[Spanner]

Thank you to everyone who submitted this year, along with the judges and those who took time to download hacks and vote for the Community Trophies! Here are the results for this year's Hacking Contest!

JUDGED TROPHIES

Hidden Palace Trophy – 1st Place
Sonic ERaZor by Selbi

Wood Zone Trophy – 2nd Place
Sonic the Hedgehog: Tribute by TheBarAdmin

Dust Hill Trophy – 3rd Place
Sonic 2 Recreation by redhotsonic

Green Hill Trophy – Hack the plays most like a Sonic game
Untitled S3K Hack by D.A. Garden

Windy Valley Trophy – Best Art
Sonic the Hedgehog: Tribute by TheBarAdmin

D.A. Garden Trophy – Best Music
Sonic the Hedgehog: Tribute by TheBarAdmin

HONOURABLE MENTION: Sonic ERaZor by Selbi

Lava Reef Trophy – Best Level Layouts
Sonic 2 Recreation by redhotsonic

Genocide City Trophy – Most Difficult Hack
Sonic ERaZor by Selbi

HONOURABLE MENTION: Sonic 1 Lunacy by Masochistic Maniacs

11000101 Trophy – Best Technical Hack
Sonic 1 CDSS by MarkeyJester

Generations Trophy – Best Sonic Generations Submission
Sonic Generations PC: Dragon Road Demo by DarioFF, TwilightZoney, Chimera

Knuckles Trophy – Best New Character in a Sonic Hack
Sonic 3 & Amy Rose by E-122-Psi (Amy Rose)

Fang Trophy – Best New/Modified enemies in a hack submitted
REGGINATOR GENERATIONS by sandwichbars (REGGINATOR)

Eggman Trophy – Best New Bosses/Minibosses in a hack submitted
Sonic 1 Megahack: Ultra Edition by vladikcomper

Spindash Ability – Best New Ability
Sonic 2 Adventure Control by MainMemory

Carnival Night Trophy – Most Innovative Feature
Sonic 2 Recreation by redhotsonic

Emerald Trophy – Best Special Stage
Sonic ERaZor by Selbi

Robotnik's Revenge Trophy – New Concept based on existing concepts
Sonic 2: Battle Race by ColinC10

Crystal Meth Trophy – Most Replayable Hack
Sonic 2 Recreation by redhotsonic

Casinopolis Trophy – Most Entertaining/Fun Hack
Sonic 2 Recreation by redhotsonic

Vector Trophy – Most Humourous Hack
Sonic 1 Megahack: Ultra Edition by vladikcomper

WTF?! Trophy – Most Unique Hack Submitted
Flickies Island Defense by bgvanbur

Christmas Present Trophy – The hack that nobody saw coming
Sonic 1 CDSS by MarkeyJester

Big Trophy – Worst Hack Submitted
Sonic's Grand Adventure by Ravenfreak

E-Rank Trophy – WHY WAS THIS EVEN CREATED?!
Sonic Green Snake by Green Snake

COMMUNITY TROPHIES

Hidden Palace Community Trophies
Sonic Generations Unleashed PC - Dragon Road Demo by DarioFF, Chimera, TwilightZoney
Sonic Classic Heroes by flamewing

Big Community Trophy
Sonic BUGS by Green Snake

Windy Valley Community Trophies
Sonic Melponterations by Melpontro Team (Melpontro and Hinchy)
Sonic the Hedgehog: Tribute by TheBarAdmin

D.A. Garden Community Trophies
Sonic Melponterations by Melpontro Team (Melpontro and Hinchy)
Sonic the Hedgehog: Tribute by TheBarAdmin

Lava Reef Community Trophies
Sonic Melponterations by Melpontro Team (Melpontro and Hinchy)
Sonic the Hedgehog: Tribute by TheBarAdmin

11000101 Community Trophies
Sonic Generations Unleashed PC - Dragon Road Demo by DarioFF, Chimera, TwilightZoney
Sonic 1 CDSS Edition by MarkeyJester

Again, thank you to everyone who took part this year, whether you entered a submission, were a judge, played the hacks or provided support for the contest, we appreciate what you have done this year. We will see you next year for the 2013 Hacking Contest. Downloads for all the public hacks will remain on the SSRG Repository so if you missed a hack or two, they're still around for you to download.

See you next contest!

This post has been edited by SOTI: 13 August 2012 - 12:52 PM

[Dude]

You guys have got to do something about the sloppy execution of your radio shows. Seriously. There's no protocol for people speaking out of turn, and there were tons of people there who were just spewing shit. Next time do a rehearsal or something.

