Sick of being stuck at home?
Time for a (virtual) Getaway!
With many of our community staying at home these days, we figure it’s time for everyone to go on a virtual vacation! Whether it’s a trip to the beach, camping in the mountains, or sightseeing in your favorite city, we want you to take us along on your summer break.
The theme for this building contest will be Getaway!
Players have some creative leeway in how they interpret the theme, but Rec Room judges should be able to find a clear relationship to the Getaway theme in the room.
We are keeping the Playtest phase from the last contest, so we encourage you to get those rooms open for testing, get feedback and fix bugs! Again, you will be allowed to use the engagement from the Playtest to replace lower days in the Play phase. This is especially important, since the Play phase is decreasing to one week this time. This is to give more time to judging, since we will be taking the top TEN rooms into the judging phase this time!
However, in order to accommodate this increase in judged rooms, we are placing a strict ONE HOUR time limit on room judging (per room). You will want to tailor your difficulty, length and replayability so that judges can experience the best of your room in that hour. Use the playtest phase to figure out how long people are taking to get through, add hints where needed, and adjust the difficulty.
How do I submit a room to the contest?
When you create your new room, tag it with #Getaway. Next, be sure your room is set to ‘public’ in the room privacy settings by July 19th at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Finally, we’re breaking the entries up into categories, so make sure you also include one (and only one!) of the following tags based on what your room contains:
#art - beautiful, interesting, or thought-provoking rooms (^Enchanted Realm, ^SpiritedAway, ^ElScaro)
#hangout - social spaces for relaxing (^TheMinishCap, ^CozyRealm, ^DancingWaters)
#pvp - action-filled battles against other players (^Banderslash, ^CoreWars, ^Wonderland1951)
#quest - rooms that take players on a journey and have a narrative (^MersonsQuest, ^BloomingAdventure, ^ClockingOff, ^AnimaCity)
#game - non-PVP games played in a single room or using a single core game mechanic, typically without a story-like narrative (^TheOrientExpress, ^Akuma, ^TwilightCrest)
Prizes
Each category will have a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prize. The prizes listed are awarded to each co-owner or creator of the winning room
1st prize (5 winners) - Gold Maker Pen Trophy, Getaway Maker Pen Skin, Getaway Torso and Hat avatar items, 6000 tokens
2nd prize (5 winners) - Silver Maker Pen Trophy, Getaway Torso and Hat avatar items, 4000 tokens
3rd prize (5 winners) - Bronze Maker Pen Trophy, Getaway Torso avatar items, 2000 tokens
Additionally, we will have awards for:
Best Character Design (either Holotar or animated)
Best costume design
Best audio design
Best room trailer
Best animation
How did they do that?! Award
Rising Star award
When is the contest? How are winners determined?
Build phase - Friday June 26th, 2020 to Thursday July 16th, 2020
Playtest phase - Friday July 17th, 2020 to Sunday July 19th, 2020
Get your room open for testing and get people in there! This is a chance to find any major bugs, get player feedback, or finetune the balance of your room. Engagement measured during the Playtest phase can be used to replace low-engagement days in the Play phase, so take advantage of it!
Play phase - Monday July 20th, 2020 to Sunday July 26th, 2020
The calculation for qualifying rooms will be made using engagement during the Play phase.You may still refine and fix bugs in existing public rooms and sub-rooms during the Play phase (no new sub-rooms, or entirely new content can be created).
Evaluation phase - After the Play phase ends we will take a day or two to review what rooms captured the most player engagement during the Play and Playtest phase.
Judging phase - The top 10 rooms in each category will move on to a judging round and the top 3 winners in each category and additional award winners will be determined by Rec Room staff.
The Roomies - After the Judging phase, the top 5 of each category and additional award winners will be invited to a special event where they will be announced in a red-carpet style event! Detailed information regarding The Roomies event will be announced after the Judging phase.
* Days start and end according to PDT (Seattle time).
Rules
1. Players must have a confirmed email on their Rec Room account so that we can contact them if they win.
2. All submissions must be tagged with #Getaway and one category tag and be set to ‘public’ in the room privacy settings before the end of the Playtest phase and throughout the Play and Evaluation phase. We should be able to find a clear relationship to the Getaway contest theme in your room. Only rooms created on Friday June 26th, 2020 (PDT timezone) or later may be entered into the contest. Sub-rooms which are not created and public before the end of the Playtest phase (Sunday July 19th, 2020) will not be included in judging.
3. Rooms must not contain any Code of Conduct violations.
4. Some inventions are allowed: inventions that are originally from a room made by one of the entered room's co-owners are allowed. Inventions that are made public in the invention store are allowed. Your room may be disqualified if an invention was created in a room that was owned by someone else, or if it is an invention of someone who is not a co-owner of the entered room and the invention was not made public by the original inventor (official template rooms created by Meriesa are ok to use!). Keep in mind that this is a judged contest, and originality is better than remixing.
* Please note inventors will not be eligible for prizes, and only the room owner and co-owners will be eligible for prizes.
5. Rooms can ONLY be entered in one category. No duplicate entries (ie. simply copying the room and renaming/retagging it). Rooms must also be tagged in the appropriate category (ie. a PVP room should not be tagged as #hangout) by the end of the Build phase. Use your best judgement when tagging your room category based on the descriptions provided. Rec Room staff cannot determine the best category for your room for you.
6. Anything you do that fundamentally changes the nature of the room may disqualify the room. This is at our discretion. Examples: A PVP match in the middle of a story room or as an event in a non-PVP room, hangout events in story or art rooms, drawing or art show events in a PvP room, etc.
7. Prizes will be issued to the room creator and co-owners. However we may limit the number of co-owners who can receive a prize if you have more than 6 total owners (including the room creator). Players who are an owner or co-owner on multiple winning rooms will receive one set of prizes from the highest tier, plus the trophies and tokens from all applicable winning entries.
* One additional player may be issued the “Best Trailer” trophy if they are not an owner or co-owner of the room, if they assisted in the creation of the trailer for the room and are credited in the room description. The owner and co-owners of the room will also receive this trophy.
8. Rooms or creators found to be using malicious practices including but not limited to aggressive invite spamming, non-authentic players, or other attempts to 'game the system' may be disqualified.
9. This contest is not open to players using a Junior Account due to current restrictions around juniors and the creation tools.
I need help with custom rooms!
Join the Rec Room Discord Server and check out the #building, #gadgets or #contests channels to meet other creators, see what everyone is working on, and get tips on getting started!
You can also find a lot of answered questions and helpful community members on the Rec Room Subreddit.
Check out the 'Custom Rooms Tools and Tutorials' article in our help center!
If you still have questions, need technical support, or run into bugs, please check out our Help Center.