Official Level Design Contest: September/October 2008

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FuriousFox

AKA FuriousFox
Retired Staff
Welcome to the official level design contest topic. Please read the following if you're interested in entering the contest or are just curious as to what the rules and regulations are.

There are four divisions, match, capture the flag, circuit and single player. Here are the important parts of each type, for those who would like the specifics:

Match stages are arenas for players to fight. 32 deathmatch starts are necessary to randomize the spawning, but if the stage loads and runs okay, it’s an acceptable entry for the match contest. You should also have a Player 1 Start to keep the level from crashing if loaded improperly.

Capture the Flag stages are arenas for two teams to battle it out. They must include a red team and blue team base with a flag, and should include 32 deathmatch and 16 red and blue team starts. There should also be a Player 1 Start to keep the level from crashing if loaded improperly. It is generally better to make the map symmetrical to be absolutely sure that it is fair for both teams.

Circuit stages are race tracks designed for Race mode. They should include a Circuit mode finish line and several Star Posts to ensure the stage runs properly. Please use the Star Post Activation sector type to make sure it's not possible to skip the Star Posts, and do not use enemies in Circuit mode. There should be a Player 1 Start at the starting point.

Single Player stages are designed to play in 1 player, and have to include a start and end, and obstacles in the way. Generally, it’s a good idea to give the map support for Cooperative and Race mode, but it’s not necessary.

The full rules of the contest are as follows:

1. All levels must work correctly in their selected mode. Support for other modes is suggested, but not required. Levels will be judged in Match, Capture the Flag, Circuit or Single Player, depending on the contest you’re entering.
2. The map may not have been publicly released before. In other words, if you have released the level on the Addons section or on the forums, you may not enter it. However, if it’s unreleased, that is just as good as being completely new, and is a legal entry. Basically, don't fix up an old map and enter it, make something new.
3. The map has to be your own work. If you base it on another map, that's fine, but a straight port or slight modifications are against the rules.
4. One submission per category per person. This means that you can only enter one map in each division.

For the match, circuit and capture the flag contest, there is another rule in place:

5. Custom textures, music, SOCs, and other lumps other than a header and the map itself are not allowed in the Match, Circuit and Capture the Flag contests. These levels are going to be combined into a single WAD file, so in the interest in getting the entries out on time, you have to be creative with what you have.

Submissions are to be sent to my e-mail at FuriousFox@gmail.com.

Submissions need to have "Contest Submission - September/October" as the subject line, and contain the name of the stage, your nickname, and the contest you are submitting the map to in the e-mail body. If you do not give me a nickname, your e-mail's given name and e-mail address will be used to attribute the file. For multiple maps in one e-mail, make sure to put the information for each map included. I prefer attachments, but links in the body of the e-mail are also alright provided they are to your own webspace. No SendSpace, Rapidshare, or other similar file hosts. Files hosted on such servers will not be included. Note that maps that are considered unplayable will be rejected.

The contest submissions period ends on November 1st, 2008 at 12:00 AM GMT. (October 31st, 2008 at 7:00 PM EST). Any submissions that are late will be possible to get in if you get them to me before the judging starts, but if you’re late, you’re taking a risk that you might have to wait for the next contest, so please get your file in on time.

Judging will consist of voting on the message board. Any member can vote, giving a number for each map from 0 to 10, zero being the most abysmal piece of crap ever, and ten being total perfection. You cannot vote on your own map. To encourage voting, if an entrant votes on everyone else’s map in the contest they are entered in, the lowest score on all of their entries will be dropped. (Example: If someone enters a single player map and votes on all the other single player maps, their lowest score is dropped.)

Judging will start the instant the files are uploaded, and continue until a week after they were uploaded. The exact time when voting will end will be shown when the files are uploaded. At that point, all votes will be averaged and the map with the highest average in each category will be declared the winner.

The section on the Addons section for showing contest winners is still under revision, but the winners will get special treatment on the website.

All entries are welcome, from beginners to advanced level designers. Even if you don’t win, this is an excellent way to get feedback on your stage to help improve. Collaborations are allowed, and testing is encouraged strongly.
 
