2 weeks was seen to be too much, but I also think 1 week is difficult for most creators. I'm leaning towards 10 days.
Splitting up sets is a very nice idea. I'd keep Basic together, though. 10 cards in 10 days isn't a tall order, that's just 1 card a day. I think that is a fair base point as this kind of competition *is* supposed to be a bit harder. We do run into another dilemma, however, that this would drag on for too long.
I think the big problem when trying to make the competition faster is not the amount of cards to make each phase but rather the fact that making a whole consistant set to restricts design opportunities which leads to "pack filler" design and creative burnout. Any contestant can probably make 7 or 8 interesting cards based on one concept, be it a class identity or a set mechanic, but then the last few cards are gonna be rushed, less interesting or out of place. I see two ways around this but there probably are other solutions.
My first idea is to ask for cards from different sets during each phase. I elaborated on this earlier but basically make 2 or 3 cards from 4 or 5 sets each phase if it's a class competition and for an expension make 10 to 15 cards around a mecanic each phase. Phases should be 7 to 10 days long.
If you want to go beyond a 15 cards/10 days, my solution would be to give the opportunity (if not the obligation) to compete as a group. I would do this with a twist tho : Phase 1 would be a "form a group" phase to let contenders pitch their ideas and find partners. If it's a class comp, everyone gets to post up to 3 hero powers, up to 3 keywords, up to 3 unique mecanics and up to 15 exemple cards. Flavor would be loose this round but it could be reworked latter. Then, people can contact each other to form a team of 2 or 3 for the rest of the competition. Teams can include people who posted or newcomers who liked the poster's concepts. On phase 2, teams would have to settle on a hero power and a keyword from one of the posts among the team (minor tweaks might be allowed), decide on a clear class identity and make to whole basic set. You could even go as far as including the classic set to but that might overwhelm those who didn't team up. After that, you can either do one, two or even three sets each phase. With this model, you can get the whole of standard done in 4 phases. If it's an expansion comp, you do pretty much the same except the first post will feature up to 3 keywords, up to 3 "one per class" cycles (i.e. spellstones, forbidden spells etc...), up to 3 unique legendary patern (i.e. legendary spells, legendary weapons, quests etc...) with up to 15 exemple cards. After the team-ups you can make 3 or 4 phases that will showcase one third/one fourth of the expension, maybe do a phase about single player content or maybe do a separate competition for that.
I know teaming up can seem like it will give certain contenders an unfair advantage but bringing several perpectives together is in my oppinion the only way to archieve a card/phase ratio that allows for a short yet complete competition.
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Hello all,
I just want to gauge what the current interest is in a large-scale contest. For those who are new to the Hearthpwn Fan Creations Forum, we typically have one, huge contest a year spanning a few months. Contestants who enter design an entire class or adventure. They can be somewhat grueling and time-consuming. Since these contests were so large, they'd be split into several phases, each phase halving the number of entries until the grand finale. Between each phase was a set amount of time that contestants used to create their cards. Sometimes, there would also be mini-challenges for each phase (Example: 5 cards have to be 2 lines long or less).
As the years have gone by, interest both within the Fan Creations forum and with the rest of Hearthpwn has declined, though there was a slight uptick in participation in the most recent class creation competition due to better organization, practices, and because it was slated to the final large competition.
So, now, with the new mod team, with a mix of both Fan Creation veterans but also some new faces, I turn this topic over to you.
Would you like to see the return of large contest? What features would you like to see return, or which ones would you like to not see happen? What sort of timeline would you like (the month-long gaps of the most recent contest, or the two weeks between each phase of all other previous contests?) Perhaps you have something entirely new that you'd like to share. Voice your concerns in a comment.
Or, perhaps you just simply want to vote in the poll and give your quick two cents on this matter. All opinions are welcome. This poll won't have an end date, I'll just simply close it when I notice it no longer attracts responses for an appropriate length of time.
