posted 11-25-16 09:18 AM CT (US)
Welcome to the 2016 Historical Scenario Design Contest, which is back after a hiatus of six years. This contest brings with it a broader scope than your average PTC or DTS contest, each of which prescribe a particular type of scenario design style; your options in terms of gameplay and design are nearly limitless, so long as they adhere within reason to the historical events that they portray. Such a contest welcomes designers of all skill levels and styles, so by all means, feel free to sign up and deliver your best effort!
The pages of history are littered with stories of powerful rulers, shrewd statesmen, fearless warriors, and decisive battles. To this day, people and states alike celebrate the memories of famed conquerors, defenders of the realm, ecclesiastical leaders, and intrepid raiders. It is now up to you, designers, to deliver entries worthy of the great names, causes, or wars that you choose to portray. Do justice to their great names, and in the process etch your own into the annals of AoKH scenario design fame!
For several excellent examples of scenarios that would fall under the category of "historical", check out these scenarios:
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- Your scenario must depict historical subject matter within a reasonable sphere of accuracy. Differing interpretations of or slight variances from the actual events, or alternate outcomes are fine. You can even create your own characters within the scenario within reason. A good measuring stick here is the ES scenarios, which, while deviating from actual events and outcomes fairly often were still generally faithful to the subject matter. Just don't go making scenarios about King Arthur taking a trip to Mongolia.
- The maximum map size of an entry in this contest is 255x255 tiles. Additionally, no maps smaller than 100x100 tiles are allowed.
- Only one entry per forummer. No teams.
- There are no restrictions on styles - you can have fixed force, build and destroy, defend the spot, even role playing games. Your scenario cannot be wholly a cutscene, however.
- You may not enter a file that has been previously submitted to the Blacksmith. Projects in progress are, however, allowed to be entered. We would caution against entering your epic "life's work" style of project, as projects of that scale are unlikely to meet the deadline (or, in some cases, the contest guidelines).
- The game must be a single player game. No multiplayer.
- The use of AoE2HD or the UserPatch
is allowed, as is the use of The Forgotten, African Kingdoms, and Rise of the Rajas expansions to the HD Edition. - Game modifications are
allowed. Data mods, graphics mods, language file edits, and other file modifications are allowed. The use of AoK Trigger Studio is also allowed. If the entry uses a published mod (such as Chivalry, ToME, FE, etc), then you need only say so and provide a link to the download in the file description.
If you use modified files that you have created exclusively for your entry (this also applies if you have modified a published mod for your entry), then you will need to include all of the necessary modified files within the download. If you would like to create a custom installer to streamline what might otherwise be a particularly arduous installation process, then by all means feel free to do so. - The maximum map size of an entry in this contest is 255x255 tiles. Additionally, no maps smaller than 100x100 tiles are allowed.
All entries must be submitted to the Blacksmith by 11:59 pm forum time (CST),
Please
Refer to the
Certain types of scenario styles often make it desirable to use custom AIs to enhance the gameplay experience. For anyone struggling with AI scripting,
Traditionally, the staff have hosted contests here, and while that is also the case with this this contest, we are encouraging community members to volunteer as our second judge. If you are interested on being a judge, sign up in the thread. We may possibly have 3 judges if two good candidates apply.
Judges:
1. HockeySam18
2. Cataphract887
2. Cataphract887
The maps will be judged out of 50 points in the following categories:
• Gameplay and Entertainment - 25 points
• Technical Proficiency and Quality - 25 points
Gameplay and entertainment is a measure of how fun the scenario is to play, and includes such related factors as balance, creative objectives, etc. This is simply a measure of the judges' enjoyment of your scenario and is largely based on the judges' personal experience with the file.
Technical Proficiency and Quality is a measure of how well the scenario is made, and includes such related factors as the use of soundtracks and voice acting, trigger work, map design, bitmaps, dialogue, storytelling, instructions, etc. Simply put, a scenario scoring highly in this category is likely to feature excellent map design, an experience improving soundtrack or voice acting, seamless and well structured gameplay, and a clever if not overly complex setup/story. While not all the above are required to score highly, the judges are expected to put aside their personal preferences as much as possible and rate the overall quality of the scenario.
Both categories are scored from 0 to 25, with 0-5 being poor, 6-10 being below average, 11-15 being average, 16-20 being good, and 21-25 being excellent. Judges will be expected to use the entire scale, with poor entries scoring near the bottom, and the top entries scoring over 20 in each category, assuming a typical distribution of scenarios of variable quality.
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Congratulations to the winners and all of the contestants on a strong effort!
Storm on the Steppe | Galderton Hill RP | Proud member of Stormwind Studios
"Deyr fé, deyja frændr, deyr sjálfr it sama; ek veit einn at aldri deyr, dómr um dauðan hvern." - Hávamál 77.
[This message has been edited by HockeySam18 (edited 04-10-2017 @ 12:57 PM).]
