Competition to Edit Levels Interestingly, Creatively, and Amazingly: CELICA

Creative Contests
1

Jump to Thread

CELICAposter
CELICAposter800×600 289 KB

Annoucing the successor to MARTH: the Competiton to Edit Levels Interestingly, Creatively, and Amazingly, or CELICA for short. This is a chapter creation competiton in the vein of Ghast and Alusq’s Make A Fun Chapter series. This is intended to be a basic, no-frills contest. Prospective entrants will be challenged to make a quality chapter based on three fields of skill: gameplay, presentation, and story.

@Darrman is the head judge. In addition, there are three other judges: @Rivian , @LegendofLoog , and @Levin64 .

RULES:
1: Engine

  1. Entrants may use whatever engine they desire. Engines include GBAFE, SNESFE, FEXNA/Tactile, SRPG Studio, or Lex Talionis. If hacking, entrants may use whatever method they prefer.
    2. Though creating an SRPG chapter is recommended, it is not required.

  2. Length

    1. Entries are restricted to a single chapter. However, entrants are free to submit multiple distinct entries.
    2. There are no restrictions on this chapter’s length.
    3. The map may be as large as desired, subject to the following restrictions.
      If the map is in the style of FE4, a save must be given every castle.
      This must be in-engine: “save state here” prompts are not allowed.
    4. Only one map may be used for gameplay.

  3. Content

    1. Entrants may theme their entry however they wish.
    2. The FEU content rules apply. Submissions may not be rated 17+.
    3. Entrants may have as much or as little text as desired.
    4. If entry is not an SRPG, Fire Emblem must be relevant.
      For example, a Mario hack featuring Marth is allowed.

  4. Submission and Time Limits

    1. Entrants have until 11:59pm UTC+1 on the 14th of April to submit an entry.
    2. Entrants may spend as much time as desired working on their chapter.
      Work must have begun after the competition was announced.
    3. Entries must be sent to @Darrman on Fire Emblem Universe via personal message.
    4. Entries must come with a readme containing patching or running instructions.
      The readme must also contain a credits listing obeying FEU policy.
    5. There will be no extension to the deadline.

  5. Disqualification
    Entrants will be disqualified if they:

    1. Submit an entry that does not boot.
    2. Submit an entry that cannot be finished.
    3. Submit more than one chapter in an entry.
    4. Submit an entry directly recycled from another game.
    5. If an entry crashes at any point, a judge may halt gameplay and score it 0.

  6. Ranking
    Entrants will be scored in the following areas:
    Gameplay: How enjoyable the entry is.
    There are many elements in what is fun.
    A unique chapter with an interesting gimmick will score well.
    An empty field with a unit walking from A to B will score poorly.
    Adding ASM hacks without balancing around them will be frowned upon.
    For example, using the Skill System default skills without change.
    Presentation: How the entry looks and sounds.
    Don’t be afraid to use mugs and animations from the graphics repository.
    If the entry stands out visually compared to other hacks, it will score well.
    Tile cut-off or poor-quality recolours will penalise the entrant.
    Music quality will also be scored under here.
    Midis with dummy instruments will hurt an entry’s score, while high-quality mixes help it.
    Story: The tale the entry tells.
    The story does not need to be serious. Comedy is more than welcome.
    Whether serious or funny, the story should make sense. Avoid plot holes.
    There is no need to have every blue unit appear in every conversation.
    Having little or no text will result in a low score, as will placeholders.
    Gameplay will be scored out of 10, while graphics and story will be scored out of 5.
    This adds up to 20.
    Four judges will review each entry.
    These scores will be added up, for a grand total of 80.
    The entry with the highest score wins.
    The winner’s project will be set as the forum banner for two weeks.

