Sonic Hacking Contest 2016 - THE RESULTS

Evaluations are still coming in, and we're happy about it. I do want to make a quick note, though: Worst hack trophy's very likely going away, so please stop suggesting renaming it. Have some class with the suggestions instead of trying to kick around people with renaming suggestions, because despite this year being a trainwreck in quality, the event's supposed to have some class to it. As an old friend once said, "Keep it Classy".

 

Hey guys, I love all your potential Media Panel Suggestions, I really do. I would like to make note though, I've seen a few of you asking for MegaGWolf, Johnny, and RedHotSonic as part of the media panel. Fun fact guys, they already were!!! We made your dreams come true before the 2017 contest even started =V

Real talk, I want to take a notable cue from a lot of people asking for Cobanermani456. We tried contacting him, but he never responded back. He was with us I believe last year, so you know, anything is possible. We're working hard on getting him and a lot of new faces for next year, so keep the suggestion coming.


I would like to add, from reading a few evaluations, I'm seeing the words "biased" and "bigotry" being thrown around in a few evaluations. Hilarious might I add, but a little concerning. The other reason for this post is about streams content.

Here's the deal, we are human, and we are entitled to say whatever the fuck we want. We, well at least the rest of the media panelists, try to keep things rather tame. However, what people need to understand is that a lot of the more "adult" humor being thrown around is either tongue in cheek, extreme, or utterly sarcastic. If you honestly think any of us are bigots, then you clearly don't belong around anybody near here. On a personal note, I am well known for more over abundance of making humorous jabs at things people would call "controversial." However, I never mean anything seriously, unless it's clear I am not joking. So all this talk about bigotry, tl;dr, get over it. If SonicBoom, the guy who designed the sombrero badniks, is a Mexican, and finds all these supposed "racist" things hysterical, then y'all can grow some tougher skin as well. Seriously people, bigotry? Come on now.

As far as bias goes, we don't let personal grievances cloud our judgement. We give credit where credit is due. If we said your hack was shit, it wasn't because we have it out for you, your hack was just shit. Sorry, I'm not gonna sugarcoat things, but if we were heavily against any hacks, it's because they legitimately pissed us off. Royameadow's works pissed us off because we couldn't play them normally, and when some of us could finally play it, it ended up giving us eye aches. Blue Knuckles pissed us off because it was hot garbage that could be made in about 5 minutes. The rest infuriated us because of how basic they were. There is no bias, shit hacks were shit.

All in all, we work hard to get shit together, but you guys need to get your shit together as well. The judges' attitude is reflected by the quality of the entries.

In summary, remember, when life gives you shitty hacks, make sombreros!

 

Just a reminder that we are still looking for your evaluation of this contest. You have until the end of Sunday 20th November to do this.

 

May I ask why is my Mini contest entry not in the archive?

 

I haven't seen your entry and it wasn't included in your vote, you might have not got it in or time or Cinossu overlooked it when grabbing the entries, feel free to post it in the Mini Hack thread instead.

Don't worry, we intend to be using the website for Mini Contest submissions next time.

 

That's not my mini-contest entry! I've provided my actual entry below. Enjoy!

 

cinossu, ur so evil

 

Seems there have been a lot of botches this year in regards to the Mini Contest, can only apologise over them.

Next year this won't be a problem as the new site will be handling the Mini Contest entries.

 

Alright, we're down to the last day of evaluations. Get them in if you haven't done so yet.

 

Hey yall. I'm back from Limbo. And this time, it's time to take things seriously. Unlike every other forums I started, my first post is not gonna be a showcase of one of my projects. This time, I'm gonna review of the entries that won a trophy. Please forget what I did back before this post, as I'm past that and I'm trying to do way better.

Anyways, unlike my review of all of the entries at Retro, this is gonna be an actual review. The only hacks I'm not reviewing are Sonic Bash and Eggmanland, as I don't have any friends to play with me, and I don't own Generations on my computer. I'll try to be as fair as possible, but please understand that this is my own opinion. Don't like it, well too bad.

