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Events / Robot Master Rally - New Creative Contest!
« on: June 13, 2017, 12:41:04 PM »
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Welcome to the Robot Master Rally! This contest will be hosted over the course of a month, from June 23rd, 2017 to July 21st, 2017. This contest is meant to showcase and celebrate the incredible artistic talent in the Mega Man community, and will focus on art and music, not level design.
Inspired by the successful Make A Good Mega Man Level contest series, this contest hopes to continue the idea of friendly competition, in a hopefully more organized and structured manner.
Let’s jump straight into the rules! Before you, the potential entrant, are concepts for 6 robot masters. 2 of the concepts have been fleshed out and given music done by ourselves in the contest staff, but the other 4 are up to you, the community, to design and compose for. The unfinished concepts have a detailed text description of the robot master’s theme and functionality, as well as a stage tileset. These references are meant to assist you all in your designing and composing escapades.
You, potential entrant, can submit up to 3 times, but only twice in a single category. For example, you could submit 2 designs and a song, or 2 songs and a design, but not 3 songs, or 3 designs. You also cannot submit two separate entries for the same concept. This is to prevent any one entrant from becoming too dominant in the contest.
Collaboration is also allowed! A collaborative entry counts for all of the collaborators, so if you submit a song with another person, both of you can only submit two more entries, and only one more song each.
Your entries will be judged upon the following characteristics, out of 50 points. All entries will be judged anonymously, so don’t worry about that old beef you have with one of the judges! Entries will be given a number score in each category, as well as a comment in each category where the judge will offer insight into their score.
ART:
When submitting an art entry, please provide the judges with a sprite of your design in the 8-bit Mega Man style, or a reasonably detailed colored sketch of your design. Sprites do not need to strictly follow NES color limitations, though they must use the provided NES palette (palette will be provided once the contest starts. Off palette entries will be disqualified!) Sketches, likewise, do not need to follow the official “Inafune” art style, but they must be reasonably detailed and depict the details of the robot master properly. Stick figures won’t get you very far!
Style (25/50): How well does your entry honor the aesthetics and style of the Mega Man franchise? Do they look like they could stand with the iconic cast of the original Mega Man, or do they make uncomfortable forays into the world of mecha anime?
Quality (15/50): The simplest category - how good is your artwork? Does it look like something professional, or perhaps something a bit more deviant?
Originality (5/50): How unique and thoughtful is your design? Is it a fresh take on the concept presented, or is it closer to another Metal Man recolor?
Functionality (5/50): Is your design functional? Is it capable of doing everything we require of it in our description, or do their capabilities fall short of the hype, like an Apple product?
MUSIC:
When submitting a music entry, please provide the judges with an .MP3 file at 320 kpbs bitrate. This ensures that the audio quality is consistent for all entries. While having your entry be hardware-accurate to NES capabilities is, as with the art section, not a requirement, it is highly recommended! If your entry loops (which it should!), then please provide at least 2 loops to listen to in your render. If you would like to include additional files with your submission (such as a source file for FamiTracker, or an NSF) then you may, but these will not be judged.
Style (25/50): How well does your entry honor the aesthetics and style of the Mega Man franchise? Does it sound like it’s ripped from the iconic soundtrack of Mega Man 2, or does it sound more along the lines of something from Action 52?
Originality (10/50): How unique and thoughtful is your composition? Is it a fresh take on the musical style of Mega Man, or just a reharmonization of Mega Man 2’s first Wily Stage theme?
Composition (15/50): How sound is the composition itself, and how pleasing is it to the ear? Are you a Mozart, or a Corey Feldman?
Of course, there are some rules and regulations.
- - Theft and plagiarism will NOT be tolerated. While the rest of this post has and will be fun and humorous, this is one thing we will take quite seriously here and now. Under no circumstances will entries that copy or steal from another person’s work be tolerated. If it is proven that an entry has been plagiarized in some way, it will result in IMMEDIATE DISQUALIFICATION for the entrant in question, with NO EXCEPTIONS. To repeat, there will be no tolerance for theft or plagiarism. Create your own work, or do not submit at all.
- All entries should be created for this contest. Please do not submit something that has already been uploaded and showcased publicly - this will damage the anonymous nature of the judging.
- - In addition to that, please do not share entries outside of the dedicated channel on the Robot Master Rally Discord server (#entry-showcase). This will further prevent damaging the anonymous nature of the judging.
- Entries that are publicly showcased will be disqualified. Leaking or exposing someone else’s entry will result in disqualification for the leaker.
- - The contest may be extended in part if a specific category does not receive enough entries. For example, if the “fire” concept does not receive enough entries in the music category, the contest will be extended for this category alone for another 2 weeks. The entry restrictions will also be lifted.
Judging will occur between July 24th, 2017 and August 4th, 2017. On August 5th, 2017, the results will be showcased in a livestream. In the case of a tie, the contest organiser (myself) will break the tie, and he will submit his own comments.
Please leave your questions and comments in the thread! More information is to come on the 23rd once the contest opens, such as the specific themes of the Robot Masters you all will be designing. Hope to see everyone entering!