Perhaps what we most needed was a kick in our complacency.
We’ve learned a lot from the past two kaizo contests we’ve run, and the community feedback has been incredibly appreciated and helpful.
The overarching goal is the same: make a kaizo level beatable without tools.
This year, we’ve taken what you’ve told us and made a couple tweaks to our format, in the hopes of providing the best possible showcase to highlight and properly review everyone’s work.
It’s time for KLDC 2021. Let’s see what you can do in six weeks.
Requirements
Your submission must have infinite lives enabled.
Beyond this, all custom graphics, sprites, music, and any additional patches (including SA-1) are fair game.
I hear you asking yourself, and the answer is yes. This means your level does not need fast retry.
Be aware if any patches affect emulator and/or console compatibility and include that info in your submission. For example, SA-1 is currently not console compatible for a jailbroken Super NT, which some of our judges may use. This will not affect your score, but will make life much easier for our judges.
Optional Baseroms
For those looking for something to get started, or for creators who aren’t sure what QoL patches are used for kaizo, we have a couple baseroms for you to choose from. Both of these have been the base for several recent full hacks and individual levels.
RHR Baserom
2017 KLDC Baserom
Rules
Original levels only.
Do not submit a level that has been included in any past races, compilations, or accepted/pending/rejected hack submissions to SMW Central.One entry per person.
You can work with a partner, but an individual is limited to one entry. You can't enter both a level on your own and one with a partner.Submissions must be reasonably beatable without the use of tools.
Glitches are permissible, provided it is clear to the player what the intended strategy is and the glitch is reliably executable without savestates. Judges will have the final authority to determine whether a level exceeds a reasonable demand of the player as it relates to difficulty, and any such decision will be made unanimously.No more than two exits per entry.
If you have a second exit, it also must be beatable without savestating. All levels will multiple exits must explicitly say so in their submission in order to ensure both exits are judged.All levels must be beatable within 500 in-game seconds from start of level to exit.
Levels with multiple exits should ensure each exit is within the time-limit. If a level features two exits and one falls outside of the time limit, only the exit under the time limit will be judged.Levels must be compatible with the most recent, stable versions of both bsnes and SNES9x.
The platforms judges will be playing on include: flash cart on original console, jailbroken Super NT, and emulator. Creators that utilize SA-1 are encouraged to say so in their submission.Please anonymize your submissions.
It’s not the end of the world if you don’t, but we greatly prefer for judges to be blind to the author of each entry for the sake of transparency and to avoid all possible bias.THE FOLLOWING WILL RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION:
- Posting a ROM as part of your submission
- Posting an .ips patch instead of a .bps patch
- Posting a corrupt patch file
- Submitting a level that is not compatible with bsnes and SNES9x.
- Submitting a level in bad faith either by being blatantly loweffort or a level that seeks to troll the judges rather than exist on its own merits
- Submitting a level that is not reasonably beatable without tools
- Not enabling infinite lives
- Including content within the level that violates the rules of SMWCentral
Playtesting
This year, to help connect creators to people who can help test and improve their submissions, we will be featuring Playtesters-in-Residence. These people are highly skilled kaizo players and experienced in providing advice and feedback to creators of all skill levels, and have volunteered to work with any creator who wishes to have someone play their KLDC work-in-progress.- JonM (f.k.a. CNaught) (JonM#6537)
- MarcyAugust (MarcyAugust#8008)
- SJ_and_CharlieTheCat (SJ_and_CharlieTheCat#6992)
- SQL_Infection (SQL_Infection#2527)
Note: These playtesters may choose to stream their testing. Judges are aware of these testers and will not be viewing these testing streams, and individual testers will work with you on your schedule and desire to have your submission streamed.
How To Submit
You must submit your entry as an unlocked .bps file, created in FLIPS off of a clean SMW copy. Submitting an .ips file will result in disqualification! You can put your .bps file in a .zip or 7zip archive if you want.Upload it to your personal File Bin on the site (click on Files in the SMWC site menu), then link to the file in this thread. If you edit your level, edit your original post double posts will get deleted.
You can talk about your level in the contest subforum and on the Discord server, but in order for it to count, it needs to be linked here in this thread.
All levels must be posted to this thread by 17:59:59 UTC Sunday, March 21.
Judging
This year, KLDC will have four judges: Thirdwall, SuperMargot, Cartesius, and GlitchCat7Judges will use the following 100-point scale and criteria:
55: Level Design
Is your level well constructed as a kaizo: light level?
Does the level accomplish what the aesthetics and creativity attempt to convey?
Is it both challenging and rewarding to play?
35: Creativity
Does the level bring something new to the world of kaizo design?
Did the level use new or existing resources in a way that creates a unique experience?
Will others use this level as inspiration for their own creation?
10: Aesthetics
Do the graphics and music enhance the gameplay experience?
Does the level look and feel complete?
For the purpose of this contest, the judges have determined that a score of 5/10 will represent purely vanilla aesthetics.
Each judge will do their evaluations separately and confidentially judges who livestream their evaluation playthroughs will not confer on scores nor reveal their scoring until results are announced. Final results will be generated from the average of all judges scores.
All entrants will get a lovely trophy, with the Top 3 entries receiving a special trophy and special prizes.*
Please feel free to ask questions in the Discussion thread as well as the dedicated contest channels on the SMWC Discord server.
Engage.
*The special prize is video games.
I'm not a doctor.
