1. No cut-scenes are allowed, except for a brief opening or ending to set up/complete the scenario. Additional triggered events are encouraged but the player should not lose control of their unit(s) and be able to move as they please. The total starting and ending cut-scene time should not exceed one combined minute of in-game time.
2. No combat allowed. Player 1 must win the scenario without having to kill or attack anything.
3. One entry per person or per team only.
4. ALL entries must be playable in Age of Empires II: Defintive Edition
5. Scenarios requiring The CD version, Userpatch, and the HD edition are NOT allowed.
6. The use of Graphical or Data Modification are NOT allowed.
7. Any mapsize up to 255x255 is allowed.
8. There is no trigger limit. However, the use of extra triggers will not necessarily warrant a higher score. Be warned however, that everything which is allowed can be used to increase your score.
9. The use of custom soundtracks and sound effects is permitted and encouraged. Everything which is allowed can be used to increase your score. If using custom sound files, please specify somewhere on which speed the scenario is to be played, as otherwise the soundtracks might overlap if the scenario is played on a speed other than what the designer intended, which will cause points to be deducted.
10. You must supply at least 1 unit that the judge can scout with. Any unit may be used, though the judges may deduct points for unnecessarily slow units which decrease the enjoyment of the scenario.
11. A story is encouraged to add further interest, however large bodies of text are not for everyone and long in-depth stories may alienate some players and potentially the judges. Alternatively, you can have a short narrative, a journal from a traveller or a history of the land to get us, the tourist, into it all! Use whatever you like, but make sure to remember that this is a design-oriented contest. That said, everything which is allowed can be used to increase your score.
12. Please submit your scenario in campaign format.

This year sees the introduction of a new scoring system to try to avoid a tie in the top entries as in previous contests. All entries will be judged on how they look, however only what is seen will be judged. The categories are simple and are as follows:

Scenery and Visual Interest (30 points). This is the single most important category, as it is the heart of what the Pretty Town Contest is about: making a nice-looking map in AoK. This category will be judged from the perspective of viewing the entry in-game, but should be focused exclusively on how the design looks, as if you were judging it as a collection of screenshots. Judges will take into account both the particular high-points and the general level of quality throughout the scenario.

Atmosphere and Sense of Place (20 points). This category aims to reward those entries which are most successful in taking the concept for the entry and portraying it convincingly in AoK. What this means will depend on what the entry was aiming to achieve: a historical city will score highly if it authentically and realistically (within the limitations of AoK) depicts that city, while other entries may seek to create an atmosphere of wonder, melancholy, intrigue, grandeur, horror or something else. It is when judging this criterion that such things as text, dialogue, music, sound effects, life and movement (or a deliberate lack of them), and so on will be taken into account and rewarded if done well.

Coherence and Layout (15 points). This category concerns how the map works as a whole. It can be judged by imagining a zoomed-out picture of the whole map and considering whether it makes sense. Believable geography and smooth transitions between different parts of the map will be the signs of a high-scoring entry.

Ingenuity, Novelty and Technical Skill (15 points). This category concerns map design, rather than other elements. Well-executed but unoriginal map design will be enough to score fairly highly, but to achieve more than 12 points an entry should bring something new to the table or take an established trick or technique further. The technical skill of an entry will be reflected in the map as a whole, but in most cases examples of really ingenious or novel pieces of design are likely to be just some particular highlights rather than being present throughout (especially with a large map).

Ambition (10 points). An entry which seeks to take on something inherently hard to do in AoK, or which embraces the challenge of filling a large map, or which otherwise pushes the boundaries will score highly in this category. Even if the ambition is not successfully realised, leading to lower scores elsewhere, it should be recognised here.

Attention to Detail and Polish (10 points). In this category, small specific mistakes or misplacements or typographical errors that may not affect the judgment in other categories should be taken into account. On the other hand, small touches such as renaming units appropriately can influence the score positively. An entry does not need to be completely unblemished in order to get full marks in this category, but it should be nearly so. Observations that depend primarily on personal taste or which are due to the inherent limitations of AoK should not result in a lower score.

1. Julius
2. Lord Basse
3.Seb

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