http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVhwMvJIKIw

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2014 Zombie Map Contest ★ Call of Duty Zombies

Contest Map Theme

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The theme for the map contest will be Christmas, which will be perfectly timed for the upcoming holiday season.   

Contest Deadline

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The contest officially begins on October 11, 2014, and will end on December 6, 2014 at Midnight EST.

How to Participate

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Those of you interested in participating in the contest should send an email to [email protected], and are required to be signed up on UGX-Mods.com.
Once you have completed the above, you will need to start a WIP (Work in Progress) page in the New Contest Entries Section, so that you can provide both YouAlwayWin and the Zombie community with updates on your map. This topic does not need to have any pictures right away or a complete features list, but try to keep the community updated at least occasionally to the progress of your map without giving away any information you wish to remain secret.

How to Submit Your Map

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All maps should be uploaded to either MediaFire or MEGA (MediaFire is preferred). The link should then be emailed to YouAlwaysWin, before the deadline (Dec 6, 2014), at [email protected].

General Rules

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All 9 of these rules must be followed in order to be eligible for prizes:

• All map entries are required to use UGX Mod (v1.0.4)
   - You should use the latest UGX Script Placer v2.0, as it will install UGX Mod v1.0.4 and set up a map for you automatically. It will make backups of all files before overwriting them, but it is still recommended to back up your modtools directory if you want to rest assured. If you know how to install UGX Mod v1.0.4 yourself then you do not need to use this script placer. If you want to install UGX Mod v1.0.4 manually, you can follow the instructions here.
   - Be sure to apply this viewhands fix for UGX Mod so that the viewhands are not ugly.
   - You are free to make any modifications to UGX Mod v1.0.4 that you wish, such as replacing/adding weapons, changing mod settings, adding custom scripts, etc.
   - The reasoning behind this requirement is to focus the contest on the mapping and design rather than weapon porting. If everyone starts with the same mod base then they are on a level playing field, enables mappers without weapon porting skills to have a solid foundation, and allows mappers to spend the majority of their time on other aspects of their map. This is a mapping contest, not a mod contest.
• Your map(s) must be fully functioning, and tested, with no glaring issues or game breaking bugs.
• Maps must be designed using the Christmas Theme described above.
• Maps must be new projects and not a pre-existing WIP, to ensure that the contest is fair.
• Do NOT use custom music, regardless as to whether you believe it to be copyright safe. Any map that automatically plays music, without our ability to turn it off will be disqualified.
• Do NOT make the maps too dark as this is problematic for creating videos on YouTube (i.e. they are hard to see, and look really bad).
• Map downloads must NOT be made available to the public, or any other party, until YouAlwaysWin has played and posted the related video on their YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/YouAlwaysWin).
• Any map that is played, with a related video posted on YouTube, or other online video serving platform(s), by any channel before YouAlwaysWin has posted the official map video, will be immediately disqualified from the contest.
• The staff at YouAlwaysWin will be the only judges on map submissions, with any and all decisions being final.  We will, however, be looking at the feedback provided by the YouAlwaysWin YouTube community as part of our judging criteria.

How Maps will be Judged

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1. There will be 4 categories in which maps will be judged by YouAlwaysWin, with a possible perfect score of 100 pts,
a) Fun Factor (40 pts) - YouAlwaysWin focuses on having fun above all other criteria. If a map is made too difficult (e.g. crazy hard zombies, or super hard to find easter eggs) this may have a detrimental impact on this score.
b) Theme (20 pts) - Your ability to make the map related to the Christmas Theme
c) Creativity and Appearance (25 pts) - How unique and visually appealing your map is.
d) YouTube Influence and Impact (15 pts) - How our audience responded to your map. This will include data that is both public and private (i.e. views, ratings, comments, audience retention, shares, etc...). Note - information other than views, ratings and comments will not be made available outside of YouAlwaysWin Staff.

Recommendations

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Since we are judging the contest, and it is completely subjective, it is only fair to provide you with some recommendations that may help you create a winning map design.  Note - these are NOT required, but recommended.

• Reduce or Eliminate Fog/Haze (i.e. VolFog and Fog FX settings). We prefer nice clean looking maps, with minimal fog.
• We enjoy maps with soul chests as they provide objectives with cool and useful rewards.
• Don't make doors ridiculously expensive (again, back to the Fun factor).
• You can include Easter Eggs and Buildables, but don't make them incredibly hard to find.
• We LOVE buyable endings, it gives us a goal and a definitive ending to the map.
• We like Zombie Counters, as they help us control the flow of gameplay.
• Lastly, but well-known within our community, is the use of the number 22. Simply for fun, it comes from the 22 at the end of Meatwagon22's online name. In most cases, we end maps after 22 rounds, whether the map has a buyable ending (most of the time by accident/coincidence) or endless waves.

Hope you are all as excited about this contest as we are. We look forward to hearing from all of you interested in participating in the contest.

Cheers,

GUNNS4HIRE and Meatwagon22
YouAlwaysWin

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The new script placer update should be out soon to help out anyone who doesn't want to go through the hassle of manual UGX Mod installation. This board will be locked from new topic creation until the contest begins on October 11th.

Cant wait! going slowly work on this and my Cyborg mod  8)

awesome of you guys to do this, time to start brainstorming!

Ech, we already have 2 maps in development - and if we reskin Celtic, that would be pretty cheap.. GG m8s!

Quick question, would we be able to do this with someone else or does it have to be a solo project? And can we have a few close friends beta test the map for bugs if it isn't realesed on YouTube?

Quick question, would we be able to do this with someone else or does it have to be a solo project? And can we have a few close friends beta test the map for bugs if it isn't realesed on YouTube?

Yes, you may absolutely work with others, for development and/or testing. Maps may be created individually or as part of a team.  Just make sure nobody leaks the map early, else it would be disqualified.

interesting 

This sounds awesome! Definitely going to enter

this kind of stuff(money) really pushes me back to mapping  lol

The new version of the Script Placer which will install UGX Mod v1.0.4 and the UGX Modtools patch for you is now released. You can find it here: http://ugx-mods.com/forum/index.php?topic=4221.0. Please note that while it has been tested by multiple people and verified as working, it is still in beta while we await further testing from the community now that the program is publicly available.

I have also added a link to it in the contest rules above.

Really looking forward to seeing some of the maps on offer. I love snow themed maps.

Yes, now I can use my idea, that I posted last month

http://ugx-mods.com/forum/index.php?topic=4051.0

Dont know, if I will fully work on that idea, but might take some ideas of it

Edit: Can we use ambient music at least? Or jukebox?

i already got a idea for my map, i really want to win so i can get a new computer, LET THE BEST MAP WIN!!!!!!!

Yes, now I can use my idea, that I posted last month

http://ugx-mods.com/forum/index.php?topic=4051.0

Dont know, if I will fully work on that idea, but might take some ideas of it

Edit: Can we use ambient music at least? Or jukebox?

Jukebox is fine, but if the ambient music cannot be turned off, then no. We cannot and will not risk copyright strikes on any video we produce. The issue is that a lot of illegitimate companies on YouTube try to claim music that they are very loosely linked to. We can fight them usually, but it often results in weeks of videos being hidden or removed, and not worth the risk.