kevin_standlee | Entries tagged with game shows

bigblued is wonderful! She made a much nicer version of the Match Game SF logo that I will use with the show. I was also able to make a version that would fit on the back of the 4 x 6 cards that the panelists use to fill in their answers.

Speaking of the cards: I was able to feed those cards through my LaserJet 4 Plus by telling the printer that they were #10 envelopes and only printing on the "leading edge" of the image. The printer was mostly able to handle those cards, aside from two minor paper jams. This allowed me to print the 24 main game questions (and 12 tie breaker questions in reserve) up on the 4 x 6 cards with the round number and question type (A or B) on the back. If I do say so myself, it looks pretty spiffy.

I only had about 100 of the 4 x 6 cards with me today, but I have lots more at home, and will bring a bunch more with me to print the "response" blank cards on Thursday. The bare minimum number of response cards needed for six games is 144 (6 * 2 * 2 * 6), but I will print at least twice that, because I expect to do the game again sometime and the blanks won't go to waste. I will have to hover over the printer, though, because it will only hold about 20-30 cards at a time in the paper tray, so printing two gross of cards will mean a lot of refilling -- not to mention a chance of running out of printer toner.

I need to buy a box of Sharpie markers. I only have four left from the last time we did the show.

Current Mood: pleased

As I said earlier, we now have three sponsors (Hollister, EmCit, and Cargo Cult). Each are donating different things. Hollister has give us a bag of Casa de Fruta souvenirs, and I think every player will get something, but I'll have to work out what is a winner prize and what is a "lovely parting gift." Emerald City has donated a book, and Cargo Cult a $20 gift certificate redeemable at the CC Books table in the dealers' room.

Because we'll have two new contestants each game, I got to thinking about how to determine what the main prize for any given game is. Cheryl suggested giving each of the panelists an envelope with a prize printed on a card inside. Panelists won't know what prize they're holding. The winner of each game gets to choose a panelist who hasn't yet been picked, and the winner gets the prize in that envelope.

In the 75 minutes we have, we should be able to play as many as six games, particularly as the "bonus round" will consist of the winner simply picking a panelist, and won't have the "Audience Match" segment. That's about 12 minutes per two-round game. There is a possibility that we might not give away all of the prizes, of course, but I can't necessarily fix that. I'll prepare enough questions for six games (6 games * 2 rounds per game * 2 questions per round = 24 questions, grouped as first or second round based on difficulty.)

I think the revised game mechanics are thus:

Two new contestants each game, drawn randomly from the bag of names held by the Announcer.

While the contestants take their seats and get set up, the Announcer reads the inter-game commercial.

Two rounds of two questions each. Panelists who match in round 1 do not play in round 2.

If contestants are tied after two rounds, wipe the score and play one tie-breaker round (need extra questions in reserve for this).

If contestants still tied after tie-breaker round, go to sudden-death "reverse match": Contestants fill in their responses to a simple match (example: "Video __________") and we ask each panelist to fill it. The first contestant who matches a panelist wins. If both contestants filled the blank with the same answer, play another tie-breaker. (I have lots of tie-breaker questions, and I've never had to do more than two rounds of sudden death.)

Winner picks a panelist who still has an envelope and gets the prize listed in that envelope. Loser gets a Lovely Parting Gift courtesy of Casa de Worldcon. Both contestants get copies of latest Emerald City.

Whew! I think that I could probably use at least one production assistant (besides Eric Larson doing announcing and probably Lisa Hayes running the sound) to help keep track of all of this. If any of you reading this will be at BayCon and aren't interested in playing, but would like to help keep things organized, let me know.

Current Mood: accomplished

Tonight after coming from from BASFA, I copied the one piece of Match Game music I did not yet have on tape from CD to tape, that being the "Plug" music that we play under commercials. And we will have commercials! Our sponsors include the Hollister in 2008 bid (Chris Garcia delivered to me a bag of Casa de Fruta stuff today), Emerald City (copies of issue #129 to all players), and, pending agreement in the next few days, Cargo Cult Books, which will provide a $20 gift certificate to one winner. (I haven't yet decided how to determine which game has which prize.)

