The Alien Vista

[GF_Kennon]

Welcome MetConstians to the contest of this year - The Alien Vista.

Every year Metroid Construction will host a contest spanning the middle of the year from May to August. Due to some small issues this was postponed a few days but now that these issues have been fixed the competition has been launched!

The goal this year is to push the boundaries of the hardware to make the most alien looking hack possible. This could be through a number of things, which include custom tilesets, glows, transparencies, and any other wild and wacky invention you can think of to make a stunning vista pleasing to the visual cortex!

Rules of this competition.

• Must be beatable. How you do this is entirely up to you. No bosses are required.
• Must have at least one glow. (For Super Metroid only)
• Must have at least one custom animation. (For NEStroid only)
• Can use vanilla tiles, but turn them into something you've never seen before.

Glows can be added using Black_Falcon's Flexglow.

The Judging Panel

Crashtour99 - DSO -  MetroidMst - thedopefish - Zero One

The competition closes on 31st August at 23:59 forum time, so don't be late submitting.

So what are you waiting for, its time to get planning!

[Vismund Cygnus]

While I'm loving the theme and already have quite a good amount of work done, I do have a question. Namely, what exactly are we being judged on? I can only assume it's a number of different things, but I think for clarity's sake I don't see why the judges can't let it be known what they're looking for in these hacks.  :^_^:

[MetroidMst]

• Rad bubbles
• Rad glows
• Rad palettes
• Rad hacks

[thedopefish]

I'm hoping to see some cool, weird looking shit that's not your typical looking Metroid environment.  Creepy, bizarre, fantastical--it's all good.

Also, it would be great if people would leave themselves plenty of time for testing and polishing.  I've seen enough potentially great contest hacks that suffered greatly from permastucks, tiling errors, or buggy asm.

[RT-55J]

tiling errors

At my current stage in planning conceptualizing, my project (if completed) is probably going to be nothing but tiling errors. >_> Mehopes the judges don't mind.

[Zero One]

If you can style the tiling errors to look pleasing, more power to you! Personally, I'm looking for some jaw-dropping visual stuff that makes me want to just hang around in the room for a while.

[MetroidMst]

IMPORTANT REMINDER

Just a heads up to let people know they have just about a month left to complete their contest entries! With all the forgetting that Room of the Month is a thing I figured a PSA would be in order for the Alien Vista Contest. And if you haven't started one yet, you've still got over a month! Remember, this timeframe is going to be very normal for contests in the future, so making good use of it now will help you prepare for future endeavors.

And with that PSA out of the way, continue working on your hacks! (And getting them tested)

[DSO]

I would like to add that I'm going to submit an entry myself, but as I am on the judging panel mine will not be eligible to win the contest.

As far as what I'm looking for in an entry (TRANSPARENCIES), I'm looking for new concepts that are a combination of weird (TRANSPARENCIES) and cool (TRANSPARENCIES) or just plain unexpected (TRANSPARENCIES, BUT EVEN MORE). Like this thing from AFC2 where there was plans for Samus to be able to travel and explore a digital computer world matrix style as well. This was done with (TRANSPARENCIES) vanilla GFX and is a good example of a new concept (TRANSPARENCIES) and fresh use of tiles I'm looking for.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

I hope I have been adequately transparent about what I'm looking for, but really I'm probably going to cast my vote on whoever makes the most memorable world concept. (PROBABLY WILL BE WHOEVER USES THE MOST TRANSPARENCIES.)

[MetroidMst]

Another reminder, this is your last weekend. You still have Monday as well, but don't be late on submitting those entries. Hopefully you all are in/have been in the testing stages.

[Smiley]

SMContention

Will cause permanent brain damage.

Oh and a word of warning: the final boss can rarely crash if you shoot at it when it's spawning its projectiles. Two days of debugging, getting nowhere, a headache, imminent university and a really good sensation after finally giving up on it later I decided to just screw it and live with it.


Whoops, forgot 'em credits.
[spoiler='em credits]
Quote58 - Snow and Bog tilesets
Scyzer - Item % patch, and especially SMILE RF. I want to make sweet tend-- moving on...
JAM - Patches
PJBoy - Your bank logs are a lifesaver
Black_Falcon - BOX helped me figure out custom enemy stuff
Mon732 - Testing
And a bunch of people for a bunch of things.[/spoiler]

[Vismund Cygnus]

Hi

I'm an idiot and bit off more than I could chew.
Here's 3 months work:
[spoiler][/spoiler]
The problem is I still have 2 areas to finish.
SO it's safe to say I bow out of this race.

ETA Jan 2016

[Scyzer]

Soo uhh... Congrats SMILEuser96!
You are the only person to submit an entry on time!

[PonchGaming]

Does this mean Smileuser96 wins by default

[Retroo]

I looked forward to some cool alien hacks, more than one... I guess its my fault to since i did not make one.

[thedopefish]

Another successful contest!   :pale:

[FullOfFail]

Congrats to Smiley for the swift and decisive victory.

[Quietus]

And for laying waste to all those who opposed him. Like a scythe to corn, it was.

[MetroidMst]

To be fair, Smiley's hack would've been hard to top. On the other hand, disappoint in all of you non-Smileys out there. But yes, Smiley wins, and he is going to get something. . .