New Contest?

[Jiffy]

It's the summer! Happy summer everybody!!  :awesome:

On that note, I think Metroid Construction needs to host a new contest, something Summer-Themed. I've drafted out a Rules thing for it here:

[spoiler=Summer Fun Contest]
Metroid Construction Summer Fun Contest

Alright, welcome to a new contest, to make people more active during the summer. Credits to Vismund for feedback on these rules.

Rules

1. Hack has no Minimum, and 50 rooms max. (Because there's a max to make people happy and it being large to keep Mst happy too.)
2. Hack MST be Summer themed.
3. Collab hacks are allowed, but the top prize shall not be given to both, instead Two alternate prizes shall be given to both.
4. Each entry must have at least 1 Boss in it.
5. Edit some Palettes and make them really summer-themed, and/or/even strange, but try to make sure they don't burn out our eyes.
6. It requires an ending, not just a room that has the words "You've finished" spelt in the BG.

The contest starts as soon as you're ready. Deadline is Tuesday September 2nd, 12pm GMT. This may be extended depending on the amount of entries.


Hacks will be judged similar to ROTW.
Have fun creating some great entries!

-Jiffy[/spoiler]

What do you all think?

[Vismund Cygnus]

I've already given some feedback, but for all to see:

• I think the hacks should be required to be summer themed, since that is the name/point of the whole contest. None of that Winter Solstice bullshit like what I pulled.
• I'd like to see a cap on the number of rooms, partially for extra challenge (creating an exploration based hack with 5-10 rooms, a-la Temporus), and partially so people don't try and tackle too huge of a project given the time constraints.
• Wacky and strange palettes is silly, and I believe that having summer-themed palettes is implied by the contest.
• If there's going to be a prize, you gotta find someone willing to supply it. Having GFX/ASM as a prize is poor form. How about the winner gets to beta test Sunshine?  :heheh:

I also think that for it to be a full-fledged contest, there needs to be another element added to it. Perhaps something item or design based? Eg. "x item is banned, y item is required, z tileset must be used"?

Aside from that, I'd probably make another awful contest entry.

[Jiffy]

I've already given some feedback, but for all to see:

• I think the hacks should be required to be summer themed, since that is the name/point of the whole contest. None of that Winter Solstice bullshit like what I pulled.
• I'd like to see a cap on the number of rooms, partially for extra challenge (creating an exploration based hack with 5-10 rooms, a-la Temporus), and partially so people don't try and tackle too huge of a project given the time constraints.
• Wacky and strange palettes is silly, and I believe that having summer-themed palettes is implied by the contest.
• If there's going to be a prize, you gotta find someone willing to supply it. Having GFX/ASM as a prize is poor form. How about the winner gets to beta test Sunshine?  :heheh:

I also think that for it to be a full-fledged contest, there needs to be another element added to it. Perhaps something item or design based? Eg. "x item is banned, y item is required, z tileset must be used"?

Aside from that, I'd probably make another awful contest entry.

Alright. 20 rooms maximum.
Who needs to beta test Sunshine? It's all about Fear, so the winner won't have to wait until 2032...  :heheh:

And for items banned and things, what would you have in mind? No bombs?  :twisted:

[Retroo]

yes! please do this =) i will go away next week and can not hack for a week but i guess i still have time =D i could draw some rooms on my trip =P

[Jordan5]

A competition is cool, i'm sure people will be interested. What you need to do, however, is pick some rules and stuck to them. Not everyone will be happy with them but you can't please everyone. Just get some rules set in stone by the 2nd of august so people have a month to make the hack to the requirements. No extending deadlines or altering rules bullshit, once it starts, it will stay that way.

These 20 rooms, will save/refill/boss rooms count to this? Just wanna clear everything up before we start.

[Jiffy]

Save/Refill rooms will not count, but Boss rooms will.

[Jordan5]

well looking at the votes people want a contest. So just make sure to pick a start date, make sure all the rules are up to date in the original post and once started, stick to the end date. :^_^:

EDIT: As this will likely go ahead, just make a new topic in the competition section with all the rules.

[Vismund Cygnus]

Jefe can't do it, and I was reluctant to make the post without first seeing if there was a decent amount of interest, and to get any rules etc. hammered out first.
I'll leave this up for a few days, and if it garners enough attention (e.g. more than 4 people  :heheh:) I'll go ahead and set this up officially.

[Jiffy]

In that case, I might as well enter it with my Emulator crashing gadoras, if it becomes official.

[Quote58]

Well, I'm all for new contests, however I think there needs to be something more to it, like vismund said.
The prize shouldn't be beta testing, hack creators want someone who they know will do a good job, not just whoever wins. Asm and gfx also seems iffy because I know that I for one would be inclined to make the patch public instead of it continueing to be exclusive.
I think we should figure out something more interesting as incentive for this contest.