Welp, let's hope that I actually become a member, and I get through this trialist phase nicely

Spoiler: The review itself (Warning: Is really long)

Hidden Palace, Eggman, Emerald, and Newtrogic High Trophy (including Lava Reef Commuinty Trophy)
Sonic: Scorched Quest (SHC'16 pre-final) by Team Painto

When this hack didn't win anything last year, I was kinda disappointed because it didn't get the attention it deserved. Now, seeing that it won more than 5 trophies, I feel really happy for Painto. This hack is just brilliant. The art, the levels, the music. Everything about it is great. The level layouts were good and pretty challenging, the bosses were (though some felt kinda repetitive) interesting, and the new features make it wonderful. Though there are a few problems, they're mostly nitpicks. I can't wait to see this hack be completed, I really enjoyed playing through this one.

Wood Zone and Wing Fortress trophy
Sonic: Virtual Adventure (SHC 2016 Demo) by Ladego Team

Alright, let me just say that I don't really like this hack all that much. It's not bad, in fact it's very good, it's just that to me it was just... eh. When it comes to the quality of the rest of the entries, this is one of the best and it completely deserved the Wood Zone trophy, but compared to tons of other hacks I've seen, it's just... bleh. First off: the level layouts. I love them. They're fast paced, they flow nicely, and I actually know what I'm doing when going through them. I'll say that these are the best level layouts, and if it weren't for one problem I'll be going into in a second, and the fact that this game is short, I would have voted this for the Lava Reef trophy. Second off: the music. It's great, but not the best. Not only are there very few tracks, but some of them I don't like, and there isn't even a sound test where you could listen to them, which sucks. Anyways, finally, it's the one bit which keeps me from liking this game: the emerald hunting. Similar to Knuckles Emerald Hunt, you have to search for 3 pieces of an emerald. You have to search for them in the first 2 acts, with you not having to look for any on the 3rd act. One problem though is that the rest of the game isn't designed for it. You know how I said that the level layouts were fast paced? Well, now you have to slow down and look for emerald pieces, otherwise the level loops and you have to go through the whole stage all over again. It wouldn't be such a problem if the levels weren't long and had more back tracking involved (without having to make the level loop). It doesn't help how Sonic's moves support going fast, and how the level is fast paced. If you're a first time player, and haven't read the entry page for this, then expect to not notice that the level actually loops. Because the level layouts are so good, some people didn't even realize that it just looped (see RedHotSonic's stream). Anyways, this game is fine, just please get rid of the emerald hunting gimmick. It just doesn't work for the game at all.

Dust Hill, Green Hill, and Tails Trophy
Untitled Sonic 1 Hack by the sexy jubbalub

Back in 2015's contest, this hack was just.. eh. It was pretty bad (though not as bad as most of the stuff this year), and a lot of people didn't like it very much. Now, it has really improved, to the point in which that honestly, it's my second favorite hack in this year (better than Virtual Adventure that's for sure). The level layouts were great, besides a few problems, for example in what I think was Recolor Hill Zone Act 2 or 3, I jumped into a wall and fell into it. The music is alright but not too exciting. It disappoints me that jubbalub didn't put a remix of Green Hills/You Can Do Anything in this. There was one in an earlier version, why isn't there one here? Oh, and art. It's ok. Love that he actually bothered to change most of the dirt in Recolor Hill Zone (which a lot of entries in this contest including mine didn't do). Also love the art for Not Labyrinth Zone even though it's probably taken from somewhere else. Anyways, I'm hoping to see this be completed, as it is really good. Still waiting for the Green Hills remix though :V

Windy Valley Trophy
Pantufa the Cat - Extended Edition by the really hot VAdaPEGA

