Winter Festive Modding Festival (2019)

Dec 1, 2019 at 2:18 PM
Junior Member
"Wow! The more I drink of this magical beverage, the more games I can play! Wheee!"
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It's time to get festive, and the best way to celebrate in Winter is by celebrating christmas.
Just kidding!!
This will be a short Modding Festival with a small scope to wrap up all modding contests until 2021 and celebrate the Winter months!

Theme
The theme of this contest is winter festivity! This could mean christmas, Hanukkah, or generally going outside in sub 0 degree weather and having a good time anyway!

Period
You can submit your mod any time from now until Wednesday 24th of December (Christmas Eve) at 23:59 UTC+0.
At the end of the period there will be a community vote, and the winner(s) will win a super secret prize!

Livestream!
As is tradition for modding festivals, I will be streaming a play-through of each mod once the contest is over. I cannot guarantee that I will be able to brave and defeat each one but I will try my best! This livestream will take place on Twitch in early January.

Rules
Please observe the following rules before you start working on your mod, and ensure all the way up to submission that you follow them closely! Thank you.
  1. Please follow the Theme outlined above to the best of your abilities!
  2. Use a modification of the original executable of Cave Story, not any port, recompilation or other variant. For the sake of everyone's convenience you are allowed to use executables that have the Aeon Genesis or other English translation patches pre-installed. You do not have to use any of Cave Story's original data files.
  3. Any assets (music/sound, sprites/artwork, executable patches) you use may have been created before the beginning of the contest, but your maps must be original for the contest. This also extends to disallowing what are known as "Cave Story, but different" mods, which are usually light sprite/script edits of the original game.
  4. Teams are allowed however they are not encouraged. If you want to win the community vote, for every extra person who is on your team you will be given a penalty!
  5. Any content is allowed in your mods, but if it is graphic or otherwise not what people usually expect from a Cave Story mod like horror please declare this in your readme file. Mods that have content not allowed to be streamed on Twitch obviously won't be streamed on Twitch.
  6. When your mod is ready please post a download link to it into this thread, along with its official title, and a list of the people who worked on it and what they did in the post text (you may omit QA testers from these credits, but please credit them in your readme or in the game's end credits). You may also include one or more screenshots and a description at your own discretion. If you're submitting as a team you are not permitted to make any of your team members anonymous. If you're submitting as an individual and afraid of people associating your mod with you you can also Direct Message it to me and I will post it myself at the end of the contest.

That's all!
If you're entering, good luck with your submission! I will be monitoring these forums periodically so please ask any questions here or in a Direct Message. Thank you. :)
 
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Dec 1, 2019 at 2:44 PM
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Yeah, I don't think I will be entering this one since I'm working on something else and it's clearly not Christmas themed. Sorry. :(
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 3:02 PM
Deliverer of Sweets
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Not to be unfriendly but I'm not sure how people will feel about a contest hosted by someone who made an account just to start the contest.
Based on the rules it's likely that either you're a long-time lurker or someone being a bit mysterious by using an alt.
Or someone from the cs discords I'm not in.
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 3:24 PM
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Yeah, I don't think I will be entering this one since I'm working on something else and it's clearly not Christmas themed. Sorry. :(
That's okay you don't have to enter! I'm honoured you were interested.

Not to be unfriendly but I'm not sure how people will feel about a contest hosted by someone who made an account just to start the contest.
Based on the rules it's likely that either you're a long-time lurker or someone being a bit mysterious by using an alt.
Or someone from the cs discords I'm not in.
Nope I have been lurking all over for a few years now! :) Just dropping in for this.
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 4:12 PM
War criminal
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Tbh, with Modcon still happening and no one seems to be entering, I hope you acknowledge that this contest may share the same fate.
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 4:58 PM
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I thought about it untill I read rule 2. this is obviusly against CSE2 and I'm starting to learn C this month. Doing this competition would just distract me and not give me an avenue to practice C because....... I'm not going to say that you hate CSE2 or something, but there is no reason to exclude it.
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 5:16 PM
Soup Man
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I thought about it untill I read rule 2. this is obviusly against CSE2 and I'm starting to learn C this month. Doing this competition would just distract me and not give me an avenue to practice C because....... I'm not going to say that you hate CSE2 or something, but there is no reason to exclude it.
werent you learning ASM
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 5:38 PM
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"Wow! The more I drink of this magical beverage, the more games I can play! Wheee!"
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I thought about it untill I read rule 2. this is obviusly against CSE2 and I'm starting to learn C this month. Doing this competition would just distract me and not give me an avenue to practice C because....... I'm not going to say that you hate CSE2 or something, but there is no reason to exclude it.
Modding and typical game creation are a fundamentally different process, and re-compilations occupy a grey zone. Festivities are all about tradition, and executable hacking are as traditional as it gets!
Tbh, with Modcon still happening and no one seems to be entering, I hope you acknowledge that this contest may share the same fate.
Maybe it's too much work? I tried to keep my scale more realistic for people with too small a time budget. Even if only one person enters I'll definitely still do the livestream! But at least 2 people for the prize. ;)
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 5:39 PM
War criminal
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I'm not going to say that you hate CSE2 or something, but there is no reason to exclude it.
There is a loophole, though.
For the sake of everyone's convenience you are allowed to use executables that have the Aeon Genesis or other English translation patches pre-installed.
Despite the glaring fact that the tsc scripts are outside the executable, meaning the whole rule is flawed from the start.