An interesting cultural distinction between the US and UK came up while I was discussing the commercials with

cherylmorgan. I think that having a commercial break in between each game, with one of the sponsors getting a 30-second commercial read by our announcer, will add some "realism" to the game and show that we have our act together. Cheryl suggested that if we tried having commercial breaks at a British convention, the fans would be furious at us for the crass commercialism, even though all the sponsors are "in the family" (a hoax Worldcon bid, a Hugo Award-winning 'zine, and a dealer who is a former Worldcon chair).

Meanwhile, back to the tapes. Already on tape is the Main Title music (using a custom remix of the title from the Classic Game Show Themes CD so that there are enough "whomps" up front to allow announcer Eric Larson to introduce the panelists), and the continuous "Think" music.

The CD that Andy gave me has a couple of other variations of the "think" music, and if I had sound editing software handy, I might have tried creating continuous loops of it to put onto other tapes, but I don't have time for this, so we'll have to use the relatively boring "think" music that just plays the loop.

I have the boom box and various audio cables (in case BayCon program tech do end up getting us a small sound board into which we can push the sound, rather than having to rely only on the boom box) now set up by the rapidly-growing pile of "send to BayCon" stuff.

Meanwhile, big thanks to

bigblued, who produced the very nice animated GIFs of the Match Game SF logo!

Current Mood: accomplished

Based on the feedback from earlier today, I've made a version of the logo that staggers the "SF" and overlaps the rest of the logo. I wish y'all could see the animation as well. I'm rather pleased with this.

( Logo version 2 )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Match Game Theme

We now have a full Match Game Panel:

CHRISTIAN MCGUIRE
LYNN GOLD
TOM GALLOWAY
DOUG BERRY
CHRIS GARCIA
LEIGH ANN HILDEBRAND

Thanks to the feedback to my question about format, I've decided we will play the "hybrid" format of two new contestants for each game (no continuing winners), and two rounds per game. This will allow more people to get a chance to play.

The Hollister 30-second promo appears to be done, but

cherylmorgan and I need to pull together conversations we've had to come up with the promo for Emerald City.

I've reproduced the Match Game logo as a file that I may be able to print on the large format printer here at work, although it would probably use a lot of ink if I print the orange background. It makes me wish I had access to a data projector from which I could project the image onto one of the walls in the Gateway Foyer, because I've actually built it as a PowerPoint build that looks pretty cool -- the "Match Game" flies in from the top, then a flashing "SF" flies in from the bottom.

( Logo behind the cut )

It may not be obvious, but the source file is 34 inches high by 46 inches long.

Current Mood: accomplished

We have a 75-minute program item slot for Match Game at BayCon, and we can't run too long because the auctions follow it. (When we've done it at night, we can go for two or more hours as long as my voice holds out and the audience continues to be interested.) Does anyone here have any thoughts about whether we should use the "AM" or "PM" formats?

The "AM" format is for the two contestants to play two rounds, with the winner staying on and facing the next challenger. The "PM" format is for the two contestants to play three rounds, with each game being two new contestants.

We don't have an "Audience Match" bonus round because I've never collected enough surveys to have a meaningful set of "most popular" answers. Besides, we never have any money to give away, only prizes.

I can see us playing between three and five AM-style rounds. An advantage of the AM format is that it turns games over faster. PM format gives more people a chance to play. A hybrid would be to use the AM format but have two new contestants each game, which combines both elements.

One other possibility would be a "tournament" format, but to do that, you'd need to be know you'd have time for seven games (four first round, two semi-finals, one final).

I understand the real show filmed five shows a day, with three before lunch and two after lunch. The cast tended to drink a lot during lunch, which meant that the Thursday and Friday shows were likely to have the funnier answers. We won't have that, but because we won't play the audience match or super match, we can play more games in the same amount of time.

