Shadowdark Keep: Complete Thief Fan Mission Archive

Contest 6 Results

What Contest? - These are the results of the sixth small FM contest held in the summer and fall of 2005. While Contest 6 was for Thief 3, previous contests have been for classic Thief games (1/DP,Gold,2).
There were 6 missions entered and the rules restricted the building area to 256,000 cubic feet contained in the space of four 40x40x40 foot cubes laid out in almost any manner the authors wished (larger than Contests 1 and 2, much larger than 3 and 4, but smaller than Contest 5). Authors had almost three months to build their missions which were all released October 25, 2005.

Voting was finished November 25, 2005.

Prizes - A full set of 4 Komag DVDs plus Komag CD T2X goes out to Norbik for "The Crypt"! Also, a Komag DVD of choice goes out to joebarnin for "Starting From Scratch"! The rest of you get the intrinsic reward of that warm fuzzy feeling of releasing an FM :-)

Keep in mind that ALL these missions were enjoyable and good creations. Congratulations to ALL the authors! Every mission here was fun to play and worth having, even Skulduggery was loved by many! No one should feel bad at all, because anyone who's released a mission has accomplished something tremendous that only few can boast of!

These are also available in the main FM Archive

t	Name of Mission	Author	Date	m
3	Creature Clash Thief 3	Dark Arrow	2005-10-25	13.7
3	Crypt, The	Norbik	2005-10-25	29.6
3	Defender of the Crown	Komag	2005-10-25	22.0
3	Forgotten Stash	Bardic	2005-10-25	24.5
3	Skulduggery	Crispy	2005-10-25	16.5
3	Starting From Scratch	joebarnin	2005-10-25	20.3

The Contest Results Tables

The table column headers are as follows:

Space - How well the limited space is used (mission seems larger than it is, not overly cramped, not wasted)

Tech - Visuals (effects), conversations, spells, tricks, animations, interactions, complex systems

Desn - Architecture, textures, landscaping, decorating, realism, visuals, lighting/shadows, coloring, models

Atms - Creepy, spooky, tense, exciting, thrilling, reminiscent, provoking, shocking, nail-biting, light-hearted/gay

Sound - Eerie, creepy, emotional, funny, musical, fitting/appropriate, unique, voice acting, tense

Uniq - Unusual, far out, wacky, would-never-think-of-that, new, use of Unreal engine, different

Humr - Funny, hilarious, writings, voice acting, gameplay, taunts, looks funny, tongue-in-cheek, dry, LOL factor

Story - Moving, deep, well written, voice acting, immersive, pacing, draws-you-in, thought-provoking, twists, shocking

Puzl - Challenging, traps, clues, sequences, ingenious, mechanical, detective, keyhunt, button hunt

Play - Overall fun level, replayability, varied gameplay with difficulty levels, ghosting/sneaking, forced actions

Other - Your choice of another voting category which you feel is important to rate all the missions by

Raw - The final total of all the voting and rating all put together, but not yet adjusted for category importance

Final - The final weighted total of all the voting, adjusted for category importance!

M - The final weighted total by males

F - The final weighted total by females

Authr - The final weighted total by FM authors

NotA - The final weighted total by non FM authors

Kid - The final weighted total by young people, ages 1-19

Adult - The final weighted total by adults, ages 20-35

Older - The final weighted total by older adults, ages 36-99

Click on a header to sort Ascending, click again to sort Descending

Mission	Space	Tech	Desn	Atms	Sound	Uniq	Humr	Story	Puzl	Play	Other	Raw	Final	M	F	Authr	NotA	Kid	Adult	Older
Creature Clash Thief 3	5.1	6.7	6.0	4.9	5.0	6.5	6.5	3.8	3.4	5.0	6.2	5.4	5.3	5.3	5.2	5.5	5.2	6.7	5.2	4.7
Crypt, The	8.1	7.4	8.2	8.7	7.8	6.3	4.6	7.8	7.4	7.8	7.6	7.4	7.6	7.5	8.1	7.0	7.8	7.8	7.5	7.9
Defender of the Crown	7.4	5.5	6.7	7.0	6.4	5.8	4.0	5.6	5.3	6.6	6.5	6.1	6.2	6.1	6.3	6.1	6.1	6.3	5.9	6.4
Forgotten Stash	6.6	6.0	6.2	6.3	6.0	5.3	4.3	5.4	4.8	5.7	6.0	5.7	5.8	5.7	5.8	5.8	5.7	5.5	5.6	5.9
Skulduggery	5.7	5.0	5.1	5.3	4.9	4.9	4.0	4.9	4.9	5.2	5.0	5.0	5.0	4.8	6.1	4.5	5.1	4.0	5.0	5.3
Starting From Scratch	7.8	6.6	7.5	7.1	6.0	5.9	5.0	6.7	6.4	7.1	6.7	6.6	6.7	6.6	7.4	6.3	6.8	6.1	6.7	6.9

