Starcraft has an incredible community of designers behind it. Dwarfed by the professional melee scene, mapmakers work in the deepest parts of Starcraft's underground. Inhabiting forums such as the Staredit Network and Campaign Creations, these mappers engage their work with a true passion, genius, and insightful creativity – undaunted by any limitations placed on them from a decade-old system.

It is now time for these designers to have their skills challenged. For the first time in mapping history, we bring a contest where professionalism is expected, not hoped for.






Section I
Map Creation



Section II
Map Submission



Section III
Miscellaneous Rules












Section I
Overview

To begin, the senior judge distributes maps to all of the judges. After this has been done, all judges must participate in a multi-player judging function. Open to the general public, this judging function is held in the private channel Op SEN. Games will be hosted with a password, but any and all are welcome to attend, even participants.

Judges then submit their scores before a set date to the senior judge, who then posts a combined average and general consensus; scores by individuals will not be posted. These scores will be posted no later than one week after the contest's end.

24 Hour Grace Period
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To promote fairness, there is a 24 hour grace period after scores have been posted. If you feel you have received a score unfairly or there has been a misunderstanding, you may contest your scores with the senior judge. Scores are subject to change during this period.

After the grace period has ended, scores are final and may no longer be changed. Prizes will also be distributed no later than 48 hours after the grace period has ended (this does not apply to mineral prizes sponsored by SEN).


Section II
Judging Criteria

Aesthetics (30)
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The looks and appeal: terrain and spell-effects are an integral part of this score.

Design (20)
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The planning and conception; this score reflects thought and creativity.

Function (30)
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How well systems perform, their level of quality, and ease-of-use. This is the map's implementation and "practical" score.

Theme (5)
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The map must adhere to the theme, get too low in this category and your map may be dropped from the contest.

Professionalism (15)
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Grammar and consistency. This category evaluates not only if the map is complete, but also if it is well-structured.






Submission without Protection
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Attach your map in an email with the title Contest 1-1 <SEN username> (e.g., Contest 1-1 Sacrieur) and send it to [email=SENRampage@gmail.com].

Submission with Protection
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You must submit an unprotected copy of your map to be eligible for prizes. However, distribution of only a protected copy is an option. Only the senior judge will have access to the unprotected copy and it will not be shared with other judges. At the end of your unprotected map's name, add [U]. Attach both the unprotected and protected maps to an email with the title Contest 1-1 <SEN username> [P] (e.g., Contest 1-1 Sacrieur [P]). The unprotected map will be deleted immediately after the grace period has ended.

If you do not wish to submit an unprotected map, contact the senior judge to discuss other options.

















Three Strike Rule
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All maps must adhere to the theme. Noncompliance will result in a strike and your entry to be dropped. After three strikes, you will be banned from future contests.






Maps are given one of six ranks represented by level of quality. Based off of average percentage scores, they are easily calculated. At the top tier, maps are works of true art, perfection, and genius; all aspects are perfect or near-perfect. At the bottom tier, maps are poorly constructed and unrelentingly inane.

Tiers

ω-tier: 96-100%
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α-tier: 91-95%
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β-tier: 81-90%
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γ-tier: 71-80%
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δ-tier: 61-70%
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ε-tier: 0-60%


Prizes

Rampage is a contest of a more serious nature, and a contest of a more serious nature deserves prizes of a more serious nature. Winners are granted more minerals than traditional one-week contests and a grand prize, given to the first place winner, is something of a real non-virtual value.

Grand Prize

This week's prize is a Razer Sphex mouse mat ($15 value).



1^st Place

• Razer Sphex mouse mat (or $5 cash).
  
• $10 cash.
  
• 60 minerals.
  

2^nd Place

• $10 cash.
  
• 35 minerals.
  

3^rd Place

• $5 cash.
  
• 20 minerals.
  

Post has been edited 7 time(s), last time on Oct 11 2011, 4:45 am by Sacrieur.

This could get me back into mapping idk.

You were in the contest I hosted a little over a month ago

What is your policy on having participants use audio (voice acting, music) made by other people? If it's cited somewhere visible in the map, is it okay, or does that fall into the 'mapping teams' category?

To clarify, I meant audio created specifically for the map to be submitted.

All work must be created during the week of the contest by the participant. You may not use audio or music created by someone else.

What about, for example, using MIDIs as background music? If it has to be created ourselves, then what if we make a perfect MIDI cover of said MIDI track? What if we use a track that's free to use? What if we take said track and modify it extensively?

I'm just wondering what the extent of this is. Remember when you played through the first part of Autocracy RPG, with the custom music throughout? They were songs from classic NES games like Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, and Castlevania. At the end is a metal remix of a Touhou song. I don't think the map would have been as good without them.

Especially for RPGs, needing all original music would be incredibly limiting. Unless you're just talking about custom content, whereas using content publicly available to everyone is different, or you're just referring to voice audio. I guess I'll just wait for a clarification

He did explicitly say 'audio or music'.

Well it's doubtful much can be done for music in a week. For the previously mentioned map, I submitted it to the RPG contest, and simply converting all the music into a usable form for StarCraft and general trigger use took an entire day (had a looping system in place which had to be able to fade-in and out at any time to fade-in and out other music, but still).

I couldn't imagine anyone being able to compose decent original songs and still having time to convert them properly, implement them well, and then having time to flesh out a great map in addition to that (unless it wasn't that extensive in scope, or if they have literally nothing else to do for the entire week maybe). Not to mention, the old school nostalgia factor was part of the experience to compliment the overhead flip-screen system.

I would guess there is some kind of distinction between someone making custom music and audio specifically for your map for you, and you yourself downloading and editing music or audio that is both well-known and publicly available. I guess we'll see though.

In future contests it may be permitted, but in this one it is not.

I'll explain. Audio and music is great. Really, it is. But why should I give you extra points for putting in audio that someone else created? I shouldn't, it's not fair in the slightest. I do realize, however, that the correct application of music (FF music in FF game) could be given extra points. But the original rules were clear on how you should make your maps, and I feel changing those after releasing the contest is unprofessional.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 2 2011, 4:47 am by Sacrieur.

Alright, so what is we compose an original track ourselves which is a cover of a preexisting song?

That would be acceptable according to the rules. The work was done by you, even if the knowledge of the music is not.

Alright, thanks for the info =P

Wtf? Real-life prizes? Holy shit, who put them up?

Im tempted to join this just to try to snag that 10$.

No offense, but I think everyone here would rather snag 15$ than a mouse pad. First place winners are going to want and give their 1st place to the 2nd place. Then the 2nd place is going to be like, ah hell na, you keep your first place prize. I want mah 10$.

Gifting Steam Games within a 15$ range limit might be an alternative.

Also, I am considering participation.

Mouse mat is exchangeable for $15.

EDIT:

Mouse mat is no longer exchangeable for $15. 1st place now comes with $10 prize as well as mouse mat.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 3 2011, 12:44 am by Sacrieur.

This theme is gonna be hard to do O.o

Really? I think it has a lot of possibility...it's not like tanks are a rare thing to have a game about, after all.

Whether or not I can find any free time between now and the 9th, though, is another matter entirely...

I'd probably enter except for being sick as a dog right now

You shouldn't have partied so hard