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Sonic Hacking Contest 2016: THE RESULTS

Discussion in 'Engineering & Reverse Engineering' started by Spanner, Nov 13, 2016.

  1. LazloPsylus

    LazloPsylus

    Buried under SSRG Somewhere Tech Member
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    Academy City
    SSRG, world domination, a billion and one research projects...
    Alright, we're already starting to read the evaluations, and we're getting a lot of really good info from them. Keep it rolling, people. I know some people were let down by the attitude of the contest, and honestly, we were too as judges. We need your help to figure out how to tackle next year better so that we can avoid the shitty parts of this year. I also want to come out and say that we're not out to bully anyone, and we want people to enter. That being said, we expect some common decency and care and effort put into entries to be exhibited in the entries. Why? Because we, as judges, are sacrificing many hours of our time organizing and running the contest and judging each and every entry as best we can, so when we're thrown hacks that we all look at and feel have no care or effort in them whatsoever, it really upsets us. The fact that we had enough to actually see a need to bring back the fucking Big trophy *and* had a sizable list of (dis)honorable mentions for it? That should get across the point of how outright disgusted we were with a number of entries. For a decent number of them, we've seen things they've put out in the past, and we know, without a doubt, that they can do much better than what they gave us, and that really cuts into us personally. Have some decent fucking respect for yourselves, people. When we have entries that make the judging staff physically unsettled while judging, there's a serious fucking problem, and we had *multiple* instances of that this year.

    Look, I'm sorry we weren't positive snowflakes, but we're human and have feelings like the rest of you, and holy hell, did you make most all of us feel like mockeries that were wasting our time for people that couldn't give any less of a shit. All we want is some decent common courtesy and care put into everyone's work, because this is supposed to showcase people at their best. Is that really much to ask that people care about trying to make the event better?

    And as for the unnamed person that called the judges bigots, I'm quite positive the word doesn't mean what you think it does. Perfect proof is that we're actually running these evaluations and going over the results as they're rolling in to discuss and plan changes. Take your dense fuckery and shove it somewhere else.
     
  2. Devon

    Devon

    Down you're going... down you're going... Tech Member
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    your mom
    I think you may want to fix the text color there.

    EDIT: There ya go.
     
  3. Knucklez

    Knucklez

    I love 2B 'n' ass. Member
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    It wasn't my cup of tea Super Egg, and maybe I should have started and ended at that. However, I am well aware of how harsh I am when I'm being negative but I've always been far more constructive and respectful towards others' works than some of you would like to realize because ANY time ANYONE dares bash a hack or even an official Sega work you go off in a tirade. But I'm the fucking cunt because I worded something in a condescending way to criticize someone else's work. It's ok to praise on here, whether it be gold or garbage, but god forbid you bash anything, because unless most collectively share the same negative sentiment, it's an unforgivable offense that shakes your very core. That's ok, I'll just blow off steam to myself if anything bothers me and I'll make sure from now on to just say "Good Job!" to everyone whether they really deserve it or not, just to appease people like you. And I didn't call any judges bigots nor anyone anything vulgar, which seems to be quite alright when others do it to me. You people are fans, we are fans, not a cult that shuns out anyone who disagrees with anything to further our own agenda. I wasn't happy with this year's contest. Is that wrong? No. Was I entirely just in what I said? No. But that doesn't mean I can't voice an opinion any more than you whether you agree with me or not.
     
  4. Spanner

    Spanner

    The Tool Member
    We've had a great amount of feedback already from the Evaluation Form. Many responses are generally saying the same thing, which is good as it means that many have the same idea with where they want the direction of the Hacking Contest to go, but many have also submitted their own different responses which are very good.

    If you haven't already evaluated the Contest, please do so when you have some free time. We will be closing the evaluation form at the end of Sunday 20th November and once we have implemented all the changes that we all want to make for the Contest, we hope to announce the 2017 Hacking Contest by December to give everyone plenty of notice - that being said if you have anything in mind you want to submit, you may as well start working on it now.
     
  5. ashthedragon

    ashthedragon

    Sonic Paradise Researcher
    1,428
    73
    28
    Spain
    Sonic Paradise & Sonic Ages
    Sonic 2 reMastered was such a pleasant surprise, I wish there was more 8 bits hacks out there!
    Congratulations to Scorched Quest, really good game.
     
  6. Clownacy

    Clownacy

    Tech Member
    1,053
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    No, no, I'm all for bashing stuff that deserves it (cough Into The Void cough): you should have seen my hack evaluation forms from this year. Point is, you didn't just discredit the hack that won, you insulted the people behind the event, making-up a laughable reason for us voting the way we did. Should I start saying you wrote your post the way you did because you were abused as a kid? No, that'd be an asshole thing to do. Maybe instead of just flinging shit, you could justify why you thought X shouldn't have won, and why Y should have. Us "shit" judges had to.
     
  7. Spanner

    Spanner

    The Tool Member
    Hopefully there will be more next year...we'll certainly have a trophy for one.
     
  8. Super Egg

    Super Egg

    Master of MS Paint. Member
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    Tomball, TEXAS
    Sonic 2 beta 3 hoax
    Initially, I was going to just agree with Clowny's post, however, I couldn't help myself.

