It was a considerable improvement over last year's, I can say that much. Despite the fact that CCaves glitched out three days into the festival and delayed it for quite a while, what was there was still pretty enjoyable. KittyTikara did a wonderful job handling it all, and it was nice to see that the CCSF got a dedicated section that was both noticeable and actually looked like a CCSF website.
That being said, it still fell flat in other areas. There was a grand total of *one* big release (which I submitted); everything else was either a genetic breed, simple agent, or a creature pack. Furthermore, while there were quite a few contests, participation in them was utterly abysmal (Not counting my genetic breed contest, which was started before the CCSF, the most entries any of them got was two, and only one of them even got that many).
A lot of this can be chalked up to the aforementioned CCaves technical difficulties and to the fact that it took forever to get this festival planned. In spite of all that, what we got was enjoyable for what it was. However, it really doesn't bode well for future festivals.
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there just wasn't a festival next year.
The community just isn't what it used to be. We're certainly not dead; new members are still coming in at a regular basis and everyone who's still here is reasonably active. However, a lot of wonderful people, many of them skilled developers, are no longer a part of the community. And what remains just doesn't seem as lively.
Given this state of affairs, I don't see the CCSF getting any better. Unless the people who really cared about the CCSF return to the community, or the current community gets a massive boost in activity, I doubt the tradition is ever going to return to its former glory.
I'm not saying there's no point in keeping the tradition alive. If there's still people who want to keep it going, then by all means. I'm just not expecting a whole lot out of it from now on.
Okay, enough of the downer stuff. I think it's about time I get the stuff I released on my own place, isn't it?
Next up is Artemia Sea, the sole big release of CCSF 2014. This metaroom is based upon the tank from the Amazing Virtual Sea Monkeys and is designed with the comforts of swimming creatures in mind. It's filled with life from Creatures 1, Creatures 2, and the Amazing Virtual Sea Monkeys, although there's a few completely new organisms floating around in there....
Finally, there's the Artemia Grendels in the event you need some creatures to fill up Artemia Sea. This pack of grendels was produced from a wolfling run I ran in Artemia Sea while the room was in development. They have a number of differences from normal grendels, not the least of which is that they have gills and will drown if you don't get them to water as soon as you import them. I don't consider these to be a proper breed...at least, not yet. Might want to stay tuned.
I initially held off on this since I wanted to make a bonus release. However, there's a certain holiday coming up very soon that would be a better time to release some things and so I decided to just upload my CCSF stuff and get it over with.
Now, there's also my genetic breed contest that I mentioned some time ago on this blog. It's technically over since it ended on the last day of the CCSF.
Um...about that. Despite the long period time it was open for, the contest got only three entries. The winner of these three entries was decided quite a while ago, and I could post which one I liked the most.
The problem is that this is far fewer entries than I would've liked. I was hoping to get six or more by the supposed deadline. I guess the lack of participation is sort of my fault for not making it more visible.
I do have a new idea for the whole thing, but that'll be for a later date. For now, consider the contest to still be open. I'll close submissions when I work the kinks out of the idea.
I think that's everything I have to say for now. Until the next one, folks.
