We've been reviewing the first phase entries for the $1000000 NVidia Make Something Unreal contest and selecting the finalists in each category for judging by the full panel of judges. One important addition we've made to the competition after looking at the entries is the creation of an additional category, for new game types, with the purpose of rewarding fun new game types that don't have the scope of some of the total conversions being developed, and therefore aren't compeittive in the mods category. The prizes for the game types category will be similar to the tools category. We'll be making an official press release containing this news and other important news about the contest, but I wanted to give the community a heads up here.
For entrants, here's some general overall feedback:
There were quite a few promising entries, particularly in the mod category, that were too early for judging. We're happy to look at them, and get an idea of where you are going, and look forward to seeing more complete and polished versions in phase 2.
We were pretty lenient in this round about confusing installation procedures. Make sure that your entries are easy to install and use in the next phase! Any entry that is provided as a zip file should include paths information for the files in the zip, so that a user can just unzip into their c:\UT2003 directory and have all the files automatically put in the proper subdirectory. Also, please provide instructions with your entry about how to play your mod, whether it is in game or through an external executable/batch file. Also, if your mod has a web page, please include it in your installion instructions.
We frown on mods that make changes to Epic content. One mod, Global Warzone, replaced the entry level. This is unacceptable, because it means that the mod can potentially affect your game even when you haven't explicitly loaded it.
Using mutators as a way of setting gametype options is confusing, and fills up the mutator menu with game type specific mutators. Please use the game options menu for setting options specific to your game type.
If you didn't enter the contest in the first phase, you can still enter in future phases. The three phases of the $1000000 NVidia Make Something Unreal Mod Contest are independent. You can enter any category in the second or third phase, whether or not you had submitted an entry in any previous phase. The only limitation is that there must be significant improvements to an entry for it to be considered if it had previously been submitted in an earlier phase of the contest.
And now, without further ado, here are the Mod category finalists for Phase 1 (in no particular order):
The following entrants in the Mod category were not selected for the final Phase 1 judging in the Mod category, but we felt they deserved honorable mentions:
Proelium AirBuccaneers Nali Bricks ChaosUT Global Warzone (but don't download this one till they fix the entry level overwrite issue)
Here are the Game type category finalists for Phase 1
Flag Hunter Boss of the Arena Roundmatch Pack One flag capture Riftwar Minions of Destruction: CyberSports DuelGame Overload Greed Duality V.I.P. Quad Team Deathmatch XCTF 2003 UETF Chronicles
The following entrants in the Game type category were not selected for final Phase 1 judging, but we felt they deserved honorable mentions:
Assimilation Team False Prophet VASBioInvasion
We'll be announcing finalists in the other categories over the next several days. Note that some of the entries that didn't make the finals in the Mod category will be finalists in other categories.
Last edited by Shuri on Tue Aug 05, 2003 8:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reading through the posts, it sounds like they werent really considering mods that werent "finished" (i take it they meant feature complete) and we openly said that ours wasnt.
Though im pretty sure the same could be said about troopers.
I make Darth Vader look like a teenage punk with a lightsaber.
Justice! (Ha, i'd forgoten about the mutes category...)
Originally posted by StevePolge I'm happy to provide feedback for all the mods in this forum, if you have questions. With regards to Chaos UT - it will definitely be a finalist and a strong contender in the mutators category.
Fatal Arts shouldn't even have got an honourable mention. JEI doesn't have bot support, and Marble Madness isn't especially cool. Riftwar isn't so much a mod as a 3-team domination game. Plus Troopers...well, yeah.
Well, with the melee system in the next version, I expect great things from you, Mr Potter..erm, CUT2.
Yeah it surprised me too. Our mod is more diverse than any of the others I've seen yet, plus the gameplay value is higher in my opinion. Troopers has some nice emitter effects (and I really love emitter effects), and the models are well done and they have a cool intro and interface stuff, but the team balance is terrible and the weapon behaviors could use some work. There's little to no variety, few maps, and the replay value diminishes quickly. Chaos may not have a movie intro and custom player models and stuff, but the gameplay can't be beat. And our weapons are all very balanced and fun to play with. I wouldn't object to jazzing up some of our emitter effects though. I'd like to be able to blow nice smoking holes in people and leave smouldering holes in walls (loved some of those burning effects in Troopers), but what really counts in the end is the gameplay.
If the melee in the next version doesn't absolutely blow them away, they're all nuts.
Maybe I could play around in UnrealEd and make some emitters to jazz up our effects some time since I'm not doing any sound effects at the moment... Don't suppose the team would object to that?
Could have some fun with the railgun effects... I wouldn't change any of our effects, just add to them... Hmm... The possibilities are endless...
I think yours might not win because you've not changed alot of the core elements.
But it WOOPS UT2k3 or anything else in terms of balanced and addicting gameplay.
I got bored of UT2K3 in a week, I'm STILL playing Chaos.
Good Luck guys!
[23:21] <DH> everybody knows coders are robots
[23:21] <DH> and should be treated as such
[23:21] <JimMarlowe> shhh
I think its better that we did that. This way, people can still use the original weapons and cycle them with ours if they want. This way we're not forcing them to use our weapons only when they play Chaos. It's flexible and gives the player the freedom to choose how they want to play it. We're not removing or replacing anything, just adding to an already great game.
Most of these other mods don't do that and that sucks. We should be commended for it, not punished.
Removing the Chaos Weapons can kind of give you a "lite" verison of the game, still getting the grapple hook (can't live without it), respawn protection, and other stuff, kind of like the Grapple Only mutator for UT. Is there any plans to enter into Phase Two of the MSU Contest? I'm sure the mods/mutators will be even better and more bug free.
Mad Member with lots of ideas and questions and somewhat good fragging skills.
