Sonic Hacking Contest 2016

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Sonic the Hedgehog Hacking Contest 2016

For the last few years the Hacking Contest has been getting better and better with features such as live streaming from well known names and community voting. We want as many people as possible to get involved so a thread on Sonic Stadium would help a lot. I have been advised by Azoo that just like with SAGE 2016, an admin will be creating a sub-forum to discuss Hacking Contest entries very soon, so let's get things going first with this thread. Please excuse me for any formatting issues, IPB is a pain to use nowadays...

JUDGES
This year's judges will consist of myself, Ayla, Cinossu, LazloPsylus, Shannon, SuperEgg and SSF1991 (Donnie) along with new judges amphobius (DalekSam) and Clownacy. This judge list is not final and additional judges may be recruited to replace former judges who have left the contest due to retiring or other reasons – do not ask to be a judge as that just rules you out. If we think you're up to the job, we'll talk to you.

This team will be reliable and will be able to deal with contest judging as soon as possible in order for us to progress through the contest and get the results out as soon as possible. Judges will be able to submit their own hacks, but will not be able to judge it themselves, nor will they be able to judge submissions that they have been involved with (such as team hacks).

Please note that the final decisions are subjected to the Judging Team, and may not reflect your own opinion, so if one hack wins a whole load of trophies like last year, well that’s what the judges thought should have won. Judges may change at any time due to unavailability or other reasons.

TROPHIES
First are the normal trophies. Please note that any level specific trophies are now hack specific meaning they no longer go by individual levels in a hack. Judges will allocate a winner to each trophy and if a particular entry that missed out has enough support as a runner-up an Honourable Mention will be added as well.

Hidden Palace Trophy
Grand prize / 1st place. This is given to the overall best hack in the contest.

Wood Zone Trophy
2nd place.

Dust Hill Trophy
3rd place.

Green Hill Trophy
Hack (or specific level of a hack if non-applicable) that plays most like a Sonic game.

Windy Valley Trophy
Best art in a hack submitted.

D.A. Garden Trophy
Best music in a hack submitted.

Lava Reef Trophy
Best level layout in a hack submitted.

Genocide City Trophy
Most difficult hack (or specific level of a hack if non-applicable) submitted.

Azure Lake Trophy
Best multi-player hack submitted.

Generations Trophy
Best 3D Sonic game mod.

11000101 Trophy
Best technical / proof of concept hack submitted.

Fang Trophy
Best new enemy/badnik in a hack submitted.

Eggman Trophy
Best new boss or miniboss in a hack submitted.

Spin Dash Trophy
Best new ability in a hack submitted.

Carnival Night Trophy
Most innovative game play feature in a hack submitted.

Emerald Trophy
Best Special Stage in a hack submitted.

Wing Fortress Trophy
Best cutscene in a hack submitted.

Robotnik's Revenge Trophy
Best fresh concept using existing concepts as the backbone in a hack submitted.

Casinopolis Trophy
Most entertaining / fun hack submitted.

Polygon Jim Trophy
Most unique hack submitted.

Tails Trophy
Most improved hack from last year's contest.

COMMUNITY TROPHIES
These trophies are trophies that are awarded by the community during the Contest Week. In order to vote you must have an account at either Sonic Retro or Sonic Stuff Research Group (SSRG). If you have accounts at both places, please only use one to do voting - we can check for fraud after all.

Hidden Palace Community Trophy
Best hack submitted overall.

Big Community Trophy
Worst hack submitted overall.

Windy Valley Community Trophy
Best art hack submitted.

D.A. Garden Community Trophy
Best music hack submitted.

Lava Reef Community Trophy
Best level layout hack submitted.

11000101 Community Trophy
Best technical hack submitted.

Polygon Jim Community Trophy
Most unique hack submitted.