  7. Other Notes
    Entrants are welcome to collaborate, and will be jointly credited if so.
    Entrants are welcome to publicly post a patch in the entry thread upon submission.
    Entries will be released to the public with the results.
    Entrants and non-entrants are welcome to play and provide feedback to other entrant’s entries.
    Please spoiler this feedback to avoid influencing the judges.
    Judges will attempt to finish each chapter without save state or other emulator tool usage.
    Design your chapter as if it would be played on a Game Boy Advance.
    If emulator tool usage is required, the gameplay score will be penalised.
    If Turnwheel is implemented, it is considered equal to rewind in penalty.

If you don’t know where to begin, MARTH’s best entries are a good place to look. Rivian’s Closing Act was the winner for MARTH, but feel free to experiment.

Remember, the deadline is 11:59pm UTC+1 on the 14th of April. Good luck to all entrants.

35 Likes
3

I’m very down to be a judge.

4 Likes
4

Is there a certain criteria a judge would have to meet if they are to be accepted? Just thought I’d ask.

3 Likes
5

I wonder how we’ll make a backronym for SIGURD or SELIPH

Still, looking forward to this

2 Likes
6

The judging criteria are as follows:

1. All judges must be a member of Fire Emblem Universe for at least six months.
2. All judges must be prepared to take approximately six weeks in total to play each entry.
3. All judges must follow the judging style guide's instructions.
4. The head judge has the final say on who is selected to judge.
5. If a judge submits an entry for the contest, it will receive scores, but cannot place.
	A judge cannot judge their own entry.
3 Likes
7

Ok, I’m up to be a judge. I’ve been studying game design quite a bit recently so the timing is excellent. Perhaps I’ll gain inspiration to improve my own entries in case an event like this is hosted again.

1 Like
8

When MARTH came around… I lowkey have regrets for not being able to submit due to my own fears of making something that isn’t fun. This time I’ll turn it around. Expect a submission from me then!

5 Likes
9

If you need judges, I’d be happy to take part in this one.

5 Likes
10

I already made a map, can I post it?

11

I’d rather you not use this thread to post progress updates on your entry. Feel free to make a seperate thread on the forums to post your updates.

12

Mmmm I’m down to judge if you still need another person to fill :smiley:

2 Likes
13

“Entrants may use whatever engine they desire. Engines include GBAFE, SNESFE, FEXNA/Tactile, SRPG Studio, or Lex Talionis. If hacking, entrants may use whatever method they prefer.”
Are engines that are not listed allowed?
“Design your chapter as if it would be played on a Game Boy Advance.”
What exacly does this mean? Does gamepad support mandatory or does keybord and mouse only allowed?

14

This list is not exhaustive. Other engines are allowed.

This is in reference to entries using Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem as an engine. A GBAFE submission should not use anything only available on an emulator. For any other engine, your control scheme is entirely up to you. No gamepad support is necessary, and mouse and keyboard is perfectly acceptable.

In addition, I will be picking the judges over the weekend. If you are interested, please put your name down in this thread.

15

I’ll add my name to the list of contender for a Judge position.

I’m still on fence on making something to submit, but the rules contemplate the scenario of being judge and participant so I can still decide to make something later. :smiley:

1 Like
16

I would be interested in possibly participating in this by submitting a game, however I wished to ask something regarding the rules. Is usage of art that you do not own the copy right to allowed? aka, using someone else’s art? I am very much not artistically inclined and I am obviously not trying to make money from it, so it would legally probably be fine. Additionally, I have a piece of AI art which I wish to base one of my character off of (I didn’t pay for the AI art as AI art doesn’t deserve to any profits since their work is based on theft of other artists), however I do not know if people would be okay with this, so I’d like to check in beforehand

17

When do you think we’ll hear who else will be judges?

18

@TranquilShrine
General asset usage must comply with FEU’s credit policy. As a rule of thumb, art labelled F2U (Free to Use) or F2E (Free to Edit) are acceptable to use with appropriate credit.
AI usage in addition must comply with FEU’s AI policy.
@SubwayBossEmmett
Probably after this weekend.

19

Thanks for clarification!

Do the music and the sound design affect the score? If yes, which one? I would assume that the graphics one.

20

Music falls under presentation, which is the graphics category. I’ll update the rules to clarify that.