I know many people hated them but I liked having challenges in the CCC. Sometimes it feels wrong to be bond to arbitrary limitations when making your own stuff but other times it really helped me getting a card right or even starting somewhere. Maybe give a bunch of challengers and let contestants choose 2 or 3 they will abide by. Also try to make them design challenges as much as possible, having to make a card based on a pun or with artwork restrictions isn't that fun and doesn't encourage you to find a clever solution on your own.
And for the time between phases, I don't think you want to put to much of a time pressure on contestants but for the audience, a month is a long time to wait for the next big poll. While many contestants will share their process in the discussion threads, I think for those who just want to enjoy the show it's hard to stay invested. Maybe each phase could be broken down into weekly releases of 2 or 3 cards, which would allow contestants to frontload their first ideas and then take some more time to think aboit the rest of their set. It would also make submissions shorter, allowing voters to go through more of them without it feeling like a chore.
Tying back both ideas together, let's say Phase II is about the basic set. Contestants would be given 6 to 8 challenges. Each week, they would have to submit 2 cards, fulfilling at least 1 of the challenges for the week (a different one each week), or maybe they would just get bonus points for fulfilling a challenge. Each week, contestants would get points for the phase based on the number of likes they get. Maybe the last submission can be a big one with all the set, including the 2 remaining cards. At the end of the phase, you see who gets to Phase III based on points accumulated through Phase II. This way you get weekly short submissions and mounthly phases that build up hype around classes. Hopefully this also reduce the impact of post timing which is a very frustrating thing to deal with as a contestant and make every like count, despite the fact that others already got many.
A small thing that I would also like to see is for contestants (and maybe mods) to get some kind of "super like" that they have to give to another designer that would give them something like 3 points for the phase. Contestants (and mods) are more invested in the competition and design in general so it seems fair. It also encourage them to pay attention to what their opponents are doing and gives them a way to save a class that was unpopular inspite of it's good design.
I hope this helps and I can't wait until the next big competion !
I do like the idea of splitting up the phases into 2 cards a week. As for contests yeah, not a problem. That was one of my major concerns.
Super likes... hm. If I can figure out the logistics of that, that can be done.
I would also like to say that I have a few... interesting... twists I plan to add if a large competition were to be a thing,
I've been watching the class creation competitions for the past two years now and, for the most part, I have enjoyed watching the contests progress and seeing what the creators have to offer. I have always wished to participate in one, but the scariest part for me PERSONALLY is finding the appropriate artwork to go with any card that I create. I can't draw and I can't create art from scratch, which leaves me searching one or two art-based websites hoping that I can stumble upon a piece of art that I can use in a card that I have already designed. I would feel at a disadvantage when competing against anyone who does have those benefits. This problem may only affect me, but it's the biggest reason why I don't participate.
Another aspect of the competitions that have worried me, in regards to the actual phases themselves, is the high amount of cards that you have to create. Five or so cards each phase doesn't seem like a lot, but over the course of the entire challenge, you could be making 70+ cards, which to me seems like an awful lot. This, in combination with the art issues I mentioned earlier, make it seem intimidating and even impossible for me to have a fair chance of going far, or even winning.
Like I mentioned earlier, these issues may only be effecting me, but they are big enough issues to prevent me from entering.
EDIT: Please ignore my grammar issues.
Yeah I understand this can be a very daunting task. When it comes to art... I can and have spent *hours* finding art. Just doing nothing but listening to music and scouring the internet.
If you have not heard of artstation, you can try that. Furthermore, you can "cheat" and not use warcraft art. Simply typing in something along the lines of [fantasy knight] will give you tons upon tons of art.
If you *still* think this is too daunting, you can try teaming up with someone. I know Zanywoop is against this, but I personally don't mind it and I'll continue to discuss with him on this matter.
Given the current situation of both hearthstone and hearthpwn, I'm afraid that there won't be enough active users that are willing to participate in a large-scale competition.
THERE IS NO GAME.
Yeah, you do raise a fair point. As it stands, there is no plan to make a large contest, this is mostly just for going forward.
