Yeah, my guess is he's just having a laugh at our expense.  Microsoft likewise gave me the extension notice via email, but hasn't contacted me about the results of the contest yet.

It would be nice to hear at least some word from Microsoft on their status, though.  Even just a quick post by someone on the staff that says "We're working on it!  Be patient guys, geez!" would suffice :P.

No email for me either and I have no dillusions of my game making the top 20.  I'm just curious about the results.

I serously doubt they will email the folks that didn't make the top 20.

I'm going by Dave's post and am waiting till the 13th to hear anything.

( But that won't stop me from coming back here and checking )  :)

Keeping the thread alive :o).

Fingers crossed everybody!

For your interest... (a video montage of my game submission)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2LGMFdqX30 - Music is from the game.

Its not directly captured on PC. PC did not have enough grunt to run game and video capture. Used a camcorder pointing at LCD TV (running Xbox360 version). Quality isn't too bad.

 

 

 

Looked cool! I didn't really understand how it was played though :-)

Anyway, here is my DBP entry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVSUAxWcFow

Kobingo:

Looked cool! I didn't really understand how it was played though :-)

Its a 360 degree "breakout" (arkenoid) / "tempest" style casual game. Bounce the balls and destroy the nasties. More bounces, more points and more nasties. :o)

So, I know this question has been asked a million times now, but thought I'd ask one more time...

Has anyone been invited to the Microsoft Gamefest Conference? Has anyone been notified about the fact that they are in the top 20?

Just would really like to know.

No, I think not. I also have no notice yet... They make it really exciting... Too bad for the people, who wanted to fly to this event. :-(

I am just continue waiting...

I figure the finalists must have been notified already and are just keeping quiet about it. Nobody said they were going to give early notice to the losers did they?

underleg noise:

I figure the finalists must have been notified already and are just keeping quiet about it. Nobody said they were going to give early notice to the losers did they?

This is probably true, but the official rules did say that the 20 finalists would be posted on the website by now. I would just like to see a simple statement saying that the finalists have or have not been notified yet.

I would also like a brief statement to clarify if the finalists have been notified or not.

It would just be nice to know if we need to continue being on the edge of our seats, or if we can relax :)

I presume everyone else is the same, going through phases of optimism followed by phases of "it will never be me", it's all very traumatic :p

(my optimistic hope is being in the top 20, I have embraced the fact that in the state I submitted it, my game is not going to be top 3)

(It has taken weeks of extensive counselling though)

(I'll just go book another session)

JB.

Joopsy:

It would just be nice to know if we need to continue being on the edge of our seats, or if we can relax

Hehe, by now you should have understood that no one knows. You need to wait for Gamefest.

Ok, I suppose at some level I knew that, but over time, I just start to wonder... I will return to my fretting at once! 

Too much excitement!

:)

J

ps.. The crunch to get the entry finished feels like so long ago now :)

  (and my game has improved a lot since then, mainly due to a lovely person who is assisting me with the graphics)

 

Dave Mitchell [Microsoft]:

All winners will get announced on August 13th as planned.  We'll highlight the top 20 at that point in time.  Have seen a great many of the game submissions, everyone did a hell of a job.  It definitely won't be easy for the judges!

--dave

I just wanted to point out to those of you waiting and waiting for any news of announcements and such. This was answered on page 1 of this thread. Nothing is going to be said or announced before August 13th and that's the official word for now.

Good luck to all!

Ha, just thought I'd give the people with RSS feeds to their Outlook box for this thread a 45 second break from work!

I think the reason nobody believed the quote from Dave Mitchell is that he completely didn't say anything about why his date (August 13) differs from the notification dates in the original rules, and that he didn't confirm the fact that we don't get to go to GameFest...

*sigh* --- 12 days and counting

-J Liechty

George Clingerman:

Dave Mitchell [Microsoft]:

All winners will get announced on August 13th as planned.  We'll highlight the top 20 at that point in time.  Have seen a great many of the game submissions, everyone did a hell of a job.  It definitely won't be easy for the judges!

--dave

I just wanted to point out to those of you waiting and waiting for any news of announcements and such. This was answered on page 1 of this thread. Nothing is going to be said or announced before August 13th and that's the official word for now.

Good luck to all!

I think that statement is what caused all the questions rather than being the answer.

"All winners will get announced on August 13th as planned." - No news there, we all knew the winners would be announced then.

"We'll highlight the top 20 at that point in time." - Didn't necessarily mean the top 20 won't be announced before then.

I read the statement as meaning the top 20 finalists won't be announced until August 13th but I can see how other people might have read it differently.  It's also disappointing that it took 2 weeks to get clarification on this.

Cheers,

    Dave J

 

I think most, if not all, of us understood that the general announcement to the community at large would not occur until August 13th. However, it was still assumed that the top 20 finalists would be notified prior to that date. Many of the posts here have been asking whether anyone had received that notification yet.

