Sonic Hacking Contest 2018 RESULTS

Discussion in 'Discussion & Q&A' started by Spanner, Dec 3, 2018.

  1. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    All good things must come to an end. This year's Contest Week is over, and here are the results!

    Please note that entry evaluation from the Judges will be coming soon.


    JUDGED TROPHIES

    Hidden Palace Trophy – 1st Place
    Sonic 3 & Knuckles Battle Race by Natsumi and MarkeyJester

    Wood Zone Trophy – 2nd Place
    Prototype Windy Valley by ItsEasyActually

    Dust Hill Trophy – 3rd Place
    Aquarium Park by Skyth

    Angel Island Trophy - Best Mega Drive / Genesis Sonic hack submitted overall.
    Hellfire Saga by Narcologer

    Generations Trophy - Best 3D Sonic game modification submitted overall.
    Prototype Windy Valley by ItsEasyActually
    HONOURABLE MENTION: Aquarium Park by Skyth

    Crystal Egg Trophy - Best 8-bit Sonic hack submitted overall.
    Sonic Eclipse Demo by MrCat

    Mirage Saloon Trophy: Best Sonic Mania modification submitted overall.
    Sonic Mania: The Misfits Pack SHC2018 by Jubbalub
    HONOURABLE MENTION: Sonic 1 Almost Remastered by BonesBurger

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

    Botanic Base Trophy - Best art in a Mega Drive / Genesis hack submitted.
    Among the Others by Unlimited Trees

    Windy Valley Trophy - Best art in a 3D modification submitted.
    Prototype Windy Valley by ItsEasyActually

    Jungle Trophy - Best art in an 8-bit hack submitted.
    Sonic Eclipse Demo by MrCat

    Studiopolis Trophy - Best art in a Sonic Mania modification submitted.
    Sonic Mania: The Misfits Pack SHC2018 by Jubbalub

    D.A. Garden Trophy - Best music in an entry submitted.
    Among the Others by Unlimited Trees

    Lava Reef Trophy - Best level layout in a Mega Drive / Genesis hack submitted.
    Sonic the Hackable by CHRdutch

    Speed Highway Trophy - Best level layout in a 3D modification submitted.
    Prototype Windy Valley by ItsEasyActually

    Gimmick Mountain Trophy - Best level layout in an 8-bit hack submitted.
    Sonic Eclipse Demo by MrCat

    Press Garden Trophy - Best level layout in a Sonic Mania modification submitted.
    Sonic Mania: The Misfits Pack SHC2018 by Jubbalub

    Genocide City Trophy - Most difficult entry (or specific level of an entry if non-applicable) submitted.
    Hellfire Saga by Narcologer

    Azure Lake Trophy - Best multiplayer entry submitted.
    Sonic 3 & Knuckles Battle Race by Natsumi and MarkeyJester

    11000101 Trophy - Best technical / proof of concept entry submitted.
    Emerald Coast in SA2 by MainMemory
    HONOURABLE MENTION: Prototype Windy Valley

    Fang Trophy - Best new enemy/badnik in an entry submitted.
    Hellfire Saga by Narcologer

    Eggman Trophy - Best new boss or mini-boss in an entry submitted.
    Hellfire Saga by Narcologer

    Spin Dash Trophy - Best new ability in an entry submitted.
    Megaman X in Sonic 2 by Pacca
    HONOURABLE MENTION: SADX - Sonic, Shadow and Metal Sonic mod, Gameplay Overhaul by Benji23245

    Carnival Night Trophy - Most innovative game play feature in an entry submitted.
    Sonic 3 & Knuckles Battle Race by Natsumi and MarkeyJester
    HONOURABLE MENTION: Sonic 2 CD Remix by Pacca

    Emerald Trophy - Best Special Stage in an entry submitted.
    Sonic 1 Almost Remastered by BonesBurger

    Wing Fortress Trophy - Best cutscene in an entry submitted.
    STH2006 Project Demo 4 by brianuuu

    Robotnik's Revenge Trophy - Best fresh concept using existing concepts as the backbone in an entry submitted.
    Sonic 3 & Knuckles Battle Race by Natsumi and MarkeyJester
    HONOURABLE MENTION: Sonic 2 CD Remix by Pacca

    Casinopolis Trophy - Most entertaining / fun entry submitted.
    Sonic 3 & Knuckles Battle Race by Natsumi and MarkeyJester
    HONOURABLE MENTION: Megaman X in Sonic 2 by Pacca

    Polygon Jim Trophy - Most unique entry submitted.
    Hellfire Saga by Narcologer

    Tails Trophy - Most improved entry from last year's contest.
    Cthulhu's Island by PineappleArse

    Blaze Trophy - Entry from this year's contest that is felt to have the most potential.
    Sonic Mania: The Misfits Pack SHC2018 by Jubbalub


    Please note that the Advance Trophy was not awarded this year as no handheld entries were submitted.

