Thief: The Dark Project 20th Anniversary Contest: RESULTS! Mar 1 2019

Ravenus1 on 19/3/2019 at 21:43

These were just fantastic missions so congratulations, you all showed incredible skills with these and some of them will go down as classics.

Tommyph1208 on 22/3/2019 at 09:19

Did Yandros ever post the comments for each mission anywhere? I would love to read them :)

Yandros on 22/3/2019 at 15:43

No I didn't, because Tannar told me he would be doing it. :D However if he is too busy, I should be able to get to it this weekend. I will be posting the thread announcing the T2 contest within the next 12 hours as well.

Tannar on 22/3/2019 at 15:48

Yeah, I got busy and kind of dropped the ball on this. :o Sorry for that. I'll have them up later today, I hope.

pukey brunster on 23/3/2019 at 02:11

Just post all comments, yes? I don't understand this 'pick three of the best' idea..? Then, it's up to the mods to decide the "best". I, for one, would like to see all the thoughts the community wanted to say about our missions posted here, good, bad, and ugly.

Does anyone object?

I think it's wrong to not let the voices of the people who have played our missions, whether the players liked them or not, to not have a voice here.

Yandros on 23/3/2019 at 13:42

Authors (including you) were already sent all of the comments on their mission and several chose to post them all in their mission threads, so feel free to do that if you want all the comments on your mission to be made public. But don't ask for us to unilaterally do that for all authors, it needs to be their decision to do that or not. Some will not want all the comments left for their missions made public.

pukey brunster on 23/3/2019 at 17:47

I can concede to that.. I hadn't fully considered that there may be some who would rather keep them private for a myriad of reasons, and there are a large number of missions (23) so it would be impractical to make such a loooong post.

Yandros on 23/3/2019 at 20:07

The length of the post was never a concern, just the feelings and privacy of the different authors.

Tannar on 23/3/2019 at 22:55

Following is a sample of some of the comments made during voting for each of the contest missions. I did my best to choose a fair mix of praise and constructive criticism. Many of the authors have already posted a complete list of their comments in their own mission threads. This is just to give a sample conveniently in one place.

An Enigmatic Treasure with a Recondite Discovery

What the heck is recondite? I dunno, but it's a mission with good traps and mechanics.
The visual is pretty simple but the story is done correctly.

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This is a highly atmospheric mission that mixes things up quite a bit. You have a city, an opera house, warehouses and a mages' guild. The first thing that's really striking with that one is the shadows, which look very sharp and dark, unlike anything else you've seen so far in Thief, I think. This makes it so that the very dark shadows and dramatic lighting give this mission a highly oppressive atmosphere that is reminiscent of Sperry's Shadow of Doubt, especially Walking the Edge. Overall, every area in this mission is well designed as far as visuals and sound go. The opera house is obviously modeled after Song of the Caverns and the warehouses are very much similar to Shipping and Receiving, but they all fit somehow. I also quite like the huge cranes near the warehouses.

The main problem with this mission is visible very quickly: there's way, way too many AIs walking around. Looking for gaps in patrols takes a lot of time and hiding bodies correctly can be a challenge considering the guards can be very uppity. There are also a few un-blackjackable AIs wandering the streets. The warehouse is the only area that mostly doesn't suffer from this. Not only this, but the mages' guild with the detection mechanic can become incredibly frustrating too. Some of the puzzles are also a bit obtuse so you're encouraged to look around everywhere before you tackle them.

Story-wise, this is nothing really special. It does the job quite well. Just a "simple" heist that turns out harder that expected. I will say that I dig the way the guild is hidden. All in all, this is a good mission that does have quite a few issues.

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Certainly fun with multiple areas, and the "suddenly, you're in the mage's hideout because you're wearing a magic bracelet" was a lot of fun. However, too many AI, too many hard floors (in both the opera house and the mage's hideout), and too much key-finding.

