Winners!

Congrats to all the winners of the Solstice Contest!

As the dead of winter draws near… it must be time for a contest!

important notice:
The build phase is extended by one week
see new dates below

As the earth travels around the sun, wonderful and weird things can happen! Whether it’s a cozy holiday get-together, or the sun hitting an ancient monument in just the right way, or maybe some astronomical anomaly… we want to see what you do with the theme Solstice!

Players have some creative leeway in how they interpret the theme, but Rec Room judges should be able to find a clear relationship to the Solstice theme in the room. 

Notable Changes from Past Contests

For the Solstice contest, the build and playtest phases together will be 5 weeks long. Again, you will be allowed to use the engagement from the Playtest to replace lower days in the Play phase. After our two week Play phase, the top rooms in each category will go into a judged round to determine the winners. We will again be judging a larger number of rooms - adding an extra judging slot for every 10 rooms in a category past the first 50 rooms. (So, categories with 60 rooms will get a Top 11, and categories with 100 rooms will get a Top 15.) Please note that rooms still must make the Top 10 in their category to qualify for prizes!

We know life can get in the way sometimes, so we will have a 3 day grace period for publishing at the beginning of the Play phase. If you publish after 72 hours into the Play phase, your room will not be entered into the contest. This submission deadline is firm, and your engagement score will be zero for any days where your room is not published for the full day (in the Play phase).

“Minor changes” are still allowed in the Play phase but minor changes are now defined as a 0.25% ink change or 5% chip change. Please note that both adding and subtracting ink and chips counts against this limit! If you are still working in the Play phase, you cannot publish your room or you will probably pass this limit.

The #game category will be going back to #activity - this is any fun activity that you can do with a group. This includes rides, games, escape rooms, basically anything where the primary goal is having fun together!

We also have a new special award this contest! You can now take home a trophy for Best Room Thumbnail. Your room photo is the first thing people see for your room - make sure it catches our attention!

How do I submit a room to the contest?

When you create your new room, tag it with #Solstice. Next, be sure to publish your room by November 10th 17th at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Finally, we’re breaking the entries up into categories, so make sure you also include one (and only one!) of the following tags based on what your room contains: #art, #activity, #hangout, #pvp or #quest. Please see the Guidelines below for more info about the categories!

Prizes

Each category will have prizes for 1st through 10th place. The prizes listed are awarded to each co-owner or creator of the winning rooms.

1st prize (5 winning teams) - Gold Maker Pen Trophy, Solstice Maker Pen Skin, Torso and Accessory avatar items, 1000000 tokens

2nd prize (5 winning teams) - Silver Maker Pen Trophy, Solstice Maker Pen Skin, Torso and Accessory avatar items, 750000 tokens

3rd prize (5 winning teams) - Bronze Maker Pen Trophy, Solstice Maker Pen Skin, Torso and Accessory avatar items, 500000 tokens

4th and 5th prize (10 winning teams) - Solstice Torso and Accessory avatar items, 250000 tokens

6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th prize (25 winning teams) - Solstice Torso avatar item, 250000 tokens

Additionally, we will have awards for:

  • Best Original Character Design (either Holotar or animated)

  • Best Costume Design

  • Best Audio Design

  • Best Original Soundtrack (please upload this to Spotify, Soundcloud, YouTube, or another sharing service and let us know in the room description)

  • Best Room Trailer (please include this on your rec.net page)

  • Best Room Thumbnail Photo (new!)

  • Best Animation

  • How did they do that?! Award

  • Rising Star award

When is the contest? How are winners determined?

Build Phase - Friday, October 7th to Monday November 7th 14th, 2022

Get to work on your room, keeping in mind the theme Solstice and your chosen category!

Playtest Phase - Tuesday November 8th 15th to Thursday November 10th 17th, 2022

Get your room open for testing and get people in there! This is a chance to find any major bugs, get player feedback, or finetune the balance of your room. Engagement measured during the Playtest phase can be used to replace low-engagement days in the Play phase, so take advantage of it!

