If you want to enter to the Contest, you MUST make an entry on the website, and ensure you have a fully playable build by the end of Sunday 12th September.

Again, you have one week to refine your entry and fix any issues you find, and this has to be submitted and marked as Complete by the end of Sunday 19th September.

Judges will be making use of next week to determine whether or not entries meet the Contest criteria, get moved to the Expo, or rejected altogether.

Any moves will be advised through email. If you submitted to the Expo but want to swap it to the Contest (or vice versa), again we need to know by the end of today, as some have requested swaps.

Expo entries and trailer clips will still be accepted until the end of Sunday 26th September, where there is no updates deadline and what is submitted by then must be marked as complete.

If there's any issues with submitting something through the website, let us know.

And a reminder, the deadlines are final, there will be no bugfix uploads allowed unless they are severely game critical, but you should be using the updates deadline / expo deadline to fully test out your entry.

This is a reminder that you have until Sunday 12th September, at the end of the day, to submit something to the Sonic Hacking Contest.

You must submit a fully playable entry of your submission by this date.

After that, no further submissions will be accepted, however Expo entries (which are not judged) will still be accepted until the end of Sunday 26th September. There is no updates period for Expo entries.

All Contest entries have until the end of Sunday 19th September to refine their submission and update it, then afterwards the Judges will be looking at them, for evaluations and trophies.

Please note that it is the responsibility of the submitter to test their own entries for bugs, the deadline is the deadline, we do not normally accept any fixes beyond that date unless they are game critical, and even then it is a case by case basis, to avoid any more changes than what is needed. So please test your entry prior to finalising your submission.

For more information, as well as a few other things that have been mentioned, check out the latest issue of the SHC Newsletter.

We are receiving a good amount of entries to the Contest and Expo so far, but there's still a few weeks away before the first deadline for the Contest.

However, I must state that there has been an attempt to dodge the submission rules, which are in place to have an enjoyable Contest Week.

This time, we have had someone register multiple accounts to submit multiple Kaizo hacks to the Expo, with the same IP address.

You are only allowed one account per person. Duplicate user accounts for the purpose of evading the submission rules are not tolerated, and any caught are banned from submitting to SHC with their entries being disqualified.

Please refer to our rules regarding Kaizo hacks:

4. All entries should be enjoyable for all to play. Please refrain from submitting monotonous, off-putting, or insanely difficult entries (such as "Kaizo" hacks). While these are enjoyable to some we want everyone here to be able to enjoy your entries, and unfortunately these just do not do so to most. If you feel you must submit one of these, please stick to the Expo rather than the Contest.

Submitting one of them, provided they were of an acceptable quality, would have been fine, as much as people do not like them. Submitting a series of five poor quality entries under duplicate accounts however is not.

Also, SAGE 2021 is now live as of this post, so feel free to check out their games on offer during this coming week.

It's been a few days since the website has been up for submissions and we're already getting in a good amount of entries. Please submit if you have something good to enter, including short demos of one or more levels!

In the Rules and Guidelines page we have added a line regarding updates for 2DPC and 3D mods. Please apply this to avoid your entry from being automatically updated during the judging period and Contest Week.

Please note that if you have implemented the Mega Drive Splash Screen, a fix has been made to the files to address a DMA window issue.

Another fix was also updated to the Mega Drive Splash Screen later in the day of Sunday 15th August due to VDP issues, so please download and use the new binary file for your game.

The Sonic Mania splash screen has now been ported over to other RSDK games (Sonic 1 / 2 / CD) so all RSDK games can now take advantage of the SHC Splash Screen.

Finally, can I remind people to check the submission rules and guidelines before you submit to either the Contest or Expo. You must ensure that each entry will meet the Quality Control Criteria.

Also, all entries MUST be based on a Sonic game or ROM. Sonic character ports into other non-Sonic games do not count as acceptable entries for SHC. Although there is the argument out there that these could be allowed in the Expo, we don't want it to be a free-for-all where everyone finds a game they can put Sonic into and put it into an entry. There may be other websites where those kinds of games can be submitted to instead.

Judges are scanning over entries as they get submitted and if there is anything that will not meet the criteria or is not eligible for submission, we reserve the right to reject said entry and email the submitter about it.

If anyone comes across any further issues or have any questions, you can join the Discord server. We have a ModMail bot which you can DM, and the Judges will see your response and reply where need be.

It's taken a while longer than expected to get this open, but we are now ready to accept submissions to the 2021 Contest and Expo!

Please note as a result of the delay in getting the site live for submissions, please check the new deadlines as they have been revised.

