72hr Mapping Contest #3 - Starts June 29th!

Fruity Snacks

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It's that wonderful time of the year again when the smell overheating CPU's and the sound of rapid mouse clicks take over. Yes, it is time for The 3rd 72hr Mapping Contest. This contest is not about who can make the prettiest map, it's about who can make the best, most fun map. This contest is loads of fun, but as a mapper you will be pushed to your limits.

THE 3RD 72HR MAPPING CONTEST WILL BEGIN ON JUNE 29th at 12:00pm (noon) EST/17:00 GMT
<Time Zone Converter> <Countdown Clock>

RULES
  • Respect the time limit! You may NOT start making your map in Hammer in ANY way shape or form before it starts. We cannot effectively restrict this, but take this into consideration; This contest is meant to challenge your skills at working effectively and quickly coming up with good solutions. If you cheat, you're only demonstrating your own lousyness to yourself. That doesn't feel good.
  • You MUST have the map done and submitted before the 72hrs run out. This is very important, because there is no "grace period". Done means done.
  • Any physical size allowed.
  • Any gamemode is allowed, you are welcome to use a non-stock gamemode (such as CSF or Tug-of-war), but choose wisely.
  • You cannot use an already-started map or assets from it. However, you can begin sketching out a layout and planning before the contest begins (this is recommended if you want to make a large map). If you have an old vmf lying around that you want to use, you'll have to remake it from scratch.
  • Maps must be able to spawn 32 players (16 per team).
  • Any amount of detail is allowed. However, it's a good idea to concentrate on gameplay and making sure everything works in time for the deadline.
  • No collaborations are allowed!
  • Custom content is allowed, but only if it's made entirely by yourself using your own resources OR it's made by someone else who has already made it available to the public. However, please remember that very large file sizes are unnecessary and very annoying to download, so keep your map small by avoiding too much custom content.
  • You are allowed to use A Boojum Snark's resource library and other such packs and prefabs, such as the lighting library.
  • You are allowed to use Fr0z3n's Map Start-up Prefab
  • You are allowed to test your map as many times as you wish during the 72hrs. There will be impromptu's hosted by staff/members throughout the 72hr time period. If you have the time to have your map tested, it is HIGHLY recommended
  • Your submission MUST follow this naming convention: <gamemode>_<nickname>_72 (You don't have to use your full forum name, but make sure it's recognisable as your map. For instance, I would name mine cp_frozen_72). For multiple entries (or if your map for previous competitions had the same name), append a number at the end of it (i.e. cp_frozen_72_2).
    In previous contests we had a lot of maps that did not follow this convention. That won't be tolerated this year. (For realz)
    DO NOT USE CAPITAL LETTERS IN YOUR FILE NAME!
  • You may submit as many entries as you want, but you'll have to judge for yourself whether this is wise.

DISQUALIFICATIONS
Your map will be disqualified from the competition if it breaks the follow rules:
  • Your map does not follow the set naming convention
  • Your map crashes the server/clients.
  • Your map includes assets/sections that are from other maps (this includes anything you've made)
  • Your map is fullbright/TOO dark (That is, it is impossible to see/decern other team mates and surroundings)*
  • Your map is a trade map
  • You have broken any of the preivously mentioned rules
*This will also include maps that are too BRIGHT on LDR AND HDR(it has happened)

JUDGING
After the 72hr mapping period is over, I will check maps for incompatibility issues, make disqualifications, etc. If you suspect that a map has broken a rule (or 2) please contact Fr0z3n ASAP. After that is done (should be about a day and a half), I will open up the voting.

  • IF, there is MORE than (or equal to) 20 entries, we WILL be doing a preliminary round of voting. You will be asked to list 5 - 10 of your favorite maps (in no particular order). Any votes with less than 5 maps will not be counted. Any votes with more than 10 maps listed, the first 10 maps will be used. After prelim voting is over, the top X* maps will move on to official voting. *Number of maps to move on will be determined based on the number of entries. The cut off will be annouced if/when preliminary voting occurs.
  • If there is less than 20 entries, then preliminary voting will be skipped, and we will move to official voting. For official voting you will rank the top THREE (3) maps. You also MUST explain why you chose those maps. Just one sentence will do.
  • The length of each judging period will be determined at the time of judging based on the number of entries.

STREAMING
You are encouraged to stream progress of your work. If you are planning on streaming, you can PM me the url to your stream. On the day of the contest, I will make an annoucement that has all of url's to all the streams. If streaming, please keep it some-what clean. No Porn or adult pictures, videos, sounds. Tarry, you are not allowed to take your shirt off.


