Dynamite Maps

Contest Results [DM05]

tankete — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 16:00:31 +0000

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!

Dynamite Maps Contest #5 [DM05]

tankete — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:00:40 +0000

[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!

Contest Results [DM04]

tankete — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:00:11 +0000

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!

Dynamite Maps Contest #4 [DM04]

tankete — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 03:00:06 +0000

[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!

Contest Results [DM03]

tankete — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:00:54 +0000

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

“Angels & Demons” by major-pob had a spacious map that oozed mood. Even the floor tiles played a part with setting the theme! On the other hand, “burning down the house” by thfpaul was a tighter map that proved to be more difficult than expected as blowing away all enemies could leave you stuck. We enjoyed both immensely. Congratulations to you both!

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!

Dynamite Maps Contest #3 [DM03]

tankete — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 19:00:43 +0000

[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!

Top 10 Community Maps

tankete — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:00:10 +0000

Since the release of Dynamite Jack more than three months ago, over 300 maps have been created by the community. Unfortunately, with so many great maps to play, it’s easy to lose track of the best. With our weekly roundups, we try to highlight the best of the week, but what about the best of all time? This week, we took some time to drill into the data, and we decided to make a list.

So, without further ado, here’s the Top 10 Community Maps…of all time.

#10 – [DM02] Dr. Frankenstein’s Mansion by major-pob

#9 – Escape From Tiras Prison by Aronos

#8 – [DM01] Alien Nightclub by tmagus

#7 – Red Hydra by cally17

#6 – Labyrinths – very long + hard by Andreasys91

#5 – the Underworld Of Madnes by Bandidas

#4 – The Final Escape: Part 1 by Shotdown007

#3 – Alpha Draconis by major-pob

#2 – Forethought (hard) by tmagus

#1 – DSR (Don’t Stop Running) by Aronos

It’s interesting that this list includes:

Maps created within a week of the game’s release (#9)
Maps created this week (#6)
Maps that were runner-ups to Pick of the Week (#2, #7)
Maps that won our previous contests (DM01 #8, DM02 #10)

Finally, it’s worth noting that one map that didn’t make the Top 10 list actually managed to secure the most ratings, plays, and unique users all while maintaining a 4.25+ average rating and coming in at #16 overall:

2600 A.D. Venture! by Geraldnola

If you don’t have time to play all 300+ community maps, start with this (short) list.

Roundup: Week Ending August 5

ChuiGum — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 16:00:28 +0000

Apologies are in order before we proceed. With the Olympics taking center stage over the past couple of weeks, we have to admit to a bit of slacking. Compound that with surgery for one of our reviewers, the Universal update to Dynamite Jack, and a host of new (iPhone) map-makers and we are in the middle of a “perfect storm”. We are a week late, but here’s the (delayed) Weekly Roundup.

Pick of the Week

Tomb Of Akhenaten by cally17

In a unique turn of events, our Pick of the Week and runner ups were ALL from the same map-maker. We had a hard time making our top pick as they all felt a bit similar and we couldn’t agree initially on our favorite. After a bit of deliberation, and thumb wrestling, we sided with Tomb Of Akhenaten. It’s not a short map nor is it extremely difficult, but it’s fun. Check it out!

Difficulty: Medium Our Rating: 4 Avg Rating: 4 Plays: 67 Speedrun: 11:22.91

Red Hydra by cally17

A bit of back and forth, but still a fun map with some nice visuals. This one was tankete’s favorite, but I’ve got stronger thumbs. Oh, and watch out for the lasers!

Difficulty: Medium Rating: 4 Plays: 55

Candelabra by cally17

This was cally17′s first map and we found it almost as fun as the others. A bit too much of bombing rock to open areas kept this out of the top spot.

Difficulty: Medium Rating: 4 Plays: 53

iOS Promo Code Giveaway

tankete — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:00:22 +0000

[UPDATE] We have distributed all our available promo codes (as prizes, on twitter, and on this site), but we are still interested in hearing your theme ideas. Keep ‘em coming!

We’ve got our hands on a handful of iOS promo codes for Dynamite Jack and we’d love to share them with you (and your friends). And since Dynamite Jack is coming to the iPhone as a Universal update as early as next week, we expect even more folks to be interested.

By now you’re probably asking, “How can I get one of these promo codes?”. Thanks for asking. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3:

Follow @dynamitemaps on twitter
Suggest a theme for our next contest, DMo3
Ask us for a Dynamite Jack promo code

Steps 2 and 3 can be done on twitter or right here in the comments.

If you’ve been holding out on getting the iOS version of Dynamite Jack, there’s no reason to hold out any longer. And if you’ve been losing friends because you can’t stop talking about the game and they’re too cheap to shell out a couple bucks, then we’ve got a solution for you too.

Don’t wait too long, we only have a handful (or two). And we are NOT the six-fingered man.

Contest Results [DM02]

tankete — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:00:47 +0000

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!