There's so much to mention this year, so it's best that we just link to the newsletter article for all the information you need regarding SHC2021!

We understand people are upset over what has been written by OrdosAlpha for this year's Sonic Hacking Contest entry evaluations. What was written is the opinion of Ordos alone, and is not the opinion of every other SHC judge, but in the end reflects on the rest of us and the SHC as a whole.

Expressing an opinion is one thing, but what was written is unacceptable behaviour. This was not "being blunt", but being derrogatory for no reason. As a result the rest of us are looking at just who will be kept next year and who will be dropped. Ordos will be one of those dropped.

We will also take the opportunity to look into bringing in new faces for the 3D and Mania judging duties to better help with those entries in the future. It has been made clear that there is a lack of knowledge in regards to these entries, and this needs rectifying in order to judge and evaluate effectively.

We have tried over the last few years, and especially so this year, to portray this contest in a less amateur way than previous. Earlier contests were held in a more amateur way to those of later years, with the current community mentality of the time being clearly expressed in this. At time has gone on the community has grown up, and the SHC has had to grow up with it. It seems that some are still stuck in the past.

A lot of the good will we have been building up with the community at large has taken a hit from this, and we can only express our apologies that it has happened, and do better in next year's contest and beyond. We still hope to see you all next year and look forward to seeing what you all submit.

In regards to what is happening at SSRG as a whole right now, while this may be a knock-on from what is going on here with the evaluations, in no way is the SHC involved or do we condone what has happened or is being said. We have literally no control over that, and is the actions of Ordos alone.

As Twitter is having issues with sonichacking.org once again (and especially during the Contest Week) we have quickly moved to doing something we were looking at doing next year.

Provided that the DNS has refreshed where you are, you can now access the site using shc.zone - if you are linking to any entries on Twitter please use that domain!

Both domains will work and we intend on retaining sonichacking.org to avoid people coming across old links to a broken domain or something else entirely.

We are half-way through the Contest Week, please continue to play the entries, vote for the Community Trophies, and give us your feedback!

We hope people have been having a good Contest Week so far. It is good to see that so far, people have been able to download the entries this year without any site troubles.

There's still plenty of time to download the entries, watch the streams and take part in the Community Trophies, but we are also looking for feedback to see what we can improve for next year's Contest.

Please click on the Feedback button at the top of the site to fill out the form.

Do note that we will keep the form available for a week or two after the Contest Week, but please fill in as much as you can when you are in a position to fill it in.

In addition to the standard questions we have, we also have a few new questions we are interested in seeing people answer them, to provide their opinion on a few things.

We will take all feedback into consideration as part of next year's Contest and Expo.

Also note one question we are looking to see when people would be wanting the Contest Week to be, so we can find a suitable date that won't conflict with particular events or time zone clock changes, as seen this year, which affected some streams.

Hey, it's that time again. We're finally live, and the Contest Week begins! All entries that were completed are now available for your public viewing, as well as votes in the case of the Contest itself!

As always, enjoy!

redhotsonic has done it again! Here's his trailer for this year's Contest Week!

Now that the Trailer is out, we can also say that the Quality Control has been completed for Contest and Expo entries.

Any Contest entries that have been determined to be more appropriate for the Expo, and those that have been rejected altogether, have been emailed as to the reasons why.

All of these will be able to be played from Monday 26th October to Sunday 1st November, with the Contest Entries being eligible for Community Trophy voting too.

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This is your friendly reminder to get your updates done for the Expo! The final deadline for Expo entries is end of Monday 5th October!

If you've submitted to the Contest, double check your email in case we've tried to contact you. It seems like some people have not been responding to their emails.

Any Contest entries are set in stone and can no longer be edited. Thank you for all participants and anyone else just following the contest, we hope you all have a fun one~

So we had some server issues over Saturday night and Sunday morning, and due to it being the Contest deadline we're extending it for 24 hours.

The end of Monday 21st September is the new deadline.

(For those looking for an accurate time, due to time zones and such that'll most likely be something like 6-7am BST on Tuesday 22nd, ie. when Cinossu wakes up.)

This is a reminder that you have until the END of THIS SUNDAY (20th September) to submit to this year's Contest.

We have announced this since March, and the website has been open for submissions since August.

If you have anything good, that can meet the Quality Control Criteria, you can still submit.

By the way the upload limit has been increased, so if you have a huge upload for your contest entry (think 1GB+) you can now do it.

Remember, you do get an updates period which lasts until the end of Sunday 26th September.

Just ensure you have a fully playable build by the end of this Sunday, to progress to the next stage.

If you can't meet the Contest deadline, the Expo will still be available for your entries.

