Sonic Hacking Contest 2019 - THE RESULTS

Discussion in 'Discussion & Q&A' started by Spanner, Dec 8, 2019.

  1. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    [​IMG]
    Another Sonic Hacking Contest comes to an end…

    Please note that entry evaluation from the Judges will be coming soon. This year they will be on the website, rather than through Google Drive, so please wait for them.


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    Judged – 1st Place
    Sonic 2 Advanced Edit by Team AE

    Judged – 2nd Place
    Hellfire Saga by Hardline Team

    Judged – 3rd Place
    Sonic Gaiden by AeroArtwork


    Community – 1st Place
    Hellfire Saga by Hardline Team

    Community – 2nd Place
    Sonic 2 Advanced Edit by Team AE

    Community – 3rd Place
    Sonic Gaiden by AeroArtwork

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    Judged – 1st Place
    Sonic 2 Advanced Edit by Team AE

    Judged – 2nd Place
    Hellfire Saga by Hardline Team

    Judged – 3rd Place
    Sonic the Hackable by CHRdutch


    Community – 1st Place
    Sonic 2 Advanced Edit by Team AE

    Community – 2nd Place
    Hellfire Saga by Hardline Team

    Community – 3rd Place
    SONIC AND THE MYSTIC GEMS (project S.A.M.G.) by Harder Project


    Judged and Community - Best Visual - Entry voted to have the best graphical work
    Sonic 2 Advanced Edit by Team AE

    HONOURABLE MENTION FOR COMMUNITY: Hellfire Saga by Hardline Team


    Judged - Best Audio - Entry voted to have the best sound work
    SONIC AND THE MYSTIC GEMS (project S.A.M.G.) by Harder Project

    Community - Best Audio - Entry voted to have the best sound work
    Hellfire Saga by Hardline Team

    Judged and Community - Best Technical - Entry voted to have the best technical work
    Hellfire Saga by Hardline Team

    Judged and Community - Best Level Design - Entry voted to have the best level design work
    Sonic 2 Advanced Edit by Team AE

    Best Voted by Media Panel
    Sonic 2 Chaos Adventure by JDpense
    SONIC AND THE MYSTIC GEMS (project S.A.M.G.) by Harder Project
    Sonic 2 Advanced Edit by Team AE


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    Judged and Community – 1st Place
    Sonic Adventure 2: Randomizer by Prahaha

    Judged and Community – 2nd Place
    SA2: Blazy Mix by Darkybenji

    Judged and Community – 3rd Place
    Sonic 06 Legacy of Solaris by JotaroPowered


    Judged and Community - Best Visual - Entry voted to have the best graphical work
    SA2: Blazy Mix by Darkybenji

    Judged - Best Technical - Entry voted to have the best technical work
    Sonic Adventure 2: Randomizer by Prahaha

    Community - Best Technical - Entry voted to have the best technical work
    2P ShadowTH 2.0 by dreamsyntax

    HONOURABLE MENTION FOR COMMUNITY: Sonic Adventure 2: Randomizer by Prahaha


    Best Voted by Media Panel
    2P ShadowTH 2.0 by dreamsyntax

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    Judged – 1st Place
    Sonic Gaiden by AeroArtwork

    Judged – 2nd Place
    Sonic Mania: Advanced Quest by Balibali_418

    Judged – 3rd Place
    Amy Mania by troopsushi


    Community – 1st Place
    Sonic Gaiden by AeroArtwork

    Community – 2nd Place
    Amy Mania by troopsushi

    Community – 3rd Place
    Sonic Mania: Advanced Quest by Balibali_418


    Judged and Community - Best Visual - Entry voted to have the best graphical work
    Sonic Gaiden by AeroArtwork

    Judged and Community - Best Audio - Entry voted to have the best sound work
    Sonic Gaiden by AeroArtwork

    Judged and Community - Best Technical - Entry voted to have the best technical work
    Amy Mania by troopsushi

    Judged and Community - Best Level Design - Entry voted to have the best level design work
    SONIC MANIA WARPED by Ggyas2202

