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Which contests would you like to have return next year?

Choose the ones you would be interested in participating in:

17.8% (71 votes)
12.5% (50 votes)
17.8% (71 votes)
11.0% (44 votes)
6.8% (27 votes)
5.5% (22 votes)
8.5% (34 votes)
9.8% (39 votes)
5.0% (20 votes)
5.3% (21 votes)
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Hey y'all, we are currently creating the 2020 Event Calendar, and decided to check up with the userbase to see which contests you'd be interested in participating in. Part of this came from some internal discussions - especially regarding VLDC, BLDC, and OLDC. We intended for BLDC to be a successor to VLDC, but the turnout was less than anticipated. Are VLDCs preferred over the BLDC format? What can be improved on the last BLDC to make it more appealing to you?

Or, should VLDC be retired and instead we host annual BLDC and OLDCs? We're looking for your feedback especially on these three contests, because running all three together each year can be pretty overbearing.

While I have noted CLDC in the poll, I do intend to host and run a CLDC in April of 2020. That being said, if there's opposition or you guys would rather see a different contest, let us know! And, of course, if we have missed any contests or you'd be interested in seeing something new, let us know!


But this is all about levels and overworlds - what about other contests?

For our music contests, Super Famicompo is the replacement for the old SMW Central Idol contests. You can read all about it here.

I know there's been a lot of requests for us to run another ASM Contest, so we're looking on feedback on how we can improve on the Mad Scientist Contest of 2016. Should it be multi-round, or single round? How long should it run? How intense should the rounds be?

And lastly, our ExGFX contest this year got less submissions than usual. For those who are ExGFX artists, did the theme deter you from entering? Or, perhaps, should the format of the contest be updated?

We hope you can leave some feedback below, and throw some votes to the contests you like! It'll really help us in deciding contests for next year and the years after.
If you're new to the site and are wondering what most of these contests are, I suggest giving the Glossary a read. If there are any further doubts, please ask away!
I remember S.N.N. saying in the BLDC discussion thread that there were some BLDC levels that didn't actually use the new resources and interpreted it as a second VLDC. If BLDC is more about using new custom resources than making cool vanilla stuff, I can see how people can get deterred from entering since it feels more restrictive in that sense. It's also not as newbie-friendly as VLDC since you have to figure out the graphic, block, and sprite mappings from the What's What files, and inserting them isn't as easy and intuitive as LM's sprite/block UIs.

IMO, I'd like to have VLDC and CLDC, and maybe BLDC as an occasional thing since it's a good middle ground contest between the other two.

OLDC can also be an occasional thing I suppose but with its restrictions I feel it can get old fast (hah).
Oh boy i can't wait for another OWLDC!
Originally posted by FrozenQuills
I remember S.N.N. saying in the BLDC discussion thread that there were some BLDC levels that didn't actually use the new resources and interpreted it as a second VLDC. If BLDC is more about using new custom resources than making cool vanilla stuff, I can see how people can get deterred from entering since it feels more restrictive in that sense. It's also not as newbie-friendly as VLDC since you have to figure out the graphic, block, and sprite mappings from the What's What files, and inserting them isn't as easy and intuitive as LM's sprite/block UIs.

IMO, I'd like to have VLDC and CLDC, and maybe BLDC as an occasional thing since it's a good middle ground contest between the other two.

OLDC can also be an occasional thing I suppose but with its restrictions I feel it can get old fast (hah).


I completely agree with you, FrozenQuills.

As cool of a concept as BLDC was, it still felt like a slightly extended version of VLDC, where we were still limited to the assets we had been provided with. And in all honesty, I enjoy the charm of VLDC more than the new BLDC contest.

VLDC and CLDC should be our traditional contests, but the occasional BLDC or OLDC, as well as other contests like the Overworld Contest, will be nice to have on occasion.
Just so you know, I'm very active on the site anymore like I was before; I'm mainly on Discord now.
Sorry for interrupting the current conversation going on, but I wanted to outline the two ideas I had brought up with PR regarding a new ASM contest, before hosting one this year became impossible due to the events we ran.