Okay, the good news is that the Twitter issue has been fixed, so hopefully this stays put for the duration of the contest.

The bad news is that we are approaching the one week mark before the first Contest deadline, so if you are still planning on entering for judging, read the following:

If you want to enter to the Contest, you MUST make an entry on the website, and ensure you have a playable build by the end of Sunday 20th September.

Again, you have one week to refine your entry and fix any issues you find, and this has to be submitted by the end of Sunday 27th September.

Please use this time well, as we will not accept any updates following this deadline. Test your entry thoroughly and fix any game breaking bugs before the deadlines, as Judges are NOT your beta testers.

Obviously those not entering the Contest (or those whose entries get rejected for said Contest for not meeting the criteria) will have until the end of Sunday 4th October to submit to the Expo.

I would like to remind everyone to follow the Quality Control Criteria and Submission Guidelines for entering to either section, this is not a free for all, and Judges ARE going through entries carefully to access their suitability.

We have had a fair amount of entries so far but unfortunately there have been some submitted who did not read the rules and will end up being rejected. The SHC is all about QUALITY nowadays, not QUANTITY.

Just a reminder to let us know if you have any issues with the site, so we can look into them.

Alternatively, if you have Discord, join our server and report them in the dedicated channel.

Also check your spam folder for any emails as some providers like to put those in there.

Please ensure your entry fits the Quality Control Criteria, or your entry will either be moved to the Expo, or if not fit for the Expo, will be rejected following the exhaustion of all deadlines!

We have seen a fair amount of decent entries so far. But on the other hand, we have seen a small amount of entries that so far, are very likely to end up in the shredder.

A reminder of what we are NOT wanting this year:

❌ Simple texture only hacks.

❌ Simple object layout modifications.

❌ Model swaps of existing game models. (UNLESS process is technical - there will be no repeat of 2019 this year)

The Expo is NOT a free-for-all to show off whatever you've made. If you cannot meet the criteria in time for the deadlines, we advise waiting for next year's Contest and Expo.

Thank you for your understanding. If you have any questions, please put them in the thread, or contact us on the SHC Discord.

Welcome, one and all, to the Sonic Hacking Contest 2020!

It's taken a little while to get back here this time due to some fun server and software issues but here we are now, ready for yet another year of the hacking contest. You all know the drill by now, so I won't bore you with tiresome details. All of your accounts from last time are still here so you should still all be able to log in without issue. If you're new here all you need to do is register for an account. It is currently still separate from your Sonic Retro or SSRG forum accounts, but we're working on that.

As before you can have as many entries into the Contest or the Expo as you want so go nuts! (While adhering to the rules and guidelines, of course!)

So.. yeah, that's it for this post. I'm sure Spanner will have more to say than me here, so I'll leave it at that. Once again, welcome!

The website will be updated soon with the results, along with the Judges' evaluations. Here's all the links for everything you need in regards to the results:

• TSSZ News Article
• Sonic Retro News Article
• Sonic Stadium News Article
• Sonic Retro Results Thread
• SSRG Results Thread

Don't forget to fill in your evaluations if you have not, as we will be compiling those within the next few days: Click on Feedback...or here.

We'll let you know soon when the 2020 Contest is announced. Until then, all entries will still be available to access on the website. Thank you for participating.

There is still time to complete your voting for the Community Trophies, but TIME IS RUNNING OUT!

There'll still be SOME TIME on Sunday to finish voting, but when the voting is locked, at least a few hours before the results show, you won't be able to vote any more.

As usual it'll be streamed by MegaGWolf and also simulcast by TailsChannel, and this year it's Donnie who will be announcing the winners.

We'll also have a bunch of judges and some other guests on the show too! Also, don't forget, we do need your feedback. Fill out this form as we will be closing it in the next few days. Without your feedback, changes can't happen so easily. And we don't want to spend months planning things, we want to get things fixed up and ready to go for 2020. Just click on that Feedback button!

The Results Show starts from 8pm GMT / 3pm EST / 12pm PST, where all the winners will be announced.

Winners will also be announced on Twitter and all the results will be in forum threads and news articles after the end of the Results Show. And after the results show, there's a few more streams left to finish it off.

PSA...

(Don't you love when this acronym is abused outside of its intended meaning?)

The Contest Week Ends Tomorrow!

If you haven't already, please get your votes in ASAP. We have no guarantee how long voting will be available tomorrow before the results show.

All the streams and videos we can find from our official media panel can be found by clicking below...

Please note the list is a work in progress and there are videos still to add. We did plan on a better way to showcase recorded media but we could not implement it in time, maybe next year.

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