    You say that, yet your words defy you.


    Oh, and my response to that noise was this...

    It seems your having a revisionists history lesson, because the role you say you played is quite the opposite, as so is mine.

    Now to the point, I do not mind criticism, I survive off of it. However, there is a difference between giving criticism, and acting like a self-important asshole, which in your original post, you showcased it pretty well. Your new post shows some insight, however, you make the impression that we have no idea what we are doing and that we, the judges, are just easily butthurt asshats. Sad to say, that is not the case and the fact of the matter, we put the hours of work reviewing every entry meticulously. We spent almost 4 hours in just one private call trying to get our final picks together, and that was after weeks of back in forth of what deserves what. These trophies winners were not cut and dry as you proclaim them to be, well except Big the Cat Trophy, we all universally agreed that whatever Royameadow baked shit was delivered to us that it was....well shit.

    tl;dr: Good job at trying to play the "objectively correct" character, but no sale. Sorry. I would like to add that the bigot comment in Lazzie's post wasn't about you in the slightest. We've been reading a few of the evaluations, and one struck out to us in particular, calling us "biased" and "bigots." The hilarity ensued.

    edit: Seriously Retro staff? The word "c.uck" is now banned. Fuck off you cunts. We're adults who can use whatever words. Fucking hell.
     
  9. Knucklez

    Knucklez

    I love 2B 'n' ass. Member
    687
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    Well, I'll say it's been 2.5 years since that exchange and I was merely defending a newbie that Clownacy went off on for his rookie mistakes and oversights regarding his hack because it seemed more like he was being treated like a veteran hacker making such mistakes, in which case would essentially justify such criticism. I by no means cared for Into the Void. I just felt I needed to step in at the time. My mentality and views have changed in the time since as well.

    Now regarding what I said about the judging, I apologize for being a prick about it and not elaborating why I felt that way instead of just making a bold statement and walking off.

    From a technical standpoint, Scorched Quest accomplished feats I don't think we've ever seen before or at least to this extent, such as the way cutscenes and bosses were implemented to this degree.

    Aesthetically speaking, it didn't appeal to me at all as it looks like a Sonic 1 clone set on fire like I've already said and is obviously the case. I know the layouts are fresh and original but they're still the same zones and look too much alike in color, which I know is the hack's intended overall theme here but it just doesn't appeal to me visually. I mean it's something new to set the entire game ablaze but the theme goes as far back as S3 with AIZ getting scorched. Inspiration may have been drawn from that, who knows.

    Gameplay is just ok. It's Sonic 1. The layouts and badnik bosses were ok. The Eggman bosses were new and fun with the added difficulty but could seem repetitive and prolonged in their attack pattern. They were my favorite aspect of the hack though. The special stages, although new, were too slow-paced and lengthy.

    That's how I see it, but each to their own I guess. I'm just relieved that most of us felt there were too many bullshit hacks submitted this year, with some like Blue Knuckles and White Sonic seeming like intentional gags to waste our time. I'm all for reforming the submission criteria so go right on ahead and do so.
     
  10. Spanner

    Spanner

    The Tool Member
    Oh don't worry, it WILL be happening, the people demand it and so do the judges. Many radical changes will be made for the 2017 contest to make it enjoyable by all.
     
  11. Super Egg

    Super Egg

    Master of MS Paint. Member
    313
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    Tomball, TEXAS
    Sonic 2 beta 3 hoax
    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!
     
  12. rata

    rata

    Member
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    Trying to be useful somehow.
    Okay, now I'm lost with all theese sombreros thing. What did I miss?

    Side note, it not necessary to call them sombreros while speaking Englisk, Sombrero means Hat.
     
  13. Spanner

    Spanner

    The Tool Member
  14. LazloPsylus

    LazloPsylus

    Buried under SSRG Somewhere Tech Member
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    Academy City
    SSRG, world domination, a billion and one research projects...
    Alright, we're down to the last day of evaluations. Get them in if you haven't done so yet.
     
  15. Ayla

    Ayla

    I shat on your desk ^^ Oldbie
    1,759
    1
    16
    West Linn, OR
    Hacking Contest, StH Overlooked, Personal Indie game
    I know there's a post above me from Lazlo saying this, but we've got some very close votes on some final plans for next year (ie, the community is split). 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!! =)

    ~Julia
     
  16. Spanner

    Spanner

    The Tool Member
    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.
     
  17. Selbi

    Selbi

    The Euphonic Mess Member
    1,497
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    Northern Germany
    Sonic ERaZor
    There's a meta thing I've wanted to address but forgot in my evaluation. Has little to do with the current dilemma anyway, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

    The issue is that the website isn't "downward compatible". With each new contest the old links get obsolete, the /entry/ in a URL gets replaced with a /history##/. All direct links to entries from that time get broken. This is especially an issue because where before was a link to a certain hack you now go to a completely different entry page of a completely different hack.

    Could probably use some redesign for the following years.
     
  18. Spanner

    Spanner

    The Tool Member
  19. redhotsonic

    redhotsonic

    Also known as RHS Tech Member
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    YouTuber
    Selbi, I think the site is getting changed completely next year. Including the server so hopefully it won't break down.