...And there you have it!! The only other incredibly important thing to mention at this point in time would be the rules of this hacking contest. These are generally the same as last year's with a few changes:

RULES
1. Your entry must be based on an existing Sonic the Hedgehog ROM or game. No homebrew submissions will be accepted.
2. No palette hacks - we have moved on from these sorts of hacks and can do far better than that nowadays, plus there is no trophy for palette hacks.
3. Level layout only hacks can be submitted - if you can't do much with your hack and think it can't be submitted, think again. Ask a judge if you're unsure though.
4. Joke hacks along the lines of Sonic 1337 will not be accepted. Feel free to make something humourous though!
5. No Private Hacks. Entries are either Public (Hack can be downloaded) or Partial (media such as screenshots, videos and music only available to the public).
6. You must include media such as screenshots (absolutely mandatory, must include a title screen image), videos (YouTube links are fine) and music (MP3 and VGM preferred). The judges will no longer waste time making screenshots for you.
7. E-mailed submissions will not be accepted. All submissions must be through the online script.
8. All submissions MUST BE PLAYABLE and cannot prevent judges from playing the game. Judges have the right to look at your incomplete work if you submit it, and judges do not allocate trophies based on your incomplete builds, only the last build submitted.
9. Hacks found with stolen content are not tolerated and anyone caught will be dealt with severely and their entry will be null and void. If anyone suspects an entry to have stolen content, contact a judge IMMEDIATELY.
10. These rules can change at any time. Check back often (or at least before you submit something) to make sure they haven't.

CONTEST WEEK - Monday 7th to Sunday 13th November
Like the last few years, the public will have a chance to view this year's entries, download the public hacks and vote for Community Trophies. If you’re planning to debut your submission to the public, you can do it then however nobody can be stopped from releasing earlier. If you want to show it off to the biggest audience around, the Contest Week is your best time for it. From Monday, access the Contest Site at http://shc.sonicresearch.org/ and get involved by playing the entries, watching the live streams and much more. Hacks can be downloaded by anyone, and all entries are public this year, but remember if you want to vote you must have an account at either Sonic Retro or Sonic Stuff Research Group (SSRG).

Regular streamers SomecallmeJohnny and MegaGWolf are returning this year, alongside the debut of redhotsonic (who created the official trailer for the Contest Week) and we will have streams from myself (Spanner), Neo Hazard, Bartman3010, Geek Critique and a very special stream on Saturday that we will leave to speculation until that happens. The Sonic Show will also be producing content as well. The results of the Hacking Contest will be announced on Sunday at 8pm GMT / 3pm EST on MegaGWolf's channel. The full schedule of the streams will be released at the weekend.

If you have any questions please let us know, also feel free to follow our newly-revived Twitter account and like our Facebook page. We also have a Discord Server set up for the Contest Week and you can join this as well.

 

[Guest]

Here is the stream schedule for the Contest Week in GMT, EST and PST time zones.

 

At 7pm GMT / 2pm EST, Spanner and the rest of the contest team as will look at hacks from previous years of the Hacking Contest.

[Spanner]

WE ARE LIVE!
The time has come to download the entries and play them!

Here is the stream lineup for today:
4pm GMT / 11am EST / 8am PST - Spanner
7pm GMT / 2pm EST / 11am PST - redhotsonic
9pm GMT / 4pm EST / 1pm PST - MegaGWolf (please note - first hour overlaps redhotsonic's last hour)
12am GMT / 7pm EST / 4pm PST - SomecallmeJohnny

But what are the entries this year? Well here's the list!

