Just submitted my villain idea. Though a bit of an epic read it is. Of course, I'd assume most people's entries would be.
Even if I don't win, I'm actually having fun making the villain, so I guess I am getting the most out of the contest. I think what has been most important and made this even more enjoyable is having a bunch of friends here on campus with me who like the game and are giving me input. Last night, we played one actual game, but spent most of our time just bouncing ideas back and forth. And the time we spent doing that makes this whole contest, whether I win or lose, worth it. Needless to say, we had a good time. Many jokes were made and such.
I'm actually really surprised how easy most of the stuff came to me. Though I might be "cheating" by other people's standards, since I'm building off characters already in the game, but the contest rules says that's okay, so I've got no problem doing this.
I don't know if this was the case for anybody else, but when I was typing up ideas, the deck mechanics was coming to me pretty simply, but the most hindering thing was actually just finding a suitable name for the villain. That's really what my friends and I spent the most time on last night.
Though I'm more or less around halfway being done, I don't think I'll submit it very soon. There's always room for improvement, so I'm gonna keep thinking and consulting others.
Yeah I found that the mechanics sorta write themselves once you give your villain a back story. Now names? Names are hard
Names were easy for me, considering I have been working on the overall story for about 8 years now. That also made the backstory easy, and the mechanics sorta easy. The only issue is whether the mechanics will actually be enjoyable.
We threw a ton of effort into the making of the name. It just seemed like no matter what we came up with, it couldn't fit quite right. We eventually did reach a consenus, but even now, I think the name is just okay. Not super amazing or anything.
I had a General idea for screwy mechanics and started going backwards for theme on my submission.
My villains tend to be Mechanic to theme. My heroes are the reverse. I still haven't completely nailed my flagship homebrew hero's mechanics, but I know his theme inside and out. My created villain concepts all started as 'what would be fun to fight? Right, then let's try that! Afterwards, I think more about who they are, what they do, and why they do it. There's an exception to this general process, but it's because I'm trying to figure out exactly how to make that villain's mechanics work.
You think of mechanics first? That's pretty interesting. I like hearing about other people's creative processes. I'm more conventional, I'm pretty sure my thoughts were along the lines of:
"You know who should be a villain? Him/her."
"What's his/her name? I'll come back to that later."
"What would he/she be like? This."
"How would that affect how he/she plays? This way."
"How would that be accomplished? This main mechanic."
"Would that be reasonable? If it's like this."
"What else is left? These things."
"So really, what's his/her name? Uh..."
I had both. Ended up creating three villains, one who was formed whole cloth with mechanics and story coming more or less together, one who had mechanics but no story as I tried to make him interesting, and a final one where the idea was there from the start but fought the mechanics all the way through. Eventually, the mechanics only set judt didn't grip me and if it ddin't grip me, I figure the chances of it impressing the >G folks wold be almost nil, so the ones that came out of story got sent in.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make the time to flesh out the one idea I've had, and I'm not even sure it fits thematically. 
I might wait to see if there's another contest… 
I sorta just switched back and forth between developing the mechanics and developing the character.
I started with a vague, general idea I thought could be an interesting take on the alternate realities/time travel theme, thought up some basic mechanics that might represent it well, then tried to see what sorts of characters I could get from these mechanics, then went back to fleshing out the mechanics for the ideas I liked more, which gave me better ideas for the character, and so on.
Eventually both were fleshed-out enough that I could focus on just the mechanics or just the character development for long periods of time without needing to worry about how one related to the other.
It seemed to work out pretty well.
Are you our winner? Congratulations!
Yes! Thank you! I really wasn't expecting this at all, but it sure was a great way to start the day in what had previously been a really crappy week! ^‿^
Alex, if you feel comfortable sharing, where might we find you playing Sentinels in the future? Are you a con-goer (GenCon, PAX, Origins, etc.?) Do you play games regularly at a favorite game store?
Hmm... let's see, I go to Arisia pretty regularly, and have been planning to introduce people to SotM at the gaming room, so that'd be your best bet for finding me. Look for a guy with a green squid hat, around 19-20 years old. That will probably be me.
I go to the occasional Animé convention, like Animé Boston and Another Animé Con, though I've never done any gaming there before.
I went to PAX East once, and wouldn't mind going again sometime.
I doubt I'll be at GenCon or Origins; Indiana and Ohio are pretty far from Massachusetts and eastern New York, sorry!
As for game stores, I don't really do anything at them besides buy games.
I've never been to a comic convention, but hearing about them from webcomic writers has gotten me intrigued. I might try going to one some time.
Perhaps we'll see you there in March.
Oh, but please! Come join us at GenCon! Have lots of fun!
It's pretty much the furthest I can go. 
I'd love to be going to more conventions all the time, but I never really know about any around Louisville or Nashville and have time to prepare. I usually hear about conventions from my friends on facebook afterwards, and I'm left thinking "There was a convention? Darn! I should have gone!"
Well now this is exciting
I just recieved an e-mail about it. You probably will! And if you do, it will be at the >G booth, playing Sentinels of the Multiverse with people who drop by!
You go to Arisia? I was considering bidding Sentinels as an actual Event there. Are you Boston local?
Yeah, I live near there.
What do you mean by "bidding"?