JamesMoody
Trainz Team
The Trainz team has a long history of collaboration with the third-party developer community and we’ve seen great things come from this - just take a look at the new routes in our latest product version, Trainz Simulator 2010. I’m sure that everyone has some favourite third-party locomotives and at least one favourite route.
One thing that we don’t see enough of at the current time is new Sessions for the built-in routes. We believe that this is important because a reasonable portion of our user-base just likes to drive - for these people, each new Session is hours of additional game-play. These Sessions aren’t restricted to a simple “drive from A to B” - they can be as complex and as non-linear as the creator wishes.
With that in mind, we are pleased to announce the Trainz Session-Creation Competition.
The competition consists of developing a driver session, based on a TS2010 route, which provides the player with a fun experience and demonstrates the capabilities of TS2010. Winners are selected by an N3V-selected panel of judges and prizes are awarded as follows:
The following rules apply to this competition:
We expect that any submitted sessions should be of a high standard. Gameplay objectives should be clearly explained to the player at the beginning of the session and as necessary throughout the gameplay. The session should take between approximately one hour and three hours to complete successfully.
The session should either provide clear-cut “win” and “loss” conditions, or some meaningful form of scoring in order that the player can gauge their own progress and success.
It should not be necessary for the player to already know the route in detail, nor should they need to have any loco-specific knowledge. The instructions should be clear enough that a new player can play through your session successfully with no prior knowledge except that provided by the TS2010 tutorial sessions.
The inclusion of session-specific achievements, using the TS2010 achievement system, is considered beneficial.
The inclusion of gameplay that changes slightly between each run is considered beneficial, except where the random element interferes with successful completion of the session.
The inclusion of prototypical and/or historical elements are considered beneficial - for example, choosing activities relevant to the selected route and period, and providing appropriate historical details through in-game prompts or events.
The inclusion of novel gameplay elements or a novel scoring system is considered beneficial.
Use of graphically detailed locomotives and stock is highly recommended. We want the sessions to look graphically impressive.
Eligible Maps
One of the following built-in maps must be selected as the basis for your submission. Sessions created for other maps will be disqualified from the competition. Map modifications are not permitted.
It is inevitable that some submissions will contain small but important faults which would disqualify them from the competition. In many cases these would be trivial to correct, but the participants may have overlooked the issue, or misunderstood the rules to some degree. We are providing a one-month window of communication between the judges and the participants to rectify any such problems prior to the final submission date.
After the initial submission date (Now extended to 25 Feb 2011), the judges will announce a shortlist of submissions from which the winning sessions will eventually be selected. At this time, the judges may also announce a list of corrections that are necessary for specific submissions to avoid disqualification. The participants should correct these issues and upload replacement versions of the submissions as soon as possible.
It is important to note that this one-month window is for final polish and requested corrections only. Submissions which are considered substantially incomplete at the initial submission date will be rejected and the relevant participants will not be provided with an opportunity to resubmit.
One thing that we don’t see enough of at the current time is new Sessions for the built-in routes. We believe that this is important because a reasonable portion of our user-base just likes to drive - for these people, each new Session is hours of additional game-play. These Sessions aren’t restricted to a simple “drive from A to B” - they can be as complex and as non-linear as the creator wishes.
With that in mind, we are pleased to announce the Trainz Session-Creation Competition.
The competition consists of developing a driver session, based on a TS2010 route, which provides the player with a fun experience and demonstrates the capabilities of TS2010. Winners are selected by an N3V-selected panel of judges and prizes are awarded as follows:
- First place - AUS $1000 cash.
- Second place - AUS $100 cash plus AUS $100 voucher for the Auran Store.
- Third place - AUS $50 cash plus AUS $50 voucher for the Auran Store.
The following rules apply to this competition:
- A submission consists of a single new driver session for one of the TS2010 built-in routes using TS2010 built-in content. Specific types of Download Station assets may be used as dependencies - HTML assets, achievement assets, driver orders, session rules and script libraries.
- Resubmissions of a pre-existing sessions will not be accepted.
- Each participant may create one or more sessions for submission.
- Group collaboration is permitted, however a single spokesman must be nominated as the representative of the group and is considered the participant for the purposes of this competition.
- Submissions should be created using the Trainz Surveyor module in such a way that an end-user can view the Session rules in Surveyor and learn how the session works. Sessions which consist of a single custom “do-everything” rule are specifically discouraged.
- Submissions must be successfully uploaded to the Trainz Download Station by the 25th of February, 2011 in order to be eligible for judging. A shortlist will be announced indicating which submissions are under consideration.
- Submissions will be judged in TS2010 SP3 with compatibility mode turned off.
- Finalised versions of the submissions must be successfully uploaded to the Trainz Download Station by the 25th of March 2011.
- All submissions are covered by the Trainz Download Station EULA.
- Special exemptions may be given to specific rules where the variations are considered minor and do not interfere with the judging of the competition.
- “Cash” prizes are mailed as checks, made out to the winning participant.
- N3V staff and judges are not permitted to enter the competition.
- The judges’ decisions are final.
We expect that any submitted sessions should be of a high standard. Gameplay objectives should be clearly explained to the player at the beginning of the session and as necessary throughout the gameplay. The session should take between approximately one hour and three hours to complete successfully.
The session should either provide clear-cut “win” and “loss” conditions, or some meaningful form of scoring in order that the player can gauge their own progress and success.
It should not be necessary for the player to already know the route in detail, nor should they need to have any loco-specific knowledge. The instructions should be clear enough that a new player can play through your session successfully with no prior knowledge except that provided by the TS2010 tutorial sessions.
The inclusion of session-specific achievements, using the TS2010 achievement system, is considered beneficial.
The inclusion of gameplay that changes slightly between each run is considered beneficial, except where the random element interferes with successful completion of the session.
The inclusion of prototypical and/or historical elements are considered beneficial - for example, choosing activities relevant to the selected route and period, and providing appropriate historical details through in-game prompts or events.
The inclusion of novel gameplay elements or a novel scoring system is considered beneficial.
Use of graphically detailed locomotives and stock is highly recommended. We want the sessions to look graphically impressive.
Eligible Maps
One of the following built-in maps must be selected as the basis for your submission. Sessions created for other maps will be disqualified from the competition. Map modifications are not permitted.
- ECML Kings Cross - York
- Avery - Drexel
- CN Holly Subdivision
- Conrail Lincoln Secondary
- CSX Saginaw Subdivision
- Detroit Connecting Railroad
- Downtown Traction
- Harbor Master
- Port Ogden & Northern
- Springfield Industrial District
It is inevitable that some submissions will contain small but important faults which would disqualify them from the competition. In many cases these would be trivial to correct, but the participants may have overlooked the issue, or misunderstood the rules to some degree. We are providing a one-month window of communication between the judges and the participants to rectify any such problems prior to the final submission date.
After the initial submission date (Now extended to 25 Feb 2011), the judges will announce a shortlist of submissions from which the winning sessions will eventually be selected. At this time, the judges may also announce a list of corrections that are necessary for specific submissions to avoid disqualification. The participants should correct these issues and upload replacement versions of the submissions as soon as possible.
It is important to note that this one-month window is for final polish and requested corrections only. Submissions which are considered substantially incomplete at the initial submission date will be rejected and the relevant participants will not be provided with an opportunity to resubmit.
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... which we had.