Winter Mapmaking Contest

Many people have expressed boredom with the maps available for ZK, especially in matchmaker. And many of the maps that ZK is played on aren't really well designed for ZK. So, let's make more maps!

And to have some extra fun while makigng more maps, we're going to have this:

❄❄❄ WINTER MAP CONTEST ❄❄❄

Here's a picture to grab some attention maybe. There's more text after it, read that too.



The Rules

❄ Make a map within one month from when this message is posted. This means you have until January 8th, inclusive.

❄ The map should be designed primarily for 1v1, but if it supports teams and ffa, that's a bonus.

❄ The map should have the maximum dimensions of 14x14. You can make non-square maps, but then the largest dimension should still be 14. Try to avoid very narrow maps.

❄ Try to stay within approximately 40 mexes or less, valued around 2.0.

❄ The map should be loosely winter themed. You can interpret this theme as much as you like. Maybe it's covered with snow and ice crystals; or maybe it's a scorching desert, but when winter comes, life isn't instantly cooked by the heat and there's some water and grass around. Feel free to handwave this in any ways you want.

❄ Released maps will be rated and ranked by players. Only the players who have played at least one game on all of the submitted maps will count. Ratings will be only accepted after the submission deadline, no early votes.

I have pondered about having a jury or rating criteria, but ah, screw that. Maybe next time. Go wild, impress the audience!

The Prize

❄ Quite aside from an event for testing the maps, the map that wins the contest will be featured in a ZK tournament following the conclusion of the map contest.

❄Additionally, it's possible it will eventually be used for matchmaker - but that's a tougher thing to promise, so i won't.

The Tech
If you're not new to Spring/ZK mapmaking, feel free to use anything you want or have used until then.

If you're new, it's a good time to learn! You can use these materials to get yourself started:
❄ How To Make A Crappy Map For ZK In One Hour - the video should guide you through most of the process, and you're free to use any of the assets in provided complementary files.

❄ Map Creation Manual on the wiki contains more in-depth and in-text documentation (i hate videos personally, so i'd start here myself. Because i hate videos.)

❄ Simple Map Tutorial for Spring in general (also linked in the above manual!) also contains useful and easy-to-follow instructions. As well as even more links to deepen your knowledge.

❄ You can ask for help on #zkmap in the lobby or on the same channel of the ZK discord.

The People
This is the participants list. It will be updated as people register up, and include their submissions when available.
❄ sprang
❄ PaulBellow
❄ Manu12 (submission: ❄ Shifting Sands v1.5 ❄)
❄ Timo
❄ merck25
❄ Oflameo
❄ marfis and SoDEX (submission: ❄ Snowy Mesa 0.43 ❄)
❄ Aquanim (submission: ❄ Rogues River vBETA3 ❄)

The Votes
Shifting Sands : ❄
Snowy Mesa : ❄❄
Rogues River : ❄❄❄❄

No, do anything. Maybe if this works out well, the next one could have more rigid guidelines and requirements. I'm keeping this one freeform; go wild.

I'm gonna throw my hat... er, map... into the ring.

Excited to see what comes out of this!

I tried to make maps but I quickly realized that we have a large amount of good maps and its more or less wasting time for me making a map. <- My opion.

I have a problem where I somehow always tries to make maps in favor of jumpy fac. (One of my favorite facs) This tends to make them hilly and large water barriers in a wierd way. There are plenty of maps in this shapes.

I realy like the idea of map creating contest. I guess the theme right now is winter :)

Also is the autoinstaller fixed? making it easier for people too start making maps.

I'll try too, maybe won't finish it tho. :p

quote: Maybe it's covered with snow and ice crystals; or maybe it's a scorching desert, but when winter comes, life isn't instantly cooked by the heat and there's some water and grass around. Feel free to handwave this in any ways you want.

And i did!
I submit my map Shifting Sands v1.3 (as long as there are no major bugs which i didnt notice)

https://zero-k.info/Maps/Detail/57595

I am thinking about making a real winter map if i somehow find some time to do so again. Feel free to open a forum post with map ideas, i will discuss them with you and if something has taken my interest i will promise to dedicate an appropriate amount of time in making that map.

Wesnoth doesn't have the benefit of factory switching like Zero-K which makes the game harder to balance and makes it get stale faster.

I am familiar enough with both to port a Wesnoth map.

quote: I cant seem to find this map so i cannot comment on this one.

Sorry, it wasn't a Crossing, it was Arctic Pass.

quote: And.... well now i got a problem i kinda like all of the posted Westnoth maps and already have some ideas how to make them... (rip freetime around christmas inc.?) the only thing i am not to sure about is the spring mapsize i should use for every of the posted maps.

I would say do 14x14. Wesnoth terrains tend to be very high-frequency, and to take lots of space in ZK in my experience. If you feel that you're at risk of the map becoming very spammy, just lower the mex content.

If both you and Oflameo make wesnoth maps, you should coordinate (in private perhaps) as to who picks what ;)

please stop due to less snow last years. :-)

Nice map marfis I posted my thoughts. http://zero-k.info/Maps/Detail/57601