For everyone seeking something new to do, or those of you who want your name immortally engraved on ZC, this is a chance for you to accomplish either goal.

The Official ZC Open Assets Contests are a series of events, intended to generate complete assets packages for ZC/ZQuest, that do not infringe on the copyrighted IP of any entity.

The First Phase of events, is the generation of the following assets, individually:
  • Graphics (Tiles, Combos)
  • Sound Effects (WAV formata)
  • MIDIs
  • Chiptunes (NES, SNES, and GB formats)



These events are intended to generate open assets for us to use, in the future distribution of ZC, and in the development of fully open quests that will be distributed in the future. The open quest development is the second phase of this event, which we will conduct when the first phase is satisfactorily completed.

Participants may enter individually, or in teams (collaboration, or otherwise), groups, or sets of whatever sort best suits your productivity. Please indicate when entering, if you wish to be recognised individually, or as a team; if as a team, you may select a Team Name.

Please also indicate to us the amount of time that you (or your team) feels is appropriate toward completing your entry.

Each section will be its own contest, and will be judged by an internal panel.

Entries for assets should ideally use 2.53.0 in order to create them, but you may begin using 2.50.2 until 2.53.0 is out of beta.

The first stage of the contest is grouped in three sections:

{{ GRAPHICS RULES }}

1. These must be WHOLLY ORIGINAL graphical assets, or assets ripped from public-domain sources, or art licensed under the CCL3 license for commercial redistribution. Absolutely no assets from other commercial products.

2. Any assets from sources other than the submitting entity must give appropriate references so that we can verify them. If they originate from an external site, then the submission MUST include a URL to the original work.

3. We have a direct license to the Koten tileset by @DragonDePlatino , and thus, you are free to use it as a base; however, all references to Link, Zelda, and the most iconic franchise game objects, must be reworked into original concepts.

4. This includes bosses, some enemies, some items, and the like. While output may resemble Zelda-Universe objects, the similarity should not be glaring.

5. Graphical assets MUST be submitted in QST format.

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{{ AUDIO RULES }}

1. These must be WHOLLY ORIGINAL audio assets, or assets ripped from public-domain sources, such as freesound.org; or sounds licensed under the CCL3 license for commercial redistribution. Absolutely no assets from other commercial products.

2. Any assets from sources other than the submitting entity must give appropriate references so that we can verify them. If they originate from an external site, then the submission MUST include a URL to the original work.

3. No submissions for music will be accepted in MP3/OGG format. They MUST be MIDI or chiptune, and filed in the appropriate category.

4. Sound effects MUST be in WAV format.

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Contest PHASE I

Section 1.
Unique Graphics

When submitting graphics, you must adhere to one of three specific styles as a uniform whole.

  • NES 4-colour
  • SNES 16-colour
  • Gameboy



Each of these is its own category and entries from each category will be individually judged only against other entries for that category. Tilesets should be uniform to one of these styles.


Section 2.
MIDIs

MIDI submissions should fall into one of these categories:

  • Overworld MIDI (themed, or not themed for a specific type of area).
  • Level MIDI (themed, or not themed for a specific type of area).
  • Title Screen
  • Credits Screen
  • Boss Music or Event Music
  • Uncategorised -- This leaves the decision on how to use the music, up to the panel of judges.



In general, most composers know how to create something to fit a particular mood, or theme. Thus, it is best if you specify your intent, or the application for which you intend the music to be used by selecting a category above, but this is not mandatory.

Please indicate if your MIDI is intended to provoke a specific theme, or mood.

If your MIDI is specifically targeted at a platform-style (NES, SNES, GB), you should indicate that, too.


Section 3.
Chiptunes

This follows the same rules and guidelines as MIDIs, except that these must be in NSF, GBS (Gameboy), or SPC (Super Famicom/SNES) format. Further, the creator is wholly responsible for ensuring that the music file plays properly in ZC. (We will not adjust it for you.)

In this category, the chiptune format will directly relate it to a style. NSFs will be paired with 4-colour packages; SPCs will be paired with 16-colour packages; and GBSs will be paired with Gameboy-styled packages.

While it is not mandatory to provide a matching MIDI for your chiptunes, it is strongly advised, and appreciated.


Section 4.
SFX

Submit sound effects with a label of the intended action that they represent, and the intended target (NES-style, SNES-style, GB-style) package set.

By submitting assets, you agree that the ZC Development team, Armageddon Games, and anyone distributing ZC, or any derivative made from the open-source code files, may use these assets without restriction, and may make derivatives thereof. You may choose to append the Creative Commons v3 license, or a license compatible with GPL v3; however no license that prohibits redistribution or modification (including prohibitions of commercial use) will be accepted.

PHASE II will entail the creation of quests using the winning, compiled assets. The general outline of the questmaking phase will follow, however, it will not, and it can not begin, until we have sufficient entries from PHASE I.

Thus, this event will run until we have enough material to proceed; and at that time, we will post a moratorium / deadline on further entries.

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PHASE II : General Outline
Assets Packages, Quests

This is the meat of the contest. Once we have winners in the categories above,
we will assemble these as three assets packages (8-bit, 16-bit, Gameboy) and put forward quest contests.

If, where, and when possible, we would like to ensure that assets in the 4-colour tileset, cross seamlessly into the 16-colour tileset, so that it is possible to convert a quest from 4-colour to 16-colour in the middle of a design cycle, with minimal effort.

Quests made using these assets may not mix styles. (e.g., If the tileset is 4-colour, all assets used must be 4-colour. )

Quests developed under this phase must use only the open assets assembled from Phase 1, however, scripted elements will be permitted; or encouraged; in the Phase II entries.

Scripts used in the entries should be tasteful, and designed to enhance ZC in a way that is appropriate to the mood and theme of the entry, and its 'target platform'. You may use any script that is available for redistribution. All scripts used in your entry must be provided with the entry, and permission granted for redistribution with, or without modification.

In general, there should be a quest contest per category, which will allow many styles to be used.

Each entry will be singular, with the goal of a 1st.qst and 2nd.qst being selected from among all entries. Entrants may submit dual-entries, meant to be 1st/2nd.

General question to participants:
Should that be a requirement, or should we just allow two different quests to be 1st/2nd per category?

Entries for the quests should ideally use 2.54.0, or whatever the latest stable version of ZC is, at the time of the contest.

The output of these contests will be unlocked quests, so that users may inspect any element thereof. They will be distributed both with the main ZC packages in the future as base templates/modules, and included with the ZC source code, which is distributed under GLP v3.

By submitting quests, you agree that the ZC Development team, Armageddon Games, and anyone distributing ZC, or any derivative made from the open-source code files, may use these assets without restriction, and may make derivatives thereof. You may choose to append the Creative Commons v3 license, or a license compatible with GPL v3; however no license that prohibits redistribution or modification (including prohibitions of commercial use) will be accepted.