    HONOURABLE MENTION FOR COMMUNITY: Sonic Gaiden by AeroArtwork


    Best Voted by Media Panel
    Amy Mania by troopsushi

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    Judged and Community - Most Entertaining - Entry voted to be the most entertaining
    Sonic Adventure 2: Randomizer by Prahaha

    Judged and Community - Most "WTF?!" - Entry voted the most "what the absolute fuck is this?!"
    (traditionally the Polygon Jim trophy)
    I made you a Salad by VAdaPEGA

    Judged and Community - Best Team Entry - Entry voted best that was made by a team
    Sonic 2 Advanced Edit by Team AE

    Community - Best Team Entry - Entry voted best that was made by a team
    Hellfire Saga by Hardline Team

    HONOURABLE MENTION FOR COMMUNITY: Sonic 2 Advanced Edit by Team AE


    Judged and Community - Best Multiplayer Entry - Entry voted to have the best multiplayer functionality
    2P ShadowTH 2.0 by dreamsyntax

    Judged - Best Fresh Concept Using Existing Concepts As A Backbone
    Sonic 2 Advanced Edit by Team AE

    Community - Best Fresh Concept Using Existing Concepts As A Backbone
    Sonic Mania: Advanced Quest by Balibali_418

    Judged and Community - Most Potential - Entry thought to have the most future potential
    Sonic Gaiden by AeroArtwork

    Judged and Community - Most Improved - Entry thought to be the most improved since its last submission in a previous contest
    Hellfire Saga by Hardline Team

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    3D: Judged and Community - Best Audio - Entry voted to have the best level sound work
    3D: Judged and Community -
    Best Level Design - Entry voted to have the best level design

    [​IMG]
    This year was the first year where we revamped the trophy system, splitting the contest into three sections – Retro, 3D and 2D PC. We also changed the trophies in terms of the amount, and of course the fact that the public can now vote for all of the trophies. This was done to make the contest fairer for all, to address last year’s issue with a large amount of 3D entries being submitted…but this year there had been a downturn in 3D submissions, most being SA2 model mods, and no Generations mods whatsoever. We appreciate all submissions however, and hope people can submit next year.

    Unfortunately, we do know there are still some things to iron out here. Fortunately not as much as last year, which had a late start and a late finish. Needless to say next year we’ll be doing the Contest Week earlier than December. We already have some changes ready to go for next year, such as how to address the abundance of model mods, as we know people have made their views on them.

    We omitted a few trophies which meant a few good hacks this year have gone home empty handed, and we’re sorry for that. As all trophies can be voted by the community, it would have been unfair to add some more solely for the Judges, or add them for everyone mid-week or later on which would have meant those who already voted may not end up voting for the newly added trophies.

    Expect trophies for things such as characters and bosses to return for next year, and if you have any others in mind please let us know. There is a Feedback form for a reason, please fill it out whilst it is still open.

    We know that there will be some who aren’t so pleased when only a few entries win the entire contest, thinking that the rest of the entries just didn’t deserve recognition. That’s completely wrong and all entries are worth your time, there’s many in the Expo to play as well. Some Expo entries especially could have been in the Contest with their quality of submission – the website still remains open for your consideration.

    If you want to watch the Results Show hosted by MegaGWolf and Tails' Channel, click here.

    [​IMG]
    • All Judges this year for their hard work in ensuring the Contest ran from start to finish.
    • All of the Media Panel for their many streams and videos…which you can access here.
    • SeanieB for providing server hosting and of course Cinossu for the website.
    • redhotsonic for this year’s trailer.
    • 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.

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    We will be back for the Sonic Hacking Contest 2020.

    Information for that will be posted hopefully by the end of this year, as we don’t expect to do much fixes for next year.
    As mentioned, we expect an earlier Contest Week than this year, so the sooner the announcement is out, the better.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. Jdpense

    Jdpense Custom Title Member

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    MY HACK ACTUALLY WON A TROPHY????!!! :eek:

    Someone plz update this, this is all a hoax....