 

also disappointing that it took 2 weeks to get clarification on this.

Note that George is NOT a microsoft employee and so his clarification is just as much speculation based on DaveM's original post as all the other posts in this forum. The MVPs have tried, unsuccesfully, to get some clarification in this matter. Bottom line if the reply isn't from DaveM or another MS employee then its not the final answer.

The ZMan:

also disappointing that it took 2 weeks to get clarification on this.

Note that George is NOT a microsoft employee and so his clarification is just as much speculation based on DaveM's original post as all the other posts in this forum. The MVPs have tried, unsuccesfully, to get some clarification in this matter. Bottom line if the reply isn't from DaveM or another MS employee then its not the final answer.

Indeed, and I find it a bit strange that MS employee has responded to the questions in page 1, raised by DaveM's first announcement.
It's unlikely that they have not read it, since it's constantly in page 1 of latest messages since a few weeks.

Maybe Dave is on vacation ?

Well anyway, I think we've mostly all stopped caring, it's too late to announce the top20 now, so we will wait for GameFest.

To all XNA employee : there is one simple way to make it up for the community: video record as much as you can, especially the results announcement :D

AwkwardGamesLtd:

Ha, just thought I'd give the people with RSS feeds to their Outlook box for this thread a 45 second break from work!

Hah!  I get anywhere from 1 to 4 e-mails per message in this thread (for some reason it e-mails me duplicates most of the time >.<), so my inbox was pretty full this morning.

I think we'd all just like clarification on this:

Official Rules:

Those Entries ranked 1st (highest number of points, based on the Judging Criteria) through 20th from amongst the pool of Entries will advance to the Finalist Round of Judging and Participants will be so notified commencing on or about the week of July 16, 2007 (based on the Registration contact information provided and maintained by Participants on the Site). Promotion Finalists will be posted on the Site on or about the week of July 23, 2007.

Even something as simple as "sorry, we're going to stretch the rules a bit so that 'about' means 'at Gamefest'."  Just any official word would be nice.

Then there's the matter of this:

Official Rules:

Sponsor may, at its sole and exclusive discretion, extend an invitation to Finalist Participants willing and able to attend the 2007 Microsoft Gamefest Conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. from August 11 to August 13, 2007 (where the Finalist Round of Judging for the Promotion will take place and where Promotion prize winners will be announced), on terms and conditions included in any such discretionary offer; however, promotion finalists need not be present at Gamefest Conference to win or receive a prize.

While the rules are very careful to say "maybe" on this one, it would still be nice to know what the plan is.  I know some people were going to try making it to Gamefest, especially if they were a finalist.  However, "extend an invitation" sounds like letting you in for free (it'd be silly to say "you should come - we won't let you in unless you pay the half-grand entry fee - but you should come).  Now it's a bit too late to book flights and such for people who wanted to come but didn't know what to expect.  There's still some of us who could drive there *ahem*, but not knowing who the finalists are or if admission is covered, I don't think I can afford it.

It's really a shame, because a lot of the community could have probably made it - but that line in the rules was very clear about Microsoft having the option to do what they want.


So...any clarification on those two parts of the rules would be extremely appreciated.

Correct me if I'm wrong but developers from Shuggy, Dream Sower and Little Gamers seem to have posted here. As all 3 look like strong contenders (go the Shug) maybe Microsoft is playing with our minds. Damn you Bill*.

* I would like to fully retract this and affirm that My Gates is just the ant's pants.

If you remember the DBP 'preview' competition  - most of the announced winners were complete surprises to us in the forums. They had been developed and never announced (and most never released source or playable versions).

I would not be surprised to find out that there were many, many entries that we do not know anything about so its impossible from our limited view of the world to know what might be happening.

Michael Klucher:

As the site says we'll be announcing the winner at Gamefest 2007 which takes place August 12th.

http://klucher.com

In case you haven't seen this, this is interesting.  It's another Microsoft employee's blog.  The above quote, like Dave's, acts as if the DBP rules never said anything about announcing winners the week of the 16th or giving invitations to GameFest...

My bet is that we'll have to wait... 10 days :'(

-J Liechty

Namtar:

So I got my email that I didn't make the finalist list... =( I'm a little bumed but not suprised after seeing all the great entries you guys put in.  So now that the emails are out, who made it?

 

Please forward that email to xna@microsoft.com as to my knowledge none of these notifications have been sent out confirming a finalist or not as you indicate.

--dave

Dave!  You're back!

If you're refering to the e-mail that namtar says he got, we think it was just a hoax, because he hasn't responded in the 2 weeks since he says he got it.

But can you confirm that no one in the entire world (besides judges) will know the results until GameFest and that finalists will not get the invitation to go to GameFest?

Thanks!

-J Liechty