Just out of curiosity, how does rule 4 deal with collaborations?

Also, I'll be entering this one with a race map. I'm trying to make it as even as possible without making whole seperate paths for Tails and Knuckles.
 
Red Desert Zone (1P): I basically just need my final review from BW before I submit it. Uses the retractable sector-based spikes gimmick that would have appeared in Poison Palace until I discovered that they are horribly glitchy in OpenGL. So I basically put "OpenGL Unsupported Kthxbai ^_^" as a cutscene.

Game Boy Valley Zone (Match): The entire stage is flooded with #C0C0C0Z. And some floating Game Boys, too.

Opposition Zone (CTF): Actually, this is my first ever CTF level; Cylindrical Mine was my second. This is the most time I have ever polished a level. It's twice as large as Daimondus[sic] Zone, but the paths are split vertically (no underground one, though), so the distance between bases is the same as Daimondus[sic] Zone. The idea behind it is basically "Nebulous CTF" without the weather option, so it doesn't become Consfail Central Zone.

Quicksand Forest Zone (Circuit): Jungle themed! The whole you-go-off-the-road-and-end-up-going-slower-until-you-get-back-on-track idea which so many racing games use is the main idea behind this stage.
 
RedEchidna said:
Just out of curiosity, how does rule 4 deal with collaborations?
That is a good question as it has the potential for exploitation. In the other topic I revealed a loophole regarding having some one else submit your map under their name. With a legit colab or 2 it can get kind of tricky so I believe this definitely needs clearing up As one person might be able to submit one of the colab levels under their name and the other person could submit the other colab level under their name.
 
Well those members are more respectable and would put both their names on their single colab entry any way. The situation I described has one of the two collaborators submit one of the two levels under just their one name and the other doing the same with the other level.
 
Recruitment time! Seriously, we need our better mappers here for this contest. We don't want another worst contest, and from the looks of things, we could get such a contest. I hope at least one of the following will enter:

CZ64
Oogaland
Sonict
Mystic
FuriousFox
Tets
Penopat
BlueZero4--unfortunately, he said he doesn't want to release maps DDDD=
Boinciel
 
Yeah, you, too. (And I forgot Jazz, as well.) Rarely do I ever give out nines to a level. Yours definitely deserved it. I also LOVE the hollowed-out trees, that is really cool.
 
I'd love to see a Spazzo and Flame collab this time around.

I'd also love to actually get any of my 500 unfinished levels done, but I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax.

I'm talking alot, but I'm not saying anything.
 
I'm just not into SRB2 as much as I should be. Back then when I did make those levels, It was interesting, but now. I just don't have the motivation to do it anymore and just a few months ago, I tried out WoW for my first time and I quite enjoy it.
 
Penopat said:
I'd also love to actually get any of my 500 unfinished levels done, but I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax.

Why not merge some of them? <-(Hasn't seen any of them)
 
SRB2WikiSonicMaster said:
Yeah, you, too. (And I forgot Jazz, as well.) Rarely do I ever give out nines to a level. Yours definitely deserved it. I also LOVE the hollowed-out trees, that is really cool.

Yeah, I might actually release something for this contest. Depends on how the next two weeks go. Got a bit of stuff with college coming up in the near future.
 
SRB2WikiSonicMaster said:
Recruitment time! Seriously, we need our better mappers here for this contest. We don't want another worst contest, and from the looks of things, we could get such a contest. I hope at least one of the following will enter:

CZ64
Oogaland
Sonict
Mystic
FuriousFox
Tets
Penopat
BlueZero4--unfortunately, he said he doesn't want to release maps DDDD=
Boinciel

What about me? *shot*

Honestly, I'd probably take too long doing whatever I'd want to enter into this contest, so I shouldn't be counted on that much.
 
SRB2WikiSonicMaster said:
BlueZero4 - Unfortunately, he said he doesn't want to release maps DDD=
For the record, I'm not pissed off with the entire community, just you.

Also, absence of good maps has nothing to do with the contest. For me, the contest is just the only place where I'll be able to release a map and actually get some feedback.
 
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