Play Phase - Friday November 11th 18th to Thursday November 24th December 1st, 2022 

The calculation for qualifying rooms will be made using engagement during the Play phase. You may still refine and fix bugs in existing public rooms and sub-rooms during the Play phase (no new sub-rooms, or entirely new content can be created).

Evaluation Phase - November 25th December 2nd to November 27th December 4th, 2022

After the Play phase ends we will take a day or two to review what rooms captured the most player engagement during the Play and Playtest phase.

Judging Phase - November 28th to December 16th, 2022 Starting December 5th, 2022

The top 10 rooms in each category will move on to a judging round and the top 3 winners in each category and additional award winners will be determined by Rec Room staff.  For every additional 10 rooms entered over the first 50 rooms per category, we will accept one more room into round one judging. The additional room accepted into round one judging will be the next highest engagement score room.

The Roomies - December 17th, 2022 To be determined

After the Judging phase, the top 5 of each category and additional award winners will be invited to a special event where they will be announced in a red-carpet style event! Detailed information regarding The Roomies event will be announced after the Judging phase.

 

* Days start and end according to PDT (Seattle time).

Rules

1. Creating, Publishing, Tagging and Content Theme

a. Creating 

Only rooms created (or copied) on Friday October 7th 2022 (PDT timezone) or later may be entered into the contest. 

i. Subrooms - Extra subrooms can be published until the end of the Playtest phase, after that subrooms can only be published when the main room is published.

b. Publishing 

All submissions must be set to ‘Public’ in the room privacy settings during the Play phase and continue to be Public throughout the Play and Evaluation phase. While there is no strict deadline for publishing before or during the Playtest phase, you must publish within 72 hours of the Play phase starting November 11th 18th, 12:00 am PDT. If you publish your room after 72 hours into the Play phase, your room will not be entered into the contest. Entries published during the Play phase will receive an engagement score of 0 for any day in which the room is not published. 

c. Updating Your Room

Room updates should happen during the Build and Playtest phase. When the Play phase starts you can only do minor updates to your room. Minor changes are now defined as a 0.25% ink change or 5% change in the total amount of chips. Please note that both adding and subtracting ink and chips counts against this limit! For example, if you delete 0.1% ink and add 0.2% ink, your total change is 0.3% ink, not 0.1%. If you are still working on your room in the Play phase, you should not publish your room or you will probably exceed this limit.

d. Tagging

All submissions must be tagged with #Solstice, and exactly one category tag (and not more than one). Valid category tags are: #art, #hangout, #pvp, #quest, or #activity.

e. Content Theme and Categories  

i. We should be able to find a clear relationship to the Solstice contest theme in your room. For example, the following rooms qualify under the Solstice category:

  • Rooms taking place around the time of the upcoming Solstice (ie. winter rooms; Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Yule, or Festivus themed rooms).

  • Rooms related to Solstice-related events or places (ie. Stonehenge, Newgrange, Chaco Canyon, the Temple of Karnak, Mnajdra Temple). Equinox-related events and places are also acceptable (Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu).

  • Sci-fi, mystery, or speculative rooms dealing with events around a Solstice. Please make the relation to the Solstice clear (ie. an orbital disruption to Earth on the Solstice is acceptable, a non-specific orbital disruption is not).

ii. All rooms should be fun and accessible for everyone, and they should be playable on all devices.

iii. Rooms can ONLY be entered in one category. No duplicate entries are allowed (i.e. simply copying the room and renaming/retagging it). Rooms must also be tagged in the appropriate category (i.e. a PvP room should not be tagged as #hangout). Use your best judgment when tagging your room category based on the descriptions provided. We will not determine the best category for your room for you. Category changes and room name changes during the Play phase will affect engagement scores and/or may disqualify the room.

iv. Anything you do that fundamentally changes the nature of the room may disqualify the room. This is at our discretion. Examples: A PvP match in the middle of an activity room or as an event in a non-PvP room; hangout events in activity or art rooms; drawing or art show events in a PvP room, etc.

