Stranded in Rec Room?
Time for a contest!

Where are we, how did we get here, and more importantly how are we going to get home?! Stranded on a distant planet, crash landed in paradise, shipwrecked on a mysterious island or fighting for survival against hordes of aliens in an inhospitable wasteland - we want to go on a journey, get lost, and find a way to survive together!

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 Stranded theme in the room.

Once again, the Build and Playtest phases will be 4 weeks long together. 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!

In order to accommodate the larger number of judged rooms, we are keeping the 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.

Some updates and rule changes for this contest:

Judges for the contest will be on all devices, so make sure your room is accessible for everyone!
The #game category officially includes games and activities (but keeps the #game tag in the watch for ease of tagging). This includes thrill rides and rooms that involve heavy interaction without gameplay elements!
Best Character Design has had an update to Best Original Character Design - let’s get those imaginations flowing!
Alt accounts cannot be added in empty team slots for additional prizes. Doing so can result in disqualification and possible restriction of future participation in the Rec Room economy.
We have updated the rules around events and event spam: all rooms have a strict 25k token prize pool for events including after the contest has ended. Invite to Party spamming is now included in the event spamming rule.
Rooms publishing more than 3 days after the end of the Playtest phase will incur a 10% engagement penalty per day after 3 days.

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.

How do I submit a room to the contest?

When you create your new room, tag it with #Stranded. Next, be sure to publish your room by November 4th 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, #game, #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.

* Prizes are concept art and subject to change

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

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

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

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

6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th prize (25 winning teams) - Stranded 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 Animation
How did they do that?! Award
Rising Star award

When is the contest? How are winners determined?

Build phase - Friday, October 1st to Monday November 1st, 2021
Get to work on your room, keeping in mind the theme Stranded and your chosen category!

Playtest phase - Tuesday November 2nd to Thursday November 4th, 2021
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 5th to Thursday November 18th, 2021
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 - 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 - The top 10 (or more) 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.

The Roomies - 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 or PST (according to local Seattle time).

Rules

1. Creating, publishing, tagging, and content theme

a. Creating - Only Rooms created (or copied) on Friday 1st October 2021 (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. Event rooms with minor decoration added are permissible during the Play phase.

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 Play phase, publishing late will affect engagement scores. There will be a 3 day grace period for publishing, after that there will be a penalty of 10% of total engagement for every day after the grace period.

c. Tagging

i. All submissions must be tagged with #Stranded, and

ii. Exactly one category tag (and not more than one). Valid category tags are: #art, #hangout, #pvp, #quest, or #game.

d. Content theme and categories - We should be able to find a clear relationship to the Stranded contest theme in your Room. See the contest announcement for guidelines about the theme. Rooms based on existing content are allowed and we encourage you to make your own Rec Room spin on this content. Keep in mind that this is a judged contest, and originality is better than remixing.

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) by the end of the Playtest Phase. Use your best judgement 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.

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 a game room or as an event in a non-PvP room; hangout events in game 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.

3. Inventions

a. Inventions in Rooms are allowed where

i. The Invention was originally from a Room made by one of the entered room's co-owners, or

ii. The Invention is published in the Invention Store.

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

b. 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. Players who are an 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. 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.

5. Room promotion

a. 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.

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. 25,000 Token limit - If you choose to promote your Room, all contest related events are to adhere to a strict 25,000 total token limit. This includes after the contest ends. Contest related events include but are not limited too:

Token giveaways
Testing events
Item giveaways

c. Other player-created promotional item events such as a custom made in-game trophy, collectible or item skin are allowed.

In the event of excessive promotion, the Room may be disqualified.

6. Experimental content - We cannot guarantee the stability of the content in beta. Low risk items such as the mirror and seats are free to be used but high risk CV2 chips are used at your own risk.

7. Junior eligibility - This contest is not open to players using a Junior Account due to 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 the 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. All rooms should be fun and accessible for everyone, and they should be playable on all devices.

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 of all 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.

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, ^TacoWinterLodge, ^CittaDelBronzo
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 minor credit in judging.
- Examples: Ping pong tables in the Rec Center; trampoline in ^TacoLakeHouse; playing cards in ^Lounge, axe throwing in ^Hobbits

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.”

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.

Game: A clearly-defined activity that gets people talking to each other and having fun.

We want to encourage Game Rooms to focus on a single experience that’s easy to access for Rec Room players. However, we allow “mini-games” as an exception; in this case, 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 play mechanic.
- Examples of Game Rooms with mini-games are ^AnimalCrossingRRHorizons, ^VoodooLagoon, ^Pokemon87, and ^RecParty2018.
Co-operative Game 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.
- Examples of Game Rooms are ^Spotit, ^ButtonMash, ^DarkStories

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 Game and PvP?
A: Games 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 Game 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.

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 Misery or mamamonkey. Above all, a good trailer should make us want to check out your room!

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 Misery, Alkmaar or mamamonkey privately. 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, #gadgets 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.

Stranded in Rec Room? Time for a contest!