Category Archives: Contests

Wow! Another great competition has come to an end. And this time, we’ve seen new participants challenging for the top spot and more maps, plays, and votes than ever before. Perhaps it was the influx of new players from the Humble Bundle, perhaps it was the promise of great prizes donated from our generous sponsors, or maybe it was simply the right time for many of you. Regardless, it’s great to see the continued interest in Dynamite Jack. Here’s a look at DM05 by the numbers:

• 8 creators!
• 15 maps!
• 715 votes!
• 1119 plays!

On average, each map was played 75 times, by nearly 60 unique individuals, and received 50 ratings. Compare that to previous contest results (DM01, DM02, DM03, DM04). Thanks again to all who participated!

So with that out of the way, it’s time for the big award announcement!

The winner of the highly coveted People’s Choice Award for DM05 is…

People’s Choice Award Winner: Turn Out the Lights! (Novice) by boogersurfer

Congratulations to boogersurfer for “Turn Out the Lights! (Novice)”! A large map with tons of traps and as difficult as it was fun! In addition to the standard Dynamite Jack t-shirt, Phil is also offering up this fantastic bomber trophy. Finally, we here at Dynamite Maps are happy to award you your choice of either the Orcs Must Die 2 Complete Pack, the Frozen Synapse Complete Pack or the Best of British Indie Bundle (DEFCON, Eufloria, Frozen Synapse, Gratuitous Space Battles, Revenge of the Titans, Time Gentlemen, Please! and Ben There, Dan That! Special Edition Double Pack) available on Steam!

Additional Award Winners

While boogersurfer took the top honors, the runner-up map, “LD3 : check mate” by debbs1981, was within 1 one-hundredth of a point after computing our adjusted ratings. As such, we have decided to give its creator their choice of bundles (from the list above) after boogersurfer makes their selection. In addition, both boogersurfer and debbs1981 can redeem a donated copy of Shattered Haven from Arcen Games on Steam. It’s a great new game with a built-in level editor. Congrats!

The next pair of places were also only 1 one-hundredth apart in adjusted ratings (and included my personal favorite of the contest). As a result, we have decided to give out additional awards to those two map makers, dennismejdal for “Light vs. Dark / Good vs. Evil” and phittte for “Vlad’s Castle”. Bundle-in-a-box has graciously donated two copies of their complete Cerebral Bundle.

Finally, it takes guts to enter any kind of contest, so in the spirit of encouraging more of you to try your hand at map-making and contest entering, we’re giving out the “I Tried” award to Heist for his map, “The Trials”. Heist will receive a copy of The Debut Bundle from Indie Royale.

Here are in-game screenshots for each of these four additional winning maps:

LD3 : check mate by debbs1981

Light vs. Dark / Good vs. Evil by dennismedjal

Vlad’s Castle by phittte

The Trials by Heist

Thanks again to all who participated in our first contest of 2013. And thanks to Arcen Games and Bundle-in-a-Box for their prize donations. Be sure to check them out!

For the PCA winner (boogersurfer), the early birds (FaithfulCrows, phittte, major-pob, PlayBoyMan, boogersurfer) and all other award winners (debbs1981, dennismejdal, phittte, Heist), please contact tankete@dynamitemaps.com within the next seven days to collect your prizes. Early birds will receive a set of games from an indie bundle (Humble, IndieRoyale, IndieGala, …) while the additional award winners will also be gifted their choice from a few different Steam titles based on availability.

Be sure to check back here often or follow us on twitter to hear about our next contest!

[UPDATE] The Dynamite Maps Contest #5 has now ended. We have tabulated the votes, crunched the numbers, and have posted the results.

Read the complete summary

Today is a special day. No, not just because it’s my birthday, but because we are kicking off our first community maps contest of 2013!

On the off chance that you’ve been sleeping under a rock and missed the announcement of the latest indie bundle, Dynamite Jack has been included as part of the Humble Bundle with Android 5. With over 100,000 bundles purchased in just over twenty four hours, and 12+ days to go, we expect there to be tons of new players and map makers. So, together with creator Phil Hassey, we figured the time was right to announce DM05!

If you’re new to our contests, feel free to check out the results of DM01, DM02, DM03, and DM04 to get a rough idea for how it works. As always, if you’re interested in participating in this contest, be sure to use the contest tag, [DM05], on all submissions and follow the contest rules. Remember we have Early Bird prizes and a Just Jack award in addition to the People’s Choice Award.

