FEE3 Documentation

Documentation
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Hello all,

The below outlines my proposal for FEE3 2021 (and beyond). This is inclusive of all documentation needed to run the event, as well as establishing our core vision and purpose for this event. The goals of the following sections are to 1) create alignment within our community on the event purpose and goals, 2) enable participants, volunteers, and organizers, to more smoothly facilitate the event, and 3) operationalize all aspects of FEE3 to allow for easy organization for future leaders. The staff will continue to evolve and change, and it is important that this knowledge to run the event continues to be maintained so that FEE3 can live on.

Fire Emblem E3 Mission Statement:

To showcase ROM hacks, fan games, technical tools for hacking, animations, and other related materials to Fire Emblem fangame creation to an audience of like-minded creators with the goal of building awareness for and recognizing our work.

Roles & Responsibilities / Templates

Roles & Committees

These are the groups responsible for running the event. Each will need to apply using a form created from the resources below:

Organizer
  • Responsible for running the event. Vetting committee members, projects, and other volunteers. Making decisions and judgment calls. Determines scheduling and prioritization of tasks. Organizers also serve as heads of specific committees.
Quality Control Committee
  • Reviewing project submissions and videos for quality. Quality is inclusive of appropriateness of content (details outlined below) and video.
Visual Arts Committee
  • Creation and maintenance of brand assets surrounding the visual identity of the event, including, but not limited to, templates for recording, thumbnails, banners, and other FEE3 promotional materials. Responsible for visual identity of FEE3.
Committee Application

Committee Application - This is a template and should be adjusted as needed.

The below fields should be used to create a form for applications. Please modify as needed.

Description: Thank you for applying to an FEE3 committee. Your support will help ensure a smooth and successful event. Please fill out all fields below for consideration.

  • Username on FEU
  • Username and # on Discord
  • Committee(s) you are applying for (multi-select)
  • Timezone
  • FEE3 organization is largely handled on discord. Please confirm you are okay w/ being pinged or messaged about information related to the event. You will be added to a channel with other committee members on the FEU discord. (Yes checkbox)
Project Submission Form

Project Submission Form - template

Description: Thank you for participating in FEE3 20XX. Please complete all fields below so that we may review your work and ensure it is added to the schedule if guidelines are met. Please see the announcement thread with details on the current year’s guidance.

  • Username on FEU
  • Username and # on Discord
  • Project Title
  • Project description (Write a short description of your project to be used on the video description of the project. Staff may edit this as needed)
  • Project type (ie format. This will help us with scheduling and tracking)
  • Project Thread Link (if no thread, please submit an image album as proof of project’s existence)
  • Video file link (Please compress video before submitting)
  • Showtime preference (Please select at least 3. If not, select “No Preference”).

Video Resources

Content Rules - what is allowed at FEE3?

Content rules - what is allowed at FEE3?

  • Project type

Eligible products include any Fire Emblem fan work, asset/animation showcase, and hack-related technical demo. Rebalances, weapon reversal, reverse recruitment, or other “minor” edit hack are subject to rejection from the committee for acceptance.

Ex. FE6 rebalance patch with +20 hit on axes → low effort, rejection

  • Inappropriate content

The FEE3 planning committee reserves the right to reject any project that has inappropriate content in violation with site ToS. This includes extreme profanity, nudity, sexual themes, and gore. Projects with inappropriate content, regardless of whether this content appears in the video showcase, are subject to rejection based on the discretion of the organizer.

  • Stolen work

Any work with stolen assets will be removed and will not be allowed in the show until this is remedied. The planning committee reserves the right to blocklist your entry from the show if it had stolen assets in it at any point.

Recorded content guidelines

  • We recommend a video length of less than 1 hour, with the ideal showcase being less than 30 minutes. We notice higher levels of views and engagement on videos that are shorter. If your video goes about the 1 hour time limit, the committee will ask you to re-record. This upper limit is subject to change at organizer discretion and will be stated in the annual thread.

  • English is preferred language, but showcases may be conducted in any language the creator is most comfortable with.

  • Inappropriate language in showcases should be kept to a minimum if used at all. Appropriateness of showcase language will be determined by the organizer and quality control committee. They reserve the right to reject a recording on grounds of inappropriate language.

How do I record my own showcase?
  • Please review HeartHero’s guide here for details on recording equipment to determine if you are able to make a high quality recording. If you doubt your technical capabilities or interest in recording your own showcase, don’t hesitate to ask for help! There are help channels on the discord and the thread is there to communicate with others who may be willing to work with you on a recording.

