SMBX In-House Contest (2nd Seasonal Contest) - Rules & questions

[The Thwomp King]

Logo Pending

Greetings gamers! With the conclusion of the No Soup Contest, I’m happy to announce the second contest in this new series of Seasonal Contests.

Remember when there was no such thing as Luna Lua or any other external programs that could enhance the level-making experience? Remember the days when it was nearly mandatory to use Layers and Events? Well, with this new contest, we will be taking all of that away! We’re forcing every participant to treat Beta 5 like it was SMBX 1.3.


General Rules
Note: Most, if not all, of the info below is identical to the Chocolate Contest 2024 Rules. I asked for and received permission from SSX to follow the same ruleset.

• 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 5
• Rules regarding exits and collectibles:
  • Levels may only have 1 exit.
  • Levels cannot end with a Palace Switch or with the Game End event.
  • You may opt to include 1 SMW Star in your level.
  • You're allowed to include up to 5 Star Coins in your level.
• These SMBX2-included playable characters may not be used: Solid Snake, Bowser, Samus Aran.
• 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 unanimously agree that it was designed in bad faith (e.g. deliberately unfun levels).
  • It has previously been released, or is stolen.
  • The content of the level violates the forum rules.
  • The creator(s) (either one) become(s) banned after submission or are caught ban evading.
  • Your submission includes AI generated content that is not trained on your own work (you must provide proof of your training if you include AI generated work in your submission).

Theme Rules:

• Everything that was in SMBX 1.3 is fair game, feel free to include custom graphics, music and txt files.
• No use of outside lunalua scripts that aren’t already in Beta 5 (If a script or custom NPC isn’t already built into Beta 5, then it is banned).
  • Ex. If there is an NPC that is in the original build of Beta 5, then it is allowed to be used.
• Custom graphics and music are allowed, but you cannot alter either using lunalua.
  • This is not the Vanilla Contest, so you can have some customization to make your levels unique
• Graf logic is restricted to the v, x, y, and t variables and may not define nested tables or functions. Crates should use the extra settings fields instead of the legacy text input field.
• Parallax bgs, and the ability to change default sfx are allowed.

Other Info:

• We encourage you to ask friends to test the level
• Please do not showcase your entries anywhere outside the dedicated platforms. The primary purpose of this is to avoid spoilers for the judges.
• While 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 find themselves unable to beat a level legitimately. Frustration can be a reason for a judge to give fewer points in the "concept" and "execution" categories. Please keep in mind that, as the creator, you are the most skilled player of your level. Ask others to test your level blind for valuable feedback on fun and difficulty.

Judges:
This contest is starring:

• The Thwomp King
• Ness_Wednesday
• MegaDood
• MECHDRAGON777

When the submission period ends, the levels will be distributed to the judges, who will then start reviewing the entries based on the rubric below.

Rubric:
The judges will rate the levels based on these criteria:

• Schematics /10 (25% weight)
  + The level has an entertaining, creative or otherwise inspired concept.
  - The level exists in the shadow of another level.
  - The level's individual ideas make for an unfavorable combination.
• Execution /10 (40% weight)
  + The level's design realizes the potential of its concept well.
  + The level is fun to play.
  - The level's pacing or other attributes make it less enjoyable.
• Flavor: /10 (35% weight)
  + The level features elements which make it stand out among its peers in a positive way (such as flavourful location, humour, or design language).
  - The non-gameplay elements detract from the experience.
• Extra credit [0, 1 or 2]
  + A judge will award up to 2 extra points for levels that stood out to them among the submissions.
• Stability /-3
  - Points deduction for lag, error messages, visibility issues, softlocks or other technical problems with the level.
• Following Theme Format (Up to -25% off final score)
  - Points deduction for not following the theme of the contest.

As seen in the rubric, the maximum attainable score is 11/10 rather than 10/10 thanks to the ternary "Extra credits" bonus points.

As usual, judges will also be handing out medals to levels that stand out in particular ways. The "Overall Favorite" medal will be awarded by each judge to their favorite submission. Judges may also give medals for other standout points, be it "Best Story", or something silly like "Fanciest Goombas". Judges can each only give one medal per level (a single judge can’t give two or more medals to the same level).