    COMMUNITY TROPHIES


    Hidden Palace Community Trophy – 1st Place

    Sonic 3 & Knuckles Battle Race by Natsumi and MarkeyJester

    Wood Zone Community Trophy – 2nd Place

    SADX - Sonic, Shadow and Metal Sonic mod, Gameplay Overhaul by Benji23245

    Dust Hill Community Trophy – 3rd Place

    Sonic 2 CD Remix by Pacca

    Angel Island Community Trophy - Best Mega Drive / Genesis Sonic hack submitted overall.

    Sonic 3 & Knuckles Battle Race by Natsumi and MarkeyJester

    Generations Community Trophy - Best 3D Sonic game modification submitted overall.

    STH2006 Project Demo 4 by brianuuu

    Crystal Egg Community Trophy - Best 8-bit Sonic hack submitted overall.

    Sonic Eclipse Demo by MrCat

    Mirage Saloon Community Trophy - Best Sonic Mania modification submitted overall.

    Sonic Mania: The Misfits Pack SHC2018

    Windy Valley Community Trophy - Best art entry submitted.

    Among the Others by Unlimited Trees

    D.A. Garden Community Trophy - Best music entry submitted.

    Among the Others by Unlimited Trees

    Lava Reef Community Trophy - Best level layout entry submitted.

    Sonic Mania: The Misfits Pack SHC2018 by Jubbalub

    11000101 Community Trophy - Best technical entry submitted.

    Sonic 3 & Knuckles Battle Race by Natsumi and MarkeyJester
    HONOURABLE MENTION: SADX - Sonic, Shadow and Metal Sonic mod, Gameplay Overhaul by Benji23245


    Polygon Jim Community Trophy - Most unique entry submitted.

    Hellfire Saga by Narcologer

    Tails Community Trophy - Most improved entry from last year's contest.

    Cthulhu's Island by PineappleArse

    Blaze Community Trophy - Entry from this year's contest that is felt to have the most potential.

    SADX - Sonic, Shadow and Metal Sonic mod, Gameplay Overhaul by Benji23245


    Newtrogic High Trophy - Voted best entry of the Contest by the Media Panel.

    FOUR WAY TIE BETWEEN:
    Megaman X in Sonic 2 by Pacca

    SADX - Sonic, Shadow and Metal Sonic mod, Gameplay Overhaul by Benji23245
    Sonic 1 Almost Remastered by BonesBurger
    STH2006 Project Demo 4 by brianuuu

    EVALUATION


    Like last year, we want YOUR feedback on this year's Contest Week so please take the time to fill out this form and let us know what you thought about this year and what we can look at for next year. So we can get planning for next year sorted out and next year's Contest announced by the end of this year like always, please note the deadline for the evaluation is the end of Sunday 9th December. It won't take you that long to fill out this form, so if you are able to, please do so. There are a few questions new to this year as we gauge feedback on a few ideas in terms of expanding the SHC, so please let us know your views on those too!

    SPECIAL THANKS




      • The Judges – which along with myself were Cinossu, Clownacy, Dandaman955, Dario FF, Melpontro, OrdosAlpha, SuperEgg, and SSF1991 (Donnie) and Twilightzoney. A very solid judging team this year that was able to work together and get the job done. Including more judges with knowledge of 3D modding was a great decision and was obviously needed for this year given the ever increasing amount of them. We aim to expand upon this for next year.
      • Cinossu for continuing his work on the website and providing some excellent new features in addition to what was there last year. More features will be added for next year, so stay tuned.
      • SuperEgg for organising the majority of the media side of things, bringing you the list below of people in the next section. After five years, SuperEgg has decided to step down from judging and media organising, Donnie will be replacing him on the media side of things whilst CodenameGamma will be taking on the vacant Judge spot for 2019.
      • The Media Panel that consisted of AntDude, Donnie (SSF1991), FTCR, Garrulous64, MegaGWolf, Neo Hazard, redhotsonic, SomecallmeJohnny, Stealth, StudioColors, Tails' Channel and VladislavSavvateev as well as AGM (AquelGamerMexicano), Knuckles Channel 3 & Knuckles, premydaremy and SonicYoda of SEGADriven.com. Don't forget to check out their archived content here!
      • Bartman3010 from Sonic Retro, VEDJ_F and Mayor D from Sonic Stadium, Ryan from Tails Channel as well as Tristan Oliver and Ryan Bloom from TSSZ News for providing coverage of the contest.
      • SeanieB for providing server hosting and accommodating us well. Unlike previous years, we had no server issues whatsoever this year. Over 600GB of bandwidth and 35,000 unique IPs were had this week.
      • Selbi for their previous involvement in this year's Hacking Contest.
      • StephenUK for tie breaking the Mirage Saloon Trophy and being available to step in as a Judge this year should the need have arisen, he will be coming in as a Judge for 2019.
      • Titanus on Discord for being awesome.
      • Everyone who submitted to the Contest or Expo, no matter if they won trophies or not.
      • And You…for taking part in the Contest Week.
    We will be back for the Sonic Hacking Contest 2019. Information for that will be posted hopefully by the end of this year. Things continue to get better and better for the Sonic Hacking Contest, so let's keep it going!
     
