On the future of RotW

[GF_Kennon]

So, Room of the Week has been running for a little over 5 years now and I think its time for a fresh new look at it, so as of a few days time I shall be retiring the old RotW contests and replacing it with a brand new Room of the Month contest, I hope to achieve a larger turn out of people with a larger time frame to submit and vote upon rooms that have been uploaded, this should also increase quality of rooms submitted as there should be less rooms submitted just to have submitted, less pressure on you guys to keep up with it.

I will hopefully be starting this on the 1st of April, what will happen is ether me or someone else who works in the contests board will make a thread for the specific months submissions. This thread is going to be locked however, as a new twist on the ruleset (which we are still reviewing, nothing is final till 1st April, leave a suggestion maybe), you guys will be PMing me your room submissions, I will be accepting ether BMP or PNG submissions (they all go through my PNGout anyway) till the end of the month Forum time, so if your PM says 1st of the next month, it isnt going to be accepted.

This way I'll be uploading your submissions into MetConst itself, preserving them with no risk to them being lost to the abyss. (accidents have happened in the past)

On the 1st of the next month, the first thread would be unlocked, and edited to show off all the submissions gained in the last month to be discussed and voted against, the thread will remain open till the 1st of next month, where it would be locked and moved into the new archives, while voting is being done in the first thread, a new thread will be created for the the next months submissions, which is locked and unlocked when ready, and so forth.

As of right now the current rule draft is as follows:

• Only one submission per person - Only one room may be submitted every month per contestant.  If it is a collaboration room you must state this, as it will count as a joint entry, meaning you can not submit your own room as well.
• Format - You must submit the editor screenshot of the room, for small rooms use 32x32 tilesize, larger rooms should be restricted to 16x16 but I will be allowing you to use your best judgement on this one, BTS and scrolling screens should be hidden, you may submit a PNG or BMP of the room, I will be rejecting other lossy files like JPG, be warned.
• Media - You are allowed to submit up to 3 Native Size screenshots with your submission, I'll be rejecting anything bigger or smaller than 256x224, you do not have to submit any screen shots but this is for you to show off what FX effects or any enemy placements you may wish to highlight.
• Descriptions - You are allowed to submit a short 255 character description along with your submission, this will be displayed along with your post.
• Modifications - Screenshots may not be modified.
• Updates - You may update your submission once, this is subject to change, but this is so to avoid you guys spamming my inbox with submissions.
• Previous Works - Screenshots may not be submitted from any hacks that have been released, this also includes any rooms from previous RotM's (and RotW's), only 'Work in Progress' hacks shall be accepted.
• PM - You will now need to PM me your submission, as I will be hosting them on MetConst, please format your subject as RotM: Month - Year, this is important, I will not accept submissions if they are into the next month forum time.

[squishy_ichigo]

It's finally happening people! You've bitched about it for five years, and James has finally heard your cries!  Get HYPED!

[Quietus]

On the 1st of the next month, the first thread would be unlocked, and edited to show off all the submissions gained in the last month to be discussed and voted against, the thread will remain open till the 1st of next month, where it would be locked and moved into the new archives, while voting is being done in the first thread, a new thread will be created for the next months voting, which is locked and unlocked when ready, and so forth.

Perhaps it's just late, or I may be misreading it, but shouldn't that part read 'the next month's submissions' or something similar? :O_o:

[GF_Kennon]

Things.

Well, its nearly 2am and I don't exactly write the best late at night, I have gone and fixed that now.

[Jiffy]

Can't we still keep the RotW though? I still feel RotM is too... what's the word I'm looking for... Empty. I feel it's gonna have 3 weeks of no submissions, and a ton on the last day. RotW didn't have this.

[Vismund Cygnus]

Can't we still keep the RotW though? I still feel RotM is too... what's the word I'm looking for... Empty. I feel it's gonna have 3 weeks of no submissions, and a ton on the last day. RotW didn't have this.

Except you're forgetting that the whole point of this is to increase the quality of submissions. Lately we've been getting one submission, the week rolls over, then another one or two people quickly throw shit together so that there's actually a competition the second week. Room of the Week's problem is that there has been no submissions of any quality recently, and the idea behind this is to increase the quality and competition.
I also think you're reading into it wrong. Submissions are to be made via PM, so you'll be getting every single submission on the 1st of each month, and the thread will be dedicated to discussing those rooms for the entire month.

As a contest moderator, I approve of these changes wholeheartedly.

[Charmander106]

So, Room of the Week has been running for a little over 5 years now and I think its time for a fresh new look at it, so as of a few days time I shall be retiring the old RotW contests and replacing it with a brand new Room of the Month contest, I hope to achieve a larger turn out of people with a larger time frame to submit and vote upon rooms that have been uploaded, this should also increase quality of rooms submitted as there should be less rooms submitted just to have submitted, less pressure on you guys to keep up with it.

I agree with this, my last ROTW submission (which was my collaboration with JamieWebb16, you can find it here) had been worked on for a least a month before submitting it to ROTW.
So there is proof right there about the increase in the quality of rooms.

[GF_Kennon]

I'll be appending this into the main post rules, but an update.

• Format - You must submit the editor screenshot of the room, for small rooms use 32x32 tilesize, larger rooms should be restricted to 16x16 but I will be allowing you to use your best judgement on this one, BTS and scrolling screens should be hidden, you may submit a PNG or BMP of the room, I will be rejecting other lossy files like JPG, be warned.
• Media - You are allowed to submit up to 3 Native Size screenshots with your submission, I'll be rejecting anything bigger or smaller than 256x224, you do not have to submit any screen shots but this is for you to show off what FX effects or any enemy placements you may wish to highlight.
• Descriptions - You are allowed to submit a short 255 character description along with your submission, this will be displayed along with your post.

[Quietus]

It might be worth expanding on the size limit, as different systems will have differing resolutions, and that's not including custom game engines.

[DSO]

Dragon's post was aimed at Super Metroid, but of course all metroid games are welcome. I guess the 'native size' nature of ingame screenshots will probably still apply for GBAtroids or even the primes if those ever end up seeing level design mods. In general, stick as close as possible to the rules with however your editor handles exporting screenshots.

[GF_Kennon]

It might be worth expanding on the size limit, as different systems will have differing resolutions, and that's not including custom game engines.

Well, I been writing the competition rules primarily with a focus of Super Metroid, mainly because thats what usually gets submitted, but I have not forgot about other systems, I just have not finished writing that part up, it was going to be something along the lines of...

• Games other than Super Metroid - While this competition revolves around Super Metroid mostly, submissions from other titles are encouraged, try to keep your format as similar as possible, screenshots should be in the native size for the title of choice.

I'm still debating if I should keep that, reword it, or try and merge it into the rules, though I'm pretty sure people would be able to work it out as well.

[Quietus]

OK, I'll just button it until the final rules are in place. :oh:

[FullOfFail]

If you would've asked me a year or two ago I probably would've been opposed to changing RotW into RotM, but now I feel it's more necessary and for the best. Even the people who actively hack like myself rarely submit anymore, and with the amount of rooms you make in a month, you can really choose one to enter that you truly prefer, rather than it just being your latest, or whatnot. Not much harm in trying it out for awhile, in any event. Worse comes to worst we can just change it back.

[SpoOkyMagician]

RotM? Interesting. I may/may not enter one later. (I've been jumping around to many different things lately.) I'll be sure to take my time on the next room I design.

~ SpoOkyMagician