EXAMPLE: Click on "Uniq" or "Humr" and notice that "Creature Clash Thief 3" won those categories, but then click "Final" and notice that the mission finished nearly last overall ("Uniq" and "Humr" categories were rated the two least important by the voters, and the mission didn't do well in other categories). Then, in the demographic finals to the right, notice that Females and Older Adults both placed the mission a distant last, whereas Kids gave it second place! Very interesting.

RAW vs FINAL: You all rated the categories as well as the missions, on a 0-10 scale. For each of you, I first averaged your category ratings, then I compared each category rating to the average to get the final multiplier. Let's say your average category rating was 6.6, but your rating for "Story" was 9, then the multiplier for that category was 1.4 (9 is roughly 1.4 X 6.6). What that means is that in your mission ratings, you felt your ratings for the "Story" category were about 1.4 times as important as average (remember, it's YOUR average).

Therefore, I multiplied each and every score by the proper multiplier, and then averaged all the results for each mission to get your overall mission scores. The same procedure was followed for the overall results, first averaging the overall category ratings of everyone, then calculating the category multipliers, and adjusting all the average scores for each mission in each category. Those were then averaged for the final scores. I think it's the fairest possibly way to tally the votes, even though it's a bit complex.

Category Importance, by Demographic

Demographic	Space	Tech	Desn	Atms	Sound	Uniq	Humr	Story	Puzl	Play	Other	Average
1. Male	7.2	6.5	7.9	8.1	6.4	5.6	4.4	7.4	5.5	8.6	7.0	6.8
2. Female	6.4	6.3	7.1	7.3	5.7	5.4	4.7	7.1	7.3	8.4	9.5	6.9
3. Auth Y	7.7	7.3	8.9	8.4	7.1	5.6	5.7	7.4	5.4	8.9	5.7	7.1
4. Auth N	6.9	6.3	7.6	7.8	6.1	5.6	4.2	7.3	5.9	8.5	7.8	6.7
5. Kid	7.8	8.3	7.8	7.5	5.8	7.8	3.3	6.3	4.8	9.0	6.7	6.8
6. Adult	6.8	6.2	7.6	7.9	6.0	5.6	4.5	7.3	6.0	8.5	7.2	6.7
7. Older	7.3	6.5	8.3	8.3	7.3	4.9	5.1	8.1	6.0	8.4	8.0	7.1

EXAMPLE: Click on "Uniq" and notice that Kids felt that uniques mattered a LOT, whereas almost everyone else didn't care as much, with nearly a three point spread between Kids and Older Adults.

EXAMPLE 2: Click on "Other" to see that Females really care about that category! Perhaps girls are just more complex than boys and need to express more unique ideas before they feel understood, so the other category is important to them so they can flesh out how the REALLY feel about a mission! (But there were only two females who used "Other", so that all may be a bunch of statistical hogwash)

EXAMPLE 3: Click on "Desn" and notice that Authors felt design design was far more impotant than Non-Authors did. Perhaps they appreciate the work more and thus become more demanding in their tastes.

Actual Category Average Ratings, by Demographic

Demographic	Space	Tech	Desn	Atms	Sound	Uniq	Humr	Story	Puzl	Play	Other	Final
1. Male	6.7	6.2	6.6	6.5	5.9	5.7	4.7	5.6	5.3	6.1	6.2	5.9
2. Female	7.0	6.4	6.9	6.9	6.5	6.3	5.1	6.2	5.6	6.7	7.5	6.5
3. Auth Y	6.5	5.8	6.5	6.3	5.9	5.9	4.2	5.6	5.2	6.3	6.7	5.9
4. Auth N	6.8	6.3	6.6	6.6	6.0	5.8	4.8	5.7	5.4	6.2	6.2	6.0
5. Kid	6.9	6.2	6.8	6.0	5.9	6.0	3.4	5.8	4.6	6.9	6.4	5.9
6. Adult	6.7	6.0	6.5	6.5	5.9	5.9	4.9	5.6	5.3	6.1	6.3	6.0
7. Older	6.8	6.6	6.7	6.9	6.3	5.7	4.9	5.5	5.6	6.1	6.1	6.1

EXAMPLE: Click "Uniq" and notice that Females felt there was significantly more uniqueness found in the Contest 6 missions than Males thought.