I have two format proposals, which are to be for different timeframes.
1.- A full-fetched, idol-style competition, however with more sensitive challenges as time progresses. Challenges would involve designing stuff the average user can play with: such as a simple sprite, to some UberASM effect, to more complex tasks.
2.- A shorter time, "72HoASM", where one challenge would be given. Here my plan is to team up an interested ASM person with a level designer (or no, depending on if they desire), so they can create a level using never-seen-before resources. Level would be judged from a design standpoint, with how well the resources were used; and from a code standpoint, if the code is well done or not, or stuff.

Some of the challenges which came with both proposals were:
For the idol/mad scientist version:
* Is the Mad Scientist format still worth pursuing?
* If so, which challenges would be fair?
* How should the score be, per round?
For the 72ho:
* Would partnering a level designer with a coder a good idea at all?
* If so, is the timeframe adequate?

I'm sure the community would love an ASM contest; I'd like to believe our coders want one to happen.
Originally posted by idol
For those who are ExGFX artists, did the theme deter you from entering?

Basically this. I know a few people can argue that there aren't many "steampunk" SMW stuff, but I'd argue it's too vague and almost everything has already been done with "steampunk" in terms of settings, which is basically the #1 reason I partake in these contests. I couldn't come up with anything unique with it (tho I'm sure a few people can come up with "original" examples).

If I had to elaborate, it's basically like, "You can do anything, but it's steampunk", which idk why but that didn't seem as interesting or challenging as "make an interior" or "make a factory". With the latter two, I have to come up with something that hasn't been done yet with interiors or factories (my two concepts were "Watermellon Interior" and "Rainbow Factory") and it's still limited. With something as general as "steampunk" I feel it's way too big with possibilities. It can work, I mean that's the whole point of something like "Chocolate Level Design Contest". Maybe if we had a free-for-all graphics contest where you can make anything that could be an interesting little experiment. Idk.

Originally posted by Erik
2.- A shorter time, "72HoASM", where one challenge would be given. Here my plan is to team up an interested ASM person with a level designer (or no, depending on if they desire), so they can create a level using never-seen-before resources. Level would be judged from a design standpoint, with how well the resources were used; and from a code standpoint, if the code is well done or not, or stuff.

I'd love for this to be something like a "Coop ASM-LDC" kind of deal, and not necessarily strictly a "coder contest". You can code as messily as you like so long as you can forge it into a good level (that's basically JUMP Half).
Want progress on 100 Rooms of Enemies: The Nightmare Edition? Go here to see.

(rip my other userbars momentarily)

That's right! I always saw VLDC as something traditional from the community. It's not a complicated event, that is: everyone can enjoy it normally as it is a simple and pratical challenge that involves creativity and level design.

Even chocolate events are great, no wonder they had a positive impact on the community. In other hand, the user have the freedom to do what he wants, allowing numerous concepts. Challenging but fun.

In my view, i believe the site should once again focus on VLDC'S, producing a collab as it has always done. Other events (as HLDC) do not need this, thus leaving less work for the staff to manage a certain event.

I realize that most people enjoy practicality and many prefer to play a rom with multiple levels rather than playing them separately. If you want to focus again on VLDC, in advance planning and organization will greatly assist in project development.

Regarding the ExGFX event, i believe that the low repercussion was due to lack of interest rather than choice of theme. I didn't see any pixel art tutorial here in the forum so i deduce that the event is only for people who already draw in the community.

I may be wrong, but ... wouldn't it be interesting to engage more users through tutorials or something? I mean, we are a community, we should share knowledge, too.
Exclusive content and nostalgia!
Originally posted by TheMorganah
I didn't see any pixel art tutorial here in the forum so i deduce that the event is only for people who already draw in the community.

Well, we have this thread, which also includes a couple of pixel art and paletting tips. Granted, they're not a full pixel art tutorial, but honestly, there should be plenty of those already on the internet. I don't see how having yet another one here would make much of a difference. Same reason why there isn't a music theory tutorial here either. Additionally, there's the fact that much of graphics skill comes from lots and lots of experience.
Originally posted by Gloomy
Well, we have this thread...


My sincere apologies, i totally forgot that the forum has an area for tutorials and workshops.
Exclusive content and nostalgia!
Originally posted by Erik
Sorry for interrupting the current conversation going on, but I wanted to outline the two ideas I had brought up with PR regarding a new ASM contest, before hosting one this year became impossible due to the events we ran.