I really enjoy the big competitions and I honestly only really come on here a couple of times a month to check if there's a new one coming up. I guess the weekly comps just don't interest me as much as they're a one and done kinda thing and I just don't get too invested in them. In short, I would become active again for a big comp :P
Check out my Custom Classes (Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
Fair enough. We're holding off on anything super large for now. We do have contests with real-life prizes being planned for Halloween and Christmas, so you should at least check for those.
Maybe a special reward for big comp is more attractive? Just like a different avatar and border of the champion or something.
And a special reward for season champion cause I got oneThe main reward is an interview. We could also bring back a few other borders, yes. There is also a weekly competition that is dedicated to their class, but that was not well received in recent years, so I don't know about that one.
I'm opening up the poll numbers. Maybe it changes your opinion, maybe it won't.
personally I really liked them, but I feel like it burns people out the further it progresses. They are fun to think of and make, but maybe what if we made the contests a little smaller and had 2 during the year, instead of one giant one?
Interesting. How would you, if you were doing it, split up a class contest and an adventure/expansion contest?
If it was a class, if you make a class contest smaller, that probably means less expansions per half. We could... split the contest into two halves. That might be an interesting twist. One half has a winner, second half has another winner. Then those two could go in a grand finals.
As for adventures/singleplayer/expac, I'm not as sure. Got any ideas for that?
Zany and I took some time to brainstorm a couple of ideas (this is in regards to a class competition, which is slightly more popular):
We have a few options and a some twists.
Everyone who enters will have one week to make their Basic set. Everyone moves on from this stage.
The next stage is the Classic Set. We start culling here.
We then can either do any one Wild set of your choice OR the earliest two Standard sets. (Therefore, either a total of either 3 or 4 sets)
This would mark the end of the first half. Whoever wins this will receive a massive boost going into the second half.
After a few months, we go ahead with the second half. All who participated in the first half can re-join with their old concept.
Here, we would either do three or four Standard expansions. Again, this boils down to either a choice of 3 or 4 sets.
As for twists, I plan to add "super-likes" and Jeopardy-style lifelines. They would be a 50/50 or Phone a Mod.
Zany's ideas are:
For the record, we're completely open to discussion on how best to proceed, these are just ideas we are currently discussing internally.
For the class contest, do you mean like one class contest consists of so and so expansions, and the other one consists of so and so expansions? (Ex. The first contests class expansions are Year of the Kraken and Year of the Mammoth, and the second are Year of the Raven and Year of the Dragon) because that was exactly what I was thinking.
For singleplayer expansions, the only real possible way is making the card amounts less than what is already in standard so that phases can be condensed. For example, instead of 7 cards per class, there could be 5 cards, 1 legendary, 1 epic, 1 rare and 2 commons to get the theme across, and for the neutral cards there could be 6 commons, 4 rares, 3 epics, 3 legendaries for a total of 16 neutral cards.
The reason why I think it could be a good idea to thin the number of cards showcased is that it really gives people longer opportunity to really showcase their creative skills, and instead of worrying about mass producing cards with not really "out-of-the-box" ideas, It helps competitors think of uniqueness.
Looks like you are looking to condense the big comps with 1 set/week. That will certainly keep the pace up and the audience focused but I fear it would be overwelming for inexperienced or busy creators. Basic set is 10 cards. If you want to get feedback on your first draft and itterate, you basicaly have to make them in 1 or 2 days which makes it hard to be creative for all of them and find appropriated names, flavor and artworks. And what about sets that are 15 cards ? It's just too much. I know I would get burned out really fast at that pace. Maybe it could work if you only asked for 5 to 7 cards each set.
As for the twists, I like all of them, especially the challenge of making cards for your opponent's classes. I'd like to know how you make sure people make good cards in this context but it's probably not that hard. Maybe add a "get out of jail" option that let's you ingnore one rule once in the contest.
