SCRIBBLE LABS 2024 - FINALE (Part 3 of 3)
Scribble Labs 2024 - Final Report
Kingsbourne Beta
Fort Neverset, Kingdom of Scribbles
(Dated: May 1st, 2024)
1. Introduction
Scribble Labs 2024 was an experimental offshoot of the Scribble tournament format, testing the value of several rule changes and twists on the formula. When the game ended, feedback was collected formally through an online form, collecting responses from 10 players and 3 spectators. Informal feedback, collected privately, will also be included in the presentation of these results.
By analysing and examining the total collected feedback, future tournaments can make informed choices about what special rounds to include, if any.
2. Round-Specific Feedback
This section will go over specific feedback for each round. Information in italics is taken directly from the feedback form without considering informal feedback.
2a. Shared Palette
Percentage of people who would want to see it again: 100%
Generally, this was a very effective and well-received round. Three rounds this game were based on changing or altering the colours players use - Shared Palette is the only one that completely levelled the playing field between opponents, forcing them both to engage with the palette they created together. Even if the combined palette wasn't the most pleasant (see; FWD vs TB) the challenge then becomes how to best utilise the combination in service of your drawing.
Being forced to use a palette instead of being given freedom to pick your own is an additional restraint on top of the already strict rules and prompts, but this was generally seen as a positive challenge. Some pieces of feedback noted that the palette they had allowed them to take their Scribble in a direction they wouldn't have thought of if just using their base colour and the prompt.
People generally appreciated the 'additional colour' rounds, though general preferences seem to be in favour of this one over Tricolor or Palette Swap, potentially due to the more accessible nature of this round.
2b. Speedy Scribble
Percentage of people who would want to see it again: 69.2% (60% of players, 100% of spectators)
Each round aimed to shift the balance of which 'skills' would be most effective when Scribbling. With a 20 minute time limit, the balance moves away from detail and composition, and gives an advantage to being able to quickly come up with and execute an idea. This benefitted some and was an issue for others - those who struggled to come up with ideas quickly noted their frustration at losing essentially half of their time to thinking.
Due to the more punishing nature of this round, it may not be worth keeping on as part of a more competitive tournament. To quote one of the responses;
There's a bunch of doodling games and challenges that enforce super strict time limits (gartic phone etc.) and I feel like it works there since the atmosphere is usually more relaxed and the competition is kind of rapid-fire by design, but for a multi-week tournament where people tend to generally become pretty invested this kind of "think fast" gimmick might lead to some frustration. It was fine and honestly pretty fun this time, but with enough future repetitions I'm worried someone's otherwise good run will be ruined by a tough prompt or a bad day or something unrelated to their actual art skill.
Similar sentiment has been expressed to me in private, which I agree with.
The feedback form also asked for other suggestions for a similar 'altered time limit' round. The feedback here was extremely varied, ranging from 3 minutes to 4 days. Perhaps more experimentation is required.
2c. Complete the Scribble
Percentage of people who would want to see it again: 92.3% (100% of players, 66.7% of spectators)
A very unique and well-received round. Conceptually, I think this one is the strongest and one that has the most potential in future experimental games, even if it's too wild for the mainline series.
One note I got - people generally preferred the more abstract, loose prompts instead of the objective ones, as it gave them more freedom to play with different ideas. I think there's merit to the objective ones, but the matches with those prompts essentially boiled down to 'whoever disregards the "objective" in the most creative way wins'. Abstract is likely the way forward here.
A contentious point is how the rule 'preserve the essence of the base image' should be interpreted. There's no easy way to talk about this without pointing fingers, so I'm going to bite the bullet and single one out.
Citri's Scribble was well within the bounds of the rules for this match. You can see clear care being put into how this image was composed, with each part of the base prompt being represented in some way in her image, even if things don't line up perfectly. The rules here were vague for a reason, and her interpretation here was definitely more... generous, I guess, compared to the others. But the overall impression I got from feedback here is that a line should be drawn to make people be less generous with their interpretations in the future.
The balance here is tricky to land - using the prompt as a compositional guide gives players a lot more freedom to do what they want, but that level of freedom can also be seen as going against the spirit of the game. Some players indicated to me that they really liked having to get creative to work around the restrictions, and would have done something a lot more predictable if they were to just use the prompt as a compositional guide.
I think the rules should be firmer and should explicitly ask Scribblers to keep the majority of the lines intact, but better and more curated prompts should be made to allow for a wider variety of compositions and interpretations (I loved the Dodo vs BBQ Turtle for this reason - two very different takes on a more simple, abstract prompt).
