Welcome to the ManiaExchange Monthly Track Contest (MTC), April 2013, hosted by MX. I will be your host for this month

In the MTC, your task is to build a track on a given theme (see below). Later on, all of the entered tracks will be rated by our judges and a winner will be found.

The Details

Let's have a look at the details of the contest:

Theme of the Month: Feats of Skill: Build a track which gives the player at least 4 clearly communicated challenges (or skill tests) that must be overcome in order to reach the finish.

Deadline: Saturday, April 30th 2013, 23:59:59 Pacific Time.

Prize:

Honour and the right to brag! (Jozii used to say that )
Top 3 tracks will be featured in the News section, getting extra spotlight.

The rules:

You can build in Stadium or Canyon!

Design at least 4 "skill tests" (challenges) that the player must pass through on the way to finish. To clarify:

• Anything that can be failed can serve as a challenge (so, mere driving through a road is not a challenge, but a jump over a reasonably large gap is.)
  
• If your track contains splits, then the minimum number of challenges the player faces on any valid path must be at least 4. It is therefore possible to give player options ("LEFT: 2 jumps | RIGHT: Masterloop")
  
• You can utilize Mediatracker in the building of the challenge (e.g. timed sections)
  

Make absolutely sure you COMMUNICATE the challenges clearly to the player. This is a critical part of the theme, so don't forget about it.
If you realize, through early feedback, that you've created a track that might be unfinishable for average player, please, shoot a video of the playthrough and upload it to YouTube and link to it. This is in fact a good idea for any builder who seeks some extra attention.

Max. 1 track per author. Single author per track.

Blockmixing is allowed, however there will be a 2 point "fee" deducted from the DESIGN category if your track uses blockmixing. Please state clearly in your track description that your track is blockmixed. Also: If your track REQUIRES Unlimiter to be installed on player's computer, it will be rejected!

Include the sequence of letters "MTC" somewhere in the track name so that it can be easily discovered on mania-exchange.com.

The track must have been uploaded to the exchange before May 1st 2013 00:00 Pacific Time.

Important: To enter a track, simply upload it and post a link to your submission in this thread.

Theme explanation

We're looking for tracks that the player will experience feelings of accomplishment at clearly marked or communicated locations. It should have a reasonable pacing of "way to the challenge - challenge - way to another challenge - challenge..." The creativity and different types of challenges in one track is what we are looking for.

The Judging System (Attention! Change in point limits!):

Confirmed judges:
haenry (winner of MTC March)
FT»Lodec

A number of judges will rate the tracks on the following topics:

Design – Layout, respawnability of checkpoints, learning curve, scenery, the general "feel" of the track. -2 if you use blockmixing. Max 15 points/judge
- I am adding "Learning curve" to this section: Ideally, a player who never raced the track should be able to get further and further in your track with each try, or become better and better with each run. Try to avoid building sections which are show-stoppers for less skilled players.
- As a general rule of thumb, the faster a player goes through the track, the harder it should get, not the other way round.

Creativity – The creativity of the track itself and especially the "Challenges" Max. 15 points/judge

Fun Factor – Sometimes a track can be poor in every way, but still extremely fun to drive. Depending on how fun the judges find your track, a few extra points can be given. Max 10 points/judge

Regarding the final results, the lowest and highest score of each track will be deleted and the average of the "medium scores" decides - if the number of judges is at least 5.

We need reliable and committed judges, so if you want to volunteer as a judge, please send a PM to Alcator!

Good luck! If you have any questions, please ask away

Sounds interesting.w

Sounds like an awesome theme! I wouldn't be suprised to see a lot of story tracks

How long can be the track? 10 min, 20 min?

I'm not giving any specific time limit, you should keep the track interesting and the challenges well paced. No-one wants to play through 10 minutes of boredom just to get to the next big jump; on the other hand, if you can make the track interesting and fill it with enough challenges, then go ahead and make it 5 minutes long.

Judges probably won't spend more than 30 minutes on your track, though, so take that into consideration when thinking about the difficulty.

Wow great theme
it was worth the wait
This going to be fun to create

I know that these competitions give lots of freedom (that is why I like it) but would I get points taken away for an RPG? or does it have to be a "Race" map of some sort? I have an RPG map already underway but there are lots of parts where you watch "scenes" that I have created and your not moving. I was just wondering if that is acceptable.

zack11 says:
I know that these competitions give lots of freedom (that is why I like it) but would I get points taken away for an RPG? or does it have to be a "Race" map of some sort? I have an RPG map already underway but there are lots of parts where you watch "scenes" that I have created and your not moving. I was just wondering if that is acceptable.

You should always start a new map for MTC. That's why it's called "Monthly", and not "Recycled" Track Contest.

Finish your RPG track and release it for what it is, don't try to twist it into something it's not.

Ok. The RPG map does fit the theme in a way, but its not much of a race so I don't think that I'll enter it. It wouldn't be a "recycled" map though, I just started recently and it is no where near done. I wouldn't enter in a map that I had finished before the contest

If you're interested in MTC March results:
http://tm.mania-exchange.com/threads/1823?postid=25934