2. Code of Conduct 

Rooms must not contain any Code of Conduct violations. 

a. If we observe any behavior that we feel violates the Code of Conduct, your entry may be disqualified and/or your prizes may be forfeited. 

b. It is recommended that you should not show dead bodies and you should avoid topics around death as those topics should be treated respectfully. (cartoon/fantasy violence and skeletons are fine)

Please note that the Code of Conduct applies not only to the content of your rooms, but also your behavior in Rec Room’s online spaces. If we find players are violating the spirit of the Code of Conduct, you may forfeit prizes or your entry may be disqualified.

3. Inventions

Inventions are allowed when the invention was previously made by a room's co-owner, or the invention is published in the Invention Store. Please note that any inventions placed while the creator is a co-owner are allowed, even if the co-owner is later removed.

Your room may be disqualified if an invention was created in a room that was owned by someone else, or if it is an invention of someone who is not a co-owner of the Solstice room and the invention was not made public by the original inventor. Official Template rooms created by us are ok to use!

Players listed only as Inventors will not be eligible for prizes; only the room owner and co-owners will be eligible for prizes.

4. Prizes

a. Winners

Prizes will be issued only to the room creator and co-owners.

b. Number of Winners Per a Room

A maximum of 6 people may receive the prizes for an awarded room. We will limit the number of co-owners who can receive a prize. If you have more than 6 total owners (including the room creator). Alt accounts cannot be added to rooms as co-owners to gain extra prizes. 

i. The room’s creator has the final say about which 6 owners receive prizes.

c. Owning Multiple Winning Rooms

Players who are owner or co-owner of multiple winning rooms will receive one set of prizes from the highest tier that they’re awarded, plus the trophies and tokens from all applicable winning entries.

d. Best Trailer 

One additional player may be issued the “Best Trailer” trophy if they are not an owner or co-owner of the room, if they assisted in the creation of the trailer for the room and are credited in the room description. The owner and co-owners of the room will also receive this trophy.

e. Best Soundtrack

One additional player may be issued the “Best Original Soundtrack” trophy if they are not an owner or co-owner of the room, if they assisted in the creation of the Soundtrack for the room and are credited in the room description. The owner and co-owners of the room will also receive this trophy.

5. Room Promotion

a. Room Visits

Rooms or creators found to be using malicious practices including but not limited to aggressive invite spamming, non-authentic players, or other attempts to game the system may be disqualified. In the event of excessive promotion, the room may be disqualified. Contest rooms cannot be advertised in featured rooms. 

i. Event spam

If creators and co-owners have created more than one event per day, averaged over the whole play and playtest phases, this is considered event spam and the room may be disqualified. This includes events held in promotion rooms, as well as party invite spam. 

b. Promotional Items

Player-created promotional item events such as a custom made in-game trophy, collectible or item skin are allowed as room prizes. Rooms and Events promoting giveaways, raffles, lotteries, or contests involving any real currency, virtual currency, Rec Tokens, “free gifts”, or permission offerings are prohibited, in line with the Rec Room’s Terms of Service.

c. Featuring

Contest rooms cannot be promoted in Featured Rooms during the contest period.

6. Experimental content 

We cannot guarantee the stability of the content in beta. CV2 chips and gadgets are used at your own risk.

7. Junior eligibility 

This contest is not open to players using a Junior Account due to the current restrictions around juniors and the creation tools.

Category guidelines and rules

General Guidelines

Rec Room has always put an emphasis on “fun” and “welcoming.” With that in mind, when we judge rooms for these contests, we always favor experiences that are accessible. We also believe that challenges are important to keep things fun over time (like, have you played Crescendo??)! There’s a balance between making something too deep, complicated, and challenging and making something too simple and easy. We favor things that are both easy to start having fun with and difficult to master.