    Anyways, congratulations to all the other contestants who won trophies! :p
     
  3. Deactivated Account

    Deactivated Account Well-Known Member Exiled

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    Thanks to everyone for voting us, congratulations to the winner.
    We hope that all still working on continuosly on their projects, thanks to @EMK-20218 and the team for give me the opportunity to join and work with the musics on the project.
    Thanks for the judges for his works, for taking the time for play these great hacks.
    Happy hacking for all!!!
    Dj. Joker 27 productions.
     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2019
  4. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    Misc Trophies banner is now made and inserted in the results post.

    Don't forget to get your own evaluations in, as we want to get as many responses as possible before we close it and start planning things for next year.
     
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  5. rika_chou

    rika_chou Adopt Member

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    I meant to post something here much sooner.


    Thanks to everyone who voted for S2:AE! As this is certainly the last time I will submit anything to the contest, winning the contest again after so many years is a really nice end for this hack.
    It was really great to finally be able to reveal S2:AE after keeping it a secret for so long, and being able to see other people play (and hopefully enjoy) it.

    I'm still trying to catch up watching the streams, but I want to thank to thank everyone involved in the contest. Everyone who put the contest together, the streamers, and everyone who submitted their work - it's amazing that this is still going in 2019 and I hope it continues for years to come. It was a lot of fun, and there are some great entries this year.

    My personal favorites so far (haven't had a chance to check them all out):


    Hellfire Saga, though those bosses are tricky, the the whole hack was really fun and felt super polished, tons of great layout. I liked this more than I had expected


    SONIC AND THE MYSTIC GEMS, Obviously a lot of work has been put into this hack. I see a lot of people complaining about the layouts, but I think that's what I like most about it! The maze like layouts coupled with the new music give the game a more relaxing almost Ecco feel.


    I made you a Salad, This one was just odd, but it was done so well and I really enjoyed it.

    Also it's nice to see Mania and 3D Sonic hacks starting to take off!

    Thanks again to everyone!
     
  6. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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  7. FireRat

    FireRat Do Not Interact With This User, Anywhere!!! Exiled

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    Before the SHC contest week even started, I already imagined S2:AE would get all the glory, and SAMG would be a major oddball, the "Chaotix" of this SHC.

    This time, I had the chance to work on both S2:AE or SAMG if I wanted. I got the pun, I was meant to make a new Special Stage and Title Screen for S2:AE; Qiuu is a good guy I have nothing against him, and it's kinda shocking to see how has been the sole programmer since then, and watch the latest ROM with visibly-unfinished features. It's a guilt on top of another, recurrent guilt, which is behind many art blocks I had so far. Long story short, I didn't do much (if anything) for S2:AE, and I can only say Sorry about it.

    On the other hand, I had been more involved within Harder Project than I had been before. Before SAMG, the initial plan was to submit a Mobius Evolution update just because features were all implemented and it mostly needed a good polish. Near the deliver date, it was found that the artwork could not get fully revised on time, so we ditched this plan and instead arranged a SAMG ROM quick, on the last few weeks. It's a miracle the ROM even works the way it does.
    It was nearly impossible; write new badniks/gimmicks, write a boss, fix a whole rain of bugs... On top of that, the country exploded in protests (and everything it implies) by October 18th, light and internet would come and go intermittently, had to pay attention to the news on curfew and barricades in the road so I could find the perfect time to escape the city, and so on. Hard times.

