The Alphaville Herald

Johnny Lace Plans New Lot Design Contest in AV

by Alphaville Herald on 19/05/04 at 7:07 pm

Last September, Johnny Lace held his first lot design contest, attracting 75 participants. He’s now organizing another contest, and is hoping to attract as many as 100 participants with his 1 million simolean prize. In this interview Johnny talks about the contest, the judging, offers some advice for designers, and also chats about the uncertain future or TSO.


Winner of the Last Contest — designed by Cornelius Vanderbilt (currently Emperor of Alphaville)

Urizenus: Johnny, you have another lot design contest in the works. Can you tell us about it?
Johnny Lace: Sure, since I started my career as a lot designer I hated the fact that there never was a lot design contest, be it organized by Maxis or by other players… so I decided to fill the gap myself
Urizenus: is this your first or did you do one before?
Johnny Lace: I did one before last year, in September I recall
Johnny Lace: It lasted for over a month
Urizenus: How many people entered that one?
Johnny Lace: Eventually we had a ranking of 61 contestants, but there were approx. 75 contestants total
Johnny Lace: the neighborhood showed up on the map
Urizenus: and no temps!
Johnny Lace: no temps!
Johnny Lace: perhaps there were a few sims who had 2 accounts in the contest, but we will never know for sure
Urizenus: you ranked them 1 to 61?
Johnny Lace: Every judge (I had 4 others in my team) ranked the lots from 1 to 61 and we all added up points at the end
Urizenus: How many are you expecting to enter this time?
Johnny Lace: I have no clue
Johnny Lace: There are less players than last year
Johnny Lace: but the contest now has more publicity
Urizenus: hundred maybe?
Johnny Lace: 100 would be awesome!
Urizenus: What is the prize for the winners.
Johnny Lace: Well I came back in this game with a bank account of zero, so I had to pick up my job as designer again to get enough money to fund my contest
Urizenus: lol
Johnny Lace: The first prize is 1 million simoleans
Johnny Lace: maybe more, business went well
Johnny Lace: and we give money to the runner ups and some of the lots that are a judge’ favorite
Johnny Lace: a few 100k each
Urizenus: What are the criteria that the judges use in selecting the top props?
Johnny Lace: Last year I had invented a complex system with points in different categories, such as creativity, furniture, objects etc
Johnny Lace: but it failed miserably hehe
Urizenus: so what’s the new system?
Johnny Lace: every judge used it in a different way…
Johnny Lace: so now I think I will use a very simple system
Johnny Lace: Every judge will give 1, 2 or 3 points to a lot
Urizenus: ah
Johnny Lace: and in the end, all lots with 9 points or more will be the subject of a final judge discussion
Urizenus: How many judges are there, who are they, and how are they selected?
Johnny Lace: The judges are x Tweety x and Cassandra Johnson, 2 long time players of TSO and quite known in AV
Johnny Lace: They were selected by a long and tedious process…
Johnny Lace: they were on my bookmark list and they were online
Urizenus: hehe
Urizenus: Just those two?
Urizenus: plus you?
Johnny Lace: plus me
Johnny Lace: I know they are very trustworthy and absolutely honest players
Urizenus: ok, so a lot needs a 3 from all the judges to advance to full consideration.
Johnny Lace: yes. If there aren’t enough lots with 9 points ,we also put the 8 point lots in the ‘final’
Urizenus: remedial question: this is just for alphaville, right?
Johnny Lace: yes, the contest is AV only
Johnny Lace: I do think many sims from other towns will enter though
Johnny Lace: because many AV sims already have established households they cannot simply abandon
Urizenus: Beyond having fun, do you have any other goals in doing this contest?
Johnny Lace: I think it’s good for the community
Urizenus: how so?
Johnny Lace: Dozens of players getting together and being creative -and having fun of course- can’t be bad for the community can it?
Urizenus: I agree it can’t be bad. Is it important to you to help the AV community?
Johnny Lace: yes, it is. When I started playing this game I didn’t want to be someone else, I wanted to BE someone. Doing good things for the community is a way to achieve that, creating a website where I can show off my work -and hopefully inspire people- is another thing
Urizenus: Do you wish that Maxis would allow us more creative freedom in game — ability to introduce custom wall paper and tiles for example?
Johnny Lace: oh yes definitely. I’m sure creativity will break loose in the world of lot builders then
Johnny Lace: I don’t think they will ever do it though
Urizenus: no, sadly
Johnny Lace: We all know how long it takes for even the smallest things to get implemented
Johnny Lace: They have a really small team left I think
Urizenus: Are you worried about the future of tso? — a lot of people think they will pull the plug when Sims 2 comes out.
Johnny Lace: I believe the doomsayers in this case. They should never have based TSO on the old sims engine, but rather wait for Sims 2 to be a hit and THEN create TSO, based on the Sims 2 engine
Johnny Lace: They won’t pull the plug, but I think TSO will die off slowly
Urizenus: could be.
Johnny Lace: and like sheep we will all buy TSO-2 of course
Urizenus: hehehe
Johnny Lace: But I hope lot design contests will let people have fun again… shooting a cannon at someone must get old quickly
Urizenus: lol
Urizenus: Do you have a web site for this contest?
Johnny Lace: Yes, my website is www.johnnylace.tk
Urizenus: Do you have pictures of last years winners?
Johnny Lace: Yes, I had 3 screenshots of every single contestant lot, but I had to remove 2 of each to make room (only have 50mb space)… which still leaves 1 screen of every lot that participated!
Urizenus: that is on your web site?
Johnny Lace: yes
Urizenus: Any advice for contestants that want a taste of that 1 mil?
Johnny Lace: be original! If you make something we haven’t seen before you will definately get high marks -if executed properly of course-
Johnny Lace: there could be a 100 contestants… if you don’t stand out, you won’t win
Urizenus: the rules are posted on the web site?
Johnny Lace: Yes, follow the contest link and you can read the rules
Johnny Lace: I might add rules later if I get a lot of questions about things unclear
Urizenus: Cool. Anything else you’d like to add?
Johnny Lace: Yes, if other people think on having a lot design contest on this scale, be prepared for spending a LOT of time in TSO
Urizenus: hehe
Urizenus: suppose I have a lot of time. Do you have ideas for other contests that might be held?
Johnny Lace: it really takes a lot of work. The last contest kept me online several hours every day for over a month…
Johnny Lace: and only for the contest…not to just have a chat or play the game
Urizenus: lol
Johnny Lace: If we still talk about lot design contests, I was thinking on an invitation-only contest where the best designers in TSO can duke it out on a size 8
Johnny Lace: or an Iron-man contest where every contestant has to bring in 100k or so, winner takes all
Urizenus: or imagine a timed contest. who can do the best in one hour.
Johnny Lace: That’s a good one too
Johnny Lace: or themes… ‘castle’ , ‘night club’ etc
Urizenus: there have been roof art contests no?
Johnny Lace: I think it is very difficult to have a roof art contest
Johnny Lace: I mean, how do you judge?
Urizenus: well, how do you judge anything?
Johnny Lace: comparing a picture of a bear with the picture of a cat?
Urizenus: lol
Johnny Lace: you could judge on how well the tiles match the original picture
Urizenus: hehe
Johnny Lace: good luck on that