Contest Suggestion

[FullOfFail]

Hey, people were pondering another hack contest the other day, what's the general public's opinion on it? Should metconst have one, and if so, what should it involve?

Thoughts?

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Personally, I'd lean towards something more basic, so we can get more submissions. It'd basically be a interactive version of room of the week, but 4-5 rooms, and vanilla tilesets. Possibly allow mixed tilesets and palette changes too?

[Vismund Cygnus]

Hey, people were pondering another hack contest the other day, what's the general public's opinion on it? Should metconst have one, and if so, what should it involve?

Thoughts?

---

Personally, I'd lean towards something more basic, so we can get more submissions. It'd basically be a interactive version of room of the week, but 4-5 rooms, and vanilla tilesets. Possibly allow mixed tilesets and palette changes too?

One room hack contest!
In all seriousness though, I think a contest would be a great idea. What were you thinking for the length of it?

[Smiley]

A small hack contest sounds kinda interesting. I might actually consider entering one if it's (mostly) vanilla stuff.

Does making short (crappy) tunes and fiddling around with other .MIDIs with Anvil Studio as making music? I've had AV for almost a year and I've made exactly one half-decent song with it. :lol:

[Jordan5]

A small hack contest sounds kinda interesting. I might actually consider entering one if it's (mostly) vanilla stuff.

I'd agree, sounds like a good idea  :^_^:

[Quietus]

As for the 0:48 on SDA I'm not entirely sure, but I'm willing to bet that it's longer due to a few factors such as door transitions into/out of save rooms and other door transitions which would save game time, but not real time.

Oh, no doubt.  The idea of less door transitions making a better run is fairly recent, and that 0:48 run was done before all of that, and was aimed at in-game time.  It's segmented, and is on the PAL version.  An NTSC run of the same calibre would be around 0:43, so 0:48 in one segment is very impressive.

Hey, people were pondering another hack contest the other day, what's the general public's opinion on it? Should metconst have one, and if so, what should it involve?

Just some ideas:
Must contain five rooms, with the maximum room height / width of 3 (9 scroll areas maximum).
Must include one of the four major bosses at its end, with their death considered the end of the hack.  Perhaps we could make the door tiles behind the boss the end-game BTS, so once the cap is opened, and the player touches them, it ends?
Maximum of three powerups, excluding beams and suits.
No limit on Missiles, Supers, or Power Bombs.
Any tiles / tilesets.
Hack kept to one area of the game (Crateria, etc., regardless of what it's named), so that it's all on one map.

That'll do for now. :^_^:

[Vismund Cygnus]

Hey, people were pondering another hack contest the other day, what's the general public's opinion on it? Should metconst have one, and if so, what should it involve?

*IDEAS*

To add to Quietus' fantastic ideas:
I think tilesets should be limited to vanilla, to attract people who may be newer to hacking, as well as to provide a challenge in designing something vanilla but eye-catching.
Instead of a minimum on rooms, a maximum of 10 rooms, Although I like Quietus' idea of 3*3 max. size.
Points go to creativeness, difficulty, execution and overall design.
One of the normal weapon pickups (Missiles, Supers, Powerbombs) could be disabled.
Timeframe: 2-4 weeks.
Possibility of a theme for it? (e.g. water, dark, etc.)
Inclusion of a mini-boss, or a puzzle of some kind.

I'd really like to see a contest, to see who is still hacking, and what some of the newer members (myself included, if I have enough time outside of school) can pull off. Plus competition = motivation.

[Nikoshiba]

What does "vanilla" mean ?

[Yuki]

Vanilla means only using graphics from the original Super Metroid, no custom tilesets.

[Vismund Cygnus]

What does "vanilla" mean ?

In any context, "vanilla" means that it's conventional or standard; in this case meaning that you're only using the tilesets that are in the game.
Dang, Drevan beat me to it.

[Quietus]

Yeah, it mainly applies to graphics here, but you'll occasionally see it mentioned in relation to physics or hex changes as well.

[Yuki]

BTW Quietus, if you made that into a contest I'd totally be onboard.