The theme for this contest is “Light and Dark”. Feel free to interpret the theme however you see fit. We can’t wait to see the maps that you come up with!

Timeline

• The contest has officially begun (March 6th, 12:00 AM PST).
• The contest ends in just over two weeks at midnight (March 24th, 12:00 AM PDT).
• Judging for the People’s Choice Award will end one week after the submission deadline (March 31st, 12:00 AM PDT).
• Winners for all awards will be announced on this website the morning of April 1st.

So…who’s in? Let us know in the comments!

We would like to start by saying that we have had a great time participating in the Dynamite Jack community and putting on these contests. And while creator participation was less than previous contests (DM01, DM02, DM03) the competition for the top map proved to be very close. Once again, thanks to Phil for a great game and contest theme, the creators for some beautiful maps, and all the players for your plays and votes. Here’s a peek at DM04 by the numbers:

• 3 creators!
• 4 maps!
• 201 votes!
• 283 plays!

On average, each map was played 70+ times, by nearly 60 unique individuals, and received 50 ratings. While the number of entries decreased, each map received more plays and votes, on average, than ever before. Thanks again to all who participated!

So with that out of the way, it’s time for the big award announcement!

The winner of the highly coveted People’s Choice Award for DM04 is…

People’s Choice Award Winner: Eiffel Tower by major-pob

Congratulations to major-pob for “Eiffel Tower”! Not only a beautiful design, but a difficult map as well! In addition to a Dynamite Jack t-shirt from Phil, we here at Dynamite Maps are happy to award you your choice of either the Trine Bundle (Trine, Trine 2), the Frozen Synapse Complete Pack (Frozen Synapse, Frozen Synapse: Red DLC, Frozen Synapse: Soundtrack) or the Best of British Indie Bundle (DEFCON, Eufloria, Frozen Synapse, Gratuitous Space Battles, Revenge of the Titans, Time Gentlemen, Please! and Ben There, Dan That! Special Edition Double Pack)!

Additional Award Winners

This time around we decided to give out awards to all the map makers. The style of each of these maps was outstanding. If you are one of the few that haven’t played them, stop reading and go play! Here are screenshots of the remaining three maps:

A House of a Certain Color by 5harkt00th

House that Jack Built by 5harkt00th

Pyramids of Doom by lestenio

Thanks again to all who participated in our third contest. For early birds (major-pob, lestenio) and all other award winners (major-pob, lestenio, 5harkt00th), please contact tankete@dynamitemaps.com within the next seven days to collect your prizes. Early birds will receive basic editions of a Humble Bundle and a Game Music Bundle, while the additional award winners will win their choice of a few different Steam titles based on availability.

Be sure to check back here often or follow us on twitter to hear about our next contest.

Happy Holidays and Happy Building!

[UPDATE] The Dynamite Maps Contest #4 has now ended. We have tabulated the votes, crunched the numbers, and have posted the results.

Read the complete summary

After a successful set of contests, we have been waiting for the right time to kick off our fourth contest of the year. So, in celebration of Guy Fawkes day, we are ready for DM04! Instead of our typical one word theme, we got Phil Hassey, the creator of Dynamite Jack, to come up with the theme for this contest. Here it is:

The Anathema race has invaded Earth and taken over all major centers. In DM04 you must create a map to destroy a well-known building to attempt to overthrow the alien invasion.

In addition to our contest, Dynamite Jack is on sale (50% off) on Steam for one week. Now’s the perfect time to get your friends in on the action.

If you’re interested in participating in this contest, be sure to use the contest tag in all submissions [DM04] and follow the contest rules. We can’t wait to see the maps that you come up with!

Timeline

• The contest has already begun (November 5th, 12:00 AM PDT).
• The contest ends in just over three weeks at midnight (November 28th, 12:00 AM PDT).
• Judging for the People’s Choice Award will end one week after the submission deadline (December 5th, 12:00 AM PDT).
• Winners for all awards will be announced on this website the morning of December 7th.

So…who’s in? Let us know in the comments!

While creator participation in this contest was not as big as DM01 and DM02, the competition was fierce. In fact, this one may go down as the closest contest in the history of the world. OK, maybe not the world, but you get my point. As always, thanks to Phil for allowing us to continue to extend your fantastic game, the creators for some delightful ARCHITECTURE, and all the players for your plays and votes. Here’s a peek at DM03 by the numbers:

• 5 creators!
• 6 maps!
• 278 votes!
• 441 plays!

On average, each map was played nearly 75 times, by 55 unique individuals, and received 45 ratings. While the number of entries decreased, each map received more plays and votes, on average, than ever before. Thanks to all who participated!