[Quietus]

It can never hurt to have additional community events, but I think that we should have one contest finish before the next begins.  There hasn't been an update on the Mini contest in a while. :neutral:

[Jiffy]

He/She/It hasn't been around for a while.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Daltone]

Im in,
I think its dumb to have prizes, more hacks should be incentive enough?

Low impact 2 lol

[MetroidMst]

I think its dumb to have prizes, more hacks should be incentive enough?

Quote of the year, 1928.

While I do not have any real interest in throwing another of my So Little hacks into the week-long grinder (All in the name of fairness. No one else would be able to compete if I did.), I do have some comments about it.

First off, limiting the amount of rooms is lame. If people don't finish because they bit off something too big, too bad. Stop being lazy, stop procrastinating, or simply hack within your means. Amount of rooms should never come into a contest unless it is for a hack creation puzzle of sorts. Otherwise, whomever hacks should have free reign on what they're going to do. Don't limit people.

Themes? Sure, why not? Still limiting what people can do, but this is a far more acceptable intrusion than limiting the amount of rooms in said hack.

Type of hack? Again, unless this is specifically a "build a puzzle hack with 10 rooms" contest, don't limit people. If someone gets a good idea, and then it doesn't fit the rules. . . Welp, that just got hit with a needless burden to it actually happening. Because let's face it, more hacks get done for these contests because there is a deadline and a general guideline. Someone with a good idea that doesn't fit the contest? Hmm. . . Sounds like not much motivation to work on it, especially when they are already probably working on at least one other hack.

Just have a general set of simple guidelines. Summer theme? Can I collab? Requires at least one boss? Does it need to actually have an ending? What time is the contest going to run?
Answer those questions, and you have your contest set and ready to go.

[Jiffy]

Taken your posts in mind, and added to the first post.

[Quietus]

2. Hack MST be Summer themed.

He's even manoeuvring his way into typos now.  We're all doomed. :oh:

[Jiffy]

Hey, I actually didn't realise that! Thanks for pointing it out. I might actually leave it in there, since Mst didn't exactly make his hack "Winter themed" in Zebes Winter Solstice.

[personitis]

I think its dumb to have prizes, more hacks should be incentive enough?

Quote of the year, 1928.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one thinking this.

The more I read through the topic and referenced the rules in the op, I started to notice this was creeping close to an idea for a contest I had (as heard here) though I'd set my own rules differently than what's structured here as I was aiming for works seemingly bigger than the vibe I'm getting here.

That said, I like the idea. You can do quite a bit with 50 rooms, but I do feel as if there should be a minimum number of rooms. Nothing too small or too large. Something like 15?

No extending deadlines or altering rules bullshit, once it starts, it will stay that way.

Excuse me if we've done this in the past (as I'm stupid and am not caring enough to remember such details), but I think a better alternative to a specific deadline would be a submission period after the initial hacking phase. During that time, you could finish up/polish your hack and submit it at any point during the time period. Once that's past though, you're S.O.L.

[DSO]

That said, I like the idea. You can do quite a bit with 50 rooms, but I do feel as if there should be a minimum number of rooms. Nothing too small or too large. Something like 15?

I don't want to have to artificially inflate the number of rooms for a contest. If I want/only have circumstances or focus to make a few room hack with this kind of theme then might you think I shouldn't bother?
Larger hacks are nice, but as someone who wants to use large, open rooms for this kind of theme, I don't want to try to add either massive amounts of bulk onto my vision nor just artificially pepper it with little 1x1 rooms just to try and reach a room count. I don't want a minimum, or a maximum room count, period.
(Because my vision is actually a 1 room hack.)

[Alisa Orlova]

del

[Smiley]

Redesign physics suck, so mr. "X" would get last place by default. Unless mr. "X" makes a hack that is so ball-explodingly awesome in every other way that mr. "X" doesn't get the last place by default. But since mr. "X" makes a hack with Redesign physics, "ball-explodingly awesome" would be an understatement for every other thing. So mr. "X" had better make something ever better than "ball-explodingly awesome." Alternatively mr. "X" could also try to be original.

[Quietus]

I think you would be better off leaving it very much more open with room limits.  If somebody wants to make a hack with just one room, or three, or one hundred, who are we to say what is acceptable or not?  If it's completed in time for submission, then allow it.  Sama applies for items.  Some hacks may only use one or two, and another hack may well use every item in the game.  If it's getting more hacks released, then let it be.

[Jordan5]

I agree. If the rules are too restrictive you'll get a lot similar hacks which ruins the point. Leaving hackers freedom means you get a load of cool, wacky hacks that are fun to play. But then again some manage to be really creative despite lots of restrictions.

[Retroo]

will this be done? =)

[Jiffy]

Probably yes, but who knows, the tables could turn unexpectedly.