I have two format proposals, which are to be for different timeframes.
1.- A full-fetched, idol-style competition, however with more sensitive challenges as time progresses. Challenges would involve designing stuff the average user can play with: such as a simple sprite, to some UberASM effect, to more complex tasks.
2.- A shorter time, "72HoASM", where one challenge would be given. Here my plan is to team up an interested ASM person with a level designer (or no, depending on if they desire), so they can create a level using never-seen-before resources. Level would be judged from a design standpoint, with how well the resources were used; and from a code standpoint, if the code is well done or not, or stuff.

Some of the challenges which came with both proposals were:
For the idol/mad scientist version:
* Is the Mad Scientist format still worth pursuing?
* If so, which challenges would be fair?
* How should the score be, per round?
For the 72ho:
* Would partnering a level designer with a coder a good idea at all?
* If so, is the timeframe adequate?

I'm sure the community would love an ASM contest; I'd like to believe our coders want one to happen.


I agree with all this except for the 2nd proposal

The duration of Mad Scientist could maybe last a week or two. Coding ASM could range from Easy to Insanely difficult, and how long it takes because of that reason (Aside from irl stuff and whatnot).
ok

vldc is tradition; keep. however, it should not be the big meme collab that yall made it become. simplicity is key

for bldc, maybe providing templates as opposed to a base rom with everything? so people have to choose a certain template (aka a specific gfx/sprite/map16/palette combo), as opposed to having the freedom to pick whatever resources are in the rom. kinda combining oldc (you cant modify anything) and vldc but you also have custom resources. i agree with whoever said earlier that oldc will get old quickly

overworld contest shouldve already been a yearly thing. you guys (the staff team of https://www.smwcentral.net/) are horrible people for not having done that

me being in japan deterred me from entering exgfx contest. the contest itself works fine as it always has. we just have less gfx artists than weve had in the past (not just artists; talent across the board has dropped). most people here only make levels or spam discord, or both.

asm contest. old one was nice, but did ramp up weirldy. longer time between rounds would help; remember that asm is not fun and so you need time to make things. i guess that highlights something: it should be fun. not a chore. other contests can get away with being dumb and annoying but not asm please. but honestly honestly idk what could change for a second asm contest. im sure vitor has ideas after having run the first; ask him.

as for other contests; go wild. its good to just have rando contests here and there, but dont crowd the schedule. if you dont have ideas for a contest in a certain part of the year, then dont shove one in for the sake of it. contests arent the only way to engage ppl in smw hacking or other game hacking or the site.
I agree that BLDC should be occasional rather than annual for the reasons FrozenQuills stated and also due to the weight VLDC holds with the compilation idea. It's a good concept for a contest, but yeah. I'd like to see OLDC again, however.
It would be nice to have 12 Days Before Christmas (or something of the sort) or Secret Santa next year.
Windowless ride, feeling alive
Are you alive or just breathing?
Originally posted by Ladida
we just have less gfx artists than weve had in the past

Yeah, I've noticed that too. I wonder how we could change that though. Earlier this year I was asked if I wanted to run a Graphics Workshop, to which I declined for having a permanent one already. Maybe that was a wrong move for failing to consider that maybe more human contact could help in engaging our users and bringing out their interest in pixel art. I just gave it some thought and perhaps we could do something like a multi-task event, where the tutors ask users to draw a simple object, and when they're done the tutors go over their drawings and point out what could be done to improve said object, both design-wise and color-wise. Every task varies in shaping of said object, size, the materials it's made of plus other peculiarities, and color scheme. There could also be an anything goes task, allowing users to be creative.

We're also in need of more events that make use of our artists, so it'd be nice to hear some ideas for that too. PercentN internally brought up doing a couple of regular pixel art challenges and I've been thinking of incorporating them into surprise 72h contests the same way it's currently being done with music. I also have an idea of a challenge for such a contest. But yes, more ideas for new events, themes for the ExGFX Contest and challenges would all be welcome.
While it was fun being a participant in this year's BLDC, it didn't quite make up for me having to pull out of the 2010 CLDC I was hoping to enter (due to all the restrictions, but I am thankful that hacker's block didn't hinder me). So for that reason I have strong hopes to see the CLDC return in 2020.