PRIZES
1st Place: $30 Steam game* + 2 picks from the Game pool
2nd Place: $25 Steam game* + 1 pick from the Game pool
3rd Place: $15 Steam game* + Safe'n'Sound, TF2 Hat for Engineer!

Thank you Muffin, LeSwordfish and TheKieranator for each donating 15 dollars!
Thank you Two Monkeys from a Tzu for donating The Binding of Isaac!
I will be donating Torchlight 1 and Bit.trip runner
Thank you Joodude, for donating his Safe N' Sound!
Thank you to Angus for donating Blocks that Matter, Rush and EDGE.
Thank you to Crash for donating Global Ops: Commando Libya
Thank you to PhantomTheft for donating Sanctum

What is the Game pool?
This is a collection of game that people have donated to be prizes for the contest. The pool currently consists of the following games:
Torchlight
Bit.Trip Runner
Blocks that Matter
RUSH
EDGE
The Binding of Isaac
Global Ops: Commando Libya
Sanctum


I am a poor college student, so if you would like to make a donation, please PM me either on here, or on steam. Monetary, game or Item donations are welcome.

*The games chosen must fall within the U.S Dollar value. You CAN reserve the right to wait until Summer Steam sales (assuming they occur AFTER the contest).
 
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Bakscratch

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Oct 29, 2010
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Do we have to say we are taking part before hand?
 

Fruity Snacks

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Do we have to say we are taking part before hand?

No, you do not need to do that, unless you are unable to make the weekend of the 29th, then you can schedule a 72hr period within the week prior to that. Thats when you need to tell me.
 

Trotim

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Jul 14, 2009
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The naming convention is so odd... I mean it's fine, doesn't matter, but now when I made e.g. ctf_trotim_72 in this contest then you'd think it's just a ctf version of the trotim_72 of last year when it's an entirely different map
 

Fruity Snacks

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The naming convention is so odd... I mean it's fine, doesn't matter, but now when I made e.g. ctf_trotim_72 in this contest then you'd think it's just a ctf version of the trotim_72 of last year when it's an entirely different map

It's just the easiest way to keep people's maps in order. For renaming, just follow the convention listed in the OP. (So you'll be ctf_trotim_72_2, for example.
 

Trotim

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Jul 14, 2009
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Oh right, I guess I didn't see that. ctf_trotim_72_2 it is

also I will not make a ctf map
 

Fruity Snacks

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Sounds like something to kill some time :3
 

Trotim

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We don't have to release the entity setup we prefabbed to the public though right? Like, if I just set it up tomorrow a bit and just sent it to you to confirm there's no shenanigans, and then start the 72h from that prefab, that's totally fine right? Would I even have to do that? I'll be recording most of what I'll be doing anyway but still
 

Fruity Snacks

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I will not ask for you send me your prefab, nor will I ask for you to release it. That said, it wouldn't hurt, and just shows honesty in the contest. But as I noted, I won't ask for it specifically.

If you want to spend it to me, and if you want to release it, that is completely on you.
 

Ravidge

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May 14, 2008
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If I was running this, I'd be facepalming at you making that reddit post.
If I was running this, I would like to do the publicity side of it myself.

However, I'm not running this competition.
phew
 

Fruity Snacks

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I think I may have about nine hours for this, since I'm away that weekend and have no time before. Ah well.

If we want to do it early, how much forewarning need we give?

You need to tell me before the 22nd if you are going not going to do it the weekend of the 29th, and if are, what 3 days in a row you will be doing it.

Publicity!

Posted to /r/tf2, so we might get some more contestants.

If I was running this, I'd be facepalming at you making that reddit post.
If I was running this, I would like to do the publicity side of it myself.

However, I'm not running this competition.
phew


I am facepalming.
I was going to do the publicity side myself. (Like I have been doing for the past few contest)
You probably just added another 10-15 contestants (ontop of the 30ish we were already going to have)

I am running this competition.

Please, in the future, leave the PR the host (or me, who usually does it with permission.....)
 
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Trotim

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I will not ask for you send me your prefab, nor will I ask for you to release it. That said, it wouldn't hurt, and just shows honesty in the contest. But as I noted, I won't ask for it specifically.

If you want to spend it to me, and if you want to release it, that is completely on you.

Then I won't release it until the contest is over I suppose, the surprise is pretty important

Just saying that yes, I will start from a game mode entity setup I already made (unlike last year where I made the SCP setup from scratch which cost a lot of time)