Super Mario Bros. X Forums

Welcome to the 2022 Chocolate Contest! This event is essentially a free-for-all level design competition, which means that you're free to do anything that is physically possible with SMBX2 and also follows the rules below!

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. SMW stars do not count as exits but you can only have 1 if any.
• To prevent issues with their systems affecting contest entries, none of the SMBX2-exclusive player characters may be used. (so stick to Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach and Link)
• 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
  • the judges agree that it was designed in bad faith (e.g. negative-effort levels)
  • it has previously been released, or is stolen
  • the content of the level violates the forum rules
  • (any of) the creator(s) become(s) banned after submission or are caught banned evading

Of note:

• We encourage you to post your level in this subforum for pre-submission testing, and/or ask friends to test the level
• Please do not showcase your entries anywhere outside the dedicated platforms. (such as the contest's own channel on the SMBX Discord server, or the Contest Hub) The primary purpose of this is to avoid spoilers for the judges.
• 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
• If you want to have multiple collectibles, use Star Coins, as only 1 SMW Star is allowed per level.
• 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.

Judges:
This year, 6 judges will be reviewing the entries, to offer a wide array of perspectives.

• GenesisJames
• KBM-Quine
• Saltlord
• Walder
• Eric
• ShadowStarX

When the submission period ends, Valentine will distribute the contest's entries to the judges.

Rubric:
After the submission period, the aforementioned judges will review the levels based on these rubrics. The maximum score you can attain is 100, which is the sum of the 4+1 rubrics below. Maximum scores per category are shown in parentheses.

• Pacing (30) - Determines how well your level flows and if its challenges are developed appropriately. (e.g. difficulty, length, progression)
• Fun (30) - Subjective score from each judge, includes attributes like replay value.
• Identity (20) - How creative, unique and/or memorable your level is.
• Presentation (20) - To what degree do the audio and the visuals aid the level.
• Functionality (-20) - if technical problems arise in your level, such as lua crashes, up to 20 points will be deducted from your total.

Resources:

• SMBX2 Documentation
• Developer Resources
• Lunalua Tutorials
• Tips for starting a level
• Tips for ending a level
• Flick through this if you're struggling for ideas
• Lunalua Forum

Submission:
For details regarding the submission of your level, please head over to the submission thread. However if you have questions, ask them in the thread you're reading right now.
The deadline for submitting the levels is: August 22, Monday 8 PM UTC (4 PM Eastern Daylight Saving Time)!

i cant use klonoa
also you cant probably use achievements too since it too episode dependent
question: do we need to be compatible with the devkit?

Let the party commence

wyldstrykr wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 08, 2022 6:33 am

i cant use klonoa
also you cant probably use achievements too since it too episode dependent
question: do we need to be compatible with the devkit?

There is no devkit.

ShadowStarX wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 08, 2022 6:18 am

...
[*]Functionality (-20) - if technical problems arise in your level, such as lua crashes, up to 20 points will be deducted from your total.[/list]
...

Does that mean you can technically get awarded a score of -20?

computerfan0 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 08, 2022 7:10 am

ShadowStarX wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 08, 2022 6:18 am

...
[*]Functionality (-20) - if technical problems arise in your level, such as lua crashes, up to 20 points will be deducted from your total.[/list]
...

Does that mean you can technically get awarded a score of -20?

Minimum score is 0.

1. I don't know why I wasn't notified.
2. It seems that since this year people will upload only one level. Right?

Twisted4932 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 08, 2022 12:50 pm

1. I don't know why I wasn't notified.
2. It seems that since this year people will upload only one level. Right?

I might've mistyped your name.

ShadowStarX wrote: I might've mistyped your name.

*username
I opened that spoiler thing before writing the previous post and my username was correct. Anyways, I am aware of the announcements.

Here we go.

question: since you get minus points in functionality, does the judges obliged to tell you where that happened?

wyldstrykr wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 08, 2022 9:25 pm

question: since you get minus points in functionality, does the judges obliged to tell you where that happened?

The minus points are embedded into each judge's score. Each judge gives their own functionality score and determines how much of a detriment lag, crashes, glitches* and other such functionality issues are. I suspect that judges will mention them in their comments and/or judging notes, so ShadowStar will learn about them one way or another.

* glitches may be detrimental to some levels but essential for others, of course. talking about accidental ones like for instance you randomly clip into the ground and have to restart and it got past testing

I've been noticing a few cases in recent contests where readmes include questionable information that may influence judge opinion toward either the level or its creator, or is not relevant knowledge at all (poetry/harmless humour excluded).
For the Vanilla Contest, I removed these instances before sending levels to the judges, to keep them as neutral as possible going into each level.
Whne ShadowStar and I were devising the rules this time, I forgot to put a reminder that this is a thing. So after seeing some readmes that might need shortening, I figure it'd be best to mention it later than never.

Please make sure that your readmes contain only relevant information (poetry/harmless humour excluded) such as exit count, player character, preferred level and author names, and other tidbits like length/difficulty estimates, special thanks or credits.
The person who distributes the levels to the judges will remove other contents.

For a set of examples of things I've seen that will be removed:
- Opinions on the level, either by the creator or by other people.
- Opinions on other levels or people.
- Opinions on the contest. Please use this thread to share your thoughts. If there's something that troubles you about the format, we'll take your feedback and try to find a better solution.
- Todo lists
- Changelogs

If your readme contains anything that might fall under those categories, please rest easy that it is not a rule violation. Much like broken music paths, this is something that will just get fixed before the judges see the levels. These things are wonderful to share or keep track of in their appropriate places, but please keep in mind that judges do not need to know all of this before playing your level. Poetry/humour/other fun stuff are excluded because simply brightening one of the judge's days can be nice.
Thanks for reading! Expect an abbreviated version of this explanation in contest threads going forward. Sorry for forgetting about it this time.

The submission period has come to an end.
For spoilerless discussion, feel free to use this thread, for spoilered informations though, please keep on using the dedicated text channel on Discord.

I'm really glad I was able to finish my entry in time. Procrastination, am I right?

Deltom wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 22, 2022 7:12 pm

I'm really glad I was able to finish my entry in time. Procrastination, am I right?

Yep!