Regardless of the result of where I finish in this year's BLDC, I'm gonna use that as motivation to make a CLDC level, as long as that contest happens next year.
Personally, I feel like VLDC should be split into OLDC (for a more restrictive contest) and BLDC. There often were arguments about gameplay vs. graphics (or aesthetics) especially with past VLDCs and also the problem with the definition of "vanilla" in VLDC (heck, VLDC9 was called "VLDC Level Design Contest"). Splitting VLDC into BLDC and OLDC would solve this issue (albeit give OLDC less restrictions on the level design but not too much).
Then again, I didn't really focus on aesthetics in VLDC where I didn't use much graphics manipulation. That, and I didn't participiate in OLDC. ^^
Something what might be interesting for BLDC is to give it a theme. There could be one with no resources (i.e. good ol' VLDC) to SMB3 resources to I don't know what.

We hadn't ALDC so it should happen at some point, period. I also voted for CLDC and 12DBC because HLDC replaced CLDC this year and HLDC was the themed contest this year.

While YILDC was fun, I personally would wait before a new level editor is released as Golden Egg (or Yoshi's Island in general) isn't really accessible (especially when compared to Lunar Magic).

Originally posted by Erik
Some of the challenges which came with both proposals were:
For the idol/mad scientist version:
* Is the Mad Scientist format still worth pursuing?
* If so, which challenges would be fair?
* How should the score be, per round?

* We should do non-knockout rounds similar to later idols. The idea is simple: Not everyone is good at coding at everything. Someone is better at patches, someone is better at sprites and then there are some who would like to code bosses than general sprites.
* Not coding a boss in second round, lol.
* That's... a difficult question, tbf.

Originally posted by Erik
For the 72ho:
* Would partnering a level designer with a coder a good idea at all?
* If so, is the timeframe adequate?

* Interesting idea.
* Not at all! Give it at least a week.

Originally posted by Ladida
asm contest. old one was nice, but did ramp up weirldy. longer time between rounds would help; remember that asm is not fun and so you need time to make things. i guess that highlights something: it should be fun. not a chore. other contests can get away with being dumb and annoying but not asm please. but honestly honestly idk what could change for a second asm contest. im sure vitor has ideas after having run the first; ask him.

tbf, Vitor was pretty ambitious (and still is but also more mature) and underestimated our skills as evident with his explaination why the second round suddenly became "code a boss" (there also was a discussion about the loophole where disassembled code is pushed into the stack). This certainly has killed Mad ASM Scientists.
One thing I feel thats missing from graphics contests is a focus on building nice looking levels. Its one of my favorite aspects of level design and in most other contests it takes a backseat to things like gameplay creativity etc (rightfully so)

Maybe a contest where you take a blocked out level and decorate it, possibly have variations with VLDCX style rules and one thats ExGFX based

As for the ExGFX contest the theme was fine, it wasn't any less vague than previous themes like 'water' or 'christmas'. A big problem was problem was probably just timing just having come off of HLDC.
I don't think VLDC should be abandoned. It's practically tradition here. Keep it.

CLDC should also stay too.

No opinion on seasonal contests (HLDC/Christmas) but if having these become overbearing, i'd pick one for the the entire year, then maybe cycle it. (one year may have halloween, another may be christmas themed, rinse repeat)

The rest, either should be be occasional (BLDC/OLDC/OWDC/ALDC) or be held off until more accessible assets come for it. (YILDC sounds cool and all, but YI's hacking scene hasn't been pushed enough, and Golden Egg isn't necessarily the best tool for contests like these)

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STELLA!
Originally posted by MM102
One thing I feel thats missing from graphics contests is a focus on building nice looking levels. Its one of my favorite aspects of level design and in most other contests it takes a backseat to things like gameplay creativity etc (rightfully so)

Maybe a contest where you take a blocked out level and decorate it, possibly have variations with VLDCX style rules and one thats ExGFX based

This reminds me of 24hosmw 4, which was basically picking a vanilla level and changing its aesthetics to be christmas-oriented without affecting the original gameplay. I wonder if by "blocked out" you meant something like that. In any case, yeah, I'd also be interested in seeing a similar contest being run again.
Personally i miss a KLDC. Just throwing that in








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