So with that out of the way, it’s time for the big award announcements!

The winner of the highly coveted People’s Choice Award for DM03 is…

People’s Choice Award Winner: Psycodelic Dreamscape by geraldnola

Congratulations to geraldnola for “Psycodelic Dreamscape”! In addition to a Dynamite Jack t-shirt from Phil, we here at Dynamite Maps are happy to award you your choice of either the Frozenbyte Collection (Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds Survivor, Trine, Trine 2, Trine 2: Goblin Menace) or the Best of British Indie Bundle (DEFCON, Eufloria, Frozen Synapse, Gratuitous Space Battles, Revenge of the Titans, Time Gentlemen, Please! and Ben There, Dan That! Special Edition Double Pack)!

Additional Award Winners

We decided to give out two additional awards this time due to the fact that the Top 3 maps in DM03 all had adjusted rankings within five-hundreths (0.05) of each other. While both won points for style in interpreting the ARCHITECTURE theme, they did it quite differently.

Angels & Demons by major-pob

burning down the house by thfpaul

While not all maps can win a prize, we really enjoyed all the maps. “The Castle” explored how to pull off a fun puzzle in a tight spaces, while daRt’s entry was a more typical layout, but still challenging. Finally, for those who were able to finish “Palace of Dawn”, they all seemed to enjoy it, but we were stuck (along with many others I assume) in “Where do I begin?” land. (We’d love to see a YouTube video of that one.)

Thanks again to all who participated in our third contest. For early birds (WooHooII, thfpaul, geraldnola, and major-pob) and all other award winners (geraldnola, major-pob, thfpaul), please contact tankete@dynamitemaps.com within the next seven days to collect your prizes. Early birds will receive basic editions of the current Humble Bundle and the recent Game Music Bundle, while the additional award winners will win their choice of a few different Steam titles based on availability.

Be sure to check back here often or follow us on twitter to hear about our next contest.

Happy Building!

[UPDATE] The Dynamite Maps Contest #3 has now ended. We have tabulated the votes, crunched the numbers, and have posted the results.

Read the complete contest summary.

After a successful DM01 and DM02, we have been waiting for the right time to kick off our third contest. Well, with the recent release of the iPhone version of Dynamite Jack and the long weekend (here in the States) we figured this is the perfect time to announce DM03! We hope you are as excited as we are. The theme for this contest is “ARCHITECTURE”. Feel free to interpret the theme however you see fit. We can’t wait to see the maps that you come up with!

If you’re interested in participating in this contest, be sure to use the contest tag in all submissions [DM03] and follow the contest rules.

Timeline

• The contest has already begun (September 1st, 12:00 AM PDT).
• The contest ends in just over two weeks at midnight (September 18th, 12:00 AM PDT).
• Judging for the People’s Choice Award will end one week after the submission deadline (September 25st, 12:00 AM PDT).
• Winners for all awards will be announced on this website the morning of September 27th.

So…who’s in? Let us know in the comments!

As with our first contest, we wanted to thank Phil for allowing us to extend your fantastic game, the creators for taking us back in time with your awesome RETRO maps, and all the players for your plays and votes. Here’s a peek at DM02 by the numbers:

• 9 creators! (up from 6)
• 14 maps! (up from 10)
• 579 votes! (up from 150)
• 844 plays! (up from 240)

On average, each map was played 60 times, by 50 unique individuals, and received 40 ratings. As you can see, the numbers went thru the roof this time around. Thanks to all who participated!

So with that out of the way, it’s time for the big award announcements!

The winner of the People’s Choice Award for DM02 is…

People’s Choice Award Winner: Dr Frankensteins Mansion by major-pob

Congratulations to major-pob for “Dr. Frankenstein’s Mansion”! In addition to a Dynamite Jack t-shirt from Phil, we here at Dynamite Maps are happy to award you your choice of a blockbuster game (Portal 1 & 2, Bastion, or Rochard) and Toki Tori!

Additional Award Winners

The “Retro Runner-Up” award goes to yttire for “Saturday Night Fever”. Coming in a close second, this map was one of the most entertaining of the bunch. The only thing missing was the disco ball. For the best ambience, we recommend turning down the lights and turning up the Bee Gees.

Saturday Night Fever by yttire

The “Stat Champ” award goes to nyf for “…%*#\^…”, a re-imagining of Q-bert! As another map in the running for the PCA, this map managed to grab the most number of plays, players, and ratings. We loved the look, the colors, and the difficulty. Tons of fun!