[FullOfFail]

I'm skeptical about throwing bosses in the mix, afraid people are gonna make us fight Ridley, Draygon, etc, with only 1 missile pack and such.

Maybe, to add to uniqueness, we could require players to turn regular enemies into bosses. Sure, most aren't 'big' enough to give that boss feel, but there's still many interesting ways to use them.

[Yuki]

Maybe have a certain health requirement on the bosses? Minibosses could also be used, maybe find a creative way to use them.

[MetroidMst]

I would join a One Week Hack contest. . .

[Quietus]

Or even if you did decide to go with the standard enemy idea, you could always use the 'enemies to clear room' option to unlock an exit for the ending.

Since you raised the idea, FoF, I'd suggest you nail down the guidelines, and we can tinker if any given idea proves particularly unpopular.  Maybe a new thread, with an OP that you can update?

[Vismund Cygnus]

I would join a One Week Hack contest. . .

So Little Time 2: Rage Simulation

[personitis]

I'm skeptical about throwing bosses in the mix, afraid people are gonna make us fight Ridley, Draygon, etc, with only 1 missile pack and such.

By all means let them. If it's too difficult/disliked that's the creator's problem. Not to mention whoever said that you have to finish playing said hack?

[Nikoshiba]

What does "vanilla" mean ?

In any context, "vanilla" means that it's conventional or standard; in this case meaning that you're only using the tilesets that are in the game.
Dang, Drevan beat me to it.

Okay ! Thanks Cygnus, Drevan & Quietus !

[Vismund Cygnus]

Why disallow bosses? Either it's going to be insanely hard or it could throw a neat feature in there. Either way, as person said, it's the creator's choice as to how difficult they wanna make it.'
I like the idea of having a normal creature presented as a boss though.
Vanilla tilesets would still probably be the best choice for nublets like me. Palettes should be customisable. Maybe instead of a maximum of 3*3 scroll areas as Quietus said, maybe just have a maximum of 10 scroll areas, to allow for corridors/2*4 rooms etc.
Using only 1 tileset seems like a weird thing to have as a limitation. I don't see why we couldn't have mixed tilesets, as nobody sane is going to use a different one for each room.
Hey, there's an idea...

[Quietus]

The only reason I mentioned restricting the number of scroll areas was to ensure that people can submit in time for the competition.  Some people spend a looot of time on their rooms.  Multiply that by more and more scroll areas, and it will make it harder for enough people to submit in time.

[Vismund Cygnus]

The only reason I mentioned restricting the number of scroll areas was to ensure that people can submit in time for the competition.  Some people spend a looot of time on their rooms.  Multiply that by more and more scroll areas, and it will make it harder for enough people to submit in time.

This is a very good point. But I still believe that if rooms are to be limited to a size, it should be just in terms of the total scroll areas, not the shape itself. That being said, if there were no limits to size it could help people with their time management skills.
[spoiler]Mostly I just wanna keep bumping this thread so that people will be interested and this will happen.  :razz:[/spoiler]

[Quietus]

I didn't mention any restriction on the shape, only the maximum scrolls length.  Using three as the limit means you can have rooms that are 1x1, 2x1, 2x2, 3x2, and 3x3.  Obviously the 2x1 and the 3x2 can be either orientation as well.

[Vismund Cygnus]

I didn't mention any restriction on the shape, only the maximum scrolls length.  Using three as the limit means you can have rooms that are 1x1, 2x1, 2x2, 3x2, and 3x3.  Obviously the 2x1 and the 3x2 can be either orientation as well.

By shape, I meant like, having the limit on maximum height/width in general; but whatever, I'm not necessarily saying it's a bad idea, but it could be a bit lacking in variety.
Not that they'll be lacking in variety anyway.
I don't mind either idea. Just think that some sort of limitation would be interesting
I don't know.
I'll shut up now.
:=x:

[Quietus]

Oh, and I forgot 3x1. :grin:

We really need FoF back to nail down the details.

[Jordan5]

I think rather than saying each room cannot have more than 10 (or whatever) scroll areas it should just be that the whole hack must have up to, say, 50(?) accessable scroll areas in total  :^_^: