We regret to inform you that whatever promised in this announcement will have to suffer a delay, due to enhanced stress of many key figures of our Staff.

Judges' Evaluations, Banners, and the Feedback form will still be released sometime throughout the week.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

It has been brought to my attention that the ROM Hack results in the previous post were wildly incorrect and were not the same as the results posted elsewhere. I'm not sure how this happened, but those responsible will be sacked.

Jokes aside, I'd like to personally apologize if you learned about the results here only to learn that they aren't correct. None of the results outside of the site post were incorrect, only some trophy results that were posted here were. We have gone through the post and corrected the results. I have also double-checked Modern 2D and 3D to ensure the results are correct there as well.

Here they are, in text format, for easy consultation!

Judges' Evaluations and Banners will be distributed in the next 24 hours!

Expect the feedback form to be released this week with a News post on the website!

Thank you all for following the Sonic Hacking Contest 2024! We hope to make the next years EVEN BETTER than this one!

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Hello! The Head Judges have received the results of this year's Sonic Hacking Contest, and are currently processing them. Judged results will take a bit longer than anticipated, so bear with us!

We will be revealing the results later this weekend!

Speaking of Judged results, we must inform you of a few changes that have occurred, which will slightly affect weighting of the results.

Below, you will see a list of what Judges have been excused from judging what entries. You will be able to see what exceptions apply in the Judges Code of Conduct. Please also note the introduction of Exception 4, as earlier announced.

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I'd like to inform you that you have ROUGHLY ABOUT 48 HOURS to cast your votes!

You wouldn't want your favorite entries to miss out on a chance to win Community trophies, do you?

So GET VOTING!

Make sure to create an account or log into it, then browse the entries you root for the most, and cast your votes!

For the sake of transparency, we must highlight the fact that the previous ruling for the original rule was made under strong bias for the ROM hack category.

The way the rule was enforced could have posed harsh consequences against open-source entries, which would impose strict moderation towards commits made to publicly available repositories as "updates".

Had the ruling been rejected, a multitude of ROM Hacks would have been disqualified, under the assumption that the strictest moderation was applied. Examples of entries specifically affected by these circumstances include:

• Sonic ERaZor 7
• Sonic 1 Mega CD Port

We'd like to note that Sonic 1: South Island Expedition was also potentially subject to disqualification under this rule, due to an accidental, very minor post-deadline update that was pushed without the knowledge of even the developers.

The verdict nullifying Rule 7 was pushed prematurely, with insufficient review from the 3D and Modern 2D Judges. The incident was internally reviewed, the verdict was subsequently approved, and internal measures will be put in place to prevent future occurrences of similar incidents.

After internal discussion, and further discussion with some members of the general public, we have recognized some egregious flaws with Rule 7 of the Sonic Hacking Contest, which can be read from the Rules.

Given said discussion, it has been decided to undo enforcement of the rule for the remainder of the Sonic Hacking Contest 2024.

The implications are as follows:

1. The one entry that was previously disqualified for this violation, Foreign Input System, has been undisqualified;
2. You may release updated builds of the entry anywhere other than the Sonic Hacking Contest;
3. You may post links to updated builds of your entry even in the comments section of said entry;
4. Entrants that have open sourced their own entries are allowed to continue updating their public iteration of the repository;
5. The entry's attachments of the Sonic Hacking Contest's entry listing will still only be updated in case of game-breaking errors, and with approval from the Judges

Please remember that votes should be attributed based on the contents of the builds presented at the Sonic Hacking Contest, and not on the updated builds found elsewhere.

I would like to personally offer apologies to all affected by the enforcement of the rule, my own especially.

Hello, everyone! NiphFM, our host for the Mega Drive Music Contest, has announced a SPECIAL round of the Contest, to accompany the Sonic Hacking Contest!

The prompt for this round is to compose or arrange a short theme to accompany the Sonic Hacking Contest Splash Screen! And of course, the winner will have their 12 second sound track become part of the Official Sonic Hacking Contest Splash Screen! (Or at least the iterations where we can actually implement custom sound bits :P)

Got what it takes to secure a winning chance? Then join our Discord Server to access the Mega Drive Music Contest! You've got until October 6th, the moment midnight first strikes at Rome's timezone, to submit to this special round of the Mega Drive Music Contest!

If you log into a SHC user account, you can vote for your favourite Judged entries in their page, and by looking at the selection of trophies!

You can check out what the awards are under the Categories and Trophies page.

You have until the end of October 6th, 2024, to cast your votes!

Please note that Unjudged entries are not eligible for awards.

go play the games

now

Been a while since I made a post here. How about another set of announcements?

First off, I'm glad to announce 3 new and returning folks to the media panel. First up, we have both AntDude and The Geek Critique returning to do live streams this year! Secondly, I'm happy to announce that CallieMacN and Mar Katoto will be joining our media panel as well! Be looking forward to their live streams for this year!

Finally, the media panel stream schedule is now available to the public, and much like the entry list, it's PACKED this year! You can view the streaming schedule here! That's all for this announcement! Entries and voting will be available to the public tomorrow!