    On very counted times, I faced actual, "undeniable" racist attacks over Discord, but I dismiss the trolls. HOWEVER, I remember an old chat, where somebody said that we "south Muricans" are way too unstable and fucked up, aside exceptions. I'm OFFEENDEEED (lolno). Well, it's certainly not convenient when our culture has a definitely bad outlook, or when our environment is trained to punish (not discourage) different activities, only encouraging us to be useless sheeps. I wasn't born crazy, I turned crazy with the time. Simple fact, something as simple as get Approved accounts to to post, for us it implies the double of effort you see on surface. Excuse us for being so impulsive or emotion-oriented but, we can't "just" talk without thinking about it, we got to learn a whole new (and globally accepted) social code from scratch, a new language from scratch, and on my case I even had to learn more on my own than school (such as trigonometry, some help from vladikcomper). When I talk with someone, I'd try an agreement rather than say "it sucks, wrong here and there" and walk away. For example, Natsumi feels unapproachable to me now, because she'll always "win" over every discussion, she's got a huge logic skill in her favor, she'll always be right, and it's useless to even try with my crappy english and emotion layer she can't even see. Just example, she's not the only one, but I will never be right here, and I don't care to waste time/energy for this anymore, I tried enough. I can read every single game design doc from the fucking planet, but you won't convince me a "perfect" game existed or will exist, even if all Features are "perfect" according to logic. That's only 50% perfection at best.
    For you, we are the unstable and fucked up group, ASIDE EXCEPTIONS.
    For us, you are so serious that I wonder if you're mentally capable of Finishing a Large game on MD with a minimum of creativity; you know what I mean, and are not "minis". The staff doesn't even "hack" anymore either. Well, ASIDE EXCEPTIONS.
    Maybe, all this combined, explains why whenever I try to explain an issue in a text wall, nothing seems to make logic sense (or you claim so). Too bad it happens to be the reputation rating of yours the one that "counts" outside for us and our plans, might as well pull a Russia and create my own Sonic Hacking forum, with blackjack and hookers. In fact, forget the hookers.
    You got your almighty logic, but should I believe it? I know you can be evil, I still had to deal with two staff members about something "weird" with my last 3 posts during HCKTROX times.

    For this, and because not much (if anything other than VFX) of what I try is worth a dime unless I share it on homebrew channels, I stopped sharing lots of things, nor I think I'll write any more "tutorials". In fact, I don't think I'll post anything anymore here, maybe just post my big project when it's complete and... maybe I'll just ignore the comments from this very forum. I don't want to make a perfect game, I just want to make a good game.

    I'd be talking something different if I decided to help on S2:AE instead, it was logically dumb to ditch what looked like a safe success (and you knew it) before SHC even started. But the truth is that in Harder Project I always see an intention to personal support even if they don't always know how to act on it, and that's what counts for me, I don't care if it's "wrong here and there".
    Much love to rika_chou and qiuu, I'm glad of their invitation, the work on S2:AE is awesome too, but staff guy can shove him his pun up wherever it fits because, logically, I don't owe anything at all. Sometimes I do favors to friends or random people who ask yeah, but only when I don't forget them, have the time, and feel like wanting doing it. It's a fucking hobby, not a job. Aside exceptions, such as Harder Project.
     
  8. StephenUK

    StephenUK Working on a Quackshot disassembly Member

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    Honestly, I've read over that a few times now and I've yet to see exactly what your point is. What is this "pun" you keep mentioning? The entire post just looks to be taking a shit in this thread for no reason, so an actual explanation on what you're ranting about would be nice.
     
  9. FireRat

    FireRat Do Not Interact With This User, Anywhere!!! Exiled

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    Yeah, I give up. That's it, in fact. There's just no way I could explain it better in other 10 more years.
     
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  10. AURORA☆FIELDS

    AURORA☆FIELDS so uh yes Exiled

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    Well given you made a rambling rant about multiple subjects that presumably tie together, but its very unclear how, I think people being confused and lost is warranted
     
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  11. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    I have no idea what you're even rambling about but spoiling the Contest results thread with your own confusing personal grievances about the community in general isn't the right way to go about things.
     
  12. Deactivated Account

    Deactivated Account Well-Known Member Exiled

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    I agree with you.
    @FireRat I think this is not the place for discharge your feelings, keep calm and, his stance here is not good for personal problems man.
    I know if you feeling tired and more, but in my opinion, leave aside those things and please let's be mature, don't mix personal problems with the thread.
     
  13. EMK-20218

    EMK-20218 The Fuss Maker Exiled

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    Well... it's hard to say about the personal side of the work behind projects. I can just say I feel for the S2AE team for the lack of the proper polishment into the project. But particularly, it was kinda expected that S2AE would gain the first place or at least one of the first places. Even with the overal lack of polishment and some fixes here and there, the hack can clearly seen as one of the best visually and technically from the whole contest. I can't say it would be the same because I was wanting Hellfire Saga to win on its place, although it's just my particular will after playing the entries. I know the judges did their best and also the teams had remembered to do most of the time at the last minute (or days in speficic cases) so this was most of the reasons for the projects to lack some basic things here and there. As for Mystic Gems particularly, it was a shame it didn't acquire any of the judge trophies but I became happy when I seen it conquered the heart of the media panel as long as the people who are my main focus with this project since various months before the contest. As I said to my friend in Discord, it was a lesson for us to dedicate more effort and a knowledge that will surely make us to improve it a lot more to win the judges and to make the hack more pleasible and more complete for our next participations. I dunno about the other members of my team, but I gained more motivation and these three conquests were more one reason for me to make it good enough for everyone to love.

