[OOC] Studio Audience (conversations about 2023 Iron DM)

[savoylen]

... For now, I'm looking forward to giving this way (the trophy, not the son-in-law):

The back will have the final bracket burned on it with all the glorious results!

[Gaijin]

Which is super awesome, and the thing that got me over my initial reluctance to join this year!

Since there were comments about it being a shield suitable for a gnome, I tried to see if Midjourney could turn your son-in-law into one, with mixed success. The AI isn't great at transferring text, but otherwise it turned out kind of fun!

Full Sized image with background

Reference Gnome

[savoylen]

Lol... Love it!!

[lostcheerio]

Gaijin, I love the idea of there being a reward for sticking it out through all the non-elimination rounds, whether it be a token of pixels next to your name that says IronDM, or a charitable donation. People could pledge to sponsor an IronDM participant... $10 per post maybe. So making it through all 4 rounds would maximize the sponsor's contribution.

[Strangemund]

Popping in from my fever palace to wish everybody the best of luck as tonight's Feedback is revealed and that ya'll did a kick butt job with your entries! My favorite part of the reveals is seeing how we handled each ingredient, it always leave me with bouncing with excitement! Cheers!!

[bananabadger]

Hi, all! We're waiting for the judges to finalize their feedback comments.
We'll probably be able to open the results sometime in the evening (EST) time.
We'll post back here with a heads-up once we have a more precise estimate.
At the very least, we will reveal the results and feedback we have by our promised deadline (midnight EST).

[bananabadger]

Update: All comments are finalized and we are doing one last review of results.

We should be revealing well before 11:00 pm EST

[Gaijin]

Well done, Strangemund!

I had no doubts that you'd scoop this round, and I'm looking forward to applying what I've learned from your creative entries!

[bananabadger]

Congratulations to all for a great round.

The updated standings are here.

And the judges' decisions and feedback are here.

Reminder, we have this week off and will resume with release of Round 4 information next Sunday (Nov. 26).


Mathematical eliminations are kicking in with the results of this round. Contestants who are standing below the 8th position have an almost impossible path to getting into the final round. BUT we would love to have everyone compete for all four rounds ... for the spirit of the event, for the chance to dazzle once more, for the glory of the best 1,500-word submission ever, and to earn the right to sport an official IRON DM 2023 COMPETED & COMPLETED avatar (such as this one above) ... but only those who compete AND complete all four rounds earn that right!

We hope you are enjoying the contest.

It continues to be an honor to read such great work and see the mutual support as we move toward crowning a new champion!

[Strangemund]

Ooh! Fancy work, bananabadger!

Thank you Judges for the Feedback, especially with how difficult it is to make decisions on entries! I hate doing it when I run Game Ads so I can only imagine what it is like when every entry feels so strong.

That said I am proud how tough Gaijin and I made it for ya'll this round! Just like last time, I just didn't know which of us was gonna win. Your mechanics were tight and the bunny wordplay was beautiful. It really felt like I was looking over an actual game module. Let's keep kicking butt next round!

Enjoy the holiday for everyone who celebrates, and those who don't, enjoy your break! You all deserve it! You're slaying it at the keyboard! We're learning with each new round, growing more and more powerful as GMs! Have an absolutely wonderful week! EAT SOME GOSH DANG GOOD FOOD!

[Gaijin]

Since the chance to move forward is essentially non-existent, I'm thinking I might just aim for left field with Round 4 and get a little weird with it.

"Num num num...."🥕

[lostcheerio]

I am 100% here for the weird.

[bananabadger]

Originally Posted by Gaijin

Since the chance to move forward is essentially non-existent, I'm thinking I might just aim for left field with Round 4 and get a little weird with it.

"Num num num...."🥕

Awesome! Don't just swing for the fences, burn them down!

[RoBi]

I know that it is the nature of the competition but let me tell you. It is kind of frustrating to be told you should have added X thing to make your encounter better and you know you had exactly X thing in your original draft but cut it for word count. lol.

I haven't been posting much here during the competition cause I am like super busy always, but I have honestly been enjoying the whole process. I don't get to write nearly as often as I would like to so having a goal like the Iron DM competition has been a nice driving force.

[bananabadger]

I know that feeling! It's a struggle between the word limit and the judges (and us as writers) wanting it all.