Official Level Design Contests of 2003
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SRB2 World Contest #1: GFZ Battle
While not an official contest, this was the first mapping contest for SRB2 and the inspiration for starting the OLDC. It was held between May and June 2003 by SRB2 developer a441 on his website, SRB2 World. Final Demo 1.01 was released during the submission period. The goal of the contest was to get more people interested in creating maps for SRB2, which only a few community members knew how to do at the time.
As with the first few OLDCs, only Match maps were accepted. As an additional constraint, only flats, textures and scenery items from Greenflower Zone were allowed to be used. Authors were not allowed to show their maps to other users before the submission deadline. a441 later regretted this, stating that some of the maps could have been improved by playtesting. Mystic incorporated this lesson into the OLDC, where it was encouraged to let other users test the maps before submission.
Voting for the contest occurred on the SRB2 Message Board. Since all message board records from before October 2003 were lost due to a crash, it is not known which voting system was used and which scores the maps received. Information about this contest was retrieved from the SRB2 World website and the now-defunct addons section of the SRB2 homepage, which were archived by Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, as well as the recovered contest WAD file provided below.
a441 submitted four of the five accepted maps himself. It is not known which map was not submitted by a441 and who created it. A sixth map was submitted by Mystic, but it was disqualified because it used the GFZ bridge textures, which a441 had forgotten to specify in the list of allowed textures. The map was added to SRB2 in v1.08 as Sapphire Falls Zone and is included in the game to this day. a441 later re-released two of his maps in the addons section of the SRB2 homepage, under the names Paragon Valley Zone and Stone Quadrant Zone. Stone Quadrant Zone was changed significantly for the re-release.
The contest file includes two bonus levels: the disqualified Sapphire Falls Zone as well as Two D Battle Zone, an experimental Match level in 2D mode.
Match division
- MAP01 – GFZ Battle Zone Act 1
- MAP02 – GFZ Battle Zone Act 2 by a441 (Paragon Valley Zone)
- MAP03 – GFZ Battle Zone Act 3
- MAP04 – GFZ Battle Zone Act 4
- MAP05 – GFZ Battle Zone Act 5 by a441 (Stone Quadrant Zone)
Bonus levels
- MAP06 – GFZ Battle Zone Act 6 by Mystic (Sapphire Falls Zone)
- MAP07 – Two D Battle Zone by a441
Links
July
- Host: Mystic
- Then-current SRB2 version: v1.04
Although it is not known conclusively that this was the first OLDC, it is very likely since it started immediately after the first SRB2 World contest, by which it was inspired, and no maps from an earlier contest have surfaced. The first OLDCs were hosted by Mystic and accepted only Match levels, although unlike the first SRB2 World contest there were no theming restrictions.
All votes for this contest were lost in the October 2003 message board crash. The winner of the contest and the authors of the maps are known from their re-releases in the addons section of the SRB2 homepage. Following this contest, a "Level of the Month" section was introduced on the addons page, where the winning maps from the OLDC would be featured. This contest's winner, Transcendental Fort Zone, was the first map to appear there.
Match division
- MAP01 – Transcendental Fort Zone by a441
- MAP02 – Snow Hill Zone by Tets
- MAP03 – Blue Sky Zone by Tets
- MAP04 – Vacant Rocketship Zone by Digiku
Links
August
- Host: Mystic
- Then-current SRB2 version: v1.04
As with the previous contest, the votes for this contest were lost in the SRB2MB crash. All information about this contest was retrieved from archived pages of the SRB2 homepage's addons section on Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, as well as the recovered contest WAD file provided below.
Match division
- MAP01 – Nitric Nexus Zone by a441
- MAP02 – Tets Base Zone by Tets
- MAP03 – Green Hill DM Zone by JTE
- MAP04 – Waterfall Island Zone by Digiku
Links
September
- Host: Mystic
- Then-current SRB2 version: v1.04
This contest is the earliest one for which full records still exist. The SRB2 Message Board crashed in October 2003, while voting for this contest was already in progress. No backups of the message board could be recovered, causing the records of all earlier contests to be lost. When the message board was relaunched in November, voting for this contest was restarted from scratch.
Match division
- MAP01 – Flame Valley Zone by a441 – 6.33
- MAP02 – Loopy Tunnel Zone by a441 – 8.33
- MAP03 – Jasons Base Zone by JTE – 6.75
- MAP04 – Sky Walkways Zone by a441 – 7.00
- MAP05 – Sacred Realm Zone by SSC – 4.00
Links
SRB2 World Contest #2: Capture the Flag
- Host: a441
- Then-current SRB2 version: v1.04
It is not known precisely when this contest was held. Its maps were uploaded to the addons section of the SRB2 homepage in October 2003, making it likely that it was held shortly before the message board crash, concurrently with the September 2003 OLDC. With the OLDC accepting only Match levels, this contest focused on Capture the Flag mode. At the time, no CTF maps had been released in the addons sections of the SRB2 homepage.
Four maps were submitted to the contest, of which two were added to SRB2 in v1.08: Iron Warehouse Zone and Twin Hills Zone. However, neither map proved to be popular and both were removed again in v1.09.
Capture the Flag division
- MAP01 – Iron Warehouse Zone by Arrietty
- MAP02 – Stone Walkway Zone by a441
- MAP03 – Dueling Peaks Zone by FuriousFox
- MAP04 – Twin Hills Zone by a441
Links
November
- Host: Mystic
- Then-current SRB2 version: v1.04
Because of the aforementioned message board outage, the October 2003 contest could not be held. The November 2003 contest was the first one to be set up on the new message board.
Match division
- MAP01 – Nightmare Ring Zone by Mystic – 7.75
- MAP02 – Food Fight Zone by Kristos – 5.40
- MAP03 – Skyway Zone by Tets – 7.25
- MAP04 – Techno Ruins by Digiku – 7.25
- MAP05 – Sky High Zone by Eric` – 1.00
- MAP06 – Dark Sewer Zone by NeoGenGamer/a441 – 7.00
- MAP07 – Nocturnal Clash Zone by FuriousFox – 5.40
- MAP08 – Rainbow Stadium Zone by a441 – 7.75
- MAP09 – Tranquility Valley Zone by Digiku – 6.25
- MAP10 – Green Hills Zone by Shadow – 4.50
Links
December
- Host: Mystic
- Then-current SRB2 version: v1.04
After several contests for Match mode, Mystic introduced a new format: The gametype for the contest was to change each month, rotating between Single Player, Match and CTF. Thus, this was the first contest for Single Player maps. However, previous concerns that Single Player maps might be too complex to make in a month's time were justified when only three maps were submitted. As a result, the plan was called off and the OLDC reverted to only Match levels. A division for Single Player levels would later be re-introduced in 2005, while CTF maps would not start to appear in the OLDC until 2006.
A revamped version of Poisoned Paradise Zone later appeared in Tets' level pack Blue Heaven under the name Metal Wasteland Zone Act 1. Shrouded Terminal Zone was included as an unlockable level in some versions of FuriousFox's level pack Acid Missile.
Single Player division
- Mine Maze Zone by lostgamemaker – 3.25
- Poisoned Paradise Zone by Tets – 7.43
- Shrouded Terminal Zone by FuriousFox – 5.38
Links
| Official Level Design Contests and Collabs | [view] | |
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2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2014 • 2015 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022 • 2023 • 2024 | ||