Current Mood: busy

I have five panelists for the game, and will have to recruit one more. Several people whom I'd like to have as panelists are already scheduled for something at 11:30 AM Sunday. I'd like Tom Galloway as a panelist, but he has not answered the e-mails I've sent him. (Tom, I know you sometimes read this journal -- write to me if you want on board!)

(Update, 11:30 May 22: Tom has responded and will now be on the panel. I've updated the list below.)

Someone from BayCon programming tech services contacted me and said they will provide a microphone and speakers -- the Gateway Foyer doesn't come with hotel-provided sound. That's good! I'd asked for it, but I didn't really expect it to happen, and could have managed without it. (I felt a bit guilty about the extra tech needs, but the con can use it for the Auctions that follow in the same place, so it's not exclusively me burdening the con with additional requirements.) If all goes well, we may be able to run the sound from the cassette deck into the small sound mixing board they will provide; otherwise, the boom box will suffice.

Why am I using cassette tapes rather than music-on-computer?

1. The "think" music is actually a 30-minute tape of a continuous loop of music. I don't have that loop on computer anymore or even the sound editing software I used to create it.

2. Lisa may be the person operating the sound. She's very comfortable with cassette tapes, but very uneasy around computers.

3. 1970s technology is more likely to work in a hit-and-miss situation than anything that requires a computer and doesn't have time for a lot of technical setup and testing.

This last is also why I use score indicators printed on index cards rather than some computers with fancy displays. It can be set up quickly and is less likely to fail during the show, which is important when you're doing a live performance.

I'm trying to think ahead, and have written up the "announcer intro" that Eric Larson will use to start the show while the theme music plays under. I can't use the exact words of the real game show, because we are not "big money," even though we will have prizes.

( Announcer Show Intro )

I think we'll have a second sponsor, with Emerald City providing copies of the magazine to all contestants. We can include something in the "Promotional consideration provided by" commerical like "Emerald City magazine: Winner of the 2004 Hugo Award, Banned from the Nova Awards, and placed on trial for treason at Eastercon! See what all the fuss is about at emcit.com"

Update, 21:20: Christian McGuire has signed on as a panelist. I have tentatively slotted him into seat 1 and made the appropriate corrections above.

Current Mood: optimistic

While doing the last bits of box-shifting in preparation for doing to Yuba City this weekend and putting a bunch of stuff into storage, I found the bag of Match Game props, including the questions, the tapes with the theme song and continuous loop of "think" music, and the questions. (The "think" music isn't the actual incidental music from the show, which has a bit of variety in it, but is instead the first couple of bars of the theme music recorded in a continuous loop for 30 minutes. The sound FX person starts and stops the tape while the panel thinks about answers.

I'm glad I found this stuff; it would be a real pain to have to recreate it all again. The props are pretty low-tech -- tent cards with solid and empty circles and triangles, which the panelist put in front of them and turn "on" and "off" depending on whether they matched, and a set of seven "score" tents numbered 0 to 6 for each contestant. There is probably a high-tech approach that puts monitors and computer control at each of the eight required stations, but why do that when you have a low-tech system that works and sets up more quickly and doesn't break easily?

Current Mood: optimistic

Assuming we can put together at least Match Game for BayCon, I wouldn't mind having some new questions, preferably of a sf/f/fandom-oriented nature. If you have ideas, e-mail them to me -- kastandlee [at] yahoo.com or my work e-mail if you have it, but put "[Match Game]" in the subject because that account has lots of spam. If you put them in comments here, I'll see them, but so will anyone else reading it.

Another idea that came up at BASFA last night was doing Hollywood Squares, although there is actually a problem with the physical set design for that one. Match Game can be done "flat" with all six panelists side by side -- we did that at MilPhil. It's better if you have a riser on which you can put an eight-foot table. Then you put three people behind that table and three more on a table at floor level in front, similar to the real show's set. Hollywood Squares needs a third level, which is trickier to build.

But if we could pull it off, we could even do the combined game that was tried for about one season that I sort of liked: the Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour. This is complicated, and it's difficult enough getting six panelists, let alone nine, let alone writing another set of questions.