Kept y'all waiting, huh?

Two major announcements, one good, and one not as good.

First off, the good one! I'm happy to confirm that the Sonic Hacking Contest will be starting on September 28th at 9AM, Rome's time zone!

Secondly, the not as good one. There have been quite a few hiccups with the production of the trailer, which was, admittedly, started far later than warranted. Meaning that the trailer will have to be turned into a Launch Trailer. Believe me, though, you're going to love it!

That's all for the announcement!(Read More)

The SHC Quality Control has just now concluded! All entrants that have completed their entry, but no longer see it on the website, should check their email associated to their SHC user account as to why it was rejected.

Anyway, a number of people have highlighted to us an issue with the Judging process, involving the fact that Judges backing out of entries would penalize entries, on account of them receiving pottentially less votes.

In the attached video, I'll tell you about how we intend to solve this issue! Please watch it until the end for a big reveal!

Once you're done watching, click here to see who judges what this year!

We have received one particular submission that, although it doesn't violate the SHC rules, can actually test the boundaries of tolerance of some of our Judges, on account of the entry being particularly disturbing.

In response, we are introducing a new exception to Judgment, effective immediately, which is as follows:

"If a Judge deems an entry exceptionally gruesome or disturbing, and the entry does not otherwise violate the rules of the Sonic Hacking Contest, they may still exempt themselves from Judgment. This, however, may only be granted on serious and particularly grave instances."

We understand that introducing new rules of this kind may not be a popular move, but understand that the welfare of all involved with the Sonic Hacking Contest is important. For entries of this kind, you will be given a warning through an appropriate notice on the entry's listing.

In response to an incident in the Sonic 3 AIR Discord Server, Dynamic Lemons has been removed from the Judges of the Sonic Hacking Contest.

The incident involves a display of high unprofessionality in regards to a potential SHC Entrant, it being the Amy Galore modification.

The choice has been reviewed by the Head Judges, and by the Sonic 3 AIR Judges, with no expressed dissent.

We believe the conduct to have been exceedingly unprofessional, and unbefitting of someone who, at the end of the day, is meant to be a representant of their community, and the Sonic Hacking Contest.

Some of you may also be aware of reoccurring personal issues between HazelSpooder, and Dynamic Lemons, among others. Please note that those events have had next to no impact in the decision making process.

No, you still can't make those yourself.

But! I can!

Starting now, you can now also contact me (@giovanni.gen) on Discord to have your team entry created!

Instructions are the same as per the previous announcement on the subject, meaning I'll need:

• Your entry's link;
• Your team's desired name;
• All of your teammates' SHC login usernames, if applicable

Speaking of entries, you have not much longer than...

FOUR DAYS LEFT!

...to submit. Make sure to mark your entries as complete and to fill in your SHC Trailer application by that time! Past September 9th, at 9AM, Rome's timezone, everything on site is to be considered final, and, aside for game breaking errors, no further changes will be accepted!

LESS THAN ONE WEEK LEFT TO SUBMIT!

This is our reminder to complete your submissions! And not just actually completing the submission materially, but to actually mark the submission as complete!

Do note, however, that small edits, such as one character off of the Entry Description, can result in the entry being marked incomplete!

If you fear this outcome, but your entry is complete in structure (as in, has all required assets to be marked as Complete), you can tell us in the Judge notes of your entry to treat your entry as Complete, regardless of completion status!

Please note that, for entries that can not be marked as Complete, and therefore are incomplete in structure, this treatment will not be offered, and these will be subject to immediate removal at the end of the submissions deadline, which is on September 8th!

We're really glad to reach fresh blood in this community, and we're eager to see what our younger hackers and modders can do.

However, because of a whole lot of Internet laws, we must ask you to please not submit to the Sonic Hacking Contest if you are under the age of 13. If found in violation, we will ban your user account, and delete all of your entries.

Coming here to tell you that...

YOU HAVE TWO WEEKS LEFT TO SUBMIT!

On that note, I recommend you create your submission as soon as you can: you can leave it incomplete until it's ready, and you can update it as much as you want until the submission deadline.

I also advise getting it finished sooner than later, as it is generally later into the submission period that the SHC sees the most activity, which means getting the submission up to date can get really really slow!

Furthermore, you should also submit footage for the SHC Trailer!

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We would like to remind you, as plastered multiple times across the information pages, that if you have any issue with the Sonic Hacking Contest, its staff, or its management, you have multiple avenues for contact. The best ways to reach out are the following:

• Through our Discord server, where you can use the ModMail bot to contact all in-server Staff (Recommended for best response time);
• Through our main email reserved to the public, shc[.]zone[.]site[@]gmail[.]com (without the "[]"s);
• By directly reaching out to one of the organizers of the SHC (We still recommend the above contact methods first and foremost)

We would also like to highlight the fact that disrespecting the Staff of the Sonic Hacking Contest is against the Entrants' Code of Conduct, and that those found doing so may be barred from participation at the SHC, at the discretion of its Staff.