We are currently considering changes that may expand the selection of entries allowed among the Unjudged entries of the Sonic Hacking Contest.

If you'd like to know what's up, as well as give your voice on the matter, please check out this form.

Original posting date: December 23rd, 2023

You heard it here third, the Sonic Hacking Contest now has a new host, as the previous host has stepped down from their position and has passed the torch to me. I would like to clarify ahead of time that this is not a formal announcement for SHC 2024, that will come at a later time. I want to briefly introduce myself and touch upon my goals and motives for the entire contest going forward. I'm HazelSpooder, but you may refer to me as Hazel! I'm a Sonic 3 A.I.R. modder who helped pushed for the game's inclusion in the contest, due to staff previously being unsure of if it should be categorized under Retro or 2DPC due to how it worked internally. One moment I was offered the role of being a 2DPC judge, and the next I'm suddenly leading the entire contest! As someone who is very self-conscious about maintaining a good image and is very passionate about the hacking/modding scene in general, my goal is to help lead the contest in a better direction by not focusing on numbers, but improving its its quality, reputation, and bringing it up to today's standards so it doesn't feel like it's stuck in the past. The staff are already discussing quite a few big changes that will be made for 2024, here are a few we have finalized and have fully agreed on:

• Removing the Update Deadline and extending the Submission Deadline in its place. This essentially giving entrants a whole extra week to finish their entry instead of being restricted to using it for minor changes. Hopefully this will lead to less entrants requesting to make changes after the Submission Deadline. As a personal suggestion of mine, if you have the time to spare, I highly recommend consistently testing your hacks/mods for any bugs that might have slipped through the cracks. Even if it doesn't seem like much, it's worth it in the end to help your entry feel much more polished and decrease the likelihood of a horribly game-breaking bug. Doesn't stop official titles getting updates that break mods after the deadline though, so like we did with Sonic Frontiers last year, we will allow entrants to submit fixes for their entries or remove their entry if a game gets updated post-deadline and breaks any mods.
• Adding head judges for each game category to help finalize decisions and break ties in voting. There were a lot of ties in voting during last year's contest, and having head judges will allow someone more experienced with a category to make a final say in breaking the tie reasonably instead of having to rely on the host.
• Merging the Contest and Expo sections into one, and instead adding an option for entries to opt-in for judging, meaning you can choose if you want your entry to be evaluated by judges and be eligible for being voted for trophies. Doing this will give expo entries the same value as contest entries that otherwise would have been submitted to/put in the Expo and most likely be overlooked by most people.

There are many more changes and ideas we are continuing to throw around and discuss, even as I write this post, but these are the ones that the staff has fully agreed on to change for next year. I have also assigned DeltaWooloo and Giovanni as co-hosts to help with running the contest and making decisions when I am unable to or not around at any given moment to. Both the previous host and I have seen the passion and care they both have for the contest and have helped out a lot even prior to becoming judges, so I have decided to bring them both on board as co-hosts! With that being said, here's to next year being a bigger success! Enjoy the holidays everyone!

Your places to find the winners at the moment are:

Sonic Stadium News Article

Twitter / X Results Thread

Sonic Retro Wiki Entry

Or visit the SHC Discord where an announcement channel was made with all the winners posted.

Unfortunately our free newsletter service was discontinued so please refer to the above options instead.

An expanded post with special thanks and more information will be posted on Monday, it's 3am here and it's been a busy day so please excuse me on that.

If you have any thoughts and opinions on the event this year, we would certainly be interested in hearing them from you. Link to Google Form

SHC will return once again in 2024! More information will be published in the future, but if you are interested in submitting to either the Contest or Expo, we advise you to start working on those entries now!

It is always good to once again be able to present another Contest Week for everyone to enjoy.

Please take a look at what we have on offer this year in the Contest and Expo and remember to vote for the Community Trophies too - you have until the end of Saturday to do so.

Do note due to unavailability there may be some gaps in the week where no streams are running for a few hours - we have tried to address this however circumstances can change and some streams need to be altered or removed from the week.

We will link the feedback form mid-week for people to give their views on SHC2023 and what we can improve for subsequent years. We haven't forgot, we just want people to get a chance to play stuff firstly.

Please visit our Twitter for the full list of entries.

... Hey, is this thing on? I think it's on...

Welcome, one and all, to the Sonic Hacking Contest 2023!

Where's the new site, I hear you ask? Don't worry about it! We're here and we're once again all ready for another exciting year of hacks and mods! (tl;dr, Work keeps me extremely busy and it's not ready yet. Shocker, I know.)

I'll let others say more, but for information on updates and changes since the last year please take a look around the various Information pages. They should have everything relevant, however as always you can contact any of the SHC staff on Discord for more help or information.

I look forward, as all years, to seeing just what everyone comes up with for both the Contest and Expo. Enjoy!

For full details, please here to find out the winners of this year's Contest.

Congratulations to all our winners and participants of this year's Sonic Hacking Contest!

Courtesy of Danny Lee Dawber, we have a Media Panel playlist of the Contest Week's streams and uploaded content - please click here to access - please note this may not contain some Twitch VODs as they have not yet been uploaded to YouTube.

The Sonic Hacking Contest will return in 2023.

Until next time - Ready, Set, Procrastinate!!

Here is a reminder that you must submit your Community Trophy voting by the end of Saturday 15th October - the results will be on Sunday 16th.

And please fill out our feedback form too.

