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Hunts

Hunt Basics

"What Ifs" form the backbone of fantasy, but also often discovery. Breaking through the limits of what is known is satisfying by itself, but doubly so when those new discoveries have practical uses. In games, especially for challenge run scenarios like speedruns, those "what if" cases highlight instances of what could be – and encourages players to seek out something new and better.

Hunts are the Game Ventures answer to these seemingly impossible hurdles. Players and enthusiasts can band together and crowdfund an award for discovery of a solution to an otherwise unsolved problem. Incentivize players and specialists to uncover the next Barrier Skip, Wrong Warp, Out of Bounds, or other trick to revolutionize runs of your game of choice.

The process follows very closely to Challenges – the first person to deliver proof of the solution with an explanation of how to reproduce will receive the payout, following a public verification period. Once everything clears and there are no issues with reproducibility, the Hunt is paid out and archived for posterity.

Hunt Creation Guidelines

Hunts are a means of coming up bringing about major new knowledge or techniques to overcome otherwise integral game elements. Which basically just means, you're looking for skilled players and researchers to find a new skip, glitch, or trick!

Just having a vision in mind doesn't necessarily make for a good Hunt, though. Hunts are a solution to a problem – and problems need to be defined and scoped for a solution to fit. If the Hunt description simply says "Find a glitch that lets players skip to the credits," – skip from where? What if it's not a glitch? Is there evidence that such a trick might even exist?

Game Ventures requires a general Background and set of Requirements to list a Hunt, but there are numerous factors to keep in mind while filling those out. As for the difference between them, think of Background as telling a story of what you’d like to happen, and Requirements as the set of limitations or assumptions that make it valuable.

  • Be specific. Add details about exactly what you'd like the Hunt to achieve, and what limitations you expect it to overcome. If the goal is to bypass a locked door, describe which abilities you'd expect a player to have access to before such a skip becomes irrelevant.
  • Don't over-prescribe. Even if you have a vision of what a solution might look like, it doesn't help to dictate that the Hunt can only be accomplished that way. Let players be creative - different viewpoints on the same problem can lead to effective solutions.
  • Provide evidence. Most glitches and tricks are the result of careful study and application of game knowledge. Even if a solution hasn't been developed yet, there is often other studied information or tricks that indicate it may be possible. Share this information in the External Resources to at least give players somewhere to start. If something comes up later, you can also add it to the Reddit thread that's created for discussion of each Venture.
  • Clarify intent. Some tricks may be possible with the aid of tool assistance, but not realistically achievable by human hands. Indicate whether any solution will work or if it has to be possible un-assisted.

An extra note for the last point: Hunts default to accepting any type of solution, regardless of whether it requires machine-perfect precision, luck, or other assistance. If the Hunt is only looking for human-viable solutions, they must explicitly say so!

In the event that there is just too much to describe in the Background and Requirements, Hunt creators and other interested parties can compile information and share it in the External Resources links or Reddit discussion thread. Put together a document, presentation, video, whatever it takes to cover the background of what the Hunt should accomplish.

Hunt Verification

The goal for Hunts is to demonstrate a possible solution, not necessarily a skilled performance. As such, there is a much greater emphasis on documentation as compared with other Ventures. A video is still a must, but Hunts only expect that it presents a proof of concept. Additional details about relevant technical details can be included in the video description or added as part of the Claim submission. At a minimum, a winning Claim should offer enough information for an independent party to reproduce the results.

The actual step-by-step process follows a familiar pattern:

  1. Hunt goes Live - available to the public
  2. First Claim arrives - moves to Peer Review phase for 15 days
  3. 15 Days elapse - Claim is given final review by Game Ventures moderators
  4. Payout approved - Hunt is archived for posterity

Reproducibility is key to the Hunt process. Unlike in other Venture types, the burden is not on a display of skill but on whether the scenario can be replicated. This means that negative results are quite valuable here - if other players are not able to reproduce the outcome with the provided details, the Claim may be rejected. On that note, players can use the Report feature to indicate negative results during the Peer Review period. Positive results are also appreciated, but they are not as actionable as negative results.