HAMMER - Map-Making Contest, Prizes!

It's that time of year where we start thinking about what's really important - what awesome presents am I going to get? :D

Well, why not give the KAG community a present, map makers, and I'll return the favor! I have some random gift copies of games banging around in my inventory on Steam and a little spare cash this holiday season and I'd like to see some growth in the map-making community for KAG. Sure you'll get your presents a little late, but who cares? So, I present (ha ha) to you:

The Holiday Amazing Map-Making Event Royale​

(Or HAMMER, for short )​

Okay, so I was trying a little too hard for the acronym, but stick with me here. This contest aims to get you mappers mapping, and maybe some of you who've never mapped before to give it a shot! Each person may enter twice: once into the general category and a second time into the secondary themed entry category.

What is the theme for the secondary category? Civilization! Because hey, it might be ending as we know it before this contest even ends. ...also I have a spare copy of Civ V GOTY. As far as the theme goes, I don't mean the game here; it can be anything reflecting the growth, achievements, or even decline of a civilization. Monuments, cities, whatever - use your imagination! It's intentionally wide-open.


To clarify, because I've had several people ask: You may enter two maps into this contest. One may be anything you please, tag it as [GENERAL]. The other must be tagged as [THEMED] and appropriate to the Civilization theme. Either category is optional, you may submit just one map to the appropriate category of your choice if you choose not to participate in both. If you choose to participate in both categories you may have a maximum of two entries total: ONE map per category.

Shadowing will be enabled, so keep that in mind when designing. Got tunnels you don't want to be dark? Build windows into the backwall! Structures with a backwall? Windows! Massive backwall portions of the map? Ill-advised, but again, windows! Sensing a theme?

But what about the prizes, you say?

Grand Prize : Chosen by the community via poll, this will be the favorite map from all submitted entries.
Prize: A game of your choice available on Steam (or a combination of games) costing up to $30 and a KAG premium key.





Won By: Ne3zy for "Persian City"

Runner-Up: Chosen by the community via poll, the second-most popular map.
Prize: A game of your choice available on Steam (or a combination of games) costing up to $20 and a KAG premium key.

Won By: Ne3zy for "Archipelago"

Best in Theme - Civilization : The map that both represents the theme and plays best out of all entries in this category. Again, chosen by poll.
Prize: A copy of Civilization V (GOTY Edition), a game (or combination of games) costing up to $10 from Steam and a KAG premium key.

Won By: Ne3zy for "Persian City"

Bio's Pick : My favorite map! I reserve the right to pick whatever map strikes my fancy.
Prize: A game of your choice available on Steam (or a combination of games) costing up to $10 and a KAG premium key.

Won By: Beepo - "3D Arena"

In addition to this, I have a few spare games floating around from failed multipack buys, Steam contests, etc. What are they? It's a mystery! But just participating in the contest gets you a virtual "raffle ticket" for each map submitted (maximum two, again - one for each category). I will draw tickets at the end to award random prizes to lucky participants, if we have enough entries to make it worthwhile.

The dev team has also generously donated 7 premium keys to the prize pool! 3 of these will be drawn for randomly, 4 were allocated to the main prizes. Non-premium users who participate will be entered into a separate raffle for these at the end of the submission period. Now you have even more motivation to participate if you're a non-premium player! Thank you for the support, guys!

Now that I have your attention, here are the rules (brace for impact!):

If I think of more rules, or you guys do, I'll add them, but that should pretty much cover all the bases and then some. In the meantime, if you're interested feel free to post here and let me know and I'll keep an eye out for maps as they're submitted and answer any questions you may have. If demand requires it, I may have servers that volunteer cross host maps for more exposure. Have fun, work hard, and HAMMER out some masterpieces!

Server details are available here ​

​

Directory of Maps (Last updated 1/1/13):

Spoiler

THEMED
Beepo - 3D Arena
Dandyking7179 - Egypt
Feet - Metro
Gonf - Parthenon
JacKD - Valia Ruins 7
Ne3zy - Persian City
PhirePuncher - Fractured
Reyman - Milvius
Kouji - Ruined Castle

GENERAL
Beepo - Stairs Land
Dandyking7179 - Qwack
Gonf - Fractured
Ne3zy - Archipelago
PhirePuncher - Table Fighters
Reyman - Dig or Die
Kouji - Valley
Demon_Jester - Middle Earth
Ej - Countrary

 

Sounds interesting, ill be posting some maps.
are we allowed to use maps already posted here, as long as we have made them?

 

I'll try to paticipate :)
Can the map have a signature ?
Also do you prefer miror/asymetrical maps or you don't care ?
How much players will play on the map ? (server slots)
What do you prefer : The looking of the map or the gameplay ?

 

I'm only "judging" one, entirely biased category. I'd focus on making a good map rather than catering to me, since it'll be decided by poll.

Also, I'm pretty sure I'm not the Green Goblin :p

My server has 20 slots

 

Does this include maps are used in a server, but haven't been posted online? (I made most of my maps for Humans vs Zombies, by Robinskie and myself.)

 

Man I hate people who try to post old stuff into contests. The point of these kinds of things is to generate activity, and by trying to pass an old map it just shows that you don't really care about contributing and you just want to get a prize without working for it.

 

In case that was more or less adressed to me;
-I did work on my maps.
-My maps have never been posted online before, so I'm still "generatein activity". Or at least a much as the others.

 

Contrary has the gist of it; I am trying to inspire new content, not rehashing of old content. Take what you've learned from your previous work and apply it towards making something new and even better! :)

 

Alright. :) My other maps don't fit the theme anyway.

 

so... basically, you want to create an atomic bomb's worth of maps? call the sovjets?
I'll see if I can make one or two good maps...

 

I'm supposed to be finishing 39 assignments right now. But this is now on my list of things I have to do.
</br>--- merged: Dec 4, 2012 9:38 PM ---</br>
My only concern is that I am not in a position where I could accept the Steam gifts. So is it possible I could just "win" a category and someone else can have the Steam gifts? I just want the bragging rights :)
</br>--- merged: Dec 4, 2012 9:45 PM ---</br>
Final thing : I have a map i've been working on for my map post that is PERFECT for this competition. But i'm afraid someone else will come up with the same idea. What happens if there are 2 similar maps? I would assume whoever has the better one wins?

 

You can absolutely donate the prizes to someone else, if you'd like! Similar maps may happen, but that's fine - the community will decide what they like best :)

 

Sweet! I might be able to accept the prizes but i'm not 100% sure yet. But i'm glad to know that in the end we all win :D

 

@Bioautomaton:
Best in Theme - Civilization
It means we can build maps with signs of life in there? Mean: castles, villages and stuff.

 

Yessir, in fact I would encourage it.

Honestly, I don't know why more maps don't have prefab stuff to fight over/blow up/dig through. :D

 

I got the themed map almost finished :P

 

I volunteer XD (I'm kidding, don't you dare think I'm not)

so... do I HAVE to create a civilisation-themed map, or is that just for one of the four prizes?
I don't really get that part....

 

Your civilisation-themed map may win the civilisation prize + the first/second prize (grand prize and runner up) + bio's favorite prize. A single map may win different prizes.
note : not 100% sure but it's what I understood