Story contest?

So I've wanted to do this for a while but have no idea how to start. Perhaps it is worth waiting till halo 6 but it's at least worth presenting the idea and opening it up to discussion now

Basically I propose a "story" forge contest. Halo's forge mode is an incrediblr tool and not just for competitive maps. Forge provides a great creative tool for immersive story telling. Basically the idea is to create a map that tells a story. It can be any type of map, minigame, puzzle, linear infection or even something else but the important part is that it presents a story to the player(s) which they can be a part of.

I would also strongly advise competitors to include any background lore in the map post, and to take extra care with these and the map submission itself. I would also accept machinima or anything else which may be used to enhance the experience.

I know some people have made linear infection campaigns etc. I'm not sure exactly what stance we'd take on these if this contest went ahead. Likely each map in the series would be treated as it's own submission and judged as such however the overarching story would be kept in mind when judging how clear the story of the map is. Basically any story set up in a previous map would be recognised but not marked so we wouldn't mark a map down for not making sense without the other parts, but won't mark up for any story established in other maps of the series.

So that's the idea. Now, how will I get this off the ground.

First let's consider judging criteria:
A possible judging scheme may be-
Immersion/aesthetics(10)
Story(10)

Immersion/aesthetics:
(basically how good does the map look but also how real the environment feels)
-is there a clear coherent theme?
-does it make sense/does anything spoil the immersion? (objects clipping through walls, intrusive invisible blockers etc.)
-does the environment feel real/lived in? (You can still make a ghost town feel lived in. This is about the background details, not about putting grunts and elites in little houses in the background)

Story:
(You can tell a good story in many ways. This is not about telling the best story but more about how you tell it using everything from the environment itself, scripted elements and the gameplay)
-is the map fun to play?
-is the story clear (or maybe purposely ambiguous)?
-is the story intresting? (Not just generic, zombies attacked the city, you run away)
-is the story engaging/intriguing?
-are there extra detail in the map/environment to help tell this story?

The judging panel:
-me, GrayishPoppy210
-anyone else who wants to get involved?

Submission rules:
-3 maps per forger (as usual)
-any maps made since start of halo 5 allowed. (I know this would be controversial but would boost submissions. Also there are many hidden gems when it comes to these kinds of maps which I don't think got they exposure they deserved).

And so I've lit the torch, but I can't run a contest alone. I need your input. Any thoughts on judging criteria or any part of this would be useful. We also need to consider how long the contest will run for, what prizes there may be (If any) - all I can really offer at the mo is gold packs if anyone even wants those, etc. I also, of course, need more judges if this is to go ahead and just to know if people would be interested in or even bother competing. Please give any thoughts down below to help turn this contest into a reality.

 

I think there's advantages and disadvantages to each type of map and i hope to tweak the criteria to make it fair. I really want people to be able to use any mode for this contest, even some we've never seen before. While gameplay might be more difficult for linear infection than say a puzzle map this contest is really about the story much more than the gameplay and it certain ways infection can be used to tell a story much more dynamically. Also I don't really think a good puzzle map with some interesting puzzles is any easier to design. I am also considering adding a Creativity judging category in further attempts to make this fair and also to encourage some more intresting maps rather than just linear infection and puzzles.

 

I get your point. I said 3 maps per forger just as that seems to be the standard for contests. Really it depends on if we allow already completed maps to be submitted. People always consider this unfair as there's never enough time to make the best map whereas some people may have worked for years. However due to being worried about lack of submissions I think it's fine to allow older maps. Also there's a lot of hidden gems when it comes to story like maps and experiences. If I did ban older maps I'd limit the max submissions to 1 to encourage focus on that 1 map but some people have already made multiple maps that I want to see gain some more exposure

 

Unfortunately I'm not sure if I have enough support at the moment. I've been busy but plan to start messaging around and linking this post in places to try to gain some interest. Hopefully the contest will go ahead though maybe not that soon. Just need to find the time.