I still think you should consider breaking up sets into weekly posts to keep frequent contributions while giving contestants time to work on their class. I get that you don't want a cpntest that lasts too long so here are some adjustments to this proposal that would make it go fast :
1. Contestants build several sets at the same time. Let's say each week, they have to post 2 cards from the Basic set, 3 cards from the Classic set and 2 cards from any (standard) expension. After 5 weeks, you can end the competition or finish up each expansion (maybe 1 expansion/week). Note that the finishing expansions part can take place right after the fist part or a few month later. I'd start the eliminations during this part. I'd also add a "week 0" for portrait, Hero Power and theming. The goal here is to increase the cards/week ratio while offering diversity in the design so that contestants don't get burned out. This is 6 weeks for the first part then 6 weeks for the second part.
2. Week 1 : Hero Power and 4 Basic cards. Week 2 : 6 Basic cards (rest of the set). Week 3, 4 and 5 : 5 Classic cards each. You can start eliminations right before, during or right after these 3 weeks. You can make a short break before the rest of the competition here. Week 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 : Standard sets (one by one). Start slow then, when contestants start getting a fell for their class, ramp up the pace. I also think Basic and Classic should go as slowly as possible since they require more precise design while also being less creativity-inducing.
I hope this is helpful. I'm happy to see mods thinking about big contests since I can't wait for the next one. If you have specific goals (i.e. a certain length) you want to meet, please disclose them, it would make sugesting solutions much easier.
Essentially, yes, each half will be a year of expansions. Though I thought maybe making one wild set would spice things up a bit. For an expansion, I agree. We can cut out a fair chunk of the commons so you aren't stuck with making a bunch of pack fillers. I don't know how well that would sit with people though.
We're still trying to work out how much time will be allocated to each set. 2 weeks was seen to be too much, but I also think 1 week is difficult for most creators. I'm leaning towards 10 days.
Splitting up sets is a very nice idea. I'd keep Basic together, though. 10 cards in 10 days isn't a tall order, that's just 1 card a day. I think that is a fair base point as this kind of competition *is* supposed to be a bit harder. We do run into another dilemma, however, that this would drag on for too long.
I think the big problem when trying to make the competition faster is not the amount of cards to make each phase but rather the fact that making a whole consistant set to restricts design opportunities which leads to "pack filler" design and creative burnout. Any contestant can probably make 7 or 8 interesting cards based on one concept, be it a class identity or a set mechanic, but then the last few cards are gonna be rushed, less interesting or out of place. I see two ways around this but there probably are other solutions.
My first idea is to ask for cards from different sets during each phase. I elaborated on this earlier but basically make 2 or 3 cards from 4 or 5 sets each phase if it's a class competition and for an expension make 10 to 15 cards around a mecanic each phase. Phases should be 7 to 10 days long.
If you want to go beyond a 15 cards/10 days, my solution would be to give the opportunity (if not the obligation) to compete as a group. I would do this with a twist tho : Phase 1 would be a "form a group" phase to let contenders pitch their ideas and find partners. If it's a class comp, everyone gets to post up to 3 hero powers, up to 3 keywords, up to 3 unique mecanics and up to 15 exemple cards. Flavor would be loose this round but it could be reworked latter. Then, people can contact each other to form a team of 2 or 3 for the rest of the competition. Teams can include people who posted or newcomers who liked the poster's concepts. On phase 2, teams would have to settle on a hero power and a keyword from one of the posts among the team (minor tweaks might be allowed), decide on a clear class identity and make to whole basic set. You could even go as far as including the classic set to but that might overwhelm those who didn't team up. After that, you can either do one, two or even three sets each phase. With this model, you can get the whole of standard done in 4 phases. If it's an expansion comp, you do pretty much the same except the first post will feature up to 3 keywords, up to 3 "one per class" cycles (i.e. spellstones, forbidden spells etc...), up to 3 unique legendary patern (i.e. legendary spells, legendary weapons, quests etc...) with up to 15 exemple cards. After the team-ups you can make 3 or 4 phases that will showcase one third/one fourth of the expension, maybe do a phase about single player content or maybe do a separate competition for that.
I know teaming up can seem like it will give certain contenders an unfair advantage but bringing several perpectives together is in my oppinion the only way to archieve a card/phase ratio that allows for a short yet complete competition.