• 137E0 Action 1 Steak by LuigiXHero
• Apotos Unleashed Pack by tuanpingas
• Beta Windy Valley (Sonic Lost World) by SonicOtakuSNG
• Blue Potato the Mcdonalds by Blue Potato
• Doctor Robotnik’s Plan B (REV01) by Painto
• Donnie The Chao Special Edition by Team Overload
• Eggmanland for Sonic Generations by NeKit
• Ivysaur in Sonic 2 by Pacguy
• Knuckles’ Emerald Hunt by MainMemory
• Lose Tails Or Else by GT Koopa
• Metal Sonic Lost World by Joe T.E.
• Pantufa the Cat – Extended Edition by VAdaPEGA
• Pepsi in Sonic 1 by Unlimited Trees
• Pikachu the Mouse by Team Overload
• Robotnik Returns 2 by Pacguy
• Roya Rockwood’s Sonic Mega Collection by Royameadow
• SADX Character Select Mod by MainMemory and SonicFreak94
• SADX Mirror Mode by Morph
• Socket the Hedgeduck by GenesisDoes
• Sonic 1 – Warped World by Team Overload
• Sonic 1: Mania Edition by Baraksha
• Sonic 1: Sonic CD Edition by Animemaster
• Sonic 1 Back to South Island by HyperSonic16
• Sonic 1 Dream Eater by Team Overload
• Sonic 1 NAC Tiny Verison by Joshwoakes
• Sonic 1: Reverse Curse by Campbellsonic
• Sonic 2 – 2 Player Madness by Joshwoakes
• Sonic 2 ReMastered by MrCat
• Sonic 2 UMZ by Trinitronity
• Sonic 3 and Blue Knuckles by Blind\\_Jack
• Sonic 3 and Knuckles: Chaotix Edition by Jdpense
• Sonic 4 in 1 by Natsumi
• Sonic Back 2 The Future by Animemaster
• Sonic Bash! v2 by redhotsonic
• Sonic Chaos Quest v2.0 by Narcologer
• Sonic Frenzy by SteamPoweredPixel
• Sonic Generations – Sonic Colors – Game Land Act 1 Demo by JoeyLaw
• Sonic Halloween by CamManS5
• Sonic Labyrinth 2 by Team Overload
• Sonic Lost World – Green Grove Zone by Knuxfan24
• Sonic Next Genesis by ProjectFM
• Sonic Pocket Winter by ValleyBell and VAdaPEGA
• Sonic the Hedgehog & Ashuro by Ashuro
• Sonic XE by Team XE
• Sonic: Scorched Quest by Team Painto
• Sonic: Time Twister by Team Overload
• Sonic: Virtual Adventure by Ladego Team
• Tails Adventure LX by lordxernom
• Tails Adventures for Über Players by Bakayote
• The Radikal Ralakimus Hack Pack (WOW!) – Volume 1 by Ralakimus & Bakayote
• Unlimited Trees by Unlimited Trees
• Untitled Sonic 1 Hack by jubbalub
• Urban Action: Royan Vacation ’16 by Royameadow
• White Sonic in SK (Sonic 3 Part 2) by Joshwoakes

[Spanner]

Okay, the website was down once again earlier (sorry, it happens on the first day it seems) but it is now back up again. 

Regardless, we now have some externally hosted download packs to refer to should the site go down again and you need your fix.

Click here for just the ROMs and if you want the media included, click this- the password is bui1dTh3W@11! 

Here is the stream lineup for Tuesday:
4pm GMT / 11am EST / 8am PST - Spanner
7pm GMT / 2pm EST / 11am PST - redhotsonic
9pm GMT / 4pm EST / 1pm PST - MegaGWolf (please note - first hour overlaps redhotsonic's last hour)
12am GMT / 7pm EST / 4pm PST - SomecallmeJohnny

6am GMT / 1am EST / 10pm PST - The Geek Critique (early Wednesday morning for most people)

------

Here is our stream lineup for Wednesday:
6am GMT / 1am EST / 10pm PST - The Geek Critique
7pm GMT / 2pm EST / 11am PST - redhotsonic
9pm GMT / 4pm EST / 1pm PST - MegaGWolf (please note - first hour overlaps redhotsonic's last hour)
12am GMT / 7pm EST / 4pm PST - SomecallmeJohnny
3am GMT / 10pm EST / 7pm PST - Neo Hazard

[Spanner]

I do apologise for the triple post, it seems there is not much interest in the contest here which is really disappointing especially when the SSMB once had a ROM Hacking forum back in the day. I'm also sorry for neglecting this thread too but like I said, expected people to post in here and it hasn't happened.

 

Here is our stream lineup for Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday:
7pm GMT / 2pm EST / 11am PST - redhotsonic
9pm GMT / 4pm EST / 1pm PST - MegaGWolf (please note - first hour overlaps redhotsonic's last hour)
10pm GMT / 5pm EST / 2pm PST - Bartman3010 (please note - overlaps MegaGWolf's 2nd and 3rd hours)
12am GMT / 7pm EST / 4pm PST - Saturday Shovelware Stream

Sunday:
8pm GMT / 3pm EST / 12pm PST - Live Results Show with MegaGWolf

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.