Hey, guess what. SHC2022 is now live!

Go play. Go vote. Go nuts.

Please visit our Twitter for the full list of entries for the time being.

A few days remain, here is your reminder to submit your Expo entry and mark it as COMPLETE if you want to showcase it to the biggest audience of the year for Sonic hacks and mods.

You have until the end of this Sunday 25th September to submit. Entries will be announced after the quality control has been completed.

Remember, Expo entries are NOT ELIGIBLE for trophies, either from Judged or Community.

Entries MAY be played by streamers, but there is NO GUARANTEE they can show EVERY SHC entry.

All hacks and mods that meet our Quality Control Criteria are eligible to submit. And don't forget about those trailer clips too!

The deadline has EXPIRED for Contest submissions. Updates to Contest submissions are being accepted until the end of Sunday 11th September.

You can still submit to the non-judged Expo on this website, along with trailer clips, until the end of Sunday 25th September.

Judges are checking entries for quality control purposes and entries that are Expo material, or unsuitable for either, will be emailed as to their status.

We are now LIVE and ready to take your submissions to this year's Hacking Contest and Expo.

Please submit your entries on https://shc.zone and refer to the rules on how to submit, the quality control and of course, how to submit to this year's trailer.

Anyone especially submitting 2DPC entries (+ S3 AIR), please check to see if your entry is eligible for the Contest or Expo.

On the website, we have added some highly requested features in the forms of One Click Installs for most mod loaders for quick and easy playing as well as multiple upload support which can also be limited to Media Panel and / or Judges to allow for exclusive uploads such as save files so your entry can be played to your requests.

This should address a few issues identified on previous contest weeks, however we hope to add a few more features as well to the site, which will be ready for the Contest Week, and much more.

The Splash Screens have also been updated for this year, although the RSDK screens are awaiting an update, so please bear with us whilst we implement this. We also have a Splash Screen ready for Sonic 3 A.I.R mods too.

EDIT: We have made an amendment to the rules regarding Copyright & Intellectual Property when it comes to requiring external assets from other games.

If anyone has any issue with trying to submit, or have any questions, do let us know by visiting the SHC Discord.

Welcome, one and all, to the Sonic Hacking Contest 2022!

So it's time for the Sonic Hacking Contest once again. Welcome!

I'll let Spanner say more, but for information on updates and changes since the last year please take a look around the various Information pages. They should have everything relevant, however as always you can contact any of the SHC staff on Discord for more help or information.

I look forward, as all years, to seeing just what everyone comes up with for both the Contest and Expo. Enjoy!

Thank you to everyone for yet another successful Contest Week!

The submissions received this year were certainly enjoyed by many and we have a solid list of trophies to announce - both Judged and Community.

Congratulations to all the winners and those who received honourable mentions too - if you did not win, please try again for next year as there were many submissions which absolutely should come back next year with an updated submission, whether it’s more levels, features, the list goes on…

Please read the entire newsletter, as we have a few more things after the trophies!

Click here for the Judges' Evaluations.

Click here to Submit Feedback.

Can I remind people we have a feedback form on what you like, didn't, what we can do better this year, as we always seek to improve for next year.

There's a few things this year that we wanted to do, but couldn't, but there's always next year, for some new features.

In the meantime fill out this form and don't forget we need your Community Trophy submissions by the end of Saturday 16th October!

We intend to announce the results, Sunday 17th October at 7pm EDT (Monday 18th October 12am BST).

They'll be pushed out through a few websites, and not through a results show this year. We'll also have the Judges' Evaluations ready for you to read too!

We're halfway through the week and there's still plenty of streams to go and plenty more games to play.

Can I remind people to please be respectful towards them as well, they are our guests (just as the public are) and if they are having trouble with an entry let them sort it out, we will assist them when they ask for it.

Some streamers like to do things their own way and that's okay. We do not control their content, we provide the entries, and can help set up when asked to.

Many streamers are also busy and have other commitments before and after the Contest Week (and some just came back from other events too), please accept that we only have their attention for this week only for the most part.

If you like what you see, please follow / subscribe them for more of their other content! They don't just stream Sonic games after all.

Also, please can people understand, there are time constraints in play, and streamers may not be able to get around to playing everything in an entry, or things in particular.

I understand if people get disappointed about that however the public are encouraged, to download and play the entries themselves, for the full experience.

We have had many great streams and even if some have had a few hiccups, the streamers have improved upon them - remember, many streamers are showing SHC more than once.

At SHC, the door is always welcome for the streamers to return in 2022, as many have done in the previous years. So if they can make it, expect them to return for next year's SHC.

Thanks for reading and let us know, what we can do better!

P.S: We have a Sonic Riders DX invitational tournament on right now as Garrulous64 is unable to stream today, come and watch!

All entries can now be downloaded and played!

The Contest Week runs from Monday 11th to Sunday 17th October, you have until the end of Saturday 16th to vote for the Community Trophies on Contest Entries!

For the SHC Contest Week 2021 trailer by redhotsonic along with the entry list for the Contest and Expo, the streaming schedule and more, check out the newsletter!

Judges are checking entries to check for Quality Control purposes whether they meet the requirements of the Contest, get moved to the Expo, or are rejected.

Anyone whose entries get moved to the Expo or get rejected will be emailed as to why.

Updates can be entered until the end of Sunday 19th September.

The non-Judged Expo is still available to submit until the end of Sunday 26th September.