The “Don’t Make Fire Emblem” Contest

By MarkyJoe of the SRPG Studio University Discord

Banner art by Avraxas

What is this?

It’s an SRPG Studio chapter creation contest. The goal is to create one level in SRPG Studio that “isn’t Fire Emblem.” It’s up to the creator to decide what that means.

What determines the winner?

A team of contest judges will rate each submission based on how creative its ideas are, and how well these ideas are executed.

Will you record the submissions like in your previous contests?

All submissions that meet the deadline will be streamed, recorded, edited and then uploaded to my YouTube… with some conditions.

All submissions will be run through the Quality Control Team. If the team deems a submission to be of particularly low effort and quality, I will not play it. This is to save time, resources and sanity.

Additionally, I will not stream and record submissions until after the contest judges have rated them.

What do you wish to achieve with this contest?

A common complaint about SRPG Studio games is that they do not take advantage of what the engine is capable of. Creators mostly attempt to faithfully recreate Fire Emblem games, and stick to well established tradition and design conventions from the series. While there is nothing wrong with this, I don’t believe we can truly win over skeptics of the engine unless we show just how flexible and limitless it truly is.

Rules

1. Your level must be made in SRPG Studio
2. Your level must be completely original, and intended specifically for this contest
3. Do not use music you are not legally allowed to use. This means no music from other games. Freeware and original music is fine.
4. Your level must be short. The quality control team should be able to beat it in less than an hour.
5. Do not intentionally design your level to be unfun or inappropriate.
6. Judges cannot enter the contest

What is the deadline?

September 25th, 2020.

What about the voting deadline?

October 2nd, 2020.

Quality Control Team / Judges

The Quality Control Team and judges are the same entity. They will determine which submissions are worth being recorded, and will rate the quality of submissions based on creativity, and execution of their concepts.

I will choose the judges myself. I will probably have around 3 total unless I think it is fitting to have more or less.

Where do I submit my level?

All levels must be submitted through this game jam.

Who Are The Judges?

Gokul/Pwntagonist

A regular from the Fire Emblem hacking community. Has a lot of respect for SRPG Studio and its capabilities, and has been a reliable, dependable member of my own community for a long time.

JTheDuelist

Long time user of SRPG Studio. Has made tutorials and assets for the engine. Many of which may come in handy if you’re looking for a place to start.

Guidelines for contestants

• I love difficulty, but higher difficulty increases the time it takes for the judges to complete your game. I’d recommend a moderate level of difficulty unless you’re confident you can pull off harder.
• Try to base your game around only a couple ideas that you explore and expand upon as the game goes. Too many ideas can cause the game to seem confused or unfocused.
• This contest is not just focused on gameplay. If your innovative ideas revolve around story, focus on that.
• Question every Fire Emblem convention. You may have heard me or someone else talk about how to “properly” make Fire Emblem. Throw all of that out of the window.
• The goal of this contest is to impress people who are skeptical or dismissive of SRPG Studio. Imagine that they are your audience for this game, and try to blow their minds.
• In addition, design with spectators in mind. These are going to be streamed and uploaded to YouTube, afterall.
• Have fun.

Is it even possible to not make Fire Emblem in SRPG Studio!?

Yes! Some of the things people in the community have created are things you may never see in, say, Fire Emblem hacking. Piketrcechillas was able to create an online PvP game in the gameplay style of advance wars. Lady Rena has attempted to make an SRPG roguelike. I myself have thought about making pong in this engine. The possibilities are endless!

Procedures

1. Write up this document and gather the judges / Quality Control Team
   1. Judges will be selected by me.
2. Announce contest and deadline
   1. Already done. Deadline is September 25th, 2020
3. Accept submissions
   1. Submissions will be accepted if they are submitted to this Game Jam.
4. Judges play, rate, and filter submissions
   1. Judges will rate submissions, and confirm which ones are worth recording.
5. Submissions get played
   1. Submissions that pass quality control will be streamed on Twitch, then later edited and uploaded on my YouTube 

Resources & Tutorials

SRPG Studio Resource List

MarkyJoe’s GitHub - Full of presentation improvement plugins, skills, statuses, and more

Goinza’s GitHub - Lots of high level plugins, including Combat Arts and Traits

McMagister’s GitHub - Has a great GBA/SNES FE style tileset, along with many plugins such as enemy targeting lines (Three Houses!)

Piketrcechillas’s GitHub - Creator of the PvP plugin

QBE256P’s GitHub - Another great plugin repository

TheRepeat’s GitHub - Contains many quality of life improvements to the engine

LadyRena’s GitHub - One of the most advanced scripters for SRPG Studio.

Shamciar’s GitHub - Full of gameplay and mechanics reworks.

JTheDuelist’s SRPG Studio Assets - Has several custom made graphics as well as some re-imagined ones.

JTheDuelist’s Tutorial Series

Naoya Kiriyama’s Tutorial

SRPG World - An official repository for plugins and assets

SRPG Studio Wiki

Japanese SRPG Studio Wiki

SRPG Studio University Discord Server

Where will submissions be streamed and uploaded to?

My Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/markyjoe 

My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFj3iwNV5w1wFxNBYjQPsig

How do I contact you?

My email: markyjoe1990@gmail.com