 

If anyone has any comments regarding the contest overall this year feel free to let us know, we will have the results posted on here on Sunday - here's hoping I won't have to quadruple post!

[Zaysho]

Decided to move and pin this to the Green Hill Zone. Hopefully that helps with the visibility. Keep it up, dude!

[Spanner]

THE RESULTS!

Now, before we get onto the results, we know that many of us this year can agree on one thing – this contest was not as good as previous years. It is not something that the judges are pleased about, not to mention other issues that have cropped up including the site going down repeatedly. 

Not every hack was bad this year, and the ones that have won trophies this year can easily show that, as well as a few that missed out this year. But overall, many have felt that this year, most people did not bring their A game to the contest, most people half assed a bunch of entries and eventually pissed off pretty much everyone who went near those entries. This is not the fault of the judges, but the people who are submitting this content to us.

We accept that changes must be made for next year and trust me, we've already talked about what to do for 2017, and we will continue to do so for as long as needed until we are satisfied to announce a much improved Hacking Contest for 2017 – the 15th Anniversary. Many entries that were in this year, or even stuff along the lines of entries like some submitted, won't even be allowed for next year. But for now, here are the results of the Sonic Hacking Contest 2016:

Hidden Palace Trophy
1st Place
Sonic: Scorched Quest (SHC'16 pre-final) by Team Painto

Wood Zone trophy
2nd Place
Sonic: Virtual Adventure (SHC 2016 Demo) by Ladego Team
HONOURABLE MENTION: Sonic 2 ReMastered by TheCat (very split decision with this trophy)

Dust Hill Trophy
3rd Place
Untitled Sonic 1 Hack by jubbalub

Green Hill Trophy
Entry (or specific level of an entry if non-applicable) that plays most like a Sonic game.
Untitled Sonic 1 Hack by jubbalub

Windy Valley Trophy
Best art in an entry submitted.
Pantufa the Cat - Extended Edition by VAdaPEGA
HONOURABLE MENTION: Sonic Halloween by CamManS5

D.A. Garden Trophy
Best music in an entry submitted.
NULL VOTE – NO TROPHY AWARDED
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Sonic: Virtual Adventure (SHC 2016 Demo) by Ladego Team, Knuckles Emerald Hunt by MainMemory

Lava Reef Trophy
Best level layout in an entry submitted.
Pepsi in Sonic 1 by Unlimited Trees

Genocide City Trophy
Most difficult entry (or specific level of an entry if non-applicable) submitted.
Tails Adventures for Über Players by Bakayote

Wing Fortress Trophy
Best cutscene in an entry submitted.
Sonic: Virtual Adventure (SHC 2016 Demo) by Ladego Team

Azure Lake Trophy
Best multiplayer entry submitted.
Sonic Bash! v2 by redhotsonic
HONOURABLE MENTION: Sonic 3 & Knuckles: Chaotix Edition by Jdpense

Generations Trophy
Best 3D Sonic game modification submitted.
Eggmanland for Sonic Generations by NeKit
HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Beta Windy Valley (Sonic Lost World) by SonicOtakuSNG; SADX Character Select Mod by MainMemory & SonicFreak94

11000101 Trophy
Best technical / proof of concept entry submitted.
Sonic Pocket Winter by ValleyBell
HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Sonic 4 in 1 by Natsumi; Sonic: Virtual Adventure (SHC 2016 Demo) by Ladego Team; Eggmanland for Sonic Generations by NeKit

Fang Trophy
Best new enemy / badnik in an entry submitted.
NULL VOTE – NO TROPHY AWARDED
HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Pepsi in Sonic 1 by Unlimited Trees; Sonic: Scorched Quest (SHC'16 pre-final) by Team Painto

Eggman Trophy
Best new boss or miniboss in an entry submitted.
Sonic: Scorched Quest (SHC'16 pre-final) by Team Painto
HONOURABLE MENTION: Doctor Robotnik's Plan B (REV01) by Painto

Spindash Trophy
Best new ability in an entry submitted.
Sonic Pocket Winter by ValleyBell
HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Pikachu the Mouse by Team Overload; Sonic & Ashuro by Ashuro

