Halloween Challenge 2010: Darkness Hollows

[DarkRider]

DarkRider Presents...

TESA's Second Annual Halloween Modding Challenge

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Darkness Hollows is the second Official TESA modding Challenge inspired by this upcoming Halloween, which will be here before we know it! For this challenge, I will create a core.esp called Darkness Hollows, where players will encounter the long forgotten but not abandoned Castle Thatchmoon. Each challenger will submit a unique and terrifying interior cell to hide behind each door of the castle's winding layout. Once all the entries are submitted I will merge them into the Darkness Hollows and link the doors. On October 31st, the project will be released exclusively here on TESA for the players who will then vote for the interior cell that gave them the biggest scare. The one voted scariest will be named the winner!

The Challenge: To create the best overall scare experience in an interior cell as part of Castle Thatchmoon in TESA's Darkness Hollows. You can do this using any means at your disposal so long as it is within the rules of the challenges.

Rules:

• Entries must be COMPLETE and submitted to DarkRider by 11:59 EST on October 23rd.
  
  
• If you want to participate you must sign up officially (See How to Enter Below)
  
  
• Your entry must contain at least one finished interior cell, but no more than five.
  
  
• Only one entry per challenger and that challenger must be a solo author of that entry.
  
  
• The overall theme must be horror genre.
  
  
• You may use modders resources and objects from the Shivering Isles, but nothing from the other DLCs.
  
  
• You must repackage any resources to the correct file path for the challenge. (See Additional Information Below)
  
  
• If you use modders resources, you must include a .txt file with your submission containing the credits for those resources.
  
  
• You cannot reveal any specifics about your entry to anyone, no screenshots, vids, or chat.
  
  
• Your interior cell cannot contain obvious clues to your identity; we don't want people voting for their friends.
  
  
• Your entry must have a way in and a way out, so two doors. You can overlap the doors and use disable/enable to switch them with a script if you are script savvy, or two separate doors so long as you have an entrance and exit planned.
  
  
• Your level cannot be OBSE dependent, or dependent on another mod.
  
  
• Your entry must be complete and free of major defects (ie broken scripts, flashing seams, misaligned kits)
  

Who Can and How To Enter:

Registration for this year's competition is now closed, thanks to all those who have signed on!

Judging:

On October 31st, Darkness Hollows will be released for download on TESA and the players will vote in the release threads for the cell that gives the best overall scare. Any voting ties will be broken by the Senior TESA Staff. Polls will be closed and the winner announced by November 8th.

Prizes:

• A Special Feature on the Homepage!
  
  
• A Unique Forum Medal!
  
  
• A Gift Certificate to Amazon.com (or iTunes Store)!
  
  
• A Special Challenge Winner Sig Bar!
  

Additional Information for Challengers:

• All interior cell names must begin with aaTESA
  
  
• The entrance/exit door for your cell must be the vanilla door object: CastleDoor01 or CaslteDoorBloody01
  
  
• You may use any interior kits or combination of but your entrance/exit kit should be from the CastleInt set to fit the door.
  
  
• The grand throne room is the final destination as part of the core .esp so please, no throne rooms.
  
  
• Every challenger will receive credit in the final readme.
  
  
• Each Challenger should include a .txt file containing any information about your entry I need to know, including CREDIT
  information for any resources used. Also, please include solutions to puzzles and a general how-to for your level.
  

File Paths:

• File path for meshes must be Meshes\TESA\Halloween02\(category)\(item name)
  
  
• File path for textures must be Textures\TESA\Halloween02\(category)\(item name)
  
  
• Custom Menu icons should be in Menus\Icons\TESA\Halloween02\(category)\(icon file)
  
  
• Custom Sound Objects should be added to Sound\fx\DarknessHollows\(category)\(sound file)
  
  
• Voice files should be in Sound\Voice\DarknessHollows.esp\(race)\(gender)\(voice file)
  

Challengers:

• John
  
• nottlong
  
• Mishaxhi
  
• the-manta
  
• WhoGuru
  
• DsoS
  
• Yevic
  
• JulianSull
  
• Da Mage
  
• donnato
  
• Arion
  
• SomeWelshGuy
  
• Mannimagnus
  
• PacificMorrowind
  
• Vouivre
  
• Arthmoor
  
• Kroot9525
  
• WillieSea
  

The Tech Team

• DarkRider
  
• Windmill Tilter
  
• lilith
  
• StarX
  
• InsanitySorrow
  

[the-manta]

oops sorry, just re-read the OP. PMing now

Edited September 25, 2010 by the-manta

[InsanitySorrow]

Good luck to you all , I look forward to actually playing the mod this year

[WhoGuru]

My favorite time of year! MWAHAHAHA This is gonna be fun!

