Wondering about our next build contest?
Well, it’s here!

UPDATE: Due to a recent bug, we are PUSHING BACK the Playtest Phase until April 3rd, 2020. If you had your room open on March 27, 2020, the engagement from this day may still be used to calculate the overall engagement score. Please see below for the updated timeline. For further details and to ask question, please join our Discord server and check the #contests channel!

Welcome to the first build contest of 2020! We’ve been wondering what you could do with some just-released new tools, and what kind of whimsical and fantastical things you’ll create…

This contest, we’ll have the theme Wonderland! Whether you take us down the rabbit hole, over the rainbow, to the enchanted forest or the pixie hollow, or to some bizarre and fantastical place we can’t even imagine; we want to be enchanted by your new creations. Push the limits of reality, play with scale, and take us somewhere we never thought we’d be.

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 Wonderland theme in the room.

New this contest, we are adding a Playtest phase! We strongly encourage you to have your room open for testing, get feedback, and fix bugs during the last weekend before the Play phase. This isn’t mandatory, but as a bonus to those who have their room open for playtesting, if your engagement metric on any day of the Playtest phase is better than a day during the Play phase, it can replace one day per day of the Playtest phase.

How do I submit a room to the contest?

When you create your new room, tag it with #Wonderland. Next, be sure your room is set to ‘public’ in the room privacy settings by April 5th 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 (^JulesVerne, ^OceansCruelty, ^TheSeaFloor)
#hangout - social spaces for relaxing (^TranquilTropics, ^PandorasRocks, ^PiratesCoast)
#pvp - action-filled battles against other players (^CrisisLegends, ^TheKrakenPVP, ^TreasureHoarder)
#quest - rooms that take players on a journey and have a narrative (^AbyssalFrost, ^YarrHarrHeist, ^RescueUs)
#game - non-PVP games played in a single room or using a single core game mechanic, typically without a story-like narrative (^CastawayTycoon, ^Pokemon87, ^SeaSick)

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, Wonderland Maker Pen Skin, Wonderland Torso and Hat avatar items, 6000 tokens

2nd prize (5 winners) - Silver Maker Pen Trophy, Wonderland Torso and Hat avatar items, 4000 tokens

3rd prize (5 winners) - Bronze Maker Pen Trophy, Wonderland Torso avatar item, 2000 tokens

Additionally, we will have awards for:

Best performance by a holotar
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 March 6th, 2020 to Thursday April 2nd, 2020

Playtest phase - Friday April 3rd, 2020 to Sunday April 5th, 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 fine tune the balance of your room. Engagement is measured during the Playtest phase while the room is published, so take advantage of it!

Play phase - Monday April 6th, 2020 to Sunday April 19th, 2020

Your room must be published before this phase starts! Engagement is measured during this 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 7 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 7 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 PST/PDT (Seattle time).

How do I get started?

Check out the 'Custom Rooms Tools and Tutorials' article in our help center!

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 #Wonderland 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 or they may be disqualified. We should be able to find a clear relationship to the Wonderland contest theme in your room. Only rooms created on Friday March 6th, 2020 (PST 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 April 5th, 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. Engagement will be measured during the Playtest (while the room is published) and Play phase. We will be using the best 14 days of engagement out of 17 total possible days if you publish on the first day of Playtesting. The Engagement metric will only be recorded in these two phases, so you may lose engagement if you publish in the Build phase (though you are allowed to do that!)

9. 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.

10. 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.