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Monday milestones would work better

DeadlyJoe
Rising Star
The current schedule wouldn't work for me very well. I work a full time job and I have a life (but not too much of one -- everything in moderation).

The current schedule has milestones 1 and 2 falling on a Friday and the final day for submissions is on a Sunday. For those of us who only have the weekends to work on our projects, this doesn't let us leverage our short weekend hours to the fullest extent. People who only have the weekends to work will need to achieve milestone 2 in just four days... that's asking too much (unless they cheat and get a head start).

Also, I'm not certain why the first milestone, "Image and game description", requires a full week. For a competition this short, it should only take a couple of days of brainstorming to come up with a good game concept and sketch out a couple concept frames.

Here is the schedule as it currently stands:
Aug. 2 (Friday) - VR Jam begins
Aug. 9 (Friday) - Milestone 1 (image and game description)
Aug. 16 (Friday) - Milestone 2 (video of progress)
Aug. 25 (Sunday) - VR Jam ends (final build submitted)


This schedule provides 3 weekends and a day to work, and videos must be submitted after only two weekends.

Wouldn't it make more sense to shift all of the milestones and submission dates to Monday nights, so that people who only have the weekends to commit to their project can get in as much work as possible? I would propose that the first milestone be shifted to the Monday following the start of the competition on the 2nd, subsequent milestones should occur on the next two Mondays, with the final submission due on Monday the 26th. This only adds one day to the competition, which really shouldn't affect the outcome, but it makes the milestone marks easier to hit for those of us who are already taxed during the work week with full time jobs without affecting the schedules of the people who don't have such a burden.

This what I would propose the schedule be changed to:
Aug. 2 (Friday) - VR Jam begins
Aug. 5 (Monday) - Milestone 1 (image and game description)
Aug. 12 (Monday) - Milestone 2 (open form progress report)
Aug. 19 (Monday) - Milestone 3 (video of progress)
Aug. 26 (Monday) - VR Jam ends (final build submitted)


Summary of Benefits:

  • This schedule provides four full weekends to complete projects -- 8 days versus 7 days.

  • Teams now have 3 full weekends prior to the "Video of Progress" milestone, as opposed to only 2 weekends in the current schedule.

  • A third milestone provides the public and judges with more feedback about the games being designed.

  • Fits within the same time scale as the current schedule.


Of course, if the milestones aren't hard-line requirements, then most of this is moot. The full Jam rules haven't been posted yet, so we don't know if missing a milestone by a day will disqualify your team. If it won't, then the only benefit that would stand in this proposal would be to shift the final submission date to the 26th so people can use that Sunday to polish up their projects.

Thanks for reading this proposal, I hope it hits the right eyes. As it is, I won't be able to enter the Jam anyway since I have a vacation that intersects the weekend of the 16th :lol:. I'm just thinking of everyone else who may have had the same concerns.

Good day.
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