Resources:

• SMBX2 Documentation
• Developer Resources
• Tips for starting a level
• Tips for ending a level
• Flick through this if you're struggling for ideas
• Invite Link to The Mushroom Republic (Currently with a thread discussing this contest)
• Invite Link to the SMBX Contest Discussion Hub (Haven't been active there, but maybe I will be?)

Submission:
For details regarding the submission of your level, please head over to the submission thread. However, if you've got any questions, please ask them in this thread!

The Deadline:
June 30th [Monday] at 8pm EST

Otherwise good luck to all! I hope to see some good participation, and I'm looking forward to doing this all again! Take it easy everyone.

[Emral]

I don't ask this a lot I just wanna make you aware that the rubric I came up with for last year's chocolate contest is perhaps the worst rubric I've ever devised and I think it'd be better if you used anything else lol
Surely after judging with last time you must've realized how much it sucks, and cross-referencing with the chocolate contest that came out in the interim. The pairing of concept + execution just doesn't work in practice and it just causes judges to make shit up that has no relevance to the level's actual quality.


That aside, the theme of this contest seems confusing to me. The title says 1.3 contest but there are so many non-1.3 features that are addressed in the rules but not explicitly disallowed, or just not mentioned at all.

"You're allowed to include up to 5 Star Coins in your level." -> 1.3 didn't have star coins
"These SMBX2-included playable characters may not be used: Solid Snake, Bowser, Samus Aran." -> What about the other ones? They weren't in 1.3 either.
"No use of outside lunalua scripts that aren’t already in Beta 5 (If a script or custom NPC isn’t already built into Beta 5, then it is banned). Ex. If there is an NPC that is in the original build of Beta 5, then it is allowed to be used." -> OK but they weren't in 1.3? Kind of confusing.
"Graf logic" -> Also not a 1.3 feature
"Palace switch exit" -> also not a 1.3 feature anyway
"Parallax bgs, and the ability to change default sfx are allowed" -> These are also not 1.3 features

There's also no specific rule for custom range, player configuration inis, particle descriptor files or anything.

---

What I would've thought when reading "1.3 contest" for reference is:

Spoiler: show

- Only LVL files, no LVLX files (this disables extra settings)
- No LunaLua
- BGO ID 1-190, no bgo config
- Background2 ID 1-58, no background2 config
- Block ID 1-638, no block config
- NPC ID 1-292 with only npc configs that existed in 1.3 [the contest host would have to provide a list] (this also bans particle and audio sources)
- Players IDs 1-5, no config inis
- No sfx replacements

It's cool if this contest is not that, I just find it confusing what exactly the contest is going for from the rules description and I think it'd be at least good to have a bit more clarity on what is and isn't allowed instead of just lazily copypasting the previous thread and using strikethrough on some things.

E: Seems like it's the in-house contest now. I'll leave the post unchanged for anyone who is curious about actually wanting to make a 1.3 contest. And so people can know not to use this rubric anymore lol

[mariobrigade2018]

Yea, I was going to ask why it’s just a copy-paste of those referenced rules and not something like Emral proposed. It’s cleaner and easier to understand than what we have right now.
Also adding extra points for using the 1.3 editor should be a thing. Y’know, for a TRUE 1.3 experience.

[Alagirez]

I'll give this a shot.

[Prismarine]

Also adding extra points for using the 1.3 editor should be a thing. Y’know, for a TRUE 1.3 experience.

I second this. Even though that sounds like a pain in the ass (I Wonder if PGE editor is allowed or even given out points at all)
But how can the judges confirm that you did this in the 1.3 (well, versions under 1.3 should also count) version?

[Ness-Wednesday]

Hi. I wanted to share a few things on behalf of the seasonal contest team.
We realized this theme required more time in the oven than initially thought. Things were a tad rushed as we wanted to get this contest out without too many delays. This ended up backfiring. The contest is being reconsidered, with some details set to change. We may also extend the deadline by a few days to make up for the confusion. We apologize for not being very organized.

I considered locking this thread, but decided not to as it'd come off as us ignoring feedback. Once again, we'll consider how to change the rules (and name) based on the feedback we received.