UPDATED 3/5 The 7x7 submission thread is now CLOSED and the submission deadline has passed. To everyone who submitted, thank you. I am pleased to report that all 16 entries passed preliminary tests and are considered eligible for testing and judging, which begins this week. -- Hi all! We the organizers of TCOJ would like to announce a new contest we are running. TCOJ is a weekly testing and customs group based out of Forge Hub (you can see our threads every week in the customs forum); the unfortunate souls who get to run it are me, GrenadeGorilla8, and Overdoziz. But you don't care about that, so on to the contest! The 7x7 contest is an idea I've batted around for a long time. I think it will be just the right blend of fun and challenging. Here are the rules: 1. Your maximum budget is $7000. 2. You can use a maximum of seven types of structure objects (though as many of each of those as you want); additionally, you are limited to ONE object from each category. In other words, you get one type of block, one type of wall, one type of bridge/platform, etc. (excluding grids, which are disallowed). Thus your structure palette is limited to seven objects of your choosing, so long as there's just one per object category. You can use a hundred 1x4 blocks if you want, but don't use 99 of those and 1 of any other block! 3. You can use any non-structure object (scenery, gadgets, etc.) that you like. 4. Your map should be a standard competitive map (not minigame, not invasion, not aesthetic) that is at least capable of supporting 4v4 play. The testing and judging will be done in an 8 player lobby running title update gametypes, so you shouldn't make anything too tiny, too huge, or too weird. You can specify the gametypes your map works best for, but at the very least it needs to be ready for 4v4 team slayer. 5. Your map should be built on Forge World. This puts everyone on a level playing field, object-wise, and ensures that all judges and testers have the map needed to play your creation. -- FAQ Q: When? A: A submission thread will open on Feb 1 and close after midnight Feb 28. Additionally, winners WILL be declared by March 31st, if not before. We are well aware of the sad failure of some previous user-run contests, and are determined not to repeat those mistakes. Q: Who is judging this? A: Me, Overdoziz, and GrenadeGorilla8 from TCOJ, plus Forge Hub's own Shad0w Viper and esteemed forger and community member Eightball. We aren't looking for additional judges - our thought is that five is more than plenty. We will need more people to test the maps with us though and give feedback, so if you're not contributing a map to the contest, you're welcome to join us for the playtesting portion. Q: What will be the rating criteria? A: This may change slightly and if so, this FAQ will be updated. For now, I am planning to steal criteria from the Review Hub (R.I.P.), just weight them slightly differently, and also add a small additional one. Each map will be rated by each judge on a scale of 0-100, with points as follows: 30 for Enjoyment, 20 for Balance, 10 for Durability, 20 for Aesthetics, 10 for Originality, and 10 for Degree of Difficulty. (DoD means if you choose seven really weird objects, or end up only using two types of objects instead of seven, you get more points in this category; it's like doing a triple backflip with a twist dive instead of a straight plunge. This category may have a minimum score, e.g. no less than 4 points, as building ANY map by these rules is rather difficult!) Judges' scores will be averaged and the top three will be our winners. Individual judges' scores for the winners will be divulged for the curious. Q: Prizes? A: Yes: FIRST PLACE will receive a custom title here at Forge Hub, courtesy of the site. You get to decide what you're billed as! SECOND and THIRD PLACE will receive a CD of one of the Halo soundtracks (you choose which one, we buy and ship it to you), OR a $15 Amazon gift card. Note that Amazon gift cards are good only for Amazon.com and not their international sister sites like Amazon.co.uk, so if you choose this option, you should know that shipping may cost you an extra few pennies - or just buy digital downloadable content. Additionally, all three winning maps will be featured in a short video put together by TCOJ and featured on my YouTube channel, which has possibly as many as ten subscribers. Perhaps even fewer! Q: Can I submit a previously-made map, or retrofit an old map to work for the contest? Or can I remake my map or somebody else's? A: There's no rule against any of this because enforcement would be difficult and thus, potentially unfair. But all of it goes against the spirit of the contest. We're trying to inspire new creativity, not just hand out a few prizes. Use your best judgment here. A little inspiration from an existing source or two is perhaps inevitable, but we'd prefer to see new creations, not old ones with facelifts. Q: Can I test my map with you guys? A: No rule against this either, again because of enforcement issues, but we ask that you refrain. Being overly familiar with a map could bias us for or against it. We'd like to approach all of the maps with the same set of fresh eyes when the judging period starts. -- Wanna discuss? This thread is the right place.
I like the sound of this. Not too ridiculously restrictive while still being a challenge. Now which pieces to choose?
Yes, I should probably mention that I selected those items because I had decent pics of them and they looked good for the banner. If you attempt to make a map out of them, your degree of difficulty score will be very high - but your enjoyment and aesthetics scores will probably be quite low! (Except the rock flat - that thing is quite useful.)
Just to spite you guys, those are the seven objects I'm going to use. And they will kick the ass of the coliseum wall we know everyone's going to choose.
Several people have volunteered - once I figure out Forge Hub's part in this and who from the staff will be joining us, I'll open a discussion about bringing aboard some other judges as well. And I'll definitely keep you on the short list, Eightball. Thanks for volunteering!
You left out one key issue, can a contestant reforge an already released map and submit it? If so, game over fellows.
It's kind of against the spirit of the thing, not making a truly new map. But I don't know how we could technically disallow it or enforce it if we did, so... it's up to your conscience, innit?
No. I'm not stupid enough to try and make an invasion map with 7 piece types. I don't myself see the appeal of building a generic grey box to do a boring, staple 4v4 slayer in.
Did you forget I'm a Marine? I can turn my conscience off. But I'm gonna pass anyways... Got too many maps to reforge for a map pack release with Nyte (Controlix) to be side tracked with reforging Despair for this competition.