For anyone who is on the CCLP4 staff

[jblewis]

For example, one thing that seems popular is the idea of non-homogeneity, as in levels that aren't all "a little bit of everything" but that have specific twists to them, like in CCLP2 but without invalid tiles.

If I'm understanding you correctly, I think these sorts of levels were actually much more popular during the CCLP3 era - and it was their saturation of the voting pool that encouraged a lot of difficulty one-upmanship among designers that at least helped lead to what CCLP3 eventually became. Since CCLP1 submissions opened, we seem to have shifted into a new era where concept-based levels and homogeneity combined with unique aesthetics are now much more popular. I think part of this is just the need for simplicity in CCLP1, but the rise of more casual gameplay and CCLP3 difficulty exhaustion have been factors as well, especially since new sets like JoshL5, The Other 100 Tiles, JBLP1, and what's been released of NeverStopGaming exhibit these characteristics.

Right now I'd offer late September or October for a submission opening. Don't want to rush it, but don't want to leave it to the point where everyone's just waiting. Sure, we may have "just" released CCLP1, but it takes a few years for submissions to be voted on.

It sounds like many commenting in this thread have suggested waiting to open the submissions, and I understand that. I didn't mean to suggest that we rush anything at all - actually, far from it. My main concern is that since we're no longer making a specific-purpose set like CCLP1, it would be very easy to fall into CCLP3-esque set-wide homogeneity if we aren't careful about keeping an eye on [a] how many levels are in the submission pool and what kinds of levels are in the submission pool. Instead of making a one-time call for levels like we have in the past, the "call for submissions" really should be a much more flexible, changing prompt that takes these two variables into account, starting with what we have on hand. It's kind of like retail inventory management, and it's especially important in light of the amount of levels we already have that couldn't make it into CCLP1 due to its specific purpose. For example, just looking at what sets would most likely be submitted for CCLP4 (some of which are repeats from CCLP1), we really need more easy levels after so many were inducted into a generally easy set.



That's really all I was suggesting - [a] being more cognizant of what we're dealing with and <strong> encouraging those who are currently designing to design toward what's underrepresented in the submission pool, particularly if their goal is to get something in an official set. </strong>