…%*#\^… by nyf

Finally, while there weren’t as many “Just Jack” maps as we would have liked, we are happy to share the award with yttire for “Mission not as Impossible”. Probably the hardest map of the bunch as evidenced by the few number of votes, this map proved possible but only after numerous deaths…and plenty of cursing

Mission not as Impossible by yttire

Thanks again to all who participated in our second contest. For early birds (major-pob, nyf, and Mr.Crazyname) and all other award winners (major-pob, yttire, nyf), please contact tankete@dynamitemaps.com within the next seven days to collect your prizes. Early birds will receive a GameDev bundle and Humble Music Bundle, while the additional award winners will win their choice of a few different bundles based on availability.

Be sure to check back here often or follow us on twitter to hear about our next contest. We expect an even better turnout next time as a whole new set of makers and players will be joining on their iPhones soon.

Are you ready? DM03 is coming soon!

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock, we wanted to remind you that it’s time to vote for your favorite maps in our current contest, [DM02]. We were delighted to see nine participants produce fourteen RETRO maps. I guarantee you’ll have a favorite as there’s something for everyone.

Here’s how to vote for the People’s Choice Award:

1. Find a contest map by searching for “[DM02]“.
2. Play thru the map and complete it.
3. Give it a rating.
4. Repeat for as many maps as you can.

Voting ends on July 31st at exactly 12:00AM PDT, so stop reading and start playing and rating the contest maps!

[UPDATE] The Dynamite Maps Contest #2 has now ended. We have tabulated the votes, crunched the numbers, and have posted the results.

Read the complete contest summary.

After a successful first contest, we were eager to get started with our second, but wanted to give our new iPad users a chance to get involved in map making. With more than fifty new maps this week, we think it’s time to announce DM02! We hope you are as excited as we are. The theme for this contest is “RETRO”. Feel free to interpret the theme however you see fit. We can’t wait to see the maps that you come up with!

If you’re interested in participating in DM02, be sure to follow the guidelines below to avoid disqualification.

Guidelines

• All entries must be new and creation must occur only during the contest period.
• All entries must be submitted during the contest period.
• All entries must contain the tag “[DM02]” at the beginning of the title (for example: “[DM02] My Retro Level”).
• All entries must be somehow based on the theme.
• Participants may submit a maximum of three entries.

Timeline

• The contest begins tonight at midnight (July 10th, 12:00 AM PDT).
• The contest ends in two weeks at midnight (July 24th, 12:00 AM PDT).
• Judging for the People’s Choice Award will end one week after the submission deadline (July 31st, 12:00 AM PDT).
• Winners for all awards will be announced on this website the morning of August 1st.

Judging

The People’s Choice Award will be judged by YOU. Here’s how:

1. Find a contest map by searching for “[DM02]“.
2. Play thru the map and complete it.
3. Give it a rating.
4. Repeat for as many maps as you can.

Judging for the People’s Choice Award begins the moment a map is shared. All submitted ratings will be tabulated as part of the contest. The winner will be determined by the highest ranked average rating. This simple algorithm will make sure that the number of ratings is taken into account. That is, an entry with a single 5-star rating will not be ranked as high as an entry with 10 5-star ratings and 1 4-star rating even though the average rating is higher. (For more details on the algorithm, read this article.)

This contest will include a “Just Jack” award for the best map that doesn’t include a flashlight or detonator.

Additional awards will be determined by the staff of Dynamite Maps. We reserve the right to reward as many awesome maps as possible.

Prizes

While we think the best prize is recognition from one’s peers, we are working on getting some simple prizes to share with the winners. Similar to our first contest the winner of the People’s Choice Award will receive a Dynamite Jack t-shirt. We also expect to secure a few different indie game and music bundles as additional prizes. All prizes will be distributed upon completion of the contest.

Early Bird Incentive

We really can’t wait to see what you are working on, so we’ve decided to add an incentive to get an early peek and build excitement. To qualify for this incentive, here’s what you need to do:

1. Create and submit an entry that meets all the guidelines.
2. Reply in the comments to this post that you are participating in the contest.
3. (Optional) Tell the world about it on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Fine Print

Remember, the contest doesn’t begin until tonight at midnight (PDT). Please do not submit an entry before that time as it will not be included in the contest. Finally, we are not lawyers, so it’s very likely we missed something obvious. We will adjust the guidelines as necessary in keeping with the spirit of the contest.

So…who’s in? Let us know in the comments!