Competitions are also a time for creators to show off their technical mastery, and we try to reward that, especially with our Special Awards (see below). However, the important thing is still to create Rec Room experiences that are fun and welcoming, and that’s what we look for most during judging.

Art

The art category is all about showing. Show us your vision, and show us your skills! Art rooms should dedicate all their resources to making something inspiring and impressive.

  • Examples: ^JulesVerne, ^ANightInVenice, ^Bloodborne, ^SpiritedAway, ^FrightfulFeast

  • Art Rooms should not require players to interact with the room very much, if at all. Picking things up to see how they’re used is OK, and so is touching buttons or interfaces to open doors. Art Rooms should not involve any challenge. Art Rooms can absolutely involve things that move and react to the players! But nothing that a player needs to control with any effort in order to experience the room. All kinds of media are encouraged! 3D art, 2D art, sound, music, animation, costumes, holotars, etc.

  • Players should be able to move through art rooms at their own pace or at a slower speed in order to see all of the art.

Hangout

Give us some place to settle down for a while. We’re looking for somewhere we can sit and talk with old friends, and meet some new ones too.

  • Examples: ^RecCenter, ^TacoLakeHouse, ^Lounge, ^Starfall

  • Hangouts should have places for people to gather. Give us some furniture, or a campfire to stand around, or a balcony--anything that’s a distinct comfortable space. Hangouts should be easy to get around in. We want people to move around and meet each other.

  • Hangouts can have multiple subrooms, but there’s a limit: we want it to be easy for people to find each other if they visit your room frequently. If a Hangout room has too many subrooms, or the subrooms are hard to move between, then it’ll lose some appeal during judging. If a hangout includes a small activity or game, we won’t play the game to judge it, but having those things does count for a minor credit in judging. Take care that any activities included still allow for conversation and camaraderie while playing!

PVP

Slashing, shooting, and running. This category emphasizes competition, action, and players attacking each other. Even though PvP stands for “Player vs. Player,” we don’t categorize all rooms where people compete as PvP. Think of PvP as “battle” or “combat.”

  • Examples: ^SplashRoyale, ^MythMonsterBattles and ^TheStrandedDuel

Quest

Quests need to have progression and challenge. Players should start somewhere and end up in a different place or time, and face challenges in between.

  • Example: In ^TheRiseofJumbotron, players start in a battle aboard the SS Coach, end up fighting the Jumbotron, and in between they fly through space and fight bigger and tougher enemies. Quests can involve fighting enemies (ours do!), but wave shooters don’t count.

In order to accommodate the number of judged rooms, there is a strict ONE HOUR time limit on #quest room judging (per room). You will want to tailor your difficulty, length and replayability so that judges can experience the best of your room in that hour. Use the Playtest phase to figure out how long people are taking to get through, add hints where needed, and adjust the difficulty. Judges for the contest will be on all devices so make sure your room is accessible for everyone.

Activity

A game or activity with a goal or objective that gets people having fun. If the room has heavy interaction with no progression, or it controls the player's journey through the room, it classifies as an activity. Activity rooms should not have more than one different type of game. We want to encourage Activity rooms to focus on a single experience that’s easy to access for Rec Room players. However, we allow “mini-games” as an exception; the game must still have a central gameplay mechanic, and we’ll judge the room as a whole by how well the mini-games play as part of that central gameplay mechanic.

Please note that casino and gambling based rooms are not allowed. 

  • Examples: In the #Activity category, game rooms include ^Spotit, ^ButtonMash, or ^DarkStories. #Activity can also include things such as thrill rides or fast paced rides that are the main function of the room, such as ^TheCarnivalOfCarnage or ^Expedition_Everest. Some #Activity rooms with mini-games are ^AnimalCrossingRRHorizons, ^VoodooLagoon, ^Pokemon87, and ^RecParty2018. Co-operative #activity rooms should not put too much emphasis on progression. If players are moving through different settings and playing different kinds of games, then the room belongs in the Quest category.