Remember, the recording is your responsibility as a project creator.

Branded Assets

Branded Assets

  • All FEE3 events will have branded assets created and used for future events. This includes, but is not limited to, youtube video templates, youtube thumbnails, and logos.

  • A link containing branded assets will be made available ahead of showtime to allow project creators and LPers to self-serve.

Organizer & Committee materials

Commitee guidelines

Committee guidelines and R&R - this section will detail specifics of your role as a committee member.

Quality Control Guidelines
  • Review projects for objectionable and inappropriate content
  • Review content for violations of length requirements
  • Review content for audio/visual quality - is the quality good enough for us to show the project? Is the audio/visual quality so poor as to detract from the experience and be unviewable?
Visual arts Guidelines
  • Support creation of thumbnails and thumbnail templates for projects
Operational resources & tips

Operational resources & tips

  • If you are reading this and organizing FEE3, it is recommended that you provide a 5 month window from show announcement to launch. For example, if you are planning to start the showcases during the first week of October, FEE3 should be announced in May, with sign-ups accepted until July, allowing for 2+ months of recording, review, and outreach.

  • Projects should be released every 6 hours, starting at 12 AM EST on the intended launch date. A welcome video should be released 3 hours prior to the first showcase. We have discussed dropping multiple videos during “prime time EST”. This decision will be up to organizer discretion based on feedback on viewership data.

  • If you are organizing FEE3 would like to use the FEU Youtube account, contact a member of the staff.

  • Operations should be handled either on the FEU discord or existing FEE3 discord created for 2020. Organizers should have clear roles and responsibilities. In order to ensure smooth operations, we recommend the following sample timeline:

Sample Timeline

Sample Timeline (dates listed are sample and should be taken as "by this date, you will…)

Post-FEE3: Align on changes and structure based on learning from previous year’s FEE3. Staff to determine organizers and hosting, as well as create application and submission forms to link to the thread.

Before 1-May: Create the project submission form and showcase submission forms using the templates above. Google Forms is recommended. Create a spreadsheet to have easier visualization of the projects, which will also allow for additional organization.

1-May: Head organizer or staff member announces FEE3. Create thread with the guidelines, in addition to forms for participation. This should include the intended deadline for committee application (ie 1-Jun), project submission (1-Sep), and intended show date (ie 1-Oct).

1-May to 1-Jun: Open FEU discord channels for FEE3 organization and collaboration. Set up infrastructure to manage project, namely spreadsheets. If using Google Forms, you can add columns to the “response sheet” to track quality control reviews.

1-Sep: Creator showcase deadline. Creator showcases must be submitted by this date. This deadline may be extended case by case should a showcase be rejected by organizers or quality control committee.

15-Sep: Quality control review deadline. All videos should be reviewed by this date. Organizers can reject fixes to videos past this date.

15-Sep: Schedule announcement. Schedule should be released and adjusted in the first post of the thread. Ideally, moderators are able to connect with other FE communities to host threads/announcements for the event.

30-Sep: Videos should be uploaded to the FEU (or other host) Youtube with scheduled release times.

1-Oct: Show is live.

30-Oct: Review and post-mortem. Organizer should create thread reviewing the event and proposing changes for next year. Ideas and discussion to be considered in preparation for next year’s shows and improvements.

This thread is meant to be a living, breathing document and collection of best practices. Moderators and Organizers are encouraged to update as time progresses and FEE3 evolves. As of this writing, it is not complete and will continue to be updated. Thank you.

3-May: Updated w/ latest guidance. Removed outdated items for defunct committee roles.

34 Likes
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Reserved. Please see all existing playlists here for your reference:

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Reserved: Post-mortem discussion threads:

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I’ll read over this later and add my thoughts, no doubt. For now, thanks for your transparency.

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First off, thank you for writing a document this detailed about FEE3. It will definitely help
with making things more organised.

When it comes to things like reverse recruitment and weapon reversal, it should depend on how the hack is made. As an example, an FE5 Reverse Recruitment/Weapon Reversal patch is not as easy to make as one for the GBA games, and thus shouldn’t fall under “low effort”.

I think English should be mandatory. If the spoken language isn’t English, then there should be subtitles or something like that. I’m fine with hacks written in foreign languages being showcased, but the videos themselves should be in English one form or another, so that everyone (or as many people as possible) can understand them.

