BEST-mix.net - DDR Simfile Tournament

AAAH, FINALLY!
I'm really sorry for the delays that have been happening.
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BEST-mix Tournament #1

***ALL FILES MUST NOT INCLUDE ANYTHING THAT CAN IDENTIFY YOU TO THE FILES***
***This includes any .sm/.dwi tags, mp3 metatags, ANYTHING! ***
***I am not going to be looking through to see if you left any in, so ***
***even if one was left in accidentally, it'll be a DQ. I will try to do my***
***best to prevent this from happening, but it is not my fault if you ***
***left something like that in. Readme's must be anonymous as well! (see below)***

- Judging -
Steps: 30
Presentation: 20
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Total = 50 points possible

Part 1: Steps = max of 30 points
-Basic (5)
-Standard (10)
-Expert (15)

Or if a challenge chart is included:

-Basic (5)
-Standard (7)
-Expert (10)
-Challenge[8] [stupid 8 ) smiley]

- .SM or .DWI File Required (both are not required) UPDATED(Whatever Stepmania loads will be the file who's steps get judged. Grading will be done in Stepmania, so make sure to test it)
- .MP3 or .OGG required. 128 bitrate or higher. OGG is preferred, for easy use with those who have ITG2 with the r21 patch.
- DDR STYLE ONLY. No Mines, Rolls, Handplants, or anything else not seen in DDR.

Guidelines for step judging:

- Steps appropriate for song. (This is not "All the steps should follow the synth part here." This is "Oh, this is a high-speed Jenny Rom song, the steps should be fast and busy." Song choice is not to be judged.
- Technical Aspects. Preventing awkward or bad steps, repeated patterns, lack of anything but 4th note arrows.
- Creativity. Did you follow creative patterns and make unique steps or one boring set that you copied and pasted for the 2nd verse. PS: Judges know if you went into Stepmania and hit "mirror", "turn", or other simple transformations. Use at last resort for lack of creativity.

Part 2: Presentation (new) = max of 20 points
Ever see a good file get docked for stuff like an author's inability to be freaking amazing at graphics, or that they don't have pro audio cutting skills, even though the file rocks? Well, now there will be no more stupid point deductions.

To Illustrate the point:
Ex 1: A well-polished simfile by someone with experience gets a full score because it's on-sync, has excellent graphics, superb steps, and is a great song for DDR. It does not have any extras aside from a cd-title.

Ex 2: A simfile by another artist who isn't good at graphics deserves a full score because the animated graphics make up for the okay regular ones, as well an an additional chart or doubles, or something else.

A perfect score of 20 should NOT be compared to "Well, if I was making a file I would have done this, so they should have also." Instead, it should be, "This is either a very good, basic simfile, or a very complete simfile that may have a few flaws where the author is unable to be great at, but the time and effort put into the other parts makes up for it.

Minimum Guidelines
- Banner
-PNG
-256x80 px, or higher multiplier
-AVI Banner optional (Normal PNG Banner Must be included if using an animated one)
-Artist and Title required.

- Background
-PNG
-640x480 px, or higher multiple
-Song Title required, Artist optional.

- Song
-MP3/OGG; 128kbps or above; like mentioned earlier. Length MUST be between a generous 1:10-2:40 but remember most should be 1:30-2:15 or people will complain about it being too long or too short.
-No Songs from OSC 5 or TM 6

OTHER STUFF
-Readme files: MUST BE ANONYMOUS! Readme files will be included with the file, like normal, but cannot contain any references to previous files, patterns you use in other files of yours, geographical location; any stuff like that, that can be used to identify you is not allowed. It's best just to keep it simple about your file itself, instead of your simfile history.


PRIZE
Thanks to Hellrazor, the prize pool is now $60. He wanted to say, "I feel rewarded just to be able to play all the excellent simfiles that you all worked hard on and entered into this contest," and that's why he wanted to add some to the prize pool.

Prizes will be as follows:
1st Place - $30
2nd Place - $20
3rd Place - $10

If more $ comes in, the prizes will be bigger; but I'd say this is probably what it will stick to.

Prizes will be sent out through PayPal transfers, unless specific arrangements have been made.


Side note: members of the same sites or people who make simfiles together - I will be trying to make sure no "circle-jerking" goes on regarding voting for a file to make it win. Please don't do anything like this. I don't think it'll be a problem, but I'll make it known to not do it. Plus it doesn't make it fun or fair.


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Quick Rule Summary:
DDR STYLE ONLY
1:10-2:40 Song Limit
PNG Graphics, normal sizes
ANONYMOUS ENTRIES!
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I think I got everything, if not; post away below.