Questions & Answers

Q: What’s the difference between Art and Hangout?
A: Hangouts need to be comfortable, and Art rooms need to be nice to look at. Hangouts do benefit from being nice to look at, but if you can’t find a spot to gather with friends and enjoy the views, it’s not worth hanging out there. Art Rooms don’t benefit much from being comfortable, because the artist’s goal should be to keep people moving through the room and seeing all the stuff they’ve built.

Q: What’s the difference between Activity and PvP?
A: Activity can have “action,” but only PvP Rooms can have “violence.” If the most basic mechanic in your game is that players are “attacking” other players, then it’s a PvP and belongs in the PvP category.

  • Example: Paintball is a game because it’s a fun activity with rules, but players play it by attacking each other, so it wouldn’t be allowed in the Activity category.

  • Example: Among Us does involve a player attacking other players, but the basic mechanic of the game is not attacking; it’s deception, communication, and problem-solving; so it wouldn’t be allowed in the PvP category.

Q: Where can I find the Code of Conduct, Creators Code of Conduct or Terms of Service?
A: You can find our important information on our website, here.

Special award guidelines

Starting with the #Carnivale contest, we will accept nominations for these awards from the community. A team of room creators may nominate themselves for only one special award.

Best Original Character Design (either Holotar or animated) - This award goes to a room that has an original character or characters brought to life through either holotars or animations with voice acting which enhance the immersion and experience of the room.

Best Costume Design - Best Costume Design goes to the most beautiful, creative, interesting or masterful costumes. This can be on a dummy or a holstered costume.

Best Audio Design - The Best Audio Design award goes to a room that has sound that enhances the sense of place and time through sound in the room.

Best Original Soundtrack - Please upload this to Spotify, Soundcloud, YouTube, or another sharing service and let us know in the room description. If you do not include a link in the room description, it is much harder for us to gather all the nominees and you may be missed. For this award, the music should be made for the room experience. Remixes of existing works are allowed, but must be original to this competition.

Best Room Trailer - Please include this on the rec.net page for the room. If you do not have the ability to do so, please ask through our Support site. Above all, a good trailer should make us want to check out your room!

Best Room Thumbnail Photo - The judges will check out the thumbnails of contest entries for the best composed and most enticing room photo. This photo is what players see on the Play menu before joining a room, so be sure to make yours eye catching!

Best Animation - This award goes to a room with an animation or animations that greatly enhance the room. These animations can be big or small, but should enhance the immersive experience of the room.

How Did They Do That?! Award - The core of the How did they do that?! award is innovation. We may or may not actually be able to determine “how you did that,” but it should exhibit a novel or interesting new use of a tool or technique. We may give this award to multiple entrants each contest.

Warning: We encourage pushing the boundaries of the tools we provide, but we also advise respecting those boundaries. Please avoid exploiting unsupported features of our creative tools. Review the guidelines of the Builders Please Beware page to understand this better. When in doubt, ask through our Support site. Asking will absolutely not disqualify you from getting the How did they do that?! award. Also, using build exploits will not disqualify you from the contest--but we strongly advise against it for the sake of the players who want to enjoy your room without it breaking.

Rising Star award - Rooms created by entrants who have not previously won or placed in a build competition are eligible for the Rising Star award. This award is to recognize promise and talent in creators that are new or increasing in skill.

I need help with custom rooms!

Join the Rec Room Discord Server and check out the #building, #circuits or #contests channels to meet other creators, see what everyone is working on, and get tips on getting started!

You can also find a lot of answered questions and helpful community members on the Rec Room Subreddit.

Check out the 'Custom Rooms Tools and Tutorials' article in our help center! 

If you still have questions, need technical support, or run into bugs, please check out our Help Center.