Although this now begs the question whether this contest is for original ideas for Christmas mods, or is this contest seeking for good looking festive CSBDs...
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 5:44 PM
Soup Man
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Dec 1, 2019 at 5:47 PM
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There is a loophole, though.

Despite the glaring fact that the tsc scripts are outside the executable, meaning the whole rule is flawed from the start.

Although this now begs the question whether this contest is for original ideas for Christmas mods, or is this contest seeking for good looking festive CSBDs...
The Aeon Genesis English translation modifies the executable file so I was just trying to make sure nobody got confused. :)
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 5:47 PM
War criminal
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I ask that because apparently the English translations are a requirement for the mods (as in they have to be used in the entries). And i mean sure, not everyone will make an English Cave Story mod in the Japanese version, but that's still a valid mod.

EDIT:
The Aeon Genesis English translation modifies the executable file so I was just trying to make sure nobody got confused.
Good guess, but actually no. The translations are in the files in the Data folder, not the executable.
 
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Dec 1, 2019 at 5:54 PM
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I ask that because apparently the English translations are a requirement for the mods (as in they have to be used in the entries). And i mean sure, not everyone will make an English Cave Story mod in the Japanese version, but that's still a valid mod.

EDIT:

Good guess, but actually no. The translations are in the files in the Data folder, not the executable.
Hold your horses young lady, I've been doing this for longer than you!
The Aeon Genesis English Translation patch modifies the executable file's metadata, the window frame title, the drop-down menu text, and the Studio Pixel text. This is a minor enough difference that you are allowed to use the Japanese executable as well as the English one! :)
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 6:00 PM
War criminal
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Hold your horses young lady, I've been doing this for longer than you!
For once, somebody called me young. Although i turn 25 in twenty days...

I guess your reasoning makes sense, though it can also be manually done through Resource Hacker (and even a hex editor) if you really wanna be consistent althroughout the mod. Then again, all current modders don't really give as much of a damn as back then, so I do see your point more now.
 
Dec 1, 2019 at 7:13 PM
Deliverer of Sweets
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I think the general point is that you should be modding vanilla cs, and not some custom engine or such so that it's more about modding cave story itself.
Makes it a lot more accessible for the people that can learn TSC but dont have the time to do C or something.
I doubt OP would have issues with it if you take the dutch translation or something, as long as you dont use maps or an asm-hacked exe from before this started.

If I come up with anything i might just enter.
 
Dec 3, 2019 at 9:18 AM
Junior Member
"Wow! The more I drink of this magical beverage, the more games I can play! Wheee!"
Join Date: Dec 1, 2019
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I think the general point is that you should be modding vanilla cs, and not some custom engine or such so that it's more about modding cave story itself.
Makes it a lot more accessible for the people that can learn TSC but dont have the time to do C or something.
I doubt OP would have issues with it if you take the dutch translation or something, as long as you dont use maps or an asm-hacked exe from before this started.

If I come up with anything i might just enter.
Small huh? Maybe I'll enter then. No promises about length, though.
Glad to see some community interest! Hope you both come up with fun ideas. :)

Also there's no requirement for your mod to be submitted finished although I will be expecting a certain level of QC.
 
Dec 3, 2019 at 3:16 PM
War criminal
"Life begins and ends with Nu."
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Also there's no requirement for your mod to be submitted finished although I will be expecting a certain level of QC.
Meaning there's gonna have to be effort put into the mod in case someone decides to submit a shitpost entry? Not bad at all, tbh.
 
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