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As the readme prepares you, this is Thief on hard mode. Tight and frequent AI traffic, lots of tile and unextinguishable lights in two of the main locations, advanced opponents (lantern guards, alerts, enhanced vision, etc.) – making this, ironically enough, one of the easier GORT missions. If you enjoy a good challenge, this is challenging. If you prefer a comfortable and relaxing experience, look elsewhere. It is not always fair; tile abuse rears its ugly head, and the equipment you get is negligible. Sometimes, it is too large physically for its own good (there is a fair amount of backtracking, and a few keys are hard to miss).

The mission itself pays homage to multiple classic missions: the streets of Assassins, the opera house from Song of the Caverns, the mages’ compound (although this treatment is more opera-like, and way more fun than Thief Gold’s absolute nadir), and, slightly out of contest bounds, the industrial warehouse complex of Shipping and Receiving. This is how you do a good homage: each look the part (with smooth visuals and moody shadows), each capture something essential from the kind of gameplay which had made those missions memorable, and each push their respective sources of inspiration a little further.

Tannar on 23/3/2019 at 22:56

Catacombs of Knoss

Visual & Atmosphere : Perfect !
Storytelling : You know your job !
Gameplay : Redundant with the key hunts but quite rich !

This is a perfect catacomb mission that will beat them all ! The city and hammerite parts are nevertheless less perfect despite the fact those have been well-made.

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Catacombs of Knoss was astoundingly atmospheric and creative. The city depicted in part 1 borders on surreal, with tall and imposing buildings and suitably gaudy interior design. The pagoda was a highlight. Part 2 contains a ton of puzzles that, thankfully, are not too challenging (the only one likely to stump anyone is optional). Although the catacombs are incredibly dark and spooky, there's an underlying sense of levity (the conclusion of the Mathematician's challenge and the amped-up escape from the water temple both made me laugh out loud). The only flaw here is that many of the puzzles are repetitive in nature - you'll figure it out, and then be asked to solve it again without much variation.

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This was my favorite of the mission entries because I had the most fun playing it. You really nailed the gameplay, especially in mission two. I love puzzle-style missions and yours were creative and fresh, not too difficult, and yet challenging. That, combined with a great map to explore, made for a fun gaming experience that left me feeling exhilarated even after four hours of play. Very well done! I love what you did with some of the AI - especially that crazy looking lantern ghost lurking near the Tower of Silence. Some of your effects were amazing (in particular the tower objectives) and you managed to create an even-better version of a Bonehoard in mission 2. I never needed to check the forums for how to proceed, and the only criticism I can think of is that some areas could have included more atmosphere in the sense of visuals and/or lighting. Given the sheer size of the mission, though, and time restrictions for the contest, that simply may not have been possible. I also want to point out that the ambient sounds you used were very well placed and thought out. Kudos and thanks for this great experience - your work went far and above.

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This is a tale of 2 missions. The first mission is a $%& damn GOAT. Super chill, fun verticality and challenge.

The second mission was super frustrating, broke on me 3 times, and was too damn dark. Brings the score down for what honestly would have been the best damn mission of the contest.

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This is probably my favorite mission of the contest. The overall feel was not as atmospheric in many places as some of the other entries (for example some areas might benefit from some more moody lighting), yet at the same time it managed to capture the feel of the original missions better, for me, than any other entry. Add to that the jaw-dropping size of the mission set and its complexity, both in architecture and in technical details, as well as the numerous clever, well-designed and -executed puzzles, and you have an immersive experience that keeps you engaged from start to finish.

In addition to all of that, the gameplay was top notch, and by far the highlight of the mission set. Numerous custom AI were creepy, unnerving and loads of fun. The AI number and placement was very well done and made for challenging, but never frustrating, gameplay.

The story was well thought out and well told, with numerous hints and texts that aided in furthering your quests. I never had to consult the forum to continue and finish the mission. Some of the SFX were astounding. My favorites were the book page explosion, and the staged mage fight. The sound work was superlative and added immensely to the immersion and experience. The Talisman of Atunement was a great idea providing both a fun little diversion and a means of making the exploring and traversing less tiresome.

I had loads of fun in this mission set, and didn't want it to end. This mission made me feel like I was playing the original Thief again, a true homage to the original missions.