I personally loved this round, but agree that the rules need to be firmer moving forward. Thankfully, there was a huge variety of styles and interpretations here, so it should be pretty easy to make an informed decision about how to host this round in the future.
2d. Tricolor Mania
Percentage of people who would want to see it again: 84.6% (80% of players, 100% of spectators)
Many of the 'Best of 2024' winners were from this round, which goes to show how effective palette choices can be. However, this round is not without its criticism.
Like with the Shared Palette round, additional colours can be utilised well to make stunning visuals and set unique moods. However, a lot of feedback both on the form and in private emphasised that there was too much freedom here, and the palette chosen by the player would pretty much make or break their entire submission. A bad palette can destroy your chances of winning much more than a bad drawing ever could (not naming names).
Moving forward, this round could be made more suitable by reintroducing more restrictions, such as forcing players to pick their palette when signing up, forcing players to use the same tricolor palette as their opponent, etc. I personally don't think this round should be seen again without better balancing. A good way to start would be making players include their base colour as part of their tricolor palette.
2e. Palette Swap
Percentage of people who would want to see it again: 100%
Colour choice in a Scribble tournament is an understated factor - the contrast your colour has with black and white will affect the overall balance and composition of the artwork. Things like saturation and lightness will also come into play here. Players who have been more or less Scribbling with the same colour since 2021 may get used to how to best Scribble with their chosen hue. Forcing them to go without that colour will also force them to experiment with a different style, a different mood, which can make or break their submission.
Some players appreciated the opportunity to experiment with a new colour, and noted that it changed the way they approached their submission, which is great and exactly what I was hoping for with this round. Personally, I think this is a pretty tame but interesting round concept. I'm not sure if you could do much else with it.
3. General Game Feedback
This section will go over feedback for the general running of the game.
3a. Time Limit
In the feedback form, I asked how people felt about the change to the time limit from 4 to 2 hours. Here's the key data:
There's been a lot of discussion between me and players in private about the merits of different time limits. Longer time limits allow for more thinking time and gives less experienced artists the bonus time to catch up with more experienced artists, who use the back half of the time limit to focus on details and tweaks instead of building the image. However, a longer time limit also increases the amount of commitment needed, makes it harder to find the time to Scribble, and puts pressure on more competitive players to use the full time limit against their opponent.
It seems 3 hours is the sweet spot. When I did my backup Scribble against Toadbert, I felt that the 2 hour limit was good, but I certainly would have appreciated another hour. 4 hours was really difficult for me in 2023.
3b. Number of Rounds + Matchmaking
Not much to say here; 5 rounds seems to be perfect as-is, with most people wanting to keep it at that number. In terms of matchmaking, the number of rematches from earlier years was personally a bit disappointing. If I was hosting again, I'd definitely move towards curating the matchups myself to avoid repeats. This sentiment is generally shared across the feedback responses.
3c. Prompt Categories
In Scribble 2021 and 2022, prompts were largely based on things from the Mario series, with a few exceptions (Kaizos are usually much easier to interpret without using Mario, and the COMMUNITY and ABSTRACTION rounds from 2021/22 were also a departure from the typical prompts). Scribble 2023 took a different approach, basing the prompts on ideas and scenarios instead of objective Things From Mario.
As this was an offshoot game, I reused a mix of prompts from the 2021 and 2022 games for the first two rounds to save time and effort, and to avoid coming up with new categories that future hosts might want to use. The third, fourth and fifth rounds used original prompts that didn't have much to do with anything, by their nature. I've gotten a few notes about this with mixed feedback - some people didn't like the randomness of the final three prompt categories, and others didn't like the return to relying on Mario-based prompts.
Prompts are very important to the game - a bad one can ruin someone's week - and it's vital to select prompts that inspire creativity. This can be creativity in interpreting the prompt, such as in the Kaizo rounds, or creativity in how you present the prompt, if it's a more objective one. Personally, I think a bit of Mario is fine as long as the prompts are still easy to creatively interpret. 2022's 'GAME GENRE' round (Olympics, Parkour, Parties - things that Mario does in his games) seems like a good compromise.
4. Conclusion
Scribble is pretty fun!
- Palette Swap - has begun. We're going back to basics with traditional (2 hour) Scribble rules, with just one twist - you have to use the color of your opponent instead of your own. For the first time, you will no longer have the comfort of using the color you signed up with.