EXAMPLE 2: Click "Final" and notice that Males, Authors, and Kids proved to be the harshed judges, dishing out an overall average rating of 5.9 (contest average was 6.1). Females were the nicest, giving an average rating of 6.5. It was very similar in Contest 5.

BTW, these numbers are the average of the actual ratings given to the missions; they are NOT a reflection of how important the categories are, as in the above table. However, when comparing the two tables, some interesting results show up.

EXAMPLE 3: In both tables click "Desn". Notice that Authors felt more strongly about "Desn" than any other demographic, and Females cared the least. However, when they actually rated the missions, Females gave HIGHEST "Desn" ratings and Authors tied for giving the LOWEST!

Overall, Authors tied for feeling the strongest about the voting categories, but they also tied for dishing out the lowest ratings. I guess making a missions somehow refines your tastes so much that nothing is ever good enough for you anymore! Perhaps it's a matter of seeing "behind the curtain", so the magic has been lost a bit, thus raising the bar for them. Or something.

Overall Demographic Category Importance Ratings

Category	Male	Female	Auth Y	Auth N	Kid	Adult	Old	Final
Space	7.2	6.4	7.7	6.9	7.8	6.8	7.3	7.1
Tech	6.5	6.3	7.3	6.3	8.3	6.2	6.5	6.5
Desn	7.9	7.1	8.9	7.6	7.8	7.6	8.3	7.9
Atms	8.1	7.3	8.4	7.8	7.5	7.9	8.3	8.0
Sound	6.4	5.7	7.1	6.1	5.8	6.0	7.3	6.4
Uniq	5.6	5.4	5.6	5.6	7.8	5.6	4.9	5.7
Humr	4.4	4.7	5.7	4.2	3.3	4.5	5.1	4.6
Story	7.4	7.1	7.4	7.3	6.3	7.3	8.1	7.4
Puzl	5.5	7.3	5.4	5.9	4.8	6.0	6.0	5.9
Play	8.6	8.4	8.9	8.5	9.0	8.5	8.4	8.6
Other	7.0	9.5	5.7	7.8	6.7	7.2	8.0	7.0

EXAMPLE: Click on "Kid" and notice that the "Other" category only ranked 5th for them, whereas it placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd for everyone else. Perhaps this means that Kids have more specifics they are looking for (Tech, Atms, Play, Desn), whereas other demographic groups aren't as particular. As a side not, "Play" only tied for 2nd for the Kids, whereas it placed a strong 1st for almost all other groups!

EXAMPLE 2: You can see overall that the most specific or narrow categories (Humr, Uniq, Puzl, Sound) scored low for all groups, while the broadest categories (Play, Other) scored high for all groups. This makes sense, since the idea of "Gameplay and overall fun level" is certainly more important than whether certain aspects of the mission were particularly unique. It also reinforces the need to weigh the categories so that the final mission ratings are as fair as possible, so that missions whose ratings are heavier in the more important categories will have that reflected in their final scores.

Other Information
There were 42 votes sent in (pretty decent), many of which were only partial (didn't vote on all the missions - don't worry, I only averaged in mission votes that were voted on). Most voters provided good demographic information, and here is the breakdown:

Males - 34
Females - 7
Authors - 7
Non-Authors - 34
Kids - 4
Adults - 27
Old people - 9

As you can see, the demographic pool was quite limited, leading to an unwieldy margin of error, so you may have to take some of the results with a big grain of salt.

Some stats:
Average Mission Rating - 6.1 (exactly the same as in Contest 5!)
Average Category Importance - 6.8
Largest deviation from Raw to Final total - 0.2
23 of the 42 voters utilized the "Other" category, only two of which were female.
"Other" categories included: Horror, Addictiveness, T3Ed Mastery, Polish, Framerate, Scariness, Time Length, Cool Moment, Replay, and just Overall Impression.

Click HERE to download the Microsoft Excel file I used to create these results. I've removed the names and emails, but if you want to know which page was yours (to have a personalized analysis of your votes!), simply email or PM me and I'll let you know.

Quotes
- Here are some quotes or brief reviews of each of the missions, submitted by the voters.
- I have tried to filter out any spoilers, but some minor ones might still be in there.
- Also, I tried to mostly just include the positive comments, although some contructive criticisms seemed appropriate to leave in at times.