[Spanner]

Dude, on 12 August 2012 - 08:37 PM, said:

You guys have got to do something about the sloppy execution of your radio shows. Seriously. There's no protocol for people speaking out of turn, and there were tons of people there who were just spewing shit. Next time do a rehearsal or something.

Sorry about what happened with the results show. A combination of internet connection issues and audio problems ruined things on my end.

[redhotsonic]

SOTI, on 12 August 2012 - 08:41 PM, said:

Dude, on 12 August 2012 - 08:37 PM, said:

You guys have got to do something about the sloppy execution of your radio shows. Seriously. There's no protocol for people speaking out of turn, and there were tons of people there who were just spewing shit. Next time do a rehearsal or something.

Sorry about what happened with the results show. A combination of internet connection issues and audio problems ruined things on my end.

I don't think he meant that was the problem. We know you had some internet woes that night and we can forgive you for that because it wasn't your fault. But it was the show itself. You really need to have a plan on what to say and even a checklist. I remember at one point you lot only annouced two trophies, then most of you forgot on how many you awarded so far.

[Mosqui]

Congratulations to Selbi, The Bar Admin and redhotsonic for achieving 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
Well done to all other trophy winners and my commiserations to those who didn't win a trophy; there is always next year to go for the green!

I enjoyed witnessing this year's contest because it brought out a lot of amazing hacks. It's also a nice incentive for people to continue on with their projects, if I may say so myself.
Keep up the good work guys and I look forward to next year's spectacle!

[Selbi]

redhotsonic, on 13 August 2012 - 02:48 AM, said:

SOTI, on 12 August 2012 - 08:41 PM, said:

Dude, on 12 August 2012 - 08:37 PM, said:

You guys have got to do something about the sloppy execution of your radio shows. Seriously. There's no protocol for people speaking out of turn, and there were tons of people there who were just spewing shit. Next time do a rehearsal or something.

Sorry about what happened with the results show. A combination of internet connection issues and audio problems ruined things on my end.

I don't think he meant that was the problem. We know you had some internet woes that night and we can forgive you for that because it wasn't your fault. But it was the show itself. You really need to have a plan on what to say and even a checklist. I remember at one point you lot only annouced two trophies, then most of you forgot on how many you awarded so far.

That's not true. There were only two people "spitting shit" (though I will not say any names). They were also the guys asking which trophies have been announced so far. A real checklist wasn't needed, because the structure was already there:

• Introduction
  
• Judge trophies
  
• Community trophies
  
• The 3 grand winners
  
• Speech of the 1st place
  
• Outro

That was the anticipated structure, but was pretty much sabotaged by those two people constantly interrupting everybody and making fun of people. The worst part was when they suddenly just stopped the stream and completely skipped the outro part. I, for one, was not okay with that at all.

In fact, although that I'm happy for being the winner of the grand price, I feel kinda ashamed that these two people had to ruin the moment for me and had to ruin the entire recording of the show that involves me. The solution is simple, they need to be excluded from the next show. Simple as that.

[redhotsonic]

Selbi, on 13 August 2012 - 11:26 AM, said:

redhotsonic, on 13 August 2012 - 02:48 AM, said:

I remember at one point you lot only annouced two trophies, then most of you forgot on how many you awarded so far.

That's not true. There were only two people "spitting shit" (though I will not say any names).

It might have been them asking what had been awarded so far, and maybe meant it in a joking way. But I definitely heard it.



I don't know who these two people are (I didn't know who was speaking when), but if that's the case, something will need to be done.

[Dude]

I would like to stress that the radio show was by and large the only measurable failure in this years contest, considering that not only was the entry turnout larger than last year, judging turn-around time was improved as well. I think that if this is any indication, next year's will be even better.

[Ayla]

I didn't agree with the results at all, but this is why I enacted the judging platform anyway. The goal was to eliminate my bias and more accurately represent the will of the community through its more knowledgeable members. The ultimate goal when I was running it, was to get an equal amount of "hardcore" gamers and "casual" gamers to create a balanced view of how the community would react. The addition of community voting (finally implemented only AFTER I left) was supposed to further add to this. Any misnomers left in this rating process I have actually had worked out since right before the current contest. These will be implemented for next year's completely different approach to the hacking contest which will be revealed sometime in the coming weeks.