Alright: Let me get this out of the way and say that the art in this game is AMAZING. Pretty much everything VAda does is amazing. The music in this game as well is also great, though there's a few tracks I don't like (such as the new Pipes of Green track). Besides, that, there isn't much to say about this game. It's really short. Once you get past Pipes of Green, you start playing Green Hill Zone, and it just eventually goes on to the regular Sonic 1 levels. I like how VAda actually bothered to change most of the graphics to fix with the new palette. Anyways, if you want to stare at the art in this game and question how VAda even does all this (especially considering he said he did this all in MSPaint), but if you want an actual hack, then try out the games above (they're pretty much the best in this contest)

Lava Reef Trophy
Pepsi in Sonic 1 by the loser that is Unlimited Trees

Ok, so I'm not actually gonna review this (since this is my own game), but rather ask: why? Why did this win the Lava Reef Trophy? Although personally there's a few layouts which I'm proud of, there are a few levels in the game which make me ask why this won the Lava Reef trophy, instead of the many other hacks which won. Look, I'm not mad or anything, in fact I'm glad that I won a trophy that isn't the Big Trophy, I just gotta ask why did the judges think my hack had the better layouts. I actually want some answers.

Genocide City Trophy
Tails Adventures for Über Players by Bakayote

So this is gonna be the first short review. I never actually played Tails Adventures, nor the hacks of it that were entered. In fact, when I played a small bit of this game before writing this review so I could get a gist of it, it was the first time I played it. Anyways, onto the game itself, it's basically Tails Adventure but hard. I didn't even get past the first level before quitting out of the game. I don't have much to say. If you want a hard version of Tails Adventures, well then there you go. Have fun, I guess.

11000101 and Spindash Trophy
Sonic Pocket Winter by ValleyBell

Note that I'm basing my opinions on streams of people playing it, as I don't have an emulator to actually run this. So, it's the first hack of Sonic Pocket Adventure. Kinda surprised it took us this long to get to it. It's pretty basic at the moment. It has a playable Knuckles, which is neat, though there's a lot of sprites missing. There's also a playable Tails... in single player. Also pretty neat. It has a palette change of the first level, and the boss is even slightly modified (keyword slightly). Like the Pantufa one there isn't much to say besides art edits, and some other stuff. There's music, I guess. Eh.

Casinopolis and Polygon Jim Trophy
The Radikal Ralakimus Hack Pack (WOW!) - Volume 1 by Ralakimus & Bakayote

It's the one meme hack that has actual effort into it. Ya know, I'm surprised that the null vote didn't win the Polygon Jim Trophy, because in my opinion non of the hacks this year were "unique", including this one. It's just another lol meme hack by Rala. It has a few jokes. I chuckled at a few of them. I also got amazed to find out that I'm in this game sorta not really though. Anyway's, it's a meme hack. Not much to say. When are we getting to the entries that I actually have something to say abou-

