AoMH Pretty Town Competition, 2006
Official Contest Thread
Yes, yes. After much talk and tears, it's finally time for another competition. What sort of competition, you ask? Why, a Pretty Town competition, of course. Has you read the title of the thread, you'd probably know that.
Anyway, there's really not a lot else to say.... it's basically the same as the PTCs we've held in the past with a handful of minor modifications. For more information on those contests, feel free to click m'ya and m'ya. But enough blather -- onto more important things.
Overview & Rules
As mentioned, the contest hasn't changed much. You, the designer, must create a map containing a town. Big, small, whatever; as long as it's a collection of buildings that could qualify as a town, we, the judges, are happy. Simple, right?Well, not exactly. See, one key stipulation of the contest is that the town must be pretty. As in appealing to the eyes. What's more, we don't want to just be handed a boring old collection of buildings. Thus, we require that you guide us through your town, highlighting key areas and the like -- a tour, in other words.But perhaps a little more explanation is in order. Now, this tour can be conducted one of two ways; either a scout unit is provided to us, the judges, to explore the town according to triggerized, message-based instructions, or a cinematic is played at the beginning of the scenario highlighting areas of interest. Either method is acceptable, and, as roughly the same amount of work is involved in each, both methods are considered equally good in the eyes of the judges.
So that's the method to be applied to this madness. To recap, you must create a map containing the most ridiculously pretty and fantastic town you can, with either a trigger- or cinematic-based tour to showcase points of interest to the judges. Savvy? Feel free to ask any questions you might have.
Rules:
- The map must contain a town of some sort. Small, medium, large, whatever; it must be a collection of buildings laid out in some coherent fashion.
- All accessible areas in maps must be complete and coherent. Points will be deducted for any poorly-designed areas that may be visible to judges.
- All entrants must make a scout unit available for judges to tour the map.
- All entrants must create a tour to "guide" judges through their map using either triggers or a cinematic. Designers have the choice of which method to use -- both methods will be judged equally. Maps will be judged primarily on what is shown, so plan carefully.
- Cinematic entrants: The tour cinematic must end with the map and UI visible and accessible so that judges may explore the map at their leisure. The cinematic may not exceed 15 minutes.
- Music and/or sound effects will be optional. Inclusion of music and/or sound effects will not affect judgement.
- Simple AI scripts are allowed. Inclusion of simple AI scripts will not affect judgement.
- Modpacks, aside from the use of reyk's New Editor, are not allowed.
- Map size must not exceed 500 x 500.
- Designers may only enter one map. Multiple submissions are allowed (ie. should a designer decide to make changes to a submitted map), but only one such submission will be judged.
- Only maps created after the competition opens will be accepted.
Prizes
Standard Prizes: 1st Place - Custom title, making of AoM DVD, AoM soundtrack, choice of HG cap or tee-shirt. 2nd Place - Custom title, AoM soundtrack, choice of HG cap or tee-shirt. 3rd Place - Custom title, choice of HG cap or tee-shirt.
Special Prizes: Categories and prizes to be announced.
Judgement Criteria & Judges
Judgement Criteria: Aesthetics: This category essentially takes into account just how pretty the town is. Judgement will be based on whether the map is pleasing to the eye, or plain and unappealing. Map Design: This category is more focused on the terrain and elevation aspects of the map. Judgement will be based on the quality of terrain mixing and transitions, and the general use of elevation to enhance the map. Town Appeal: This category examines the town itself. Judgement will be based on the layout of the buildings and units of the town and how well it all fits in with the surrounding terrain and eye candy. The Tour: This category focuses on the tour aspect of the scenario -- the part where entrants guide the judges through their town. Judgement will be based on the quality of the triggers used (ie. if there were bugs or not) and the tour itself. Originality: This category looks at the overall originality and creativity of the map. Judgement will be based on how innovative and original aspects of the map are in general.
Judges:Sith, King Jared, and Papaya.
Other Information
Almost done now. Just a few more things to take care of. First, entries for both AoM and AoM:TT will be accepted -- really makes no difference for something like this. Second, the contest duration....
Duration: August 1, 2006 - October 1, 2006.
A month should be more than enough. Two months should definitely be more than enough. Third, you must include your HG username with your entry. And please specify which tour method you used; trigger or cinematic. As for who to send your entry to, please bundle all appropriate files into a ZIP archive and email it to any one of the judges -- just make sure to include "AoMH Pretty Town Entry" in the subject line of the message.That should be all the information you need for now. As mentioned, feel free to ask any questions or post comments in this thread.
M'kay? The contest has started. Get to it.
Contest Over!
Well, the contest deadline has come and gone. The following 16 forumers have stepped up to the challenge and entered:
Archaeopterix
Auron
Cherub Alex
darkdude
dwieeb
GoI
I Love Bananas
Iceacool
Kyle_De_Konquer_
Prometheus4
Sandro the Wicke
shadeslayer
sorry name taken
The Vandhaal
Titan602
UrgwaineWe, the judges, thank each of you for your participation. Best of luck to all.
Judgement of the recieved entries has begun. The format will involve a rating of each map from 1 to 5 in each section of the criteria listed above, followed by an analysis and discussion of the results until a consensus on the winners is reached. We hope to have the process finished and the results released on November 1st. Please be patient until then.
We thank you again for your participation, and may the best town win!
Your Divine Overlord
KING JARED
Aw, hell, I dunno, she had some tig-ole-bitties, d'int she?
big.vitt@gmail.com[This message has been edited by King Jared (edited 10-09-2006 @ 09:12 PM).]