  2. Baraksha

    Baraksha Well-Known Member Member

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    This was honestly one of the best contests that I expirienced in the last few years. There was a higher emphasis on Quality then Quantity and there were a lot of entries that really felt uniqe then one another.

    This year really peaked my interest and I cant wait for 2019 now. Infact I am not even sure what I can critisize about the contest it self sinse it seemed to have went so smoothly. Even the damn server issues were mostly fixed and thats usualy a staple.
     
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  3. ArcaniaCQ

    ArcaniaCQ Well-Known Member Member

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    I agree with Barak. This year from what I saw went by smoothly and there was no problems overall where I was... Ofc I heard about some small things but that can fixed for the future ofc. I do like the mix of both 2D entries and 3D entries. I'd love to have more bilengual streams to watch tho as I expressed earlier in the week maybe a swedish or like a spanish or french stream would be fun to have... That's just my 2 cents really. Also Congrats to MarkeyJester and Natsumi ofc for the Hidden Palace trophy.
     
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  4. pixelcat

    pixelcat The Holy Cat Jr. Member

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    The only thing I didn't like is how 2D and 3D entries were mixed into the same contest. I said earlier that trying to compare them is simply unfair. Like trying to compare good pasta and good pizza. Too bloody different in terms of how they're made, how they play and what sort of things to expect from them.
     
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  5. EMK-20218

    EMK-20218 The Fuss Maker Exiled

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    I didn't watch all the live transmissions due to time constraints, but I watched most of the streams and I had lots of fun. The quality criteria seem to have been worked well. I'm following the Sonic Hacking Contest since some time ago (perhaps 2011? 2012? I don't remember, but this is the timeline I remember) but this was the first time I had fun with all the projects and they didn't my end in being frustrated after some time playing. I confess it was very hard to vote in the entries this year because of how the quality of the projects was greatly increased in comparison to the projects seen since 2013 to the actuality, but this is the good of the Hacking Contest: The entertainment. Congratulations to all the participants (in special to the winners), to the judging team and to all the social media involved in the project. I'm sure the next years will be even better and even more succeeded than this year was.

    I hope my hack to be done in time for the next contest, cos' I'm really hyped to be back to it, especially between the highest quality projects I'm sure I'll be going to see together with it. Congratulations, guys. See you next year!
     
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  6. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    I think next year we are going to change things by separating the Top Three into 2D and 3D, this would make things a lot more fairer and also mean that we would not need the likes of the Angel Island Trophy, Generations Trophy, etc.

    We can split a few more trophies down too, the 11000101 Trophy is one that is a given for sure.

    Already got a fair amount of evaluation by the way, let's keep them coming!

    Also, I've taken a quick look already and I have noticed some complaints about some entries not being covered well by the Media Panel.

    While we accept a wide variety of entries, the media team may have difficulty with being able to establish proper setups to present more unusual configurations needed for some entries. As such, we can't guarantee that any entry will get shown on streams.

    While they try to show off as much as they can, if entries are particularly problematic or require very specific setups that require specialised and highly advanced configurations, there's no guarantee they can be given similar attention as those that work with more standardised configurations.

    It's not that the entry is considered unequal to its competition; just recognising feasibility. As such, don't get discouraged if your specialised mod doesn't get the screen time that a generic hack does. We try our best, but our media team has limitations.
     
  7. pixelcat

    pixelcat The Holy Cat Jr. Member

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    If you're going that route, then I'd suggest splitting the entries list in two pages or two groups on the same page just so it'd look right, and also having little [2D], [3D] and [Both] badges near the trophy names so people wouldn't get confused.
     