The podcast itself, was a travesty -- I'm certain anyone listening could tell that. My connection and SOTI / Spanner's connection kept giving out and my real life randomly decided to get in the way (for something that should not have mattered to begin with) which ultimately removed me from the call. It was then that SonicKid / Peter & Tobin came in. When SOTI / Spanner finally was able to get a word in, he was nothing short of constantly berated for being himself (implying such things as incapable, being welsh, and just generally being a loser) while he desperately tried to put on a professional podcast for the hacking contest. He was unable to.

Peter and Tobin both, in a skype call, apologised for their actions (as well as the actions of others, which they really didn't need to do) and for ruining our skypecast. The podcast will not be released. I'll need to discuss it with others, but we may redo the contest results with just the contest people.

I just wanted to let everyone know that the people mainly responsible have apologised and that we have not just let this occurrence go unaware. More information regarding this and the next contest will be announced in coming weeks.

~Julia / Samantha / Nayr

[StephenUK]

I'm not really familiar with the way podcasts work, so I may be wrong here, but surely there was a way you could block everyone out from talking except the ones that actually mattered - the judges. I only lasted about 10 mins in that broadcast and it felt like I was dropping IQ points by the second listening to the mindless bullshit certain people were coming out with. Considering this is a community that has a memberbase of a high volume of adults, I would have expected something like this to have gone off without a hitch (technical issues aside, as they sometimes can't be helped). Instead, it was probably the most unprofessional broadcast I've ever heard, considering it's not really hard to deliver a set of results which should have been put down in writing already between the three main contributors. It's a shame, as up until then the contest had been handled very well, and pretty quickly for once. The problem is, in the future people are going to be less interested in taking part in community activities such as the reading of results, if that is going to be the level of intelligence that is allowed into the broadcasts. Hopefully, there will be lessons learned from this and in future the broadcasts won't become the farce that took place yesterday.

[KingofHarts]

StephenUK, on 13 August 2012 - 05:06 PM, said:

I'm not really familiar with the way podcasts work, so I may be wrong here, but surely there was a way you could block everyone out from talking except the ones that actually mattered - the judges. I only lasted about 10 mins in that broadcast and it felt like I was dropping IQ points by the second listening to the mindless bullshit certain people were coming out with. Considering this is a community that has a memberbase of a high volume of adults, I would have expected something like this to have gone off without a hitch (technical issues aside, as they sometimes can't be helped). Instead, it was probably the most unprofessional broadcast I've ever heard, considering it's not really hard to deliver a set of results which should have been put down in writing already between the three main contributors. It's a shame, as up until then the contest had been handled very well, and pretty quickly for once. The problem is, in the future people are going to be less interested in taking part in community activities such as the reading of results, if that is going to be the level of intelligence that is allowed into the broadcasts. Hopefully, there will be lessons learned from this and in future the broadcasts won't become the farce that took place yesterday.

Speaking as someone who has done a podcast, That's not necessarily anything to do with how podcasts in general are done itself, moreso how the people recording do it. Doing a podcast, in any sense, is the simple act of recording something, and subsequently posting it... the same way one would record a video for YouTube, or something...

Whether or not they could block out people and bullshit, really depends on how they are doing their sound recording, and whether or not they are willing/able to manage everyone else who is putting in input. As you stated, and I bolded, one really SHOULD note down before hand what they want to do. Have a bullet list of things you want to run down throughout your show, in what order you want to do them. Also recording people on different channels while in this environment, and removing certain channels when necessary, as well as other bits of post-production editing, are vital when doing a podcast or recording of this nature.

Anyone can take notes from Live Audio Wrestling (even if you aren't an MMA or wrestling fan) The quality put into the show in such a short time of post-production is great.

[Mr Lange]

Thanks for listing a bunch of games only in text that I'll have to try and find on my own.

[MainMemory]

Try here.

While I'm here, perhaps one of the judges could tell me why they voted for Sonic 2 Adventure Control for best new move? I am entirely mystified.

This post has been edited by MainMemory: 13 August 2012 - 08:45 PM

[Mr Lange]

Oh I see there's a link there at the very end.
Now do I feel dumb.

[TheInvisibleSun]

MainMemory, on 13 August 2012 - 08:38 PM, said:

Try here.

While I'm here, perhaps one of the judges could tell me why they voted for Sonic 2 Adventure Control for best new move? I am entirely mystified.

Probably because Speed Break is addictingly fun to use in EHZ. That move absolutely breaks Emerald Hill in the most fun way imaginable.