The Magic Seal
First OFFICIAL Contest
Closed,
7/4/2004
$100 for the
best room for The Magic Seal, plus other
prizes for runner ups. Read on for the
details...
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Ladies and gentlemen... Hello and welcome to
the first OFFICIAL contest for The Magic
Seal. We are really excited about this
contest. We know you are excited too! This
contest is like no other contest you have
seen. The main difference is that here,
there is no luck involved! It is your
talent, your skills, your hard work that is
going to be the decisive factor in this
contest! The contest is open for everyone,
even if you don't own the registered
version. Please read on for details, and
rules of the contest...
Overview
Put simply, the purpose
of this contest is to design the most
creative room for The Magic Seal. The editor
has just been released, and now, you can
build your very own rooms for The Magic
Seal. This is the challenge! Create the best
room for The Magic Seal (There are some
conditions on the room you create, read the
rules below).
The contest starts February 7th, 2004,
and ends April 7th, 2004.
Rules
1.
The competition runs from 0000hrs (GMT) on
February 7th, 2004 and ends at 2359hrs (GMT)
on April 7th, 2004. Any submissions after
this date will not be accepted.
Winners will be announced
shortly after the deadline both on The Magic
Seal website, and by email.
2.
The purpose of the contest is to design the
best room for The Magic Seal. There are two
rules that your room has to follow...
namely...
a. Your room should
be an original room. You should build your
room from scratch. Or, if you start from a
room from the game, you have to modify it
completely, so that it becomes a totally
new room.
b. Your
room should have only one entrance, and
one exit point. This means that creating a
2 in 1 room is not allowed in this
contest. Here are some examples for rooms
that can be accepted, along with some
others that can not be accepted.
Examples for accepted type of rooms
From Stage 1. The
entrance is the door at the bottom, and
the exit is the door at top. As you can
see, there is only one entrance point, and
one exit point. This room is Okay.
Also from Stage 1. The
entrance is the door at the top left, and
the exit is the door on the other side. As
you can see, there is only one entrance
point, and one exit point. This room is
Okay.
Again, only one
entrance, (the door at the left), and only
one exit point. ( the door at the right)
Examples for non-accepted rooms.
As you can see, there
are three entrance points to this room
(the 2 yellow doors, and the open area at
the bottom). This type of rooms is not
accepted.
This room is totally
divided into 2 sections. Again. This is
not accepted.
In case of doubt, feel
free to ask us
contest@themagicseal.com
We will be glad to answer your questions.
3. Multiple entries
are allowed. But, only the best submission
for each entrant will be considered. This
means, each entrant may only win one prize.
4.
Rooms will be judged by our 5 judges. Each
one is going to give your room a score (out
of 100) based on some factors. The most
important of these factors are... (in order)
a.
Soundness:
By soundness, we mean that your room,
should only have the solution(s) intended
by the designer. It is unacceptable if
your room has some hidden easy solution
you didn't think of that will result in
some elements being completely unused, or
some areas, not being visited at all, and
so on... Make sure there are no other
hidden easy solutions for your room. (read
tips below for some tips to avoid this).
b.
Originality:
The more original your room, the higher
score you get. If you design a room that
resembles a room from The Magic Seal very
much, you are not going to score very high
here. Try to come up with a new idea.
c.
How tricky your room is:
The trickier your room is, the higher
score you get. A straightforward room,
will certainly score less than a tricky
room.
d.
Artistic Touch:
the more beautiful your room is, the
more score you get. Creating a room that
has lots of boxes scattered randomly
around is not a very good idea. If they
have a certain pattern for them, that
would be great.
Our
advice is to work on more than one room at
the same time, rather than doing only one.
After working with them for a while, you
will start to see which one is more
promising. You can send the best one to
us
The
score for your room is the average of the
scores given to you by our 5 judges.
5.
The prizes of the contest are as follows
First Prize:
$100 for the best room
Second Prize: $50 for the second
place
Third Prize: $25 for the third
place
In case two rooms get
the same score, ties will be broken in
favor of the entrant who submitted his
winning room earlier.
6.
When your room is ready, please submit your
entry to
contest@themagicseal.com.
You should submit the following...
a. The room file
(*.room)
b. The starting location to start
from (either in coordinates, or by
description. Something that goes like
"Start next to the yellow door", is
perfectly okay).
c. Your full name, phone number,
email, and address. These are going to
become really important if you win the
contest!
You can
put everything into one zip file. Or, if
you don't have a compression program, you
can simply attach everything along with
your email. Remember, send your entries to
contest@themagicseal.com
7. Once the
contest is over, all submitted rooms will be
hosted on our site, in order for other
players to try them for themselves.
8. The judges decision is FINAL.
Tips
Some tips may come in
handy
1. Revise
your room well, and make sure there are no
hidden simple solutions you didn't think of!
This is the worst thing ever that can happen
to your room. If possible, let someone else
play the room, and watch how he is going to
solve it (someone who never saw the room
before!). If this is not possible, try to
leave the room for 2 or 3 days, and then
come back to it, and try to find alternative
solutions to it.
2. If you want, you can
look at the rooms in The Magic Seal for
inspiration. But, remember, originality is
important. Don't just copy an idea that was
in the original game. Try to come up with
something new.
3. You
can work on more than one room at the same
time. If one room comes to a dead end, you
can continue working on the others. Later,
you can send the best one as your entry.
4. Keep
an eye on our
forum. You can
ask there about any questions related to the
editor, or for tips, and advices.
5.
Subscribe to our newsletter. We will keep
you informed about the latest news about the
contest. Occasionally, we may post useful
tips and tricks for improving your room.
6. Your
questions are, of course, welcome. Send your
questions to
contest@themagicseal.com
Finally,
good Luck to everyone... and... Let the
building begin!!
Go back to the main
puzzle contests page.