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I use language “subject to rejection” because while these are uncommon now, as hacking of other games becomes more accessible and widespread, we need language to allow us to turn away these types of projects. Right now and in the immediate future, I agree with you. In a few years, that will look different.

I prefer inclusivity from non-English communities, and if someone wants to do a showcase who otherwise wouldn’t, I think that’s a win. I would assume most people would prefer to have a volunteer LP their project if English isn’t something they are comfortable with.

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Great work on this Pandan, love just about everything I see here. Definitely down to help out on a committee or with general organization when this next rolls around.

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If there’s multiple non-English projects, do you think some kind of “Translation Commitee” might be necessary?

Or even better, what if that Commitee translates videos for things such as tool showcases? I think spreading that type of knowledge would be great.

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We’d need to see if there’s enough demand. There’s still a lot of engagement work to bring non-English communities into the fold (if they’d even like to be). Good idea if such demand exists, but I don’t see a flood of projects like this coming in.

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Inclusivity would be pretty cool. I’m German-Turkish myself and the hacking community isn’t that big in either of those languages, so we don’t have our own FEE3-esque event either. However, I’d suggest that we do regular FEE3 and foreign FEE3 separately. This would give the foreign projects a bigger spotlight (which they need, due to the lack of FEE3 type events in other languages), and they also wouldn’t blend in with the regular FEE3 projects.

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Hoooo, that would be so good, i am spanish, and i think the Fe comunity here is unorganised or doesnt even exist, it would be cool to call that people who want to do things but dont know where or how to do this in english. I would like to help in that.

Blockquote
Pandan
We’d need to see if there’s enough demand. There’s still a lot of engagement work to bring non-English communities into the fold (if they’d even like to be). Good idea if such demand exists, but I don’t see a flood of projects like this coming in.

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Anyone who is making a Fire Emblem fan project, regardless of language, should be encouraged to participate in FEE3.

I disagree with a separate event for non-English events, since it is a fairly arbitrary distinction, and all sides would benefit from more mingling and idea sharing. Additionally, the appetite for additional efforts and organization is low.

The challenge as I see it is exposure and awareness of FEE3 in these communities. I think the promotions committee should own engagement with these communities to encourage their participation.

To Markex133’s point, if they are unsure how to do it in English, they should submit and have volunteer LPers support their showcases if they do not feel comfortable doing their own. Perhaps individuals with relationships to non-English communities could lead these efforts and help translate instructions to english for volunteer LPers, but we can approach that case-by-case until we see what works best since this is still fairly new.

4 Likes
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mmm, thats a good point, right now almost every tutorial or tips for FE hackrooming is in English, i think a good step forward could be make a effort to translate and make new tutorials for these languajes and encourage people to participate. And maybe dont do a whole new comunity, but making a sub-comunity to help these individual languajes.

This is a good thing to discuss because we can bring more people to this wonderful universe.

And if possible i want to participate in this.

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That would be greatly appreciated! There’s still ongoing efforts to make more tutorials in English, but having these in multiple languages would be helpful.

As for FEE3, please apply for promotions committee in 2021 so you can help with outreach to the Spanish language community. Would be huge for the event! Thanks again.

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thx Pandan, im no the best at hacking, but i know the basics, i think i might be able to do this.
Can you tell me were can i apply to the comitee please?

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We’ll announce it next year ahead of the next FEE3. Probably sometime in May/June if the team is aligned to my proposal.

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Thats a lot of time. xD
But i guess we can wait. I can be preparing some things in the mean time.
Thank you.

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I’m sorry, I worded it a bit weirdly. What I was trying to say is, the videos that are fully in foreign languages should be uploaded during a specific timeframe within FEE3. For instance, before the main FEE3 uploads, or afterwards, or maybe even between the FEE3 uploads. My main point is, they shouldn’t be sprinkled in throughout FEE3, but they should have their own timeframe to shine; there should be a “Foreign Language Day(s)”, if that makes sense.

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I understand, but I don’t think it matters too much.

I’d rather organize showcases by project creator preference to best align with their timezone vs. all on one day. I think we should try to integrate as much as we can instead of giving them special treatment or segregating them from other projects.

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Volunteer LPers will share .mp4 video files by uploading to a cloud storage site and linking the download on the spreadsheet for organizers and quality control committee to review.

It might be a good idea to allow other formats like avi, it’s easier to upload because of it being smaller on size for a similar amount of length.

Anyway good job on the guidelines