National Grifball Association

National Grifball Association’s 1st Forge Contest!
Contest Submission Deadline: March 17th, 2013

The NGA is looking for brand new grifball courts for the next season of the grifball league! This contest will focus primarily on aesthetics, as forging a grifball map doesn't require much knowledge or utilization of level design theory, though some basic principles will be required to be demonstrated.

What we’re looking for:
We’re looking for new and innovative designs that support a fair game of grifball. Submissions must be functional (including spawns, flat surfaces, etc.) and look professional. Maps can be forged on any of the forge locations in Halo 4 (Ravine, Impact, or Erosion). We’ll be looking for creativity, as well as great designs!

Disqualification Criteria:

Map is turned in after the deadline
Map is not functional (Spawns not setup, Grifball gametype not setup)
Offensive map title or description
Stolen Map (Submissions must be from the author only)
Manipulated Map (Modded maps are not welcome for this contest)
Non-Unique Map (Maps must be new, and created for this contest. Finished designs submitted for other purposes are not acceptable)

Map Sizes:
Courts can be measured by placing a scalable object in the middle of the court (such as a safe zone or respawn zone) and changing the length and width of the object to meet the edges of the map. Submissions will be classified in the following manner:



If you have a new design idea (think Blargball from Halo: Reach) that will change the court design completely, those submissions are welcome as well, and will be classified as “Abnormal”.


Judging Criteria:
Each submission will be judged by a panel of 8 people. These selected persons may consist of NGA admins, Forgers, and/or grifball players. This panel will not be revealed before the submission deadline. Each judge will offer a score/rating for every map 1, 2, or 3 (Where ‘1’ is ‘Needs Work’, and ‘3’ is ‘Excellent’.) We will tally all scores together, and add it to an Overall Score. At the end of the contest, the maps with the top three scores will be our winners. To see all of the judging requirements and a scorecard, click here: http://bit.ly/11uXrte. Spawns must be setup to rival the current NGA spawn style (identical to Halo: Reach style), unless your map is ‘abnormal’, in which spawns must work appropriately. For a resource defining how an official NGA court should be setup (Spawns, safe-zones, etc), click here: http://bit.ly/VLsAWQ. Note: Following those general requirements will aid greatly in the creation of a perfect grifball map, in case you may not be familiar with them.

Prizes:
[1st Place]
A copy of Halo 4: Forward unto Dawn on DVD.
A code worth 800 Microsoft points
Map consideration for NGA league play and tournament use
A grifball-themed avatar prop for xbox 360

[2nd Place]
A code worth 800 Microsoft points
Map consideration for NGA league play and tournament use
A grifball-themed avatar prop for xbox 360

[3rd Place]
Map consideration for NGA league play and tournament use
A grifball-themed avatar prop for xbox 360


How to Submit:
Submission link will be made available from the homepage and forums of http://www.grifball.net. You will need a free account to submit your map.

Disclaimer:
The NGA reserves the right to reuse and/or rename any submissions for the use in the NGA Grifball Leagues as determined by the judges. We may request you to edit any map to comply with NGA requirements, and can edit any submissions to accommodate these requirements ourselves.

We will accept multiple submissions from a single contestant; however, we prefer quality over quantity, and each participant may only win one of the three prizes. That being said, if you've got Grifball courts in your heart and time on your hands, we'd love to see what you come up with.

All winning maps will be submitted to the matchmaking community cartographers responsible for Grifball Matchmaking, for possible inclusion into the playlist.
(Matchmaking is not controlled by the NGA, and winning is not a guarantee of inclusion.)


“Good luck, have fun, and happy forging!” - The NGA Staff

Major thanks go to Master Sundown for all his help in putting this together!

Edited by moderator Tuesday, February 26, 2013 5:04:06 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

FYI: Here is the link for file submissions. Happy forging!

Hey guys Recon here, I've made a map awhile back and want to submit it but it is a 31x26 and although it says nokyard made it, it was me because he gave me his basic template so i wouldnt have to spend hours doing the spawning. so yes it is made by me and and I know 31x26 isn't one of the map sizes you are looking for but it is easily expandable and definitely a map worth taking a look at in my opinion, being the cartographer for the IGL and more or less the understudy of runNOKYARDrun i have some skill with forge and it really shows in my map. I don't know where else to submit it because the link supplied is telling me it is broken. Here is the download link from my fileshare, hope you get the chance to look at it Map Download

P.S. I do not care about winning or receiving prizes, I would just like to see my map played on more.

Thanks!

Two problems with this Recon...
1) As stated in the rules, the map must be new, and created for this contest. That would disallow a map "made a while back" as an entry.

2) It's fine if the "original author" is someone other than yourself, though a template map from nokyard wouldn't be accepted, as we use a separate spawning system, more relative to Reach.

NGA staff will be around this evening at 8EST to give you some ideas if you would like help with the forge.

Who won?