Hi everyone,
As you might have noticed the deadline for the "Mt. Phantom National Park Contest" (couldn't you think of an easier name Shaggszgn?) has passed a while ago.
I've been quite busy recently but finally the results are in, sorry for the delays, but you should know judging parks takes a lot of time and I also had to look into the NL contest, however the number of submissions made that a quickie. [:p]
It wouldn't have taken that much time if I only had to tell you who the winner was because that really wasn't a very hard decision. But of course everyone want's his comment and see why they got the place they got. Anyway enough talk....
As you can see from my work of art RCTandy won this contest, congratulations andy, well done!
I've written a comment on all parks, so let's start with the winner.
Hey RCTAndy, first of all: congratiulations on winning this contest. Your park really looks very nice, let?????????s go trough the various judging criterea to find out why you won.
First one the park layout was perfect nice wide paths leading trough the park with little paths leading to the rides. Your ride theming was by far the best compared to your contestant, most station buildings looked very nice and so did the rides some looked better than others but in general very good.
About the same for park theming, also nicely done fountains, fences, flowers, themed queues etc. really made it look good. However I took some points of because you didn't really used theme zones, or if you did it wasn't that clear where they were [:p]
The ride balance was a bad aspect of your park, you?????????re lucky that you didn't loose too much points with that. There are way too many coasters compared to the gentle and water rides, not much of a family park ?????????h? But good for the thrillseekers [:p]
Ride lay-outs were pretty, nice rides with good excitement ratings gave you a near full score for this. I gave you 20 out of 25 points of the mainstreet shops since you could have fitted some more shops in there.
Thunder Run was a beauty so that means a another full score on this aspect. The ride just looked nice with the extra supports and theming. The station of the ride was a bit less pretty though but I took that of the bonus goals.
You got 80 points for the bonus goals, how you got them will remain a mystery [:)]
But we still have a little competition going on between hi and tarzanman, but second place went to tarzanman, congrats [:)]
Hey tarzanman, I'll just give some comments on the scores I gave for various aspects of your park. First aspect was the park layout. It was ok but nothing to be excited about, the paths were too small and there's no logical structure in them. Try to keep the paths simple with some big main path which have smaller branches going to various theme zones or rides.
The ride theming was really bad, the rides lacked theming and the rides that did have theming weren't too pretty. A thing you do over and over is when you build a building you put the walls on a different sqaure than the roof which makes the roofs hover because they don't rest on the walls. You really have to be more creative with theming and don't just build sqaure building. I think it would be smart to look at some parks of more experience park builders to see what I mean.
Park theming was about the same as the ride theming, there just hardly was anything but trees. You really have to make some creative buildings and theme queues and stuff. Not only the rides should look good, the park itself also has to look good.
The ride balance was almost hilarious, you have like a 100 on 1 coaster to kiddie ride ratio. You really have to build some family rides like water rides. Compared to the number of coasters you have you should have way more of them.
The mainstreet shops are there so you got all the points. You?????????ve rebuilt the woodie with a good excitement rating, I only took some point of because you used two lifthills.
You got 30 points for the bonus goals: 10 for the relocation of the haunted house, (20-10 because the theming didn't look too pretty), 10 for the re-theming of the woodie, since you only got an ugly station and 10 points for the landscape use.
So next time try to focus on theming and not on the excitement ratings of your coasters, because those were good. But as stated in the contest description theming is a really important factor which you hardly used.
Third place goes to hi, too bad but with some time and practice you can be a future winner [:)]
Hi Hi , your park wasn't that good as you have probably seen from the scores you got. Let?????????s talk over the points of attention and see why you got third place.
The park layout was pretty bad, paths were going everywhere and pretty messy. Next time try using wide main paths which have smaller paths which lead to the rides.
The ride theming was very bad, it wasn't that much and the theming that was there was quite ugly. You have to be more creative with theming but it's hard to explain someone how-to-theme. All I can say is that you should go check out some rides and/or parks from more experience designers on this or other sites.
Park theming is pretty much the same as the ride theming, there's just hardly anything, you just have to spend more time on theming because theming is the key to winning in most contests.
The ride balance was ok but there still was a lack of water rides and family rides. However you did better on this aspect than your two fellow designers. [:p]
The ride lay-outs also weren't too pretty, not really creative and on most coasters a low excitement rating. (I don't mean in-game low but compared to others it is low)The mainstreet shops were there so you got the full 25 points.
Thunder run again didn't look too pretty, the ride wasn't that exciting and the layout was pretty boring and again theming couldn't make up for it.
You also didn't got any points for the bonus goals so there's not much too explain about those. You really have to put some more time and effort in making a park next time. So what is left to say? See you on the next contest [;)] because theming and just the entire game is nothing you can learn in a few days it takes practice and time.
Check out this chart to see what made you lose or win:
Last but not least the download link to a pack which includes all three parks.
Click here to start download
See ya'll on the next contest and thanks for participating [pshades]
Greetz GFA