Big the Cat Trophy
Roya Rockwood's Sonic Mega Collection by Royademfuck

-oh. Welp. This game. Oh... this game. So, there's a history with this game. A few months ago Roya posted this at SSRG (including a huge novel-worth of text), and he got a lot of shit. And then he posted his texture pack for Sonic Adventure 2, in which he got some shit (mostly for his long walls of text he kept on posting). So, you think after all that he would realize that maybe his hacks weren't, you know, good enough for the contest. After all, everyone thought it was shit, so what would the streamers, the people who view the contest, and the people who view the streams think? It would be da best gaem evar despite being the exact same as the last version and just like the last version it is still bad? Welp, now we are here, and he has won the Big trophy. Now, what is so bad about this hac- er mod. Well, let's all first understand that this is a texture pack. It does nothing else to the game besides change a few textures. That's it. The same goes for the SA2 mod. And texture packs are basically the palette hacks of 3d games. And what do the rules for submitting an entry say? No palette hacks. How did this get in? How? Maybe the textures were so good that they just HAD to let it in. So, let's start talking about the textures themselv- ok why are they all stretched. Seriously. All of the graphics look stretched and blurry. Roya came up with an excuse for this, but I still don't get it. How do you mess up the graphics that bad? It doesn't help that most of the graphics look like they're taken from a stock photo website. And the graphics that don't look like they're taken from a quick google search for "casino stock image" are images of Roya and his friends. Who are these people? Why are their faces plastered all over the damn place? Why should I care about who these people are? Did Roya even get permission to use them? Are they even his real friends? Well, Roya has once said that yes, he did get permission to use them. However, I'm not sure if he's lying or not, because on his facebook one of his "friends" calls him out for putting them everywhere. If Roya is lying about getting permission then, well then that makes this game even more creepy. Not only are these people who we don't know everywhere in the game, but knowing that non of these people know that they're being paraded around in this game like they're some kind of model, scares me. So, I just realized that this is (ironically) getting really long, so let's conclude this review: This mod is just bad. Not only does it break the rules of the contest, but the actual textures are bad, and the pictures of the random people are creepy (including the cut out head things Roya does all over the place, in the title screen for example). One question a lot of people are asking is why is this a mod of the GameCube game and why for the SA2 texture pack he hacked the GameCube game instead of the Steam version. Maybe it's because the steam version is according to many very slow and stuff, but has anyone actually tried running this mod? Not only do you need the stuff to actually emulate it, but you also need a really powerful computer in order to run it. Why would anyone waste their time for this? Why does this mod even exist? Why did the "superdelegates" even let this in the contest?

Why why why?

Anyways, this year's contest was pretty disappointing. A lot of bad entries (including my own), and the ones that are good aren't Sonic 1 The Next Level-level of good. I'm hoping that next year we see a lot better. In fact, we already know there's gonna be a lot better next year. We got that Lover hack, Pantufa, Scorched Quest, Markey's "Carnival" thing, and tons of other hacks (including one from me ;P) to be waiting for. Plus, the judg- I mean superdelegates are going to start putting more strict rules to keep shit from entering next year. There might not be as many hacks next year, but as long as we see a lot better stuff, then I'm glad. Anyways, here's to another year.

Man, it took awhile just to write all that. I just need to... rest a bit... happy out-of-Limbo everybody!

 

This was a beautiful first post, and I appreciate you putting the reviews in a spoiler tag!

They were very honest reviews.

Your hack won the LRZ trophy because it had a level with a fantastic layout. The trophy can be for a hack as a whole or a single level. It's been that way since the first contest.

Are you interested in judging, Unlimited Trees? I really liked your reviews. They were thoughtful and contained the kind of attention to detail that I like to see in a judge. Obviously, I'd need to talk it over with the other committee members first, but young blood is important for keeping the contest running when Spanner and I are gone.

Again, great first post! I've felt you'd be a nice addition to the community once you shaped up. You remind me of the good memories (however few) I have of the old Sonic Cult forums.

 

And this, dear lurkers, is how you get from Limbo to a SHC judge.

 

I do want to say that even if Ayla has said about judges, we haven't made any decisions about judges for next year and will probably keep to the same as this year unless someone bails out. Then we'll look at potential replacements, there's a few people that have been considered among some people.

 

Unlimited Trees doesn't have the resources to judge (he told me on Discord and didn't want to waste his precious posts on a reply), so he won't be able to help this next year anyway. We've technically lost judges, however, with the changes that we're planning for next year, we're not expecting to need nearly as many.

Also, just a head's up, we've got some very close votes on some final plans for next year (ie, the community is split), so if you have not done an evaluation already, please submit yours!! It takes only a bit of your time, and it helps guarantee a better contest for everyone next year! Here's the link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1inj014R_4C-Ytx8c0FFYCxZ6Wus7TJMQ3A5G19bcxJY

Please be aware that this form is being CLOSED at 12am EST / 5am GMT, so you only have a few hours left to potentially change the contest next year. The issue that has a split vote is pretty significant and, while I can't say what it is, your single vote will decide what happens. The judges even submitted their own evaluations to try to sway the vote one way or another, but the judges themselves are split! Anyway, it's a close race, so please fill yours out if you haven't!! =)

 

Okay, the evaluation period is over. We'll be looking at all these responses to see what we need to do for next year's contest.

