Welcome to the 2021 Chocolate Contest! The chocolate contest is our annual no-holds-barred level design free-for-all, in which you make the best level you can with all the tools the engine has at its disposal. Because as we all know: Chocolate is the opposite of vanilla.
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THE RULES
- You may participate alone or in a team of 2 people.
- Every participant may only submit one level in total.
- Levels must be compatible with SMBX2 Beta 4 Patch 4 Hotfix.
- Levels may have up to 2 exits, and must feature at least 1.
- To prevent issues with their systems affecting contest entries, none of the SMBX2-exclusive player characters may be used.
- A level may be disqualified if two or more judges are unable to play it. If one judge is unable to play it, that judge will merely grant a score of 0.
- A level may be disqualified if the judges agree that it was designed in bad faith.
- A level may be disqualified if it has previously been released, or is stolen.
- A level may be disqualified if the content of the level violates the forum rules.
- A level may be disqualified if (any of) the creator(s) become(s) banned after submission.
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OF NOTE
- The results and an episode including all submissions will be released simultaneously once judging concludes. Should the episode take an unexpectedly long amount of time, the results will release first.
- We encourage you to post your level in this subforum for pre-submission testing, or ask friends to test the level
- Submissions are anonymous. The judges will avoid looking at the threads in this subforum
- While secret exits and non-basegame custom characters are allowed, be careful when using them, because their use is known to backfire if handled poorly
- Wrong start points, music paths and other oversights will not be corrected before sending levels to the judges. Test thoroughly!
- Judges may cheat if they aren't skilled enough to beat a difficult level, or if they feel like a level is deliberately wasting their time. An easy way to ensure a judge plays your level legitimately is to moderate yourself in terms of length and difficulty.
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RESOURCES
- SMBX2 Documentation
- Developer Resources
- Lunalua Tutorials
- Lunalua Forum
- Tips for starting a level
- Tips for ending a level
- Flick through this if you're struggling for ideas
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THE SCORING RUBRIC
In the spoiler below is an explanation of our scoring rubric for this contest. Should you have any questions, please ask them in this thread.
30 points for Pacing, in which the overall structure of the level is be evaluated.
25 points for Fun, in which a judge rates the judge's personal enjoyment of the level.
20 points for Presentation, in which flavour, flourishes, visuals and sound design will be evaluated.
15 points for Concept, in which the level's general idea will be evaluated.
10 points for Functionality, in which a level's technical stability will be evaluated.
The maximum attainable score is 100 points (30/25/20/15/10 per category).
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THE JUDGES
5 judges will be judging the levels. Three of these have fought hard and overcome the trial of the judge auditions:
DisasterMaster, GenesisJames, Waddle
They will be joined by ShadowStarX and Enjl to round out the judge roster.
All judges will review levels without awareness of who made them.
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THE DEVKIT
For this contest we have put together a small devkit with a few helpful features that let you do some fancy things with none-to-minimal coding.
You do not need to use the devkit, or download it. Your level will work the same regardless of whether or not you use it. However, you might find it useful in general.
Documentation is included, but for a brief run-down:
- textplus-based recreation of the basegame message box
- more UI elements, positions of UI elements as they will appear in the episode, as well as the option to reduce the ui to itembox only
- some stuff to ensure that the variables SaveData and GameData can be used as-is and only apply to your level
- visual fidelity settings
- extraNPCProperties.lua by MrDoubleA
DOWNLOAD THE DEVKIT
After downloading, place the contents in the same folder as your contest level's level file.
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SUBMISSION
For details about the submission of levels, please head over into the submission thread. If you have any questions about submission, please post them in the thread you are currently reading.
SUBMISSIONS CLOSE AT 6PM GMT ON AUGUST 15TH, 2021.
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