First Official mAI Mapping Contest
myApertureInnovations was founded on principals of modding and content creation. As such, our first official contest will be focused around the creative use of Custom Content! Use of custom textures, models, sounds, and particles are all accepted and encouraged in contest entries, so open up hammer and get mapping! The contest will run from Friday, September 21st to Wednesday, October 31st at 11:59 PM UTC. Better get going, you only have -205 days left!
Ground Rules
- Entries must be custom maps for Portal or Portal 2
- PTI Level Editor maps are not accepted.
You may use the Editor to draft puzzle designs. - You may work in groups of up to 3 people.
Each person must contribute a significant portion of the content in order to qualify. - You may only submit one entry
Your entry may contain up to 3 maps in it. The maps must have level transitions between them, and you will be judged by the overall quality of the maps as a whole.
Custom Content
All entries should use custom content of some sort
(textures, models, particles, sounds, or any combination thereof)
- Content must be made by a team member and not a third party
- Content must be exclusively for the map. No stock sounds or textures.
Any content not following these parameters will not be considered in the score for your map.
Judging Criteria
The following categories will be used to determine the final map score:
- Attractiveness: The content is well-presented and benefits the experience presented by the map
- Meshing: The content should not feel out of place and should fit within the Portal and Portal 2 Extended Universe
- Importance: The content should play a significant or noticeable part in the overall delivery of the map
- Wow Factor: How impressed are the judges by your map? Based on quality of content, uniqueness, mapping skill, etc.
- Overall Map Quality: the map should be fun to play for players at the intended skill level and represent a short to medium map size (about the length of Chambers 16-19 in Portal); it should not use engine or portal glitches.
Prizes
The prizes will be as follows:
- A grand prize will be awarded to the entry with the overall top score as determined by the average of the judges' ratings. The grand prize will consist of: One (1) Cake Poster signed by members of the Portal team, One (1) Steam game, item, or other tradeable commodity of your choice with a price equal to or less than $30, a special badge on your forum profile, and your map will be recognized as the first community spotlight as well as having the first mAI Seal of Approval on the map page.
- A second place prize will be awarded to the entry with the overall second-best score as determined by the average of the judges' ratings. The minor prizes will consist of: One (1) Steam game, item, or other tradeable commodity of your choice with a price equal to or less than $15, a badge (not special) on your forum profile, and your map will have the second mAI Seal of Approval
- To each entrant will be given a badge to be displayed on your forum profile. Everyone's a winner (except the people who don't enter)
How to Enter
As soon as this contest is announced, all the way until October 31, 2012 at 11:59 PM UTC there will be a checkbox on the file upload page labelled "Contest." Tick this box when you upload the map to mark it as a contest submission. After the map is uploaded, the only way to remove it from the running is to delete and reupload without the contest parameter.