    2013 made me learn a lot and I took that failure as a lesson to take better the feedback of people in a more positive way to improve my work. I replied Natsumi in the SHC page with a certain sarcasm, but I later deleted my comment because I was being kinda disrespectful with her. Before commenting that I could have look into myself through the mirror to see I'm still not experienced as her so I could take her comment as a feedback to kick out the bad stuff (from my hack, I mean) and to keep up the good ones and improve everything. That's why I love the Hacking Contest and that's why I'm used to participate almost daily on the hacking scene... to learn. The more we learn, the more we have to learn and that's it. I respect all the opinions and suggest given before, during and after the contest so I'll be always thankful for every single person who're commenting about the hack in all the social networks I'm seeing it. Thanks guys. To 2020 we go!
     
  14. StephenUK

    StephenUK Working on a Quackshot disassembly Member

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    It did, it won Best Retro Audio Trophy.

    That aside, there is no reason for anyone to feel disheartened whether they win something or whether they don't. The judges will provide feedback on their thoughts in due course and that information can be used to tackle the areas they felt were weaker, while also highlighting the stronger points. There will be many contests over many years and people should be encouraged to up their game a bit and come back better than before. S2AE may not have been perfect, but the lack of polish in places did not detract from the experience for me as I didn't find anything particularly problematic, just a few nit picks on design choices in places. That's why I personally voted for it as the contest winner, as I felt it did a lot more right than it did wrong and it was deserving of the recognition for what it achieved.
     
  15. EMK-20218

    EMK-20218 The Fuss Maker Exiled

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    Yeah, but I didn't say I became disheartened or something like this, Stephen. I mean... I think it would be even more cool if the project had conquered the judges a little more over the project's general aspect. Although, I became super happy to see the trophies my team acquired anyway. Especially because this project received only one in its previous participation and that was considered a failure for me... not because of the only trophy, but because I was believing the people would like the project but it ended completely hated for the obvious reasons that we already know. But this year in contrast to 2013, the reception was positive so the project ended being a complete success even with the problems it shown due to our hurry to present something for the contest.

    As for the people's feedback... The difference is that I learned how to take all the feedback properly and to take them in general as a reason to improve it more and more.
     
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  16. StephenUK

    StephenUK Working on a Quackshot disassembly Member

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    Don't get me wrong, I wasn't necessarily saying you were disheartened by the response. It was more of a general statement to everyone, because a lot of people take the results of the contest way too seriously and see failure in a contest as a reason to stop instead of a reason to push forwards.
     
  17. EMK-20218

    EMK-20218 The Fuss Maker Exiled

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    I know, man. I agree on you. I used to think like this in the past, to be honest. But things changed for the good, especially after I learned to look to the people the way they are so I automatically learned to comprehend them better instead of thinking that everything should be the way I want. I canceled my hack many times after some people have shown me it shouldn't take the direction it was taking, but some time after this I began to understand that they were just trying to make me point the project to the correct direction. If anyone show me more bad points of the project actually, I'll work to improve it instead of cancelling it. You guys have shown me how to do the things the correct way and I couldn't be less thankful for this. :)
     
  18. Spanner

    Spanner The Tool Member

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    Sorry for the very long delay in getting these out but here are all available evaluations from last year's Contest, on a per judge basis, rather than per entry. Find out what the judges thought about the entries!

    It was every intention to get these out earlier but a lot of things got in the way, including the website going down due to a server upgrade affecting the framework it was coded in, which meant the original plan with evaluations wasn't going to be available this year due to the amount of time it requires for a code rewrite to happen. It'll be sorted for SHC2020, don't worry about that.

    Speaking of, what about SHC2020? Expect information regarding that very soon...