[RESULTS!] New Year's Vanilla Contest

[Saltlord]

[ASMagician Maks]

A level (UTC+1)

[computerfan0]

Frosty Rushedlands

maybe it isn't a good idea to start making a level 2 hours before the deadline lol

[Ness-Wednesday]

[KurttheKing]

Submission here:

Spoiler: show

[Sux]

Chilly give me chills

[Emral]

And with that, January 1st is now officially over everywhere. 19 submissions in spite of holiday obligations, wow! I'm really happy with this turnout.
Stay tuned for results.

...


Thanks for waiting! Time for the results!

This time around I used a very simple judging method. Since I didn't really define any judging criteria beyond "personal investment in the level", well, I ranked them like a tier list.
Please take a look at the results!

All levels that managed to achieve the coveted "S Rank" also get a medal! Congratulations to our 5 S-Rank participants! That's a quarter of the submissions! Wow!






In order to achieve S-Rank, a level had to really knock my socks off with a unique idea and an execution that made me laugh, stare in awe, or lock in. It had to not overstay its welcome and be of reasonable difficulty. In other words, it had to be a level I would readily recommend anyone play just to experience it. And I think you should play all of these. For Ness-Wednesday's level in particular, maybe disable the timer. I think it's the one level where I did them dirty with the rule.

There are two honorable mentions from the A rank that didn't quite make it to S.
Iceberg Lettuce is a very well executed "standard" contest level. It has its idea of the snowball carousels (sidenote but, so many people used carousels I second-guessed if I didn't type them as one of the optional theme NPCs lol) and runs to hell and back with it. It's very fun to play and features its own ranking system to evaluate the player's performance. In vanilla! That's cool as hell! It missed the mark because it stuck too close to "standard" design principles to elevate itself into S-Tier.
Lopsided is another really fun level at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. It's a very fun idea that carries the level even though the contents are nothing to write home about. I recommend you play this one as well, as it is very fun and silly and defies generally accepted design tropes in a skillful manner. It's just twice as long as it needs to be for my tastes, so it missed out on S rank.

"Wow!", you say, still bewildered that results are already here, "but how do I play these levels? One of them was submitted in PM! I don't have access to that!
Well, now you do.
LINK TO THE LEVEL PACK
Someone with more free time than me should totally make an episode out of this.

And that's it! Play the levels! Enjoy the new year! Leave your feedback in here!
Tell me what you think of the time limit, the short submission period, the ban on message boxes, the optional theme. I know you liked the optional theme. You used the snowballs, didn't you? Yeah you did. You made a bomb excavation setup in your level, you scoundrel. (I really should've thought that people would do that with bombs)

Jokes aside I will stop writing thoughts now.
Enjoy things!

[KurttheKing]

I didn't realize sound effect NPCs were against the rules, and I have no idea how that .txt file got there (I thought I deleted it?), but regardless, congratulations to everyone who participated!

[Alagirez]

Didn't expect the results are released this fast. Congrats to those who got the highest rank!

I wish I could finish mine, but sickness got me.
Time to play the entries and (probably) make another fan-review.

[John Nameless]

All levels that managed to achieve the coveted "S Rank" also get a medal! Congratulations to our 5 S-Rank participants! That's a quarter of the submissions! Wow!

Oh hey nice! Had alot of fun making a quick silly level with a quick silly discovery I found on accident lol & im glad you enjoyed it too it seems! Congrats to the other contestants too! They did a fairly great job, given the time restrictions they were working with.

Wait, does this technically mean that im the first person ever to ""win""/reach top 5 in a contest with a level using an X2 character?