Anyone - either those who are entering a game or those who just want to submit songs - can now send me a playlist for ShuffleComp: Disc 2. Song submission ends on April 2 at midnight, PDT.
I look forward to discovering some great new artists and songs again this year.
Neil
Just to try to clarify the thing about “midnight”:
If you say that something ends at midnight on a given day, many people will (reasonably) assume you mean the very end of that calendar day, but some will (also reasonably) worry that you might mean the very earliest moment of the calendar day, because that would be the “correct” interpretation in the (very limited) sense that, in many (but presumably not all!) contexts where precision and lack of ambiguity are important, terms such as “midnight” or “12:00 a.m.” or “0:00” are agreed upon to always mean the start of the day on which they occur, as opposed to the end, for reasons that are perfectly sensible and that I could attempt to explain if called upon but that don’t seem directly relevant.
This niggling worry can become particularly crippling because, if the entrant makes the obvious and seemingly reasonable assumption that you meant what you (obviously?) meant, they hypothetically risk being caught out and submitting something 24 hours late, because they left it to the last minute and you unexpectedly turned out to be a very precise computer programmer type (in IF, who knew?) and it never even occurred to this hypothetical you that you were being ambiguous because of course, from the point of view of most software systems for example, you were being perfectly clear. Plus with imaginary-you being so hypothetically persnickety now, you’ll probably enforce the deadline very strictly, and so on. Some entrants will consider all this and resolve to submit their entry sometime on the day before the one mentioned, just so as to stop fretting about this seemingly ridiculous nightmare scenario which has nonetheless probably happened to somebody somewhere.
A couple of common ways to sidestep this particular possible source of confusion are to instead refer to the end of a day in a way that doesn’t rely directly on time of day, as in “Song submissions are due by the end of April 2 in the Pacific time zone,” or to slightly adjust the time such that it can no longer be subject to the same type of confusion, such as “Song submission ends on April 2 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.” You may have observed that airlines and other transportation agencies very often adopt the latter strategy, tweaking their schedules so that everything always happens at least one minute away from the potentially-confusing-in-some-contexts crack between days, because in their situation the risk of confusion very often isn’t worth the cost, and clever self-effacing phrases don’t tend to fit in the space on the ticket or schedule.
(I’ve encountered this issue many times, but I don’t think I’d ever heard the phrase “second midnight” before seeing it in this thread, and a cursory Google search didn’t turn up anything relevant for me, so I’m not surprised that you might not have immediately understood what the other poster was getting at.)
So far, 14 people have sent in playlists for ShuffleComp: Disc 2, and all of them are writing a game. The number is down a bit from last year at around the same time, but I think it still looks good. Everyone who has submitted songs should have had a confirmation sent to them. A little over 30, 32, artists that appeared on last year’s shuffled playlists are included in both A- and B-sides, but only 6 songs.
There’s a little over a week before song submission closes. I would encourage entrants to get their playlists in to me before the deadline; the fewer I need to process on the 2nd (and maybe 3rd), the faster I can finish and send out the shuffled playlists.
Neil
Rather, “Song submission ends on April 2 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.” The abbreviations PDT/PST (EDT/EST) are harder to get right, and even when you get them right, the reader will always have the reflexive fear that one of you has screwed them up.
The crunch time just before Spring Thing ends is the reason I’m still on the fence about submitting. I’m not sure I’ll want to invest the time.
With a little more than three days before the deadline, we have 22 entrants for this year’s ShuffleComp. Each of you should have received a confirmation e-mail. If any entrant is feeling particularly creative, you could send me some more pseudonyms; not everyone chooses to send them.
Neil
If you don’t end up with enough, one of the pseudonym generators on the Internet will create some very quickly for you.
This is the last day to send in your song playlist for ShuffleComp. The deadline is 11:59 pm in the Pacific time zone. With 31 entrants so far, it looks like we’ll have a great time again this year.
If you send me songs today, you should get a confirmation e-mail by noon (Eastern time zone) on the third. If you don’t, go ahead and send me your list again, and send me a PM if you want to be sure.
Playlists will be shuffled tomorrow afternoon and, assuming I’m not flooded with submissions today, I plan on sending authors their playlists Friday night.
Neil
I got my sonnnngs!
Owned 1 already, and after listening, promptly added 4/8 to my Spotify. You folks have good taste.
…you have not made this easy on me.
My songs are in. All but one of them are new to me. And luckily they’re all on Spotify!
Everyone writing a game for ShuffleComp should have their shuffled playlist. I’ll calculate some statistics on the songs and artists and post them in a few days.
Neil
I’ve had a few people ask about testing. You can test your game any time you want, just make sure you send me a playable version of the game by the end of the 25th. After that time, maybe we can set up a more formal testing pool to help out those who might have a problem finding testers. Also, you can reveal who you are to your testers, but you don’t have to. People aren’t supposed to reveal who you are, but it could happen. So if you really want to make sure your identity remains hidden, you should probably do everything pseudonymously.
Neil
We have 35 writers for this year’s ShuffleComp. Here are some statistics concerning the artists and songs submitted to ShuffleComp. Both A- and B-sides are included:
32 Artists were submitted at least twice
4 songs were submitted twice
49 artists appeared on author playlists last year
10 songs appeared on author playlists last year
One thing I keep wresting with. Would people who submitted songs prefer their songs extensively or not at all? I’m trying to use as many songs a possible, but that will relegate some things to nothing more than a somewhat fleshed out easter egg. I wonder if some people might feel cheated by their song only getting an off-hand mention instead of taking center stage?
(Because that removes the chance of it being used in latter ShuffleComps).
For my money* I’d rather my song be used in any fashion–feels like the chance of its being reused in a future ShuffleComp is vanishingly small anyway and I have a bunch of other different songs I’d like to submit. But even more for my money, do whatever makes your game the best for you.
*I did not pay any money, though! It was free!
Rough versions of games - playable to the end - are due by the end of the 25th. Let me know when you submit your entry if you want to test other games or have yours tested. I will try to hook up testers and game writers.
Neil
How much leeway are we getting with the deadline? Are you only processing games early Sunday morning, or should we send them in at 11:59 on the dot?
I’ll accept entries that I get overnight or early morning.
Neil
I probably won’t be able to work on releasing the entries on the 6th, so I’m extending the deadline for ShuffleComp entries to the 6th, 11:59 PM Pacific Time.
Neil
This is the last day to submit your completed ShuffleComp entries. More accurately, just make sure I get yours before the sun rises in the Eastern time zone on the 7th.
I hope everyone who submitted a draft will be able to also send me the final version. There’s a good variety of games here. With fewer than 20 entries, hopefully players can play and vote for commendation for the majority of them during the three-week voting period.
Neil