Mission	Quotes/Reviews
Creature Clash Thief 3	It's fun in a kick-about sort of way, and I like the design of the arena. Interesting technical effect to achieve too, which is nice. The next level of Thief AI arena fighting. :) Certainly a good (and inevitable) Death match type mission, but more of a demo than an FM. Definitely raises a smile. Is a tidy bit of scripting and a fun sandbox to torment the AI. Was simple, but amusing. Easy to let the Pagans win by using the Tree Creature though. More fun if you get in there with them and fight. Very funny! Good use of custom scripts, very good. More of a tech demo than a mission. Good use of scripting, but many of the buttons were difficult to frob. Balcony architecture was interesting. Hey you! Get back in there! An audience would have been nice. Clever little deathmatch. Nice touch to be able to able to influence the results I can only imagine how complicated the scripts and links must be for it. Interesting way to play Thief Brought a smile to my face. Stupid mindless entertainment - said in a good way. "Other" category is Replay Value, this is fun to keep playing with. Control panel a little unwieldy. Great map, Most Liked Map of them all Fun, makes its way to fun town alright! Limited gameplay, but a nice change of pace after fighting undead and figuring out complex puzzles. I like being about to face off groups them sit in my cat-bird seat and watch them destroy each other or even assist in the out come. Sometimes it is good to feel god-like.
The Crypt	Well designed. Creepy. Good back story. Good use of ambiance. Loved this one. Really creepy sound effects. Kept you looking over your shoulder to see where the breathing was coming from. Good key hunt. Graphically very nice to look at. Super! :) The first T3 mission that actually made me be afraid of zombies... Wow... seriously, wow. The T3Editor comes of age with solid proof that a standard 'undead' mission can be amped up with deadly shadows. Great puzzles, efficiently scaled story and atmosphere and by far, the longest playing time of the C6 FMs. Thanks for renewing one player's faith in T3. Extremely professional, great design and nice backstory. There's very little that can be faulted here. Fantastic atmosphere. Sneaking around the undead with heavy breath. Good use of key mechanic, although I prefer the T3 method of simply using the right key rather than fiddling with inventory. Torch effect was very cool. Excellent, vry good atmosphere, this is spooky done right! Good story too and a nice smidgeon of horror. Architecture was good and made up for the bland lighting. Very atmospheric, creepy little mission. Excellent architecture would have benefitted from more varied lighting. Very polished overall, but gameplay balance could have been better (critical switches too well-hidden). The scripted light-change was particularly original. Stop Staring AT MEEEE! Weird how the AI would all turn to face me when they stopped in a patrol. Creepy! I LOVED the keys! Great atmosphere and story. Almost felt like a full mission. The torches changing from cold to warm lighting when [something happened] was brilliant. Great mission, my favorite even though I spent hours looking for [a certain button] This has a very classic (T1/2) feel to it. I liked the addition of the classic sounds too. A bit small but great Puzzle Map Oohh, nicely done, let down only by the cacky game engine. I don't like to confront undead. This FM allowed me to avoid and skirt around them for the fast majority of the time. With this one I puzzled 'til my puzzler was sore. I enjoy a good puzzle such as this one and I am glad to have TTGL forum for when I was stuck. Very good atmosphere, sound and lighting. Wonderfully full of atmosphere and very spooky!
Defender of the Crown	My favourite of the entries. Well, maybe, cause I liked Forgotten Stash too. ...the narrow ledge and micro-tunnels are a good way to make the player spend a lot of time not really going very far (might need to remember that trick in future) Well put together with nice Detail. Nice variety of scenes. Challening. Good use of Ambiance. A bit too tight in some areas for comfort. Good FM that provides a nice challenge, though not that much replay value to it. I liked the lighting, dynamic and realistic This was good too. Once again down into crypt but very playable and enjoyable. Highly competent and efficient mission with unusual use of space (tight caverns, varied terrain). Ghostable? Down and down and down and down... To build this in a week is incredible, nothing feels rushed at all. Extremely Blue in the sewer part, there was a spot with bright red light as well. I liked the vertical level design, but the linear nature of the map makes replayability an issue. Rather simplistic design...entertaining for a quick mission. Very well designed mission, quite creepy but very good Man that zombie made me jump! Kudos! Seemed to go on forever, great use of space. Lighting a tad bland in places, architecture was not squarish, but not much detail (very few smeshes). Good ambient music. Varied architecture within the mission kept the interest up, with probably the best lighting out of the whole contest (the blue sewer deserves a specific mention). Very good use of space, especially the chasm and the final cave. The tunnels were a little too square, more irregularity would have improved the design. Tight, it�s tight, I�m gonna