TO ENTER: Visit this thread or click "Registrations Now Open" on the top message box.

UPDATES:
Your completed ZIP file must be under 15MB in size.

Just got the email for this I guess I should start soon, heh.

BLueSS wrote:mp3 metatags

This is the only thing I have a question about. <.< What exactly do you mean, and how do we change that? (If you mean ID3 tags, then I know what it is.)

Darn, in order to keep the readme anonymous, I'll have to change how I do it. For OSC 5 all I did was copy the readme from my TM6 entry and change the info, so if I do that again, it will be easily traceable to me. I'll have to get creative. *laughs evily*

TakeWalker wrote:

BLueSS wrote:mp3 metatags

This is the only thing I have a question about. <.< What exactly do you mean, and how do we change that? (If you mean ID3 tags, then I know what it is.)

Um yeah, any tags in the audio file that would reveal who did the entry (whether you choose mp3, or ogg).

You can still keep the Song Author, Title, and all the rest though; just make sure you aren't in it (rare occation).

Side note: members of the same sites or people who make simfiles together - I will be trying to make sure no "circle-jerking" goes on regarding voting for a file to make it win. Please don't do anything like this. I don't think it'll be a problem, but I'll make it known to not do it. Plus it doesn't make it fun or fair.

Surely you're not referring to members of DDRextreme or nDDRo? =P

What do you mean by 640x480 BG minimum?

Would an entry with 320x240 be DQ'd?

Would the official ITG files be DQ'd since they use 320x240 BG videos (those are BG's), would the official DDR files be DQ'd since they use 320x240 images? Do BG Animations have to display in 640x480 or higher lest be DQ'd?

Also with BN .avi's please require that a PNG Banner also be required since it's not as easy to judge a video vs an image and the videos don't work well in SM4.0 (don't worry the videos will give the benefit of overpolished so it's still going to help, it would be good to have the image as well).

hellrazor wrote:What do you mean by 640x480 BG minimum?

Would an entry with 320x240 be DQ'd?

Yes.

Would the official ITG files be DQ'd since they use 320x240 BG videos (those are BG's), would the official DDR files be DQ'd since they use 320x240 images?

No, because they use 640x480 for the images - that's where our standard came from. I just checked an ITG one, and it's 640x480.

Do BG Animations have to display in 640x480 or higher lest be DQ'd?

No rules or restrictions on animations - just the still graphics. Whatever it takes to get the animation working for you, more power to you.

Also with BN .avi's please require that a PNG Banner also be required since it's not as easy to judge a video vs an image and the videos don't work well in SM4.0 (don't worry the videos will give the benefit of overpolished so it's still going to help, it would be good to have the image as well).

That was my original plan, I updated the rules to reflect that.

Updates to rules will be posted in a new post here, as well as appended to the end of the original post above.

ADDED: The complete ZIP filesize for your entry must be under 15MB.

The 640x480 requirement kind of misses the point, I think. Not only do all the DDR official files use 320x240 backgrounds, my winning entry in Rock Out had a 320x240 background and nobody cared because it still looked good. I think judges should mark down backgrounds if they look overly blurry or pixelly due to the low resolution, but if it looks just fine in 320x240, what's the problem?

I doubt this'll matter for me since nearly every background I do is 640x480 but I still wanted to make that point.

Every contest I've ran has always had it that way, this is a very minor issue here.

Just make it 640x480 please. It won't kill you.

BLueSS wrote:Every contest I've ran has always had it that way, this is a very minor issue here.

Just make it 640x480 please. It won't kill you.

I always thought it was funny that OSC 1 had the 640x480 requirement and the prize for 1st place was a complete set of Udderdude Simfiles. All the Udderdude simfiles have 320x240 BG's and would thus have all been DQ'd, not to mention I've spent ALOT of time on my file already and well...

Maybe I'm blind, but I don't see a deadline for file registration. I may consider changing my file because I'm having some issues with the one I originally chose.

Skorpion9x wrote:Maybe I'm blind, but I don't see a deadline for file registration. I may consider changing my file because I'm having some issues with the one I originally chose.

Your blind, it's in another thread and around 3 weeks away.

hellrazor wrote:

Skorpion9x wrote:Maybe I'm blind, but I don't see a deadline for file registration. I may consider changing my file because I'm having some issues with the one I originally chose.

Your blind, it's in another thread and around 3 weeks away.

I've done some more searching and still haven't found such a date. Three weeks from today is August 17. The nearest date to that that I've seen mentioned on this forum is the 19th, the day the actual files are due. I am asking about a date for the registration deadline - which consists of simply PMing your artist/song to BlueSS. Basically, I want to know how long I have to make a final decision on which song I would like to do.