Cinossu has finally got the Results page up at the top of the site complete with banners showcasing the winners....and null votes.
If you wanted to know what the Judges thought about all these hacks, take a look at the Judges Evaluation link on the right of this page.
Also we have closed the public evaluation of the Hacking Contest and Contest Week one week after the end of the contest and we will be taking these responses into consideration for the 2017 Contest, which we hope to announce in December.
At 8pm GMT / 3pm EST / 12pm PST will be the Live Results Show of the Sonic Hacking Contest 2016.
As usual it will be on MegaGWolf's stream so join us there and find out first who the winners are. We may have a few special guests on air too alongside the judges and media team.
After the Results Show, the results will be posted on Sonic Retro, SSRG as well as on this website.
One of our people on the Media Panel, sonicyoda of SEGADriven.com, has made a few videos this week discussing some of the Hacking Contest entries this year.
Alright, so due to some suspicious spikes in voting, I did some queries and found something I don't like seeing. Apparently at least one entity has been making duplicate accounts and stacking votes for some community trophies. I'm going to say this once as a warning: If we find people trying to rig the community trophies, they're earning instant bans. If we see that an entry keeps getting artificially boosted by these bad votes, the entry will be disqualified. You try to fuck with a fair system, punishments will be dealt severely.
Remember, Saturday is the last day to get your community trophy voting in. After that, it's all over, and we will announce the results live on Sunday alongside the Judged Trophies.
Sorry about the delay, the disassembly we're using for this required a few things done to it before we could roll with this.
So basically, a lot of the judges feel that in regards to level layouts, some people are just half-assing them by using the original layout and then modifying bits and pieces of it. This mini contest is a challenge to anyone who wants to take part in it - create a new level layout of Scrap Brain Zone Act 1 FROM SCRATCH!
If you want to take part, you must use this disassembly provided here. The level layout of Scrap Brain Zone Act 1 has been completely wiped, so you'll have a blank canvas to work with. You must only edit the level layout and nothing else in this mini contest entry.
For those asking about editing chunks, we would prefer you to use the original chunks, as we feel that SBZ has everything you need, but if you absolutely NEED to add a new chunk, feel free.
You have until Saturday at 6am GMT / 12am EST (midnight) / 9pm PST (Friday) to submit your finished work consisting of the edited disassembly to shc[@]sonicresearch[.]org (remove the square brackets). The judges will evaluate the entries during the day on Saturday and we will announce a winner on the Results Show on Sunday.
A reminder that the Big the Cat Community Trophy is for the worst entry submitted overall and not for whatever hack that has Big the Cat in it...unless that hack really is awful, which would be questionable given other entries in the contest.
Remember, you CAN change your vote if you want to!
Spanner and the rest of the Hacking Contest team will be presenting a stream on Sunday at 7pm GMT / 2pm EST showcasing hacks from previous years of the Sonic Hacking Contest, a day before the Contest Week goes live!
Here is our lineup for the streams for the Contest Week. Bear in mind these may change at any time if anything comes up that would cancel a stream or if we are able to bring in more streams. You will be able to access all streams by clicking on the Streams link at the top of the page.
You can access the schedules (in GMT, EST and PST time zones) by going to the right hand side of this page.
Our judges have been working through this year's entries for the last few weeks and our Media Panel have been preparing their stuff for the Contest Week too. As the Contest Week quickly approaches, here are a few things to note:
● On Saturday, we will open our official Discord Server to the public. Aside from the forum threads, this will be the only place to chat about this year's contest, there is no IRC Channel this year.
● Also on Saturday we should be able to reveal our streaming lineup for this year. Just like previous years, there will be various streams taking place during the day and night.
● I am intending on doing a stream this Sunday which showcases hacks that have been entered in previous years. It will take place from 7pm GMT / 2pm EST.
● There will be a Mini Contest during the Contest Week, for anyone considering working on something during the week. Find out what it entails this Monday.
Oh and for all the social media nutjobs out there, we have a Facebook and Twitter for you to get involved with. Don't ask us why it took this long for these pages to surface.
Okay, that's it, the updates deadline is over. If you did not mark your entry as something other than Incomplete, your hack is no longer part of the contest and won't be judged. As always, here is the list of entries this year, all entries will be available to play on the Contest Week from Monday 7th to Sunday 13th November.
All entries have been designated Public meaning that everyone will be able to download all of the hacks in this year's contest: Read more under the cut!
A reminder that everyone who has submitted to the contest has until the end of Sunday 16th October to refine your entries for judging which will commence after this deadline.
You must have your entry marked as either Public or Partial-Private by this deadline or your entry will not be judged.
A list of all the entries for this year's contest will be displayed once the deadline is over. These entries will be able to played at the Contest Week from Monday 7th to Sunday 13th November.
More details about the Contest Week will be made available very soon, we have been working on getting the streams lined up and also sorting out issues with the website.
As people have been confused with deadlines, we are making Sunday 9th October the LAST day before the deadline expires. In other words, you can still enter to the contest on the Sunday and not worry about not being able to submit.
The cutoff has to be manually done and will be done whenever Cinossu wakes up Monday in the BST time zone so get your stuff in this Sunday and remember the additional week for updates - deadline for that is after Sunday 16th October.
If anyone STILL needs permission to enter the contest (those who are not Full Members of Sonic Retro and SSRG) please post a comment in this news entry and we can get you permission as soon as possible.
We are aware of some site issues that need to be fixed. If anyone has been having problems uploading or attaching an external link, please post a comment in your entry's comment area with the URL and it will be manually attached to your entry.
In order to enter the contest, you must submit a playable entry by Sunday 9th October.
Remember that there is a further week for updates to be made - all updates must be made by the deadline of Sunday 16th October. Those marked as Incomplete at this deadline will not be considered for the contest.
As you may be aware, we have the Contest Week taking place this year from Monday 7th to Sunday 13th November. There are opportunities for everyone to take part in the Contest Week - it isn't a closed door environment. So as a result we are looking for people who could provide additional streams, site reviews, hacking workshops and much more. If you have something you can do during the week we want to know so you can do it. In the past people have done things such as music workshops and level design seminars among other things. You don't need to submit a hack to be part of the Contest Week!
To be a part of the Contest Week with whatever you are interested in doing please contact a judge (preferably myself or SuperEgg as we are more hands on with the contest week) with full details and examples (videos, links etc) of previous work.
Streams can be done at any time including when other streams are on, you just need to let us know what times they'll be on and where they will be at so that they can be added to the website. PLEASE NOTE: Providing streams does not make you part of the Media Panel unless you have been specifically asked to be a part of it.
We are getting a good load of submissions so far, but there is still plenty of time to enter into the contest. So here's a reminder of the two deadlines for the contest:
The submissions deadline for entries will be Sunday 9th October 2016 where you must submit a playable build to download by then to the contest site in order for it to be entered.
You then have a week to refine your entry, fix any issues found and improve your hack which will be Sunday 16th October 2016. Official judging will commence following that deadline.
Remember, you must have a full member account on either Sonic Retro or SSRG to enter into the contest, if you are not a full member but want to participate please contact a judge for permission to enter.
Another year, another hacking contest. Welcome, one and all! Despite changes on both the Retro and SSRG sides of their forum integrations - visible or not - both will still work here, so you do not need to worry. I'm sure other judges will post something other than me, so I shall leave this one short. I look forward to seeing what entries appear in this year's contest, as always!