get stuck! Can�t breathe, can�t BREATHE! Very claustrophobic. Well hidden passage in crypt. Vertical and linear is a nice combination - you feel the pressure as you decend, so to speak. Good use of space. Outside areas and views were excellent -- inside felt cramped. Some nice variety in design -- a little bit of everything. Great use of passageways to get you turned around, and make it seem like you have wandered way beyond the size limit. So fun to ghost also, just barely do-able in the crypt area. Another fm with a classic feel. Reminded me of the tight & twisty passages of T1/2. Couldn't find the bird of mourning ANYWHERE but did everything else, considered it done. Pretty creepy! Ultra claustrophobic, actually feels like spelunking RL. Voyage like, drift through and enjoyed myself. It is all a matter of timing with that stupid haunt. I enjoyed the challenge. Unbalanced use of space. Rather wasted at the beginning, claustrophobic near the end. But a good mission overall.
Forgotten Stash	Interesting skybox ... with the itty-baby-guards running around. Fair Story. Nice Design. Good trap. Well put together FM. ...shows the creator has potential. I have an audigy 2 card 5.1 surround, and when in the basement I thought the noises I was hearing were my neighbor downstairs� but to my amazement its was the game...!!! Superb, it reminded me of shalesbridge in the original T3 missions - nice-n-scary Nice graphics and atmosphere. ... very playable Tough starter with good game implementation, eg, text screens, different NPCs. Great atmosphere if a bit dark. There's some interesting stuff going on here, like the view from the upper window. The only mission that was genuinely unsettling. Strange bit about stealing the "candle" from the bed so that the young widow misses her husband a bit more. I wonder, does it vibrate with magic? Quite a creepy mission, great use of the outside area when you peer through the window, gave the impression of a much bigger level. The most spacious mission of the lot, with very good use of height and skybox to disguise the limited size. Fairly linear gameplay, would have been improved by more player choice, although this is difficult with such a short timescale. Great loft over table near ghosts, how do I get on it? I loved the front yard seen out window how do I get there? What the hell is in the basement!? Very clever use of the skybox! I was rather perplexed when I looked out of the attic window. ;)
Skulduggery	The main chappel area...looks quite cool in a sin-city sort of way if you put a high enough gamma value in the console. Great sneaker, Nice touch on having to personally carry final loot. Well placed Guards. Decent backstory. Fairly Challenging. Enjoyable FM thats great for those who want a quickie against the Hammerites. Back to the Hammers and they are as beastly as ever. Nice hunt looking for the skull. Perhaps a little too easy. Secret passage-good. AIs suitably alert and aggressive. If this is an average contest mission, there is great hope for T3 FMs. I only scored it lower by comparison. Yeah! for the secret passages. It was a bit too dark but that led to decisions on whether you could risk leaving a torch burning to see where you were going! Although it was not completed, it has good potential. The church area with the preaching Hammerite was a nice touch. -Bump- "oh, sorry I didn�t see you there since I doused these torches it�s gotten too dark even for my normally keen eyes to see you. By the way I have a black jack." -CLONK- nice sermon I liked the crowd and Benny as the priest. A good start to a mission - looks like time ran out on this one. Had a very Thief I feel to it Nice to see the Hammerites in a T3 mission. Cool skull effect Thief one-like, like the hammerite setting, large spaces not used, but i expect it would be accurate for a structure like that. Good ol' sneaksie thief at work.
Starting From Scratch	It certainly has the variation of routes down nicely, a simple but effective layout and such like. Nicely designed house. Good guard placement. Nice sneaker. Challenging. Good all round mission Nice mansion type adventure. Rooms were well filled and some nice puzzles. Good idea, good realization, good mission. All that we need. Tough loot and puzzles. The forums were required to finish this one. Great use of sound and Navmesh. Great to Ghost. Old school Thief, the way I like it. Wins the "mission most deserving of expansion" prize. Good difficulty level, feels very polished and playable. A shame this is probably going to get trumped by The Crypt. I thought it was very well made (despite being the old familiar townhouse layout) Beautiful and fun to play mission. Great architecture. Good use of space and atmosphere. Neat little side-story A very challenging rob-the-mansion. Good interior design, with some nice secrets. More interaction would have been welcome (most props were immobile) Thinking it was over and then finding the basement was very cool also. A rotating piece of paper greets the player which goes to show that it'll be an interesting ride. I love trap doors, secret passage ways, hidden loot and luring undead into puddles of holy water. I couldn't ask for more. My overall favorite! Looks much bigger than it is. Clever placement of guards and loot. By the time I'm writing this, I still haven't found the last bit(s) of loot. Excellent classical thieving mission with some extra creepiness!