  8. Deactivated Account

    Deactivated Account Well-Known Member Exiled

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    This SHC was amazing, due to there was a great modification from 8-Bits games and implemented new bosses, the 16-Bits also I loved.
    I see some newcomers still are learning about asm and more and I agree with Mr. Cat, I'd like it to the 2D and 3D they were separated in two pages or two groups.
    I think that it would be better there, at the time to download and vote the entries not to confuse them. Another thing that came to my head is this: I'd like it the next SHC would have table stats, as like used in the political elections and show the percentage once voting goes down or up, and when the contest closes down, show the table stats results how in this post. I hope not sounds like a foolishness but that is my idea for now unless there is something similar.
    Congratulations to the winners!
     
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  9. Clownacy

    Clownacy Retired Staff lolololo Member

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  10. Donnie Paradox

    Donnie Paradox SSF1991 Member

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    Hai! Judge evalutations are almost here. The judges that haven't completed theirs yet have until the end of this Sunday to do so. They'll be made public after that or on early Monday. So you'll be able to see them in the next day or two.
     
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  11. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    Anyone who has not done an evaluation yet but wants to, you have a few hours left.

    I am closing the submissions early Monday morning, and then the judges will discuss what changes to make for next year's Contest and Expo, which will be announced in a few weeks time.

    Following the closing of submissions, the Judges' evaluations for each Contest entry will be posted. Whether you agree with what they will say or not, this is their own views on the entries.
     
  12. MarkeyJester

    MarkeyJester ♡ ! Member

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    Why is there a deadline for submitting feedback?
     
  13. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    Because it's used to compile the 2019 Contest. We have done this for a few years now, it's not anything new.

    If you missed out, let me know.
     
  14. MarkeyJester

    MarkeyJester ♡ ! Member

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    I did miss out yeah,

    I'll let it go, but just for the record, I didn't really feel that answered my question...
     
  15. StephenUK

    StephenUK Working on a Quackshot disassembly Member

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    Work starts almost immediately regarding new changes, as discussions take place between the contest staff and sometimes the media panel regarding the feedback to see what can be changed, implemented and such, and then depending on the scale of such changes the work needs to be carried out and things may need to be set up with regards to the next contest. The earlier this is done, the less chance there is of something not being implemented or any problems occurring during the contest. That's not to say that suggestions still can't be made at a later date, but the feedback is more useful when the contest is fresh in peoples memory and not left until the last minute. I was involved with the early stages of this years contest and will be a involved with next years, and it surprised me how early on things get under way for the next contest. I can only assume this is the reason behind the deadline.
     
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  16. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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  17. EMK-20218

    EMK-20218 The Fuss Maker Exiled

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    I'm reading, and, oh, I became seriously surprised when I read some of the evaluations mostly in Unlimited Trees' hack because I didn't even reach the end of the game because of its hard and very tiring final boss. Although, I'm not really surprised with most of the evaluations given. I imagined some of them would be received pointing to the experience I had playing all the contest's submissions of which a little of them ended in frustration due to certain specific circumstances such as lazyness from the programmer's side.
     
  18. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    Unlimited Trees outright frustrated a lot of people with his entry, he pissed away a possible top three spot with his mopey "woe is me I can't get anyone to make a boss for me, I wanted people to have these reactions to this" attitude. People were also concerned about him as well, to put this kind of stuff in an entry...

    I'm sure a lot of people know that he got banned on here months ago for being an immature prick who didn't want to listen to the staff despite being told that repeated infractions would mean a ban, which he got, only that it was temporary at first and he wanted it to be permanent, how ungrateful.

    Hell, I don't think he'll listen to the rather scathing evaluation that many judges have put in. I had people ask me why his entry was even allowed to be in the contest after the shit he put in later on. Pulling the entry out (or moving it to the expo) would have been a very controversial move considering all the good work that he had put in. I didn't want to do such a thing.

    I'm disappointed, he is a very talented individual, but he is in serious need of an attitude adjustment. I hope he does well with what he wants to do in the future though.
     
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  19. Devon

    Devon Down you're going... down you're going... Member

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    Yeah, I have to agree that the ending was absolutely unnecessary. Hell, I don't think I was aware of it despite being involved, actually!
     
  20. AURORA☆FIELDS

    AURORA☆FIELDS so uh yes Exiled

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    Not moving it to expo I think was just about as controversial anyway. The message at the end was just more shitposty bait and really was like a child wrote it. Oh wait. Anyway its not like I really care that much myself but it does reflect badly on the contest itself, I think.
     
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