Carnival Night Trophy
Most innovative game play feature in an entry submitted.
NULL VOTE – NO TROPHY AWARDED

Casinopolis Trophy
Most entertaining / fun hack submitted.
The Radikal Ralakimus Hack Pack (WOW!) - Volume 1 by Ralakimus & Bakayote
HONOURABLE MENTION: Sonic Halloween by CamManS5

Emerald Trophy
Best Special Stage in an entry submitted.
Sonic: Scorched Quest (SHC'16 pre-final) by Team Painto


Robotnik's Revenge Trophy
Best fresh concept using existing concepts as the backbone in an entry submitted.
Sonic 1: Reverse Curse by Campbellsonic

Polygon Jim Trophy
Most unique entry submitted.
The Radikal Ralakimus Hack Pack (WOW!) - Volume 1 by Ralakimus & Bakayote
HONOURABLE MENTION: Lose Tails or Else by GT Koopa


Tails Trophy
Most improved entry from last year's contest.
Untitled Sonic 1 Hack by jubbalub


Newtrogic High Trophy
Voted best entry of the contest by the Media team.
Sonic: Scorched Quest (SHC'16 pre-final) by Team Painto

Big the Cat Trophy
Worst entry overall in the contest.
Roya Rockwood's Sonic Mega Collection by Royameadow
HONOURABLE MENTIONS: Unlimited Trees by Unlimited Trees; Blue Potato the McDonalds by Blue Potato; Blue Knuckles in Sonic 3 by Blind_Jack; White Sonic in SK (Sonic 3 Part 2) by joshwoakes; Sonic XE by Team XE; Team Overload (all those underwhelming entries were overkill)


Hidden Palace Community Trophy
Voted best entry submitted overall.
Sonic: Scorched Quest (SHC'16 pre-final) by Team Painto


Windy Valley Community Trophy
Voted best art entry submitted.
Pantufa the Cat - Extended Edition by VAdaPEGA


D.A. Garden Community Trophy
Voted best music entry submitted.
Sonic: Virtual Adventure (SHC 2016 Demo) by Ladego Team


Lava Reef Community Trophy
Voted best level layout entry submitted.
Sonic: Scorched Quest (SHC'16 pre-final) by Team Painto


11000101 Community Trophy
Voted best technical entry submitted.
Sonic Pocket Winter by ValleyBell

Big the Cat Community Trophy
Voted worst entry submitted overall.
Roya Rockwood's Sonic Mega Collection by Royameadow


We would also like to give some recognition to the following hacks:
Sonic 2 ReMastered by TheCat – If we had the 8-bit Trophy this year (it will likely be back next year), this would have won it.
Sonic & Ashuro by Ashuro – You have so much potential, come back next year because this hack could win good by then. If we had a trophy to award to the hack with the most potential, it's this hack.

Scrap Brain Zone Act 1 Mini Contest
Competition to work on a SBZ1 level layout from scratch.
JOINT WINNERS: Natsumi and MegaGWolf


We would like to thank everyone who took part by submitting, the judges, those that streamed during the week, the rest of the media panel and anyone else I've forgotten about. This honestly was a very difficult contest to judge this year, especially with the quality of entries this year, to a point where quite a lot of the judges ended up being completely stressed out by the end of this. 

Let's emphasise this for next year – QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY! We want to have a great contest enjoyable by everyone, not one that just depresses people in the end. With the quality control we intend to implement, I don't see over 50 hacks being submitted next year, but if what we get is a reduced amount of submissions that are very pleasing, then that would be great. 

Don't go all over the place with future entries, some advice to give would be to focus on one zone first, do everything you possibly can with it, and move onto the next zone if you have the time to do so. Remember, hacks like Sonic Boom and Sonic – The Next Level only contained just one zone in their submissions, and they won big. 

All hacks will receive evaluation pages from judges very shortly – due to the issues faced this week we are running a little behind and we hope to have them available to the public by the end of next week. But that's not the only thing getting evaluation, we want YOU to evaluate the contest and the Contest Week, to let us know what should be done for the 2017 Contest. Please submit this form by the end of Sunday 20th November.

That's all for now. After this long week, it's time to celebrate.