Obviously we've got some stuff figured out already, but these responses will also help deal with other things to do with the contest.

As promised, here are the evaluation of all the hacks this year from the judges. Not all judges were able to evaluate all entries due to time constraints, but we hope you will at least appreciate what we've got for you regardless.

 

Ayla, Toot Toot Sonic Warrior was already in Sonic 2 SMS. In fact, Naofumi Hataya based Toot Toot Sonic Warrior on Green Hills Zone from Sonic 2 SMS. So you wanted Sonic 2 ReMastered to have the DA Garden trophy for keeping the music exactly the same.

 

. . .

I must have included an old rating. I actually learned that not long after I wrote that original rating. I'd only ever played the game gear game. I must have forgot to upload the corrected one which actually has an adjusted score as well. My bad! This is also the reason it did not receive my vote for HPZ and was voted for WZ instead.

EDIT: fixed the rating!! Thanks for the head's up!

 

Wow, I'm really pleased will all the positive response I got. I promise next year layouts will be revamped. In fact, layouts you see were mostly made in the last week before deadline expired, they were really rushed. I will be submitting it next year, yeah.




Oh wait... is it just me, or I found Donnie's responses not fair at times? I have seen him praise hacks for original levels alone, saying "this is all i want!!!", but then when it came to my hack, he just plain ignored it? Also, "level design seems harmless"? Does that mean that you thought they weren't changed? Bleh.

Next time I will put a big ass sign before my hack plays saying "LEVELS WERE ACTUALLY MODIFIED OK?"

There were many other instances of that. Do Donnie even realize that Robotnik's Plan B bosses were original, and making bosses is a hard work? I also find it ironic how he says "Robotnik's revenge was better, Plan B was just more porting" WHAT?

Pocket Winter? seems like he's not understanding that doing this wasn't just a matter of following a guide.

Scorched Quest? Let's ignore the changes and say "im sick of it"

I'm really sorry for the salt, but I can't leave it unnoticed... i can forgive a regular person for that, but not a judge.

 

I have to agree with Cat here. A lot of Donnie's criticisms really seem to be from someone who doesn't understand the inner-workings of the Sonic games (and to be fair, he doesn't) but who also hasn't tried to peer into anything beyond the surface of the games. I can understand his general feelings towards certain entries (such as Plan B being underwhelming, which is understandable, everyone has opinions) but then to say it's less technical than Robotnik Returns? A game in which half the work was already done for the creator vs a hack in which the creator had to port everything in and make bosses of his own? The same goes for Pocket Winter. While there are guides for the spindash out there, you can't just copy and paste the code from it into Pocket Adventure for a number of reasons, the least of which being the difference in instruction sets. Again, I get it, it's "more of the same", but to dismiss the technical feats of the hack based on the fact it's just "hacking tropes" is woefully insulting to the creator. Donnie's thoughts and critiques overall seem generalized and shallow, and to be fair, so do SuperEgg's, but in my mind he's shown enough competence to get away with general thoughts or noteworthy moments. Donnie has not. Another really frustrating thing is his utter dismissal of hacks that were in the contest last year. All of the judges did this to a certain extent, but they still gave honest feedback and critique. Donnie's feedback amounted to "we've seen this before, moving on". This is really apparent in his feedback of Scorched Quest, where he just said it was Burned Edition again, and "wasn't sure" if the changes made were "enough".

And this isn't a matter of him disagreeing with the popular opinion that I'm railing against, as I quite disagree with Clownacy's feedback for Plan B, but I understand his frustrations and feel what he said is entirely justified. Going against the grain isn't a terrible thing, but to do so due to a personal lack of understanding or bias is. And I feel that's what Donnie did in his evaluations.

 

Results Page? Results Page!