[greenwarden]

I am but a humble clutterer and VA, but man this has me excited!

[WindmillTilter]

Really looking forward to playing this one. Oh how I loves Halloween!

WT

[WhoGuru]

Really looking forward to playing this one. Oh how I loves Halloween!

WT

You going to enter again Wind? Cause your level in last years was AWESOME

[DarkRider]

He may be a bit tied up

[WhoGuru]

He may be a bit tied up

Oh yeah. I knew that. Blast!

[DarkRider]

So are you but I think you must have a time turner as you somehow manage to do all at once.

[WhoGuru]

Borrowed it from the Ministry's vault when they weren't looking. Now, to get Mr Guru to fix my computer so I can reinstall Oblivion and I can get started!

[Yevic]

Sign me up

By the way, will we get any pictures of the exterior?

Edited September 25, 2010 by Yevic

[DarkRider]

Yes pics will be coming when the exterior is finished, I don't really start until you guys do, but I created the new world and have had a secret helper working on it for about a week now polishing it up. I'll add the castle soon and post pics like last year.

[Ouija]

*gets really excited* ... I LOVE Halloween!!!

[WhoGuru]

And I have a plan. MWahahahaha okay I can't install Oblivion yet for a day or so but my level is planned out now. heh heh heh heh Yev I'm totally taking you down this year. LOL

[JulianSull]

I'm in =D Can't wait.

[DaMage]

I've only been waiting since November to do this!

Sign me up

[donnato]

Heheh...well, just like last year due to computer problems I`m restarting OB right at level one. Guess I`d better get going,I know I`ll need a boat load of supplies for this one...and lots of feather enchanted items to carry it all. Oh man this is going to be so great.

[DarkRider]

Note for Challengers: Sometime next week when all the challengers are in I will be assigning each of you a number via PM. You are not to reveal your number to anyone as it may or may not reflect your position in the lineup. However, once you have your number you need to create in your entry a key and container to hold it. Your key should be called:

ID: aaTESAPrimaryKey00

NAME: Castle Guard Key

You will use your assigned number in place of "00" to make it unique to your level (ie 01, 02, 03, etc)

You may use a custom container and key or just a vanilla container and key (you may use a dead NPC Guard as your container) but you need to stash your container near the end of your level. Once the mod is compiled together these keys will be linked to doors that will allow players to enter the following levels.

Any questions on this?

[Cydonian_Knight]

I'm so glad there's another contest this year!! The Oubliette was one of the most enjoyable and scariest dungeon crawls I've ever played for Oblivion. I'm tempted to join in, but I don't think I'd have the time to get something complete together :/. But I can't wait to see what everyone puts together! Great job setting this all up DarkRider

[JulianSull]

I had some questions about the castle itself. Why is it here? How did the player get there? What exactly is it? Who is the owner? Where is it?

EDIT:

Also, where are all of our levels? Ground floor? Higher up? Dungeon?

Edited September 26, 2010 by JulianSull

[StarX]

Lack of time doesn't allow me to enter the contest, but good luck to those that take up the challenge to make a great dungeon crawl! It will be hard to beat the Oubliette, but I'm sure Darkness Hollows will be just as great or even better.

Like last year I contribute in another way though, so I still feel involved!

[the-manta]

but I created the new world and have had a secret helper working on it for about a week now polishing it up.

A sinister hunhback named Igor?

[Arion]

Count me in.... I'll give it my best shot.

[the-manta]

Is there a particular direction our cells should be going? In the Oubliette the player made their way downwards, will that be the case in Darkness Hollows? Another point regarding the Oubliette: do we have some sort of excuse for any dimensionally improbable areas, or should they all more or less fit into a castle?